BLACK+DECKER 3-in-1 Electric Leaf Blower, Leaf Vacuum/Mulcher, Corded, 12-Amp (BV6600)

Can’t decide Toro or Black and Decker. Easy BLACK AND DECKER with the bag bar instead of zipper.I am becoming an expert on Vacuum/Blowers. #1 Black&Decker(BD) lasted maybe 10 years. It was small, light and not very powerful. The on/of switch wore out on it. I repaired it myself several times and is was a Rube Goldberg of turning the machine on and off. A simple task designed in a complex manner. BD #2 LH5000, ooh what an improvement in the power department. I have pink clover ground cover and need to suck the tree leaves out of it. This would pickup stuff like hibiscus buds that fell off, that the old one would not. Just terrific, but it only lasted 3 years. I had sewn up the bag several times where it connects to the machine, put duct tape around it for added support. But in the end it was the on/off was the issue. There is a tiny slot that either the vacuum or blower pieces need to push it to allow it to go on. A safety switch Not too much in and not too little in though. Became a fidgety machine with a leaking bag, so I replaced it with a Toro.Huge mistake, not only is the same rated wind power Toro not able to pick up what the Black and Decker could do, but the bags last weeks, not YEARS. I am talking bag one lasted maybe 10 uses, but was tearing after 2 uses. The zipper gave way and became useless. The next bag lasted 3 uses and the zipper broke. Toro is absolute JUNK. Thin bags with zippers from light spring jackets.So the Toro lasted 8 months and is now permanently the blower and the new BD is the vacuum, so I don’t have to change the tooling. So get the BD and get the one with the bar on the bag instead of the zipper, because it will not break. Also, if you are dragging the bag on the ground it is the hard plastic instead of the cloth and zipper that take the abuse. You have to get the bag bar. The downside is after a few hours in the miserable heat the last thing you do is empty the bag, and it takes some strength sometimes to get the bar to slide off. Its okay to say FORGET IT. Go take your shower and empty the bag tomorrow. Mostly it is fine though. Its powerful and well designed.

I wasn't sure when I ordered this if I would really like it. However it has presented itself well and proven to be a pretty good purchase! I am not a "yard fanatic" but I decided to try this on the leaves from the big magnolia tree in our front yard. The machine will plug up if I am not careful. Magnolia leaves are big, stiff, tough. The seed cones are slightly smaller but tough if not tougher than the leaves. Then you throw in the branches and the vac will make a whale of a racket as it chops and grinds up things that should be breaking the moving parts and surrounding plastic - but so far it hasn't broken anything. It will plug up the intake nozzle. A branch or cluster of leaves enters and gets crossways and things can plug up quickly. If I stop the vac right away and shake it it usually will unplug, but occasionally I have to disconnect the intake tube. I believe this would be the perfect vac for other species of leaves, oak, maple, and other less formidable leaves than the magnolia.I did have to take the cloth bag off and do a bit of trimming of the fraying threads that developed with using the vac. I then used my hot glue gun to glue the seams around the intake and other areas where I saw that the stitching and seams were fraying. (Stitched seams will fray. It takes extra effort to prevent this.)It is a noisy device and I use ear plugs. It will quickly fill up a 55 gal garbage bin with nicely chopped mulch. My compost bin worms were very pleased to start eating up a compost bin filled with the chopped up leaves.If you have lots of leaves this is one solution. It is also nice for cleaning up the bands of cut grass that my lawn mower leaves when I mow the lawn.

Good quality for the money. Product works very well as a blower. The vacuum is as one would expect of such products - not overly powerful, but perfectly effective for small yards..

Just got this today in time to process my leaves before it snows. Set it up first as a blower and clreared off all the old leaves off the patio roof. Worked very well to blow them off, one side to the other with lots of strength and not that noisey. Then switched it to the vacuum mode and was surprised at how easy it was (used a wood chop stick to open the port rather than a tool like suggested). The vacuum worked excellent. Processed all the leaves from the roof into the black shoulder bag and that worked very well and it mulched them beautifully. I bought the 6600 mulching model because they were out of the non mulcher because I did not think I needed it and I thought it would not work that well, but I love it. It mulches really well, the shoulder bag works really well and made quick work of all the leaves with no clogs. I was VERY impressed. I bought some other after market add-ons so that I could bag the leaves straight from 3-in-1, but the mulch looks so good I may just send them back. I love this machine, it ended up exceeding my already high expectations.

It is indeed heavy - especially after an hour or manoevering over the lawn. I did not find the blower to be very useful - it blew leaves in many directions -= only some in the direction I intended! But the vacuum feature is very good,. You can set the motor to a lower speed and vacuum over mulched beds or light pebbled pathways etc and only pick up leaves. I found this very useful. Also I found that raking a lawn often caused the wet soil to break and I ended up raking leaves with grass. With this device this does not happen. You can increase the motor to a loud and powerful setting and pick up leaves off garden without disturbing the turf at all. I wish it wasn't as heavy. I wish the bag that collects the leaves - black one - was sturdier as after only a week, I can see this thing is not going to survive two fall seasons and I wish the strap for the bag was padded and broader - it is a very thin nylon strap and is not appropriate for the weight of this device, cutting into your shoulder after a short while. I do love the fact that the sucked up leaves can be chopped into small pieces and makes it easier to dispose of this small leaf mulch than the bags and bags of leaves I had to collect before...