Blowers ?????? Trying to pick one.

[AAffordable]

I am needing help on picking a backpack blower. I am now going between Husky and Echo. I am needing something pretty strong for leaf clean up. Please give your advice on blowers it would be much help. The Husqvarna I am looking at is the 145bt from lowes for $299
it claims 180mph with 589cfm at housing and 340 at pipe. Is this good. It seems like you can get hand helds from weedeater and poulan with 200mph but I am not sure of there cfm and if it is measured at the housing or pipe end.


Thank you!!

[Mow Pro]

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What are you blowing. I do 80 percent commercial. concrete for miles.I use shindiawa 630 backpack. Works for me.Blowers last for years.I would pick the biggest they make.

[Really Well Cut]

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I myself was in the exact situation you were in but only a few weeks ago. The leaf season was upon us and I was in a situation because I had nothing but a Stihl handheld to do leaves with. I also wanted a BPb but never used one and was clueless untill I posted this thread. I spent the money ($450 total) which I had any way from lawns and got the Echo PB-650 which I heard so much about and it made life so much easier. I was so impressed with this thing. It would have helped me tremendously if I had it when cutting my 15 residential accounts. The thing blows anything in front of it!

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[Scaper-S2k]

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Husqvarna will get the job done if the job is not a huge amount of leaves. Skip the cheesy smaller brands you were speaking of. Heck, I think Toro claims their electric handheld will do 190mph, but the aie holes are about the size of a quarter! Garbage.

I would be tempted to tell you to make a step up to the Stihl br400. Good unit? Nah..GREAT unit! About $400. Ergonomics are top notch. Most of the commercial backpacks will seem like Gold if you are use to the handhelds. I love Husqvarna, but would say I think they should beef up their units a bit. But if you have a $300 limit, then get it and don't look back. It's the best $300 back pack out there.

[AAffordable]

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Thanks to all for the help I picked up the Husqvarna 145bt from lowes $299 that is the bigest they carry 589cfm at the pack 340cfm at the tube. The other back pack I was looking at was the Echo pb-650 claims something like 1200cfm at the pack and 640cfm at the tube that is a lot of moving power but was not sure if it would pay off. That seems like a lot since that is twice the Husq. cfm.


Thank you all!!

[Scott]

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Poulan and weedeater brands are residential quality. For leaves I would recommend Stihl br400-br420, echo 602/603 or the very powerful 650, or a shindiawa, redmax, or husqvarna of <u>similar power</u>. Stay away from the little blowers. You'll probably be spending over $400 to get a good quality blower and I wouldn't recommend anything less than. Trust us, they'll pay for themselves in the amount of time you'll be blowing anything around.

[Zack.]

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That $250 you saved getting a second tier blower will cost you more than triple that over the lifespan of the blower in productivity.

Echo650 or Redmax EB7000 for raw leaf blowing power.

[Scaper-S2k]

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For "raw leaf blowing power", the others will be better. The Stihl would have been too. But really, leaves are around but a fraction of the time we operate. If he is use to a handheld and only wanted to spend $300, he made a good choice and will love it.

My new Kawasaki 700 is in the same class rating as the Redmax7000 and Echo650. But it sucks. And the Stihl br400's get used 10 fold over the Kaw by my employees. And for leaf removal, it's not that much better. We all actually hate using it. The ergonomics are absolutely horribly...which slows you down probably close to the amount of time you save by the extra air. Not opinion, but experience. The Kaw was one of the worst pieces of equipment I have ever purchased. It RARELY gets used at all.

[Zack.]

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Sthil should have a new blower on the market soon to compete with the Echo 650 & Red Max 7000.. The Kaw. will likely be redesigned as well.

The BR400 is solid but it sucks gas twice as fast as the equivilently powered Echo & has a slightly less effective air cleaner.

Basically all blowers in the Sthil 400 power range, Echo603, Shin. EB500- are equally good.

[imograss]

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i have a shindaiwa eb480 ive used for 5 1-2 yrs now. its been excellent and the only gripe i have is the throttle cable needs replaning about evry other year. i also run a eb500 its equally as good. ive had good luck with shindaiwa products!

[Maddog]

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Scaper, I have also used the Kawasaki 700 and did not care for it much. I have the 650 model of Cub Cadet and it is much better than the Kawasaki.

[louslawns]

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should have got the echo

[grasshopper]

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It's a shame I read this after you purchased a blower. When it comes to a blower, the more power the better. I don't even waste my time with the smaller ones. Only two I would ever consider are the Shindawia EB630 or the Echo PB650. Trust me...it will do more than pay itself off. It is something you wouldn't know unless you owned both.

[Jack]

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has anyone tried the John Deere just for residential, just wondering.

[Scott]

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I believe the JD 2-cycle equipment is made by Homelite. Last time I talked to their equipment rep he says they're trying to sell out of all their stock and introduce their own true equipment by mid-late '03. They'll offer the low end of the power range and then equipment more equivilant to the upper commercial end.