Black & Decker 2600 Watt Blower / Vacuum Shredder

Black & Decker 2600 Watt Blower / Vacuum Shredder

As with the previous reviewers, it's a relatively light and powerful unit.
Downside if the vacuum collection back. It slides in simply enough, but it's not a air tight connection.

So imagine a power motor sucking in air, the air will escape in any gap it can and take with it whatever it's carrying.

My workaround, got a black bin liner, cut the bottom of the back off (as the air will just ballon the bin liner until it pops. Tie it round the bag housing area so that anything that comes out will hit the bin liner and stick to that, rather than on me.

Click to>>>>>Bestseller Garden Vacuums

Bosch AXT 25 D Quiet Shredder

Bosch AXT 25 D Quiet Shredder

By Mr. Andrew Bickley

It loves hard woody material up to 1 1/2 inches diameter, you'll struggle to get soft or mainly leafy stuff through (which the Rapid doesn't have a problem with), but then soft stuff rots down fast enough anyway so not really a problem. The 22 & 25TC has a new type of cutter that is meant to overcome this, but I decided not to be the Guinea Pig and let someone else try out the new system. Recommended by Fredshed, worth a read before you commit to buying, if you've got time. It's the same toothed gear against a metal plate in a drum, as on it's predecessor the AXT 2200HP Quiet, but with an extra 0.3kW's, which you can see in action on YouTube `Best Electric Garden Shredder for Home use'. That part works well, plenty of torque, and will chew through stuff that cause most/any other electric shredding machine to jam up, the AXT 2200HP Rapid included.

The difference between this one and it's predecessor is the built in collection box, and why I only gave it 4 stars, once the box gets about 1/2 full the mulch builds up under the drum and tends to get drawn back into the machine again, and starts blocking it. It would be better to let the mulch fall on the ground but you can't easily do this as without the box the bottom of the cutter is exposed to children's fingers and dogs noses, and it has a safety transponder in the box that cuts out the motor if it's not in place. Soft stems have a tendency to come out bruised rather than cut, but if woody material is only chewed and still in one length you have to wind in the metal plate against the drum with the drum turning until you can just hear metal against metal. The Hardened steel cutter will actually bed into the softer alloy plate, and the cutter is then set. All garden shredder tend to work better if you put the material through within a week of it being cut, as woody material dries out it gets much harder.

I would say buy the predecessor that doesn't have the collection box if the 2200HP Quiet wasn't more expensive than the newer 25D. Despite this the 25D is a good well made, built to last machine, that would eat my previous £90 1600w Performance Power impact shredder for breakfast, it's not perfect, but one of the best on the market.

Click to>>>>>Bestseller Garden Vacuums

Flymo Garden Vac 2700

Flymo Garden Vac 2700

By Kate

I ordered this garden vac having read the reviews of it on Amazon and of other comparable products. None seemed to be without their flaws and so I thought I'd hedge my bets and go for something at the cheaper end of the spectrum. My expectations were that it would do a reasonable job when set to "blow" but my hopes for the vacuum setting weren't high.

I was quite surprised by the size of the Flymo when it arrived (although this may be standard as I haven't used a garden vacuum previously); it is not a small tool (about 3ft long) and takes up a fair chunk of our garden shed, especially with the bag attached. Putting it together, in particular attaching the bag, was a fiddly operation but took about half an hour overall.

Using it is very easy, with a straightforward forward/back "gear stick" to set it to blow or suck. It did a great job clearing the leaves from our patio, where there was relatively little resistance. It had a harder time when trying to clear leaves from our lawn and graveled areas - and if this is why you are thinking of buying it I'd perhaps recommend that you invest in something more powerful. But it did the job in the end and then, to my surprise, also did a reasonably good job hoovering up the leaves we had blown into piles. I had almost thought from previous reviews that it would be a waste of time even to try this function but that was not the case and I will be using it in future.

In summary: an excellent vacuum for a patio, reasonably effective elsewhere (both when set to blow and suck), a bit bulky but easy to use and good value for money.

Click to>>>>>>Bestseller Garden Vacuums