Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1520 in Home Improvement
• Brand: Draper
• Model: 45543
• Dimensions: 11.68 pounds

Features

• Powerful 2200Watt motor with variable air flow setting up to 260Km/h
• Convenient vacuum to blow control lever
• Adjustable front support handle
• Vacuum/blower tube with support wheel for easy manoeuvrability
• 45 litre collection bag

Manufacturer's Description
This powerful Draper 2200 watt garden blower vac and mulcher is ideal for tidying up those autumn leaves. It has a blow facility for gathering the leaves together. You can then switch to vacuum to suck up the leaves where they are mulched and stored in the 45 litre collection bag included. Another useful feature is the patio and path wheel attachment keeping the blower nozzle at a constant height.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Excellent garden blower, not so good vac
I bought this item about a month ago and have used it 3 times to clear the autumn leaf fall. Much as reviews cover with the other machines, these bits of kit don't work brilliantly with heavy, wet leaves - but then I didn't really expect it too.
We have a large garden, and I can definately say it was much quicker to blow the leaves (and yes a bit damp) into a big pile and then scoop them into the bin. The blower is sufficiently powerful for a domestic garden and I was pleasantly suprised. The vacuum and mulcher does work, but the vacuum is a bit tricky and only picks up a few leaves at a time, it would have taken hours! Also, the machine itself is a reasonable weight for a woman to manage but not when the bag is full of mulch.
We bought a 25m extension cable at the same time, and I'm still glad I went for the electric option over the petrol models, much less effort. It is farily noisy, leaving my ears ringing after an hour, so I'd definately invest in some hearing protection.
The machine itself seems reasonably well built and I've had no faults as yet. It came well packaged.
Overall, I'm happy with my purchase and don't think it'll be another thing to store at the back of the garage for years on end. If you have a small garden it's probably just as easy to use a rake, but for a bigger area it definately saves time.

Very good garden vac, with few drawbacks
I took delivery of this garden vacuum cleaner yesterday: prompt service from Amazon even with free delivery. I spent the afternoon clearing leaves, mostly dry ones, from the borders and paved areas of my fairly large garden. I was very pleased with its ability to suck up leaves from the space between plants, and even where leaves had fallen on top of plants. It caused far less damage than a rake, and was much quicker than removal by hand. It would not reach into some areas, for example between rockery stones, and some manual work was needed. I have not yet been able to try it with wet leaves; no doubt later in the season there will be opportunity!

It does work best if you make the leaves into a pile first, and it was quite fascinating watching the machine gobble up quite large quantities of leaves and thin twigs. It was also effective on the paved areas, although not quite as thorough as a broom. The bag is easy to remove and refit.

I have only one quibble: the pivot for the shoulder strap is too far forward. It seems to be close to the centre of gravity so that the machine balances when held on the strap. The nozzle starts to tilt upwards as the bag fills up, and I had to support the machine from the back. The pivot should be farther back so that the nozzle naturally points down. As it is, the wheels on the end of the nozzle do not have much to do. Next time I shall try re-positioning the strap onto the handle and see if this improves the handling.

Recommended, but get yourself some ear protection as it is very noisy.

Quite heavy to use, but good for a larger garden
I bought one of these last year and used it a lot in the autumn; getting it out this year has prompted me to add my views.

The machine is powerful at 2200 watts, and does indeed hoover up and mulch leaves and other garden rubbish well, but the opening is only a few inches across and it doesn't vacuum much in one go. It is a bit too unwieldy to be used like a domestic vacuum cleaner, and it will take an age if you really intend to suck up leaves over the whole garden. Take a tip from the `professional' gardeners or council workers; the best way is to blow the leaves against a fence or wall then vacuum the pile up or, quickest of all, use a rake. This seems to be the best way, no matter what make of machine you get.

Points to note are:

- it is very efficient indeed at blowing,
- it can be used on the drive or patio,
- it is quite noisy in use,
- it is quite heavy, despite the wheels, and of course gets heavier if you vacuum. The shoulder strap begins to be noticeable after a while. I suspect many sensible (cunning) ladies will leave it to the men; my wife has used it but I normally undertake regular clearing of the lawn in Autumn

These apply to most machines, not just the Draper. One thing I dislike is the hook attachments for the bag, one of which broke in my case, though it was easy to fashion another. Apart from this, it seems robust and durable enough, and has given no trouble in practice. If the tube gets blocked (especially with wet leaves and the odd root etc) it is easy to clear, though the tube attachment was a bit stiff at first.

It probably is not worthwhile if your garden is small; chances are you won't want to face the bother of getting it out. But it does come into its own if you have a largish lawn and are plagued with leaves in the autumn; then it will justify the purchase. And it can prove immensely satisfying!