Get a bigger one. $99 for a useless blower is $99 wasted. It is the cfm that is important.

For the cheapest bp, Husqvarna 150Bt which is the same as RedMax EBZ5100 51cc for $299 is about as good as it get for the price.

If you want to be cheap, get a hand held. They get more power for the same size engine. Get as large an engine as possible. Husqvarna 125 is 28cc( I think ). Maruyama BL3100 is 30cc. Both are either under or about $200.

It'll be like strapping a hand-held on your back, for a while until it breaks. I'd rather just go with a decent hand-held. Get the echo hand-held from HD, at full price it's a better value.

Yep, hand held is not that bad for the money. I have the Shindaiwa EB3410 34cc C4 hand held for a year, then I bought the big Maruyama BL8100 bp which is the exact same as Kawasaki KRB750 64cc. I was very surprised that the new bp did not exactly blow my hand held out of the water.

Only reason I did not mention Echo PB251 is because it is only 25cc. I'd get the biggest one possible. I did not mention my Shindaiwa C4 is because of C4 hybrid 4 cycle. I think 2 cycle engine should need less maintenance. It is a hell of a blower power wise.

I checked it out and the Homelite backpack blower says 400cfm!! That seems pretty high. Will that get the job done?

Most likely 400cfm in the housing which is nothing. Only at the tube where it counts. 400cfm in housing only amounts to about 300cfm at the tube.

I take that you are a home owner. Get a good handheld. It is much more useful. I use it to blow dry car after wash and no need to polish out the water marks later. If you have a dark color car, you know what I mean!!! For blow dry windows of the house, blowing dust off the floor of garage...... Back Pack won't work that well because the tube cannot extend or retract. I have both, BP only good for moving big pile of leafs, for everything else, hand held.

Of all the hand held, only Maruyama BL3000 and Shindaiwa EB3410 have over 180mph and 400+cfm at the tube. I have the Shindy, it is very strong, I kind of regret buying the big back pack. I have the 64cc Maruyama BL8100 which is supposed to be 720cfm and 200mph at the tube. Didn't exactly blow the little hand held out the water!!!!

Redmax has a new 28cc handheld, it is very new and only have one compression ring. So I'd let other people try first!!!

I am a home owner but have acre worth of hilly land with four-three story high deciduous trees throughout. I use a rake now and have to rake the yard about four times a season and it is gerting REAL old fast

I went to Lowe's they have a Echo back-pack blower in the $199 range and it says 350 cfm and the same 180 mph speed? It has .5 CC smaller engine?

Sounds like you can use a bp. The Echo you mentioned must be PB265 25cc small bp. That is way too weak to be useful. I were you, I'll bite the bullet and go for the Husqvarna 150Bt or Redmax EBZ5100 for $299. You would be wasting money to get a sub 40cc bp. As I mentioned before, bp is not as efficient as hand held for simple reason of the length of the tube.

150Bt is the same as Redmax EBZ5100. 51cc, 494cfm and 180mph at the tube. That would be the minimum for blowing leaves. They might have it in Lowes. A lot of the LCOs in my area use this because it is really really cheap and quiet. I did not mention the Echo PB413 because it is only 380cfm and 175mph. You can never have enough power. I have the big 64cc bp and I can still use more!!!

Use Stabil in gas, use 89 octane, a good bp will last you for long long time, don't try to safe a little......Like me, now I have two instead of one!!!! Talk about wasting money!!!

You did not mention whether the leaves fall on grass or side walk. If it is on grass, you need a big one. Leaves on grass is pretty much the worst case if it is a little wet!!!

Another one that is a little bigger and cost a little more is Stihl BR380 56cc bp. I had seen it for $329. This is a proven work horse for pros.

Remember fresh gas, Stabil and good JASO FD oil will keep your blower alive for 20+years, what is a little more to make your life easier.

I have a mightylite back pack blower from home depot for 2 years now. It does'nt have a whole lot of power but if the debri is dry and not matted down it works fine. I also have a hand held blower for close quarters.

Leaves on grass are the worst case for blowers!!! My big hand held is about the strongest, it was hard move the leaves on the lawn. I end up have to get a big commercial bp and the leave are still not jumping for joy!!!! Just move reluctantly!!!

I don't think there is a standard of measuring cfm and mph. You really can only use the numbers as a guide line. I believe it really boil down to the size of the engine. In these small engines, there is no fancy technologies like turbo, DOHC, fuel injections etc. Everything is still carburators. So the cc of the engine pretty much tell everything!!! I don't think anything under 50cc for a bp is even worth looking for leaves cleaning. If you only clean sidewalk, anything that have an engine will work!!!

My big hand held is 34cc, got to be one of the two most powerful in the market, the only other one is Maruyama BL3100 30cc 2 cycle. If the bp is under 40cc, forget it!!! Not even close to these two hand held.

My bp is 64.7cc, I wish I had gotten the Shindaiwa EB802 79cc!!!

Thanks for the follow-up with the owner of one of these machines. So if the leaves of wet it is a no go, I figured as much. But it will push dry leaves around fine. Does it run ok, any quality issues?

Even dry leafs on lawn is not fine!!! Even with my 64.7cc, it move ok only.
One suggestion, buy one and try!!! HD has 30 days return policy. We don't know your landscape, it is all by guessing. Also buy the 150Bt from Lowes. Make sure you keep it nice and clean. You just have to return one!!....Unless neighter work that well and you need to go to the big boys like me.

Was not aware of the 30 day return policy thanks for the heads-up youngman, I will do just that!!

Check with them first!!! They always have good return policy but ask first. We do return items to HD and Lowes. Why do you think they have so many reconditioned mower and stuff in the parking lot?

Nobody can really answer your question to your satisfaction. That is the best way, just be nice, don't ban it around, wipe it down before returning.

My guess you will like the Husky 150Bt. I know they have it in my Lowes. Keep us update on how you feel and what you end up with.

One thing I forgot. Ask whether they sell extended warrante. If you buy the Homelite, don't worry about the warrante. But if you get the 150Bt, extended warrante might give you a piece of mind. My experience is those big box store honor the warrante much better than the dealers. They cater to consummer which is more demanding than the pros towards the dealers. Big box stores has a reputation that they have to up hold, not like the dealers that can tell you to go eat it.

You have some gross generalizations in there regarding customer service yungman. My experience has been a little different than yours, but I am probably looking for a little different experience than you are.

Yes shortlid the mighty lite starts and runs very well.As far as quality goes I have'nt had to replace any parts on the machine.Before I purchased it I compared it to other backpack blowers at lowes and home depot. The most noticable difference I could see was the size of the blower housing which was smaller than the others. The advantage of a back pack blower for me is that it's less fatiquing to use after two or three hours than a handheld.

Back pack is a lot more comfortable for long session of blowing. My hands get numb after a while using the hand held.

Hey Masiman, I have bad experience with one, and not so good experience with the other. That's the only two big one in my area. The first one want to charge me $150 for carb failure on a 10 months old trimmer, insisting I used old gas. I kept gas to less than a month old all the time, with Stabil. They refuse to honor the warrante. The second dealer was friendly until I bought my blower. Their attitude change after that. I had no choice to buy from them because they had my Maruyama BL8100 for $389!!!

I also read on lawn site that people don't even expect warrante repair, their experience were that the dealer usually came up with reasons why the repairs not covered by warrante. As I said, for LCOs, time is money. If you buy large quantity, they are going to treat you nice, give you loaners and quick turn around. For home owners, they know, you are buying one piece here and one piece there. They don't even care for your business. Big box stores are going to be better than dealers for home owners. You have 30 days return, some offer extended warrante for a cost. They do carry the low end of the commercial brands which is more than good enough for home owners.

I have mixed feeling on buying the real expensive equipments for home owner use. I paid $420 for my Honda trimmer. Need carb in 10 months, and after paying $80, it still never run right. Been back to the dealer twice and still can't fix it, I kind of give up because in is 20 miles each trip to the dealer. My few years old TroyBilt runs just fine, been through the rough use and never fail except one time I really put old gas that the had been opened to air for a while, it did die on the spot!!!! I swapped the carb and ran like new again. That was really my fault. It was running until I fill it with bad gas and it die in a minute!!!! At the time, I did not even know gas can go bad!!!!

I hear ya on your problems yungman, and I'm not at all implying that you are at fault. I am only saying that your experiences apply to you and should not be generalized to all small dealers. I'll bet it is alot easier to find complaints about places than it is to find compliments.

I agree with you to some extent about the Big Box stores. If your equipment is a commodity and or typical HO use item and not for heavy or commercial use, then by all means I don't think you can beat the boxes. If you want sales assistance and after sales support, commercial quality then the dealers are the place to go.

I know you shop around ALOT to try to find the absolute best match for your specs. It's not what I personally would do because I don't think my head would let me memorize so many different variables anymore. My philosophy is to get one of the top picks of the herd. I'm positive there are some potentially better machines out there but I don't want to end up with the only Edsel on the block when I need help getting it fixed.

I know you have your opinions on the gear but I wonder how much headache you would have avoided if you had taken the herd recommendations on your blower and trimmer.

My used Stihl BR420 blower was acting up the other day. It couldn't maintain full throttle. I hope it is just a gas issue. If it dies, I'll probably by another Stihl, but this time maybe a new one. There is just not enough support around for the others that I would consider. I use my equipment semi-professionally.

I agree, I am speaking in home owner's point of view. That is why I specifically said my opinion do not apply to pros like you. Time is money and paying $100 to get good service is very important to you guys, not for me or the other home owners which I think there are a lot of them here asking question. I am just a small engine fanatic!!! I get the good stuff, much better than I really need even I do do a lot of lawn maintenance on multiple properties.

Hope you resolve the problem of the blower, It is a very nice blower. Old gas really hurt!!! I was in the middle of trimming with my TroyBilt, gas ran low, I added the old gas in, died in two minutes!!!

Goodfoot, thanks for reply. I notices as well the smaller blower housing.

I think this is the Homelite you are talking about:

http://www.amazon.com/Reconditioned-Homelite-ZR08580-MightyLite-Compliant/dp/B0013ELVKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1238171748&sr=8-1

It is only $79 on Amazon. It is only 26cc, way too small for anything except concrete walkway.

Well got if fired up. Works OK at full throdle and even with slitly wet leaves that were snowed on toped of then melted off the blower was able to blow them out from behind bushes etc. But I found that if the unit idled for awhiole then I hit the triger for the trodle it would bod before throdling up it even stalled once. I will try running it one more time but I don't want to deal with issues like this with a new unit.

Go change another one while it is new. You are talking about the Mighty Light?

You going to get the 150Bt to try also? I think you will see a huge difference.

Yep, the Homelite has the bogging issues. Going to switch to the 150Bt and see how it is.