Handy THEV3000 Electric 3 in 1 Leaf Blower - 167 MPH 3000W Garden Vacuum & Mulcher - 45 Litre Collection Bag, Automatic Mulching Compacts Leaves in Bag

I’m so impressed with this machine!I bought this to replace an ageing Bosch that had seen better days and constantly got choked during use and had to be taken apart.The first thing I noticed with this was how light it was in comparison to my old Bosch (and previously owned Flymo) so I did set it up for its first job thinking would it be good enough....well I certainly wasn’t disappointed! It’s so easy to use, much more powerful than my old machines and, due to being lighter, means that you just keep going and going. I also love the fact that you just flick a switch to move between suction and blower - with many other machines you have to take them apart. This is especially useful on the odd occasion that it gets blocked or you Hoover something you shouldn’t as you just flick it to the blower and it coughs it up!Great machine, fantastic price and better than Bosch!

This is my first ever Vacuum/Shredder, decided to purchase this product, following very positive reviews, & mixed ones for the well known brands. Arrived the following day, & was easy to assemble - used it for the first time at the weekend, following morning rain, & it made light work of sucking up all the wet leaves that had congregated throughout my front garden, also did a good job in the back garden. It is fairly light & easy to handle, but I emptied the bag before it got too full, as the weight was beginning to have an effect on my shoulder & back. I agree with one reviewer, that the bag is about the right size, & doesn't get in the way too much, but I have a minor gripe with it - the bag is not easy to empty, as the zip comes to a stop midway along the bottom, which means you are emptying it from the side - which is not easy, while holding the unit & refuse bag at the same time - only a minor issue though. Also, unlike reviews of other brands, I did not notice any dust being blown out of the unit'The only other issue I have with it, is the poor design of the triangular hook that attaches the strap to the unit. As I was assembling the unit, I did notice how loose the threaded 17mm long nut was, that attaches both ends together, & if you continue turning the nut as far as it will go, it will become undone at the other end (& vice versa), so there is no way you can ever fully tighten it - resulting in the nut gradually working it's way along, until it comes undone at the one end, resulting in the strap becoming detached from the triangular hook - this is precisely what happened to me, the first time I used it, the hook ended up in the grass - so I have fitted a clip-on luggage hook instead - there is no way the strap will become detached from the unit now.The motor is powerful & noisy, but probably not much more than my Flymo Hover Mower - I had purchased ear defenders, but did not feel the need to use them. The motor still had good suction at low power, which I decided to use whenever I got near any stones. It also mulched the leaves into much smaller pieces, thanks to it's 10:1 shredding ratio.This is a good, all-round value for money product, which I hope lasts for several years, & I will no longer dread going outside to clear up the Autumn (or Blossom) leaves - and apart from the two tiny niggles, I am very happy with my VFM purchase - it does exactly what it says on the tin.

I bought this on the strength of the many positive reviews - and I'm glad I did. It has done an amazing job collecting and shredding the blanket of leaves on my lawn. The real test is its longevity, but hopefully I won't be posting any updates on that score.If, as I was, you're new to leaf blowers/vacuums then there is one thing to point out: the blower isn't very effective on lawns, especially if there's moisture, as there typically is in Autumn. You can find yourself aiming at a pile of leaves on full power and they move about two inches. It's like trying to blow cloth from velcro! This isn't a fault of the THEV but is, I understand from other product reviews, quite typical. It's fine on hard surfaces though. The way round it is to hoover the entire lawn rather than blowing them into a pile and hoovering them up. It's laborious...but kinda fun.The other thing that made me buy this model over a few similarly priced rivals is the variable power. This came in handy while hoovering leaves from a gravel drive. On a low setting it removed the leaves but left the gravel where it should be. OK, you can achieve the same thing with other models by holding them further away from the ground, but it's not as convenient.

Having read many reviews on line for similar products, it seemed as if these machines were a little hit and miss. However the Handy seemed to have the fewest complaints and since my fruit trees had deposited their leaves all over the lawns I was keen to remove them before they rotted and took the grass with them. The blower/vac arrived promptly and assembling was simple and straightforward. Then the rain intervened for nearly a week so I wasn't able to test it out and feared that the drenching the leaves were getting would hamper my chances of clearing them quickly. Some other machines have had complaints to do with poor performance on wet leaves.The biggest test was in the front garden with walnut tree leaves that are seriously large with stems to match. The Handy just breezed through them and the only problem was that the leaf stems being so long sometimes stuck horizontally across the tube inlet but this was only a question of switching off so they released then trying again pointing at the stem in the same direction as the tube. All the other leaf litter dry and wet was taken care of with total ease. Material is shredded nicely and I ran the machine for quite a while before it needed emptying. This took a bit of practice as the neck of the bag doesn't separate that easily from the body and if you unzip into a compost bin bag attached, you have to lift the whole machine up to the height of the bin then balance it while unzipping to expel the waste. A sturdy quick release mechanism for the bag would be a real help here. The blower side of the operation worked well but for my usage the vacuum will be what I use most.All in all a brilliant bit of kit benefiting hugely from a powerful 3k watt motor with adjustable power settings. Highly recommended.