I had the BR420 Magnum and liked it alot, only reason I sold it was for the BR600. Much quieter and alot more air volume. Not terribly much more air but definately a noticeable difference. For those that you listed, I would go for the 550, but try the 600 also. I'm assuming you are like me when it's time to get the leaves cleaned up, don't make it an entire days work....especially if you have kids, the price difference justifies it in regards to leaf blowers. Buy the most powerful you can afford and if $100 is in your way, take the jump. It's not like buying chainsaws...you can always go too big, not with blowers...more power means it's an easier and quicker job. The BR600 is awesome.

I bought a Maruyama BL8100 a few months ago for $389 in a dealer. THis is the exact same as Kawasaki KRB750 64.5cc 720cfm and 200mph at the tube. 5 years commercial warrante. I saw this blower on sale at Wisesales for $379 free shipping before. For $299, you can get Husqvarna 150Bt which is Redmax EBZ5100. About 500cfm and 180mph at the tube. This might not be much stronger than the two hand held I mentioned on my first post. My Shindaiwa EB3410 did not exactly got blown out of the water by my new Maruyama. For wet leaves, you really need a big blower, don't make mistake buying a smaller one just because it is cheaper. If you are looking for power, just simply look at the size of the engine. I don't think different brands make that much difference. A 25cc blower from different brands are not going to be that big a difference in power. For the same cc, a hand held is going to be a little stronger just because the tube is shorter. So a 30+cc hand held is going to be close to a 40+cc bp. To get much more power than a hand held, you need to jump to 50+cc before you can really tell the difference. Get strictly 2 cycle blower to avoid all the reliability and maintenance issues. Bite the bullet, get a big one. Use StaBil in gas to make the gas last longer, still don't let it sit for too long. A good blower should last you a long time, money well spent.

***"BLACK would indicate oil fouling"*** Not necessarily the exclusive deciding factor. The black color only indicates carbon. The source of the carbon will be revealed by other facets of the carbon deposits. Carbon deposits due to lube oil will have a glossy look and will be quite gummy/sticky when scratched. Also the built up deposits can be quite thick and uniformly cover everything about the spark plug completely. Carbon deposits due to a very rich fuel mixture are sooty and powdery looking, and when scratched, will readily shed dryish flakes or specks. Often, where a rich mix is causing carbon, you might see places on the spark plug where the carbon has already flaked off or areas where the carbon seems not to be as thick. A poor boy's method for testing/guessing at compression issues can be done using compressed air. If using this technique, you will need both valve covers removed. You will need an adapter fitting that threads into the spark plug hole and accepts to being fitted to a shop air hose. The engine must be rolled to the correct position (piston 1/4" down and beyond TDC point of the COMPRESSION stroke) for the cylinder being checked. The engine absolutely MUST BE HELD FROM TURNING by some means to prevent the piston from reacting to the compressed air. You would have to figure out how to hold it with what you have on hand. An alternative method that does not require engine to be "locked" is described at the end of this description, so read carefully not to get the 2 confused. Air pressure needs to be 90 PSI to 120 PSI for best results. The air hose and all fittings need to be free of leaks as you will be "listening for leakage" in the test (and any air leaks in the plumbing can dull your testing accuracy). Each cylinder must be tested individually and the piston for each cylinder must be in the correct point, which means you will have to go through the locking and unlocking of the holding device for each cylinder. Once the engine is rigged against turning, apply compressed air to the cylinder you are testing. Now, you must listen carefully for air leakage. I use a 3 foot length of 3/8" plastic tubing to pin point the leaking spot/area by using it like an impromptu stethoscope. Hold one end of the tubing near to one of your ears (but don't stick it in your ear) and probe the following places on the engine with the other end of the tube: Get inside the valve push rod area of the cylinder head where the head meets the block. If the head gasket is leaking, that is where the leak will be. If you hear air leaking, and it gets louder as you probe nearer to the head/block juncture, and begins to become quieter when the probe goes deeper into the gallery (has moved past the head/block juncture), you have located the leak. But.....if the noise level continues to increase the deeper into the gallery the probe goes.............the leak may be coming from the opposite cylinder head or rings. So you have to test BOTH cylinders the same way, but one at a time. If you find that escaping air noise heard through the plastic tube increases on BOTH cylinders the deeper into the galleries the probe is inserted, and you do not hear an obviously louder sound when the probe tube end is positioned right next to either head/block juncture seam.......... the air is escaping past piston rings. This test method will also identify valve leakage by placing the probe tube into the exhaust/muffler or the intake/carb locations. There is also an alternative to rigging a holding fixture to keep the engine from moving under the influence of the compressed air. The alternative way is to REMOVE the push rods from the rocker arms of the cylinder you are testing and simply place the piston at BOTTOM DEAD CENTER (BDC). With the push rods removed, the terms compression, power, exhaust, and intake stroke become meaningless, as both valves are closed. The push rods must be marked so as to get them back exactly where they came from. It only requires finger tip pressure to push the valve spring down to remove the push rods. My thoughts on the Vanguards having "head gasket issues" are that the "true Vanguards" (and the 303700 is a true Vanguard) do not have any ill repute for head gasket failure. On the other hand, the Briggs single cylinder OHV 280000 and 310000 engines DO HAVE somewhat a reputation for head gasket blow out. Same goes for the Briggs V twin OHV engines that are just based on having one more cylinder of the same design as the 28 and 31 OHV Intek family (405700 and 445700). This post was edited by mownie on Tue, Feb 4, 14 at 12:02

johndeere, That's pretty impressive that you have all that stuff in a 120 sqft shed. I just got mine a month ago so I'm still filling it up. Right now I have my JD225, the 30" tiller, 10 cu ft cart, 175lb spreader, 7 bushel bagger, dozer blade, table saw (that can probably go back to my garage), Karcher/Honda 3000psi pressure washer, 21" Craftsman/Honda push mower, Husqvarna 455 Rancher w/20" bar, Husqvarna 323 trimmer with manual feed head (I hate those bump feed jobs), shovels, axes, rakes, loppers, a fiberglass-handled Vaughn claw hammer, two bags of Quickrete, a half bag of 10-10-10, and my John Deere licensed sprinkler that drives around the yard using the hose as a guide. I built a 4x10 loft in the back, 5' off the floor, which will soon shelve Rubbermaid bins of junk my wife says we need to keep for God knows what reason, currently taking up precious space in the frog (finished room over garage). And underneath that loft is 1,000 board feet of black cherry in 8' lengths neatly stacked with spacers to dry, awaiting some project down the road. I keep all my mechanics tools in the garage. Even though I have a deadbolt on the shed, I'd rather have the Craftsman rollaway and powertools in the garage. I don't think I can fit another tractor in there, but I definitely like the idea of building another garage so I can use my current garage for a workshop (without having to pull the vehicles out and then try not to get sawdust everywhere).