I had no idea leaf vacs existed until learning about them here! So I bought me a B&D Leaf Hog, from Wal Mart. I bought the bigger version, about 70 bucks. I may take it back and find a different model or brand.

But thought I'd post a review for anyone considering buying one.

I thought it was hard to assemble, because the instructions were terrible, as were the illustrations. Just terrible. It took me a good hour to put the thing together.

I LOVE the way it chops everything up. Very pleased with that, and pleased with how well it sucks. It never clogged up on me. The only clogging was when I tried to suck too much at once (and my tulip tree leaves are HUGE and make big matted messes). That was easy to clear, either by stepping on the matted leaves or a quick turn off and it stops sucking. Think of your tube on your vacuum cleaner and how a piece of paper sucks onto the end and you have to peel that paper off or shut off your vac and let it drop. Same thing.

Overall, I liked it very much, even though it's HEAVY. Geesh. I haven't used the blower part yet, because some kids yesterday raked a bunch of my leaves into huge piles for me. So I just pointed and sucked. That was still very hard work because of the weight. I'm totally exhausted.

What I hate the most, and why I may return it and try to find a better one: the leaf bag. I wouldn't mind if it held more chopped leaves. A full bag fills about half to three quarter of a black trash bag.

But my biggest complaint is that it's a PITA to unattach, dump and then reattach. I spent far more time on that than actually vacuuming.

Also, I never could get the chopped leaves to just dump out of the leaf bag. This may be my leaves and not the B&D bag...I don't know. (My leaves are mostly large tulip tree leaves, some maple leaves) I had to stick my arm in and scoop it all into the bags by hand.

I would prefer a leaf bag that perhaps had velcro bottom or a zipper and you could just undo it, the bottom opens and the stuff falls into your container. Maybe that design doesn't exist, but that's what I'd like to find. I thought the process of removing the leaf bag, scooping, and then reattaching was a time waster.

So to sum up:

Good: chops nicely, didn't jam at all (my leaves were fairly dry), suction is good. Since I've never used this type of tool before, I have nothing to compare, but I thought the noise level was acceptable.

Negative: leaf bag is unruly, too heavy (though they're probably all heavy), manual is worthless and possibly the worst manual I've ever seen. Whoever wrote that should be composted.

If it turns out all the leaf bags are the same on other brands, I'll probably keep this one.

I had no idea I would chop so many leaves. ROFL. I bought a bag of ten trash bags thinking I'd use 5 or 6. (Thinking that when chopped, these leaves compress down) I filled all and probably will fill 20 more. Good grief.

Okay, that's my little review...now I have two more posts on other topics to do...I'd be interested in other reports on leaf vacs that are: lighter, have better bags. Oh, this is electric. Are gas powered lighter? (I don't like messing with gas engines, plus I spent ten dollars on a new 100 foot cord)