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!!!!

Thanks, I ended up buying the Husqvarna 50 cc after being assured by another dealer that it's virtually the same machine as the RedMax because it's made by them. (I think it's the BT150) I needed to buy this quick because it was a Father's Day gift for my hubby. I got it for $299 at a nearby power equipment store. The store manager told me he had ordered 10 Redmax in early spring and got only three (they were gone within 10 days). He has an additional 10 on backorder for summer. I guess I'll leave it up to my husband whether he wants to keep the Husqvarna or exchange it for a RedMax when the backorder arrives. Working with the local power equipment dealer was much nicer purchase than going to one of the Big Box stores. The owner threw in two containers of gas mix and carried it out to my car. He also mentioned to use only high octane gasoline in the unit. Individual service and no waiting for someone from "lawn care" to be paged!

I am changing the subject a little. Before you going and spend $350 or so on a BP, have your wife go and try put one on first. Make sure BP is what she want. I found bp hard to put on, it is like 20lb back pack with a big tail!!! If you have a big area to blow, bp is the way to go because after struggle to put it on, it is very comfortable to work for hour at a time. If you only doing a few minutes, then she better try and see whether that's the way to go. I have both. I am a gear head!!! I insist on buying a big bp. Now I end up using the bp during leaf season and put in storage mode for the rest of the year. All the other time, I still use my hand held. bp is not the easiest to put onto the back even for a man. And it is so easy to pull the hand held to do a 10 minutes job. If your hand held is still working, consider getting another hand held and play dual pistol!!!! Don't laugh!!! So many times I have to switch hands with the hand held because, it blows left if you hold with your right hand, blow right if you hold with the left. I really wish I have two, one in each hand to blow a wide, straight path!!! Down side is your hands can get really tired if you have to blow over 10 minutes. Hand held are stronger if it is the same size engine. Your hand held must be about 300cfm at the tube. All you need is another good one like Echo PB251 or the Husqvarna 125, you get over 600 cfm combined. That is as strong as a big bp, much stronger than the BR380/420 which is only about 400cfm. Both hand held are about $160 or so. Again, go put one on her back and see how she feel, that is the most important thing bar none. Happy wife make a happy husband!!!

Heres a good review of Tanakas back pack blower: 23 of 30 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Earning Respect, January 1, 2010 By Alan E. Schmidt "Monkey head" (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) This review is from: Tanaka Commercial Grade Gas Powered Large Backpack Blower Side-Mounted Throttle 65cc 4.3 HP 2-Stroke (CARB Compliant) TBL-7800 (Lawn & Patio) In one word "DOMINATING". The Tanaka 65cc TBL-7800 has made me king of the cul-de-sac. They now call me the blow king. Autumn. 2009. My Tanaka 65cc TBL-7800 arrived late in the afternoon. 4:16 p.m. A quick scan of the yards in the cul-de-sac revealed that the trees had left an abundance of prey all over. My adversaries, or as you would call them, my neighbors, were also surveying the battlefield. I locked eyes with my neighbor, Francis, I lowered my brow and gave him a "whats up" head nod. He returned my head nod with a demonic smile. Stupid french. It was on now. Oh Yeah. See you on the battlefield Saturday morning. What do the French know about blowing anyway. Saturday morning. 6:55 a.m. Garages opened. The gladiators took the field. We sized each other up. Jaws dropped when I turned to the side and they saw the Tanaka 65cc TBL-7800 strapped to my back. Thats right boys. Drink it in. I just brought a semi truck to a demolition derby full of Hyundais. We all spotted the new guy at the same time and smiled. He wore sunglasses instead of ski goggles. HA HA, hope he likes watery eyes.... amateur. 7:00 a.m. Let the battle begin. City ordinance says no blowers before 7. It was like the gates opening at the Kentucky derby. The action started quickly. New Guy - The TBL-7800 blew the sunglasses clean off his head. As he ran away I blew one of his flip flops off also. Like I said, amateur... Don't come into the wolf den wearing deer antlers, idiot. I took the sunglasses as a trophy. The flip flop ended up on the roof. He can kiss that one goodbye. Francis - The leaves were flying, hot air burned my skin. I sacked up and plowed forward. I knew he was limited by his extension cord. The end came quickly. He surrendered in less than 2 minutes. Imagine that, the French surrendering quickly. Who would have thought. I stood in the middle of my leaf free yard like a King. My scepter was the Tanaka 65cc TBL-7800. They lined up to kiss my ring and acknowledge the blow king. All except the new guy. We may have put him in therapy for awhile. The Tanaka TBL-7800 slayed them all that day. Hands down, the clear winner. I did get a little hot on the back. Wear a good shirt. I wore cut off jeans, tank top, knee high moccasins, and ski goggles. Wanted to look respectful when sporting the TBL-7800. No doubt I did it justice.