Gas-Powered Blowers Reviews

My friend has a Ryobi ST720R, this is the exact same product with a new Part Number. I am still amazed at how far it throws the snow and how durable this equipment remains.

This is a well made machine. It has taken hours off my yardwork this fall.

Yardman advantages:

Fast and easy to use.

Large bagging capacity.

Easy to adjust.

Easy to store and clean.

Shortcomings with it are considerable such as....

The bag that the leaves go into is difficult to empty without spilling some of your work back onto the ground.

Sometimes it is hard to push it on uneven gradient.

It sometimes does not fare to well with twigs. Check often for jams when near twigs.

Small gas tank for big HP.

The vacuum hose jams with leaves often. Use it gingerly. It is also a little short when getting into hard to reach places.

Overall, a smart purchase!

hey...
so, here i am, in my modest (1 acre) yard surrounded by trees...
lots of trees, each tree blessed with thousands of leaves... every autumn, the aforementioned trees and their leaves decide to make their way to my lawn. Me, lazy times 10... i used to just rake a little, blow a little more, then just mow them over..
now, thanks to the yard man chipper/shredder vac/coffee grinder/espresso maker, my lawn work is reduced by a ratio of 8:1
that is thanks to the wolverine-style blades securely hidden within the demure exterior of the Yard-Man chipper/shredder vac..
overall, pretty awesome...

If you're not considering a riding mower with big honker bags in the back, but *almost* need something of that caliber, this will work okay. I've used the mulcher mower - ( not enough ), and a bigger mulcher/shredder ( made leaves and wrist-sized branches into dust but tore itself apart in four years ).

This moves moist leaves with the blower, and does a good job with its vacuum tube.

Really wet leaves - fugedaboutit, you have to stay ahead of wet, stuck-together leaves, or pray for dry weather. Moist leaves, Maple/Oak this handles well with the outlet.

Now the least positive news - the "yard vacuum" inlet, like everything below a riding mower capacity, is very easy to clog. Go into anything higher than a couple of inches - and, shazzam! your clogged. The tube vac is better, but still clogs. Remove the tube, pull out the clog, put the tube back in, start again.

And, it is nice to vacuum ( a bit at a time ) and have the leaves shredded and thrown where you want them.

Uh, vibration. As with the ..., bigger machines, there is a lot of vibration. It shuck two wimpy nuts and bolts off in a couple of hours. They were the ones that hold the handle. And a bolt and two bolts per side have served for dozens of hours. The design engineer either didn't give a ... or were nickle-and-dimed out of using adequate lock-nuts.

All-in-all, for ...this, along with a mulching, walk-behind mower; and a 2-stroke blower, are allowing me to stay ahead of the game, with a *lot* ( did I mention a *lot* ) of leaves from the forest of leaves I live ( and love to live ) in.

Would not clear a foot of snow. Took 5.5 hours to clear driveway.
Neighbor used competing Toro model and walked thru his driveway and
sidewalk with ease.......he was finished in 20min......and his drive and walk
were clean down to the pavement.

Toro runs better, sounds better, works better, looks better
and IS BETTER.

I gave this machine 4 stars in terms of value: there are much better machines at twice or three times the cost of this one. Whether or not it is worthwhile to spend more money on a better machine is very relative and is up to you. My recommendation is: buy this machine if you live in an area with occasional snow. If you regularly get heavy snow, buy a bigger machine. By the way, this is what the manufacturer recommends.

I bought one a few days ago and used it to clear the first two snows of the season. I am happy with the purchase. I cleared all my snow in 15 minutes with very little effort. Compare this with over an hour of suffering with the shovel. But I would do better and faster with a better (more expensive, and certainly two-stage) machine. Here are some tips:

(1) Always try to clear the snow right after it stopped snowing. It is much easier. In particular, this machine does not handle well thawing snow, or snow mixed with ice.

(2) I had to adjust the "Control Cable" (see the manual) to the top hole, the one that makes the cable more tense and improves the traction of the auger.

(3) Do not go straight into heavy snow. It will clog with snow and the engine will stop. Instead, I use this technique: if the snow is fresh and light, I just go ahead and clear it. If it is a bit heavy but not too deep, I advance one step, let it throw the snow, and I back up one step to let it get back to full power. Then I advanve another step and so on. Finally, if the snow is pretty deep, I go in steps. First I "shave" the surface, and in a second pass I go deeper.

Despite all these precautions, every once in a while I need to stop the machine and clear the snow from the auger. It takes a few seconds, no big deal.

One big plus of this machine is that it is light and compact. It fits in a corner in my garage right close to the door, so I can get it out very easily. A bigger machine would have to stay in another place.

In summary, it is pretty good for what it costs. It works as advertised, it is simple to assemble, light and just ok clearing snow. Works for me.

I received this machine last week and it was very easy to put together and get started. In searching for a snowthrower, I wanted one that was not too big and heavy, for a woman to operate. This was just what I needed. So far, I've thrown about 7-8 inches of snow in two sessions and it works great.