Autumn, it's that time of the year again when we're back to chasing daylight...
With the length of days shortening at a fast pace, it's becoming increasingly difficult too to get some garden chores done after work, when nearly all of them require good lighting to be done properly. Sure there's always floodlights (and we even have head lights now, nifty gadgets!) but nothing really beats the illumination given by the good old sun.Anyway, before I digress even further what I'm really meant to say is that we're back to mainly being weekend garden warriors again. And with it being autumn it means that one of the garden jobs we have to do is giving the garden a good leaf blowing.
Now this is one the tasks I actually don't like doing and leave it for almost solely for Gaz to do as he doesn't mind it at all. In fact he's actually really good at it. Which is handy because of all garden maintenance that we do that produces the most visual impact in a short period of time of doing so, leaf blowing is the one that takes the top position.
Now why do I dislike doing the leaf blowing so much? It's mainly because of the cable. I'm clumsy with cables and feel that they always get in the way for a smooth and effortless job. And it's bad enough that I have to cope with them when using the vacuum cleaner but needs be I should. Sure there are loads of cordless ones out there but up to now nothing really beats the power of one that is still corded (and with three cats, we do need powerful ones).
Going back to leaf blowers, the same principles goes that it should be powerful enough to do what it's supposed to do and perhaps only a cabled one would do the job...
Until the our friends at Stihl offered us to try and review one of their new products which is a cordless leaf blower.
A cordless leaf blower, will it be powerful enough blow away those autumn leaves running just on rechargeable batteries? And will the batteries be light enough that the blower can be easily maneuvered into delicate angles? And how long can the batteries last, will it be long enough that it can finish the job and beyond that? The scepticism is there of course but a lot of the negativity has been neutralised from the start knowing how reputable a brand Stihl is.
Stihl, we were both very excited to try the product out and to satisfy our own curiosities.
And so we did. And the BGA 56 did not disappoint, far from it...
The battery was quick to charge, was easy to slot in, and was light enough at 3.3kg including the battery that it made the assembled leaf blower easy enough to carry and maneuver while doing the task. In fact it actually felt lighter to carry around than our existing corded one. The design is so much more compact and sleeker too that the airflow seemed more 'precise' that debris was much easier to blow away with much less effort on the arms less exposure to the surrounding plants (and pots!).
More importantly, was it powerful enough that it was able to do what it's supposed to do? A glowing yes! It's combination of being cordless, a sleeker design, relative light weight, powerful blow, and overall less set up time made the completion of the task a lot quicker, which was a fab bonus! \The length is adjustable to suit you use. Usually it takes Gaz an hour and a half to do the entire garden, having to keep moving cables and the extension lead. This time around, it was done in forty minutes. The battery is said to give 20 mins of continuous blowing, although it lasted longer for us.
A big credit though has to go to the compact lithium ion battery which didn't lose intensity during the entire duration of its use and lasted longer than claimed.
And yes it is cordless! And I had a go to too and thought it was fun to use. Looks like leaf blowing won't be solely Gaz's job from now on.
Thanks Stihl, it's a really great product!
Mark :-)
The Stihl BGA 56 is available from all the usual Stihl stockists.
