Looking for the best leaf blowers? Autumn is a beautiful time of year in the garden, but in large gardens with lots of trees, it can also mean hard work dealing with all the wet leaves. Leaf blowers are particularly useful if your mobility is limited, or if the sheer scale of your garden makes sweeping or raking impractical.
And thanks to innovation, some models, particularly electric cordless ones, are now much quieter than older petrol leaf blowers.
To ensure your garden has the best chances of growing back lush and green as the weather becomes warmer, keeping it free of leaves and the subsequent moss and weeds throughout the autumn and winter seasons is essential.
Keep your plot neat and tidy with these best leaf blowers. If you need more help deciding on which one to get, jump down to our advice on how to buy the best leaf blower. And when you've chosen yours, check out our sourcebook of top garden suppliers for all your other garden shopping needs.
What is the best leafblower?
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Here's our top three for those in a hurry... for full reviews and the rest of our buys, keep scrolling:
- Best leaf blower:
- Best leaf blower for big gardens:
- Best lightweight leaf blower: Bosch ALS 2500 Electric Garden Blower
The best leaf blowers
This Dewalt offering is more than good enough for those with an average sized back garden and, depending on how efficient your leaf blowing skills are, those with bigger gardens too. It runs on powerful batteries that are interchangeable with other smaller power tools in the Dewalt range, and the 195 km/h speed motor should enable you to do some ample leaf shifting in a short space of time. One of the lighter weight models on our list, it should be easy on the arms, and thanks to the electric motor, shouldn’t be too strenuous on the ears, either.
If your back garden extends across several acres, rather than several metres, this petrol leaf blower from McCulloch could be a better option. With its petrol engine, you can use it for extensive periods of time, and with the ability to reach blowing speeds of up to 355 km/h, it’ll make quick work of excessive leaf coverage. Although heavy, its backpack design allows you to distribute the weight of it around your body, rather than it being focussed in the arms and wrists, which means you can wear it for longer without feeling like your arms are going to drop off. Result!
Not as heavy duty as our Black + Decker pick, this lightweight leaf blower is handheld and has three interchangeable settings for efficient use. Whether you require the blower or vacuum mode, Bosch promise that you can quickly interchange between the two settings to make quick work out of clearing your garden of leaves. While not as powerful as others, it does feature an efficient internal shredder which will mulch the leaves and garden debris into the attached bag for you to conveniently place on your compost pile.
While heavier than the Bosch, this leaf blower does provide an extra 10km/h of speed and an additional 100 watts of power. To support the additional weight, there is the option to use the shoulder strap, although some people may find that the pressure becomes too much over an extensive period of time. Featuring both blowing and vacuum functions, Draper suggest that it’s easy to transition between the two settings to make clearing your garden quick and easy. You can also conveniently empty the bag from all the mulch by opening the zip once its 45ltr capacity becomes full.
The ideal buy for those that already have the compatible interchangeable batteries as you'll be able to cut out any unnecessary expenses, this leaf blower is super lightweight, so there’s no need for a backpack or a shoulder strap. This one is just a leaf blower, so would be ideal for those with smaller gardens who won't be using it for a long amount of time. You will, however, need a decent pair of gardening gloves to pick up the pile of leaves once you’re done. While it doesn’t have the fastest blow speed, it’s certainly quicker than our top battery powered leaf blower. However, there’s no suggested charge time, as it’ll completely depend on the batteries that you have.
How to buy the best leaf blower
Leaf blowers come in all shapes and sizes. There are smaller ones for those with little outdoor space and large ones for clearing acres of land. For smaller plots, battery powered leaf blowers are easier and more convenient to use, although wired models can offer more suction power. Petrol-run leaf blowers will give you long lasting power, but they can be heavy, noisy and smelly.
Some leaf blowers allow you to blow leaves into one large pile; others will suck up the leaves too so that you can easily deposit them into your compost. These, however, can become heavy to use over long periods of use, and it can be fiddly to transition between sucking and blowing modes.
From the top of the range to pocket friendly, we’ve scoured our favourite retailers for the best leaf blowers.
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