Toro 51599 Ultra 12 amp Variable-Speed Electric Blower/Vacuum with Metal Impeller
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List Price: Our Price: $74.97 You Save: $15.02 (17%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $55.95 (click here) Category: Lawn & Patio See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Toro 51599 Ultra 12 amp Variable-Speed Electric Blower/Vacuum with Metal Impeller
Customer Review: 100% satisfaction
Summary: 5 Stars
Product was exactly as stated and works better than expected. Delivery time was extremely fast. Impressive!Customer Review: 2 handed operation
Summary: 4 Stars
This blows well enough. I don't plan to use the sucking feature but may find a need for it. I have a large irregular lot with wooded areas so I need a blower that is precise and allows me to strategically place the leaves out of sight. This blower is heavy, probably because of the metal impeller. One handed operation is tiring but the handle allows you to maneuver the blower very gracefully using both hands. I replaced my Toro "sweeper" that died after many years of service. That model was light and easy to use but had only one speed. Truthfully though I don't think that this one has that much more blowing power. I'll wait till fall to evaluate it's power as now the leaves are compacted and wet.Customer Review: 3 seasons and still going strong
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought this blower/vac 3 years ago and have used it each year to clean up mostly maple leaves. It works very well as a blower. The vacuum is a bit tricky to use and is time consuming, but the benefits for mulching and composting make it worth it, in my opinion. We can save more crushed leaves in a limited space than if the leaves were just raked and piled. And they break down quicker, making for a nice soil supplement. It helps to vacuum the leaves when they are dry and have been sitting on the ground a week or more. If they're wet, then it's important to move more slowly and pick up only a few at a time to avoid frequent jamming. All in all, a good lawn tool for the money.Customer Review: A 17" snowstorm - how did the Toro work?
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the electric Toro snowblower in late December 2010 after years of manual shoveling. This has been the year that finally convinced me that some type of snowblower was needed. Since receiving the snow blower there has not been any snow falls past 2-3 inches which is no test for any snowblower - until this weekend. We had another "epic" snowstorm leaving about 17" on my driveway...
A few facts to consider - I have a realtively small drive which is about 700 sq ft, with a 30 foot walk way to the front door. There is no need for a full size gas driven snow blower for my needs. I do have a large wood deck on the back of the house and I used the Toro to clear the snow off the deck - it worked great on the wood deck and did not do any damage.
The Toro blower really did a fine job clearing my driveway. You just cannot wait until there is a ton of snow to move all at once. A 4-6" is about the right depth to clear - if you are expecting this to whistle thru a foot of snow then go to a gas driven model. I went out to blow the snow 3 or 4 times during this storm and that was about right for the capability of this blower.
Pros- This is really a very light weight blower (25 lbs) and I can carry it thru my home out onto the back deck for clearing the snow. It has a well placed handle and is easily moved around. So far, it seems durable for what it was designed to accomplish. It will easliy blow snow 10-15 feet and the chute can be adjusted to many angles, etc.
Cons- The safety switch needs to be redesigned. It is awkward and takes some time to get used to. Also, it will shut itself off if the motor gets overheated. This has happened twice to me so far. Both times I waited a few minutes and it started right up again - hopefully this is not some other problem. There is a 2 year warranty if things go bad...
Helpful Hints- be certain to buy a 12 gauge power cord. Lighter gauge power cords will not provide enough juice to run the 15amp motor at full strength. I have 75 foot long cord. Toro told me you shouldn't exceed 150 feet.
Customer Review: A Disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
I use this type of product mainly for vacuuming and mulching leaves, not for blowing. Having used a Black & Decker Leaf Hog for several years, I was looking for something that would shred the leaves a bit finer than the Hog and thought that its metal blade might do a better job than that of the Hog. I was also impressed by its claimed air speed, figuring that might translate into more vacuuming power. So I purchased it.
After a couple of uses, several things became apparent. First, the Toro creates less usable vacuum than the Hog. The metal blades are much smaller than those in the Hog and blade surface area obviously is proportional to the amount of air that can be moved. Second, much of the reason for the claimed faster air speed could be due to the fact that the output hose has a relatively small diameter compared to other brands, which squeezes the air molecules and makes them move faster while reducing the actual quantity of air and leaves that can pass through the hose in a given time. Thus, the Toro has much less "throughput" than the Hog and that means it takes longer than the Hog to do the job. The lower volume of moving air also makes it harder to pick up large and/or wet leaves.
And I found that large or wet leaves are more likely to jam the pickup tube of the Toro because the front of the tube is wider than the rest of it. This means that you can pick up more leaves than the main part of the tube can handle and when they reach the narrower section they can cause a jam, especially if wet.
One other problem is that the short power cord emerges from the front of the Toro and when you plug an extension into it, there is nothing to hold the connection together or keep the cord from dangling. As a result, the cord can get in the way when you move around and the connection can come apart.
So while the Toro may work well as a leaf blower, I found that its vacuuming abilities leave much to be desired and I'm back to using the Leaf Hog most of the time.