Customer Reviews

Black & Decker Leaf Hog 12 Amp Electric Blower/Vacuum/Mulcher BV4000

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

My family spent hours (if not days) raking leaves last fall. This fall, I ordered the Leaf Hog, and I'm glad I did. We "raked" (or is it "hogged") three times, as the leaves dropped off the trees, and each time put out two to four yard waste bags. There's no question that the vacuum attachment decreased the volume of the leaves. I'm not sure by how much, but if I had to guess, I'd say 4:1 or better, which saved me money on bags and on the yard waste stickers we have to put on the bags.

The Leaf Hog excels in reducing how long it takes to collect all of the leaves into piles and vacuum them up. I found the low speed was more than adequate to blow around dry leaves. It's also more accurate than the higher speed. What previously took four of us hours can be done in about 30 minutes. If you've got mulched beds, you'll want to use a rake to pull the leaves away from the beds so you don't blow your mulch all over the place.

Of course, both of my children (11 and 8 years old) wanted to try it. On low speed, I wasn't concerned about damage to their hearing, and they could each easily manipulate the blower. They were also able to use the vacuum, but it got too heavy for my 8-year-old when it started filling up.

The vacuum is where the Leaf Hog really earns its money. It quickly and easily sucks up leaves and small sticks. After using it to fill about ten bags of mulched leaves, the impeller seems to have suffered no damage. My 11-year-old discovered a trick to dumping the bag into the yard waste bag: simply insert the Leaf Hog bag's plastic handle into the yard waste bag first (to keep the yard waste bag open) and then tip over the Leaf Hog bag to empty the leaves into the yard waste bag.

I can see, as other reviewers noted, how the plastic clip that holds the bag onto the motor might break. However, if you fully depress the tab before you pull off the bag (and don't just yank it off), there should be no problem.

When using the vacuum, there may be a small amount of dust that comes through, but the bag filters almost all of it. What does come out is caught by the plastic cover on the back of the bag. When I was done, I just wiped off whatever loose dust I could and put the parts away.

The Leaf Hog reduces your workload, saves you money, and might even be fun.

The new leaf hog really lived up to my expectations. I gave it a very rough time right out of the box. The blower works very well on high speed, almost too well. After blowing the leaves into a pile I began to vacuum. Converting to vacuum mode is very simple. Remove the blower attachment, attach the vacuum. Simple. I love the way the bag attaches to the vacuum nozzle. Awesome feature. Anyway, the vacuum sucked up leaves, twigs, pine bark mulch, rocks, etc. Outstanding job. The impeller didn't even show a mark. The vacuum is not super powerful but that is a good thing if you want to keep your grass alive. The leaves really should be in a pile before using the vacuum mode, as it saves a lot of time. The impeller shreads the leaves down to tiny pieces. Very impressive. Simply pull the bag out and empty it and slide it back in. The unit never clogged up. It is super quiet, even on high speed. I used the low speed to clear the driveway, deck, and sidewalk. The vacuum even has a low and high speed option. The extension cord lock is excellent. Outstanding product. The unit does get a little cumbersome after vacuuming, but the shoulder strap alleviates the pressure from your arms. In blower mode the unit is light and easy to maneuver. I love it. All my neighbors loved it because it is so quiet, and because I didn't just blow the leaves into the street and into their yards, I vacuumed them when I was done. My decision to purchase this unit over the Toro model came down to the excellent design with the bag. No zipper to get jammed! The bag is much stronger than on other leaf blowers, it wont rip open. It just slides out. And I don't look like an idiot balancing a huge bag on one shoulder and a leaf blower on the other. Excellent design and functionality. I would rather replace a $10 impeller each year than a $30 bag that won't last very long. I can't wait to use it again.

I live in an established neighborhood with large mature trees with an average sized yard. I spend at least one day every weekend from late October through November cleaning up leaves. My first impression as I unpacked it and put it together was that it felt fragile. The on/off switch feels like it could break at any time. Here are my observations.

This product is not as durable as I had hoped. After the end of one fall season, one of the shoulder strap clips broke and the plastic impeller is all gouged up from sucking up twigs and acorns. The mulch ratio varies from 1:1 when the leaves are wet or damp to maybe 5:1 when they are dry.

The bag is easy to empty and easy to attach. The plastic clip that keeps the bag from sliding out requires special care or it will break.

I do not have any issues with the blower function, and if that is all you have to do, then you might not be disappointed. Switching from blower to vac is toolless and is not an issue with me either other than the plastic clips and catches need to be used with care.

I will probably end up buying the Toro model rated best buy by Consumer Reports (metal impeller) before the leaves begin to fall this Fall. I expect the Leaf Hog not to survive its second season. My dad told me that he has found B&D products to be low end and designed to break and the Leaf Hog seems to live down to that.

I got this blower/vac before I read the reviews. If I had, I would not had made the purchase, boy am I glad I didn't read the reviews. I don't know what kind of problems the others have had or why, but my Leaf Hog work just wonderful. It made quick work of the leafs I have all over my yard. I have 5 LARGE trees in my yard and it nomaly takes me all day to make a dent in the leafs. The Leaf Hog cut my day in half. The motor never got hot or even warm for that matter and I had it running for at least 6 hours. The top speed really moved the plie of leaves accross the yard. Here is a big peice of advice. If you are going to get this, fork out the couple of extra dollars and get the attachment that connects the Leaf Hog to a trash can. It is more than worth it. (BV6000) I have a large square trash can and I was able to vacume up almost half my back yard before I had to empty it. To give you an idea of how much that is, half my back yard of leafs in the old vac would have taken 7 or 8 big black trash bags not to mention how much work it takes to get the mulched leafs in the bag without making a huge mess. This unit and the vac attachment is more then worth the money.

One more thing, if you do get the vac attachment, you may want to get a large rubber band, as the bag that goes over the trash can does blow off if you doin't tighten it down really well,

Excellent 230mph blower. Good thing it has two speeds. The mulcher/vac aspect is both good and marginal. The system doesn't clog up like the WeedEater offering, which burnt of the WeedEater motor, and it seems to pick up debris better. Although they state that it will pick up and mulch pine cones I wouldn't do it. For leaf mulching ratio it is perhaps better or equal to the WeedEater. The mulch/vac bag attachemt affair is much much more convenient/handy; although it is flimsy. I don't see the plastic securing clip lasting long. It certainly isn't a commercial grade tool so don't expect to rough handle it.

Added 11/10/05: I'm very happy with the product now that I've used it several more times. I don't know what you could expect to purchase for a mere $70 and get as much work savings. And yes, it does really suck and blow; better than my Craftsman 6.5hp lawn vacuum and mulcher @ $580. I use them together and make quick work of my fall chore. That 230MPH wind force really rips those embedded leaves out from grasses and vines and other underbrush. The vac/mulch attachment affair appears cumbersome but the quick connect and disconnet changer over from blower to vac/mulcher is far superior to WeedEater. The volume is a bit lesser, but the quickness and ease of emptying the bag greatly outweighs the diminished capacity. Keep in mind: I'm speaking from experience with WeedEater and now Black and Decker LeafHog.

We've just moved into a new home and needed some tools to get some yardwork done. The blower/vac was one such tool. A hardware sales guy told me to use a good extension cord with the blower. I checked the manual for the blower but was confused by the matrix of amps to guage and length of extension cord, so I called B&D support.

I was told the blower/vac bv4000 has a 16amp draw and than means the only extension cord I can use is 50' or less of 12 guage or greater. All my extension cords were 14 guage so I had to purchase a 12 guage 50' cord for this tool.

I couldn't get the thick extension cord into the strain relief thing they have, so I was left with a very weak connection between the blower and power. I lost power many times in my short job around 1/4 of my yard.

The blower did a good job blowing and a good job mulching. I'm not sure how well a plastic blade will hold up over time, but it may do OK. I ended up with four bags of leaves, I doubt this is a 10:1 ration, but it was a big space savings. I wasn't happy with the bag, it doesn't have a zipper and getting leaves out wasn't as easy or quick as I'd like.

Overall the unit worked ok, but I think the power requirement and the restriction of 50' or less won't work for me. I'm going to have to move up to the Toro 51598 Ultra Blower that is 12amp and can use a longer leash. The Toro 51598 has a metal blade and a zipper on the bag, two perks for me!

My wife purchased this blower so she could clean up behind me after I mowed and trimmed the yard. We only used this for about one hour of regular household chores when it started to burn at the plug in receptacle. I was using the recommended extension cord for 75 feet - 14/3 - and it just melted both the cord end and the housing. I disassembled the housing to see the extent of the damage, but as soon as one of the plug prongs fell off - it had been burned through - I tossed it where I have thrown all of my other Black & Decker tools for the past few years - in the garbage. Black & Decker may have had a good name 30 years ago and their industrial stuff may still be good, but their consumer products have seriuosly declined over the last years and I doubt that I will purchase another B & D item. I know that I probably won't be able to buy a similar tool made in the U.S. - this blower is a wonderful example of NAFTA - but I will keep trying!!

The blower works very well- very powerful, no complaints.

The vac works pretty well. There are 2 speeds, which can be used for picking up different types of materials. It mulches everything into a coarse dust.

The big problem with the unit is the clip near the rear handle that attaches the bag to the housing. When you turn on the vacuum, the air has to go somewhere- and eventually it will push the bag out where the clip connects, covering you with a fine mist of mulched leaves, blowing up at you at 50mph. The clip simply won't hold the bag in place during normal use.

After having this happen to me several times, I contacted my local B&D service center. The rep told me that in his opinion there is an engineering design issue with the clip- he could give me a new unit, but I would just have the same problem. The rep replaced my BV4000 with a BV2500, which is a downgraded model, albeit with a better clip/bag design. He said I shouldn't need to take a shower after each use anymore (no joke).

The motor died suddenly during use. I was cleaning up a pile of very dry leaves and the motor just quit after about 3 minutes. I thought the power to the house had gone out. I then waited to see if the motor had somehow overheated and would recover but, nope, didn't happen. It has only been used about 8 times since I purchased it last year. I was happy with the performance when it worked but I expected to be able to use it for more than a year. If you do purchase this item I would definitely advise you to buy the adapter so you can mulch leaves directly into a trash can. The bag that comes with the vac/blower fills quickly.

My husband and I got this 2 months ago and it worked very well in the beginning - blowing grass clippings and some leaves. Now that it's fall and the leaves are falling, I tried to use it to clean up and after about 5 minutes on it started to make a weird sound and started to smell like something was burning. When I turned it off and checked inside it was clear - no debris caught in the motor - but when I tried to turn it on the same smell and sound happened and it's nowhere near as powerful at it was. This one is not worth it - I am not pleased with it at all.