Customer Reviews

TROY-BILT BLOWER/VAC

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Product has worked very well. Starts easy and has plenty of power for my needs. However, I've used the vaccum only two times and already the zipper on the bag has come apart. For the kind of work this is supposed to do, the bag is not very heavy duty. It should last a season at least!! It's also very small which needs to be emptied frequently. It does a great job sucking up leaves and mulching them. As a whole the product has been good. Blower is powerful and the speed control lever is well placed and easy to adjust. But the blower tube is difficult to unattach and at one point require the use of a screwdriver to unclipped it. A poor clip design. For the price it's okay. If I had to buy another, I'd look at other brands to compare the above concerns.

My Homelite Blower finally quit after 10 years of terrific service. For some reason I decided to try a different brand. Maybe I didn't think 10 years was long enough.

The troy-bilt blows good but no better than my old Homelite.
And to blow that good it uses a lot more gas.

It is extremely loud! It probably should be outlawed. I have a 10,000 Watt generator that isn't as loud.

Instead of a variable speed trigger that you can operate with your finger while you hold it, it has a lever that clicks to about 4 speeds that you have to operate with your non-holding hand.

Plus the exhaust exits out the back making it easy to burn yourself unless you hold it out and away. And that is awkward because it is big and heavy.

It does start easy, but so did my old homelite before it died.

It is unfriendly to the enviroment and user!

The motor takes a minute or two to get up to speed, but once it does it runs smooth and has good power at the highest setting. Don't expect it blow wet leaves or even wet grass though. The speed control lever is my biggest complaint. It's big, and I constantly hit it with my knuckles, knocking the speed control down to the lower settings. Even worse the vibration causes the lever to bounce to the lower settings on it's own. This causes me to hold the lever in place with one hand, and the blower in the other.

The vacuum is powerful. On the lowest setting I was able to vacuum the leaves and pine needles from the flowerbed, leaving the lava rocks behind. The higher settings were powerful enough to suck up 1-2 inch size rocks (not recommended). I did not have any problems with the bag. The spring on the vacuum door is rather tight and it was difficult getting the vacuum attachment on with only two hands.

This is the third blower I have owned; one an electric and the other a 2 cycle gasoline powered unit. Compared to these, this unit produces far less wind. It is not convenient or easy to aim.

About the only good thing I can say is that it does start easily.

As a vacuum, it does not suck up debris like my old Craftsman. It is very cumbersome to convert from blower to vac. The bag is far too small. Most frustrating is the vacuum tube which frequently falls off during operation. If ever there was a good application for duct tape, this would be it!

I will be calling Amazon and/or Troy-Bilt to see if I can send it in for a refund. This is truly a piece of junk!

This worked for the 2-3 hours I used it in 2006. Now (2007) it refuses to start at all, despite all storage/maintenance performed. I've changed the gas, replaced the plug, checked for spark, cleaned the air filter, cleaned the spark arrestor, tried starter fluid, etc. Nothing. So I paid roughly $50/hr to use this in 2006, and spent about 3 hours trying to get it to work this year.

I have had 2 of these in 2 years. Very noisy. First unit was replaced after a few weeks with faulty pull-start. Flimsy zipper on leaf bag broke soon after. Also had a faulty throttle lever which I lived with for about 18 months till the the cylinder head worked loose and destroyed the piston and rings. Repairs will cost more than a new unit, which is academic as I have no intention of buying anything "Toy-Bilt" again.

I have had this blower now for about a year and a half. It started leaking gas from the carb after a couple of months (maybe 8 hours of use). And good luck getting it serviced if you bought it online. They won't honor your warranty.

Now that I have used it for a season and a half (maybe 20 hours of use), it refuses to start without at least 10 minutes of trying. The throttle turns itself down constantly, and it is placed in a very poor position.

It is also the loudest blower I have ever heard. I will be throwing it away and buying something else before spring.

The two blowers I have owned in the past, both lasted well over 10 years, they were both Craftsman, but now all Craftman sells is a rebadged version of this piece of junk.

I bought this specifically because I wanted to have a better way to mulch my leaves than my mulching mower. 10:1 sounded great. After an hour of use, I have to say the ratio is close to 10:9. It is going back tomorrow. My mulching mower does much better!

This is the second one of these I've owned. The first one leaked gas out of the carb, not sure what the problem was. The second one worked fine. I dislike the "spring assist" pull mechanism. It has a weird feeling to it, and eliminates the quicker "snap-pull" that helps two strokes start up when it's really cold. I don't agree with the other complaints I've read. Control placement is fine and everything is quite accessible, even with one hand. The 10-1 mulcher works decently, and I don't think I would want the bag to be too much bigger. It would be nice to have more capacity, but weight would get to be a factor. It is loud, but I wear headphones that double as earplugs, so I'm not bothered by this. My only complaint is the zipper on the bag. Gave up before the end of the first season.

Even still, if it blew up today, I'd probably buy the same one tomorrow.

I'm on my third one of these in less than a year (and a total of about 16 hours of use.) The first one's handle broke (where the strap connects to the handle) while using it to vacuum for perhaps the third or fourth relatively gentle use. The second one's handle broke on the very first use. Also, the second one wasn't as easy to start, but that may have been because the fuel was a little long in the tooth.

As for blowing, it performs well, although it is very loud, as others have pointed out. When vacuuming, it doesn't take much to clog it, and the attachments can be somewhat tedious. The bag is indeed too small, which could be directly related to the handle issue-- perhaps they knew the cheapo plastic handle couldn't take much stress, so instead of making it stronger, they made the bag smaller. I'm a little surprised that more people haven't reported problems with the handle.

Anyway, I thank Lowe's for having an excellent return policy, as I may be picking up a new blower each time I need to vacuum leaves. I would have replaced this one with something else, but unfortunately they didn't have another product with a 40:1 fuel ratio (my trimmer runs on the same fuel, so I want to stick with it) that I was interested in. Perhaps they'll have something better next time. Sigh.