For the strongest hand held blower, Maruyama BL300 30cc 459cfm and 180mph. That is about as strong as it get. You can get it from Wisesales for about $209.

I have the Shindaiwa EB3410 34cc. The spec is not as strong as the Maruyama and it is a C4 hybrid 4 cycle. I don't think I am comfortable to recomend it yet.

The two that you named are the lower end ones, both have single ring piston. My guess Echo would be better. I would get the Maruyama for sure. Don't base everything on dealer, it is not that crack up to be. They charge you an arm and a leg for service. If you bring equipment in thinking that it should be warrante service, they have a way to tell you that you use old gas and it is not covered!!!! Then it become he said she said!!! I had bad experience. They are not like big company that really honor their warrante.

I have owned the PB251 since September 2007 and it has been a great unit. I use premium gas and the Echo 2 stroke oil. It has worked flawlessly for my grass clippings and my leaf clean up in the fall and spring. I recommend the unit based on my expierence.

I have a 0.6 acre of yard with lots of wood and leaves in the fall is amazing... did not know about this until I moved there a year ago. I have a tiny homelit blower handheld... it is terrible... cannot move anything from the grass if it rains I can forget about doing anything.. anyway I would let it dry out 1-3 days before doing anything... I am thinking of getting the Stihl BR 380/ 420 or 550... which is better or should I get a handheld one.. which might be tiring. I use to drive the mower around the leaves and that takes like 3 hours or more easily. I need something to move leaves.. they are a lot but I do not need a rocket and $$ with this economy... I can do it a few times. Advise.

I bought a Maruyama BL8100 a few months ago for $389 in a dealer. THis is the exact same as Kawasaki KRB750 64.5cc 720cfm and 200mph at the tube. 5 years commercial warrante. I saw this blower on sale at Wisesales for $379 free shipping before.

For $299, you can get Husqvarna 150Bt which is Redmax EBZ5100. About 500cfm and 180mph at the tube. This might not be much stronger than the two hand held I mentioned on my first post. My Shindaiwa EB3410 did not exactly got blown out of the water by my new Maruyama.

For wet leaves, you really need a big blower, don't make mistake buying a smaller one just because it is cheaper. If you are looking for power, just simply look at the size of the engine. I don't think different brands make that much difference. A 25cc blower from different brands are not going to be that big a difference in power. For the same cc, a hand held is going to be a little stronger just because the tube is shorter. So a 30+cc hand held is going to be close to a 40+cc bp. To get much more power than a hand held, you need to jump to 50+cc before you can really tell the difference. Get strictly 2 cycle blower to avoid all the reliability and maintenance issues.

Bite the bullet, get a big one. Use StaBil in gas to make the gas last longer, still don't let it sit for too long. A good blower should last you a long time, money well spent.