Just sharing some info, not suggesting you go the way I did. 'couple years ago, decided to buy a blower/vac as a means of removing CPB (potato beetles) from my potato plants. They'd developed an immunity to all (at that time) dusts and similar traditional remedies. Worked fine in the Vac mode, not only sucked the little --------- up, but the grinder made short work of them.

Since this was an experiment, didn't want to spend a lot on it. Discovered that Amazon sells reconditioned Ryobi units with a year warranty pretty cheap. Ordered the ZR08510, don't recall what I paid, but it wasn't much.

Having now found a better CPB remedy, the Ryobi just sits in the barn and I start it occasionally to blow out the barn and my brother borrows it every fall for a couple of weeks to blow leaves off his patio, under the carport, etc. It's been almost 3 years and it works fine.

Just some info.

Ev

Here is a link that might be useful: reconditioned ryobi

I've just gone through the same process. I've had an Echo blower/vac for several years; it works fairly well as a blower and 'OK' as a vac (it clogs fairly easily). The way I use it requires a lot of changing back and forth between blower and vac, and Echo's design for that is primitive and annoying.

Anyway, I've been searching, and IMHO the best I found was the Stihl SH-86CE.

I don't know for sure yet, because it won't be here until next week, but I think it will be a great tool. If you haven't already looked at Stihl, check it out.

Gary

Here is a link that might be useful: Blower/vac