I use an electric one by Flymo fro B&Q. It is good but has faults. It is a vacuum/shredder which is good as the shredded leaves rot down more quickly but, as the leaves are shredded in the suction fan blades, any twigs etc can get caught up and choke the system. This is readily cleared by opening the the machine up and clearing by hand. The Flymo is opened by unscrewing a long screw which is a nuisance; my previous vac just had a clip which you easily knocked off for access. My Flymo is electric which is good because it was cheap and starts first time (an issue I seem to have with all petrol machines these days!) the drawback is that you are limited as to how far you can go in a large garden and you have to watch where the cable is lying. Looking at costs, remember that you only use the leaf vac for a couple of months in the year, the rest of the time it is taking up storage space.

Thanks Bulba,
Is yours this one: Flymo Scirocco 3000 Blow & Vac 9669528-01Orange/Grey ?

Yes we also have a petrol blower and as well as being a pain to start is also heavy.

From a look at the web, Pdb, (i'm not going out to the shed at this time of night!!!) that is probably the model. Aye, another benefit that I forgot is the weight difference although overall the weight is determined by the weight of the leaves in the collecting bag.

OH runs the lawn mower over them it shreds them and then he finds it easier just to empty the collection box into bags. I have lots of bags behind the garage and as most of my leaves are beech it takes 3 yrs to make good leaf mould. I have good 'stock rotation' haha.

Many thanks for your replies. Yes we had all our on a spare bit of land at the back of our fence. Been rotting down nicely then noticed our neighbour had thrown them all away!!! Aaarrrggg

Yes, Scirocco 3000, Pdb. It is two or three years old now so I am surprised that they still produce the same model.

Lawnmowers are great if you have a lawn! Not much use on our paths and beds though ;-)

My hoover is ok when the leaves are dry but it clogs once we reach this end of the season so I use my rake and two boards and do it the manual way to save as many as I have space for, then collect the remainder by using the mower on high and add to the compost bins....

I was disappointed with my leaf hoover as it was designed for somebody taller than me and the bag caught on the floor! So back to raking and shredding on the lawn, which actually isn't much slower in the long run.