Forum

About the Landscape Juice Network

Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.

LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry

LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.

For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.

PRO

Best handheld leaf lower?

Posted by Nick @ NM Garden Services Ltd on February 22, 2013 at 8:05pm
We currently use Stihl BG86's however their reliability has been a major issue recently.I have spent 100's on repair bills fixing faulty stop switches - the blowers run out of revs or simply will not start. This happens about once a year for each blower and I am fed up!I like the power if the stihl blowers, the low vibs, in fact pretty much everything except for the reliability.Are there any decent alternatives which match the power and low vibs? Money spent on the machines is secondary to anything else.Many thanksNick.
Views: 2192

You need to be a member of Landscape Juice Network to add comments!

Join Landscape Juice Network

Tags: nmgscouk, stihl, bg86, blower
★
★
★
★
★
Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • paul mcdermott February 22, 2013 at 8:24pm

    Have given up with the faulty stop switches (having replaced 3 in 2 years)now switch off by using choke.Our Echo back pack blowers have been very reliable to date,yet to try the hand held

  • PRO
    Nick @ NM Garden Services Ltd February 22, 2013 at 8:34pm
    I don't mind using the choke to switch them off...it's the fact they die as soon as you start on the revs!
  • Paul McNulty February 22, 2013 at 9:18pm

    Is it worth carrying a couple of spare switches and changing them as soon as they play up? I must have been lucky with mine as it's been fine, and must be three season's old now. They are so cheap for what they are IMO, it's one of the Stihl products I've not been thinking of changing from next time!

  • Andrew Knight February 23, 2013 at 7:33am

    I think there the best bet after all the others I have used IMHO, glad I'm not the only one suffering switch problems!

  • PRO
    Gary RK February 23, 2013 at 9:41am
    I've often queried the quality on recent Stihl equipment, it's not a specific issues just too many small issues like above. Our Stihl repair shop quotes it been so busy busy over the last year.

    I saw one comment the Stihl now make gear in several worldwide locations - so could this be the cause?
  • David Cox February 25, 2013 at 8:30pm

    I use Makita BHX2501 4 stroke hand held blower - its slightly heavier than the BG86 i think, but its vib's are lower, its more fuel efficient, much quieter... and uses straight petrol so saves money on 2 stroke mix aswell.

    Worth a punt, about same price. Mines done two full seasons now and only needed a general service.

  • PRO
    Nick @ NM Garden Services Ltd February 25, 2013 at 8:33pm


    does it have a separate oil tank like a 4 stroke mower? David Cox said:

    I use Makita BHX2501 4 stroke hand held blower - its slightly heavier than the BG86 i think, but its vib's are lower, its more fuel efficient, much quieter... and uses straight petrol so saves money on 2 stroke mix aswell.

    Worth a punt, about same price. Mines done two full seasons now and only needed a general service.

  • Thermo February 25, 2013 at 9:36pm

    fed up with stihl stuff. constantly having to pay out for things to be replaced etc. I bought a second hand echo leaf blower about 6 months ago and its been fantastic (whats the betting it dies tomorrow now!!)

  • gardener February 26, 2013 at 6:54am

    We have a few BG86s one had a faulty stopper the others are ok. I opened it up to find the wire from the stopper to be cut in half (its too short) I extended the wire and its been fine since. We have 1 echo hand held blower which never gets used every one prefers to use the stihl blowers as they have more power.

  • Tim Haywood February 26, 2013 at 7:19am


    michael scanlon said:

    I opened it up to find the wire from the stopper to be cut in half (its too short) I extended the wire and its been fine since.

    I agree. The wire from the switch tends to get cut as the anti-vibration springs mean the handle moves to/away from the main housing. I used some new wire and a couple of connectors and it has worked since.

This reply was deleted.

Hot Discussions

Leading contributors

Featured Discussions

Trade green waste centres

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-WQ68WVXQ8K"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-WQ68WVXQ8K'); </script>

LJN Sponsor

Advertising

Blogs

More on LJN

Featured business articles

About LJN