Spec me a garden vac

bazzabear · 15 Sep 2020 at 11:25

Our back lawn is fake grass (I know, I'm a monster). It has some leaves and general garden debris gather on it over time. I would say just enough that trying to rake it together to remove it is annoying, but still not a huge amount.
I've never had a garden vac, but looking at them it seems like the standard type are a bit overspecced in terms of the size of their storage.

Can anyone suggest a make/model which is decently powerful, reasonably light and compact? As I say, it doesn't need an outrageous amount of storage, but I'll be annoyed if I buy one and find myself having to go over the area again picking up bits it has missed.

At the moment I resort to using a barrel vacuum cleaner, which probably looks odd to the neighbours!

Basher · 15 Sep 2020 at 13:05

Wouldn't it also vacuum up the sand on top of the fake grass? Or is there no sand?

bazzabear · 15 Sep 2020 at 14:59

There's no sand on top. I know that a lot do have that, but ours doesn't and I have never found any issue this has caused.

tres · 15 Sep 2020 at 15:30

bazzabear said:
Our back lawn is fake grass (I know, I'm a monster). It has some leaves and general garden debris gather on it over time. I would say just enough that trying to rake it together to remove it is annoying, but still not a huge amount.
I've never had a garden vac, but looking at them it seems like the standard type are a bit overspecced in terms of the size of their storage.

Can anyone suggest a make/model which is decently powerful, reasonably light and compact? As I say, it doesn't need an outrageous amount of storage, but I'll be annoyed if I buy one and find myself having to go over the area again picking up bits it has missed.

At the moment I resort to using a barrel vacuum cleaner, which probably looks odd to the neighbours!

Are you anywhere near the north east? I've got one then moved to a house with no trees.

VaderDSL · 15 Sep 2020 at 15:35

I bought https://www.bosch-diy.com/gb/en/p/universalgardentidy-06008b1000-v47537

Picks up wet leaves from a fake lawn, we get a lot of leaves from Roses etc and it works fine. Large bag, rarely have to empty it (maybe every 2 weeks) Once you have the shoulder strap set right you can hover it over the surface, makes it easy.

bazzabear · 15 Sep 2020 at 16:27

tres said:
Are you anywhere near the north east? I've got one then moved to a house with no trees.

I did similar with a telescopic lopper.

Thanks for the kind offer, but I am not.

bazzabear · 15 Sep 2020 at 16:44

VaderDSL said:
I bought https://www.bosch-diy.com/gb/en/p/universalgardentidy-06008b1000-v47537

Picks up wet leaves from a fake lawn, we get a lot of leaves from Roses etc and it works fine. Large bag, rarely have to empty it (maybe every 2 weeks) Once you have the shoulder strap set right you can hover it over the surface, makes it easy.

Cheers. I was wondering whether there would be some kind of compact design on the market. But as you describe it, these big things work well even if there's not a lot to collect.

Aldi are going to have a cheap version of that type on sale from this weekend. Might pick that up as a test of concept.

tres · 15 Sep 2020 at 17:08

bazzabear said:
I did similar with a telescopic lopper.

Thanks for the kind offer, but I am not.

No worries.
Offer actually extends to anyone in the north east. It's a big one though. Blow your bloody eyebrows off if you're not careful.