Pointman’s Page

I’ve spent literally a week obsessing over leaf blowers, something about 3 acres of mainly oak trees. But the yearning became particularly strong on Wednesday when I arrived home and couldn’t see the driveway for the leaves. The driveway I’d just raked clean the previous night of at least the same volume of leaves again obscuring the ground.

I was looking at the handhelds like the 28cc Husqvarna… then I realized backpacks would be much handier and “only a few dollars more” so I started looking at the various 30cc and 50cc backpacks. Surely those will be big enough for my needs - I kept telling myself that but once I started looking past the big box retailers to EBAY, I realized I could get a larger used commercial unit for “only a few dollars more”.

Watching EBAY then checking online discounters I began to question the insane prices people are willing to pay for a 2-3 year old used backpack blower. Did they not realize they could get a brand new unit with factory warranty for “only a few dollars more”???

Are you seeing the pattern here?

I also noticed on Ebay that certain brands and models would command much higher premiums. And that some models were scarcely represented in the used market. This can be a good quality indicator if like numbers are produced and sold. Especially if there aren’t many listings for “parts or repair” for the model.

Google turned up a few lawn care business forums such as Lawn Site and Lawn Service Forum where I found dozens of “Brand A versus Brand B” threads which were very informative. As with anything each brand has their adherents and those who would switch from brand A to brand B for a specified reason. Then there were as many who’d gone exactly the opposite direction for almost exactly the same reason.

But one common thread among the lawn professionals who couldn’t agree on the best brand surfaced. Of the top brands “buy the brand with the best dealer support in your area”.

I didn’t realize there was so much to buying a blower (and if there wasn’t *I* would find a way to make it such)! I had been looking at Husqvarna primarily and glanced at Stihl. Echo and Kawasaki I was also familiar with. But the top players I’d never heard of, RedMax and Shindaiwa. These along with Stihl are the top 3 blowers on the market with lawn care professionals. Who’s in which of 3 places is very much in dispute but non scientific polling shows Stihl and RedMax in a dead heat with Shindaiwa following.

Over a couple of days I went round and round trying to find local dealers and find the price/cfm balance. I used the dealer lists from manufacturers websites trying to find a deal on a Shindaiwa EB802 or RedMax 8100.

Then I tried finding a dealer with Inventory….

What I learned is around here it’s pretty much Stihl, Husqvarna, Echo or Stihl. The others are virtually nonexistent. A Shindaiwa dealer, who also sold Stihl, had dropped them due to problems with distribution after Echo bought out Shindaiwa. A RedMax dealer, who also sold Stihl, had dropped RedMax because they didn’t sell as well. I did find out that RedMax makes the Husqvarna 170 (RedMax 7100) and 180 (RedMax 8100) but they lost me simply over price.

All along the way I got prices on the other brands they carried (Shock! Stihl!). One shop offered such a good price on the Stihl BR600 it stuck in my head, $450 when MSRP is $499 and other Stihl dealers weren’t coming off prices in the middle of fall cleanup. This dealer I happened to get the owner, who happened to know I was calling in search of a Shindaiwa. So he took a chance and gave me that price.

An hour later he filled it with fresh fuel, walks me through the start-up procedure and sent me on my way.

I could barely wait to get home to fire this thing up. This is my first blower so I’ve my fingers crossed I’m not disappointed in the performance. Despite the rain I go out and fire this thing up… once I caught it I slung it onto my back to go find some leaves… oh look… leaves…

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean…..

HOLY FREAKING COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So right now I’m very pleased with myself. To celebrate I’m watching some idiots on Ebay bid up a “barely used, mint” Stihl BR600.

Current bid is $421 plus $33 shipping…..

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.