Black & Decker 3 in 1 Electric Backpack Blower

Powerful but with with faults – Electric motor stopped working after 1 day. This seems to be a common fault. Switching from blower to vac and bag removal needs tool , 3 hands to operate and move at same time. The suction pipe wear plate is on the top not bottom , likely a design fault. Backpack and power is good when it all works.

Backpack Vac ]no drooping sack terrific in the yard out back – I needed an outdoor vacuum for the massive volume of gum leaves that constantly fall over the property. I've already had a petrol driven vacuums (Ryobi) and it always worked well for the most part but of course it still stank and needed a lot of maintenance plus a cheap electric one (Ozito) which couldn't cut it in a big garden. Both had pros and cons which meant another one covering all bases wouldn't be easy.

Criteria 1. I wanted a backpack. One of the worst aspects to vacuuming leaves and sticks is the huge drooping sack you lug around underneath (like the Ozito) or to the side of the unit (Ryobi). Lousy.

2. No pathetic catching sack. Ryobi and Ozito bags on the versions I had were absolutely useless. Both zippers went almost immediately as they clog full of dust, start chunking up and then snap.. gone. Because they are usually made of light-weight material, they also wear out at the join from bag to machine. Hole forms and you're back to getting another bag as a consumable item. Lousy

3. We have transitioned everything to electric so the next one had to use battery or cable.

4. Powerful. Actually mulches rather than just suck and place in bag.

5. Only a vacuum, not interested in blower

Results The backpack requirement meant we could ONLY get a Black & Decker. I couldn't find any other brand that I could purchase in Australia so that narrowed it down completely! The backpack is excellent. It stores a lot and takes the weight off your arms to a large degree. Easy to configure and NO zip. A novel arrangement using the folding of the pack at one end and clipping it together. Works well and the durability feels like it will last a long time.

It's a BIG unit. Even without the sack it's a monster to carry around. If you're not a tall person you feel like your arms are always in the up position. This also means it gets heavy after prolonged use and you can feel that across your arms regardless.

It dices stuff up beautifully. Really powders gum leaves and sticks. The Ryobi was terrible at this and whole leaves made it through to the sack. The power of this unit and the dicing blades are doing an awesome job. This is important as the sack holds more due to the effectiveness of this process. Tipping it out means it's like pouring dirt compared to more leaves that blow away. I hope this lasts... that'll be a test of the blade arrangement over time

Dragging a power cable around is still a rubbish thing to do but I couldn't find a battery powered vacuum for love nor money. They just don't seem to exist and even if they did, the weight of a long life battery would cripple your arms after a while so i'm not surprised. This unit doesn't have a clever means of fashioning the cable to the unit so the plug doesn't get pulled out so you loop it around or hold it under the handle.

I don't care about the blower side of this as I already have a backpack blower from EGO but I couldn't get a vacuum that wasn't a blower at the same time.

Summary It's a great unit for mulching, very hardy, powerful and gets big jobs done well. It's not without issues though.

1. The power ON button (little roll knob with power settings) is in a ridiculous position on the handle. It makes no sense at all to have it there behind your hand instead of at your fingers and when you have gloves on, it's hard to turn it on and off. Simply no obvious need to have done it this way.

2. There's a very odd method of attaching and detaching the backpack by using a long rod which you poke in a hole to release the pieces from each other. What the blazes is this about ? It's just stupid and an extra 10 cents wasn't spent on incorporating a latch to do this. Now you have this custom tool that needs to be kept with the unit. This same rod is used elsewhere on the machine. The Ryobi had a similar issue with terrible mechanisms.

3. Noisy as a stump grinder. Wear ear protection.

4. Big and weighty, not for the weak of arm or willpower. Takes up a lot of storage space too.

5. Incredibly cheap! For all that it gives and from a decent Brand, very surprising.

Update : end December 2021. Unit failed completely. Only had it 6 weeks or so. Between turning it off to finish one job and turning it on for the next gone. Just won't startup. So EPIC FAIL. I was really getting into the machine. As I got it from Amazon and didn't fill in the warranty card within 4 weeks (it lasted 6), i'm not covered. This is a reminder to fill out the warranty but at the same time, it's like a scam. I can prove I bought it and where. So what does the 4 weeks have to do with the price of fish ???? I will have to find another.