Victa V-Force VLV4028

The Victa battery blower/vac is useless as a vac – The battery gives about 20 minutes use. This does not seem to appear in any information about the unit. As a blower it functions well, except for the short battery period. As a vac it is hopeless. It will not pick up twigs. Leaves will block it up at three points, intake tube, impeller and exhaust tube, requiring complete did-assembly to clear. I have returned to s petrol unit.

Great alternative to my 2 stroke Dolmar – Blower/vac was purchased to complement the Victa cordless mower I already owned. I only use vac mode after edging and mowing. The Victa was to replace a perfectly good Dolmar 2 stroke blower. The Victa is a relatively light unit and tool balance is good. Appearance is slightly fragile compared to my trusty >10-year-old Dolmar. Operation is extremely simple. No problem picking up Buffalo lawn trimmings, leaves and light bark.

The bag is extremely porous. It lets a lot of dust through. I imagine this is so as not to stall the fan motor (minimal resistance). A simple fix is to "overlay" a cotton cover over the top third of the bag to protect the operator from dust. I have had no issue with the zip.

Run time is excellent. I am able to vac the perimeter of my lawn (40m) and my driveway (30m) with plenty of charge left.

UPDATE 1:

We've been using the Victa as a vac (twice a week) to pick up leaves and small twigs that land on our rock covered areas. It does the job well and very quietly. This was a main reason for purchase. We knew rock paths require frequent maintenance to keep looking good. Thankfully the vac performs this role.

CONS

- the vac bag is poorly constructed. Our bag has worn out in the corner near the end of the zipper. We've been very careful using the vac and the strap is adjusted so as not to drag the bag on the ground. I can only conclude that it has worn due to contact as we brush past our retaining walls.

The fabric is almost paperlike in texture. I'll be sewing a patch made out of an old leather riggers glove to reinforce this area;

- there is a wire (ground connection/antistatic loop?) in the vac inlet which is great at snagging leaves and choking the vac.

- the battery is somewhat stiff to remove from the charger. I don't have this issue with any of my other cordless tools: Makita, Senco, Festool. It's simply an annoyance.

MODS

- I will look at modifying a conventional vac bag to work with the Victa coupling as a long term fix. I did notice the Victa bag is secured internally with a cable tie. A concern is whether a cotton bag may present too much load for the Victa motor.

Smooth, light and quiet – My comments all relate to the blowing function. I have no intention to use this machine as a vacuum. I bought the V Force blower after a very successful time with the V Force mower. I bought the tool only as I already have a battery and charger for the mower and intend to swap the battery from tool to tool. The blower was well packed in its cardboard box which was just as well because I managed to drop it on the concrete path carrying it from the car. The box landed right on a corner and crushed slightly so it was with a little fear that I placed the box on a table and opened it up. I was delighted to find that the blower was well protected in its box and no damage resulted. Unpacking was straightforward and logical. I was grateful of the cardboard reinforcing and retaining in the box. Just for a change, I decided to read the short instruction booklet which has already paid dividends.

With the battery fitted, this blower is well balanced and light enough for pretty much anyone to use single handed. Whoever designed the ergonomics should be given an extra weeks holiday as a reward with the buttons and speed control falling neatly under the index finger for easy adjustment. The handle is comfortable to hold and the unit is almost vibration free.

Using the blower is easy. Simply dial the speed that you want, gently press the button and after a short delay the motor gently spins into life. It seems that the motor has a similar soft start feature to the mower. There is not the sudden clunk into life that most electric appliances give but rather there is a gentle awakening. the instructions say that most dry leaf blowing can be done at a low speed and high speeds should be reserved for heavy stuff like moving gravel, sticks and the like. This sounded like some sort of battery saving bulldust to me because surely blowers should blast like a tornado and sound like one as well. The thing is, I set the speed to the 4th position of 6 which sounded somewhat gutless but was surprised to find that my grass clippings and leaves happily blew in the direction that I wanted them to go. No problem at all.

I have 12mm gravel on my driveway and found, like the instructions said, that the fastest speed moved them back to where they needed to be. Amazing! There is a turbo button as well but I've no idea if I will ever need to use it.

So, I now mow my lawn with my V Force mower then blow leaves etc where they need to be. I also give the mower a bit of a low speed dust off with the blower as well. After this work, (about 45 minutes total running time), I find that the battery is about half depleted (2 lights illuminate), so I take the battery off and place it on charge which takes about 90 minutes or so.

My experience may not be the same as others and I will admit that I have not owned these appliance for very long but so far, they have exceeded my expectations in a very big way. They appear to be well made. They are certainly well designed and for me, they have delivered. I now hear petrol powered lawn tools around my suburb and they sound, to me, simply archaic. This new technology is here to stay and it will soon be the new 'norm' as people get to know them. Who'd buy a plug-in drill anymore?

Pleased with the purchase initially, not so pleased after a couple of months of use! – After comparing several of these in the shop, I ended up buying this without any research other than the info on the boxes. It's vacuum function is good on leaves but poor on sticks and bark. Charging takes about 2 hours, and the battery gets about 20 minutes per charge. I like the variable speed and the turbo button. Next time I use it I'll try blowing the leaves into one area and then vacuum them up, although swapping the nozzles would take a few minutes. These lithium battery powered machines are heavy but I think less noisy than the 2 stroke variety. Another minor annoyance is that the dust comes through the mulch bag. This is a design feature of course but still annoying!

Update after about 10 uses:

My yard is a slightly too large to allow a complete vacuum but blowing first works better. Last time I used it and tried to remove the battery the rest of the unit fell on my toe. As I was not wearing my work boots I did some damage to my big toe :(

Now the zipper on the mulch bag has broken, which makes the vacuum function unusable. I'm about to go to get a replacement bag, but all in all, it's not a perfect tool.

Update 2:

I was astounded to be told at Bunnings that the bags have only a 2 month warranty. However, after I pointed out that this was not information published anywhere on the warranty document or on the box, a manager agreed to replace it. Bunnings don't have them in stock so it will take at least a week. I'm now seriously considering returning it as it's not able to work as intended if the bag is not available or completely fails after 10 uses.

Update 3:

After a long time in the Bunnings/Victa system finally the replacement arrived. I will modify this new bag to use velcro rather than rely on the zipper again. Victa, TAKE NOTE! The machine itself works very well but the battery is tight to remove. I might try some dry lube on the slider. Three stars due to poor design of bag and battery slider.