Commercial Blower Review, Gone with the Wind, We Test the Most Powerful Leaf Blowers
By: Hal Jones
Whether you own a commercial lawn service or are a landowner looking to blow away the competition, any of these units will do the job. We looked at five of the most popular and powerful backpack blowers available, Stihl’s Magnum BR-600, Husqvarna’s 380 BFS, RedMax’s EBZ 7150, Echo’s PB-770T and Shindaiwa’s EB854. With the exception of the RedMax, these units are the respective companies’ top-of-the-line blower. RedMax’s 8050 series was back-ordered and unavailable for testing. For commercial use testing, units were supplied to a local town’s parks and recreation department; and for landowner testing, the units were used on a suburban estate of five acres, with two acres of lawn and outdoor living areas. Manufacturer’s technical specifications are included for comparison. Features common to all units are cruise control, remote throttle, either stick or tube mounted, commercial warranties, rigid backpack frames and positive-lock adjustable tube systems.
Stihl MagnumBR-600
Stihl’s BR-600 was the lightest of the units tested and for smaller framed testers, its light weight drew rave reviews. Even though the BR-600 appears diminutive, don’t let its size fool you. Stihl’s BR-600 performed as well as the larger units. Stihl obviously spent time designing its backpack to mimic features found on backpack frames used by mountaineers and backpackers. With the addition of a hip belt, the Stihl Magnum could distance itself further from the competition when it comes to the weight factor. The parks and recreation department that performed our commercial test were already using a variety of Stihl blowers with its most powerful unit being a recently purchased 550 model, but when the BR-600 Magnum showed up, everyone wanted to use it for its additional power. Whoever got the BR-600 finished faster and could rest in the shade waiting on the others to finish. The Stihl Magnum, according to the EPA’s website, has the lowest emissions in its class. www.stihl.com
