ECHO Shred-N-Vac Plus Blows up to 135 mph! Review

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(More customer reviews)EDIT:
You'll notice near the bottom of my review I question whether or not this product gets a 12:1 reduction ratio. Well now there is no question. It doesn't! I picked up a cub cadet 2" chipper shredder, deciding to spend the extra money and get something more robust. It claims a 10:1 reduction ration. OMG! Leaves are so finely shredded with my cub cadet, it almost looks like dirt! ECHO, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. 12:1 reduction! Yeah right!!!!
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I have an Echo PB-403T back pack leaf blower and an Echo 12" chainsaw. They usually charge a premium for their products, but for that, you get a great product. I am saddened to say that my $50 electric Black and Decker is MUCH better than this $250 Echo!

I didn't care about the blower capabilities and immediately tried putting on the vacuum attachment. You have to open the housing that covers the blades and hold it open (the lid will spring close shut if you don't). Then, you have to grab the vacuum hose, place it over the blades and (get this) use a SCREWDRIVER to clamp tighten it on! At first I thought, meh, poor design decision, but I'll never be taking this baby off again so no problem, right? WRONG! I'll explain why in a bit.

The discharge tube twists on. Now why they didn't make the vacuum tube also twist on is beyond me. Hey, Echo! My $50 Black and Decker's vacuum hose twists on! Anyway, I then velcro attach the bag to the discharge tube. The strap for the bag is very thin and has NO padding on it. Whatever, let's see how this baby works!

While not with any amazing force, it does suck up leaves, pine cones and needles well enough. However, it *always* clogs. If it sucks a pine cone, just one pine cone, there's pretty much an 80% chance it will clog! Suck up a lot of leaves? Same thing. Hey...shouldn't this thing not clog on leaves? The chopper on this product is simply not up to the task of mulching. So, the big question: how do you clear the clog?

You have a few options and I tried them all. One, you can simply take the hose off and clear the clog. OH THAT'S RIGHT! IT'S ATTACHED WITH A CLAMP THAT YOU HAVE TO UNSCREW WITH A SCREWDRIVER, ISN'T IT? I have an acre of property and I have to walk back to get the screwdriver (which they provide) to do this. Ok, clog cleared. Let's go!

Literally, 20 seconds later, it clogs again. Hmmmm...there must be some anti-clog feature I'm not aware of because there's simply no way Echo expects me to take this thing off every 20 seconds. Alas, there is none. So I tried a second approach.

My second approach was to try and dig the clog out with a stick. Needless to say at this point I'm looking for my receipt to take this back to the Home Depot! Also needless to say, I wasn't happy with this method.

The third method was to shut it off, then pull start it again. Ok, this was actually working. Now mind you, I'm not exaggerating when I say this puppy was getting clogged up every 20 seconds. So every 20 seconds it was shut off the vac then pull start it again. So I'm trying to decide whether or not I can live with this when a pine cone gets lodged underneath the blades and my new found technique wasn't working this time. Sigh, get the screwdriver out, take the hose off, etc., etc., etc. When I cleared it this time, I didn't reattach the hose. Instead, I put it right back in the box, returned to the Home Depot and got my money back!

Other things I noted:

o It doesn't lie flat - What was Echo thinking? I mean, did *anybody* over there test this thing? If they did, the moment they tried to put gas in it would be the moment they said, "Ok, so this has got to change!"
o It doesn't come with an extension discharge hose - MY $50 BLACK AND DECKER HAS ONE!!!! With one, you don't need a bag at all. Just get your leaves near your compost bin, attach one end to the vac and the other inside your bin. $250 and Echo didn't include one!
o The vacuum tube is one long tube that doesn't split in half. On my Black and Decker, the vacuum tube is two separate pieces that twist together. Why is this an issue? Imagine a gigantic pile of leaves right next to your compost bin. How long are you going to stand there mulching that thing? I have flat feet and don't like standing hours and hours and hours. So with my B&D, I put a seat next to the pile, take half the vacuum tube off, sit down and mulch away. With a long tube, you have to actually hold the thing up high to get leaves near you that are on the ground. Again, this is one of those things that Echo would have noticed themselves if they actually bothered testing it!
o I believe the 12:1 reduction claims are dubious at best. My B&D claims a 10:1 reduction ratio and the results looked exactly the same. Some whole leaves got through the mulcher.

Do NOT buy this product. Unfortunately, until I find something decent, I'm stuck with my B&D.

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Product Description:
The Echo ES-210 with a 21.2 cc Power Boost VortexTM engine is ideal for residential lawn maintenance and can be used as a handheld shredder/vacuum or converted to a handheld blower (pipes included). A Fully adjustable throttle lock allows for ease of use.

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