Viking BE600 Electric Garden Blower Vacuum

Had one for over 10 years and it has served me well. Only just having to replace bag. Section is brilliant. Can recommend it.

This Viking BE600 might be OK as a blower, but their are 2 problems operating in vacuum mode.

( 1 ) The Bag ( which costs mega bucks to replace ) will not last a season, because the zip fails.

( 2 ) Leaves tend to come with bits of twig attached and sooner than later a twig will jam in the housing. So you have to stop, dismantle & clear.

Good luck !

My Viking BE600 is efficient and comfortable to use. Ladies might find Ryobi version easier but not so effective. Did not clogg up as with other makes. The shredder cuts down the volume of leaves passing into the collection bag.

A zip on a canvas bag containing shredded leaves is bound to become clogged, surely something more lasting could be designed. This is not only a Viking problem, many manufacturers use this method.

I bought a Garden Blower Vacuum in a hurry but went for a Viking as I have found their shredder to be excellent.

In retrospect it would have been better to evaluate other makes as while the Viking BE600 is good in some respects it hase some irritating bad points, the main one being that you need three arms to empty the leaf bag into a recepticle! It has excellent suction and mulching performance but in blowing mode the motor is too powerful in some situations and a two-speed switch would have been helpful. Because the various tubes/pipes fit so tightly it is difficult to swap from blow to vac mode quickly. Overall, a useful machine but I think I will look at other makes before next Autumn.