Side by Side Comparison of: Weed Eater vs Poulan vs Champion

I liked this "green machine" well enough to order another one for our farm up the road, along with the one I use here at my residence. It is so good to have a unit that meets and exceeds expectations, particularly regarding initial starting. Follow the instructions and it'll fire off. Also, and perhaps most important, my wife can start it easily. She can do herself, and doesn't have to call me to get it started. It's lightweight, and really moves some air. Fuel quantity is adequate for along work-time, before having to refuel. An excellent blower!!

Easy to use and about as light as they come. This blower has a nice vibration free handle and won't suck in your pant leg during operation. Feather light at only 8 pounds compared to the average 11 pound gas hand held blower. Plenty of power for around the house use. Love this little beauty.

I purchased this model nearly 5 years ago on Amazon.com on a Gold Box Deal for $60 thinking for that price I would just use it until I could buy a better unit. As it turned out, I liked the blower so much I never did upgrade. This blower is quite powerful for general home purposes, is lightweight and easy to use and has never given me a lick of trouble until today. I was blowing my deck and the unit was running fine until the motor started slowing down and then stopped. I yanked on the pull cord a couple of times in an attempt to restart it but apparently the motor is completely seized up and it won't budge. Anyhow, in spite of all the negative reviews, I am taking my chances on another one just like it. For the price, even if the new one lasts only 2 years it will be worth it.

Bought my second one last week.... simple start, choke till fires, move to second pos pull twice and move to full throttle works ever time. to go step further, i grabbed wrong gas can. Put straight gas in it. ran like chap till locked up. let it cool down put wrench on fly wheel and broke loose. then put right 2 cyl gas in and used two more years. I pulled rip cord out and did not feel like taking apart to fix. Gave to my son, he fixed it and using .....I got my new on and best of all... light enough my wife keeps in the garage with her Cadillac to keep all clean 5 star Great for all ages...even old guy like me!! Dale

Works good. I used a little more 2 cycle oil than recommend. I've used it, in total, about 3-5 hours...no problems. Starts up easy.

I'm very happy with this little blower. I got it refurbished (cheap!) but it runs just fine. I was worried it wouldn't be strong enough for what I had in mind. I haven't swept or anything this year and things were caked down pretty bad!It was able to blow away the caked on leaves, pine needles, and dirt clumps from my driveway. There were earthworms in the dirt/leaves, that's how bad it was, but it was able to get rid of it. It took a long time (two tanks of gas, for a long drive way) but it got it done.The deck was much, much easier. I also used it to clean my gutters, which were caked down with leaves (haven't cleaned them in 4 months). It took finesse but it was able to clean those, too. The trick was to start by pointing it at the bottom of the leaves then lifting the tip. Using this, it would clear out about 2 ft of leaves (that came out as a solid bar of leaves, they were so stuck together).Refurbished, I got it for about $50. It would have cost double that just to have folks come out and do it for me so even if it exploded tomorrow I'd be happy (it did A LOT of work for me; I've used a broom/hands before and it's a two day affair).I was going to get an electric one (they're cheaper) but I'd need many extension cords to go where I need to and the battery powered ones either aren't strong enough or only last 15 minutes. This was the cheapest gas one and I was really worried that it wouldn't be strong enough or break the first time I used it. I'm very happy with this blower.

Amazing power for a small guy; perfect for basic cleanup after weekly mowing. My echo lasted me 10 years, but was expensive and sometimes too powerful for basic tasks. This is a great compromise.

Had this blower for 3 years. Is very light and powerful. Loved it while it worked. Going into the 4th year it was very difficult to start (even with new plug). Then the pull cord broke. For the money I just tossed it. Think of this as a three year piece of equipment - $30 a year.

This Weed Eater blower was not the first one I have purchased, more like my third. It is not the most well built blower but for my purposes it is adequate. It is powerful and most importantly to me, light weight. Being only 7 or 8 pounds is is just the right size for me to do my yard and gardens come leaf season. The carburetor is not adjustable so when it decides to quit on you there isn't much you can do about it. I am happy to get at least two years out of each one and will again purchase another when this one gives up the ghost. The light weight keeps me coming back to it and not replacing it with a better built blower.............

Living in Florida on a small lot that has a lot of hardscape and oak trees... I use this blower a lot. 12 months a year. I bought it in 2011 and I've used it heavily. Recently, the cord has lost some of its recoil, and I usually need to resort to the "hairspray trick" (a blast of hairspray into the carb right before pulling)... But, hey, three years of fairly heavy use, and it still runs. At under $80.Sure, it could be better, lighter, stronger... But it's practically disposable...

Ok, I think it's important to consider what you have to use it for before purchasing. I have a 50' by 100' lot in a shore town that has no trees. I strictly use this to blow the dirt and grass off of my sidewalk after I've finished edging, weed whacking, and mowing my yard. It worked great for that. I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old and when I take the time to landscape, I want to be fast and efficient, while maintaining a beautiful lawn. This shaves 15 minutes off of the time if you're interested in sweeping until it's spotless. Crank up this blower and you've done 15-20 mins of sweeping in 5 minutes flat. Well worth this price, I would imagine that if you have major leaf problems or you are a professional landscaper this is not the product for you. But if you have a lawn similar to mine, this is perfect. So much so that I was actually here to purchase another one, I lost all the contents of my shed in Hurricane Sandy, and I replaced everything but this item last Summer. I regretted it all Summer and I am correcting that in the Spring!

Too many times I read reviews of products that are expected to perform above and beyond what they're advertised to do. I really hate when that happens. This product is perfect for me around my house for what I need it to do. It blows well, period. On the starting issues others have mentioned, that is my only complaint as well. Pump the bulb only six times. People that break the throttle lever are ham-fisted. Be careful. The fuel filter/weight needs to be pulled out of the tank and re-inserted so that it sits on the bottom, not near the fill cap.In actual use the blower is comfortable and powerful. I never have to get above two or three notches on the throttle to get enough wind action to get the job done. Can't imagine needing any more than that.This device is NOT heavy-duty. It's lightweight and is a bit fragile but if you take care of it it'll last a long time. Store it inside and out of the sun to preserve the plastic, Well worth the cost.

Its OK, mine has a loud click to it now and then which may tell me its not going to last long.

just barely powerful enough. the kind that have the trigger to control the speed are better this one has a lever you have to slide with your other hand.

I would have rated it higher, but its difficult to start and not as powerful as I would like. It is lightweight and easy to carry around. Good price for the money.

I use this for my driveway and patios. This is my third one and they typically last only a couple of years. On the last one, the coil stopped working. after less than two years. It's a good size and weight for my use but if this one doesn't last longer, I'll go for a more expensive longer lasting model next time.

Bought one of these in 2010, great little blower that got the job done for a driveway and 1/4 acre yard. Everything ran great until the beginning of this summer when the pull starter mechanism came completely off the track. I paid to have it fixed and in another month it died again, this time my mechanic said the engine has no compression and isn't worth fixing. Buyer beware.

April 2013: After using this blower for 18 months, it started running hot, accompanied by being harder to start, and running with less power. Now it will not start. After spending hours inspecting exhaust, plug, fire, compression, and disassembling and cleaning carb, now suspect lean mixture due to carburetor diaphragm. Can buy carb kit for $10, or replace carb for $30. Going to try adjusting metering screws before buying kit, or new carb. Would not buy again. Will look at Stihl before buying next blower.Original review:Have been using Toro electric which is great blower, just got tired of lugging around 150' of cord. Toro blows stronger than this one; but, velocity is good enough to blow off driveway, and leaves in yard (but blowing leaves is much slower than Toro). Really like the user-friendly and colorful controls, as well as the easy pull start. It feels comfortable to hold too. Best thing though is when I absent-mindedly filled tank from wrong gas can, and ran it on straight gas, I was still able, after some effort, to get it going again. And, it seems just as good as before.

I've had the blower for two years for home use. Over time it's very much gone downhill as far as performance. The recoil for the starter cord will no longer retract the cord. That's a big issue in that you have to pull this starter cord several times to get it to start. Drips fuel from the carb so you need to be careful to not have it drip mixed gas onto your pants. This is the last season for this one. Next one I buy will be either Echo or Huskvarna brand. More money yes, but those perform and last for years.

Will not start. This will be the third one that I purchase over years and none will start.The only good thing is they are lite and easy to use.

Worked fine for 1 season before the pull-cord brooke. PITA to fix. Booooo

Can't seem to get it to run consistently. Have had to have it repaired several times. In fact, it's not running now?

This is not a quality blower, it's only advantage I see is its light weight. I use it seldom for two reasons, difficult to start, after following instructions, the starter pulley has locked up twice, requiring dis-assembly to repair, if you are lucky. I've had it four years now and used it very little and it is presently locked.

Here it is July of 2014 and it's dead. They seem to last only about 1.5 years. So I'm going out to look for another brand. I won't be buying another weed eater blower. It worked fine last week. Today, went to start and it won't start. I even gave it a shot of starter fluid, and it did no good. After 5 minutes, I gave up. I don't think it's getting a spark, and that's what happened to the last one that was a little over a year old. They seem to last until just out of the warranty period!

Blower dose not last very long before stops running. Bought one last year and would not start this year. Bought a new one this year and used it 16 times and now it will not run. Took it to a repair shop and was told to forget this product and get a good product. Flame arrester clogs quickly and will not run afterward. Too hard to start when its brand new. If you can get it to run, it works okay.

I had ordered this leaf blower to replace the identical model I had purchased through Amazon five years ago. It had a lot of power, and worked trouble free until it died recently.So, the price for the new blower being about what I had paid for my original, I ordered the same blower again.The new version has only about half the power of my original. It's hard to start and, though it does eventually clear the debris, it takes much longer.

I owned a 150 MPH Weedeater for years. Not too powerful but did the job and was lightweight. I wanted to get just a little bit more power without gaining too much weight. Since it was same company why wouldn't I think any different? This was 170 MPH and was still lightweight. The new 170 MPH is weaker than the old 150 MPH. So they changed their testing methods so they can falsely say it's more powerful.

Absolutely garbage! I used this one time and it won't start. This item is also NOT REFUNDABLE so be aware that if you buy it, your stuck with the piece of junk.

This blower was great for 2 months. Now it runs for 2 mins. than dies. I have googled all types of things that could cause this - and there is a lot of people out there with the same problem with this blower. I have tried everything recommended and still nothing works. This purchase was a complete waste of $.

I am very disappointed in the product. WIthin a week the weed eater power blower locked up and will not start. I used the oil and gas mix but did not prevent the lock up. I contacted Amazon who told me it is an issue for the manufacturer not Amazon. I am now fighting with Poulan to fix it. They told me to return it to the place of purchase since it falls within the guideline of manufacturer warranty. Amazon says no to my request.