Looking to buy a blower and was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on 1) whether investing the extra cash for a vacuum/mulcher is worth it, and 2) brands/models (with or without vacuum)

Thanks in advance.

The vacuum is nice, but mine (Echo) does get stuck when I get mulch in there. You have to take off the tube and pull the mulch out. It makes picking up leaves and grass easy. Better than blowing into the street or raking.

Also, the compression ratio isn't high.

In my opinion vacuum's do not work well for yard work. I would say you do not need one. But that's just me.

I had a B&D Leaf Hog for a long time and used it mainly after mowing and edging. Never used it for anything heavy duty and it worked just fine.

I'm on my second Toro blower/mulcher over the course of 16 years. I have a 5' gravel perimeter in backyard that catches my bamboo leaves and neighbors' pecan, privet, cedar elm, and hackberrys. I use the blower to push leaves into corner and then mulch them. Sometimes stems/sticks will get caught in impeller but not that much. I have gone through about 7-8 bags during that time though. The zippers tend to fail. I wish there was a gas version, hate the extension cord.

I bought a cheap Ryobi blower/vacuum a few years ago. It was my first gas blower and it actually does a pretty good job, will mulch surprisingly large sticks.

I eventually got a Stihl backpack, so I now leave the Ryobi in vacuum mode.

Not a bad piece of equipment for $100.