Craftsman  Yard Vacuum System 4 in 1 190CC*

After using mine for 3 Fall seasons I have decided it is only marginally if any less work than blowing leaves into piles and then bagging or canning them for pickup. Here we must bag leaves in paper or place loose into trash cans for weekly yard waste pickup. The vac does condense to about 1/6 volume by virtue of mulching action is one of its few advantages. When the bag is full is quite heavy to wrestle with, so I empty the bag before full. That is a lot of bag emptying in my 1/2 acre of yard with 14 trees. I dump the bag along my back fence and then scoop about 2/3 of the mulched leaves into 6 cans per weekly pickup for 5-6 weeks. I leave the rest for mulch formation. Vacuum leaves soon or they stick down and you will be raking. Bag material clogs every season so I turn it inside out and shop vac it. Engine takes hard pull to start every bag emptying. Just started cold engine runs too fast so immediately throttle down after first start for 30 seconds to save engine.

After using mine for 3 Fall seasons I have decided it is only marginally if any less work than blowing leaves into piles and then bagging or canning them for pickup. Here we must bag leaves in paper or place loose into trash cans for weekly yard waste pickup. The vac does condense to about 1/6 volume by virtue of mulching action is one of its few advantages. When the bag is full is quite heavy to wrestle with, so I empty the bag before full. That is a lot of bag emptying in my 1/2 acre of yard with 14 trees. I dump the bag along my back fence and then scoop about 2/3 of the mulched leaves into 6 cans per weekly pickup for 5-6 weeks. I leave the rest for mulch formation. Vacuum leaves soon or they stick down and you will be raking. Bag material clogs every season so I turn it inside out and shop vac it. Engine takes hard pull to start every bag emptying. Just started cold engine runs too fast so immediately throttle down after first start for 30 seconds to save engine.

Bought this vacuum and used it once and took it back. Unless the material is completely dry it will not pick it up. It won't pick up pine cones.It will pick up very small twigs and branches if they are super small and completely dry. The side shoot will accept branches up to 1 1/2 inches as long as they are completely straight. Better off buying a chipper. It is also not as easy to start as the manual says. Not what I was expecting. I thought I would be able to use all year long. Maybe in the July and August if you're lucky. Not recommended! Don't buy it.

I purchased this vacuum 5 years ago and have been pleasantly surprised at how well it performs. During the fall I use it once or twice a week to pick up maple and oak leaves and some acorns. This keeps my lawn looking great without waiting for all the leaves to fall to begin raking. As long as your lawn is mowed and not a field of tangles the unit will pick up leaves very nicely. I'm not sure why some reviewers have had difficulty with picking stuff up, but you need the height adjusted correctly and the pickup switch set to the hose or nose. You want to adjust the height as LOW as possible to create the most suction. The higher you adjust the height the less suction you get (common sense). The biggest con for me is the bag. Specifically when it's full you unbuckle the two turnbuckles and have to shake the shredded leaves out. This is okay if you are dumping them in a compost area, but There is no good way to empty them into a recycling bag or trash can.

This could be a very nice product with 1 major problem. The BAG!! I use this unit for general yardwork. The machine works great but the bag started to disintergrate within 6 months. I tried patching the bag but it continued to degrade. The bag is ok for general use but when I ran some small branches (most under 3/4 inch) the small pieces shot right thru the left side of the bag. Patching the holes only worked for a while. The felt construction of this bag is wery weak and will deteriorate very quickly. The kicker is the $260.00 replacement cost of the bag!! I bought the unit for $599.00 so the bag alone is almost half the cost of the total unit. This is terrible, considering that the machine itself is well designed and works great. Sears has not been at all helpful in resolving my issue. I even went as far to contact Corporate HQ to no avail. I guess suits don't do much yardwork!! No compassion what so ever!!

Suction is great, the external vacuum hose is just too short. It would be nice if an extension was available. It is a pain to keep moving the Yard Vacuum every 10 seconds. Definitely like the system, easy to assemble, started right up, Cleaned up the yard in a few hours versus all day.

Works very well. Holds way too much gas!!

This works great. READ THE DIRECTIONS! Be sure you have the diverter set correctly (hose/front inlet), your lawn is not overly long (leaves get stuck), and you have the wheel height set properly (too low and it won't work on lawns). You can easily tell when the bag is full by see-sawing the machine - if it tips back because of bag weight, and leaves are not being sucked up, you're full. The easiest way to empty this is by putting a garbage bag into a round 32 gallon trash can (I like the Rubbermaid Brute) which has two 4" round holes cut on the bottom sides to allow air to escape as you pour leaves in. Simply place the vaccum bag on top of the trash can, open the flaps, and shake out the leaves. When the can gets full, push the leaves down with the vac bag, & repeat until full. Lift vac bag and tie. One 32 gallon bag = one vac bag! What used to take me 10-15 bags per week now only take me 3-4 bags, and a fraction of the time to complete. My neighbors have all asked about it!

Product is great. Used one in the past and wanted one. There was a problem with the one I got, one of the rear drive wheels was loose. Why was this not quality checked at the factory??

After reading some of the reviews i hesitated on this purchase, but now I'm happy as a bug in a rug! For the money this machine does more than I expected. If you want a machine to pick up wet leaves, than be prepared to spend ten times as much, and then It still would'nt pick them up!