Best blower vacuum combo

A blower-vacuum is three tools in one housing, and the specification that separates them is not airflow — it is how much the impeller shreds, and whether you are tethered to an outlet while it does. One machine here finally answers the cordless half.

The short answer

What cordless vacuuming costs per minute

Vacuuming and shredding is a much heavier job than blowing, and the RYOBI is the first machine in our registry that lets us put a number on it.

That is the honest cordless trade. Twenty-five minutes is enough for beds, paths and a porch; it is not enough for a yard under mature oaks, and no amount of airflow changes the arithmetic.

The three, on published figures

1. RYOBI 40V HP — the cordless one, and it shreds harder

Six hundred CFM with a metal impeller and a published 20:1 mulch ratio — a quarter more shredding than the corded WORX — on two 40V 4.0Ah packs that also run Ryobi's mowers, trimmers and mini saws.

Cordless is the entire argument for this machine. Leaves collect in beds, along fence lines and under shrubs at the far end of the property, which is exactly where an extension cord is most annoying.

The published runtime is a floor rather than a figure: "over 25 minutes", with no per-mode breakdown. RYOBI also publishes no air speed, no bag capacity and no weight for it.

#ad Check the RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 600 CFM Blower/Vacuum (RY404150) price on Amazon — how we're funded.

2. WORX WG512 — lightest, and it never stops

Eight point six pounds, 600 CFM, a metal impeller, a 1.2 bushel bag and a 16:1 ratio, on a 12 A cord that does not run out. The knob converts blow to mulch to vacuum without swapping tubes.

At 16:1 with a 1.2 bushel bag, each bagful started life as about 24 cubic feet of loose leaves — roughly a 3 ft cube per emptying. That is the figure worth planning around, and WORX is the only maker here publishing a bag size to compute it from.

Two marks against it: the same page states 75 mph in the spec table and 70 in the marketing copy, and the cord is the cord.

#ad Check the WORX WG512 TRIVAC 12A Blower / Mulcher / Vacuum price on Amazon — how we're funded.

3. Toro 51621 — the hardest shredding

Up to 97% volume reduction is about 33:1, roughly twice the WORX and 65% more than the RYOBI. Four hundred and five CFM in vacuum mode and a 260 mph nozzle in blow mode, which is the highest air speed of any machine in this comparison.

If your aim is to fill as few bags as possible, this is the machine. If your aim is to carry it comfortably for an hour, 13 lb is the heaviest here.

Toro publishes no amperage, no bag capacity and no impeller material.

#ad Check the Toro 51621 UltraPlus Leaf Blower / Vac price on Amazon — how we're funded.

When a blower-vac is the wrong tool

• Open lawn. A mulching mower processes the same leaves in a fraction of the time — see best mowers for leaf mulching.
• Wet, matted leaves. None of these publishes a wet rating, and wet leaves clog tubes — see best blowers for wet leaves.
• Very large properties. Twenty-five minutes cordless, or a cord that reaches 35 ft, both stop well short of an acre of oak fall.

What we cannot tell you

We have not run these machines. RYOBI publishes no air speed, bag capacity, weight or warranty term; Toro publishes no amperage, bag capacity or impeller material; WORX contradicts itself on air speed. None of the three publishes the leaf type or moisture its shredding ratio was measured on, and dry oak, wet maple and pine needles are not the same job — so treat every ratio here as a manufacturer claim in ideal conditions.