Hitachi RB24EAP Gas Powered Leaf Blower, Handheld, Lightweight, 23.9cc 2 Cycle Engine, Class Leading 441 CFM, 170 MPH, Commercial Grade, 7 Year Warranty

I have owned a BUNCH of leaf blowers in my life (I have a 2 acre lot with over 75 large trees) and this is the best yet! I have owned Homelite, Sears, Weedeater, & Husquvarna. Some were under powered, some vibrated way too much, some were heavy and some were hard to start. This blower has solved all those problems at a very competitive price. I just received it for Christmas and have only used it 3 times so far so I am not able to comment on the reliability. Nevertheless, the Hitachi RB24EAP is relatively light weight, starts easily, blows like a cyclone, and has very little vibration, making it the most effective and least tiring of all the leaf blowers I have owned. I am very pleased with it and I hope it will last for many years! UPDATE - After 6 months owning this blower, I felt like I ought to update my review. The blower is still the best leaf blower I have ever owned. I use it every week and have many operating hours on it already. It still starts immediately and I have never experienced any of the problems others have reported. However, I note that, if you don't follow the owners manual starting instructions, it would be easy to knock the gas line of the starter bulb assembly. Even my wife likes this blower because it is very powerful with low vibration and easy for her to start!!! BEST LEAF BLOWER I HAVE EVER OWNED AND I DON'T WORK FOR OR HAVE ANY INTEREST IN ANY ENTITY THAT HAS A FINANCIAL INTEREST IN THIS BLOWER OR IT'S OWNERS OR CREATORS.

Hello again AMAZON fans everywhere!! August 27, 2016 After 3+ years of use I wanted to give an update of this machine. In my original review (below) I gave it 3 stars which was more a reflection of how the unit arrived and the lack of any documentation (mine is a refurbished unit). Rating it now on just its performance over the last three years though and it gets a easy 5 stars. My only real gripe about it is the design having the air intake where it is; if you're a lefty it wont matter because the air will be sucked in away from your body. If you are right handed though you will probably have to either keep switching to your left hand or pulling it away from you as it sucks your right pant leg towards it. After 3 years it still starts by the second pull without fail every time; often even on the first pull. Yes, it is a bit loud; I havent found a leaf blower yet in this category that wasnt. I just had to make my first repair. One of the fuel lines; the one returning gas from the bulb to the tank, broke and using the bulb caused gas to spray everywhere. No worries though; I found a universal fuel line repair kit at a big box DIY store for less than $5.50 that included a piece that fit so it was a easy fix and it includes a bunch of others so if another goes I will have what I need there too.. The blower I have is used quite often and isnt treated with kid gloves. Aside from the clear vinyl cover that came off the 'OFF' switch the first day I got it this thing has held up remarkably well and is still very powerful, no complaints there at all, it really makes my fall clean up easier. Having dependable tools to work with makes all he difference when you're trying to get your chores done. If you are a simple DIY guy like me or a landscaping pro I dont think you can go wrong here; it is a very very good machine. ***************************************************************** Original review from July 2013 Nice but not perfect. After years of coaxing one more season out of my old Homelite leaf blower, this year it done did die. Heck; I got it after pulling it out of a dumpster, so it didn't owe me anything. For the last couple of years, when I thought that 'Homey' was pushing its last leaf, I eyed getting one of these Hatachi's. So when Homey finally went on to meet that great carburetor in the sky I knew what I wanted and where to go. Originally I had not noticed that there were refurbished ones available and was happy to see that option now so I could save a few bucks. I have over the years bought numerous refurbed items from various vendors and overall I have had pretty good luck as well. This vendor had decent feedback so I felt comfortable taking a chance here too. Shipping was very very fast. The blower arrived in a very sturdy box with minimal packing materials and no literature, ie no user manual or warranty info; I got just a blower motor and the solid hose attachments. There was evidence of some fuel already in the system, looking at the primer bubble, probably a result of them test starting it, and so I tried starting it without adding more & it started immediately. It quickly ran itself out so I then added fresh fuel, it again started quickly with minimal effort and that has not changed. There were two pauses for concern after I filled it with the fuel and used it for the first time: the first was after it had ran a few minutes; the unit started smoking quiet a bit, this turned out to be due to oil that was on the outside of the motor burning off. No harm no foul; it may have been oil placed there to keep it from rusting while in storage, but the amount of smoke had me concerned about a possible malfunction and so I quickly shut it off. Which was when I encountered the second issue. The off switch is one of those that has a vinyl cover over it to keep out moisture, dirt, etc - that cover fell off when I shut off the blower because of the smoke. Overall it is a nice machine and I am happy with it; it starts with minimal effort, runs very smoothly, and is reasonably powerful; not as powerful as old Homey, which was a little larger and had a larger impellor as well, but it still gets the job done. So, why only three stars? It should have come with some paperwork; a simple print out of the original instruction manual, which I am sure must be online somewhere, a warranty card with the contact info if there is a problem, something with do's and dont's such as make sure you don't use straight gas but a oil/gas mix. I have more than once come across some pretty smart people who burned up tools such as this because they had no idea what a 2 cycle motor was. Personally I suspect that many pieces of equipment such as this are returned as defective, later to be resold as refurbed, simply because the original buyer had no clue how to use it. With that in mind, some dummy proof instructions could go a long; possibly helping vendors avoid having to take back perfectly good equipment, as well as helping newbie buyers from destroying their new toys The 2nd reason: The cover coming off the off switch. Its one of those things that are too minor to have to deal with the hassle and expense of sending it back, yet, on the other hand, leaves you questioning the quality control process. Would I recommend it? Yes. Despite the issues laid out above, having used it a dozen times or so now, I do not have any serious concerns about the product. I just think a couple of things could have been handled better......like maybe a warning that the unit is probably gonna scare the heck out of ya when it starts smoking a whole lot during the first 15 minutes or so of use....... Have a Magical Day!

I bought this to replace a n old electric blower I've had for 20 years. This thing is 100 times better than that thing. I have a small 1/2 acre yard with 2 large Pin Oak trees and surrounded by white pine. The Pine trees drop tons of needles every fall, and are a real nuisance. This blower works great, has plenty of power to blow even the needles which are much harder than leaves to move around. I also have a Stihl back pack blower, which is more powerful and easy to use, but cost 5 times as much, and is over kill for small jobs, like blowing off just the deck and driveway. I also bought some 3" schedule 20 (thin wall) PVC pipe, slit one end to fit over the blower pipe w/o the end nozzle, and it works terrific for cleaning out my gutters w/o climbing on the roof. For large area's of lawn, I'd highly recommend a back pack blower, but for stuff like blowing of decks, driveways, or around the house gardens This is a winner. About the only negative I can think of is the kill switch is a little hard to press because it has a plastic cover over it, and I more often than not I forget to reset it when re-starting it. My Stihl weed wacker has an automatic reset on the kill switch and no cover on it. I guess the cover is to keep water off the switch. This is not a deal breaker though, not even important really. As far as it breaking and warranty, really, not much goes wrong with these things that can't be fixed by anyone with a modicum of repair skills. Fuel lines, carburetor and so on are easy and cheap to replace on these things, if you ever have to. I run regular gas, 40-1 ratio in all my 2 cycle tools, and never have any problems.

I purchased my first Hitachi RB24EAP leaf blower from Amazon almost 4 years ago on September 21, 2012. I'm happy to say that my first Hitachi leaf blower is still working great and I've purchased three (3) more of these leaf blowers, one for our lake cottage, one for my sister and one as a father's day gift for my dad. Before purchasing this leaf blower all my leaf blowers were electric. This was my first gasoline powered leaf blower and I thought mixing gas and oil might be a hassle and more importantly I was concerned that the blower might be difficult to start, especially for my wife. As it turns out mixing gas and oil is a very simple procedure and should not prevent you from buying this leaf blower. Likewise this Hitachi leaf blower is very easy to start. The best testimonial I can give about how easy to start this leaf blower is, My wife regularly starts and uses this leaf blower without my assistance. My sister and my 78 year old father also love this leaf blower and both find this leaf blower easy to start. My wife won't mix the gas and oil, she still gets me to do that for her but as far as starting goes, when she wants to use the leaf blower she just picks it up and a couple pulls and it's good to go for her. Performance: Yes this leaf blower is easy to start but it is equally impressive when it comes to performance. My next door neighbour has a Echo gas leaf blower and my other neighbour across the street has a Sthil gas blower. Both neighbours agree my Hitachi leaf blower is more powerful than either the Echo or Sthil mainly due to the tapered concentrator nozzle at the end of the blower tube. As far as weight is concerned all three gas blowers are about the same weight and all are nicely balanced but as far as power goes the Hitachi has a more powerful air flow. Cons: While the Hitachi blower is easy to start, well balanced and powerful there is one feature that is missing on this blower that is included on some competitors and that is a 'Trigger Lock Button'. I don't know why Hitachi didn't include a trigger lock on this blower, it certainly is not an expensive item to include and is certainly a useful and convenient feature. If you have a large yard or you are a landscaping professional and will be using this leaf blower for hours a day you definitely miss the trigger lock, for the rest of us a trigger lock would be nice but shouldn't be a deal breaker. Summer-Winter: My wife and I have used this leaf blower year round, Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. In the spring, summer and fall we use the Hitachi leaf blower for grass clippings, leaves, cleaning the sidewalks, deck and driveway. The most surprising use we get from this leaf blower is cleaning snow from the sidewalks and driveway in the winter time. We never anticipated using this blower in the winter to clear snow but it's awesome at clearing light skiffs of snow and much easier and faster than sweeping or shovelling. Summary: In my opinion this Hitachi RB24EAP is the BEST handheld gasoline powered leaf blower available. It's compact, powerful and easy to start, even for my wife. The blower works great in the spring, summer and fall for leaf and grass blowing and general deck, sidewalk and driveway cleaning. This leaf blower works equally well in the winter time and works great for light snow removal. I've purchased four of these leaf blowers and the oldest one is almost four years old. They're all still working great and continue to be easy to start.

This Hitachi gas blower replaces a Toro electric which had worked flawlessly for years. Dragging a cord around though, was finally causing too much frustration and I decided that gas was the only way to go. We have lots of trees plus 8 huge maples on our property and are downwind from hundreds of others. By November, we're literally buried in leaves. This year I used the blower and my riding lawn mower (with mulcher) 4 times (about 3 to 4 hours on each occasion) to clean up our yard. We use the paper bags for sticks and plant trimmings only. All of the leaves are spread onto the lawn and mulched to a fine powder with the mower. Since I have this exact unit at our home in Florida, deciding which blower to choose from Amazon was easy. Purchasing it for $15 less than what I paid for it from Amazon.com a year ago (and in CAD $) was a no brainer. Free 2 day delivery in Canada topped it off and I knew that I had a great deal here!. The unit must have been on a super sale since I paid $124.51 on November 14, 2014. It's now $169.00. Ouch! This unit was shipped well packed and it's light as you're likely to get in a unit of this size and power. It assembles easily but you'll need to spray a bit of WD40 or similar lubricant on the black nozzles to get them to mate as they are really tight. Once together and fitted onto the motor, they're gonna stay put. Other than that, all you need is a gas/oil mix and you're ready to fire it up. With a full tank, I set the choke, pressed the gas primer about 8 or 9 times and pulled the cord. It started on the 3rd try and that was it. Easy! The unit runs smoothly and the noise level is about the same as my electric blower but at different frequencies. Take my advice..........wear earplugs and eye protection for your own protection. It just makes sense. Pros - Light and well balanced - Starts easily - Runs flawlessly, no stalling - Powerful, focused airflow with enough force to move small sticks and large piles of leaves - Appears reliable and well constructed despite the amount of plastic parts (think 'light weight") - Less costly (by far) than the next best unit, in my opinion (Stihl BG55) - Easy to handle Cons - On a right handed person, the air intake will pull on your clothing (no big deal) - Smaller gas tank means more refills (but keeps the weight down) This unit is a great package and I'm pleased with this purchase. My unit in Florida has worked perfectly so far and I expect that the new one (in Colchester, Ont) will be a repeat. Thanks Hitachi and Amazon!

Ran smooth out of the box. Enough power to get the job done. I don't think I would call it commercial grade given the plastic involved and less than commercial grade power but it starts very easy, runs very well and looks good. It's light, quiet and enough to get most jobs around the house done. Dealt with wet leaves moderately well and I am very happy for the price I got it for of $128.00. Shipped faster than promised which is great. Again one star off for power, plastic finish, and no strap to use with the strap hooks for over the should. Hey one star off is a great review. It's not perfect but it's close and inexpensive!

This tool twists when you give it gas not great

After its sixth use (roughly 15 total hours of runtime), it started leaking fuel. I took great care of this machine, storing it in my basement while my cheaper electric blower stayed in the garage. This leak is not due to misuse or poor storage; it's a clear failure of the product itself. Spending this much on a tool that can't even survive 15 hours of use is a massive letdown. Save your money and look for a more reliable brand.