Makita BHX2501 24.5 cc 4-Stroke Petrol Handheld Leaf Blower

The only way I can review this is by comparing it to the 2 stroke Ryobi RBV26B, which is about £60 less. The Ryobi was fantastic to use but died after a year, replaced FOC by Amazon, only for the replacement to die after another year.The Makita is a 4 stroke and hopefully much more reliable and efficient, but first impressions are that it is nothing like as pleasant to use. It feels heavy and a bit awkward, and the pick up is very slow compared to the high revving Ryobi. It is also quite unbalanced because the nozzle is to the left, so as the engine accelerates and the airflow increases the blower twists anti-clockwise and the nozzle drives downwards. You have to grab on to the nozzle to control it. Because the pickup is slow it is not as agile for pointing into small spaces and giving them a quick blast.Conclusion - if the Ryobi was reliable I’d choose it every day of the week. It’s a shame because my 10 year old Ryobi chainsaw is still going strong. At the end of the day reliability trumps everything else and I have high hopes for the Makita, but time will tell. I will update this review every so often as I find out more.Update after 2 years. Changed 4* to 5*. Very reliable easy starter, gives an excellent volume of air with minimum noise and fuss. Recommended.

The media could not be loaded. Great unit, starts up easily and runs very quiet compared to a 2 stroke machine. Loads of blowing power and it makes collecting leaves (even wet ones) so much easier.It's ideal for cleaning off a patio of wind blown debris and I even use it to blow leaves out of the gutter.I am a little disappointed that this doesn't come with the accessories to make it into a vacuum and that you are expected to pay £80 in order to obtain what is essentially a pipe and a bag.As it turns out I use this only as a blower because I have now bought a Stihl 2 stroke one for vacuuming as it just makes it so much easier to have two separate machines, one for each task.**Update after 5 years of use**The blower still starts and runs perfectly just like it did on day one.I decided the machine needed some love after 5 years so I purchased a service kit which consisted of a new spark plug, two new air filters (there is a main and a pre filter) a new fuel filter a new fuel line and a new primer bulb.I ran the machine for 5 mins to heat the oil up, let it drain upside down for a little while and then started the parts replacement.It took about 20 minutes to strip it all down and change all the parts and also gave it a really good clean. The fuel lines are perishable so it's worth changing them before they degrade and fall apart, the service kit was less than £20.Filled up with new Briggs & Stratton 4 stroke oil, surprisingly it only takes 80ml.Engine runs really sweet as you would expect from a Makita. I'm very pleased with this machine, it's run perfectly for five years now with only minimal maintenance.I've uploaded a short video to show how easy it is to start and how well it runs after 5 years of ownership.

I purchased this from Amazon Warehouse as a "Like New" product. It arrived as described brand new but in a damaged box. I purchased a petrol blower as I was becoming tired and frustrated with having to run and move extension leads around the garden to power an electric blower. This gives me the freedom to do what I need to do without the restrictions.I purchased the Makita as it is a good brand and had favourable reviews. It was straightforward to setup, adding both the fuel and oil as directed. Once I had worked out what you needed to do it started fine. Once running it has a trigger than enables you to select the "blow" that you need. It really is quite powerful !The only "problem" I had was that part way through I stopped using the blower, and when I went to restart it wouldn't. I checked everything before I realised that it had run out of fuel. Whilst you may be thinking that should of been one of the first things to check I honestly did not expect that to be the case. I do own a petrol lawn mower, and I can fill that up and not have to worry about refuelling for a week or so. I know they are different machines, but I was surprised how much fuel I had used. One for me to watch.The other thing to note was that the instructions state that you should use SAE 10W30 oil. I did not have any of that in my garage, but what I did have was SAE5W30 synthetic oil which is always surplus when I have the car serviced. I used that in stead as my research showed that it was a better quality oil. All ran fine !Overall very pleased so far

This is the second one of these I have had. I use it mostly for leaf blowing but also use it with the vacuum attachment. It is very powerful and does the job well in both modes. My first machine lasted for 3 years but it had very hard use (hundreds of hours). Changing from blower to vac is a bit off a faff but once you have done it once or twice it only takes a few minutes to do. As for starting problems mentioned in other reviews, here is my experience. When starting from cold it usually starts on the second pull of the cord and idles well. When starting when the engine is hot I have found that if the throttle trigger is slightly squeezed when pulling the cord it will start pretty easily, if not squeezed it can be difficult! The build quality is good but after an hour or so of use it does begin to feel quite heavy - but hey you are carrying an engine and fuel in one hand. Using it as a blower it is quiet but when using it as a vac I need to use ear defenders due to the different carrying heights. Fuel efficiency is good and re-fuelling is easy with a large fuel cap. All in all a good bit of kit but why oh why is the vac bag white because after a few hours it quickly turns dirty grey.