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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 50 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 Worked okay for 2 seasons Oct 06, 2006
By Paul T. York
This thing worked pretty well for a while. It vac'd with moderate power and chopped leaves and twigs to a relatively fine mulch (I'd argue with the 16:1 claim, though). The blower was plenty powerful and I liked the fact that you could set the throttle and forget it. Not too heavy (except of course when you had a bag full of mulch weighing you down) and well balanced and easy to control. It clogged fairly regularly, but clearing the clogs wasn't too difficult.
The problem was that the plastic surrounding the impeller started to crack after the second season. This was (presumably) because of the necessarily harsh treatment that this part of the machine takes from the heavier items spinning and smacking the sides as they are being mulched. Then the cracks turned into gaping holes (greatly reducing the power, but at least partially fixed with duct tape). Then the plastic connector on the vac tube assembly completely broke. Now it is a barly passable blower that takes about 20 pulls to start. I think I'm going to switch to a two piece solution (walk behind vac and backpack blower). I just don't think that these combo units are built to last (I've now been through three, though admittedly this was the best of the lot). All of these machines just use too much plastic, and it breaks with use (and age).
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 Worked GREAT until it DIED Feb 18, 2007
By Tom T
May 4, 2009: My apologies to anyone who purchased this blower based on my original review below. I would now give it a 2-star rating rather than 5-stars. Unfortunately, when editing a review, it's not possible to change the number of stars originally posted.
The two stars would be for the 2 years it worked perfectly...started easy every time and always ran great. This blower definitely wasn't worked to death. It was only used maybe once a week during fall for blowing leaves off the driveway and off the roof, and maybe once every three or four weeks the rest of the year for spiffing up the driveway.
The day it died, there was no hint of impending doom. It started easily, ran great for about 5 minutes, then simply quit.
I did some research online, and that was a real eye-opener. Seems this model has a long history of either cracked heads or ignition coil failure. Mine had the ignition coil failure. The parts + labor to repair was close to the cost of a new gas blower. I didn't have it repaired.
Interestingly, I have a Poulan 14" chain saw that I bought used back in 1978. I put a lot of hours on that machine cutting numerous chords of firewood and it still runs like a champ. I expected equal longevity from this Poulan Pro blower. Unfortunately, I got a LOT less.
If you can still find a Poulan BVM200LE leaf blower either new or used, I would now recommend NOT buying it.
ORIGINAL REVIEW (posted Feb. 18, 2007):
I've used this blower for a couple of months now. No buyer's remorse. This is my third leaf blower purchase in 20 years. The first two were pretty good, but this one is much better, so that's why I gave it the 5-star rating.
My first blower in '87 was a 2-cycle gas Homelite. As the seasons went by, even with proper maintenance & a couple of rebuild kits, it became a challenge to start. Finally I realized I was putting more time and effort into starting it than if I just used a rake and broom to clear the yard. So, I bought a B&D electric leaf blower and two 50' 12-guage electric cords.
Starting an electric blower is simple: just push a switch. But the whine while running, especially at the High setting, is very loud. Also, being on a leash with that cord is a hassle. Sometimes it gets snagged, so that means going back and unsnagging. Walking around a bush one way requires backtracking around in the opposite direction; then sometimes the cord unpluges either at the blower or from the electrical outlet. Getting up on the roof to clear out the valleys & gutters is another set of unique challenges when attached to a cord. Finally, after whichever job is done, you have to spend extra time rolling up 50' or 100' of cord.
So, a month ago, when the B&D fell on the cement garage floor and shattered the plastic housing, I looked at that as an opportunity, not a tragedy. After reading all leaf blower reviews at Amazon and doing some hands-on of various brands & models at a couple of big building supply stores, I decided on this Poulan BVM200LE.
Setting up this Poulan is easy. Out of the box, it's just a matter of sliding in the blower tube and tightening a thumb screw. A bottle of 2 cycle oil enough to mix with 1 gal of gas is included -- you need to supply the gas can & gasoline. After pushing on the primer a half-dozen times, the engine started on the second pull of the cord. So far, it's extremely easy to do a cold start, as well as easy to restart between tasks.
Altho not whisper quiet, the 2-cycle engine runs a lot quieter than the electric leaf blower it replaced. Plenty of air power; 200 mph it claims on the box, and I believe that. On the driveway, I only need to put the throttle at half or three-quarters speed to move dry leaves & debris. Full power does the job moving stuff thats built up in wet clumps or in corners and under shrubs. Of course, you can set the power anywhere between idle and full speed. That's another advantage over the electric leaf blower this replaced.
The nozzle is well-designed for the job. A previous reviewer here wrote he has to bend over with this blower. That's what I had to do with the B&D electric leaf blower. I'm 6'1" w/o shoes, and I usually had to do a Gracho Marx (for those of you old enough to know who that is) kind of walk to get the nozzle at the right angle to keep stuff moving. With this BVM200LE I was happy to find I can walk upright while blower does it's job.
I tried the vacuum attachment and it works okay, about the same as my previous leaf blowers. Shrinking my leaf pile by 16:1 isn't a concern for me. Interestingly, the BVM200LE promo literature claims 16:1; on the outside of the box this thing is packed in, it says 10:1. Also, if the vac is important for you, know that the impeller is made of plastic, not metal. If you're planning on sucking leaves out of some area with small decorative stones, that may be a consideration.
So far, no complaints with this blower. It's wonderful to be free of an electric cord and to be able to move around freely.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Great blower to have around the yard Jun 16, 2006
By Mo-Te
Great machine for the money. Runs great, blows hard. one setback is that it is a little heavy, and that there is no trigger button. (You throttle it up and it just goes)
Works great, runs great and is very durable. The vacuum bag is a little hard to setup, but once its on it works well.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Two years old and dead Nov 21, 2007
By T M Meyer
Signed in under wife's account to warn you about this blower. I loved it until recently. It is a very strong and very loud blower but 2 yrs later and 2 months after warranty expired the engine vibrated itself apart. All of the bolts holding the engine together loosened and it lost all compression and quit running. Took it to local small engine repair shop and mechanic said these are known for this problem and even with repair they are not made to last long. He said it would cost $50 or $60 to repair so I went home and spent an evening struggling with repairing it myself. I paid $99.88 for the blower so I couldn't justify another $60 for repair. After several hours of dealing with odd allen wrench and star wrench bolt sizes and having to take the thing completely apart, I put it back together and got it running. It lasted two more months and then it quit running again. I just got back from Home depot with my new Echo PB 251 that has a 5 year warranty for $159. I wish I would have gone with Echo the first time around. Conclusion: Don't buy anything but an Echo...their new 5 year warranty is unbeatable. They may cost a little more, but you will come out ahead in the end.
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Do not buy this blower!!!!!!!!! Nov 30, 2007
By nasagolfer
"Michael"
I am a big fan of Amazon dot com. I've bought quite a few things from Amazon and I never had a problem until I decided I wanted to save 5 dollars and buy this piece of junk. I know that sounds harsh. But, after what I've been through with this blower with leaves piling up in the yard and warranty repair taking their sweet time to get this thing running again you'd feel this way too.
I bought this thing on Sept 28th and I had the enjoyment of using it for one tank full of fuel. Before you conclude that something I did damaged this unit I want you to know that I mixed a fresh batch of gasoline with the supplied additive and cranked this baby up with the first pull of the cord. This thing purred for an entire yards worth of work for me including the roof and gutters. What a great machine I thought and I saved 5 bucks over what Walmart offered it for. Can't beat that, right? WRONG!!!!
After this thing cooled down that was the last time I was able to get it cranked. I had a neighbor that is a small engine repair expert try to help me get it started and it was deader than heck.
Well, now here is where it gets interesting. I begin to mull over my options. I had a hundred plus bucks tied up in this thing and I could send it back to Amazon for a refund or I could try to have it repaired for obvious warranty repair. I found a shop locally that was an authorized Poulan repair shop but they told me it would be weeks before they would be able to get to it. They wanted me to send it back for a refund so I could come back down to their shop and put more money with it and buy one of their Echo brand blowers. At this point I was ready to trade this thing in for something that worked even if it did cost more money.
But, when I went back to the Amazon site to find out how to send it back and get my refund the more that I read the more remote it seemed that I would get a full refund because after all I'd put fuel in this thing and ran it for a while. It wasn't pristine clean and Amazon's return policy says it is up to their discretion as to whether they give you a full refund or maybe just 50% of your money back. I sort of felt they had me over a barrel. They had my money and they get to decide whether I had used it too much to be returned. And I don't recall that their was a phone number conveniently posted anywhere so that I could talk this issue over with a person. It was too iffy for me.
So, I felt that it was better to have a 100% working machine than a 50% refund because Amazon thought my returned unit was too dirty to give me my money back. So, that meant that I had to go back to the warranty repair guy and leave it with him to get to whenever he could. I finally got it back today. That was a 2 MONTH warranty repair. What a terrible time to have a leaf blower in the shop. I hate to say it but when I picked it up the guy said "Great news, there is no charge". I told him it would have been great news if I didn't have to be there in the first place.
And get this, the problem with these blowers is so common that the repair people go ahead and put an order in for a new piston and piston ring when they see someone walking in the front door with one of these. Apparently, the piston ring gets stuck in these things and they completely lose compression. That was the problem with mine. Basically, these things are the product of deffective out of tolerance parts shoved in place to move the unit out the door to the first sucker willing to fork over the money to buy one.
Don't be that next sucker with one of these. Sure, its under warranty. When did you think you needed that? If you put fuel in one and run it to find out if the thing works then you've potentially dirtied the thing up. Amazon can refund you fully at their discretion.
Buy it locally so you can take it back and get another one on the spot. This is not like some kind of special electronic item that you can only find at Amazon. Before I bought this one I saw it at a Walmart super store. I certainly wish I'd bought it at Walmart instead of going through this hassle. Don't make the same mistake that I did. These things are great when they run but I feel that you need to know that you are taking a chance on getting one that may have the problem that I described. In fact, if I hadn't had all of these problems I'd have been one of the guys above with 4 or 5 stars singing Poulan praises. After my experience though I feel I have to at least help others avoid a lot of unnecessary frustration.
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