Craftsman 42 in. High Speed Sweeper Review

I have a half acre and have a number of Japanese Maples, a Weeping Cherry a number of ash and oak trees and I also have six dreaded pine trees that drop needles on the ground like crazy. Combined with my backpack leaf blower and my cheap ($50) electric blower/mulcher (to mulch the leaves once I finally have everything in a pile), I find this sweeper (which I've had for two years now) to be the absolute best way to clean things up.

Before, I used to blow all of my leaves to the back of the house. The pine needles? I just let them sit there as I had no idea on how to get rid of them. Back to the leaves. Because my land has a slight slope to it, I was basically blowing my leaves uphill! It would take about six or seven separate blowings of about four or five hours each to get rid of all of the leaves. Now, I start with my blower and blow any leaves that are in a hard to reach place on to level ground. That's it! As soon as they're in an open area, I leave them there. The key is to not try and blow the leaves where you want them. That takes way, way, way too much time! All the extra time you'd spend blowing the leaves into a huge pile? DON'T DO IT! Instead, just blow them away from rocks, shrubs, etc. If they're on the street, leave them there! If they're on your lawn, leave them there! If they're on your driveway, leave them there! If they're in your flower beds, underneath your trees, etc., blow them onto your lawn.

Then the magic happens as I sweep over them with the sweeper. I put my lawn mower at it's highest speed and run over the leaves like a maniac. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see a pile of leaves that would normally take me hours to move get swept up in minutes. The keys are:

• Don't blow the leaves into a large pile - Yes, eventually you'll find a spot on your land somewhere where you'll put them in a pile for later mulching (that's what I do). However, when trying to sweep them, it's better to spread them out. Otherwise, the wheels will get choked with all of the leaves and will stop spinning (in other words, it won't sweep anymore). When that happens you have to stop, back up slightly, then clear the leaves from the wheels. You'll actually create more work for yourself by trying to gather the leaves! That's the crazy thing. Do not try and blow them into a pile. Just get them on to a flat surface so that they can be swept.
• The height setting is crucial - it's not hard to get it to a good setting. Make the brushes touch the floor, then raise it slightly (maybe an inch). Then start sweeping. If it picks up everything behind you, it's at a good setting! If it's missing stuff, it probably means you have it too high. When you have it set right, it will generally pick up 98% of the stuff on the ground. This includes leaves, pine needles, twigs and garbage. It won't pick up huge branches, obvously, but it works on dry as well as wet leaves, something that expensive $800 vacuum mulchers don't do.
• Installation wasn't a pain, but you have to think a little. That's all I'll say about that. You'll get it done.
• Backing up is not that easy - You'll get used to the fact that you have to plan things so that you don't back up. So if you see yourself entering a tight area, ask yourself if you need to back up to get out. If you do, better not to go into that area. Instead, blow the leaves out of that area. You'll get very efficient with this process.
• This item will take up space - My garage is small, so I therefore store it outside next to a tool shed I built. I cover it with tarp.
• If picking up mainly pine needles, don't wait until the container gets completely full to empty it. The container gets real heavy with pine needles and you'll have a hard time emptying it if you full it to capacity.
• You can also use this tool to pick up lawn clippings during the summer months. If you don't have a separate bagger, don't buy one. Use this instead!

Fall clean up is difficult and there's no perfect solution and you'll need more than one tool no matter which approach you take. However, if you already have a riding lawn mower as a lot of people do, I find this sweeper to be the best tool and it replaces a lot more expensive tools. About the only thing I see myself needing to get is a chipper/shredder as I have a ton of big branches on the back part of my property and I want to mulch those.