Summary
My own 2.5 acres don’t drop many leaves, but a friend’s yard a few towns over gets buried in them every fall. Helping him clear it this year made something obvious: once you own the right battery tools, a rake has very little left to do. At my place, a 40V blower and my zero-turn mower handle the entire job.
At his, the blower and a 40V string trimmer did the heavy lifting, with a tarp and a trash can filling the gaps. I’ve covered how to pick between Ryobi’s 18V and 40V yard tools before, and fall cleanup is where the 40V side pulls ahead. Below are the two tools doing the work, plus the Ryobi leaf vac I’m considering to fix the one weak spot left.
The Ryobi 40V Whisper Series blower
Moving leaves to wherever they’re easiest to handle
My routine at home barely counts as a chore. I blow leaves out of the flower beds and off the driveway and patio into open grass, then I mulch them with my Exmark zero-turn mower. It chops them into small flakes that settle into the turf, where they break down over winter instead of smothering the lawn. I don’t have to pile, bag, or haul anything to the curb.
My friend’s yard was a different story. The leaf load there called for collecting and bagging, just without the rake, so we used the blower to push everything onto a tarp. Working with the wind instead of against it saves both battery and patience, and keeping the nozzle low gets under wet, matted leaves far better than blasting down from above.
Mine is a Whisper Series model, Ryobi’s line built with extra sound dampening, which makes a real difference when you’re running it for long stretches with neighbors close by. If you own more than one 40V pack, give the blower your biggest one. Nothing else in the 40V lineup empties a battery as quickly.
The Ryobi 40V Expand-It string trimmer
A trash can turns it into a rough leaf shredder
Once we filled up the tarp, we lifted it and dumped the leaves into a trash can. Then I lowered the head of my Ryobi 40V string trimmer into the can and worked it up and down through the pile. The spinning line chewed the leaves into smaller pieces, which let us fit more into every bag.
It wasn’t perfect. Some leaves came out finely shredded, while others survived with barely a nick. Even so, every handful it broke down meant less bag space, and it used a tool already sitting in the garage. I moved up to the 40V Expand-It after my 18V trimmer kept running out of battery on bigger jobs, and that extra torque is exactly what you want churning through a packed can.
Treat this as an off-label use. Wear safety glasses, since bits of leaf and grit fly out of the can, and pick a can you don’t mind scuffing. Hearing protection matters too. My Apple Watch sends noise notifications whenever I run power tools, so I now wear earplugs or AirPods for jobs like this one.
The Ryobi 40V leaf vacuum/mulcher
The tool I’m eyeing to replace the tarp and trash can
The tarp-and-can method works, but it takes three steps where one should do. That’s why I’m looking at Ryobi’s leaf vacuums, which pull leaves in and shred them in a single pass.
Ryobi sells two versions on its 40V platform. The 40V Leaf Vacuum/Mulcher, sold as the Vac Attack in some kits, costs 369 bare.
If you already own a 40V blower, the cheaper standalone vac makes more sense, while the combo unit suits someone starting from scratch. Either way, plan on using the vac for beds, corners, and piles you’ve already blown together. Sucking up an entire lawn one nozzle at a time is slow going.
Ryobi 40V HP Brushless Cordless Battery Leaf Vacuum/Mulcher
- Color
- Green
- Tool Type
- Blower/Mulcher The last fall job is putting the batteries away right Between the blower, the trimmer, and the mower, a rake hasn’t been part of my fall routine, and a leaf vac could cut the last manual steps out of my friend’s cleanup too. Once you’ve handled your leaves, give your batteries some attention before winter. Lithium packs last longer when you store them partly charged instead of topped off or depleted. Mine spend the off-season in my heated garage, which stays around 50–55°F, so they’re ready the moment spring cleanup starts.