Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Good, but they skimped on the details.
I've used this for 6 months now. My primary interest was for its mulching of leaves, so I can compost them. I've run out of space in my woods, and throwing them away seems like a waste. I've used the blower too. It works great sucking up leaves. The pieces are generally chipped to perhaps half to 1 fingernail in size. As to how much it reduces the volume, I took a mostly dry slightly overfull wheelbarrow full of leaves - and it was reduced to a little less than half-full after running it thru the machine. So that's roughly a 2:1 reduction, not 16:1, as Toro advertises. It's good enough for my needs, in terms of composting. (Mulching the leaves adds an extra 40 degrees of heat to the composting process, in a compost tumbler, 160 vs. 120 degrees.) The blower works well too. The variable speed makes it easier to control where leaves go. I gathered leaves from one tree into a pile in 5 minutes, and vacuumed them up in another 10 minutes, filling (stuffing) one 39 gallon 'lawn & leaf bag' (so 2 bags worth, unshredded). I've also blown dirt, weeds, rocks, gravel and other crud off my driveway (2500 sq. feet) in a matter of ~10 minutes, which would take perhaps an hour to sweep by hand. And I suspect, and was told in correspondence with a well-known Consumer's magazine, that the magnesium impeller should last a lot longer than other models, which are typically made of plastic. That was my primary reason for buying it. We'll see on that score. So far, its holding up. Where Toro missed:
it doesn't do well with leaves that have virtually any amount of moisture to them IF they've decayed (meaning last year's). They jam up the outlet passage within 1-3 minutes (going in to the bag), as well as the crevice area around the impeller. You have to unplug it, undo the bag attachment, and access the impeller region, and fish around with your finger, digging out all the wet gunk which has been chopped in a very fine mess. Freshly fallen leaves which are wet don't cause this problem. Skimp # 1: Toro didn't bother to include some plastic gadget for digging out the stuff, so you scrape your knuckles quite a bit (I'm afraid of using a screwdriver and ruining the impeller). Skimp # 2: the bag, the cord, and the handles seem backward to me. But then, I'm left handed, and most of the world seems backward to me. The vac is still quite useable, backward though it is, but Toro seems to have chosen to ignore 10% of the population that is left handed, which doesn't impress me. Skimp #3: in that it's electric, you're chained to a cord. The owner's manual says not to go over 150' in length, and to use 14 gauge for that distance. I happen to like 12 gauge cord for long distances, and that's what I own - and the 'cord lock' (a piece of plastic on the handle) is not big enough to handle 12 gauge cord. C'mon Toro! What's it cost to make it a smidgeon bigger to handle a larger size extension cord?? Skimp #4: in converting from blower to vac or the other way around, you have to omit certain pieces of equipment from the machine, both large and small. There's no place to store them, on the machine. So, I suspect they'll be either easy to lose or misplace. Or a pain to keep track of. It would be far nicer if the small pieces were storable, and Toro had figured out a way to make the large pieces in such a way so that they could be left on the machine at all times (e.g. the blower has a bottom cover that has to be removed so the vac has access to the impeller. Why not have a sliding door for that cover piece?) Skimp #5: the bag is tiny. It fills up in ~3 minutes, and that is 1/3 of a lawn and leaf bag. And your property involves how many lawn and leaf bags for you? i.e. A lot of stopping and emptying. One company's product, as I recall, has a set up where the vac empties in to a garbage can directly. Overall, it does what I want and need, and I'm happy. But it's not without its faults, and I expected better from a company of Toro's reputation.
Rating:  - Clearly best in its class
I found the Toro 51598 to be more than powerful enough to clear even wet leaves off my lawn & patio. It also did a good job clearing out my gutters, but I had to do it from the roof as there is no special curved air pipe that would let me do the job from the ground. There is also no angled accessory to direct air to the side. That would have been very useful when I tried to blow leaves out of areas next to the house and from other spots where it was impossible to get behind the work. Toro, are you listening?
Rating: - Does everything well
I just used this Blower/Vacuum for the first time and I must say it met all my every expectations. This is a powerful blower. I joke that the concentrator attachment is for removing the topsoil. For the first time the ground under my shrubs is clean, and I mean clean. It's also good at removing depris from shrubs and plants without injuring them.The continuously variable speed control is more useful than I had thought. First, it turns on slowly so there isn't a sudden torque in your hands or the shock of a sudden loud noise. And it lends a great deal of control over the job. If you're on stones you can tone it down so as not to distrub them but only the leaves. The vacuum is voracious. Turn it on high and get a little aggressive and it makes short work of a leaf pile. I admit that I still prefer dragging on tarp on large jobs but on patios etc. it's indispensable. I believe the compression of the leaves is probably close to what they claim. I What I found a good combination was this and the Fiskars Kangaroo Container. It's light and holds a lot of leaves with the compression acheived by the shredding. And it folds down to a thin disk so it doesn't take up a lot of space when it's not in use. Couldn't be happier (unless they could make it "wireless").
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