Shall I buy a leaf blower/vac?

[Chimichangaz]

I live with a lot of trees bordering my garden and it's just coming up to silly season for leaves to make it look mighty untidy. Been toying with the idea of a leaf vac, but not sure if it's a waste of money. I have a patio, medium sized lawn and borders, which I spent hours covering with bark to suppress weeds. Got a feeling that a blower/vac will play havoc with the bark.

Anyone got any experience or opinions to offer?

Yes. Don't.
I have one (quite an expensive one too) and it's crap. Only likes small, bone-dry leaves. Anything larger and damp and the thing jams. I stored it in the shed and some small animal has chewed a hole in the bag, too, so I get mashed up leaves and dust blown all over me.

I'm considering borrowing (from work) one of those industrial petrol-driven blowers, where you just blow it all into one heap and then sweep up the one pile.

I've got a Toro electric one and it's great. I don't bother with the suck setting as it gets clogged up easily, but the blow setting works well to get the leaves into a nice pile which I then scoop onto the compost heap.

They have different settings - a gentle setting would be fine on bark chips.

I never got the hang of ours. The sucking setting didn't seem to work all that well and often clogged, and when I tried to blow the leaves they just went everywhere instead of into a nice pile. Luckily our new house doesn't have the same leaf problem the old one did so I don't need to use it any more! (Should probably get rid of it, if I could actually get to the back of the garage to retrieve it....)

Our garden is also bordered with trees and it plays havoc with the lawn if we don't sweep them up. We got a leaf blower/sucker and it works really well. Don't usually bother sucking them up, just blow them off the lawn. We also have bark chippings on the beds behind the lawn and it doesn't really disturb the bark at all.

Thanks everyone for feedback. Will see if they're still on offer in Asda.

I got an electric one from Aldi last year for about £30 ...It is adjustable and has a shredder for the leaves...
I have two house gardens to maintain - in one the neighbour has a huge beech tree which hangs over most of the 12 ft wide, 30ft long gravel drive, other a neighbour has a huge sycamore, over flag and gravel path, flower bed and lawn - takes a lot of time.

It works quite well on the beech leaves but unless you have it set on max it does tend to clog inside...but on max it is noisy and also picks up the gravel sometimes -you have to quickly turn it off before it gets to the top of the tube and let it fall out. (Picking up a stone (actually on the lawn) cracked the case on mine which is not covered by guarantee - I could get a new case for £11 but so far have it covered with duct tape figuring it will probably do it again) ... Big Sycamore leaves do tend to block up the tube... also it isn't good on a huge pile - better giving it a quick run over more often.
And blower is a bit rubbish ...can end up with leaves everywhere - and dealing with an extension cable is a pain ( a powerful cordless one would be great)

But I do think it is worth having ...
it is quicker than a rake and good for getting into corners, under things etc etc. And cos it was only £30 I am not too 'precious' about it - I use it like a vacuum - I was tidying up a rough area yesterday and it was picking up quite a bit of soil and stones with the rotted leaves ...I was cringing - but it actually worked really well...not recommended I guess and if it was £100 I'd have been reluctant to chance it ...