Garden Last updated · owner ratings verified July 2026
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Side by side
| Our pick WORX WORX WG520 Turbine 600 Best overall $60-80 Check price | Toro Toro Ultra Blower/Vacuum/Mulcher Best for wet leaves $70-90 Check price | WORX WORX WG512 Trivac 2.0 Best compromise $80-110 Check price | WORX WORX WG509 Trivac 3-in-1 Cheapest 3-in-1 $60-85 Check price | Toro Toro 51585 Power Sweep Best value $40-55 Check price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What owners rate it | |||||
| Owner rating | 4.7 / 5 (12,613) | 4.4 / 5 (7,046) | 4.2 / 5 (7,195) | 4.2 / 5 (11,896) | 4.6 / 5 (4,827) |
| Specifications | |||||
| What it does | Corded blower | Corded blower, vacuum and mulcher | Corded blower, vacuum and mulcher | Corded blower, vacuum and mulcher | Corded blower |
| Motor | 12 amp | 12 amp | 12 amp | 12 amp | 7 amp |
| Air volume (CFM) | 600 CFM | 410 CFM | 600 CFM | 350 CFM | About 155 CFM |
| Air speed (MPH) | 110 mph | 250 mph | Not published by WORX | 210 mph | 160 mph |
| Vacuum and mulch | Blower only | Vacuum and mulch | Vacuum and mulch | Vacuum and mulch | Blower only |
| Impeller | Not applicable | Metal, about 16:1 reduction | Metal, about 16:1 reduction | Metal | Not applicable |
| Weight | About 6.4 lb | About 8.5 lb | About 9.5 lb | About 9.3 lb | About 4.4 lb |
| Power | Corded, needs a 14-gauge outdoor extension | Corded, needs a 14-gauge outdoor extension | Corded, needs a 14-gauge outdoor extension | Corded, needs a 14-gauge outdoor extension | Corded, works on a 16-gauge extension |
| Who it suits | |||||
| Best for | Clearing dry leaves off a lawn and beds quickly | Driveways, gutters and leaves that have been rained on | One tool that has to blow, vacuum and mulch without changing tubes | A small yard where the tool needs to do everything for as little as possible | Patios, decks, garage floors and light lawn work |
Ratings are aggregated Amazon owner ratings, not our own testing. Figures verified July 2026.
Pros and cons
WORX WG520 Turbine 600
- 600 CFM is the highest air volume on this page, and volume is what actually moves a pile of dry leaves
- Highest owner rating here across a very large review base, which is the strongest evidence signal on the page
- The turbine housing spreads the stream wide, so you sweep a broader path per pass than a narrow nozzle
- Around 6.4 pounds and well balanced, so it does not become a wrist exercise after twenty minutes
- 110 mph is the lowest air speed here — it struggles to lift wet leaves stuck to pavement
- Blower only; no vacuum, no mulching, no bag
- Two-speed only, so there is no fine control between gentle and full blast
Toro Ultra Blower/Vacuum/Mulcher
- 250 mph is by far the fastest air stream here and it is what lifts wet, matted leaves off concrete
- Metal impeller shreds at roughly 16:1, so a full bag holds sixteen bags of loose leaves
- Converts between blow, vacuum and mulch without tools, which owners repeatedly rate as the best part
- Variable speed dial gives real control rather than the two-setting switch on the WORX blowers
- 410 CFM means it clears a narrower path than the WORX WG520 on open lawn
- The vacuum tube and bag make it front-heavy and awkward for long sessions
- Owners consistently report the bag zipper and shoulder strap as the first things to wear out
WORX WG512 Trivac 2.0
- 600 CFM and a metal impeller in the same tool — the highest air volume of any mulching unit here
- Switches from blow to vacuum with a lever rather than a tube swap, which is the design owners praise most
- Metal impeller mulches at roughly 16:1, the same ratio as the Toro Ultra
- Two-speed control plus a wide nozzle makes it usable on beds without blasting mulch everywhere
- Lower owner rating than the WG520 blower, with the vacuum mode drawing most of the complaints
- Owners repeatedly report the vacuum tube clogging on damp or long leaves
- Heaviest and bulkiest tool here in vacuum configuration
WORX WG509 Trivac 3-in-1
- Cheapest way here to get blowing, vacuuming and mulching in one tool
- 210 mph is a much faster stream than the WG520, so it handles damp leaves better than its stablemate
- Metal impeller rather than the plastic used on most blowers at this price
- Very large owner-review base, so its rating is well supported
- 350 CFM is the lowest air volume on this page and it shows on a big leaf drop
- Same clogging complaints as the WG512 in vacuum mode, on a smaller intake
- The oldest design here, and owners note the plastic latches feel dated next to newer models
Toro 51585 Power Sweep
- Cheapest tool on this page by a clear margin and the lightest at around 4.4 pounds
- 7 amps draws little enough that it runs happily on a modest extension cord
- Strong owner rating for a tool at this price, over a large review base
- Small enough to hang on a garage hook and grab for a five-minute job, which is when a blower actually gets used
- 160 mph and roughly 155 CFM — genuinely light duty, not a whole-yard tool
- Blower only; no vacuum and no mulching
- Owners consistently note it will not shift wet leaves or anything matted down
Decision factors
What you actually pay
These are corded electric blowers, which is the whole reason they sit in a budget comparison. Every one of them costs less than the batteries alone for a cordless tool, and none of them will ever need fuel, oil, a spark plug or a spring cleanout. The cheapest here is around $45; the most expensive around $100. Neither brand carries a meaningful price premium over the other.
Where the money actually goes is air volume and mulching hardware. Under about $60 you get a light-duty single-speed blower like the Toro Power Sweep — genuinely useful for a patio, genuinely insufficient for a yard full of oak leaves. Between $60 and $80 you get a 12-amp motor and either high CFM or high MPH. Above $80 you get a metal impeller and a mulching bag, which is the feature that changes what you can do with the leaves once you have moved them.
The hidden cost of any corded tool is the extension cord, and people consistently underestimate it. A 12-amp blower on 100 feet of cord needs 14-gauge wire; using a thin 16-gauge indoor cord causes voltage drop, the motor runs hot and underpowered, and you will assume the blower is weak when the cord is the problem. A decent 100-foot 14-gauge outdoor cord runs $35 to $60 — call it a mandatory accessory, not an optional one.
Consumables are close to zero on both brands. There is no fuel, no filter and no blade. The realistic wear items are the collection bag on the mulching models, which owners of both brands report as the first thing to fail, and the plastic tube latches. Replacement bags for either brand run $20 to $35, which is worth knowing before you assume a torn bag ends the tool.
Which one fits you
- Your leaves are dry and sitting on grass WORX WG520 Turbine 600 Air volume clears a wide path fast, and at 600 CFM this is the highest volume here. Speed does very little on loose dry leaves.
- Your leaves are wet and stuck to a driveway Toro Ultra Blower/Vacuum/Mulcher 250 mph is more than double the WORX WG520’s air speed, and speed is what breaks a wet leaf loose from concrete.
- You want to bag and mulch, not just move leaves WORX WG512 Trivac 2.0 600 CFM plus a metal impeller mulching at roughly 16:1 — the only tool here that combines the highest air volume with real shredding.
- You just need to clear a patio and a garage Toro 51585 Power Sweep Half the price and half the weight of everything else here. For a five-minute job, the tool you will actually pick up beats the one that stays in the shed.
If neither is right
- Sun Joe Corded Electric Leaf Blower The cheapest credible corded blower on the market, with an enormous owner-review base at a strong rating. Only 6 amps and 260 CFM, so treat it as a Power Sweep rival rather than a WG520 rival — but for decks, patios and light cleanup it is hard to argue with the price.
- Greenworks 7 Amp Electric Blower A direct alternative to the Toro Power Sweep at a similar price and weight, with a well-established owner record. Worth a look if you already own Greenworks tools — see our WORX vs Greenworks comparison.
- WORX WG584 Cordless Leaf Blower If the extension cord is the thing putting you off, this is the WORX answer: brushless, two batteries included, and no 100-foot tail dragging through the flower beds. Roughly triple the price of the corded models here. Our WORX cordless review covers the trade-off.
Which should you actually buy?
Buy the WORX WG520 if your leaves are dry and on grass, and the Toro Ultra if your leaves are wet and on concrete. That is the honest short answer, and it comes down to a single specification difference: the WORX pushes far more air, the Toro pushes air far faster, and those two things do different jobs. If you want one tool for both, the WORX WG512 Trivac gets closest — the same 600 CFM as the WG520 with a metal impeller and a mulching bag. If you only need to clear a patio and a garage floor, the Toro Power Sweep costs half as much and weighs half as much, and that is the whole argument for it.
How do the two brands actually differ?
Toro is a lawn equipment company whose corded blowers sit at the bottom of a range that runs up through mowers and commercial turf machinery. Its designs are conservative and its numbers are conservatively stated — the Power Sweep does not pretend to be more than it is, and the Ultra’s headline figure is air speed rather than an inflated volume claim.
WORX is a consumer power tool brand built around clever mechanical design at aggressive prices, and its blowers reflect that. The turbine housing on the WG520 is a genuine engineering choice that produces high volume from a standard 12-amp motor. The Trivac’s lever-operated switch between blow and vacuum, with no tube swapping, is the single most praised feature in the WORX owner record.
The review evidence tracks the same story. Both brands carry large, well-rated owner bases in this category. WORX’s blower-only WG520 is the highest-rated tool on this page; its Trivac models rate lower, and the complaints cluster specifically on vacuum mode clogging rather than on the blower. Toro’s two models rate solidly with fewer design complaints and fewer standout features.
Why the CFM and MPH numbers matter more than the price
Air volume, measured in cubic feet per minute, is how much air the tool moves. Air speed, in miles per hour, is how fast it leaves the nozzle. A blower with high CFM and low MPH behaves like a wide broom: it sweeps a broad path and pushes a lot of light material at once. A blower with low CFM and high MPH behaves like a chisel: narrow, forceful, and good at dislodging something stuck.
Dry leaves on a lawn are a volume problem. Nothing is holding them down, so the tool that moves the most air clears the most ground per pass — and at 600 CFM that is the WORX WG520 by a clear margin over everything else here.
Wet leaves on concrete are an adhesion problem. Surface tension effectively glues a wet leaf down, and a wide slow stream slides over the top of it. That takes speed, and at 250 mph the Toro Ultra is the only tool on this page with enough of it to consistently break wet leaves free. Pine needles in gravel and debris packed into a gutter behave the same way.
Is a vacuum and mulching function worth having?
It depends entirely on what happens to the leaves after you move them. If you blow them into a wooded edge or onto a bed as mulch, a blow-only tool is lighter, cheaper, better balanced and less likely to break — buy the WG520 or the Power Sweep and be done.
If you bag leaves for collection, or you feed a compost pile, mulching genuinely changes the arithmetic. Both the Toro Ultra and the WORX Trivac models shred at roughly 16 to 1 through a metal impeller, so one bag replaces sixteen. That saves bag cost, trips to the curb, and — if your municipality charges by volume for yard waste — real money.
Two honest caveats from the owner record. Vacuum mode clogs, reliably, on damp leaves and on long grass clippings, and clearing a clog means stopping and unlatching a tube. And shredded leaf dust is genuinely unpleasant; wear eye protection and a dust mask. Our guide to mulching leaves vs bagging covers whether you should be collecting them at all.
Living with a cord
This is the thing that decides whether a budget blower gets used or abandoned, and it is not really about the tool. A 12-amp blower needs a 14-gauge outdoor extension cord up to 100 feet, and a thinner cord will make a good blower feel weak — voltage drop reduces motor output and makes it run hot. Budget $35 to $60 for the cord and treat it as part of the purchase.
Beyond about 100 feet from an outdoor outlet, cord management starts to cost more time than the blower saves: it snags on shrubs, drags across beds, and has to be coiled afterward. Both brands include a cord retention hook and both work well; use it, because yanking a plug out mid-job is the fastest way to damage the tool’s socket.
The upside is worth restating. A corded blower delivers full power for as long as you want it, never fades, never needs charging, and costs a fraction of a cordless equivalent. For a quarter-acre lot with a convenient outlet, it is genuinely the sensible choice rather than the cheap one.
The call
The WORX WG520 Turbine 600 is the best buy on this page for most yards: the highest air volume here, the highest owner rating, light enough to use for an hour, and cheap. The Toro Ultra is the one to buy instead if your problem is wet leaves, gutters or a driveway, because 250 mph does something no amount of CFM can. The Toro Power Sweep is the value pick and a genuinely smart purchase for a patio, a deck or a garage — it is the blower you will actually reach for on a Tuesday evening.
Everything here is ranked from aggregated Amazon owner ratings and published expert consensus rather than first-hand trials — see how we rank. For the full field, read our best budget leaf blower rankings, and if the cord is what is stopping you, the best cordless leaf blowers covers what the next tier buys.