This DR self-propelled unit runs about $1,200, but he says it’s worth it. Armed with a 6-horsepower engine and a steel impeller blade that spins at 3,250 rpm, the DR walk-behind has a suction force of 123 mph. Leaves, acorns, nuts, pine cones and pine needles, twigs and virtually anything on the lawn is whooshed into a dust-reducing nylon bag.

The debris is mulched at a 4-to-1 ratio, so the bag holds about 30 gallons or 80 pounds before requiring emptying. The mulch was fine enough to use for weed cover behind our 125-foot-long retaining wall on the back of our half-acre lot. The only real drawback – and this I’m told goes for all types of smaller yard vacs – is emptying. It’s difficult to empty the unit’s large collector bag into the paper bags most towns and villages distribute for curbside pickup. But DR power equipment has a solution – a disposable nylon liner bag that substitutes for paper and plastic. A 12-pack of disposable bags is $19.95.

The model I tested includes a 10-foot hose attachment ($149) for vacuuming planting beds and hard-to-clear areas like along fences and building foundations. At times, the 4-inch diameter hose can clog, but a gentle tap or two against the ground usually clears the opening.

Overall, this is a great model. And for those who think the price, excluding the hose attachment, is excessive, consider this exchange with a neighbor.

When I tell him my new toy is really a test model that cost about $1,200, he tells me that last fall and again this spring he paid his landscape contractor about $700 overall for yard cleanup.