I bought this item about a month ago and have used it 3 times to clear the autumn leaf fall. Much as reviews cover with the other machines, these bits of kit don't work brilliantly with heavy, wet leaves - but then I didn't really expect it too.
We have a large garden, and I can definately say it was much quicker to blow the leaves (and yes a bit damp) into a big pile and then scoop them into the bin. The blower is sufficiently powerful for a domestic garden and I was pleasantly suprised. The vacuum and mulcher does work, but the vacuum is a bit tricky and only picks up a few leaves at a time, it would have taken hours! Also, the machine itself is a reasonable weight for a woman to manage but not when the bag is full of mulch.
We bought a 25m extension cable at the same time, and I'm still glad I went for the electric option over the petrol models, much less effort. It is farily noisy, leaving my ears ringing after an hour, so I'd definately invest in some hearing protection.
The machine itself seems reasonably well built and I've had no faults as yet. It came well packaged.
Overall, I'm happy with my purchase and don't think it'll be another thing to store at the back of the garage for years on end. If you have a small garden it's probably just as easy to use a rake, but for a bigger area it definately saves time.