Solo backpack blower

[punisher1]

I am looking at purchasing a Solo 471 KAT backpack blower. I found a place that you can get refurbished units online, with a full factory warranty for $280. Does anyone have any experience with this unit. I understand it's supposed to be one of the quietest units with an airspeed over 200 mph. Any input would be appreciated.

[clemson]

What blower did you purchase and how do you like it? I am also looking at purchasing a backpack blower. There are too many manufacturers to pick from. Solo looks like a good unit..but how about Stihl, Husky, John Deere, Echo, etc?

[ElephantNest]

Rebuilt for almost $300.00? I would opt out of that one.

$150.00 or so more and you can have the best BP blower on the market, new, the Redmax EB7001. This, I can assure you, would be a purchase you'd never regret.

[Nw. Shadesofgreen]

Ditto on what the Nest says.
The best bp that you will ever own. As a homeowner is should last a life time if taken care of.
Good Luck
Mike:waving:

[Jaeger]

I just purchased a Solo 471 KAT and used it for the first time yesterday. Awesome and deceiving power due to the low noise. Straps are quik release and quality is typical German like build. Sorta like a BMW.
Clean design. Not a Redmax EBZ7k or 8k, but for $369.00 free shipping, can;t beat it.

Equipment

Honda FG100 Tiller 31cc
Honda Trimmer UMK431K
Honda water pump
Honda power washer
Husky hedgetrimmers (2)
Husky lawn mower w/ Honda engine
Winco/Dyna generator
Solo 471 KAT BP blower
Tanaka THB2560 Blower \
Stihl BG85 blower
JD BH25LE blower
Echo Backpack Blower (old)
Cub Cadet HDS2165 Tractor. ShaftDrive
Ariens 8hp Snoblwr with cab, am/fm radiio, hndwrmers,light kit.
Almost all "Wolf Garten" garden tools
Toro Cast Deck super recycler 6.5hp mower
Cub Cadet Commercial PS-26 Pole Saw
:clapping:

[LarryF]

Rebuilt for almost $300.00? I would opt out of that one.

$150.00 or so more and you can have the best BP blower on the market, new, the Redmax EB7001. This, I can assure you, would be a purchase you'd never regret.

Actually, it would be only $120 more for the Redmax EB7001, and that includes shipping. I just ordered one using a phone number I found in the Commercial Mowing & Maintenance forum. $420 for the EB7001 and $489 for the Redmax EBZ8000. The company, Landscaper Supply, is in Texas, it's phone is 254-753-7900, and the guy you would want to talk to is Travis. He's been selling them to the professional landscapers who post on LawnSite for at least a couple of years. I got the impression many of the pros prefer the 8000, but since mine's going to be used only for my lot, I thought the EB7001 would be more than sufficient, so that's what I chose.

[LarryF]

The Redmax EB 7001 came today. Many thanks to ElephantNest and Nw. Shadesofgreen for their excellent advise. Life will be a lot easier for me this coming fall than it had been in previous ones.

[Brendan Smith]

glad to see you made the right decision. if you need to get another in the future, remember that cfm is more important than air speed.

[exmark01]

i hear that solo gets up to 235mph!

[lawnmaniac883]

It aint MPH that does the work, it is MPH and CFM combined. Say a blower is rated at 100 CFM at 300 MPH, you would get a very small, powerful stream of air that would do nothing. Now lets reverse the equation. You now have a blower that pushes 10,000 CFM at 10 MPH. This would do nothing in terms of blower power, the previous comparison is about that of a large ceiling fan.

Now lets take the redmax 8000 for example, it produces 900CFM at 210MPH, that is going to do some work right there.

[LarryF]

Am I missing something here? I don’t believe CFM is a parameter completely independent of MPH. CFM is the volume of whatever is flowing through a pipe or duct per unit of time, and if you know the cross-sectional area of that duct and divide it into the CFM value, you’ll have the average velocity of whatever is flowing. In the case of the Redmax EB7001, the quoted airflow is 742 CFM, and the diameter of the duct where the trigger handle is located measures to be about 2 ¾”. When I calculated the area of that circle and divided it into 742 and then made all of the needed unit conversions, I got something very close to 204 MPH, which didn’t seem surprising at all since that’s what the manufacturer claims it to be. Actually, the nozzle tapers down to 2 5/8” at the end, so when I used that number I got a faster velocity of about 224 MPH, but I guess Redmax prefers the more conservative number.

But actually, I didn’t buy mine because of the MPH number. I chose this particular brand because when I went through a lot of the previous posts, it seemed to me that there are many who use such a blower to help them make a living, and the Redmax EB7001 model came up time and time again as a thumbs up. Others brands did too, I admit, but it seemed to me that the EB7001 got more than its share of good reviews, so as a homeowner using one, I should be very satisfied with its performance. I’m pretty sure I will be. And although I also thought the EBZ8000 would have been even better, I’d prefer to not have the extra 5 pounds to lug around. And besides, what difference does it make to me if I spend an extra 10 or 15 minutes each time I blow the leaves.

[lawnmaniac883]

Well, you didnt post CFM or nozzle size numbers when saying that brand X has 235 MPH did you? All I am trying to say here is that MPH without CFM or nozzle diameter is useless and vice versa. So what if a blower has 235MPH at the nozzle if the nozzle is only 1 1/2'' wide?

[LarryF]

So what if a blower has 235MPH at the nozzle if the nozzle is only 1 1/2'' wide?

I heartily agree with you. So what! I'm not even sure why the MPH figure is provided. Seems like a "gee whiz" number that potential customers might think they can identify with, but by itself doesn't really mean much. In fairness to Redmax, however, from what I could see, they didn't use the larger MPH number that could have been associated with its nozzle diameter that is slightly smaller than the rest of the delivery tube. I can't address what the other manufacturers have done in this regard, however, because I've never seen those products.

[toymaker]

I just sold my Echo 46ht and bought a Red Max 2600 hand held. I got tired of humping that 26lbs up on my back for the small property I own in Florida. I needed the power to blow leaves uphill when I lived in upstate NY. the Red Max weighs only 8.4lbs and lots of power and no vibration. Two year residential and commercial warranty.

[byoung]

Solo 471 Kat

I have one. Had a BR600 (and others), still do....

The Solo is rated at 235mph...AND over 700 cfm. sorry that the earlier posts only listed the mph. those of you who don't have, or haven't tried this monster are missing the point of this beautiful machine...

AND take the catalyser off, (or just buy the 472...) and you get like 255/900.... believe it or not...

if you miss the noise, I can't help you, but if you want a MONSTER blower I have to recommend this thing. Its awesome....

[Pristine PM]

Hi,

All of your posts have been about Solo, are you a dealer?

[byoung]

Sorry about that. I'm probably driving people crazy.
I'm not a dealer but it's just that I did so much research before I bought my next blower and a lot of people were like 'no way' and I was only getting input about the usual major brands. But when I talked to the company, and some mechanics and a few people that acutally had one, I almost never got a bad reply. So I just took a chance since the price was so good. (and wife is 81/2 mo. pregnant... not too much spare change around if you get what i mean!) I risked 299 - (324 after shipping...) on a factory demo from these guys. Ok, so I wasn't so convinced that I bought new... Listen, there was never a drop of fuel in that tank I can tell you! It had been assembled, sure, but never run.

I've just never been so surprised by a piece of equipment is all. REALLY good build quality, it's quiet, powerful with a capitol P - I prefer it to my BR600 and Echo 751, and to be honest I think it stands against just about any blower I've tried. Whatever, disagree if you like, but these things represent a really good value against the 'big names' that most people seem to go on and on about. It's lighter and also the claims of a 2 hour run time on a tank of fuel (and it's no bigger...) are not far off. I'm not getting that quite yet, but I've been told that as it gets broken in that I may even go over.

I really like this machine a lot.

[Pristine PM]

Thanks for the reply,

I saw them at the landscape show and my dealer is picking them up. The price is right, and I like the feel of them. I really need power though, so that is part of my concern, I will be demoing them this week, I will put it against my BR 600 and let you know what I think about them face to face.

Jon

[byoung]

Yeah, try them and make your own mind up. I'm sold on them, but maybe I just like the feel of them too. If you're really interested in power primarily, you might like the 472 better. Louder, but a pretty serious jump in power. (to255mph/900+cfm I think...) I actually have a 471 and I got it un-used for a song, then for $55 or so I changed the exhaust and intake manifold to turn it into a 472 (the only differences...)- as I couldn't get that model when I wanted it. I was on a pretty serious budjet... and I like to tinker.

There are VERY few differences between the two, just power, noise and the sticker... Mine is actually a 470 01 that is now in reality a 470 02. Check the serial number plate on the side to see. Or you get a 471/472. Same machines but they come out of Germany with those numbers. I believe that the newer 472's are the absolute most powerful combination though. They have an intake that is about 2mm larger than any of the others. The possibilities are 8mm on the 471, 10mm (like mine now), or 12mm on the newest 472's. I've also read that the usual stated hp ratings are incorrect and that they actually test out at 4.7 and 4.9 for the 471/472 respectively. Interesting... but I believe it.

You know, I loved the 471 right out of the box, but now even with the new (non catalyzer) exhaust and serious power increase it's still pretty quiet. I'm convinced that a lot of people should give these things another look and not pay so much attention to the noise. Really well made.

[mwh350]

So i plopped $499 down to purchase a 471 and I am not as impressed as you are. It has only slightly more poop than the solo 440 it is replacing. I really would like to turn it into a 472. Who do I contact, or where do I get the parts to do so? Jury is still out. Honestly I haven't used a Redmax or a BR600 so I am not sure if I just expected too much from the blower, or what the problem was. I was really happy with how smooth my 440 was so that is the reason i purchased the 471. I need it to have more oomph, and would be willing to do the conversion. I just am unsure as to where I get the correct parts.

[byoung]

I converted one of my 471's and found a pretty dramatic difference in power. Not as much louder as you would imagine either - given how much air it moves... Never used a 440, but upgrading from 471 to '2' has really made a difference for me. Very well made machine.

Just go on the solo website and look at the parts diagram - or call tech support. The only parts that are different between the 471-472 are the intake manifold and the muffler. It's a 1/2 hour job. And don't forget to order the new gaskets.

Hope that helps

B

[streblerm]

I just thought I'd give this a little bump as I have a 470-01, or rather a craftsman 360.796900. It is a great running and quiet blower. I am however looking for a little more power. I am blowing apples:hammerhead: I like the more directed flow of air out of the Solo. I don't know that the BR600 would do any better.


I have been researching the part#'s and it looks like the later 472 has a different cylinder in addition to the muffler of the 470-02, and the .12mm intake manifold.

The parts are showing up to be more like $100 though. I'm thinking about just cutting the muffler open and removing the catylist and then drilling the intake manifold to 1mm.

I can get 5K rpms out of my 470-01, but I haven't done a plug read on it. I'm afraid it might be a bit on the lean side.

Does anyone know the max RPM of the 470-02 and the 472?

[streblerm]

I did what I said above to the craftsman/solo blower. I also opened the muffler opening 50%. It made noticeable improvements. It still left me wanting more. To be fair, the solo 470 series is one heck of a blower, but my needs include moving large amounts of apples and black walnuts.

So, I bought a new BR600 Magnum. I borrowed a friends BR550 and found it to be significantly stronger than the Solo. The BR600 is one awesome blower. It will remove thatch, move apples, gravel, black walnuts embedded into the ground (flush). I can blow a pile of dry leaves 15-20 feet without moving:weightlifter: It is almost like using one of the walk behind blowers.

I had always heard that Solo is somewhat optimistic regarding their specifications for their equipment. After running the BR600 against the Solo blower, I can honestly say that their performance is nowhere near as close as the numbers suggest. I suspect that Solo's 235MPH and 700+ CFM rating is at the housing not the tube.

I am not bashing Solo here. They still make a fantastic and very quiet blower. I have some of their other equipment and it is top notch. If I were only moving grass clippings and leaves, and noise was a major concern, the solo would be a fine performer. If you are looking for the flat out most powerful blower you can get for $500, the BR600 is it.

[avguy]

While I have not tried Solo & some of the others I did purchase a BR600 magnum. Used it yesterday to corral some hickory nuts & it did a great job. Didn't know what I'd been missing.........