Does the 7500 nozzle make the 8500 perform better? Ive red some posts where others say they dont notice a difference with the 7500 tip.
I dont like the flared out tip on the 580/8500. It seemed not be as controlled causing debris to come back towards the operator which means u have to take a few steps back to get the scattered debris.
What does the extra tube do for the scraper nozzle? Get the air flow lower to the ground to get under stuff?
EBZ7500 vs 8500 vs Stihl BR600 Magnum
HP: 4 / 4.5 (+10%) / 3.8
CFM: 750 / 900 / 712
MPH: 235 / 205 / 200
The 8500 nozzle has a flair at the end to create a wide blast and move a large amount of dry leaves and grass. The 8500 nozzle therefore sucks air from around the outside of the nozzle and adds it to the air inside the tube to create an even larger blast of air. I'd guess the 8500's blast has slightly more effective speed than the Stihl backpack, but with a
lot more volume. The effective speed should be about the same as out of a 7500, but with more volume.
I say "effective speed" because the speed is measured in the end of the tube as a industry "standard" (because that's where the highest reading is, and that makes for better marketing literature), but what reaches the target is what we're really interested in. Real-world testing shows up a lot different than "in the tube."
The 7500 nozzle doesn't have the flair at the end (which the 8500 does), just a cone where the output is a bit "tighter." The 7500 nozzle therefore sucks air from around the outside of the nozzle and adds to a straight jet of air that is a bit stronger/faster for more distance at a slight cost in air volume. The end result of putting the 7500 nozzle on the 8500 is more "lift" and "throw" on wet debris, but has more of a tunnel effect than the wide wall from the 8500 nozzle.
The scraper head is like a Dyson hand dryer, a "knife edge" of air. Turn it sideways and it blows the nozzle to the left (or right), but it's really effective at ripping wet oak leaves out of long grass. Turn it flat and it has more lift, but "scrapes" far less area at a time and takes longer. This is where the 8500 shines, it puts the power down and pulls the leaves up. It's as much backpack as a person can reasonably manage, in my opinion.
The extra tube is used as an "extension" to get the nozzle closer to the ground (I'm 6'2"), and is much harder on the arm. I use my left hand under the tube to help guide it and take strain off the control handle. This plus the scraper peels the leaves out of the grass (and acorns, branches, shingles, candy wrappers, dog chocolate, etc.) for a clean, "fresh" looking lawn that outshines the neighbors service (huge selling point) at half the cost in time or less (about twice the income, plus the bump for "the best lawn guy ever!"). Find an opening in the brush and it'll jet them through. The trick is to have the helper do the fast stuff with a smaller blower, then use the 8500 to jet the mess into a huge row. Use the scraper turned flat to start 8" in from the closest edge of the pile at one side and kind of undercut the pile, meaning if you start on the left side the pile will want to blow further left because the leaves on the right act as kind of a wall. When you get to the far right, back up, and hit the 8" left over, and "scraping" the lawn clean at the same time.
I keep working that way until there are so many leaves I have to form a "U" shape to keep the debris in a more narrow path toward "the goal." Then I'll wind up with an outer protective U and an inner, huge U. I'll cut the inner U back and forth 3 or 4 times to get the huge pile moved, then attack the outer U, moving the "protective barrier" forward. Toward the end the helper and I form a "V" and keep the blow-back to a minimum. The 8500 will generally "lift and throw" while the smaller has a supporting stream to act as a barrier and keep the blow-back down. If that's not working the 8500 with one of the nozzles will work to form a huge air wall.
This is a lot of coordination and a hell of a lot of work and constant thinking, evaluating, and predicting. Because of the wind there's pre-planning and a game plan. However, the day goes extremely fast, there's no time to be bored, and we clear twice as many jobs in the same amount of time (travel and unload time doesn't get any faster, but the jobs go at least twice as fast). At the end of the day we're darn sore, there's no getting around that. Fuel consumption is down over-all, because of the time savings, but the gallons per hour is way up, so bring extra tanks and use two (or four) pumps at the station early in the morning.
This is not the luxury BR600. This is men's work, in a truck, not a latte-sipping electric car surf-my-important-facebook-profiles and tweet my sweater color at the coffee shop pillow-fluff day. They don't even have homes, they rent a box with 400 other rodents. This is not "hipster," this is trees and nature, oil-and-gas mix, the smell of sweat, leaves, and rugged.
When it's about doing an excellent job "putting brown down" and "green in the jeans," this setup works.
