German Efficiency - Only the design

What a disappointment! What at first appeared to be a rugged, well made and simple to set-up device just can't do the job. It failed to catch the edges, and what's more, the plastic-blade (on a reel) repeatedly kept getting warped or simply cut off! Not what I expect from Bosch - you can do a whole lot better.

Excellent garden blower, not so good vac

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.

Disappointing

I bought this strimmer because it was on offer. That was a mistake.

The performance was adequate when it was new, but has dropped off badly to the point where I rarely use it. The main problem is the cassette; it sticks so that line has to be fed by turning the machine upside down and extending it manually. And the head keeps falling off. I have now lost part of it so can't use the machine even if I wanted to. Spares are almost impossible to buy. I have managed to find spools, but I need the whole casette unit and nobody seems to have any.

Stick to one of the commoner makes. My old Black and Decker lasted years and rarely faltered, and spares were never a problem.