By
Matt
August 31, 2022Upgraded Gear is supported by its readers. We may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you when buying using a link on our site.
A leaf picker upper is a category of tools that can save you hours of work in the fall. Some types of leaf picker uppers include leaf scoops, shredders, leaf blowers with mulching features, lawn vacuums, and more. If you're looking for the best solution to your leaf problem, then you're in the right place.
To create this article, we spent hours researching product data and user reviews for different leaf picker uppers. After reviewing the data, we've compiled a list of our top picks.
Tip: If you need help, then we recommend skipping ahead to our buying guide which lists important things to consider when purchasing a leaf picker upper.
| WORX WG512 3-in-1 Blower / Mulcher / Vacuum |  | Best Leaf Vacuum | Type: Handheld Leaf Blower Vacuum | Power Source: Electrical Outlet | Total Price: $$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Earthwise 50002 Gator Grabber |  | Best Leaf Grabber | Type: Leaf Grabber | Power Source: Your Hands! | Total Price: $ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| GARDEASE ReLeaf Leaf Scoops |  | Best Leaf Scoop | Type: Leaf Grabber | Power Source: Your Hands! | Total Price: $ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Agri-Fab 45-0218 26-Inch Push Lawn Sweeper |  | Best Walk Behind Leaf Sweeper | Type: Lawn Sweeper | Power Source: Manual Push | Total Price: $$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| WORX WG430 Leaf Shredder |  | Best Electric Leaf Shredder | Type: Leaf Shredder | Power Source: Electrical Outlet | Total Price: $$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Agri-Fab 44-Inch Lawn Sweeper 45-0492 |  | Best Tow Behind Leaf Sweeper | Type: Lawn Sweeper | Power Source: External Source | Total Price: $$$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Billy Goat Lawn Vacuum Chipper TKV650SPH |  | Best Lawn Vacuum Chipper | Type: Self-Propelled Lawn Vacuum | Power Source: Gas | Total Price: $$$$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Agri-Fab Tow-Behind Mow-N-Vac 45-0577 |  | Best Tow Behind Leaf Vacuum | Type: Tow-Behind Lawn Vacuum | Power Source: Gas | Total Price: $$$$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Husqvarna 125BVx Hand Held Blower |  | Best Gas Blower | Type: Handheld Blower Vacuum | Power Source: Gas | Total Price: $$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
| Honda HRX217VKA Gas Mower Shredder |  | Best Mulching Mower | Type: Lawn Mower Shredder | Power Source: Gas | Total Price: $$$ | VIEW LATEST PRICE | Read Our Analysis |
More Details on Our Top Picks
The WORX WG512 is a blower, mulcher, leaf vacuum, and the best leaf picker upper for many people. It has great specs for an electric model, with a max air speed of 70 mph and max air volume of 600 cfm. The WG512 is also electric, so you don't have to mix oil or gas. Just bring it out at the start of leaf season and plug it in!
As for its vacuum and mulching features, the WG512 has a metal impeller with an 16:1 reduction ratio. This means that the included 9-gallon debris bag should hold the equivalent of about 162 gallons of leaves (9-gallons x 16:1 reduction ratio).
If you need more storage, you can get the LeafPro Collection System to connect the WG512 to a trashcan. Taking into account the 18:1 reduction ratio, a 32-gallon trashcan translates more than 500 gallons of leaves, and a 96-gallon trashcan translates into more than 1,500 gallons! That's a lot of leaves!
The Earthwise Gator Grabber is a telescoping leaf clean-up tool that helps reduce bending over to pick up leaves. It's easy to use and well-designed, with a set of adjustable handles to change the height. The Gator Grabber also features poly-fiber jaws with teeth to help you clean up all types of yard debris. It grips leaves, landscape clippings, brush, and more. The shafts are powder-coated steel for increased durability.
The GARDEASE ReLeaf Leaf Scoops are great leaf picker uppers for just about anyone. The leaf grabbers are extremely practical and inexpensive! It's possible to scoop up to 5 gallons of leaves at a time and they help make short work of even the biggest jobs. The GARDEASE ReLeaf Leaf Scoops are one size fits all, so even your kids can get in on the fun. Who doesn't like wearing giant bear claws? You could even use them for Halloween to dress up as our favorite green superhero! They have lots of uses and are lots of fun!
The Agri-Fab 45-0218 is the best walk-behind lawn sweeper for the money. It doesn't require gas, oil, or electricity, and it's powered by your sheer willpower and determination. It's a great alternative to a gas-powered option, and it's also environmentally friendly. Some additional features on the Agri-Fab that we like are its 4.5:1 gear ratio for easier pushing, flat-free tires, and an easy-empty hopper. Overall, we think a walk-behind lawn sweeper is an excellent choice if you don't need the leaves shredded and have another way to dispose of them after collection.
The WORX WG430 is a fantastic leaf picker upper for anyone who wants a compact and easy to use electric solution. The shredder features a wide leaf hopper and a powerful 13-amp motor designed to shred up to 53 gallons of leaves per minute!
Additional features include a collapsible spring design for easy storage, lightweight at only 20 pounds, and easy assembly. As with other electric shredders, you don't need to worry about mixing gas or adding oil. Just plug it into an electrical outlet and start shredding!
The Agri-Fab 44-Inch Lawn Sweeper is the best tow-behind sweeper on the market. It has a hopper capacity of about 187 gallons and an easy-dump lever to empty the bag without leaving the tractor. It also features a universal fit hitch and an adjustable brush height.
If you already have a way to dispose of leaves after collection, then the Ari-Fab 45-0492 is a perfect choice. The brushes on the sweeper push the leaves into the collection hopper without cutting or reducing their size. So you'll need to bag the leaves, burn them, or find a place to dump them for disposal.
The Billy Goat Lawn Vacuum is a great leaf picker upper to help keep your lawn leaf-free. It shares many similarities to a lawnmower because it's self-propelled, has a rear collection bag, and runs on gas. The critical difference, however, is in the blade design. Instead of using a lawnmower mulching blade, the Billy Goat uses a five-blade serrated impeller which has a higher reduction ratio than a typical lawnmower blade. It also has a large collection hopper to hold gallons of leaves and debris.
Okay, we saved the best for last. The Billy Goat TKV650SPH also includes an integrated chipper and chute that accepts branches up to 2-inches in diameter! So not only can you clean up the leaves off your lawn, but you can also clean up debris, fallen tree limbs, twigs, and landscape clippings! It's literally 2 machines in 1!
The Agri-Fab Mow-N-Vac 45-0577 is the best tow-behind leaf picker upper on the market. Let's talk about how it works. You start by connecting the deck adapter to your garden tractor or zero turn mower. As you mow, the leaves exit the exhaust port of your tractor, go through the tube, get further reduced by the impeller in the Mow-N-Vac, then shoot out into the enclosed cart.
The enclosed cart holds around 239 gallons, which is a lot when you consider that any leaves are first processed by your mower and then further reduced by the impeller in the Mow-N-Vac. After filling the cart with leaves, shut off the Mow-N-Vac engine, tilt the container backward, and rake out the contents. The Mow-N-Vac can help with even the largest leaf problems!
We think that the Husqvarna 125BVx is the best handheld gas leaf blower with a vacuum and mulching attachment. Husqvarna is a well-known and respected brand and with many high ratings and reviews. The blower has a powerful 2-stroke engine and it's spec'd to deliver a max air speed of 170 MPH and max air volume of 425 CFM. This leaf picker upper's clear benefits are its portability and functionality as a serious leaf blower. It's great for people with a few trees and who need a better way to get rid of their leaf problems.
The Honda HRX217VKA is your best choice if you need a leaf picker upper that also functions as a lawnmower. It features two stacked cutting blades (most mowers only have one blade) to shred grass and leaves up into a fine consistency. This Honda mower also has a proprietary Versamow system to switch between mulching, bagging, and leaf shredding quickly.
Its 23-gallon collection bag and 8:1 reduction ratio mean this mower can effectively hold about 184 gallons of leaves or roughly 6 x 30-gallon bags.
Additional highlights include a Honda engine backed by a 5-year warranty and a Nexite rust-free deck with a limited lifetime warranty. The Honda HRX217VKA is the perfect choice if you have less than an acre to mow and want the dual functionality of a mower and leaf shredder.
If you have a leaf problem, then you need a leaf picker upper. But what type do you need? In this guide, we cover all your options so you can find the right one for your needs. We're going to start with the least expensive and work our way up to machines that can tackle even the largest leaf problems.
The least expensive type of leaf picker upper is a leaf scoop, and it provides a lot of value at a low price. The scoops resemble claws and fasten to your hands. When attached, the scoops let you pick up about 10 times more leaves at once than using your hands alone!
Leaf scoops are an excellent choice if you already have your leaves in a pile. It makes it easy to pick up loads of leaves and toss them into a trashcan or burn pile. It also features easy storage and has high product ratings.
Finally, scoops are fun to use if you have kids because you’ll have the best times as a family and make great memories. Seriously, who doesn't like wearing giant bear claws, growling, and rolling around in beautiful leaves?
A leaf grabber is another inexpensive leaf picker upper that is great for people who want to save their back. Leaf grabbers look like a massive pair of tongs (like you'd use on the grill), but they have a long handle like you'd find on a leaf rake. The hinged design lets you pick up big piles of leaves without straining your back.
The only negative about a leaf grabber, or scoops for that matter, is they are time-consuming on a large area with lots of leaves. If you have more than an acre or tons of trees, then you might want to look at an easier solution.
A leaf shredder is the next step up from a leaf grabber or scoop, and it's the perfect type of leaf picker upper for many situations. Leaf shredders are designed with claws attached to a flywheel that shred dry leaves and garden debris into smaller pieces. Most leaf shredders have something called a "reduction ratio," which indicates how many bags of leaves the machine can turn into a single bag.
For example, a leaf shredder with a 21:1 reduction ratio can take what would be 21 bags of leaves and shred them down into just one bag! Having a single bag to place by the curb saves you money and reduces the amount of garbage for pickup.
Also, instead of bagging the shredded leaves, the best option is using them in your flower beds or compost pile. The shreddings are full of nitrogen and a fantastic addition to any soil.
The next type of leaf picker upper is a leaf blower with a vacuum and mulching feature. The most common are gas and electric-powered models.
Gas leaf blowers are more powerful than electric models but they require mixing gas and oil, cleaning the air filter, and possible carburetor maintenace down the road. However, a gas blower doesn't need an extension cord, so it's more portable than an electric blower.
Electric leaf blowers need an electrical outlet, which limits range without a generator. However, they are quieter than gas models, and maintenance is virtually non-existent because they don't use gas or oil. Also, even though an electric blower isn't as strong as a gas blower, it's still a powerful leaf blower in its own right.
But regardless of which type of handheld leaf vacuum you choose, the most important consideration is the collection bag/container. Most handheld leaf blowers typically have a shoulder-mounted collection bag that only holds a few gallons of leaves. The limited capacity isn't such a big deal if you only have a small leaf problem. But if you have lots of leaves, then you need a better solution.
If you have many leaves, the better solution is to use a stationary collection container, which can be as small as 26 gallons or as large as 96 gallons. Some leaf blowers include hoses that attach to the exhaust port and feed into a collection bin. If you factor in the reduction ratio of the mulching blower, the 26-gallon bin holds over 400 gallons of leaves and a 96-gallon container holds 1,536 gallons of leaves!
When buying a leaf blower, additional considerations include variable speed controls, multiple blower modes for high speed and low speed, cruise control, comfort handles, and low noise design.
A lawn sweeper is another type of leaf picker upper that makes yard work easy, helping you deal with fallen leaves. Lawn sweepers are available in walk-behind models, and tow-behind models pulled by a garden tractor or zero-turn mower.
As the sweeper rolls over your lawn, its brushes sweep leaves into the collection container, which is less work than even the best rake on the market. When the box fills up, you can empty the leaves into leaf bags, toss them on a burn pile, or shred them using a leaf shredder.
If you have many leaves, then a tow-behind model is the better choice because it has more storage capacity, holding on about 187 gallons or 25 cubic feet of leaves.
A lawnmower with a shredding feature is an excellent leaf picker upper, but not all shredding mowers are created equal. You can attach a "mulching" blade to any mower, but that doesn't make it great at mulching. The best mulching mowers have dual stacked blades that spin ridiculously fast, cutting each blade of grass and each leaf multiple times to create tiny pieces.
The best benefit of a mulching mower is that it works in the fall season to clean your lawn of leaves and mow your lawn in the spring and summer! It's like having two tools in one! The other benefit of a mower is picking up wet leaves, pine needles, and lawn debris types without skipping a beat. It's a great choice if you need high-end lawn care.
If you have a severe leaf problem, then the best leaf picker upper for your needs is a leaf vacuum (also called a lawn vacuum). The first type we'll discuss is a walk-behind gas-powered vacuum. It looks just like a lawnmower but has a different blade design.
Unlike using a mulching blade or dual blades, a leaf vacuum has a high-strength metal impeller designed to shred the leaves into a very fine consistency. The reduction ratio on a walk-behind leaf vacuum is usually 12:1, and its collection bag usually holds up to 40 gallons of shredded leaves. If you do some math, this works out to 480 gallons of leaves or 16 x 30-gallon bags!
The final category of leaf picker uppers is a tow-behind gas leaf vacuum. If you have tons of leaves, this is the best choice to solve your problems! You can pull it across the yard with a garden tractor or zero-turn mower, and it's self-powered. As you mow leaves, the cuttings are sent through a pipe and into the motor's impeller for further shredding. The shreddings are output through a discharge chute and then into an enclosed trailer.
Okay, let's talk about how much the container can hold. If we take the Agri-Fab Mow-N-Vac as an example, its container holds 239 gallons of shredded leaves. Its reduction ratio is 5:1, so the container holds 1,195 gallons of leaves, which is 40 x 30-gallon bags! As you can see, a tow-behind model is the best leaf vacuum and best fall tool for people with lots of leaves!
