Every fall, the same proverbial old question comes back: should you fire up a powered vacuum or grab a rake and a bucket like your grandpa did?

When a coworker with three or four huge sycamore trees asked if she should buy a STIHL SH 56 C-E, we realized we did not have a real answer. So we took this blower/vac into an actual yard, put it head-to-head against a rake, and tried to see where it shines and where it falls short.

You will see how it does on open lawn, how clean it leaves the yard, how easy it is to bag the debris, and how it handles tight spaces around shrubs and air conditioners. Along the way, our opinion about this tool changed more than we expected.

This test started with a very real problem. Our coworker has big sycamore trees that dump huge leaves all over her yard. She was ready to buy a STIHL SH 56 C-E vacuum and shredder, but we worried she might regret it if it did not perform better than a simple rake.

So we set some clear goals. We wanted to compare:

• Time to clean a leaf-covered lawn
• How clean the yard looked afterward
• How easy it was to get debris into garbage bags
• Performance in tight spaces, like hedges and around equipment

We also wanted to know if this tool is something you would actually use all season, or if it would become one more gadget that sits in the shed.

A quick note on who is doing the testing. We are from Main Street Mower, a real mower shop with a real service counter and a full online store. You can order the STIHL SH 56 C-E and a lot of other gear right from Main Street Mower's website, which also makes it a nice option for Christmas gifts for the lawn lover in your life.

With the background set, we took the blower/vac and a rake into a St. Augustine lawn to start the first race.

The first test was simple. Leaves had fallen across an open area of St. Augustine grass. No obstacles, just a blanket of sycamore leaves.

We set up two different strategies:

1. Rake and bucket methodChip used a rake to pull the leaves into piles, then scooped them into a large open-top plastic bucket. Once the bucket was full, he would dump it into a garbage bag.

2. Vacuum and shred methodStu used the STIHL SH 56 C-E in vacuum mode. His plan was to walk the lawn in a sweeping motion, suck up the leaves, let the machine shred them, and fill the attached bag. Then he would empty that bag into a garbage bag.

Right away, the grass type made things interesting. St. Augustine is thick and tends to hang on to leaves. You do not just glide over it with a rake and pull everything in one pass. If leaves sit there for a while, they settle down in the blades of grass and you have to work to pull them out.

Before the race got going, something about the STIHL SH 56 C-E stood out.

With the nozzle, you can decide what you pick up based on how close you get to the ground:

• If you drop the nozzle down close to bare dirt or mulch, it has the power to pull up heavier material like bark or loose mulch.
• If you keep it about 3 to 4 inches above the surface, it will pull in leaves and lighter debris but leave heavier mulch in place.

That little “hover gap” is a big deal. In a mulched bed, you do not want to vacuum up all the mulch every time you clean leaves. By floating the nozzle just above the surface, Stu could pick up loose leaves while leaving the mulch behind.

With a rake, you often have to dig and scratch at the same spots to get stubborn pieces out, and you tend to disturb mulch and grass more.

During the race, another big difference showed up. Stu could move in wider passes, roughly a foot and a half at a time, while Chip was moving the rake maybe 6 inches at a time. Chip tried to go fast, but that meant chasing wind-blown “onesie twosie” leaves across the yard and making several passes over the same grass.

By the time Chip had stomped leaves down in the bucket and tried to keep them from falling out, he was breathing hard. Stu was just walking and sweeping.

Going into this test, everyone expected the rake to win on an open lawn. A rake is simple, cheap, and usually pretty fast. That did not happen.

When they finished their sections and stepped back, both guys agreed that the vacuumed area looked better. There were fewer bits of grass and less random debris, and the remaining leaves were almost none. The raked area had a few stray leaves and more disturbed grass.

Chip was surprised by how much time he lost when he tried to dump leaves from the bucket. He had stomped them down to crush them, but as soon as he tilted the bucket, a lot of leaves wanted to pour back out. Getting them from bucket to bag was clumsy.

The vacuum bag, on the other hand, told a different story when Stu opened it. The contents were shredded into tight little pieces, packed firmly in the bag. It took up much less volume than the loose leaves from the rake and bucket.

By raw performance on an open lawn:

• The STIHL SH 56 C-E cleaned faster.
• The finished area looked cleaner.
• The leaves were already shredded and compacted, which would matter a lot at bagging time.

Even in the category where the rake should have had the clear edge, the blower/vac held its own and then some.

Cleaning the yard is only half the job. At some point, you have to get those leaves into a trash bag, a can, or a pile for pickup. So the next step was to see how each method handled that last part of the workflow.

Stu started with the STIHL SH 56 C-E. To empty it, he:

1. Popped the bag off the side of the unit.
2. Unzipped the long zipper on the side of the bag.
3. Tipped the bag over a trash bag and poured the shredded leaves in.

His reaction summed it up: “That is cool. That was pretty easy.”

There was still room left in the vacuum bag, which shows how much the shredding reduces the leaf volume. You can run longer between dumps and get more total leaves into each garbage bag.

Then it was Chip’s turn. He used what they called the “catchy can,” which is basically a big dust pan on steroids. It is great for raking into, but it has one huge drawback: it does not play nicely with trash bags.

Because of the shape, he had to come in at an angle, reach around the bag, and try to tip without knocking everything over. Again, leaves tried to fall out the front as he tilted the can, and it took a few moves to get everything where it needed to go.

Once both garbage bags were full, they did a quick “weigh-in” by hand. There was a joke about a pound of leaves versus a pound of rocks, but the real takeaway was that the vacuum had reduced the leaf size so much that it packed tighter, even though the total material felt similar.

Here is a simple comparison of how the two methods stacked up in this first test.

Both methods ended with roughly the same amount of leaf material in the trash bags, but the path to get there was very different.

They went into the day thinking, “Why would you buy this when a rake is twenty bucks and twice as fast?” After this test, they had to admit that the rake was not faster, and it did not leave the yard as clean.

Open lawn is only part of the story. Leaves love to hide in places where a rake does not work well at all, like shrubs, foundation plantings, and around air conditioner units.

To really test that, the guys walked down the street and found a house with hedges full of sycamore leaves. Chip knocked on the door, explained that they had a leaf vacuum they were testing, and asked if they could use the front yard as a test site.

The homeowner said yes, so part two of the test was on.

This yard had hedges with mulch underneath and a lot of leaves packed deep in the branches. That is the kind of area where raking never feels great.

Chip went in with the rake again. Right away, you could see the problems:

• The rake head could not reach all the way under the hedge.
• Any time he did get the rake in deep, it dragged out mulch along with the leaves.
• The shape of the planting bed and the proximity to the hedge limited his movement.

It was slow, awkward work, and there were always a few leaves that seemed to stay tucked against the stems or stuck in the middle of the hedge.

Stu took the STIHL SH 56 C-E in vacuum mode and worked the same hedge line.

Here, the strengths of the vacuum were obvious:

• He could point the nozzle into gaps between branches and pull leaves out without yanking on the plants.
• The suction pulled leaves out from under the shrubs where the rake could not reach.
• He did not have to stir up mulch. The same hover trick from the lawn test let him grab leaves and leave most of the mulch in place.

The speed difference was huge. Stu finished his side and then went over to help Chip wrap up the raked area.

They also pointed out some other tight spots where this kind of tool shines: around air conditioning units, in narrow side yards, and in tight corners where rakes either do not fit or dig up too much soil and mulch.

A lot of people look at a dedicated vac and think, “I do not need a tool that I only use three times a year. I need a blower.”

That is where one detail about this unit matters. The STIHL SH 56 C-E is the same power head as the BG 56 handheld blower, but when you buy it as an SH model, it comes with all the tubes, bag, and parts you need to run it as a vacuum as well.

Stu showed how simple the swap is. Switching from blower to vac configuration takes about 30 seconds and is “super easy to configure.” So you are not buying a single-purpose gadget. You are buying your everyday handheld blower that just happens to turn into a vacuum and shredder when you want it to.

In vac mode:

• It pulls leaves out of your yard,
• Shreds them with a metal impeller,
• And bags them for removal, instead of just blowing them from one corner of the yard to another.

That “removal” part is a big quality of life upgrade if you are tired of chasing the same leaves back and forth.

By the end of both tests, the tone had changed a lot.

Going in, the thinking was simple. A rake is cheap. A rake is fast. Why would most homeowners need a gas-powered vacuum?

After actually racing them in real yards, they found the opposite:

• The rake did not win even on its home turf, the open lawn.
• The STIHL SH 56 C-E cleaned faster and left less behind.
• The vacuum shredded leaves into tight, compact pieces that were much easier to bag.
• In tight spaces around shrubs and hedges, the rake was not even in the same league.

They also highlighted a key upgrade on the current STIHL SH 56 C-E model. It now comes with a metal “blender blade” (impeller) already installed from the factory. That blade is what does the shredding, and based on the bag contents, it “mulched wonderful.”

The guys even joked that they had been wrong for years by not pushing these tools more. They had avoided recommending them, and now they were apologizing for it on camera and saying that pretty much every household in America could use one of these.

One of them summed up his own change of heart: “I was not a believer for years, and I am today. It is very handy.”

If your yard collects any real amount of leaves, the STIHL SH 56 C-E is hard to ignore after a test like this.

You get:

• A full handheld blower for everyday cleanup.
• A fast-converting vacuum setup that can be ready in about 30 seconds.
• Strong suction that reaches spots where rakes and even blowers struggle.
• A metal impeller that shreds leaves into tight, compact pieces.
• Easy bag emptying with a simple unzip and pour motion.

The price will always be higher than a simple rake, but the guys in the test went from “why would you buy this” to “I am going to sell our friend one now” in a single afternoon. When a tool beats a rake in both speed and final result, and then makes bagging easier, it starts to justify its place in the garage.

If you want to look at the exact unit they used, you can find the STIHL SH 56 C-E gas-powered handheld blower/vac with Easy2Start on the Main Street Mower site. You can also browse other outdoor power tools and accessories at the main Main Street Mower online store.

Leaf season comes every year. Whether you stick with a rake or step up to a blower/vac that actually removes and shreds what it picks up, your choice decides how many hours you spend chasing leaves around the yard.

Links to Main Street Mower

• Shop online: Main Street Mower
• YouTube: Main Street Mower on YouTube
• Facebook: Main Street Mower on Facebook
• Instagram: Main Street Mower on Instagram
• TikTok: Main Street Mower on TikTok