Expand-It Sweeper Attachment

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] bought to help clear snow after shoveling does what I wanted it to swept the end of a shared driveway in photo, left side is swept only problem I had was couldn't get the handle tight, added a little piece of rubber, problem solved

Works well only down side it is a little on the haevy side good thing it has wheels

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I bought the Expand-It Sweeper to power brush my artificial turf and it works great. I attached it to my Ryobi 40-Volt brushless trimmer and get great power out of it. Also using the upgraded 6Ah battery. Check out the photos!

Bought this a month ago to get the gravel off the grass and back into the driveway after winter plowing. There is a learning curve to using it but once you get used to it, it works well. I raised the wheels so the sweeper is more off the ground so I can control how much it touches the ground better (Wish the directions had said what size wrench was needed to loosen the nuts). It is heavier than I expected, but the wheels make it easy to move around. It will kick back if it contacts the ground too much but again, you just need to get used to it. I will attach pix of area I did - took about 2 hours to clean up the gravel, and 2 batteries. Much quicker than raking the area, which took 2 of us all day last year, and does a better job. The area was not completely covered with grass, and there is also a maple tree there so it kicked up alot of maple whirly-gigs & dirt along with the gravel. Cleaned up the area well but we now may sift the gravel out before putting it back in the driveway. Some reviews I read mentioned they thought it might work well to de-thatch your lawn so I tried that too. Seemed to do that well, again once you get the hang of how to position it. Tried it out on an established lawn, and also went over an area where daylilies were coming up & was impressed that it cleaned up the debris without damaging the plants. You can see the strips in the pix - middle area was raked, side strips done with sweeper. Don't think I'd used it on a lawn that was only a year or two old but was OK on established lawn. I bought the Ryobi 40V string trimmer first, then the cultivator which I love. Have 2 batteries/chargers & 2 shafts. So far I love all 3 tools and think they have great power and decent battery life. My only wish is that the batteries charged quicker. I start with 2 fully charged batteries & once the first one runs out I start it charging again right away. By the time the 2nd one has run out the first one still hasn't charged again. I end up having to wait for it to finish charging before I can get back to work.

I was initially skeptical about buying this to clean and fluff my artificial turf. I was pleasantly surprised. This unit works perfectly for this task as I was doing it before only with my blower and a manual carpet rake. The nylon tines on this unit are very sturdy and there is enough of them that the job is done well. This will "deep clean" the turf and remove pine needles and gravel. Going against the "grain" of the turf will make it stand straight again and look like new. I still used my blower to blow off all the stuff that remained after the power sweep. Highly recommended if you are wanting to refurbish your artificial turf, especially for the price point. Another really nice thing is that the unit comes with a hanger to store it when you are not using it.

I don't know what to think about this. Maybe I just don't have the right situations to use it properly. It does what it says as it turns the bristles quickly to sweep up. It's fairly easy to use but debris will fly forward pretty fast compared to using a broom. The attachment is easy to mount on the Expand-it capable trimmer heads. The wheels make it easy to move around but it's not very heavy. Especially with the cordless version trimmer head. Everything is well constructed and the sweeper works as intended. About the only thing I could think to use it for is to sweep away the grass and soil after edging an overgrown section of lawn. It got rid of the debris but there was still noticeable soil in the pores of the concrete. Not much different than using my Ryobi cordless leaf blower and foot. It does what it says and if you find yourself using a push broom outdoors a lot this might be for you. If you find yourself using a hose to hose off surfaces outside and want to stop using water either because you don't want to waste it, you don't have access to a hose or it just makes a wet mess this might be a good choice for you.

This power sweeper works very well on heavy debris like mud and stones, but not for leaves and grass, for which a blower accessory is more suitable. The sweeper will fit both battery and gas powered trimmers however we found that the gas powered trimmer produced the best results as it spins the 9” long nylon bristles faster. I’m not sure I would recommend this for use with a battery powered trimmer as the results were average. I attached a video to this review so you can see the sweeper in action. We already own a number of the Ryobi Expand-It accessories including a blower/vac, a pole saw and a hedge trimmer so we decided to give this power sweeper a try. Like most interchangeable trimmer accessories, this will fit the Ryobi brand as well as those of their competitors, so it is very versatile. I used it to tackle some deeper, dried on mud and dirt under a bush on the driveway and this is where the sweeper really came into its element. I tried the battery trimmer power head first however it doesn’t rotate the bristles fast enough for them to be effective, so I switched back over to the Ryobi 4 cycle gas trimmer. After a couple of passes, most of the baked on mud was off the driveway and the wheels made maneuvering the sweeper around very easy. I do recommend wearing a mask as it produces a fair amount of dust when in use. We also tried the power sweeper with the Ryobi 40 Volt RY40220 trimmer. The battery was fully charged before we started. Using the sweeper on oak leaves on our driveway, the sweeper simply redistributed the leaves and scattered them around, leaving quite a lot of dust and dirt still on the concrete pad. We then switched over to the Ryobi 4-cycle gas trimmer and the sweeper, the results were better in as much as there was less dust and dirt left on the concrete, however the leaves and dust still went everywhere. This is definitely more suited to dealing with heavier debris like mud/dirt, snow etc. When the sweeper is not in use, it is supplied with a cap which clips onto the end of the shaft that includes a hook loop, allowing the sweeper to be hung on a wall for storage. This is handy since at about 15” square with a 3' long shaft, the sweeper is quite bulky. The sweeper was fully assembled with the exception of the optional shaft handle which I didn’t bother using as our gas trimmer already had one attached. It comes with a 3 year limited warranty.

This is a pretty good sweeper but it takes up a good amount of storage and is specialized. If you want something to remove leaves and light dirt, stick with a broom. If you have a gravel driveway or are on a gravel road and need something to routinely clean up gravel, this is the tool for you. It also works pretty well with light snow and removing that base layers of snow. This is also not anywhere near as good as a power washer. I use this with the 40-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Attachment Capable String Trimmer (Model # RY40220). I understand it works with many other trimmers. At the bottom of this review is a quick video on the sweeper's operation. This sweeper is designed well and fairly durable. Attaching it to a trimmer is pretty easy and operating it just as easy. It takes a little getting used to. I find it kicks up medium to heavy debris well. The bristles are nice and thick which is great for larger debris but not for a smooth consistent clean of caked on dirt. The speed at which the brush spins is good, but it could be faster for better sweeping. The sweeper comes with a device to hang it and an adjustable handle (see pictures). I am not sure what the handle is for, I assume its if you use a trimmer that doesn't have a handle, one is provided. Overall, this is a real niche product and it can do wonders for you, I just recommend considering what you need it for because it will take up space in your garage or shed.

I live in Idaho and the winters bring all kinds of weather. For snow I usually use my snow blower, but it tends to leave a film over everything. The sweeper breaks up the final layer and I blow it off with a leaf blower, leaving a clean driveway and sidewalks that won't be slippery to walk on. And in the spring, I use it to sweep off all the salt and gravel from the street that get blown into the yard and median. The wheels are a must, as it is just too heavy to use otherwise. It is still awkward to use, but it gets the job done. The bristles are not as numerous as on some models, but they are stiff enough. They can also be easily replaced when they wear out with just a couple cotter pins holding them on. Installation is easy and it works with any standard gas or battery trimmer that accepts attachments.

This product is not good to clean artificial grass. I bought this sweeper to clean my artificial grass. I have a large mesquite tree over the artificial grass which drops small leaves and twigs. The Ryobi sweeper was not the right tool to clean the grass. It throws the debris being swept to the front. If I angled the brushes down to deep into the grass the sweeper kicked back at me, and was hard to control. If I angled it a little higher it did not get the leaves out of the grass. It would be better if there was a way to set the angle of the sweeper. Another improvement would be to have a catcher on it. I am returning the sweeper and the power head.