I Have only Had this for 2 Months & Already Glad to Give it the Thumbs up, Love the 4- Stroke Quietness & Smoothness, No Mixing Fuel, No Smell or Oil Leaks. Starts First Time Every Time . My 2-Stroke Days are Over. Well Done Makita, Easy to Give 5 star Rating

Had mine for 2 years now, use it once a month for about 30 min at a time (usually at full noise & blow only, never tried it on Vac as there's too many gum nuts around that will probably wreck the impeller).
I always drain the fuel before putting it away and put fresh stuff in it when I use it, never had a problem. Starts pretty much first or second pull every time!
Heard somewhere the motors are made by Subaru? (Not confirmed).

I use mine exclusively in vac mode but not very frequently. It hasn't had a hard life.
Outer casing cracked and sprayed macerated leaves all over the place. Bought a replacement casing, used it for a while and the same thing has happened. This time worse because now the main plastic body which holds the motor is also cracked. Had much correspondence with Makita in Melbourne about the material the casing is made from being not fit for purpose. They weren't interested.

I had experience with two of these at work and they are terrible!!! When you first get it you think you got a great tool, starts easy and has grunt, but after a while the problems start, it just dies when you try to accelerate to full power, it doesn't have grunt anymore and struggles to start. That is even after a full carb service at a genuine service. Trash

The machine starts reliably, has plenty of air pressure/volume and really does the job better than any other leaf blower. It looks great and only needs everyday multigrade car engine oil (see owners manual) when servicing the engine.

All in all fine.

Just one drama, I am around the 14 months of ownership and an ignition fault is beginning to plague the machine once it has been in use for around 10mins of blowing. Spark plug is fine and healthy but spark becomes VERY weak and wont fire the motor until it cools.

Probably on the lookout for a 2 stroke machine to replace it, when i have an item is HAS to be reliable.

Although the assembly booklet was really a bit useless for a person who has never used one before my common sense got it to blow garden litter to my satisfaction. But when it came to the vacuum.... Absolutley useless plus you require two people to put together ... One to hold the motor and one to connect and turn pipes. Would not recommend this product to anyone.

Admittedly my Makita is only one day old, but I love it. Motor starts immediately. Not as hard to convert from blower to vacuum as I read, a little vasilline helps. And the vacuum which is what I really wanted it for works great. quite light and picks up a lot including big pieces of bark and fair sized twigs. All that and the convenience of 4 stroke.

Not many 4 strokes on the market but otherwise this one is pretty good and easy to maintain. petrol tank smaller than my ideal but otherwise reliable start everytime. I mostly use for vac, pretty good for leaves, but you do need to ensure the tube is pretty much perpendicular to the ground to get good suction. Bag v. durable and great to use, zips open for easy tipping in the bins. Not very ergonomic in its design for a vac but not much choice out there.

I've owned mine about a year now. It has been very reliable, starting first or second pull every time. Very frugal with petrol, very quiet and has a great output. Didn't get the vacuum attachment so can't comment on that. Only minus is that it's a bit fiddly to change the oil...and that needs to be done regularly. (Edit: I've found that the motor doesn't like stale fuel. Clogs up the carby. Using fresh fuel and cleaning the plugs plus adding a little carby cleaner solved the problem.)
Reliable. Quiet. Powerful.
Difficult to change oil.

I've owned mine for 22 months. I was attracted by the 4-stroke feature and the Makita brand, which I had thought was solid. Four months after the 12-month warranty expired, the starter cover assembly fell off (repair cost: $110 incl. labour). Six months later, it fell off again. Same story. I realize that for this price you cannot necessarily expect a top quality build, but I don't expect Makita products to be as plasticky and flimsy as this (it's only been used in a domestic, not commercial, setting). Clearly they have gone down the quality curve to achieve a lower price point, but they've slid too far. I'd rather pay up for a Stihl, and intend to do so.

Brought new 8 months ago.
Firstly it starts easily every time but to switch between BLOW - VAC is slow process and very annoying.
Then after 6 months of usage (Fortnightly only when done lawns for 40mins), it broke hole in casing took back to Makita under because it was still under 12 months warranty. 3 weeks later was contacted by Makita and told that it wasn't covered under warranty and would cost $150 to fix.
Thought this was poor as my previous blow vac was a Ryobi and lasted me 5years and never had a problem so couldn't understand that it was due to mis use
Easy Start
Poor Quality for the $330 paid, Makita don't honour Warranty

Just bought this from Bunnings. Great product. Lightweight, starts on first attempt, powerful and not too noisy. Though it is more expensive compared to some others, I think it is worth paying for a quality product and save yourself a lot of unnecessary frustration if your bought a lemon. Would certainly recommend this if you are in the market for a leaf blower.

There arnt to many 4 stroke blower/vacs on the market to choose from but compared to the 2 strokes this machine is great. plenty of power for blowing and sucking, very reliable and easy to start. some downfalls, doesn't like running cold but only takes 2 mins to warm up,

small oil capacity means constant oil changes however after replacing the oil twice within the first 2 months i went to the motorbike shop and got some high quality oil designed for motocross bikes. havn't had to change the oil in 6 months but ready to change now as a standard service.
Lightweight, powerfull, easy to start
Instruction manual needs to point out the need for some very high quality oil