I inherited a LeafMaster but i've never been able to use it. I read all these positive reviews about this form of collecting leaves from pools but i've only ever experienced problems.

Mine has the brushes. All it does it push leaves around. It sucks up nothing, well, maybe one or two leaves. I'd be better using a net.

Am I using the wrong type of LeafMaster? I've always thought the brushes looked like a bad design as they stop leaves from being sucked up.

Also, it seems very light and I have to push it down to the floor. Are there any heavy duty ones? The ones I have found seem very fragile. Aren't there any 'commercial' built ones available?

You can remove the brushes and that makes it work a little better. You also need a good strong flow from the water hose to get it to work well.