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For what it's worth a gas powered leaf blower puts out as much pollution in a day of work as a Ford Raptor will in 100,000 miles. Source: https://www.edmunds.co

For what it's worth a gas powered leaf blower puts out as much pollution in a day of work as a Ford Raptor will in 100,000 miles. Source: https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-car-vs-truck-vs-leaf-blower.html https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-...

MaxGabriel 8y ago
They could just ban gas-powered leaf blowers to prevent that.
- detaro 8y ago
  That's what they did.
- sfopdxnonstop 8y ago
  Found the guy who forms his opinions based on bare headlines.
  - dang 8y ago
    No personal attacks or shallow dismissals, please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- marcotaves 8y ago
  I would maybe ban all kinds of domestic public selling available leaves blowers , if it was in my power, I think, maybe, yes... in my humble opinion, and maybe I am mistaken, right, theoretically speaking in an hipotetical way of mental thought experiment yeah... and I say that as a fan of having great fun jetting machines food powders with extrastrong but small tubes of compressed air with a intensity controled exit of air jet, but at hig intensity level set it blows a lot of dust and powder from food packing machinery and it is a lot of fun I have to admit... so electric leaf blowers can be pretty useful for their specific uses, cleaning things, but not to clean leaves from someones garden, please! honestly!? to clean sidewalks out of dirty? Yes electric blowers yes made by the same manufacturers of the electric leaveblower that better not be used to blow tree leaves from gardens(!) honestly...but anyway better the same manufacterers make money selling the same similar machine adapted a little to clean sidewalks and send the dirty to plastic contained places yeah... I wonder if mother nature and godesses around would think about I write an mini/micro Good Robot with <<<fototransistors interface>>>(my patent, my tech, my trade Mark and copyRights, so take the eyes a little to that side, please!) to with the solely good puporse and intention of separating plast and material in big dumps of garbahe, those mountains of garbage, yes, come on, you can make a cute freaking insect to rovber on surface of Mars and cant make a neutral nice clean R2D2 skater to clean the trash mountains dumps here on near neighbourhood, yeas... recommended song for sun light bath today is again Bordeaux in my Pirough by Chucky Berry :) :) :) thanks!
Brakenshire 8y ago
The problem pollutants for vehicles are NOx and particulate (particularly small particulate under 2.5 or 10 microns in diameter). This test found the truck produced a lot of NOx, and didn't test for particulate matter, so it's not really able to say what you want it to say.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  Leaf blowers are two-stroke engines which have an entirely (and much worse) emissions profile compared to modern four stroke engines. E.g. you'll find things like benzene in their exhaust. Hence results like "waiting near a 2-stroke scooter on an intersection is orders of magnitudes more poisenous than waiting near a car".
  - kazinator 8y ago
    Yet, 2 stroke scooters don't have to have the same emission controls as automobiles. This is because they have a small carbon footprint; as a class, they don't contribute that much to pollution. Benzene may be more acutely poisonous than some other molecule which also has six carbon atoms, but from the planet's perspective, it's just six carbon atoms. If you're breathing any exhaust, you're taking in CO. Less pungent smelling exhaust is not any better for you.
cma 8y ago
Maybe they could have required them to have catalytic converters.
- crushcrashcrush 8y ago
  Get too hot for use on a device like a leaf blower. Also would add non-negligible costs.
  - ericd 8y ago
    Would making them 4 stroke engines make them burn significantly cleaner?
    - tantalor 8y ago
      Making them electric helps.
      - imglorp 8y ago
        I just switched to an electric mower. It cost about the same as an decent mower, is lighter weight, always starts, is plenty powerful, and has about 45 minutes of charge on a swappable battery. I could buy more batteries if I wanted more runtime. I can also swap that battery with other equipment like string trimmers. I've overhauled my last temperamental gas carb. The end of gas lawn gear is indeed in sight.
        foobarian 8y ago
        I just switched to all electric lawn tools. I got the trimmer, chainsaw, and blower from the 80v Kobalt line. Like you say, plenty of power, much easier maintenance, and multiple batteries mean the runtime is not limited.
        pnw_hazor 8y ago
        I dunno. My Sears lawn mower has lasted us 19 years so far with no maintenance except blade sharpening. And, one spark plug replacement. I don't think you can find batteries that will last that long.
cellularmitosis 8y ago
I once made the mistake of sleeping with a window open the night before the lawn crew came through my apartment complex. A plume of 2-stroke exhaust is a particularly nauseating way to be woken up. It was bad enough that I grabbed my toothbrush and ran out the door and headed to work without a shower. But hey! No leaves on the patio come Tuesday! #worthit
kazinator 8y ago
> gas powered leaf blower puts out as much pollution in a day of work as a Ford Raptor will in 100,000 This is not believable. Think of how many tankfuls of gas that will go through in 100,000 miles. Every atom of carbon going out the tail pipe is "pollution". A day's use of a gas leaf blower has a vanishingly small carbon and NOx footprint compared to 100K miles of a fossil-fueled Ford truck.

MaxGabriel 8y ago

They could just ban gas-powered leaf blowers to prevent that.

detaro 8y ago
That's what they did.
sfopdxnonstop 8y ago
Found the guy who forms his opinions based on bare headlines.
- dang 8y ago
  No personal attacks or shallow dismissals, please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
marcotaves 8y ago
I would maybe ban all kinds of domestic public selling available leaves blowers , if it was in my power, I think, maybe, yes... in my humble opinion, and maybe I am mistaken, right, theoretically speaking in an hipotetical way of mental thought experiment yeah... and I say that as a fan of having great fun jetting machines food powders with extrastrong but small tubes of compressed air with a intensity controled exit of air jet, but at hig intensity level set it blows a lot of dust and powder from food packing machinery and it is a lot of fun I have to admit... so electric leaf blowers can be pretty useful for their specific uses, cleaning things, but not to clean leaves from someones garden, please! honestly!? to clean sidewalks out of dirty? Yes electric blowers yes made by the same manufacturers of the electric leaveblower that better not be used to blow tree leaves from gardens(!) honestly...but anyway better the same manufacterers make money selling the same similar machine adapted a little to clean sidewalks and send the dirty to plastic contained places yeah... I wonder if mother nature and godesses around would think about I write an mini/micro Good Robot with <<<fototransistors interface>>>(my patent, my tech, my trade Mark and copyRights, so take the eyes a little to that side, please!) to with the solely good puporse and intention of separating plast and material in big dumps of garbahe, those mountains of garbage, yes, come on, you can make a cute freaking insect to rovber on surface of Mars and cant make a neutral nice clean R2D2 skater to clean the trash mountains dumps here on near neighbourhood, yeas... recommended song for sun light bath today is again Bordeaux in my Pirough by Chucky Berry :) :) :) thanks!

Brakenshire 8y ago

The problem pollutants for vehicles are NOx and particulate (particularly small particulate under 2.5 or 10 microns in diameter). This test found the truck produced a lot of NOx, and didn't test for particulate matter, so it's not really able to say what you want it to say.

blattimwind 8y ago
Leaf blowers are two-stroke engines which have an entirely (and much worse) emissions profile compared to modern four stroke engines. E.g. you'll find things like benzene in their exhaust. Hence results like "waiting near a 2-stroke scooter on an intersection is orders of magnitudes more poisenous than waiting near a car".
- kazinator 8y ago
  Yet, 2 stroke scooters don't have to have the same emission controls as automobiles. This is because they have a small carbon footprint; as a class, they don't contribute that much to pollution. Benzene may be more acutely poisonous than some other molecule which also has six carbon atoms, but from the planet's perspective, it's just six carbon atoms. If you're breathing any exhaust, you're taking in CO. Less pungent smelling exhaust is not any better for you.

cma 8y ago

Maybe they could have required them to have catalytic converters.

crushcrashcrush 8y ago
Get too hot for use on a device like a leaf blower. Also would add non-negligible costs.
- ericd 8y ago
  Would making them 4 stroke engines make them burn significantly cleaner?
  - tantalor 8y ago
    Making them electric helps.
    - imglorp 8y ago
      I just switched to an electric mower. It cost about the same as an decent mower, is lighter weight, always starts, is plenty powerful, and has about 45 minutes of charge on a swappable battery. I could buy more batteries if I wanted more runtime. I can also swap that battery with other equipment like string trimmers. I've overhauled my last temperamental gas carb. The end of gas lawn gear is indeed in sight.
      - foobarian 8y ago
        I just switched to all electric lawn tools. I got the trimmer, chainsaw, and blower from the 80v Kobalt line. Like you say, plenty of power, much easier maintenance, and multiple batteries mean the runtime is not limited.
        pnw_hazor 8y ago
        I dunno. My Sears lawn mower has lasted us 19 years so far with no maintenance except blade sharpening. And, one spark plug replacement. I don't think you can find batteries that will last that long.

cellularmitosis 8y ago

I once made the mistake of sleeping with a window open the night before the lawn crew came through my apartment complex. A plume of 2-stroke exhaust is a particularly nauseating way to be woken up. It was bad enough that I grabbed my toothbrush and ran out the door and headed to work without a shower. But hey! No leaves on the patio come Tuesday! #worthit

kazinator 8y ago

> gas powered leaf blower puts out as much pollution in a day of work as a Ford Raptor will in 100,000 This is not believable. Think of how many tankfuls of gas that will go through in 100,000 miles. Every atom of carbon going out the tail pipe is "pollution". A day's use of a gas leaf blower has a vanishingly small carbon and NOx footprint compared to 100K miles of a fossil-fueled Ford truck.