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I’m ambivalent about this. On the one hand they are LOUD as hell, but the electrics just don’t blow as good. The gas powered blowers just work better, especiall

I’m ambivalent about this. On the one hand they are LOUD as hell, but the electrics just don’t blow as good. The gas powered blowers just work better, especially for large jobs.

ahupp 6y ago
In addition to the noise, those two-stroke engines produce a huge amount of pollution. "A single two-stroke engine produces pollution equivalent to that of 30 to 50 four-stroke automobiles. " https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/two-strokes-and-youre-out https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/two-strokes-and...
- mc32 6y ago
  Then they should ban two-stroke gasoline scooters (both stand on and sit on types).
  - jascii 6y ago
    For what it's worth, the 2008 article OP references specifically mentions technology to significantly reduce the pollution from 2 stroke engines. This technology has since been widely adopted in the scooter industry. Modern scooters pollute less per mile than the average single occupant car. https://www.motorscooterguide.net/do-scooters-pollute-more-than-cars/ https://www.motorscooterguide.net/do-scooters-pollute-more-t...
- linksnapzz 6y ago
  When I lived in Cambridge, there was a guy in my neighborhood with a 1970s 2-stroke Saab. I figured every time he started it up, he undid all the non-polluting that every Prius ever sold in MA was responsible for.
  - tclancy 6y ago
    Was it a Sonnet? Those were pretty enough to justify it.
    - linksnapzz 6y ago
      Nah, it was a 60s-70s 96.
hangonhn 6y ago
I feel really bad for the people who have to use the gas ones because they're breathing in exhaust the whole time. Small gas engines, especially the 2 stroke cycle ones, don't burn nearly as cleanly as the ones we find on most cars. And the people who operate those things are doing it professionally so they're likely to be expose to the exhausts all the time. The noise bothers me but I only hear them once in a while. I just feel bad for the people who have to deal with them all the time.
- mrwh 6y ago
  Yes, this. The people most harmed by these leaf blowers are the people using them. Arguments that "electric ones don't work as well" rather miss this point.
lsllc 6y ago
The electric ones are pretty good (I have the Ego one), but it's the battery life that "blows". Since I also have the Ego mower & weedwhacker, I have 3 batteries to swap through, but it is a pain during fall cleanup. Absolutely no good for commercial or big jobs though.
- OkGoDoIt 6y ago
  You really need to get the wired ones if you want decent performance, in my experience. Having that power extension cable is a pain, but the battery powered ones barely do anything by comparison
  - klyrs 6y ago
    Cynical, but... the great thing about the wired ones is that you can run them from a portable generator. Reading the text of the legislation, it seems that this will be an acceptable workaround.
    - lsllc 6y ago
      The generator will be 4-stroke and probably running at a mostly constant rpm so it should at least be less polluting than 2-stroke. Extra points for a propane generator!
rektide 6y ago
None of the reviews I've read have had any complaints. If crews do find these electrics aren't as good, hopefully the market can respond & build better ones. I have no reservation about saying that the societal good far outweighs the bad. This corrects this imbalanced market where 99% of stakeholders are held captive by old, polluting, loud, ultra-obnoxious, all-downsides-heavily-externalized persistent disturbances. Mandating electric options was evidently what it's going to take to get any change, to start to do the right thing. The market, now that it was to do the right thing, can begin to adjust it's approach as to how it wants to do the right thing. It can improve it's designs, &c.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
root_axis 6y ago
Why do you say they don't blow as well? I replaced my gas blower with an electric one a couple years back and it blows even better than my gas did. I also can't think of a technical reason why this would be the case so I'm curious what you mean by this.
- ddingus 6y ago
  Do you live somewhere with respectable residential power? 120 volts at 10 amps is kind of tepid, when compared against a combustion engine, and typical for the US
- Johnny555 6y ago
  Depends on the style. An plug-in electric leafblower is constrained to around 2HP max (746W/HP) while drawing 12A from a 15A circuit. A handheld gas one will have a 25cc engine and can probably do 2HP max. But the backpack style gas leafblower that landscaping crews often use will have a 50 or 60cc engine that would put out 3 or 4HP, so will be able to blow more strongly.
- asdff 6y ago
  The standard to compare isn't some gas blower, it's a STIHL blower. Commercially, these don't work as well as commerical gas blowers (which is probably where most of the market actually is).
ilamont 6y ago
We are one of the few families in our neighborhood who still use rakes. Nearly everyone else hires landscaping crews who use the gas powered models. A few homeowners have electrics, which are quieter but take far longer to finish the job - sometimes hours.
- alistairSH 6y ago
  Compare like for like. Commercial grade blowers blow roughly the same (600+cfm). If you're comparing a commercial backpack to a consumer-grade handheld, sure, big difference. But, that's apples and oranges.
- bernardv 6y ago
  Rakes are so much more efficient, I find. And an opportunity to just chill. I don’t understand the leaf-blowers. In the US, I’ve seen so many so many lawn service guys just blowing leaves around in the wind - just because they’re paid to do it once a week. Nuts.
alistairSH 6y ago
That isn't true any more. Comparing the commercial EGO systems to the commercial Husqvarna systems, both produce ~600cfm of air movement in a backpack system. The battery life on the EGO systems is sufficient (60 min+ runtime peer battery, in my experience, more than enough for several large yards during mowing season). Yes, a landscape crew would need to carry several spare batteries per electric device, likely with some sort of charging station on the truck. Expensive up front costs, no question. But, probably worth it in the long run for emissions and nuisance gains.
- asdff 6y ago
  How many cycles can you get out of the battery before capacity becomes unacceptible? Commercial operations would probably blow through them.
chrisseaton 6y ago
Why do you need to blow leaves in the first place? Use a broom or rake.
- orthecreedence 6y ago
  I live in the forest and we routinely need to blow off the roof. You aren't supposed to sweep it because it degrades the shingles (according to our roofer). So, we have an electric one for that, and for various other tasks, like clearing our steep driveway of debris that makes it difficult to receive deliveries or get our cars up. Blowing takes 30 seconds, where sweeping would take 5 minutes.
- asdff 6y ago
  If the job is too large that becomes impossible. You get multiple persons efficiency advantage to blow vs rake.
jcrawfordor 6y ago
If it's been a couple years since you tried electric, I would try again. The state of the art in cordless electric landscape tools really has improved a lot over a fairly recent period. If you stay within one brand the batteries are all interchangeable too, so if you just have two and keep one on the charger you can pretty much eliminate battery charging headache. Some vendors offer a backpack-type electric blower that uses multiple batteries for better runtime. I used to begrudgingly use expensive four-stroke tools because they were less irritating than two-stroke and electrics weren't up to snuff, but more recently I've replaced everything but a leaf mulcher with cordless electric and I'm really happy with them. I'll probably replace the mulcher eventually as well, I don't doubt that the cordless equipment can deliver, it's just that it still works and where I use it trailing an extension cord is fine.

I’m ambivalent about this. On the one hand they are LOUD as hell, but the electrics just don’t blow as good. The gas powered blowers just work better, especially for large jobs.

ahupp 6y ago

In addition to the noise, those two-stroke engines produce a huge amount of pollution. "A single two-stroke engine produces pollution equivalent to that of 30 to 50 four-stroke automobiles. " https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/two-strokes-and-youre-out https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/two-strokes-and...

mc32 6y ago
Then they should ban two-stroke gasoline scooters (both stand on and sit on types).
- jascii 6y ago
  For what it's worth, the 2008 article OP references specifically mentions technology to significantly reduce the pollution from 2 stroke engines. This technology has since been widely adopted in the scooter industry. Modern scooters pollute less per mile than the average single occupant car. https://www.motorscooterguide.net/do-scooters-pollute-more-than-cars/ https://www.motorscooterguide.net/do-scooters-pollute-more-t...
linksnapzz 6y ago
When I lived in Cambridge, there was a guy in my neighborhood with a 1970s 2-stroke Saab. I figured every time he started it up, he undid all the non-polluting that every Prius ever sold in MA was responsible for.
- tclancy 6y ago
  Was it a Sonnet? Those were pretty enough to justify it.
  - linksnapzz 6y ago
    Nah, it was a 60s-70s 96.

hangonhn 6y ago

I feel really bad for the people who have to use the gas ones because they're breathing in exhaust the whole time. Small gas engines, especially the 2 stroke cycle ones, don't burn nearly as cleanly as the ones we find on most cars. And the people who operate those things are doing it professionally so they're likely to be expose to the exhausts all the time. The noise bothers me but I only hear them once in a while. I just feel bad for the people who have to deal with them all the time.

mrwh 6y ago
Yes, this. The people most harmed by these leaf blowers are the people using them. Arguments that "electric ones don't work as well" rather miss this point.

lsllc 6y ago

The electric ones are pretty good (I have the Ego one), but it's the battery life that "blows". Since I also have the Ego mower & weedwhacker, I have 3 batteries to swap through, but it is a pain during fall cleanup. Absolutely no good for commercial or big jobs though.

OkGoDoIt 6y ago
You really need to get the wired ones if you want decent performance, in my experience. Having that power extension cable is a pain, but the battery powered ones barely do anything by comparison
- klyrs 6y ago
  Cynical, but... the great thing about the wired ones is that you can run them from a portable generator. Reading the text of the legislation, it seems that this will be an acceptable workaround.
  - lsllc 6y ago
    The generator will be 4-stroke and probably running at a mostly constant rpm so it should at least be less polluting than 2-stroke. Extra points for a propane generator!

rektide 6y ago

None of the reviews I've read have had any complaints. If crews do find these electrics aren't as good, hopefully the market can respond & build better ones. I have no reservation about saying that the societal good far outweighs the bad. This corrects this imbalanced market where 99% of stakeholders are held captive by old, polluting, loud, ultra-obnoxious, all-downsides-heavily-externalized persistent disturbances. Mandating electric options was evidently what it's going to take to get any change, to start to do the right thing. The market, now that it was to do the right thing, can begin to adjust it's approach as to how it wants to do the right thing. It can improve it's designs, &c.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

root_axis 6y ago

Why do you say they don't blow as well? I replaced my gas blower with an electric one a couple years back and it blows even better than my gas did. I also can't think of a technical reason why this would be the case so I'm curious what you mean by this.

ddingus 6y ago
Do you live somewhere with respectable residential power? 120 volts at 10 amps is kind of tepid, when compared against a combustion engine, and typical for the US
Johnny555 6y ago
Depends on the style. An plug-in electric leafblower is constrained to around 2HP max (746W/HP) while drawing 12A from a 15A circuit. A handheld gas one will have a 25cc engine and can probably do 2HP max. But the backpack style gas leafblower that landscaping crews often use will have a 50 or 60cc engine that would put out 3 or 4HP, so will be able to blow more strongly.
asdff 6y ago
The standard to compare isn't some gas blower, it's a STIHL blower. Commercially, these don't work as well as commerical gas blowers (which is probably where most of the market actually is).

ilamont 6y ago

We are one of the few families in our neighborhood who still use rakes. Nearly everyone else hires landscaping crews who use the gas powered models. A few homeowners have electrics, which are quieter but take far longer to finish the job - sometimes hours.

alistairSH 6y ago
Compare like for like. Commercial grade blowers blow roughly the same (600+cfm). If you're comparing a commercial backpack to a consumer-grade handheld, sure, big difference. But, that's apples and oranges.
bernardv 6y ago
Rakes are so much more efficient, I find. And an opportunity to just chill. I don’t understand the leaf-blowers. In the US, I’ve seen so many so many lawn service guys just blowing leaves around in the wind - just because they’re paid to do it once a week. Nuts.

alistairSH 6y ago

That isn't true any more. Comparing the commercial EGO systems to the commercial Husqvarna systems, both produce ~600cfm of air movement in a backpack system. The battery life on the EGO systems is sufficient (60 min+ runtime peer battery, in my experience, more than enough for several large yards during mowing season). Yes, a landscape crew would need to carry several spare batteries per electric device, likely with some sort of charging station on the truck. Expensive up front costs, no question. But, probably worth it in the long run for emissions and nuisance gains.

asdff 6y ago
How many cycles can you get out of the battery before capacity becomes unacceptible? Commercial operations would probably blow through them.

chrisseaton 6y ago

Why do you need to blow leaves in the first place? Use a broom or rake.

orthecreedence 6y ago
I live in the forest and we routinely need to blow off the roof. You aren't supposed to sweep it because it degrades the shingles (according to our roofer). So, we have an electric one for that, and for various other tasks, like clearing our steep driveway of debris that makes it difficult to receive deliveries or get our cars up. Blowing takes 30 seconds, where sweeping would take 5 minutes.
asdff 6y ago
If the job is too large that becomes impossible. You get multiple persons efficiency advantage to blow vs rake.

jcrawfordor 6y ago

If it's been a couple years since you tried electric, I would try again. The state of the art in cordless electric landscape tools really has improved a lot over a fairly recent period. If you stay within one brand the batteries are all interchangeable too, so if you just have two and keep one on the charger you can pretty much eliminate battery charging headache. Some vendors offer a backpack-type electric blower that uses multiple batteries for better runtime. I used to begrudgingly use expensive four-stroke tools because they were less irritating than two-stroke and electrics weren't up to snuff, but more recently I've replaced everything but a leaf mulcher with cordless electric and I'm really happy with them. I'll probably replace the mulcher eventually as well, I don't doubt that the cordless equipment can deliver, it's just that it still works and where I use it trailing an extension cord is fine.