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> Using a gas-powered leaf blower for half an hour creates as many polluting hydrocarbon emissions as driving a car seventy-seven hundred miles at a speed of th

by OldHand2018 5y ago

> Using a gas-powered leaf blower for half an hour creates as many polluting hydrocarbon emissions as driving a car seventy-seven hundred miles at a speed of thirty miles per hour. Battery-powered leaf blowers are so incredibly good that I have a hard time understanding why anyone buys a new gas-powered leaf blower.

wavefunction 5y ago
I don't mind plugging mine in (it's corded). I even use it to clean the gutters every fall. Even better than batteries unless you really need that mobility.
zdragnar 5y ago
I have both. My 80v leaf blower is pretty decent for about 15 minutes, and with two batteries there isnt a ton of downtime. However, we also have three massive cottonwood trees among plenty of other maple and crap that amounts to feet of fallen leaves to clean up. On a whim I got a backpack style gas leaf blower, and now we only use the battery one for "maintenance" blowing. There simply isn't a good analogy to describe the difference. That said, at my previous house in the suburbs, the battery powered one was plenty sufficient, so YMMV.
dmurray 5y ago
That aside, "polluting hydrocarbon emissions" is doing a lot of work there. It creates perhaps a thousandth as much CO2, which is the most worrying exhaust pollutant these days.
- ProfessorLayton 5y ago
  I'd argue the opposite. Gas-powered leaf blowers are insanely pollutant. Running a gas leaf blower for an hour is equivalent to driving a car for 100 miles [1] [1] https://sustainability.wustl.edu/rethinking-lawn-equipment-2/ https://sustainability.wustl.edu/rethinking-lawn-equipment-2...
  - dmurray 5y ago
    Nope. What the study actually says [0] is that it's equivalent in production of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. PAH is a category of emission at which two-stroke oil-burning engines are disproportionately bad, and modern cars are reasonably good. If we measured on another axis (say, rubber particles), we could write a headline that cars are 1000 times worse polluters than leaf blowers. Like, leaf blowers aren't great for the environment, and maybe mandating catalytic converters for them would improve air quality, but these specific claims are all made in bad intellectual faith. [0] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.h...
    - Karrot_Kream 5y ago
      I'm not sure how you can call a criticism of two-stroke engine PAH emissions in "intellectual bad faith". Is the title hyperbolic? Yes. But in bad faith? Against what? Few other uses of two-strokes are as popular by Americans by far.
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    I can’t find a citation there for an hour of gas leaf blowing being 100 miles of car driving. What I can find there is an hour of lawn mowing being comparable to 100 miles of car travel. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.h... an hour of leaf blowing is probably worse, but that study is silent on the topic. (It’s also likely that far more hours of lawn mowing than leaf blowing is done in aggregate.)
asdff 5y ago
The commercial stihl ones are really powerful still and bulletproof.
sokoloff 5y ago
I have a gas blower. After trying two plug-in and two battery blowers. There’s no battery mower with the volume of air that a top commercial gas blower has. (At least none that I found and I’ve looked multiple times.) If you’re trying to move some dry oak leaves, electrics work fine. Wet leaves and acorns in new grass are a different story IME. I’ll know electrics are better when the crews are using them.
chrisgd 5y ago
My use of a gas powered doesn’t match the output of most energy companies.

wavefunction 5y ago

I don't mind plugging mine in (it's corded). I even use it to clean the gutters every fall. Even better than batteries unless you really need that mobility.

zdragnar 5y ago

I have both. My 80v leaf blower is pretty decent for about 15 minutes, and with two batteries there isnt a ton of downtime. However, we also have three massive cottonwood trees among plenty of other maple and crap that amounts to feet of fallen leaves to clean up. On a whim I got a backpack style gas leaf blower, and now we only use the battery one for "maintenance" blowing. There simply isn't a good analogy to describe the difference. That said, at my previous house in the suburbs, the battery powered one was plenty sufficient, so YMMV.

dmurray 5y ago

That aside, "polluting hydrocarbon emissions" is doing a lot of work there. It creates perhaps a thousandth as much CO2, which is the most worrying exhaust pollutant these days.

ProfessorLayton 5y ago
I'd argue the opposite. Gas-powered leaf blowers are insanely pollutant. Running a gas leaf blower for an hour is equivalent to driving a car for 100 miles [1] [1] https://sustainability.wustl.edu/rethinking-lawn-equipment-2/ https://sustainability.wustl.edu/rethinking-lawn-equipment-2...
- dmurray 5y ago
  Nope. What the study actually says [0] is that it's equivalent in production of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. PAH is a category of emission at which two-stroke oil-burning engines are disproportionately bad, and modern cars are reasonably good. If we measured on another axis (say, rubber particles), we could write a headline that cars are 1000 times worse polluters than leaf blowers. Like, leaf blowers aren't great for the environment, and maybe mandating catalytic converters for them would improve air quality, but these specific claims are all made in bad intellectual faith. [0] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.h...
  - Karrot_Kream 5y ago
    I'm not sure how you can call a criticism of two-stroke engine PAH emissions in "intellectual bad faith". Is the title hyperbolic? Yes. But in bad faith? Against what? Few other uses of two-strokes are as popular by Americans by far.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  I can’t find a citation there for an hour of gas leaf blowing being 100 miles of car driving. What I can find there is an hour of lawn mowing being comparable to 100 miles of car travel. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529234907.h... an hour of leaf blowing is probably worse, but that study is silent on the topic. (It’s also likely that far more hours of lawn mowing than leaf blowing is done in aggregate.)

asdff 5y ago

The commercial stihl ones are really powerful still and bulletproof.

sokoloff 5y ago

I have a gas blower. After trying two plug-in and two battery blowers. There’s no battery mower with the volume of air that a top commercial gas blower has. (At least none that I found and I’ve looked multiple times.) If you’re trying to move some dry oak leaves, electrics work fine. Wet leaves and acorns in new grass are a different story IME. I’ll know electrics are better when the crews are using them.

chrisgd 5y ago

My use of a gas powered doesn’t match the output of most energy companies.