4 ms·

These folks can have multiple batteries. That's the real answer, imo. Greenwork's Pro backpack's runtime is 37 minutes at full power on their 60V 8Ah battery (~

These folks can have multiple batteries. That's the real answer, imo. Greenwork's Pro backpack's runtime is 37 minutes at full power on their 60V 8Ah battery (~1/2kWh). Yeah, it's a $300 battery. But with a 4 year warranty, and much longer expected life-time, buying 3-6 for each blower you've got is scary upfront but a drop in the bucket over time. There's some other sub-optimal options, but hopefully we don't see this energy-wasting noise-making cheapening out. They can charge them when they drive in most modern trucks (AC inverters are practically standard for work trucks). Worse, they start carrying around generators or idling their trucks; back to far more expensive (over time), polluting, and noisy. But both ought be better than a small screeching 2-stroke in terms of quality of life for the hundreds of people in the nearby area. We're doing great. This is a huge improvement for quality of life for a huge huge number of people. For far more energy efficient & less costly over time systems, at modest investment cost. Particularly if you are a landscaper, having 6 sets of batteries that last 5+ years (and many many more if you're only cycling batteries once a day) seems like an incredibly minor investment cost.

count 4y ago
That green works pro battery doesn't take hours to charge either. It's about 30-40 minutes from empty to full again.
afiori 4y ago
The real solution is not to leaf blow your lawn.
- acuozzo 4y ago
  I mostly use my electric leaf blower for my driveway, walkway, porch, and deck. I can accomplish in a minute or two what would normally take 20+ minutes with a push broom.
prepend 4y ago
The lawn crew that I use works 6-10 per day so that’s 9-15 batteries to buy, carry around and charge. And that’s just for one person. There’s normally two people with leaf blowers. Hopefully there’s some industrial version as carrying 20 batteries and charging them five days a week is really expensive.
- banana_giraffe 4y ago
  My local lawn crew actually runs a cord to an outlet outside my house to charge their batteries for the next house. They were clear they do this when I hired them, but I'm super happy with it since I no longer need to worry about the noise for calls and the like. Granted, it probably only makes sense for a smaller crew like the one I found, but I thought it was a nice solution.
- rektide 4y ago
  9 batteries by the numbers I presented runs to 5.5 hours. 15 batteries at 37 minutes a piece is 9.25 hours. I can see that being a possibility for someplace like a college campus where one crew is literally just roving around an limited area for the day to maybe get in 5.5 hours of straight actual use, maybe, if the team is super well pipelined in what they are doing. But it seems like a fanciful/rare/contrived example. How many days of this a year does the crew work? For most lawn-care folks, I tend to think they have a lot of different sites to cover, and there's some transportation, and a variety of tasks other than leafblowing. I have a hard time imagining someone actually clocking 6 hours of actual full-throttle use of a leafblower on any day, much less day after day. Even in exotic uses (unseen in the city in question/my own city, DC), I think adaption is less of a challenge than one might think.
  - prepend 4y ago
    I’m not a yard company but I’ve talked to the team that does my yard and they said (two of them) that they do 12-16 houses a day and each house takes about 30 minutes. Usually one is blowing the whole time while one mows and weedwhacks and then the second puts on a backpack. They have a long day from like 7am to 6pm. So my example certainly isn’t contrived. But it’s just one example and the only one I know.
    - rektide 4y ago
      If these teams start at 7am, they should be executed/shot without legal reprecussions if they start at 7am in most areas with gas bullshit. You've specified an 11 hour work window. If, between two people, they spend 50% of that day working with full-throttle leaf blowing, I'm very impressed with their efficiency. Getting around & blowing being that dominant a factor in the day is impressive. That's still 9 batteries tops & they should accept that easily given the very very very very low total cost of ownership, given that they dont need to figure out how to lug a bulk of batteries around & can just carry 1 at a time (the backpack hardware allows for two).

count 4y ago

That green works pro battery doesn't take hours to charge either. It's about 30-40 minutes from empty to full again.

afiori 4y ago

The real solution is not to leaf blow your lawn.

acuozzo 4y ago
I mostly use my electric leaf blower for my driveway, walkway, porch, and deck. I can accomplish in a minute or two what would normally take 20+ minutes with a push broom.

prepend 4y ago

The lawn crew that I use works 6-10 per day so that’s 9-15 batteries to buy, carry around and charge. And that’s just for one person. There’s normally two people with leaf blowers. Hopefully there’s some industrial version as carrying 20 batteries and charging them five days a week is really expensive.

banana_giraffe 4y ago
My local lawn crew actually runs a cord to an outlet outside my house to charge their batteries for the next house. They were clear they do this when I hired them, but I'm super happy with it since I no longer need to worry about the noise for calls and the like. Granted, it probably only makes sense for a smaller crew like the one I found, but I thought it was a nice solution.
rektide 4y ago
9 batteries by the numbers I presented runs to 5.5 hours. 15 batteries at 37 minutes a piece is 9.25 hours. I can see that being a possibility for someplace like a college campus where one crew is literally just roving around an limited area for the day to maybe get in 5.5 hours of straight actual use, maybe, if the team is super well pipelined in what they are doing. But it seems like a fanciful/rare/contrived example. How many days of this a year does the crew work? For most lawn-care folks, I tend to think they have a lot of different sites to cover, and there's some transportation, and a variety of tasks other than leafblowing. I have a hard time imagining someone actually clocking 6 hours of actual full-throttle use of a leafblower on any day, much less day after day. Even in exotic uses (unseen in the city in question/my own city, DC), I think adaption is less of a challenge than one might think.
- prepend 4y ago
  I’m not a yard company but I’ve talked to the team that does my yard and they said (two of them) that they do 12-16 houses a day and each house takes about 30 minutes. Usually one is blowing the whole time while one mows and weedwhacks and then the second puts on a backpack. They have a long day from like 7am to 6pm. So my example certainly isn’t contrived. But it’s just one example and the only one I know.
  - rektide 4y ago
    If these teams start at 7am, they should be executed/shot without legal reprecussions if they start at 7am in most areas with gas bullshit. You've specified an 11 hour work window. If, between two people, they spend 50% of that day working with full-throttle leaf blowing, I'm very impressed with their efficiency. Getting around & blowing being that dominant a factor in the day is impressive. That's still 9 batteries tops & they should accept that easily given the very very very very low total cost of ownership, given that they dont need to figure out how to lug a bulk of batteries around & can just carry 1 at a time (the backpack hardware allows for two).