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Gas-powered leaf blowers: The end is nigh (2021)
- causality0 4y agoproduce more ozone pollution than all of California’s tens of millions of cars, combined Because cars don't fucking produce ozone. In many cases the concentration of ozone at a car's exhaust is lower than at its intake. I'm so tired of this statement being trotted out in articles about two-stroke engines. It's like saying a single poultry farm emits more rotten eggs than a whole state's dairy farms combined.
- cplusplusfellow 4y agoWell said. I get so tired of these also.
- ericd 4y agoIt's reasonable to point out that even though they're both gas engines, one produces an absurd multiple of the more volatile pollutants of the other.
- SigmundA 4y agoNitrogen oxides and VOC/Hydrocarbons along with sunlight form ozone, its doesn't come directly out of the exhaust. Carbureted two-stroke engines emit large quantities of hydrocarbons compared four-stroke even without emissions gear like a cat. This is due to the the intake and exhaust port being open together for a period of time on a two-stroke, certain amount of unburned fuel goes directly out the exhaust, this is why they are so bad. It's the VOC they are emitting that can then form ozone.
- causality0 4y agoPointing out two-stroke engines produce dangerous amounts of ozone is great. Using a numerical comparison to cars in order to generate fear in the reader is moronic and manipulative.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- collinvandyck76 4y agoI have a real beef with gas powered blowers, and it's noise pollution. A neighbor on my block doesn't have a lot going on, but he has his leaf blower, and it's his primary activity. Evenings that would be otherwise sublimely autumnal are instead mind shattering, hours long, symphonies from hell. Other people on the street have tried reasoning with him, even offering to buy him a battery-powered alternative, unsuccessfully.
- ajhurliman 4y agoThe battery powered blowers are pretty loud too, just FYI. I have to wear hearing protection with it every time.
- foobarian 4y agoI bought a battery powered blower (80v pack Kobalt brand product) thinking it would be quieter, but it's a different kind of loud. What surprised me is that it has a tiny propeller (about 4 inches diameter) that spins at ungodly RPMs. I would love to see a product with a large diameter squirrel cage blower with an electric motor.
- lotsoweiners 4y agoYeah I have a Ryobi 40v and it is super loud too. Doesn’t help that I have to run it in high power mode mostly to get the leaves to blow out of the rocks properly.
- proggy 4y agoAs I recall, the average electric leaf blower emits around 70 dB, while the average gas blower puts out 80-90 dB (although some advertise themselves as quieter, I am dubious but have not verified by running these tests myself). The electric leaf blowers are noticeably quieter, and what noise they do make is much more concentrated on a smaller set of frequencies than a gas blower, which is kind of all over the spectrum when it gets going.
- 4y ago
- awault 4y agoThere is something about the smell of two stroke engines… if you’ve ever ripped around on a dirt bike you know what I mean. If you haven’t, I guess you’ll never understand…
- TaylorAlexander 4y agoI think a lot about how I have a lot of fondness and smell memory attached to what are probably carcinogenic vapors. A nostalgic part of me is sad that we are losing the cultural artifact that is the smell of gasoline. We had a 5hp go-kart when I was a kid, and my parents always used gasoline powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers. But obviously in other ways I am very happy we are moving past it.
- hooverd 4y agoNothing like the smell of boat gasoline.
- TaylorAlexander 4y agoYahh my step mom had a jet boat, I know that one for sure!
- atonse 4y agoYep, we used to love the smell of gas stations growing up. But mostly harmful to breathe I’m sure.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jonstewart 4y agoSmells like... cancer.
- nabilhat 4y agoGasoline engines without catalytic converters as well. When I'm on a sidewalk and an old car drives by, the familiar smell takes me back to my youth. Riding in traffic with the windows down, or field trips to some destination in the city full of flatulent traffic. It's the smell of childhood summer when the air was calm and exhaust hung in the air forever. I was also around dairy farms a lot as a kid. Like the ironically adjective'd "pre-smog" engines, it only smells like nostalgia for a minute or so.
- gnabgib 4y ago(2021) 47 points, 33 comments at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28739584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28739584
- arh68 4y ago> But these machines persist in American landscaping because they are cheap. I rarely see pros use cheap stuff. They're paying for Stihl eq and mowers I can't even afford. 2-stroke gas eq is incredibly powerful for the weight. More power, more done, more money. Battery is catching up quick, and honestly will soon deliver even more power, and that's when I think most will switch. I bet many will pay more for a (more-powerful) battery trimmer. But it's not about "cheap" (imo).
- donw 4y agoIt’s also about lifetime. Internal combustion engines, with a bit of inexpensive maintenance, can be used for many decades. When batteries catch up on both fronts, the game definitely changes.
- jonstewart 4y agoI have a battery-powered chainsaw and IT. IS. AWESOME. I pull the trigger and it runs, saws through any tree easily, and probably 20-30 dB quieter. When I let go of the trigger... it -stops- and it's -silent-. It's easy to think "battery => wimpy, gas => hefty", but it's just not necessarily the case these days, depending on the tool. The only way a gas-powered chainsaw is better than a battery-powered one is that it's fast to refill the gas tank when it's empty, while recharging takes a bit. But if you have two batteries, then the recharge time is about the same as the charge-life, so you can just keep swapping.
- zdragnar 4y agoI've owned both gas and battery chainsaws, and I can't agree. The 80v battery chainsaw WAS really nice in terms of volume and ease of use. There's simply no comparison in terms of cutting power with a decently powerful gas chainsaw, however (FWIW these were greenworks 80v and a Makita 64cc). I would say I paid more for the gas chainsaw, but the battery died on the electric one after only a year or two. Buying extra batteries to get a reasonable runtime and dealing with failing electronics more than makes up the difference in price.
- hanoz 4y agoWhy are these even remotely necessary? I've got a fair sized garden, surrounded by deciduous trees, and half an hour with a rake on a few weekends in Autumn is all it takes to keep on top of things. What am I missing?
- S201 4y agoFor commercial lawn care crews time is money and leaf blowers are much faster than a rake.
- randycupertino 4y agoLandscaping services offer "mow, blow and go" specials. Anything else beyond that is extra. I was willing to pay extra and couldn't find anywhere that offered anything beyond "mow, blow and go."
- Falkon1313 4y agoI have an electric blower/vacuum/shredder, which I bought because previously raking could take hours and then having to bag up a dozen or more bags of leaves. Blowing them into a pile then vacuuming and shredding seemed easier for one year. But I barely even used it last year. Instead I just mowed/trimmed all the leaves to shreds and that was even easier. No raking, no bagging, no blowing necessary.
- bikenaga 4y agoAgree with mowing the leaves. I went from raking/blowing and bagging, to using a shredder, and finally gave up a few years ago and just mowed the leaves on the lawn. Very easy, and I like to mow the lawn a last time in the fall anyway. I had one maple taken down last year, so there are fewer leaves to mow now (just what blows over from my neighbors) - but the remaining tree drops leaves on the sidewalk and street. Nothing for that but to rake/blow (with a corded electric blower) and bag. At least we get 4 "free" leaf pick-up days.
- sergers 4y agoIn BC Canada. Pleanty of trees, equals pleanty of leaves everywhere. Using a leaf blower (I have a plugin electric) is immense time saver. I didn't buy one till this year but every single one of my neighbours has one. You can't rake a hard surface like concrete, and using a broom is exhausting. Most people have electric with some people with the commercial gas style. One of my neighbours do use it excessively and the gas ones the loudest (there is no quiet blower). Seen them use it in the snow... Why shovel the driveway and car, just leaf blower it LOL ( not joking)
- rangledangle 4y agoPretty sure Gas or Electric, both blow things you shouldn't be breathing into the air. Remove them altogether.
- redeeman 4y agoi personally find it easy to get along with everyone, so long as they just agree to ONLY do things I personally approve of. Why cant everyone be as progressive as me?
- rangledangle 4y agoNot sure where the personal bit came from. They literally blow particulate off of the ground and into your lungs. We have non-smoking areas, but suspending whatever is on the ground into the air is somehow okay and opposing it is being "progressive"? I don't think it's such a progressive idea.
- redeeman 4y agobut where does it end? what if I personally take a water sprayer with me and spray the ground ahead of me when walking so as to not hurl dust into the air, can I now demand others do so too? this planet is a shared resource, and a great many things everyone does affects others to some degree, and there obviously has to be some limits, but I think everyone would do well to hold a bit off on judging others, or demanding laws stopping them, for you may soon see others that will turn the cannon around on yourself. What if the 1 billion Africans suddenly decided "well lets get rid of the US lifestyle, they consume too many resources anyway, literally hurling particles and carbon into the air", will you cheer for the dismantling of all the amenities you enjoy?
- rangledangle 4y agoThere's no judgement of people in my comments. It's objectively bad. Air and Water are 100% things we should protect with law BECAUSE "This planet is a shared resource".
- crims0n 4y agoI moved to a two acre wooded lot a few years back, and brought my trusty battery blower that served me well in the city… that lasted one season. I caved and bought a backpack blower last year for about $300 USD. Is it obnoxious? Sure is. Bad for the environment? I am sure. But what used to take me several hours of blowing and recharging now takes me about 20 minutes. When the electric blowers catch up in power and value I’ll be happy to switch back - but until then it’s a matter of cost and efficiency.
- hondo77 4y agoWhat are you blowing on a two-acre wooded lot that takes so long? I'm asking because a) I'm just curious and b) because I'm on an acre and all I use my electric blower for is to clean the concrete walkways and driveways. One charge is all I need for that. When I hear "two acre wooded lot", my mind doesn't immediately think of a lot of concrete.
- crims0n 4y agoYeah fair enough, if it was just the concrete I could get by with the electric blower. I have some gardens, grass, drainage, and 300' of road to keep tame as well.
- jonstewart 4y ago[flagged]
- DangitBobby 4y agoYou either don't have that many trees or you rake at superhuman speed. I have 3 large trees in my .2 acre yard and it takes me considerably longer than 20 minutes (number quoted by GP) to rake it up.
- davemp 4y agoNobody I know with acre+ yards rakes or blows leafs. It’s all done with a mower either just mulching it or bagging and dumping. Raking or even blowing an actual (semi-wooded) acre is a crazy amount of work.
- aedocw 4y agoMoxie Marlinspike came up with a powerful yet quiet blower, but I haven't seen anything else about since a he put up a video on Twitter some time ago: https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1582154037700399104 https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1582154037700399104
- willcipriano 4y agoHe claims he's getting the same power as other models but I think he is comparing it to the lower power leaf blowers that run on drill style batteries, those aren't powerful enough to blow leaves on a lawn, only hard surfaces.
- derriz 4y agoI've become convinced that we will look back at this age where it's acceptable to allow the poisonous exhaust gases from chemical reactions to just flow into the air around us in the same way I read in wonder about how people in 17th century London use the Thames both as a source of drinking water and as a sewer. My feelings in this regard applies to all in-air combustion btw whether for heating, cooking, transport or any sort of machine.
- TrueGeek 4y agoI get your point, but your “17th century” example isn’t in the past yet https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-60046320 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-60046320
- dmd 4y agoMy town (Boston suburb) just banned them, but the enforcement as far as I can tell is "you pay a small fine", which means that fine just becomes the cost of doing business for the landscapers.
- lenepp 4y agoA lot of people who use these machines specifically enjoy the harm they do to others.
- redeeman 4y agogot any proof of that, or is it just "redneck combustion engine man bad" ?
- jmpman 4y agoI have both an electric and a gas powered leaf blower. I specifically bought the most powerful gas powered one made, as the electric one simply wasn’t powerful enough, and didn’t last long enough. I use the leaf blower to move the leaves off the surface of my pool (way too many trees around my pool) and the electric blower, with the largest battery, can barely get it done, and in four times as long.