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Why? I'm sure they're less practical than the gas powered ones, but every tool system with their own battery standard seems to have one. Even if you had to hav

Why? I'm sure they're less practical than the gas powered ones, but every tool system with their own battery standard seems to have one. Even if you had to have a few batteries charged in reserve, that seems more like slightly more expensive and annoying than utterly impractical. Am I missing something?

slimsag 2y ago
They're not even in the same ballpark My 80v electric blower with a heavy battery runs for 21 minutes. A gas blower with 1.5 gallons of fuel will last 10 hours. A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table.
- modeless 2y ago
  Those minorities get the worst of the air pollution and dangerous noise levels themselves. And you have to add the externality of everyone else being affected by the pollution before you weigh the costs and benefits. Of course landscapers shouldn't be expected to switch voluntarily when it puts them at a competitive disadvantage, it's a textbook case of externality needing regulations.
- kbenson 2y ago
  > My 80v electric blower with a heavy battery runs for 21 minutes. A gas blower with 1.5 gallons of fuel will last 10 hours. I found backbpack models (and if we're comparing professional services that's what seems we should compare) that claim 60 minuntes on high at 800cfm+ and 20 hours on low, with dual charger systems you can buy to supplement. I saw numbers quoting that most professional leaf blowers go through about 0.43 gallons of fuel an hour. The top backpack blowers I looked up didn't even have a 1.5 gallon tank. The Echo PB-9010T has a 83.8 fl. oz. tank. The Stihl BR 800 C-E Magnum has a 67.6 oz. tank. The SCHRÖDER SR-9900X 80cc has a tank size of 75 oz. If you have to stop to refuel every hour or so anyway, swapping out a battery that's been charging doesn't seem like a big inconvenience. > A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table. I'm not sure we should be avoiding legislation meant to protect the public in general (air and noise pollution) because of possible affects to some specific subcategory (leaf blowing) of an industry (landscaping) which happens to employ minorities in a higher percentage than other industries. If we were to always do that, then we'd rarely ever have any useful public protections, would we? How many professional leaf blowers per capita do you think we have, anyway, and if it costs more for everyone since it's regulated, why would the impact really be that great, since it should just mean they charge more?
xkqd 2y ago
You basically can run through a high capacity battery in less than 10 minutes, completing a light cleanup of a standard 1/4ac lawn. The battery itself will take 3-4 hours. Running through an entire block would deplete numerous batteries, meaning you’ve got to purchase 2 dozen if your crew is going to do the average 20ish homes a day. The purchase cost is one thing sure, but batteries are a consumable and the logistics of charging are no joke for the average crew. This is all just to blow some light leaves and clippings. This doesn’t account for running trimmers or god help you the lawnmower itself. The tech just isn’t there yet and given the extremely high energy density and ease of use of gasoline, it may never match it.
- modeless 2y ago
  I understand that they are less convenient and probably significantly more expensive for commercial use. That's why legislation is necessary, so landscapers who choose them aren't at a cost disadvantage. Externalities like air pollution are the textbook reason for regulations like this.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
    I mean we are talking an order of magnitude more effort and cost in exchange for noise pollution. I suspice if you told voters lawn care would quadruple in price in exchange for less (note, not eliminated) noise and air pollution that voters would not be terribly keen to approve such a solution.
    - modeless 2y ago
      > lawn care would quadruple in price Come on, they're expensive but not that expensive.
- kbenson 2y ago
  From a little looking, the Greenworks 82BA26-52DP[1] seems like it might work well. It has a fairly long run time on battery on high (40 minutes), very long on low (2 hours), and has a dual port charging solution that seems to be able to charge batteries in 40-60 minutes depending on battery size. About a hour per tank of gas for a gas powered leaf blower seems to be about average, so I don't think stopping that often is really a problem. It is more expensive up front, from even the electric blower's own numbers, but they say it's much cheaper over a year if you have a 4 hour daily usage cycle.[2] I don't know enough to know whether the claims make sense or not. Maybe you know more about this, but maybe it's not as clearly one sided as you think? 1: https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/products/82ba26-52dp-82-volt-dual-port-backpack-blower-with-two-5ah-batteries-and-one-8a-charger https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/products/82ba26-52dp-82... 2: https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/cdn/shop/files/82BA26-SavingStory.png?v=1711374642&width=900 https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/cdn/shop/files/82BA26-S...

slimsag 2y ago

They're not even in the same ballpark My 80v electric blower with a heavy battery runs for 21 minutes. A gas blower with 1.5 gallons of fuel will last 10 hours. A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table.

modeless 2y ago
Those minorities get the worst of the air pollution and dangerous noise levels themselves. And you have to add the externality of everyone else being affected by the pollution before you weigh the costs and benefits. Of course landscapers shouldn't be expected to switch voluntarily when it puts them at a competitive disadvantage, it's a textbook case of externality needing regulations.
kbenson 2y ago
> My 80v electric blower with a heavy battery runs for 21 minutes. A gas blower with 1.5 gallons of fuel will last 10 hours. I found backbpack models (and if we're comparing professional services that's what seems we should compare) that claim 60 minuntes on high at 800cfm+ and 20 hours on low, with dual charger systems you can buy to supplement. I saw numbers quoting that most professional leaf blowers go through about 0.43 gallons of fuel an hour. The top backpack blowers I looked up didn't even have a 1.5 gallon tank. The Echo PB-9010T has a 83.8 fl. oz. tank. The Stihl BR 800 C-E Magnum has a 67.6 oz. tank. The SCHRÖDER SR-9900X 80cc has a tank size of 75 oz. If you have to stop to refuel every hour or so anyway, swapping out a battery that's been charging doesn't seem like a big inconvenience. > A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table. I'm not sure we should be avoiding legislation meant to protect the public in general (air and noise pollution) because of possible affects to some specific subcategory (leaf blowing) of an industry (landscaping) which happens to employ minorities in a higher percentage than other industries. If we were to always do that, then we'd rarely ever have any useful public protections, would we? How many professional leaf blowers per capita do you think we have, anyway, and if it costs more for everyone since it's regulated, why would the impact really be that great, since it should just mean they charge more?

xkqd 2y ago

You basically can run through a high capacity battery in less than 10 minutes, completing a light cleanup of a standard 1/4ac lawn. The battery itself will take 3-4 hours. Running through an entire block would deplete numerous batteries, meaning you’ve got to purchase 2 dozen if your crew is going to do the average 20ish homes a day. The purchase cost is one thing sure, but batteries are a consumable and the logistics of charging are no joke for the average crew. This is all just to blow some light leaves and clippings. This doesn’t account for running trimmers or god help you the lawnmower itself. The tech just isn’t there yet and given the extremely high energy density and ease of use of gasoline, it may never match it.

modeless 2y ago
I understand that they are less convenient and probably significantly more expensive for commercial use. That's why legislation is necessary, so landscapers who choose them aren't at a cost disadvantage. Externalities like air pollution are the textbook reason for regulations like this.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  I mean we are talking an order of magnitude more effort and cost in exchange for noise pollution. I suspice if you told voters lawn care would quadruple in price in exchange for less (note, not eliminated) noise and air pollution that voters would not be terribly keen to approve such a solution.
  - modeless 2y ago
    > lawn care would quadruple in price Come on, they're expensive but not that expensive.
kbenson 2y ago
From a little looking, the Greenworks 82BA26-52DP[1] seems like it might work well. It has a fairly long run time on battery on high (40 minutes), very long on low (2 hours), and has a dual port charging solution that seems to be able to charge batteries in 40-60 minutes depending on battery size. About a hour per tank of gas for a gas powered leaf blower seems to be about average, so I don't think stopping that often is really a problem. It is more expensive up front, from even the electric blower's own numbers, but they say it's much cheaper over a year if you have a 4 hour daily usage cycle.[2] I don't know enough to know whether the claims make sense or not. Maybe you know more about this, but maybe it's not as clearly one sided as you think? 1: https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/products/82ba26-52dp-82-volt-dual-port-backpack-blower-with-two-5ah-batteries-and-one-8a-charger https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/products/82ba26-52dp-82... 2: https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/cdn/shop/files/82BA26-SavingStory.png?v=1711374642&width=900 https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/cdn/shop/files/82BA26-S...