4 ms·

Leaf blowers used by homeowners or the people paid to take care of their gardens are one of the most "typically American" and absurd and annoying things. You al

by nnq 13y ago

Leaf blowers used by homeowners or the people paid to take care of their gardens are one of the most "typically American" and absurd and annoying things. You almost never hear/see these things around Europe, except some similar contraptions use to take care of very large city parks, for which they probably make sense, and even then they are used at reasonable hours. I mean, using a powered leaf blower to help clean up some fallen leaves off your front yard, sparing you 15 min of your life? Wtf...

Groxx 13y ago
When you're paid to clean leaves off multiple front yards? 15 * yards * days used per year = a whole lot of time. It's really not surprising that they pick what works quickest.
- nnq 13y ago
  So the root of the problem is that people are paying other peoples to clean their yards... guess it's the same "hidden cost / side-effect of externalizing things". That's why I try to stick to the "keep as many things in-house as possible", both for my household and family and for my business :) EDIT+: I think the so called "american way of doing things" is so successful business-wise exactly because of the "externalize as much as you can" philosophy, but it kind of fails big when the hidden costs of externalization are non-financial and manifest themselves as "lower quality of life" or "worse health" and at the same time get offloaded to other people than the ones doing the externalizing (like to the neighbors of the people that pay companies that use powered leafblowers to clean up their yards).
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - mbrock 13y ago
    There's also the American obsession with having a big lawn even when you don't have time to care for it or even enjoy it.
  - cafard 13y ago
    No, it's not always the lawn services. I remember a dozen or more years ago driving down Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, a neighborhood of small bungalows with lawns to suit, and seeing a man, evidently the owner, running his leaf blower. I don't particularly mind raking leaves. Our yard is probably a 90 minute job two or three times in late fall. But I also mow the lawn, with a power mower, so I'm making some noise too.
- beefman 13y ago
  Not at all. I've watched them for years all over California and in a few other States. I used to film them and show friends, back when making movies with a pocket-size device was novel. They tend to loiter and run the machinery excessively whether it's needed or not. I'm not sure why. A display of 'work theater' to impress their clients? Or maybe it's to keep the driving/onsite ratio reasonable? Like, they have enough clients to make a living and don't feel like doing the extra travel/setup/teardown to add more, but don't want to just go home for the rest of the day when people are supposed to be working, so... run the leaf blower? I rarely see them in a hurry. It's almost like a form of meditation for them.
  - joonix 13y ago
    Exactly this. I've confronted gardeners doing this and the homeowners who employ them. I even had the police come out on a noise complaint. Nobody seemed to care and most think it's fair game to make noise as long as it's during "business hours."
  - VLM 13y ago
    Google/Wikipedia for "Conspicuous Consumption" For this purpose, the louder the leafblower and the longer it takes, the better.
MatthewPhillips 13y ago
So do you have some incredible raking skills, or do trees not lose many leaves where you're from? Here cleaning leaves under a big tree in the fall, with or without a leaf blower, takes a solid hour. 2 if you've been lazy and not done it for a week.
- VLM 13y ago
  google for leaf sweeper. I find mine to be much quicker than either a leaf blower or a rake, and much easier to use than a rake. For those too lazy to google its a human powered street sweeper that dumps whatever it sweeps up into a perhaps 9 cubic foot cloth bucket, then you dump the bin when it gets full. For $150 you can buy one that will fall apart in a year, or for $200 you can buy one that apparently will last a lifetime (so far). As an exercise it's pretty weak, rates as a bit less than walking up a hill, but probably more than hiking level with a backpack. If you're strong and talented enough you can push it one handed while talking on the phone or whatever. Its basically silent, a laptop like "whirr" from the sweeping brushes. On a good one you can adjust the brush height such that it sweeps bare air accomplishing nothing, or digs into the dirt with extreme effort, or ideally somewhere in between. With a bad one you adjust it by varying the height you hold the handle, which must be incredibly unergonomic. In the long run the solution to hatred of maintenance of deciduous trees is a chainsaw and an evergreen sapling, but I digress. There are people trapped in prisons, err, I mean overactive homeowners associations, who have to do exactly what the warden says exactly when the warden tells them to do it, but they were dumb enough to pay a huge quantity of money to give up their freedom, so serves them right.
  - ensignavenger 13y ago
    I had to upvote you, simply for your last sentence :)
ja30278 13y ago
This is one of those insane comments that I only ever see on hacker news. Who gives a shit how they pick up leaves in Europe? Picking up leaves isn't some artful process..it's drudgery which consumes some amount of my (finite) life, and which technology has provided a quicker solution.
- toasterlovin 13y ago
  Muscle Over Motor: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/12/05/muscle-over-motor/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/12/05/muscle-over-motor/
shoover 13y ago
It makes sense in a large park but not for personal use? Sounds like you're ok with scaling the noise to the size of the job? It's really not a marginal 15 minutes if you're dealing with any number or large trees. Then there's the removal to deal with. I use a walk-behind mulcher. The machine is running for the same amount of time a blower would (or less), but at the end the leaves are mulched in a bag that I can dump along the edge of the lawn to compost. The material disappears in less than a year. I don't like that I'm making noise for several hours every fall, but it would actually take four times as long to rake and bag it (I'm serious about that number). I have deferred for years pulling the trigger on a blower to clean the interminable tree cruft off the driveway, though. In light of this thread, I will have to think even harder before going that route. I do appreciate quiet.

by nnq 13y ago

Groxx 13y ago

When you're paid to clean leaves off multiple front yards? 15 * yards * days used per year = a whole lot of time. It's really not surprising that they pick what works quickest.

nnq 13y ago
So the root of the problem is that people are paying other peoples to clean their yards... guess it's the same "hidden cost / side-effect of externalizing things". That's why I try to stick to the "keep as many things in-house as possible", both for my household and family and for my business :) EDIT+: I think the so called "american way of doing things" is so successful business-wise exactly because of the "externalize as much as you can" philosophy, but it kind of fails big when the hidden costs of externalization are non-financial and manifest themselves as "lower quality of life" or "worse health" and at the same time get offloaded to other people than the ones doing the externalizing (like to the neighbors of the people that pay companies that use powered leafblowers to clean up their yards).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mbrock 13y ago
  There's also the American obsession with having a big lawn even when you don't have time to care for it or even enjoy it.
- cafard 13y ago
  No, it's not always the lawn services. I remember a dozen or more years ago driving down Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, a neighborhood of small bungalows with lawns to suit, and seeing a man, evidently the owner, running his leaf blower. I don't particularly mind raking leaves. Our yard is probably a 90 minute job two or three times in late fall. But I also mow the lawn, with a power mower, so I'm making some noise too.
beefman 13y ago
Not at all. I've watched them for years all over California and in a few other States. I used to film them and show friends, back when making movies with a pocket-size device was novel. They tend to loiter and run the machinery excessively whether it's needed or not. I'm not sure why. A display of 'work theater' to impress their clients? Or maybe it's to keep the driving/onsite ratio reasonable? Like, they have enough clients to make a living and don't feel like doing the extra travel/setup/teardown to add more, but don't want to just go home for the rest of the day when people are supposed to be working, so... run the leaf blower? I rarely see them in a hurry. It's almost like a form of meditation for them.
- joonix 13y ago
  Exactly this. I've confronted gardeners doing this and the homeowners who employ them. I even had the police come out on a noise complaint. Nobody seemed to care and most think it's fair game to make noise as long as it's during "business hours."
- VLM 13y ago
  Google/Wikipedia for "Conspicuous Consumption" For this purpose, the louder the leafblower and the longer it takes, the better.

MatthewPhillips 13y ago

So do you have some incredible raking skills, or do trees not lose many leaves where you're from? Here cleaning leaves under a big tree in the fall, with or without a leaf blower, takes a solid hour. 2 if you've been lazy and not done it for a week.

VLM 13y ago
google for leaf sweeper. I find mine to be much quicker than either a leaf blower or a rake, and much easier to use than a rake. For those too lazy to google its a human powered street sweeper that dumps whatever it sweeps up into a perhaps 9 cubic foot cloth bucket, then you dump the bin when it gets full. For $150 you can buy one that will fall apart in a year, or for $200 you can buy one that apparently will last a lifetime (so far). As an exercise it's pretty weak, rates as a bit less than walking up a hill, but probably more than hiking level with a backpack. If you're strong and talented enough you can push it one handed while talking on the phone or whatever. Its basically silent, a laptop like "whirr" from the sweeping brushes. On a good one you can adjust the brush height such that it sweeps bare air accomplishing nothing, or digs into the dirt with extreme effort, or ideally somewhere in between. With a bad one you adjust it by varying the height you hold the handle, which must be incredibly unergonomic. In the long run the solution to hatred of maintenance of deciduous trees is a chainsaw and an evergreen sapling, but I digress. There are people trapped in prisons, err, I mean overactive homeowners associations, who have to do exactly what the warden says exactly when the warden tells them to do it, but they were dumb enough to pay a huge quantity of money to give up their freedom, so serves them right.
- ensignavenger 13y ago
  I had to upvote you, simply for your last sentence :)

ja30278 13y ago

This is one of those insane comments that I only ever see on hacker news. Who gives a shit how they pick up leaves in Europe? Picking up leaves isn't some artful process..it's drudgery which consumes some amount of my (finite) life, and which technology has provided a quicker solution.

toasterlovin 13y ago
Muscle Over Motor: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/12/05/muscle-over-motor/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/12/05/muscle-over-motor/

shoover 13y ago

It makes sense in a large park but not for personal use? Sounds like you're ok with scaling the noise to the size of the job? It's really not a marginal 15 minutes if you're dealing with any number or large trees. Then there's the removal to deal with. I use a walk-behind mulcher. The machine is running for the same amount of time a blower would (or less), but at the end the leaves are mulched in a bag that I can dump along the edge of the lawn to compost. The material disappears in less than a year. I don't like that I'm making noise for several hours every fall, but it would actually take four times as long to rake and bag it (I'm serious about that number). I have deferred for years pulling the trigger on a blower to clean the interminable tree cruft off the driveway, though. In light of this thread, I will have to think even harder before going that route. I do appreciate quiet.