I just bought my wife a brushless Ryobi battery powered blower for the sidewalks. Mother's Day present so she doesn't have to sweep š.... And I got a new power tool.
I did same at Christmas one year. I was worried but then wasnāt as she gleefully ran up and down the walkway leaf blowing at full blast. A cloud of leaves and giggles in her wake.
The electric ones aren't powerful enough for big piles of leaves, especially wet heavy leaves. It's just notnfeasible for a landscaper to use them. It would take 2-3 electric blowers for every gas blower for a big yard here in the midwest. The electric ones just dont have the power to move all that. They're fine for light light work, but banning them for commercial use is untenable at this point. These communities might find it hard to find people to do their yards until the tech can deliver what gas can. It's not an addiction to gasoline. Most owners of landscape companies don't give a flying fk if it's gas or electric as long as it gets the job done efficiently at a reasonable cost. Once electric checks the boxes, there will be less resistance.
They're really nice! I can just tap the trigger and blow whatever I need, and it doesn't constantly run. Way lighter, no backpack, and no exhaust. Battery and motor technology has gotten really good. After the first use it was *obvious* that the electric blower was superior. That guy is utterly clueless.
Works fine for me. Blows the wood chips off the sidewalk, blows out all the junk in our rain gutters, I use it to blow out all the dog hair in our garage, blows off the woodchips and leaves off our yard drain covers, use it to blow off all the wood chips and compost off my pickup truck bed. Same battery powers my chainsaw and mower.
They also attract more bugs than you can imagine and my dog doesnāt enjoy them. I mow what I can and compost but it still has to be tidy. I donāt want to kill the bugs but I donāt want them inside my house and I have enough leaves they would smother everything if left.
I have an acre of forest on my land. The leaves fall and stay, there is about 6" of dead, rotting leaves feeding the trees. As I don't use chemicals of any kind, the species that feed on bugs thrive. It's a balance...
An acre is a good size lot. Try that many leaves in less than a quarter. I have already had termites. I try to balance too but there is a line. And my dog does not enjoy wading through leaves to poop. Especially if they are wet. Large cockroaches also love leaves. Ask me how I know.
Leaf blowers in general are so stupid. I have an electric leaf vacuum that sucks up all the leaves and mulches them all down for me. Then I can choose where to use that mulch.
My neighbors all look at me like Iām insane for doing less work and not blowing leaves into the street.
Yeah! You wear a backpack and walk around the yard looking like a ghost buster. Itās pretty awesome.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER-12-AMP-250-MPH-400-CFM-Corded-Electric-3-In-1-Backpack-Leaf-Blower-Vacuum-Mulcher-BEBL7000/303160530
is it loud, at least compared to a traditional leaf blower? i'm also seeing a decent number of reviews complaining about how it constantly gets clogged. are they reasonable or is it probably just user error?
Definitely user error. Donāt vacuum wet leaves and grass and youāll be fine. In 6 years Iāve only had it clog a couple of times because I was trying to suck up too much too fast and some of the leaves were wet and stuck together in clumps.
Itās not quite as loud as a leaf blower, but itās not quiet by any means.
goddamn i love the future, i can finally mulch organic material and just pour it out wherever it needs to go instead of trying to shred and scatter it by hand like a tool. it'll help a lot with my compost pile too because the new material have better airflow.
I have [this one](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Worx-210-MPH-350-CFM-Electric-12-Amp-Leaf-Blower-Mulcher-Vac-with-Metal-Impeller-WG509/205790297). It has the leaf bag as a side sling. Way less cool than the ghostbuster backpack.
It holds quite a lot. The bag expands and since itās mulching leaves and grass down, you can fit a ton. Not sure on the actual volume measurements.
Also, Iām sure other brands make them.
I know. I had an earlier model of that, but the cord made it so cumbersome I just stopped using it. I also had the problem that you had to hold the suction really close to the leaves and then it would suck up dirt and small rocks. When the dirt blows into that bag a cloud of fine dust comes out and you're caked in mud at the end of the day.
It would probably work great for grass, but I don't have a lawn.
I bought my electric leaf blower (it sucks too but doesnāt mulch like yours) for $15 at my neighbors garage sale. I used it this spring to clear out all the dirt built up on our patio. Only had to use it for 5 minutes.
I plan on starting a spot in my backyard this year for all the leaves/bugs. Not sure what that will look like yetā¦
The entire concept of *cleaning leaves up off the ground* is stupid. Leaves fall in Autumn. That's what leaves do. It's gonna be okay. They biodegrade before Spring.
I like to reposition the leaf piles that accumulate in the street gutters and corners of the driveway to underneath trees in the backyard and onto my garden beds.
This depends on how many leaves you have. Our house has a large oak tree in front, and a city park across the street full of oak trees. Because of the winds in the area, guess where most of the leaves end up?
We blow the leaves into the street because each fall we fill the entire curb lane with leaves, 4' deep, about 100' long and do this 3x each autumn. It's got to be 30-40 cubic yards of leaves total.
Mulch is great, but there's no way we could use that much.
And I absolutely love my electric blower for general tidying most of the year, but come autumn a gas backpack is (unfortunately) the only thing powerful enough to move that many leaves. Especially if they are a bit wet.
It's insane just how many leaves we have here... On the upside, I'm in a moderate sized nice city with a city park across the street, so looking out the front windows across the street is a forest. Just fall and those leaves... damn.
(The previous owner actually tried to just mulch them down for a couple years. When we bought the place all the grass was dead and it was all mud. Thankfully once we pulled off the layer of dead leaves stuff grew back in real fast, and now the dogs aren't constantly dirty.)
I mean I just leave my leaves through winter (I take maybe a small path so I donāt track them in) and mow them finally in the spring and the grass is totally fine.
> āWeāre not California, weāre not Florida. We have leaves. The average house in New Jersey, you take away 30 to 50 cubic feet of leaves each fall. Thatās a lot of leaves.ā
30-50 cu ft of free slow-release fertilizer? Oh dear, what a burden...
The reason I grab bags of raked up leaves from neighbors and then use my plug in electric mower to mulch them up and spread them all over my garden. I have zero lawnā¦ itās all dense plants and looks like a jungle. I have an old wooden bench hidden in the middle that I can barely get to and itās my little sanctuary space. I can sit and none of the neighbors can see me. Itās the best.
If you can avoid mulching them, it would actually be even better for the environment!
A lot of bugs overwinter in the dead leaves, so when you chop them up, the bugs get killed.
I have 6 giant maples and the first couple years we saw a few fireflies but it was rare. Last few years I leave a ton of leaves in the fall and in the summer we have thousands of fireflies. I much prefer the fireflies.
Oh I know. I leave the leaves that fall from my trees where they are. I only mulch some of what I bring in to speed up the composting side of things. It took a couple of years to get the soil richened up so the plants would thrive. I have hundreds of them in the ground at this point. Most of the ground has a nice thick layer of leaves and whatever gets trimmed back in the spring after freezes are done. My yard is the only one with life on the entire street. I hate looking at the baron grass yards that are all turning brown right now from no rain in weeks. Was just sitting out there watching some butterflies and bees roaming around and a green anole sunning itself waiting for a snack to come by.
I just let them where they lay, some grass still makes it through, plus even more Wintergreen, and I've been planting herbs here and there, along with apple and cherry trees. From seed I think the deer are eating them so that hasn't produced more than two of each so far but I have hundreds of seeds planted this spring. Fuck lawns, waste of resources for something I do not even want.
I wheelbarrow different neighbors leaves to my yard like a crazy person. I have a neighbor with a sweet gum, those leaves go in my yard. Neighbors with oaks, those leaves go in my yard. I have an american linden tree and a maple I keep those leaves in my yard. Didn't get any of my one neighbors sycamore leaves last year, but will try this year.
My yard has great insect diversity between all my native plants and the leaves.
You can leave a Refugia of leaves unmulched and still preserve a lot of insects. Mulching leaves and spreading them under trees and amongst the lawn all but eliminates the need to fertilize a lawn. Mulched leaves are also valuable to someone who gardens.
I'm in NJ, 90% of the time, 3 seasons long, that those fucking things are running they're trying to get one piece of something away from a garage door. Use a fucking broom, or leave it.
They are, they will spend so much time and money on the stupid lawn. Some of these suburbs every single lawn is like straight green grass with no weeds. All dosed with herbicides and insecticides. Why even have a lawn if you cannot walk out in it without poisoning yourself? Or your dog or a kid especially.
Ā I happen to like dandelions, they are edible and good in salad, and they are just as comfortable to walk on as grass.
Turf grass is America's number one biggest crop. It gets the most input of labor, chemicals, and water, and yet it is (as you noted) worse than useless.
I never heard these awful machines growing up yet yards weren't covered in leaves and no one paid for lawn service. Raking took an afternoon but thats the price you pay for owning a home with a yard.
Your response to this comment made me remember the old days where I was too broke to afford tools to maintain a lawn. Neighbors would complain (or dislike it) not so much complain. I always felt bad my yard didn't look as good as everyone else's. I thought back then the city should provide or help low income peeps have yard maintenance items so they too can take pride in their house/yard even if they didn't own it. Cities could provide all electric lawn care tools, they would be quiet and use no gas. Win win!! That would be amazing. I just upgraded my mower and feel like I'm cheating when I mow because of how ez it is, since nowadays I can afford a NICE electric mower etc and not use all my gas powered yard tools!!!
The landscaping companies are all asking how theyāre supposed to get all the work done (read: visit tons of wealthy, aging clients every day) but no one is pointing out the real answer: we do not need huge, flawless lawns. They are a waste. Let your trees have an understory. Let the leaves do their thing.
Most of us use very little of our lawns.
My stepdad runs a two person landscaping company. His leaf blowers, mowers, and other tools have been all electric for at least 5 years now. He loves it. No more stinky gas cans in the garage, no extra stops at the gas station. Heās never had trouble getting work done, plus the quietness and eco-friendly aspect is a good selling point for his company.
Heās conservative as fuck too. Heās always ranting about stuff like bans on gas stoves being tyranny. The electric tools just make good business sense to him.
For the companies itās a valid concern, because unless the customer expectation changes it will be taken out on them. After all the people hiring landscapers are the same ones who want large swathes of land they donāt use to loose āniceā without dedicating their own time to it.
These laws will change how that industry operates and the companies should communicate this. I myself spoke with a landscaper to figure out a way to skip leaf blowing in autumn without getting mold everywhere again and thats what I changed my yard to. This will change what clients ask for if they speak up.
I have a battery mower , love it. And a battery weed Wacker. People love buying gas. Members of my family laughed at it. Said the batteries were too high price and the planet couldn't handle a pile of old batteries thrown out.
I know... We are doomed against these people. They also like the orange walking man.
I have an issue with the battery weed whacker. Or maybe I just haven't used a strong enough one yet. I regularly have to clear tall, dense grass and weeds.
āNew Jersey is bombarded with leaves and stuff to clean up,ā said Rich Goldstein, president of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, representing 550 companies in the state. āWeāre not California, weāre not Florida. We have leaves. The average house in New Jersey, you take away 30 to 50 cubic feet of leaves each fall. Thatās a lot of leaves.ā
People pay so called landscapers to the blow and haul the leaves away - depriving all sorts of creatures a home and the soil of nutrients - only to pay them again to bring a truck load of mulch and spread it 6 months later. It's total insanity. Leave the leaves.
My bf is a groundskeeper, and he has mixed feelings about this. He's happy that he isn't exposed to gas fumes, buying gas, dealing with all that. At the same time, though, he needs to keep like 5 batteries charging at all times because those electric batteries dont last that long. Especially on his weed whacker, sometimes he has to do side jobs, and he does need to make sure he brings like 10 batteries if he's going to be there all day weed whacking/blowing, or he has to bring chargers. Also, he had to buy a bunch of extra chargers and batteries, which *is* cheaper than gas, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
Overall, though, I think he prefers electric, just because gas is also a pain. Also, all the batteries for all of his tools are interchangeable, and some hold more charge than others.
And, battery tech is continuously improving and swapping batteries is pretty quick! So, as time goes on, this will get easier and easier.
Thermodynamics limits what you can do with a combustion engine and we're pretty close to that limit. Gas powered stuff won't get very much better, unless someone invents a better fuel, which is unlikely because we're shifting away from fuel altogether so nobody's really investigating. And the whole reason we use gas is because it's cheap to refine out of petroleum, so synthesizing a better fuel is unlikely to happen and will probably never be as cheap
In Boise, people use these things forā¦.literally nothing. They will spend half an hour blowing naught but dust off of a walkway. The landscapers will make a pass before thebgrass is mowed and AGAIN AFTER. People use them to clear SNOW from their walkways. Itās absolutely insane and I am militant about ending it.
r/Boise hates me for it
No problem with my landscaping business. My Ego blower and other electric tools are powerful enough to keep the hardscaping and river rock clear, mow medium sized lawns, and keep me cool with the giant misting fan while I hand weed or do other things.
I also worked for another company previously that used Stihl electric tools. The only thing I can't find that works is an electric weed whacker.
Since I know how to do other things besides mow and blow, I don't need to run those tools 8 hours straight a day to keep my business running, either.
It's their own fault they are too lazy to adapt!
Same people fighting for the right to use these also complain there arenāt anymore fireflies or butterflies like there used to be. No shit you neurotic shits, youāre removing the leaves they rely on over winter to exist. I hate this reality sometimesĀ
My neighbors treat gas powered leaf blowers like they are covered by the 2nd Amendment. You can take them from their cold, dead hands. Americans can be so stupid.
yea there just isnt a need for it out side of comercial use. the guys mowing whole feilds with those sick ride on double mowers they can keep them. trying to something that size on battery is unreasonable.
You'd be surprised how far a battery can get you, because electric motors are just so fundamentally more efficient than combustion engines, but I get what you're saying. The battery tech might not be there yet.
Swapping batteries gets a lot harder when you're talking about riding vehicles, because they're pretty heavy.
It can be done, for sure, and already is for some vehicles. There's cars with battery swapping but they need a dedicated swapping station.
I don't know how much more energy a riding mower uses vs, those scooters you see all over southeast Asia. If it's about the same, then the tech already exists for swappable batteries that are light enough for any old Joe to swap.
So, my gut says a riding mower needs a bit more than that, but it could be as simple as 2 scooter batteries.
I genuinely just don't know
While I agree, I own both gas and electric tools, and it still makes a lot more economical sense to use gas. They are usually cheaper and can last 2-3X longer. Electric tool batteries just aren't as long-lasting, and you have to pay for a new battery every 2 years.
There's also the power issue - my electric weed eater has about half the power and running time as my gas one, and struggles on parts of my lawn. Also the electric edger doesn't do well on St. Augustine grass. And the electric blower has a lower air output.
I'm all for making the switch, but I do understand the concerns and complaints.
I hear what you say. I get upset at the state doing stuff like mowing the entire 345 mile length of Interstate I-71 including the median when there is no fire hazard. Many states just let it go wild. Not mine.
It's a bit moot, as electric yard tools are already outselling their gas equivalents.
They are just more convenient, as you don't have to jet out a carb every spring, and they are quieter.
It isnāt moot. Even if theyāre outselling gas powered ones, thereās still tons more gas powered lawn equipment still in use, both commercially and privately. At a minimum, it isnāt moot because even if 80% of the neighborhood has electric tools, the 20% who donāt still cause insane noise/air pollution like itās their second job
This is stupid. I have been gardening for years and my current company uses all electric. It works the same and I literally had a client thank me today for not spewing toxic fumes. They're quieter too. I really dont think there should be too many hangups. I only worry about people disposing of the batteries the wrong way.
I have a neighbor who is obsessed with his backpack blower.
His record is like 5Ā½ hours between it and his mower.
We mow our lawn about every three weeks, and it looks better than his.
The argument I've heard is people won't hire if they have to use rakes. So what if the owners are cheap. They will just live with leaves. Which is better for the little critters anyway. Leave the leaves or pay for raking. Or even better, DIY!
Maybe we donāt need immaculate lawns, maybe we could have people compost their own leaves, maybe we could stop maintaining lawns that no one even uses. There are a lot of maybes here, but I think they would all be possible to live with.
And no, you donāt need to run your truck all day to charge batteries, you can put solar panels on top of your trailer and use the free energy from the sun.
While I am here, I am going to go one step farther and suggest that every landscape crew has at least one person on it with a short degree and that of the remaining members at least half have a Master Gardeners certificate.
Iām all about helping the environment and conserving energy but the big source of pollution waste and consumption comes from factories, yatchs, cruiships , jets etc . This is just another trick to get us into in-fighting while forgetting whoās the real enemy.
No. A lot of studies have been done about the substantial emissions from small engines. The fact that they're small means they burn gas far less efficiently, and also put out a lot more nitrous oxides. From the article:
> He said using such a blower for an hour creates as much pollution as driving a car for 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers).
And that's just the direct emissions from those machines. That doesn't include the health effects of the fumes, the health and community impacts of the noise, the impacts of the actual leaf-blowing (or mowing, etc), or the effects of continuing to help prop up the fossil fuel industry.
Industry is responsible for 70% of the emissions, those are the ones creating the infighting so instead of regulating their pollution we just fight for a damn leaf blower with our neighbor. We should join and focus our efforts of fighting companies like Duke energy but more people are familiar with a gas guzzling Hummer and donāt even know what Duke energy is or whet they do to our climate.
Based, and I am someone who doesn't shy away from gas powered tools.
I have no need to leaf blow, but when I worked at Goddard Park as a teen, I used an old 25:1 mix 2 stroke backpack blower that belched bluish smoke. It was terrible, although powerful. We did get an EARLY batter operated one that was heavier and worse in every way. That was decades ago, and I imagine new lithium battery ones are better in every way, just like how my consumer tier battery wood working tools are way better than the old cordless tools I used when I worked for a timber framer.
The only outdoor tool I'm leary about batteries on is a chainsaw. Without the pulsed torque, chaps won't save you. You can say "well don't have an acident", but that is just not right. Shit happens, and I wear my ppe, even if sometimes it feels like it prevents proper engagement.
They need to make it illegal to require anyone to mow their lawns before they start banning the use of landscaping equipment. If the job is still legally required to get done (HOAs, City laws, etc) then you can't just make it harder for it to get done if the equipments available and better. Electric and battery powered blowers still suck.
I switched to battery powered leaf blowers and trimmer...let me tell you how amazing they are. You don't have it idling wasting fuel if it's not doing work. You press a button and it just works. I would NEVER go back to gas powered hand held lawn tools. The only thing I cannot give up is a gas powered zero turn, the yard is just way too big to do with one charge and buying another 4x set of batteries is too costly at the moment.
Couple years ago I got that big honking battery powered blower dewalt makes to clean out my refrigerated trailer. It will send decent sized chunks of pallet wood airborne and our the back, then wrangle the whole mess into a pile for disposal. I gotta wear ear and eye protection when I use it. At the time it was reviewed as being the most equivalent to a backpack blower and I have no complaints!
I'm sure in the last couple of years other companies have caught up with their products. Just have a couple of spares and a multi battery charger in the truck and you could sure as shit run this monster doing landscaping.
I rake paths, because we have venomous snakes (that look just like leaves) that are out most of the year thanks to our fairly temperate climate. The leaves go straight in my flower beds or compost pile.
Good, I hope the ban these statewide. Itās never ending. Every neighbor has a landscaper that comes on a different day and spends an hour blowing shit around.
Ridiculous. Lawn, *and garden* , companies should be excluded. These people have work to do. It's work I've been employed in before. Going all battery would suck, if not be impossible.
Leaf blower hate is over hyped. If that's the thing that's unhinging someone, that's not really the thing. Something else else is wrong in their life.
At home, we use a combination of corded electric, battery, and manual equipment. It's great. For home. My lawnmower is an American reel mower. The old manual type. Does fine on the two patches of open grass we have left. But to do 8-12 yards a day or an apartment complex, gas gas baby!
People are addicted to gasoline
I have a rake,.
A broom works like a charm for concrete
The quickie angle broom should be listed next to duct tape for solving most problems.
My wife also appreciates a quickie.
A gas powered broom?
I just bought my wife a brushless Ryobi battery powered blower for the sidewalks. Mother's Day present so she doesn't have to sweep š.... And I got a new power tool.
I bought my wife an electric lawn mower, leaf blower, and weed wacker. I don't do yard work, but I'll make sure it's easier for her.
In keeping with the wife theme, sort of
I did same at Christmas one year. I was worried but then wasnāt as she gleefully ran up and down the walkway leaf blowing at full blast. A cloud of leaves and giggles in her wake.
Because of the steady IV drip of oil propaganda interlaced with right wing politics
Celebrities flying around the world on a daily basis but weāre the bad guys because we want a gas powered lawnmower
Both are wasteful. Don't be a child
One seems a lot more wasteful than the other
The electric ones aren't powerful enough for big piles of leaves, especially wet heavy leaves. It's just notnfeasible for a landscaper to use them. It would take 2-3 electric blowers for every gas blower for a big yard here in the midwest. The electric ones just dont have the power to move all that. They're fine for light light work, but banning them for commercial use is untenable at this point. These communities might find it hard to find people to do their yards until the tech can deliver what gas can. It's not an addiction to gasoline. Most owners of landscape companies don't give a flying fk if it's gas or electric as long as it gets the job done efficiently at a reasonable cost. Once electric checks the boxes, there will be less resistance.
You ever use a battery powered blower? They are just about useless
Yes. Every week. Itās great.
They're really nice! I can just tap the trigger and blow whatever I need, and it doesn't constantly run. Way lighter, no backpack, and no exhaust. Battery and motor technology has gotten really good. After the first use it was *obvious* that the electric blower was superior. That guy is utterly clueless.
How many volts is the one you tried? It really varies. You should look at CFM ratings online before judging all electric blowers.
Got one, itās awesome, same battery as my lawn mower! A bad workman blames their tools.
I hear where you're coming from, but there is such a thing as a crappy tool. Just sayin. Battery blowers are awesome.
You get it
clearly you don't?
Not anymore. they gotten much more powerful and if you have more than one battery, you are all set without the noise, smell and need to store gas.
Works fine for me. Blows the wood chips off the sidewalk, blows out all the junk in our rain gutters, I use it to blow out all the dog hair in our garage, blows off the woodchips and leaves off our yard drain covers, use it to blow off all the wood chips and compost off my pickup truck bed. Same battery powers my chainsaw and mower.
Ever used the Stihl stuff? Electric is superior in every way and here to stay. Infernal combustion is dead.
Plenty of times and never had an issue š
The downvotes donāt know the scale of leaves in a wooded yard. I have a battery one for regular year use but fall is a whole different level.
Leave them be. They turn into compost to feed the soil.
They also attract more bugs than you can imagine and my dog doesnāt enjoy them. I mow what I can and compost but it still has to be tidy. I donāt want to kill the bugs but I donāt want them inside my house and I have enough leaves they would smother everything if left.
I have an acre of forest on my land. The leaves fall and stay, there is about 6" of dead, rotting leaves feeding the trees. As I don't use chemicals of any kind, the species that feed on bugs thrive. It's a balance...
An acre is a good size lot. Try that many leaves in less than a quarter. I have already had termites. I try to balance too but there is a line. And my dog does not enjoy wading through leaves to poop. Especially if they are wet. Large cockroaches also love leaves. Ask me how I know.
Lol, I have great danes. The leaves can get pretty deep before they even notice! š
I would love to launch every fucking one of these things into the sun
Leaf blowers in general are so stupid. I have an electric leaf vacuum that sucks up all the leaves and mulches them all down for me. Then I can choose where to use that mulch. My neighbors all look at me like Iām insane for doing less work and not blowing leaves into the street.
wait you mean it mulches as it goes? that's fucking brilliant and i want to hear more.
Yeah! You wear a backpack and walk around the yard looking like a ghost buster. Itās pretty awesome. https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER-12-AMP-250-MPH-400-CFM-Corded-Electric-3-In-1-Backpack-Leaf-Blower-Vacuum-Mulcher-BEBL7000/303160530
is it loud, at least compared to a traditional leaf blower? i'm also seeing a decent number of reviews complaining about how it constantly gets clogged. are they reasonable or is it probably just user error?
Definitely user error. Donāt vacuum wet leaves and grass and youāll be fine. In 6 years Iāve only had it clog a couple of times because I was trying to suck up too much too fast and some of the leaves were wet and stuck together in clumps. Itās not quite as loud as a leaf blower, but itās not quiet by any means.
goddamn i love the future, i can finally mulch organic material and just pour it out wherever it needs to go instead of trying to shred and scatter it by hand like a tool. it'll help a lot with my compost pile too because the new material have better airflow.
I have [this one](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Worx-210-MPH-350-CFM-Electric-12-Amp-Leaf-Blower-Mulcher-Vac-with-Metal-Impeller-WG509/205790297). It has the leaf bag as a side sling. Way less cool than the ghostbuster backpack.
Iām assuming you wait until late spring to get them up so as not to disturb/kill all the overwintering insects and eggs laid in the leaves?
Absolutely. Generally from November - late May, I donāt mess with the natural order of things.
That looks like something I'd like, but it doesn't look like it holds much. Do you find yourself having to empty it a lot?
It holds quite a lot. The bag expands and since itās mulching leaves and grass down, you can fit a ton. Not sure on the actual volume measurements. Also, Iām sure other brands make them.
Cord kills it
The point is that thereās a better way than a leaf blower. Other brands make battery powered versions.
I know. I had an earlier model of that, but the cord made it so cumbersome I just stopped using it. I also had the problem that you had to hold the suction really close to the leaves and then it would suck up dirt and small rocks. When the dirt blows into that bag a cloud of fine dust comes out and you're caked in mud at the end of the day. It would probably work great for grass, but I don't have a lawn.
What? I can't hear you over the fuckin leaf blowers!
I bought my electric leaf blower (it sucks too but doesnāt mulch like yours) for $15 at my neighbors garage sale. I used it this spring to clear out all the dirt built up on our patio. Only had to use it for 5 minutes. I plan on starting a spot in my backyard this year for all the leaves/bugs. Not sure what that will look like yetā¦
If it's just leaves then yea, tried that with small stick and acorns and it eats the blade quick
The entire concept of *cleaning leaves up off the ground* is stupid. Leaves fall in Autumn. That's what leaves do. It's gonna be okay. They biodegrade before Spring.
I like to reposition the leaf piles that accumulate in the street gutters and corners of the driveway to underneath trees in the backyard and onto my garden beds.
If you have large trees and grass under them, failing to remove the leaves will kill the grass.
This depends on how many leaves you have. Our house has a large oak tree in front, and a city park across the street full of oak trees. Because of the winds in the area, guess where most of the leaves end up? We blow the leaves into the street because each fall we fill the entire curb lane with leaves, 4' deep, about 100' long and do this 3x each autumn. It's got to be 30-40 cubic yards of leaves total. Mulch is great, but there's no way we could use that much. And I absolutely love my electric blower for general tidying most of the year, but come autumn a gas backpack is (unfortunately) the only thing powerful enough to move that many leaves. Especially if they are a bit wet.
This is awesome. Iād make the biggest leaf pile for the whole neighborhood to jump in LOL
It's insane just how many leaves we have here... On the upside, I'm in a moderate sized nice city with a city park across the street, so looking out the front windows across the street is a forest. Just fall and those leaves... damn. (The previous owner actually tried to just mulch them down for a couple years. When we bought the place all the grass was dead and it was all mud. Thankfully once we pulled off the layer of dead leaves stuff grew back in real fast, and now the dogs aren't constantly dirty.)
Come use that on my lawn, bring 400 ft of extension cord, and pray that it hasn't rained in 5 weeks so it won't gum up the shredder.
I mean I just leave my leaves through winter (I take maybe a small path so I donāt track them in) and mow them finally in the spring and the grass is totally fine.
> āWeāre not California, weāre not Florida. We have leaves. The average house in New Jersey, you take away 30 to 50 cubic feet of leaves each fall. Thatās a lot of leaves.ā 30-50 cu ft of free slow-release fertilizer? Oh dear, what a burden...
The reason I grab bags of raked up leaves from neighbors and then use my plug in electric mower to mulch them up and spread them all over my garden. I have zero lawnā¦ itās all dense plants and looks like a jungle. I have an old wooden bench hidden in the middle that I can barely get to and itās my little sanctuary space. I can sit and none of the neighbors can see me. Itās the best.
If you can avoid mulching them, it would actually be even better for the environment! A lot of bugs overwinter in the dead leaves, so when you chop them up, the bugs get killed.
I have 6 giant maples and the first couple years we saw a few fireflies but it was rare. Last few years I leave a ton of leaves in the fall and in the summer we have thousands of fireflies. I much prefer the fireflies.
Weāve also seen uptick of fireflies after leaving all leaves on lawn last fall.
Oh I know. I leave the leaves that fall from my trees where they are. I only mulch some of what I bring in to speed up the composting side of things. It took a couple of years to get the soil richened up so the plants would thrive. I have hundreds of them in the ground at this point. Most of the ground has a nice thick layer of leaves and whatever gets trimmed back in the spring after freezes are done. My yard is the only one with life on the entire street. I hate looking at the baron grass yards that are all turning brown right now from no rain in weeks. Was just sitting out there watching some butterflies and bees roaming around and a green anole sunning itself waiting for a snack to come by.
I just let them where they lay, some grass still makes it through, plus even more Wintergreen, and I've been planting herbs here and there, along with apple and cherry trees. From seed I think the deer are eating them so that hasn't produced more than two of each so far but I have hundreds of seeds planted this spring. Fuck lawns, waste of resources for something I do not even want.
I wheelbarrow different neighbors leaves to my yard like a crazy person. I have a neighbor with a sweet gum, those leaves go in my yard. Neighbors with oaks, those leaves go in my yard. I have an american linden tree and a maple I keep those leaves in my yard. Didn't get any of my one neighbors sycamore leaves last year, but will try this year. My yard has great insect diversity between all my native plants and the leaves.
You can leave a Refugia of leaves unmulched and still preserve a lot of insects. Mulching leaves and spreading them under trees and amongst the lawn all but eliminates the need to fertilize a lawn. Mulched leaves are also valuable to someone who gardens.
RL lawn gnome
I'm in NJ, 90% of the time, 3 seasons long, that those fucking things are running they're trying to get one piece of something away from a garage door. Use a fucking broom, or leave it.
also they dont actually clean just make your mess someone else's problem.
We have a neighbor who uses his almost every single day. He can't stand having one piece of nature in his driveway. š¤¦
They'll say this and then blow their lawn from March to December, 80% of the time during which there is no appreciable amount of leaves to blow.
Pro-lawn folks are either delusional or idiotic or both.
They are, they will spend so much time and money on the stupid lawn. Some of these suburbs every single lawn is like straight green grass with no weeds. All dosed with herbicides and insecticides. Why even have a lawn if you cannot walk out in it without poisoning yourself? Or your dog or a kid especially. Ā I happen to like dandelions, they are edible and good in salad, and they are just as comfortable to walk on as grass.
Turf grass is America's number one biggest crop. It gets the most input of labor, chemicals, and water, and yet it is (as you noted) worse than useless.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Buffalo grass and no mow clover are decent alternatives. Grubs don't eat their roots like they do turf grasses.
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I don't see why it wouldn't be. I recommend [buffalo grass](https://www.prairiemoon.com/buchloe-dactyloides-buffalo-grass-cultivar).
The irony is that the people who spend the most time on keeping a "perfect " lawn never even step foot in it or use it... So dumb.
Prime lightning bug egg-laying habitat you say? Letās bring it to the incinerator!
Can I have some of them? There are no trees on our entire street.
And that's before it's mulched or dampened with November rains. It gets much smaller and more manageable in no time!
Thank god. I hate hearing these things at 7am on a Saturday. No reason they canāt be electric.
Or acoustic (broom, rake)
I never heard these awful machines growing up yet yards weren't covered in leaves and no one paid for lawn service. Raking took an afternoon but thats the price you pay for owning a home with a yard.
Your response to this comment made me remember the old days where I was too broke to afford tools to maintain a lawn. Neighbors would complain (or dislike it) not so much complain. I always felt bad my yard didn't look as good as everyone else's. I thought back then the city should provide or help low income peeps have yard maintenance items so they too can take pride in their house/yard even if they didn't own it. Cities could provide all electric lawn care tools, they would be quiet and use no gas. Win win!! That would be amazing. I just upgraded my mower and feel like I'm cheating when I mow because of how ez it is, since nowadays I can afford a NICE electric mower etc and not use all my gas powered yard tools!!!
The landscaping companies are all asking how theyāre supposed to get all the work done (read: visit tons of wealthy, aging clients every day) but no one is pointing out the real answer: we do not need huge, flawless lawns. They are a waste. Let your trees have an understory. Let the leaves do their thing. Most of us use very little of our lawns.
My stepdad runs a two person landscaping company. His leaf blowers, mowers, and other tools have been all electric for at least 5 years now. He loves it. No more stinky gas cans in the garage, no extra stops at the gas station. Heās never had trouble getting work done, plus the quietness and eco-friendly aspect is a good selling point for his company. Heās conservative as fuck too. Heās always ranting about stuff like bans on gas stoves being tyranny. The electric tools just make good business sense to him.
Thatās awesome and gives me a lot of hope things will change.
For the companies itās a valid concern, because unless the customer expectation changes it will be taken out on them. After all the people hiring landscapers are the same ones who want large swathes of land they donāt use to loose āniceā without dedicating their own time to it. These laws will change how that industry operates and the companies should communicate this. I myself spoke with a landscaper to figure out a way to skip leaf blowing in autumn without getting mold everywhere again and thats what I changed my yard to. This will change what clients ask for if they speak up.
stihl make very good electric ones .
I have a battery mower , love it. And a battery weed Wacker. People love buying gas. Members of my family laughed at it. Said the batteries were too high price and the planet couldn't handle a pile of old batteries thrown out. I know... We are doomed against these people. They also like the orange walking man.
All my power tools are Ridgid, so I got their blower. Works great for me. No extra batteries needed.Ā
I have an issue with the battery weed whacker. Or maybe I just haven't used a strong enough one yet. I regularly have to clear tall, dense grass and weeds.
Milwaukee. Absolutely on par with any gas model.
Iāve got an electric powered Stihl blower. Itās awesome
The wind speeds of these assholes will separate eggs, pupae, from blades and leaves. I hate hate hate hate them so much.Ā
āNew Jersey is bombarded with leaves and stuff to clean up,ā said Rich Goldstein, president of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, representing 550 companies in the state. āWeāre not California, weāre not Florida. We have leaves. The average house in New Jersey, you take away 30 to 50 cubic feet of leaves each fall. Thatās a lot of leaves.ā People pay so called landscapers to the blow and haul the leaves away - depriving all sorts of creatures a home and the soil of nutrients - only to pay them again to bring a truck load of mulch and spread it 6 months later. It's total insanity. Leave the leaves.
My bf is a groundskeeper, and he has mixed feelings about this. He's happy that he isn't exposed to gas fumes, buying gas, dealing with all that. At the same time, though, he needs to keep like 5 batteries charging at all times because those electric batteries dont last that long. Especially on his weed whacker, sometimes he has to do side jobs, and he does need to make sure he brings like 10 batteries if he's going to be there all day weed whacking/blowing, or he has to bring chargers. Also, he had to buy a bunch of extra chargers and batteries, which *is* cheaper than gas, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Overall, though, I think he prefers electric, just because gas is also a pain. Also, all the batteries for all of his tools are interchangeable, and some hold more charge than others.
And, battery tech is continuously improving and swapping batteries is pretty quick! So, as time goes on, this will get easier and easier. Thermodynamics limits what you can do with a combustion engine and we're pretty close to that limit. Gas powered stuff won't get very much better, unless someone invents a better fuel, which is unlikely because we're shifting away from fuel altogether so nobody's really investigating. And the whole reason we use gas is because it's cheap to refine out of petroleum, so synthesizing a better fuel is unlikely to happen and will probably never be as cheap
Backpack battery
Hes got like, 10
i feel like large scale commerical operations should still get to use gas for this reason. no one is mowing a football field on battery power.
Yeah, he does a lot of mowing, and I dont think that he would be able to do his job if the mowers were also electric.
Some off these people have never been on a tree work jobsite. Ā A large backpack blower is needed. Ā
Lol, blowback
In Boise, people use these things forā¦.literally nothing. They will spend half an hour blowing naught but dust off of a walkway. The landscapers will make a pass before thebgrass is mowed and AGAIN AFTER. People use them to clear SNOW from their walkways. Itās absolutely insane and I am militant about ending it. r/Boise hates me for it
Fuck the landscaping industry
Meanwhile I'm looking at getting a push mover for my 250sf of grass. My eGo whacker and blower are great.Ā
āBlowbackā
No problem with my landscaping business. My Ego blower and other electric tools are powerful enough to keep the hardscaping and river rock clear, mow medium sized lawns, and keep me cool with the giant misting fan while I hand weed or do other things. I also worked for another company previously that used Stihl electric tools. The only thing I can't find that works is an electric weed whacker. Since I know how to do other things besides mow and blow, I don't need to run those tools 8 hours straight a day to keep my business running, either. It's their own fault they are too lazy to adapt!
Same people fighting for the right to use these also complain there arenāt anymore fireflies or butterflies like there used to be. No shit you neurotic shits, youāre removing the leaves they rely on over winter to exist. I hate this reality sometimesĀ
All gas powered lawn maintenance tools should be banned.
My neighbors treat gas powered leaf blowers like they are covered by the 2nd Amendment. You can take them from their cold, dead hands. Americans can be so stupid.
Georgia outlawed regulating gas leaf blowers differently than electric leaf blowers, presumably for the very same reason.
yea there just isnt a need for it out side of comercial use. the guys mowing whole feilds with those sick ride on double mowers they can keep them. trying to something that size on battery is unreasonable.
No reason for all that lawn in the first place. Let the trees take it back
You'd be surprised how far a battery can get you, because electric motors are just so fundamentally more efficient than combustion engines, but I get what you're saying. The battery tech might not be there yet.
And but two batteries. Switch one out for the other. It's not a big deal at all.Ā
Swapping batteries gets a lot harder when you're talking about riding vehicles, because they're pretty heavy. It can be done, for sure, and already is for some vehicles. There's cars with battery swapping but they need a dedicated swapping station. I don't know how much more energy a riding mower uses vs, those scooters you see all over southeast Asia. If it's about the same, then the tech already exists for swappable batteries that are light enough for any old Joe to swap. So, my gut says a riding mower needs a bit more than that, but it could be as simple as 2 scooter batteries. I genuinely just don't know
I don't do the riding mower bc fuck lawns.Ā
Snow blowers. They take a ton of power, batteries work poorly at -40, and power cords would be terribly hazardous.
Yea no one's coming for snow blowers and woodchippers. No one's out every Sunday snowblowing their yard for show purposes.
While I agree, I own both gas and electric tools, and it still makes a lot more economical sense to use gas. They are usually cheaper and can last 2-3X longer. Electric tool batteries just aren't as long-lasting, and you have to pay for a new battery every 2 years. There's also the power issue - my electric weed eater has about half the power and running time as my gas one, and struggles on parts of my lawn. Also the electric edger doesn't do well on St. Augustine grass. And the electric blower has a lower air output. I'm all for making the switch, but I do understand the concerns and complaints.
I hear what you say. I get upset at the state doing stuff like mowing the entire 345 mile length of Interstate I-71 including the median when there is no fire hazard. Many states just let it go wild. Not mine.
It's a bit moot, as electric yard tools are already outselling their gas equivalents. They are just more convenient, as you don't have to jet out a carb every spring, and they are quieter.
It isnāt moot. Even if theyāre outselling gas powered ones, thereās still tons more gas powered lawn equipment still in use, both commercially and privately. At a minimum, it isnāt moot because even if 80% of the neighborhood has electric tools, the 20% who donāt still cause insane noise/air pollution like itās their second job
People really seem to love breathing in fumes. I think the damage caused by the fumes also makes them not wanting to get rid off them
āLandscaping industryā Sure, letās hear what the scummiest people you went to high school with have to say on the matter.
This is stupid. I have been gardening for years and my current company uses all electric. It works the same and I literally had a client thank me today for not spewing toxic fumes. They're quieter too. I really dont think there should be too many hangups. I only worry about people disposing of the batteries the wrong way.
Ryobiās newer line of blowers have resonators on them really quiet, one of those and a rake/broom and youāre solid.
It takes a lot of pressure to break the delusion of lawnscaping and the blowback while the critical limit is being reached is terrifying
Ooh nice headline, lemme try one. Leafblower row appears overblown. Leafblower fans deflated in morass over gas
Good fuck these things. The guys that own them specifically only use them at 630am
the real question is: are they gonna properly enforce it?
I have a neighbor who is obsessed with his backpack blower. His record is like 5Ā½ hours between it and his mower. We mow our lawn about every three weeks, and it looks better than his.
Iāve used a corded one for like 6 years and itās a smidge annoying but itās totally fine. Shit was like 25 bucks.
Blowback
The argument I've heard is people won't hire if they have to use rakes. So what if the owners are cheap. They will just live with leaves. Which is better for the little critters anyway. Leave the leaves or pay for raking. Or even better, DIY!
Maybe we donāt need immaculate lawns, maybe we could have people compost their own leaves, maybe we could stop maintaining lawns that no one even uses. There are a lot of maybes here, but I think they would all be possible to live with. And no, you donāt need to run your truck all day to charge batteries, you can put solar panels on top of your trailer and use the free energy from the sun. While I am here, I am going to go one step farther and suggest that every landscape crew has at least one person on it with a short degree and that of the remaining members at least half have a Master Gardeners certificate.
I despise all those tiny gas enginesā¦ so flipping annoying. Good riddance.
I can literally taste the fumes as in reading these comments. I'm so grateful for my electric mower.
Iām all about helping the environment and conserving energy but the big source of pollution waste and consumption comes from factories, yatchs, cruiships , jets etc . This is just another trick to get us into in-fighting while forgetting whoās the real enemy.
No. A lot of studies have been done about the substantial emissions from small engines. The fact that they're small means they burn gas far less efficiently, and also put out a lot more nitrous oxides. From the article: > He said using such a blower for an hour creates as much pollution as driving a car for 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers). And that's just the direct emissions from those machines. That doesn't include the health effects of the fumes, the health and community impacts of the noise, the impacts of the actual leaf-blowing (or mowing, etc), or the effects of continuing to help prop up the fossil fuel industry.
Industry is responsible for 70% of the emissions, those are the ones creating the infighting so instead of regulating their pollution we just fight for a damn leaf blower with our neighbor. We should join and focus our efforts of fighting companies like Duke energy but more people are familiar with a gas guzzling Hummer and donāt even know what Duke energy is or whet they do to our climate.
https://youtube.com/@solarpunksteve?si=2vSAMa_XJEvvrkRKĀ
Based, and I am someone who doesn't shy away from gas powered tools. I have no need to leaf blow, but when I worked at Goddard Park as a teen, I used an old 25:1 mix 2 stroke backpack blower that belched bluish smoke. It was terrible, although powerful. We did get an EARLY batter operated one that was heavier and worse in every way. That was decades ago, and I imagine new lithium battery ones are better in every way, just like how my consumer tier battery wood working tools are way better than the old cordless tools I used when I worked for a timber framer. The only outdoor tool I'm leary about batteries on is a chainsaw. Without the pulsed torque, chaps won't save you. You can say "well don't have an acident", but that is just not right. Shit happens, and I wear my ppe, even if sometimes it feels like it prevents proper engagement.
Electric is fine for most consumers, but professional landscapers would be hit much harder.
They need to make it illegal to require anyone to mow their lawns before they start banning the use of landscaping equipment. If the job is still legally required to get done (HOAs, City laws, etc) then you can't just make it harder for it to get done if the equipments available and better. Electric and battery powered blowers still suck.
I switched to battery powered leaf blowers and trimmer...let me tell you how amazing they are. You don't have it idling wasting fuel if it's not doing work. You press a button and it just works. I would NEVER go back to gas powered hand held lawn tools. The only thing I cannot give up is a gas powered zero turn, the yard is just way too big to do with one charge and buying another 4x set of batteries is too costly at the moment.
I hate gas blower, so I'm good.
Couple years ago I got that big honking battery powered blower dewalt makes to clean out my refrigerated trailer. It will send decent sized chunks of pallet wood airborne and our the back, then wrangle the whole mess into a pile for disposal. I gotta wear ear and eye protection when I use it. At the time it was reviewed as being the most equivalent to a backpack blower and I have no complaints! I'm sure in the last couple of years other companies have caught up with their products. Just have a couple of spares and a multi battery charger in the truck and you could sure as shit run this monster doing landscaping.
I rake paths, because we have venomous snakes (that look just like leaves) that are out most of the year thanks to our fairly temperate climate. The leaves go straight in my flower beds or compost pile.
For someone in the lawn care industry I want an excuse to find a new career
Thank GOD Iām so sick of hearing them every day all the damn time.
Good, I hope the ban these statewide. Itās never ending. Every neighbor has a landscaper that comes on a different day and spends an hour blowing shit around.
Imagine using a broom.
Ridiculous. Lawn, *and garden* , companies should be excluded. These people have work to do. It's work I've been employed in before. Going all battery would suck, if not be impossible. Leaf blower hate is over hyped. If that's the thing that's unhinging someone, that's not really the thing. Something else else is wrong in their life. At home, we use a combination of corded electric, battery, and manual equipment. It's great. For home. My lawnmower is an American reel mower. The old manual type. Does fine on the two patches of open grass we have left. But to do 8-12 yards a day or an apartment complex, gas gas baby!
CLIBBINS
GOBLESS
We love our reel push mower, no gas, no charging, not much slower than a power mower for our 2 patches of 20āx30ā lawn.
Iām going to run my gas blower for about 8 hours this week. Everyone talking shit has never cut 15 yards a day. Stihl Br600 if youāre wondering.