Powerful Battery Leaf Blowers

[SmileyFace]

UPDATE: thanks for all the input - bought the Ego!

It seems like battery-powered leaf blowers are finally getting close to Gas in terms of power (CFM/MPH).
Every battery and corded electric leaf blower I have ever touched in the past was nearly useless for my use cases (Heavy layer of leaves on grass).
Anyone have one of these Ryobi's (145 MPH / 625 CFM) or something similar they would recommend?:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-145-M ... /306706763
Biggest problem I see is run-time. (A mere 20-30 minutes).

With battery power getting better I'd hate to buy another gas model (and just for the noise pollution alone I hate them).

UPDATE: now leaning towards the Ego LB6504: 180 mph / 650 CFM - better reputation/reviews than Ryobi.
https://egopowerplus.com/blower-650cfm/
Available from Lowes, Amazon, or Ace:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/EGO-Power-56-V ... 1003130708
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087RRLLQ3
https://www.acehardware.com/departments ... rs/7006685

UPDATE: thanks for all the input - bought the Ego!

[HomeStretch]

I recently bought a Makita battery-powered leaf blower that is impressively powerful. There are several models. Not quite as powerful as a gas powered one but much lighter, doesn’t get hot and no gas fumes. Still loud enough that I wear ear protection when using it.

The battery that came with it only lasts 15 minutes so if you go this route consider buying several batteries/chargers. I believe the batteries are universal to multiple pieces of equipment in the Makita line.

[Mr.Chlorine]

I use a Dewalt 20v one. It works fine for my humble town lot, but is not near as powerful (or loud) as my Stihl one. Check out Dewalt's 60v models, I hear good things about them.

Bottom line: if you buy battery-powered tools, pick a brand line and stick with it. Then the batteries cross over between tools.

[bloom2708]

I have an Ego. Also mower, trimmer and hedge trimmer.

Fantastic products. The Ego has a Turbo button when you really need power.

Once you invest in the batteries, buying "tool only" can make sense. Re-use/interchange the batteries.

[jebmke]

I have an Ego. Also mower, trimmer and hedge trimmer.

Fantastic products. The Ego has a Turbo button when you really need power.

Once you invest in the batteries, buying "tool only" can make sense. Re-use/interchange the batteries.

I have an Ego string trimmer. Love it. Easy to use and replace string.

Ego also has a general purpose battery pack that allows you to carry the battery on your back and attach it to any of their devices. I haven't tried it et but considering it - the batteries add a fair amount of weight.

[SmileyFace]

Thanks for the feedback on the "Buy one brand" - I do see extra batteries are significant cost so I start to move from Gas (or electric plug) tools to Battery I see the need to pick a brand and stick with it.

[bluelight]

I recently purchased this one https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-1 ... /206451819 as a secondary unit for quick clean ups. My husband still has gas blower as we are on a heavily wooded half acre.

The battery life is pretty short , about 15- 20 minutes at full speed, but it does a decent jobs moving the leaves. Definitely purchase more than one battery as the 4Ah battery takes a few hours to recharge.

[bloom2708]

My mower and trimmer came with a 7.5 ah and 2.5 ah battery respectively.

I bought a 5.0 ah battery on eBay. Took a flyer for ~$120 and it has worked perfectly. Bought the Blower and Hedger Trimmer "tool only".

I've even looked pretty hard at the new 2 Stage Snowblower with 2 x 7.5 ah batteries.

[anon_investor]

It seems like battery-powered leaf blowers are finally getting close to Gas in terms of power (CFM/MPH).
Every battery and corded electric leaf blower I have ever touched in the past was nearly useless for my use cases (Heavy layer of leaves on grass).
Anyone have one of these Ryobi's (145 MPH / 625 CFM) or something similar they would recommend?:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-145-M ... /306706763
Biggest problem I see is run-time. (A mere 20-30 minutes).

With battery power getting better I'd hate to buy another gas model (and just for the noise pollution alone I hate them).

Buy Ego brand (also sold at home depot). They have more powerful batteries. Ryobi is cheaper, but if coming from gas, Ryobi is going to feel underpowered vs Ego.

[jebmke]

My mower and trimmer came with a 7.5 ah and 2.5 ah battery respectively.

I bought a 5.0 ah battery on eBay. Took a flyer for ~$120 and it has worked perfectly. Bought the Blower and Hedger Trimmer "tool only".

I've even looked pretty hard at the new 2 Stage Snowblower with 2 x 7.5 ah batteries.

Which model Ego blower do you have? Any sense of how long the 5ah battery lasts on a charge under normal use (not Turbo)?

[bloom2708]

My mower and trimmer came with a 7.5 ah and 2.5 ah battery respectively.

I bought a 5.0 ah battery on eBay. Took a flyer for ~$120 and it has worked perfectly. Bought the Blower and Hedger Trimmer "tool only".

I've even looked pretty hard at the new 2 Stage Snowblower with 2 x 7.5 ah batteries.

Which model Ego blower do you have? Any sense of how long the 5ah battery lasts on a charge under normal use (not Turbo)?

I have the LB5300 530 CFM.

I think it will go for ~35 to 40 minutes with 5 ah, non turbo. Usually I blow for 15-20 max, garage, sidewalks, etc.

I mow with the 7.5 ah battery for 1 hour and the battery is about 40% left.

[SmileyFace]

Buy Ego brand (also sold at home depot). They have more powerful batteries. Ryobi is cheaper, but if coming from gas, Ryobi is going to feel underpowered vs Ego.

Thanks. I've had a DeWALT battery-powered drill that has served me nicely for well over 20 years. Any thoughts on Ego versus DeWALT?

[anon_investor]

Buy Ego brand (also sold at home depot). They have more powerful batteries. Ryobi is cheaper, but if coming from gas, Ryobi is going to feel underpowered vs Ego.

Thanks. I've had a DeWALT battery-powered drill that has served me nicely for well over 20 years. Any thoughts on Ego versus DeWALT?

I think Ego has a larger variety of lawn tools (snow blower, law mower, leaf blower, weed wacker, hedge trimmer chain saw, etc.). Unfortunately for me, I started off with Ryobi tools, but found that the Ryobi electric snow blower was not powerful enough and ended up with an Ego snow blower. I later got an Ego backpack leaf blower. But if I had to do it all again, I would have just started with Ego tools, they cost more but the more powerful batteries are worth it. I personally love not having to deal with gasoline. You can just clean off the tools and put them away at the end of the season and leave them in the garage/basement and they work no issues months later.

The issue is really the batteries. If you just buy and stick with one brand, you are better off since you will have lots of extra batteries. You don't want to get halfway through a job and then be out of juice and have to wait an hour or 2 for the batteries to charge. You can often find season end close out on tools which include a battery and get that for cheaper than just the individual battery. That was the case with the Ego backpack leaf blower, it came with a 5.0 ah battery and charger and cost substantially less than just buying the battery by itself.

[prd1982]

Both EGO and Ryobi sell rapid chargers that I would recommend buying. The Ryobi charges a battery in about 1/4th the time of the standard charger that comes with a tool. Don't know how much faster the EGO rapid charger works.

[killjoy2012]

I have a Black & Decker 36V line trimmer and blower. Both work well for my smaller, suburban ~5k sq ft lot. Well worth the price vs. wrestling with my old gas powered equivalents for such a small, weekly use.

That said, I just blew leaves w/ my gas powered blower... there's no way the battery B&D unit would do the same job, or it's at least take me 10x as long. the B&D blower is good for blowing grass clippings off of the sidewalk and drive back onto the lawn after cutting, but it's not up to blowing a yard full of leaves into the street.

Would the newer 50-60V units work better, probably/maybe.

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Home Depot is having a nice sale of the 2 battery combo for $199 and get a free tool (pick the blower)

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20-V ... YRRu2171w0

[SmileyFace]

Thanks for all the feedback! Right now leaning towards the Ego LB6504. Available at my local Lowes.

[SmileyFace]

Home Depot is having a nice sale of the 2 battery combo for $199 and get a free tool (pick the blower)

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20-V ... YRRu2171w0

Wow - Good deal (can get the $150 Leaf Blower for free). Not quite as powerful as the Ego I am now looking at but this would be a great deal if I want to buy into DeWalt. Thanks for sharing.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.

[fishnhunt]

I have the Milwaukee blower and love it. I also have the Milwaukee weed trimmer and hedge trimmer. I'd stick with one brand for all power tools/ yard equipment. Once you get a couple batteries you can start buying the bare tools which are much cheaper than buying them with the battery kit. In total I have 8 Milwaukee tools as of now and they have all worked great. I think Milwaukee's batteries are the best out there.

[egrets]

I can't find the link, but I read an article sometime ago about why not to use leaf blowers. There are little beneficial critters like some beneficial insects that like to overwinter in fallen leaves, for example. Where a significant amount of leaves pile up in my yard I use a rake to move them to the compost pile. Smaller accumulations I just leave alone.

[SmileyFace]

I can't find the link, but I read an article sometime ago about why not to use leaf blowers. There are little beneficial critters like some beneficial insects that like to overwinter in fallen leaves, for example. Where a significant amount of leaves pile up in my yard I use a rake to move them to the compost pile. Smaller accumulations I just leave alone.

I know many insects do nest over-winter in leaves (including maybe butterflies). We leave the leaves in the gardens over-winter for this reason (and try to wait as late as we can to remove them) but if I leave them on my 1/2 acre lawn I will lose my lawn.
I don't know that raking them versus blowing them makes much of a difference to anything nesting within.

[Escapevelocity]

It seems like battery-powered leaf blowers are finally getting close to Gas in terms of power (CFM/MPH).
Every battery and corded electric leaf blower I have ever touched in the past was nearly useless for my use cases (Heavy layer of leaves on grass).
Anyone have one of these Ryobi's (145 MPH / 625 CFM) or something similar they would recommend?:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-145-M ... /306706763
Biggest problem I see is run-time. (A mere 20-30 minutes).

With battery power getting better I'd hate to buy another gas model (and just for the noise pollution alone I hate them).

UPDATE: now leaning towards the Ego LB6504: 180 mph / 650 CFM - better reputation/reviews than Ryobi.

Bless your soul for starting this thread. We need battery operated lawn tool evangelists. I live in a dense suburb with a lot of trees and the biggest blight on my neighborhood are those AWFUL gas powered back pack jet-pack 180 decibel blower monstrosities. They spew so much pollution both air pollution and NOISE pollution that they should be made illegal to use.

[SmileyFace]

It seems like battery-powered leaf blowers are finally getting close to Gas in terms of power (CFM/MPH).
Every battery and corded electric leaf blower I have ever touched in the past was nearly useless for my use cases (Heavy layer of leaves on grass).
Anyone have one of these Ryobi's (145 MPH / 625 CFM) or something similar they would recommend?:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-145-M ... /306706763
Biggest problem I see is run-time. (A mere 20-30 minutes).

With battery power getting better I'd hate to buy another gas model (and just for the noise pollution alone I hate them).

UPDATE: now leaning towards the Ego LB6504: 180 mph / 650 CFM - better reputation/reviews than Ryobi.

Bless your soul for starting this thread. We need battery operated lawn tool evangelists. I live in a dense suburb with a lot of trees and the biggest blight on my neighborhood are those AWFUL gas powered back pack jet-pack 180 decibel blower monstrosities. They spew so much pollution both air pollution and NOISE pollution that they should be made illegal to use.

I know the feeling - we sit outside on our screened in porch late Friday afternoon after a hard week of work with a glass a wine - start to have a nice conversation - and then Lawn-Mower and Leaf-Blower cacophony kicks into gear. I might be the only one in the neighborhood going out of my way to NOT add to the noise.

[a]

There are legitimate uses for leaf blowers but 99% of residential suburb use is stupid. Palo Alto / Los Altos has the right idea. Switching from gas to electric is highly applauded at any rate.

[Saaybogle]

There are legitimate uses for leaf blowers but 99% of residential suburb use is stupid. Palo Alto / Los Altos has the right idea. Switching from gas to electric is highly applauded at any rate.

Why do you say this? Raking is better?

[Artful Dodger]

My mower and trimmer came with a 7.5 ah and 2.5 ah battery respectively.

I bought a 5.0 ah battery on eBay. Took a flyer for ~$120 and it has worked perfectly. Bought the Blower and Hedger Trimmer "tool only".

I've even looked pretty hard at the new 2 Stage Snowblower with 2 x 7.5 ah batteries.

Which model Ego blower do you have? Any sense of how long the 5ah battery lasts on a charge under normal use (not Turbo)?

I have the LB5300 530 CFM.

I think it will go for ~35 to 40 minutes with 5 ah, non turbo. Usually I blow for 15-20 max, garage, sidewalks, etc.

I mow with the 7.5 ah battery for 1 hour and the battery is about 40% left.

I have the Ego 650 mentioned in the OP's initial post. I would say the above is correct - 30 to 40 minutes with some turbo thrown in. I have two other Ego products that came with the 2.5 ah batteries and use those more often just because it's so much lighter and because most jobs are only 15-20 minutes. With all our leaves in the fall (as in now), I just switch between batteries, and I could probably go all day mixing in some 20-30 minute breaks.

I read a review for the 650 which said it had enough power to blow over small children. I haven't tried that yet.

[SmileyFace]

My mower and trimmer came with a 7.5 ah and 2.5 ah battery respectively.

I bought a 5.0 ah battery on eBay. Took a flyer for ~$120 and it has worked perfectly. Bought the Blower and Hedger Trimmer "tool only".

I've even looked pretty hard at the new 2 Stage Snowblower with 2 x 7.5 ah batteries.

Which model Ego blower do you have? Any sense of how long the 5ah battery lasts on a charge under normal use (not Turbo)?

I have the LB5300 530 CFM.

I think it will go for ~35 to 40 minutes with 5 ah, non turbo. Usually I blow for 15-20 max, garage, sidewalks, etc.

I mow with the 7.5 ah battery for 1 hour and the battery is about 40% left.

I have the Ego 650 mentioned in the OP's initial post. I would say the above is correct - 30 to 40 minutes with some turbo thrown in. I have two other Ego products that came with the 2.5 ah batteries and use those more often just because it's so much lighter and because most jobs are only 15-20 minutes. With all our leaves in the fall (as in now), I just switch between batteries, and I could probably go all day mixing in some 20-30 minute breaks.

I read a review for the 650 which said it had enough power to blow over small children. I haven't tried that yet.

Thanks for the input on this. I am pretty sure I am going to go with this (most powerful) Ego - it is the same price ($299) everywhere. The extra 5.0Ah battery is $230 This is all that makes me hesitate at this point. Good to know the 2.5Ah batteries give you some time as well (also not cheap).

[ThePensiveInvestor]

Great review here: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/revi ... afblowers/

Recommends a corded version #1 (Toro), and the Ego for battery powered. Worth reading the whole review.

[Small Savanna]

Our Ryobi leaf blower is the first leaf blower we've owned, so I can't compare it to gas, but it's a major upgrade from a rake! We picked it because we have a Ryobi electric mower. Having two machines with interchangeable batteries is a significant benefit.

[Artful Dodger]

My mower and trimmer came with a 7.5 ah and 2.5 ah battery respectively.

I bought a 5.0 ah battery on eBay. Took a flyer for ~$120 and it has worked perfectly. Bought the Blower and Hedger Trimmer "tool only".

I've even looked pretty hard at the new 2 Stage Snowblower with 2 x 7.5 ah batteries.

Which model Ego blower do you have? Any sense of how long the 5ah battery lasts on a charge under normal use (not Turbo)?

I have the LB5300 530 CFM.

I think it will go for ~35 to 40 minutes with 5 ah, non turbo. Usually I blow for 15-20 max, garage, sidewalks, etc.

I mow with the 7.5 ah battery for 1 hour and the battery is about 40% left.

I have the Ego 650 mentioned in the OP's initial post. I would say the above is correct - 30 to 40 minutes with some turbo thrown in. I have two other Ego products that came with the 2.5 ah batteries and use those more often just because it's so much lighter and because most jobs are only 15-20 minutes. With all our leaves in the fall (as in now), I just switch between batteries, and I could probably go all day mixing in some 20-30 minute breaks.

I read a review for the 650 which said it had enough power to blow over small children. I haven't tried that yet.

Thanks for the input on this. I am pretty sure I am going to go with this (most powerful) Ego - it is the same price ($299) everywhere. The extra 5.0Ah battery is $230 This is all that makes me hesitate at this point. Good to know the 2.5Ah batteries give you some time as well (also not cheap).

Yes, the battery alone is 75% of the cost, which is why I just bought additional tools that I needed to replace, a hedge trimmer and weed wacker, both that came with 2.5ah batteries. I like using the lower amp batteries for most jobs, just because they are lighter by about 2 lbs, and that makes a difference in comfort.

[SmileyFace]

Great review here: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/revi ... afblowers/

Recommends a corded version #1 (Toro), and the Ego for battery powered. Worth reading the whole review.

Thanks for this reference. It's a good confirmation.

[Designairohio]

The Toro 60 v leaf blower, mower and snow thrower are all Fantastic!If repairs are needed they can be taken to any Toro Dealer.
The leaf blower has a turbo mode that is unreal

[Escapevelocity]

There are legitimate uses for leaf blowers but 99% of residential suburb use is stupid. Palo Alto / Los Altos has the right idea. Switching from gas to electric is highly applauded at any rate.

Why do you say this? Raking is better?

Gas powered leaf blower are insanely and outrageously loud. In my neighborhood they are frequently deployed by landscaping companies in multiples making the nuisance even worse. Those companies insist on removing every last stray leaf every week from every inch of every property that they maintain. it's so stupid and rude. Battery powered only create the most minor of nuisances compared to the backpack gasoline pollution spewing jet-packs.

Some towns are starting to see the light on this
https://abc7ny.com/gas-powered-leaf-blo ... s/6537874/

[a]

Why do you say this? Raking is better?

I know next to nothing about gardening, I hire a gardener to do my yard, so maybe I shouldn't talk. BUT I told him 1-2 years ago to stop using the blower at my yard, and bought him an electric one for Christmas for any neighbors of mine he might be doing. He is a good guy. Every Monday I go out on my patio I see the beautiful leaves littering the ground. And the baby can nap in peace.

Palo Alto, Los Altos and others have had gas leaf blower bans for years and are doing fine. In fact I'd bet the productivity of the cities have gone UP 5% due to the stress relief and increased enjoyment of healthy outdoor activity like walking, biking and jogging. I gave up walking my kids to school long ago - a great activity and good for the environment - because it's more frustrating with all the leaf blowers going around. As one example. You can look up how bad leaf blower exhaust is - cars have catalytic converters and mufflers at least.

I'm actually in the midst of finding a new place to live (at greatly increased cost) to cut down on the noise, although the noise is bad where I live due to a host of reasons not just leaf blowers. Nevertheless, it's a heavy part of the problem and the single most stressful component. Silicon Valley is stressed out enough as it is, stress costs with little benefit are really quite..unnecessary.*

*Noise pollution is insidious. Because sound is invisible, some ills that are blamed on visible things are actually due to stress from noise.

I suppose if you have a tree that drops leaves that decompose into mildewy fungus havens or something. In that case perhaps cut it down and plant some better trees.

All in all, civilization hummed along nicely before leaf blowers were invented and will do just fine (better so) once they are all banned. They should be for industrial or serious heavy duty work only.

[whodidntante]

I have this one. It would change the rotation of the Earth if I could just work out the anchoring system. The speed is OK, but it moves a high volume of air. I just used it to nuclear blast the accumulated lint out of my dryer vent.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SU ... UTF8&psc=1

[z0r]

I have the Milwaukee blower and love it. I also have the Milwaukee weed trimmer and hedge trimmer. I'd stick with one brand for all power tools/ yard equipment. Once you get a couple batteries you can start buying the bare tools which are much cheaper than buying them with the battery kit. In total I have 8 Milwaukee tools as of now and they have all worked great. I think Milwaukee's batteries are the best out there.

I tried sticking to milwaukee and gave up after waiting five years for a mower. it's always next year... I finally got a standalone ryobi

the m18 blower is quite good

[whodidntante]

It seems like battery-powered leaf blowers are finally getting close to Gas in terms of power (CFM/MPH).
Every battery and corded electric leaf blower I have ever touched in the past was nearly useless for my use cases (Heavy layer of leaves on grass).
Anyone have one of these Ryobi's (145 MPH / 625 CFM) or something similar they would recommend?:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-145-M ... /306706763
Biggest problem I see is run-time. (A mere 20-30 minutes).

With battery power getting better I'd hate to buy another gas model (and just for the noise pollution alone I hate them).

UPDATE: now leaning towards the Ego LB6504: 180 mph / 650 CFM - better reputation/reviews than Ryobi.

Bless your soul for starting this thread. We need battery operated lawn tool evangelists. I live in a dense suburb with a lot of trees and the biggest blight on my neighborhood are those AWFUL gas powered back pack jet-pack 180 decibel blower monstrosities. They spew so much pollution both air pollution and NOISE pollution that they should be made illegal to use.

I know the feeling - we sit outside on our screened in porch late Friday afternoon after a hard week of work with a glass a wine - start to have a nice conversation - and then Lawn-Mower and Leaf-Blower cacophony kicks into gear. I might be the only one in the neighborhood going out of my way to NOT add to the noise.

The whodidntante estate is in the finest of McMansion subdivisions, each with a tiny fraction of an acre lot. I barely have room for my bronze lions! Anywho, some of my neighbors have riding mowers. This does not make sense to me. I have a small human propelled mower and I'm done in 40 minutes with five minutes of finding the perfect podcast to listen to.

[ccf]

UPDATE: now leaning towards the Ego LB6504

I have this Ego.

it's fine. It's nice to have a battery powered blower. I appreciate it apart from the few days a year when I try to use it to clear the whole yard (about a half acre of grass) ... then I hate life and sometimes borrow my dad's backpack gas powered blower which is a different machine entirely. I've got one of the larger capacity batteries and 2 of the normal capacity.

I hope that they are around for years to come because of the battery $ investment.

[Nearly A Moose]

I have the lower power ryobi model and am very happy with it (and other ryobi cordless tools). Regardless of which you go with, recognize that it’s most efficient to go all the way into that makers ecosystem for synergies. Get a rapid charger and an extra battery (keep an eye for Black Friday deals), and you should be good to for more or less any task.

[ErRyTour]

I'm using a Greenworks Pro 80v blower (145mph, 580CFM). It seems fine for my needs. I can't compare to a gas blower though as I've never had one. Just offering another alternative to the Ryobi or Ego.

[StrongMBS]

I also have a Makita battery-power which we love and do not know how we lived without it. Since you just put the batteries in and go we use the blower so much more then the corded blower we had. It is loud on the high setting so I wear ear protection and the batteries do not last long on that setting but it is not needed often.
Since I have a large collection of Makita battery tools and I need new batteries the leaf blower was <$100 with this Makita Kit XBU02PT1 18V X2 (36V) Blower Kit with 4 Batteries
Since you get 4 50Ah batteries never mind the charger.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0765 ... =UTF8&th=1

[xb7]

I agree with the "stick with one brand" idea, but there's a mild danger there too. I started out looking to buy just the (battery operated) brush cutter, and got a Snapper brand unit last year --- the pricing was such that I got a sort of "package" deal, I think that included a string trimmer and leaf blower, plus battery and charger. I wasn't too keen on the leaf blower --- I think there's already enough noise in my neighborhood, but I find that it makes for fast cleanup after mowing the lawn and it seems plenty powerful to me.

But once you "already have the battery and charger" you might find yourself, like me, perusing the other tools they sell that use the same battery. And dreaming up uses and excuses to buy more outdoor toys. So now I have a chainsaw, lawnmower, and polesaw that use the same battery set. Overall I'm happy with these.

Ironically, I think I'm using the latter purchases more than the original brush cutter. I already had an electric lawnmower and electric chainsaw, but the Snapper units were a definite upgrade, certainly to include now using a battery rather than dealing with an electric cord. And on some wooded property that we have, the electric polesaw is a definite upgrade over the human-powered version.

But still, a word to the wise: there's a sort of siren song that might lure you to buy more tools than you intended due to the nifty interoperability.

[Bogle7]

Stihl BGA 200 Leaf Blower + AR 3000 Backpack Battery

[SmileyFace]

UPDATE: now leaning towards the Ego LB6504

I have this Ego.

it's fine. It's nice to have a battery powered blower. I appreciate it apart from the few days a year when I try to use it to clear the whole yard (about a half acre of grass) ... then I hate life and sometimes borrow my dad's backpack gas powered blower which is a different machine entirely. I've got one of the larger capacity batteries and 2 of the normal capacity.

I hope that they are around for years to come because of the battery $ investment.

My local Lowes only had a few left in stock so I picked one up tonight!

[Lynette]

I have all of the EGO products and love them. We were taught to mulch leaves into the lawn in my gardening and composting courses. To reinforce their point the courses had pictures of bags of leaves in plastic bags that were sent to landfills. This obviously is not environmental friendly. This has changed and now we can blow the leaves into the street and the City has a large machine that scrapes up the leaves and dumps them into another large truck. I think that they are taken to a Composting site. So far I have mulched the leaves into the lawn twice. I had to run the mower over the lawn three times to get the leaves fine enough. In addition, I had to do it every four to five days so that the leaves do not pile up too thickly on the lawn. The leaves are really falling now and they are probably too thick to mulch. The weather looks as if it will be good on Wednesday, so I will use my EGO blower to blow them into the street. There are not many leaves in the lawn in my backyard, so I might mulch them with my EGO lawn mower.

[Escapevelocity]

Why do you say this? Raking is better?

I know next to nothing about gardening, I hire a gardener to do my yard, so maybe I shouldn't talk. BUT I told him 1-2 years ago to stop using the blower at my yard, and bought him an electric one for Christmas for any neighbors of mine he might be doing. He is a good guy. Every Monday I go out on my patio I see the beautiful leaves littering the ground. And the baby can nap in peace.

Palo Alto, Los Altos and others have had gas leaf blower bans for years and are doing fine. In fact I'd bet the productivity of the cities have gone UP 5% due to the stress relief and increased enjoyment of healthy outdoor activity like walking, biking and jogging. I gave up walking my kids to school long ago - a great activity and good for the environment - because it's more frustrating with all the leaf blowers going around. As one example. You can look up how bad leaf blower exhaust is - cars have catalytic converters and mufflers at least.

I'm actually in the midst of finding a new place to live (at greatly increased cost) to cut down on the noise, although the noise is bad where I live due to a host of reasons not just leaf blowers. Nevertheless, it's a heavy part of the problem and the single most stressful component. Silicon Valley is stressed out enough as it is, stress costs with little benefit are really quite..unnecessary.*

*Noise pollution is insidious. Because sound is invisible, some ills that are blamed on visible things are actually due to stress from noise.

I suppose if you have a tree that drops leaves that decompose into mildewy fungus havens or something. In that case perhaps cut it down and plant some better trees.

All in all, civilization hummed along nicely before leaf blowers were invented and will do just fine (better so) once they are all banned. They should be for industrial or serious heavy duty work only.

YES YES YES!

[SmileyFace]

I have all of the EGO products and love them. We were taught to mulch leaves into the lawn in my gardening and composting courses. To reinforce their point the courses had pictures of bags of leaves in plastic bags that were sent to landfills. This obviously is not environmental friendly. This has changed and now we can blow the leaves into the street and the City has a large machine that scrapes up the leaves and dumps them into another large truck. I think that they are taken to a Composting site. So far I have mulched the leaves into the lawn twice. I had to run the mower over the lawn three times to get the leaves fine enough. In addition, I had to do it every four to five days so that the leaves do not pile up too thickly on the lawn. The leaves are really falling now and they are probably too thick to mulch. The weather looks as if it will be good on Wednesday, so I will use my EGO blower to blow them into the street. There are not many leaves in the lawn in my backyard, so I might mulch them with my EGO lawn mower.

I have several large oaks and maples - no way can you mulch the volume of leaves I get into the lawn. I am slowly building a compost mountain in the corner of my property.

[Escapevelocity]

So I started a thread on my local community FB group linking the articles about other communities that have banned gas powered leaf blowers and asking if anyone was interested in starting a movement. Wow, I got a pretty rude reply by about 80% of the responders and the rest were in favor. A lot of emotional responses that i wasn't anticipating.

[onourway]

I have all of the EGO products and love them. We were taught to mulch leaves into the lawn in my gardening and composting courses. To reinforce their point the courses had pictures of bags of leaves in plastic bags that were sent to landfills. This obviously is not environmental friendly. This has changed and now we can blow the leaves into the street and the City has a large machine that scrapes up the leaves and dumps them into another large truck. I think that they are taken to a Composting site. So far I have mulched the leaves into the lawn twice. I had to run the mower over the lawn three times to get the leaves fine enough. In addition, I had to do it every four to five days so that the leaves do not pile up too thickly on the lawn. The leaves are really falling now and they are probably too thick to mulch. The weather looks as if it will be good on Wednesday, so I will use my EGO blower to blow them into the street. There are not many leaves in the lawn in my backyard, so I might mulch them with my EGO lawn mower.

I have several large oaks and maples - no way can you mulch the volume of leaves I get into the lawn. I am slowly building a compost mountain in the corner of my property.

You might be surprised. We have an enormous maple tree that fills ~40 standard paper leaf bags packed very fully. A couple of years ago I switched to mulching and I would never go back. I make sure to keep up with it before all the leaves are on the ground; it takes 3 passes over the course of 1-2 weeks to fully mulch them. I use my Echo electric blower to push them from the gardens into the lawn, and then an Echo electric mower to mulch them. I don't have to touch a rake and total time spent for this area of the lawn is now perhaps 1/3 of raking and bagging, and much more pleasant.

Even better, the lawn, which has always struggled to grow under this heavy shade, looks better than ever!

[onourway]

So I started a thread on my local community FB group linking the articles about other communities that have banned gas powered leaf blowers and asking if anyone was interested in starting a movement. Wow, I got a pretty rude reply by about 80% of the responders and the rest were in favor. A lot of emotional responses that i wasn't anticipating.

Go to the city directly. Electric blowers are already as powerful as gas ones, and run-times are catching up. My Echo will run for near 40 minutes at full tilt - and I can recharge the second battery to close to 80% in that time.