blowers

[Phisherman]

Anyone comment on gas-powered blowers? I'm thinking about getting one for leaf pickup, and more importantly, to clean driveways and streets from grass clippings. Any comments on Stihl blowers?

[Warren]

For leaf pick-up, a yard vac with a pick-up tube will work much better than a blower-vac that's light enough to carry. And if you're not going to vac them up, a rake is twice as fast as blowing them. For cleaning grass clippings off of the pavement, what's the matter with a broom? A broom is faster, too.

[Jim Carr]

Many years ago I had a job picking up leaves. We used two types of blowers. The backpack blower (essentially a hand blower) was used to get leaves out of the corners, under bushes, away from the fence, etc. The other blower was a big puppy on wheels. One person would "cut in" the back end, then the other would start using the big blower to do the larger open areas. Two of could do a good sized yard (1/4-1/3 acre) in under an hour.

I would agree that using only a hand blower is slower. However, if you're willing to spend the bucks, you can use it for the edges (much faster) and blowing the driveway.

Tip #1: Cut your grass short at the end of the season - makes picking up leaves easier.

Tip #2: Use your mower and mulch them (if it's not too thick and you have grass). I always did that and let my clippings drop, too. Never fertilized. Rarely watered. I always had the first and last green on the block.

[Françoise]

Hi,

These blowers are also so noisy more so than a lawn mower. I could understand the use if they did not have to pick the leaves after blowing them. We have one that picks the leaves and put them in bags. This year I=

use the rake; no noise just the pleasant noise from the leafs.

Fran=E7oise.

Warren wrote:

[dstvns]

They're all noisy

Dan

[Frank Logullo]

I have an electric blower which is fine for cleaning walks and driveway. I assume gas powered blowers like trimmers or chain saws require all clothes to wash and you to shower after using. Frank

[Dwight Sipler]

They have their uses, but don't throw your rake away. The blowers are quicker than a rake for getting leaves out of restricted places (window wells, under bushes, corners, etc.). Once you have a large pile of leaves, the blower doesn't work well. At that point you're better off with a rake, but at least by that time the piles are consolidated somewhat.

Also, the rake works better on wet leaves and pine needles in moderately tall grass.

I have a Stihl backpack blower. My only complaint is that until the engine warms up a half a minute, a sudden pull on the throttle can stall it. Once it stalls, you can't start it without taking it off your back (unless you're into those strange yoga positions). To put it on is not really all that easy unless you have a pickup truck and can put it on the tailgate. A 4wd with a higher tailgate is better. (However, it's probably not worth buying a 4wd truck just for your leaf blower.) I've been using it about 5 years without any other problems.

If you have only a small area, the hand blower is probably what you want. Electric models are cheaper, but you're limited by the extension cord. I have one of those also, and it's great for cleaning out the garage.

[Dwight Sipler]

Depends on what you're blowing. They don't spray debris in all directions like trimmers and don't aim oily chips at you like chain saws. The leaves are being blown away from you and the engine exhaust is directed away from you (although my wife has a sensitive nose and can sometimes detect that I've been using the blower).

On the other hand, whenever you're blowing leaves, the wind will be blowing toward you, so you will get covered with bits of leaves. However, that can happen when you're raking also.

As far as the noise comments, they are noisy. Wear hearing protection if you're going to be using it for more than 5-10 minutes.

[J Kolenovsky]

Blowers 10 years ago were about 92 decibels and today they are around 67 decibels with better mufflers and more efficient engines. =

Phisherman wrote:

[Mary Ellen Magoc]

How do you like the air that we breath? The sounds [of nature] that we hear?

"According to the Lung Association, a leaf blower causes as much smog as 17 cars . " . . .

. . . "This paints a bleak picture for the power blower. It is perhaps the most over and inappropriately used landscape tool . Autumn's tremendous amounts of organic debris that requires collection might be considered appropriate use of this tool. However, the weekly routine of blowing abuses the soil and damages landscape plants while the noise generated creates ill will from neighbors and clients alike. Leaf rakes deserve a renewed interest in the maintenance of landscapes."

pretty interesting reading there . . .

Mary Ellen

[Dwight Sipler]

There are appropriate uses for this tool. The blower gets into corners and under porches and bushes much better than a rake. It gets leaves out of window wells.

There are inappropriate uses for this tool. Weekly use is overkill. My blower gets used only once or twice a year for leaves. (it's also a sprayer, so it gets used during the summer also). The blower does not handle wet leaves or large piles of leaves as well as a rake. The rake is infinitely superior when gathering leaves into a compact pile.

I recommend both tools, used appropriately. Being male, I have to say that "more tools is better".

As far as pollution goes, my car gets used much more than 17 times as much as my blower.

[Snooze]

This reminds of the quote, "there are lies, damn lies and statistics." 17 times more pollution sounds really bad, but consider this. If you use your gas powered leaf blower for 10 minutes every week, that translates to 170 minutes of driving time a week, about 24.2 minutes a day.

If you are a 2 car household that's only 12.1 minutes per car. Considering that US average commute time to work is about 20 minutes, or 40 minutes round trip. Cars pollute far more then a leaf blower.

said that, people dislike leaf blowers for their noise far more then anything else.

[Warren]

Considering

minutes

you're polluting 17 times as much as each minute you drive your car. How often you use your car, or how often you use the leaf blower is irrelevant.

Each time I fart I make a horrible stink in the room. Far more than my car would make. How much I drive my car is irrelevant. My fart still stinks more than my car. Be thankful that I don't fart as much as I drive, but don't forgive my fart just because I drive a lot.

It also doesn't matter if there are more cars than leaf blowers. If that were a justification, the oil-fired power plant down the road could defend it's polution by pointing out that there's only one plant for every one million cars.

The point is that a leaf blower puts out a disportional amount of polution for it's size. Comparing it to a typical car is only meant to emphisize that an engine far to big to strap on your back is 17 times cleaner for each minute of use.

[Dwight Sipler]

Please also take into account that most of us don't use our leaf blowers during the spring and winter months. That gives you a factor of two at least (for a long term average). Summer useage is probably minimal.

[Dwight Sipler]

It's not the car engine that's that much cleaner (although it is cleaner by itself), but all the attachments they add to get rid of the unburned hydrocarbons etc coming out of the car engine. The car engine can be scaled to a liftable size (e.g. lawn mowers), but still isn't suitable for a blower.

The leaf blower (and all other 2-stroke engines like chain saws and trimmers) puts out a lot of hydrocarbons because of the way it's designed to be used. The engine has to work in any position, so the oil is mixed with the fuel to keep the engine lubricated. Automobile engines don't work well upside down or sideways because the oil won't circulate properly (the oil inlet has to be in the oil sump). These engines are frequently used for short periods of time, so catalytic converters won't work on them because they don't have time to heat up.

If you really worry about 2-cycle engine pollution, buy electric blowers, trimmers and chain saws. They work just as well, although they are far less convenient.

[Shepherd]

My car is used about 1000 hours a year. My leaf blower is used less than 10 hours a year.

What's your point?

Shepherd

[Warren]

People buy Kellogg's Corn Flakes 100 times more often than store brands. By your logic it would be okay if the store brands included 17 times as much toxins. But in reality, it's irrelevant if Kellogg's is used 100 times as often. The public interest is served when both are held to the same standards.

The fact that you use your car more often than your leaf blower is irrelevant. Per minute, the leaf blower produces 17 times as much pollution. That's as unacceptable is it is for some goofy little car with a smaller market share being allowed to not meet standards simply because people drive other cars more.

Would it be okay for you to disable the pollution controls on your car, and justify it by saying for every 10 hours you drive it, the other cars in the neighborhood are driven 1000 hours? Of course not. So why would you think it's relevant that you drive your car 1000 hours for every 10 hours you use your leaf blower? It doesn't make the leaf blower one iota cleaner. It's not a logical justification.

[Spud Demon]

Because it's a 2-stroke engine, of course.

My gas leaf blower recently expired (possibly prematurely). I went to Home Despot to look at new ones, and all of them had "engine life 100 hours" on the price tag. Screw that!

Now I use my mulching mower to chop up the leaves. I also bought a Shop-vac that came with a blower attachment, which I use to clear off the sidewalk. The electric Shop-vac is cheaper, quieter, more versatile, more robust, and easier to start than a gas blower.

-- spud_demon -at- thundermaker.net The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.

[Françoise]

When it can be easily replace by a more healthy way to gather the leaves.=

There is the rake. There is also the electric aspirator, which is a lot l= ess noisy and a lot more healthy.

Fran=E7oise

[Françoise]

Good for you. Good for your hears as well. Apparently there is a permanen= t diminution of hearing for the user with each hour of use of a gas blower.=

Fran=E7oise.

Spud Dem> >> "According to the Lung Association, a leaf blower causes as much smo= g as > >17