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Gas-powered leaf blowers are being banned across US
(www.usatoday.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Good, they aren't needed anymore since electric ones do the same job.
The amount of people I hear discussing their surprise satisfaction with electronic tools is pretty astounding, even coming from electrical engineers and similar. The skepticism and doubt, propaganda from Big Combustion is real 🤠
https://youtu.be/xYdLfkJcfok
Titled: Somewhat Verbally Abusive "kill your lawn" Instructional Video Nice
If nothing else it's hilarious. Its dictated by a man who 100% sounds like he just finished breaking some guys knee caps in the other room before disposing of him from The Boss
(He gets rid of the lawn by cutting the lawn into carpets and flipping them over. He does actually give you information after insulting you for having a lawn)
now we salt
Salt seems like a really good way to destroy your soil so you can't grow anything else either 😅
It’s incredible how effective salt is. I had a bunch of “used” water softening salt I didn’t want to put back in after cleaning my system, so I spread it over some nuisance bamboo growing under my fence and a rooty bush near my septic line. It’s just sand now.
Try it on trumpet vine. I have been at war with this thing for easily 8+ years and it won't fucking die. Salt, round up, boiling water, nothing works. I've never had a rivalry last this long.
I’m not sure if it was intentional or if brushless motors are really that much more powerful but electric tools are far better now than they were even just 10 years ago.
Battery pack improvements have to be right up there with why electric have gotten so much better now.
The new tabless batteries in particular are a good step forward even with older tools. And they are last 18 months or less depending on your tool colour of choice.
Really big tools like most landscaping or concrete tools that use the really big batteries (think back pack batteries) have an insane amount of watts they can push out.
I never used petrol tools but I did use mains tools a lot due to the extra power but now 240v is often lower than the top battery tools now.
I was an early adopter of an electric lawnmower, which I regretted. That thing had so little power that I had to mow like every 3 days or it would just push the grass over. I went back to gas after one season. However I went back to electric 5 years ago or so, and it's FAR better. But for a blower, or weed eater, electric has always been superior.
You absolutely don't need to buy garden tools that run on gas. The electric equivalent is at the same level or even better.
A landscaping crew would require more batteries and/or a method to charge on the go. Cost might be prohibitive to do that now but in time it might work out. Imagine if you have a large battery in a trailer that charges up all the small batteries between sites or solar on the roof.
Considering most landscaping work is done in the summer months maybe a move to a different Lithium chemistry that is cheaper but doesn’t like cold as much could be beneficial for pro tools.
These types of companies may not have tons of disposable income to invest in this but as they need new tools it will probably phase in.
It probably depends on the batteries, battery market, and repair market. We don't really expect batteries to last a decade. The repairability of these tools is a concern.
Meanwhile, it's pretty common to repair gas tools. Sometimes from multiple broken ones. Powering the gas tools is similarly simple. None of it requires a company to continue to develop their proprietary product to run.
This is an industry and a market that has been around for decades. I suspect the limited part supply and limited repairability of the electric tools is going to limit their practical lifetime compared to the existing ones on the market.
Great point about repairability. I’ve seen some interesting videos of EV repairs on cars with odd pack issues. Very specialized work right now but assuming skills will develop over time that makes it much easier.
I know a beekeeper who has a power inverter hooked up to his truck. He uses it to charge the batteries for both his power tools and bee vacuum systems. He can even use it to run regular plug-in AC devices. Lawn crews can just have the backup batteries charging while they drive from job to job.
That’s pretty sweet. More car company’s are including provisions for these types of systems built in to accommodate the changing trends too.
This isn't true anymore. Go check out greenworks commercial line.
Or Ego.
Why wouldn't those crews just charge their equipment from the alternator? It's additional wear and tear or the alternator, but far cheaper than a generator
I have an even more effective proposal that can run for centuries with minimal repair and does just as good a job on fuel that is practically free.
spoiler
And it makes you healthier, and uses far less resources.
As a homeowner, sure. However, if I had a landscaping business, I would need something that can run all day.
Carpenters do just fine all day with electric tools. Replaceable batteries are a thing!
You underestimate just how big and heavy of a battery you would need to power a leaf blower all day. Gasoline has 50-80x more energy density than a lithium battery.
I suppose you could bring a bank of smaller batteries with you and swap them out throughout the day, but that means another piece of equipment to lug around, and climate control becomes an issue if you live in a hot climate. Batteries and heat are not a good combo for safety and reliability.
This all sounds like FUD to me. You might as easily complain about how much harder it is to refill the gas tank than swap the batteries a few times.
Lithium Ion batteries generally have a maximum optimal operating temperature of 122°F but will operate up to 176°F. If the temperature is approaching 176°F, I think the human will be the first thing to fail.
Also, nobody needs to lug around a full day of power. Spare batteries can stay in the truck until needed, at most you would have one spare on your person.
Fairly certain that a battery will immediately get hotter than its surroundings with any kind of sustained use or charging.
Use a rake?
Using a rake for 12-14 hour shifts, 5-6 days a week in the summer sun? Get real, my dude.
What a creative way to tell me you've never worked a day of physical labor in your life, without telling me you've never works a day of physical labor in your life. Raking leaves by hand all day every day would absolutely destroy your shoulders and forearms.
And I hope I never will. And having to work those kinds of hours to make a living is the really fucked up part of your story.
I don't work labor (edit: anymore) but that's the reality of the world we live in, my dude. Landscaping sucks, and doing it without a leaf blower would suck even more.
I was thinking in the context of a landscaping company driving to a bunch of different clients’ houses and doing general cleanup and maintenance, lawn mowing etc at each one. Electric lawnmowers now have dual battery packs that you can swap between, each one lasting about an hour. I wouldn’t expect a leaf blower to be much different in power requirements. Could probably even share the same battery design with the mower.
If you’re only doing an hour or less of leafblowing per client then you can just keep swapping batteries and have spares in the van/truck. For a really big job you might need more but then you could probably ask the client if you can plug your charger into their house to charge. I think a lot of people have outdoor outlets. Otherwise you could have a charger in the vehicle.
Power usage on an electric blower is very different than other power tools. With a drill you are not constantly revving it. You use it for a few seconds to drive a screw and then setup for the next one. With the blower it's running continuously.
I have a drill than can run on a battery for most of a days work, while my leaf blower using the same batteries gets maybe 20 minutes of use, if I am conserving it.
I'm not a landscaper, so maybe it can be done, but I'll believe electric is better when the landscaping companies start using electric tools, just like carpenters switched from wired to battery when it made sense.
I work trails, carrying a bunch of batteries out into the woods would be awful.
Do you just assume that Gas powered leafblowers are lighter or did you do some research?
I did a Quick check and found that electric leafblowers are way lighter and allow you to carry around some extra batteries, without carrying more overall.
Imo the biggest argument is the price.
I think they will eventually make sense. Extra batteries are very heavy and expensive though (I only have experience with Husqvarna and Stihl)
About the same as carrying a full canister of fuel.
That's the magic thing in the word "replaceable". They are, you know, can be replaced. While you use one, the other is charging, and then you replace them. Just like, you know, construction workers are doing for the last at least three decades.
Most of the stuff's pretty good but finish nailers aren't quite there unless you're using the smallest brads available.
Air tools for finish nailer. Any nailer air is going to be better (in my narrow experience with electric nailers, I could be wrong.)
Air is definitely the preferred tool for the job.
Makita just released a new 18 gauge that everybody's gushing over. That said you're not going to get that air Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam. It's more like Bam..wazzit..Bam..wazzit..Bam..wazzit..Bam..wazzit..Bam..wazzit.
There's plenty of landscaping businesses in my area that advertise as fully electric and seem to be making a profit.
And it's a thing with batteries on your back. Cities around here have these and it works well.