Help Is On the Way In the War Against Noisy Leaf Blowers 228
HughPickens.com writes: Perry Stein writes in the Washington Post that the fight against noisy leaf blowers is gaining momentum, in part, because residents are framing it as a public health issue. Two-stroke engine leaf blowers mix fuel with oil and don't undergo a complete combustion, emitting a number of toxins, like carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which their operators inevitably inhale. Municipalities throughout the country have moved to ban them. "You find two-stroke engines in poorer countries because they're cheap," says James Fallows citing a 2004 National Institutes of Health study showing that two-stroke engines on two- and three-wheeled vehicles in Delhi, India, account for a significant amount of air pollution. "You don't find them in richer countries because they're so dirty and polluting." In Washington DC leaf blowers can't exceed 70 decibels as measured from 50 feet away. (A normal conversation is typically about 60 decibels.) Haskell Small, a composer and concert pianist who is helping to lead the leaf-blower battle in Wesley Heights, describes the sound as "piercing." "When I try to compose or write a letter, there is no way for me to listen to my inner voice, and the leaf blower blanks out all the harmonic combinations."
But help is on the way. A new generation of leaf blowers is more environmentally friendly as the emergence of battery-powered leaf blowers takes us closer to the Holy Grail of equipment that is both (1) powerful and (2) quiet. Fallows supports the notion of a kind of trade-in program, where loud, old leaf blowers are exchanged for the less offensive kind. Ted Rueter, founder of Noise Free America, facilitated one such scheme. In the heat of his front lawn dispute with his neighbor, he offered a solution. "If you agree to use them, I will buy you two new leaf blowers," Rueter told his neighbor. "The offer was accepted and the noise level in his front yard was restored to a peaceful level," says Lawrence Richards. "When it comes to the balancing act of protecting landscaping jobs while reducing noise and emissions, it helps that someone was willing to pay for progress."
But help is on the way. A new generation of leaf blowers is more environmentally friendly as the emergence of battery-powered leaf blowers takes us closer to the Holy Grail of equipment that is both (1) powerful and (2) quiet. Fallows supports the notion of a kind of trade-in program, where loud, old leaf blowers are exchanged for the less offensive kind. Ted Rueter, founder of Noise Free America, facilitated one such scheme. In the heat of his front lawn dispute with his neighbor, he offered a solution. "If you agree to use them, I will buy you two new leaf blowers," Rueter told his neighbor. "The offer was accepted and the noise level in his front yard was restored to a peaceful level," says Lawrence Richards. "When it comes to the balancing act of protecting landscaping jobs while reducing noise and emissions, it helps that someone was willing to pay for progress."
FWP (Score:4, Informative)
First World Problems.
Re:FWP (Score:5, Interesting)
First World Problems.
Leaf-blowers themselves are very much a product of the first world. They're a problem we created because we thought it necessary to move leaves around with air, which probably isn't the most efficient method in the first place.
In any case, the first-world created this problem, so, yes, it's naturally up to the first world to fix it.
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No, they're called "first world problems" because only affluent people with no real problems to complain about complain about nonsense like a bit of noise every once in a while that disturbs their perfect serenity.
After this we can work on a ban on scratchy sweaters. They're the WORST! How about children? They're noisy as all hell. Lets ban'em.
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Of course it would have been better to just use a mulching mower and put the nutrients from the leaves into the soil instead of sending the leaves into the woods. The problem is some people think they need a perfectly green lawn with absolutely no imperfections.
Re: FWP (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, but after removing the leaves, the lawn fanatic dumps chemicals into it to keep that poor over managed grass alive.
Our yard has a big ten foot round faerie ring of mushrooms in it. I don't fuck with it because it's neat to have a many decades old mycellium in the soil near our house
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While mulching is the best, there are limits. Some leaves such as Horse Chestnut don't seem to mulch and the Maple leaves can be deeper then the lawnmower.
I did recently get a pamphlet mailed to me by Stihl, who sell leaf blowers but not mulching mowers, going on about the benefits of mulching.
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As someone who used to care for a large lawn next to woods, a two stroke engine powering a lawn mower sized leaf blower/vacuum is the best for blowing leaves into the woods. Turns a four man job with rakes into a one man job. Even electric leaf blowers are noisy. Do they plan on increasing the fan size?
I live on the edge of a national forest. There are trees and leaves and wild animals. I'm always amazed when people are trying to hold back the tide and make it look like a lawn at disneyland and get rid of the wild animals. All those things are the reasons to live here and if you can't accept them it's better to go live in Irvine or someplace else with a mediated experience.
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Like my neighbour, who takes a good 20 minutes to clear leaves off an area he could sweep in 5 at max (I know this because I have a larger area of paving that's how long it takes me to edge it, sweep it and rip the weeds out of the gaps in the concrete).
I see the same thing with clearing the roof. My neighbors have theirs blown twice a week for something like 20 minutes each time. I can do mine (same size) with a broom in about 10, and I do it a whole lot less often because I do it myself. It's not necessary to do it all that often-- once every couple weeks in fire season and in the winter if there's rain in the forecast.
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Anyhow, it's a problem that can be mitigated by a meditation exercise. Imagine you're a leaf on the wind...
Re:FWP (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in an Austin, TX condo and hear the Echo backpack leafblowers every Monday. At 10 feet I measured one at 98 db. The operators are all illegals, 18-20 year-old kids from the hills of Michoacan in Mexico. None of them are given ear protectors by the foodchain of subcontractors-of-subcontractors who are used to provide legal cover for the condo associations (including mine) who hire illegals because they are cheap, obedient and unlikely to complain. Most will be half-deaf at 30. But nobody here cares. No American would put up with the working conditions or they would call OSHA.
Don't kid yourself; illegal immigration and leafblowers are connected. This is both a first and third world problem; a first world problem for the students who would have the jobs and be earning $15/hr if the illegals were not here and a problem for the kids from Mexico who get $7.50/hr and who will go deaf. Talk about a conspiracy of silence...
The situation pisses me off for both reasons.
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If I hadn't already commented in the thread I'd mod you up.
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There's a sinister connection between leaf blowers and illegal immigration? So If there were no leaf blowers there'd be no illegal immigration? Or would it be if there was no illegal immigration there'd be no leaf blowers? Both seem pretty preposterous to me.
The people who do the yard work in the condo complex where I live (California) all have ear protectors. They're mostly Hispanic but if they're illegals they arent recent arrivals as all of them that I've talked to speak pretty good English. Now both of
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What's your point? I never said grounds keepers werent overwhelmingly Latino.
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Using "First World Problems" to describe this problem is not really helpful. It is inappropriate in this case because it is nothing more than a means to discredit and dismiss the problem at hand without any real debate - especially when you wrote nothing more than those 3 words.
First off, I would be surprised if leaf blowers were only used in the first world - they are no doubt more common there but I am sure they can be found throughout the world.
Secondly, the main victims of leaf-blowers are the people wh
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Re:FWP (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Beautiful sunny surburbia,
where the squirrels play, the magpies fly,
and dawn breaks with the sound of
rotating garden machinery."
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Leaf blowers are more annoying for those of us in low income apartments where they come right up to our windows once a week. Just outlaw the useless things, there's no sense in moving leaves back and forth, get a leaf vacuum if you want to remove leaves.
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Yes, rakes are labor intensive but yet I see all these people with leaf blowers which seems to simply move the leaves from one place to another
Isn't that what a rake does too?
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If people are doing that, they're assholes. You're supposed to use the blower to pile the leaves up in your own yard so you can dispose of them (burn, compost, or pick up depending on local law).
Re:FWP (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really too much to ask not to pollute the entire neighborhood with your noise? Especially when quieter, non-annoying alternatives are available?
It's either your freedom to annoy people, or everyone else's freedom from being disturbed.
I, for one am looking forward to quieter leaf blowers being mandated. And we're far from them being used once or twice a year. For several months every year, I have a whole brigade of them coming round once a week to clean up the municipal green areas around my house. This takes an entire day, making working at home impossible that day.
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Is it really too much to ask not to pollute the entire neighborhood with your noise? Especially when quieter, non-annoying alternatives are available?
Motor powered leaf blowers have advantages that electric ones don't, specifically the ability to operate for longer periods and away from power points, Especially if you're maintaining a large property that has a lot of greenery (I.E. an apartment block, commercial park or municipal building).
In Australia we have a simple solution. We classify all of these things as power tools and in residential areas we have a ban on power tool usage before and after a certain time (which time depends on the council wh
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Wanting unlimited freedom for yourself, damn the consequences is immoral and ignorant of how reality works.
Re:FWP (Score:5, Funny)
Get yourself an MP3 of leaf blower noise, put on your headphones and crank up the volume. Have fun.
Re:FWP (Score:4, Funny)
Well hell, I should just be allowed to burn my garbage (just stay upwind if you don't like it), and let my sewage flow into the street because I want to "freedom" to neglect my plumbing. I only take a shit once a day, so what's the big deal?
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How about you and the rest of the world doing whatever you want and leave me to be free to do what I want?
Let's ignore the noise issue; why should you be free to get rid of your leaves by blowing them onto your neighbour's lawn? Or onto the street? Would you object to me dumping my trash on your lawn, if that's what I want to do?
If cities created a by-law saying "It is illegal to move leaves, grass clippings, and other garden waste to other properties without explicit consent", that would effectively ban lawn blowers without even mentioning the noise problem.
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Pretty sure that is already illegal to dump your leaves on your neighbours lawn or the street where it will plug the drains.
Myself, use the blower, which is 4cycle, to blow the leaves into a pile for bagging and taking to the municipal dump where they have an industrial composting setup.
Worst for noise are the Harleys, one local ATV that sounds like it has no muffler, and last night some idiot chainsawing in the dark.
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One or two days a year? Try 5 days a week year round. 2-stroke gas leaf blowers running almost every morning are pretty fucking annoying - both their noise and the dirty combustion fumes they emit.
That said, if people want to get rid of them, as mentioned in the article, they need to pay for it. Electric blowers are more expensive and less convenient, so if gardeners are forced to use them homeowners should expect to pay more and not complain.
As they say, your freedom ends where it infringes on someone e
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Isn't your infringement of my freedom the same? I mean if I am not free to do something because it annoys you, aren't you infringing on my freedom? Sounds like a problem in your logic as you would not have the freedom to stop me from being free.
And if they are using leaf blowers 5 days a week, they are doing something wrong. It might be your anally retentive codes and desires to k
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Isn't your infringement of my freedom the same? I mean if I am not free to do something because it annoys you, aren't you infringing on my freedom?
No, it's absolutely not, that's so obviously a false equivalence you can't be seriously suggesting it. It's like the argument that "calling me bigoted makes you bigoted for being against bigots". You are welcome to do anything that only affects you. You are often not welcome to do something that affects other people negatively (of course you may be legally allowed to do it until it's made illegal).
Shoot yourself, I couldn't care less (IMO making suicide illegal is idiotic). Shoot someone else, not so mu
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Put a wall up to keep the noise out like everyone else does. Why am I or anyone else not free on my property because you don't like something on yours?
I wish we were neighbors. I would have so much fun with you. I'd put bird feeders on poles right at the property line so birds would shit all over your car when it is parked in the driveway. Might even do it to encourage them to shit all over your deck in the back so you can really enjoy a cook out. I remember once when I was living in town, a neighbor got pi
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Put a wall up to keep the noise out like everyone else does. Why am I or anyone else not free on my property because you don't like something on yours?
Noise ordinances are written the other way around. You can make as much noise as you want on your property as long as it doesn't exceed 50 dB or ambient+3dB (or something like that) at the property line. If you want to make noise, the wall is your responsibility.
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Watching the courts eat you alive would be fun.
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You would find yourself hurt and in life threatening situations. My 115 lbs rottweiler would likely jump threw the window and attack you should you throw rocks and break it. The cameras would catch you screwing with the mail box and I would just have the feds answer that question. As for the tires, well you would have to trespass onto my property and carry a tool of some sort which I could construe as a weapon when I shoot you in self defense trying to figure out why my other dogs (a little yard shitter mut
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Yes, I have, and I own an electric. But I will admit it's a toy compared to commercial gas blowers.
To be honest, as much as I hate them, I 100% agree that gas blowers are much simpler and faster to operate for professionals. Battery powered ones just don't have nearly as much power; plug-ins can approach the power of the lowest-end backpack gas blowers, but are impractical when they are using it all around a large home, through gates, in the front yard/street, etc (assuming the location even has accessib
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Is it really too much to ask that i keep my freedom even if it somehow bothers you one or two days of the year? I mean the alternative isn't going to be as rosy as you think when your freedom annoys someone else at some point in time. Hell, just look at drones or the state of children walking to school.
You clearly don't live in Southern California. A substantial fraction of people have "gardeners" (even if they live in cheap rentals) who show up once a week and mow/blow/go, often with a couple of backpack leafblowers going at once. They can spew so much unburned gas that you smell more gas from your neighbor's yard than when pumping gas (we have emission controls on gas pumps). If you live anyplace with suburban or denser single family housing you pretty much hear them constantly from about 8 am to 3:3
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I feel your pain there. It is insane that they use them in the middle of the night. I figured existing noise ordinances would disallow that and most people were bitching because they had to turn the TV up a bit to watch "the price is right" or some other program in the middle of the day.
I live in the country and do have to put up with combines and tractors in the middle of the night certain times of the year. But that is a short window and a noise machine can usually drown them out enough not to bother my s
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They are definitely in Edinburgh. Both my college campus and home apartment complex had them. And I thought they were just in California.
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Aren't we a clever and proud people?
We are if there's a legitimate alternative. No smoking in reastaurants would not have been authoritarian overreach if "vaping" (someone please find a better name!) was around at the time. Banning 2-stroke leaf blowers is fine, or simply imposing a noise limit, since there are legitimate alternatives now.
Another inane Hugh Pickens submission. (Score:5, Insightful)
What a fucking inane submission. Why the fuck is this on Slashdot?!
Leave the goddamn leaves on the ground. Or if you really must collect them, just use a fucking rake.
Holy shit, this submission makes me pine for the days of Roland Piquepaille. At least his submissions had some relevance, no matter how small.
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Leave the goddamn leaves on the ground. Or if you really must collect them, just use a fucking rake.
A rake is no good on a gravel drive as it pulls the gravel as well, and mixes it with the leaves. If you leave the leaves on the drive (or anywhere, like the previous occupants of my house seem to have done for the last 20 years), they just turn into mud. Half my driveway is a mud-bath of rotted leaves with gravel somewhere below, which I must sort out one day.
Say What?! (Score:5, Informative)
"You find two-stroke engines in poorer countries because they're cheap,"
No, you find two-stroke engines in applications where you need high power but extremely low weight. Their cheapness is simply a byproduct of their simplicity (hence, weight savings). There are plenty of applications where a 4-stroke engine simply wouldn't work because it would weigh too much (leaf blowers, chain saws, etc) or would be too bulky (mopeds, model airplanes, lawnmowers, etc). Sure their efficiency needs some work, or replacement if a viable alternative is created, but at the moment there are several applications where 4-stroke engines or battery power simply wouldn't work.
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here are plenty of applications where a 4-stroke engine simply wouldn't work because it would weigh too much (leaf blowers, chain saws, etc) or would be too bulky
Except you can go to your local Lowes or Home Depot and buy these things with 4 stroke engines right now. In general I agree though their two stroke counter parts are vastly superior. The are as powerful and weigh less or are more powerful; either way therefore more useful for their purpose. Its also the case the 2 stroke engines general tolerate being inverted and such because they only have to worry about keep a charge of aspirated fuel, not also pulling oil from a sump; and dry sump applications for 4 strokes are even more complex and expensive.
Personally the only way I will ever replace my 2 stroke trimmer plus and my chain saw with a 4 stroke is if I can't get a replacement 2 stroke model.
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...applications where a 4-stroke engine simply wouldn't work because it would weigh too much (leaf blowers,...
I've seen 4-stroke engines on leaf blowers, albeit, backpack leaf blowers.
Re:Say What?! (Score:5, Interesting)
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"You find two-stroke engines in poorer countries because they're cheap,"
No, you find two-stroke engines in applications where you need high power but extremely low weight. Their cheapness is simply a byproduct of their simplicity (hence, weight savings). There are plenty of applications where a 4-stroke engine simply wouldn't work because it would weigh too much (leaf blowers, chain saws, etc) or would be too bulky (mopeds, model airplanes, lawnmowers, etc). Sure their efficiency needs some work, or replacement if a viable alternative is created, but at the moment there are several applications where 4-stroke engines or battery power simply wouldn't work.
the power-to-weight ratio gap is very small these days in the 1hp+ market. engines like the honda GX25 have something like 7lbs making 1hp, perfect for a handheld blower. honda even bolts a perfectly good leaf blower to it, but they only sell it in the european market for some reason, i have no idea why they don't bring it into north america: http://www.honda.co.uk/lawn-an... [honda.co.uk]
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I would extend your arguement on the environmental side:
National Institutes of Health study showing that two-stroke engines on two- and three-wheeled vehicles in Delhi, India, account for a significant amount of air pollution.
In other news the solar energy as measured at the sun would instantly kill us so solar is unsafe. Oh what there's a difference in concentration? Well blow me down with a battery powered leaf blower! I didn't realise that a handful of people using a leaf blower for 5 minutes on their law once a week as the same thing as filling up a highway with motorcycles.
But hey as long as we have that environmental angle. I'm sure 10minutes less running a 2 stroke p
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What about a rake?
My "yard" is gravel. A rake would pull up the gravel with the leaves.
Re:Say What?! (Score:5, Funny)
Forget two stroke. I want one of these [youtube.com]
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At first glance, this looks like a novelty. But after reading some of the comments, if you could put some sort of sound attenuation on the turbine exhaust there are some commercial grounds maintenance people that might be willing to pay for such a powerful/lightweight unit.
Off to the patent office!
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My leaf blower is a 4 stroke, same with my weedeater and lawnmower. Quieter then the 2 strokes and just as powerful or close enough. Just have to adjust the valves every hundred hours.
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The folks at LiquidPiston seem to think they have a rotary engine that could do the trick. Maybe, or maybe not, but I'm excited to see that there are still folks willing to innovate in engine technology.
http://liquidpiston.com/techno... [liquidpiston.com]
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you find two-stroke engines in applications where you need high power but extremely low weight. Their cheapness is simply a byproduct of their simplicity (hence, weight savings). There are plenty of applications where a 4-stroke engine simply wouldn't work because it would weigh too much... or would be too bulky
You forgot the main reason that 2-strokes are used in hand-held kit, especially chainsaws : being sump-less they work at any angle and tolerate being tossed around, because the lubricating oil comes in with the fuel. This can be done with 4-strokes with fancy sump design having swivelling pick-up nozzles (like in acrobatic aircraft), but it is expensive and less reliable.
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Re: Say What?! (Score:3)
If you want to go full on libertarian dystopia, then fine. You can use whatever noisy, polluting piece of garbage you want because your too lazy to use a rake... and I can shoot you for it. Problem solved. Yes, the battery versions are not perfect but, if your too damn lazy to use a rake, than it is the solution you will have to deal with. The reason that laws like this have to be created is because people are too self-centered and lazy to do what is best for everyone; they only care about themselves, wit
Re: Say What?! (Score:2)
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Don't worry though, I have only one neighbour (a farmer) within half a mile, and he's deaf (but not from me).
emergence of battery-powered leaf blowers (Score:5, Informative)
...the emergence of battery-powered leaf blowers takes us closer to the Holy Grail of equipment that is both (1) powerful and (2) quiet....
and (3) runs for only 10 minutes before the battery drains down.
.
True, the weaker battery-operated leaf blowers can have battery run time that is beyond 10 minutes. However, if you're looking for a battery-operated leaf blower that as powerful as one with a two-cycle engine, then you're looking at leaf blowers with a useful battery life of around 10 to 15 minutes.
Note: when the manufacturers rate the battery run time of leaf blowers in their advertisements and on their websites, they usually rate the battery life with the leaf blower running on its lowest speed. That's how they can say the battery lasts for an hour or more.
If you're just looking to blow the leaves off your patio or sidewalks, then the battery operated ones are fine. But don't expect to clean any reasonable sized yard of leaves..
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Clean a yard with a leafblower? Is that a thing? I've only ever seen people rake their yards.
We leafblow footpaths and areas we can't rake but the leaves just get caught in the grass in the yard.
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Clean a yard with a leafblower? Is that a thing?
Yes, it is a thing.
.
Much, much faster than raking, and it does a better job than raking. Depending upon the size of the yard, a handheld can work, or you may need to step up to a backpack leaf blower, next step up is a walk-behind leaf blower. The latter provides some serious air movement, and should not be used by the timid.
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The condo next door spends 6 hours pissing around with leafblowers, always on separate days, multiple times in the autumn. It makes it impossible to keep any windows or doors open.
It wouldn't be as bad if they took 4 of them for 30 minutes and systematically went over the grounds... but no. One fat guy walks all over the place in no particular pattern, just pointing the leafblower at dandelions and the odd leaf that just won't come free of the fence. I'm sure if they were raking, they wouldn't be at i
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I don't expect a blower to clear my yard. I use the lawnmower and mulch them.
Mulching the leaves with a lawn mower works to a point. However, when the leaves get too deep, a leaf blower (or serious raking) is the only way to get them under control.
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But some use these blowers for an actual full days use of work, not an occasional use for a driveway. Battery powered units are not mobile enough for a landscaper to use.
And the two-stroke blowers can't 'blow the paint off a car', unless there is other major damage to it already.
If they're being used on hardscape it's not the air that will blow the paint off, but the high speed abrasive dust. Around here the dust has a lot of decomposed granite in it, which will do a nice job on your paint at high speed.
General trend as battery technology gets better (Score:4, Informative)
This is part of the same general trend as battery technology gets better: we don't need fossil fuels for nearly as many things as we did previously. To some extent this one is a bit of a no-brainer, because leafblowers are not technologies where one has to worry terribly about being stranded if there's no nearby recharge station or if the range isn't far enough (which helped hold back electric cars). It will be interesting to see how far this goes. Some optimists (such a Elon Musk) think that we'll eventually have boats and airplanes which use batteries, thus relegating fossil fuel use to essentially some rockets which require the very high energy density, plastic and other petrochemical derivative production (which will take a lot longer to find alternatives for), and energy in the grid. Note by the way that because large generators like power plants are more efficient than small ones, as long as one has decent batteries and doesn't have terrible power plants on the grid, that's still a net gain.
However, I'm pessimistic about this sort of trend for a few reasons. First, many countries are still producing coal power plants, and although a natural gas or oil plant is often cleaner than a car or other device burning gasoline, this is often not the case for coal plants. In some developed countries, like the US, the total percentage of power produced by coal is going down but the total amount of coal production is roughly constant and projected to remain so for at least a few decades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]. While newer coal plants are more efficient and cleaner, this is only by a comparatively small degree. Of course, if do eventually get cheaper nuclear (such as with more modern reactors or maybe even with thorium reactors) this situation may change- right now the fact that nuclear is held to much higher safety standards than fossil fuel plants is a large part of its very high cost.
More seriously for the very long-term hope of making batteries handle all transport technologies including ships and airplanes, it isn't clear that battery technology will improve that much over time. The primary thing that matters is energy density, which has two forms, energy per mass and energy per volume. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density [wikipedia.org] Both need to be much better than they are today for electric airplanes to have any chance (lifespan and and number of cycle uses also need to improve but that's in some ways less of a barrier.) Energy density of batteries by both metrics batteries has increased by 5%-10% a year depending on the exact metric and choice of examples https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-battery-energy-density-improves-5-8-per-year [quora.com] which is exponential growth ( but with a much slower doubling time than something like Moore's Law. One has a doubling about once every 8 or 10 years.) Jet fuel has an energy density of around 45 MJ/kg, The most efficient batteries have a little under 1 MJ/kg. So one needs at least about 5 doublings before batteries can reasonably compete which will start to occur if they have an energy density of around 32/ MJ/kg. Similar remarks apply to energy density measured by joules per volume. However, there are technical reasons to think that batteries will stop doubling before that (see theabove quora link for details which argues that we can't make batteries much than four times as efficient before we start running into serious theoretical limits). At around 20 MJ/kg, one maybe could run planes practically but they would be much less convenient and practical than today's jets and that would be at the very upper end of the plausible limits. So it is likely that we will still see fossil fuels used for jets for the next 40 or 50 years.
Whaha (Score:2)
You find two-stroke engines in poorer countries because they're cheap
I have a Stihl [wikipedia.org] trimmer [backyardboss.com]. Bought because it is decent German build quality (albeit Made in Brazil), thus being much more expensive (but also needs much less adjustment, repair and eventually replacement) compared to the Chinese models available where I'm at. (As an aside: The dealer that sold it to me had ads up on lampposts the other day: "Buy once" - with various products of this company displayed. Although he also carries other brands.) It also has a very noisy (wearing ear muffs together with eye protecti
Margins issue (Score:2)
Regulation can fix this, but it will also make these products more expensive.
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More likely in play is that people who have invested in on level of technology rarely upgrade without a very compelling reason. The "quieter" reason is not a reason that impacts the person who is using the tool, he's already invested in ear protection. The "quieter" reason is a reason that impacts the person who's not using the tool.
Most people around here who use them have no hearing protection and at most a simple bandanna over their face for "dust" protection. They're typically illegal immigrants or maybe legal but don't have enough education or english skill to get any other job. Both cleaner and quieter would help protect them, but people don't want to do their lawns themselves and don't want to pay much to have their lawns done, and are either deaf or at work when their gardeners come. In LA there are huge amount of people who
The "We are better attitude" again! (Score:2)
"You find two-stroke engines in poorer countries because they're cheap..."
Maybe they have these blowers there because they "want" them...or because of some other reason. Not because they are poor, but just happen to be poor.
Why does this attitude persist? Is there anything we can learn from these "poor" countries? I know of Americans that have left this country for the so called poor countries - for good. Question is: Why?
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I know of Americans that have left this country for the so called poor countries - for good. Question is: Why?
Because they can act like rich assholes with their modest American retirement funds and lord over poor citizens of another country like the Colonial overlords they wish they'd been born as?
Leaf Blowers and OCD - Bad Combo (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a neighbor that could not stand the sight of a single leaf on his lawn or driveway. He'd patrol his yard three times a day with his leaf blower running until the last leaves fell off his oak trees. All the neighbors hated him because you couldn't complain about the noise, it was legal, etc.. People tried to convince him that a few leaves were not a problem - could not get through to him. We all really wanted to stuff his shirt with leaves, douse him in 2-stroke fuel mix, set him alight and fan the flames with the leaf blower.
He finally fucking died of a heart attack...while blowing leaves. Not a life well spent.
With a rake, he would have been the nice quiet old man next door who liked to exercise by working in his yard, and everybody would have some peace. With a leaf blower, he was the asshole/lunatic that everybody wanted to see dead. There are certain technologies like leaf blowers that seem to throw personality disorders into sharp contrast and are simply obnoxious. Nobody seems to think about noise pollution when designing and marketing (and buying) these things, they just assume everybody won't mind 2-strokes running all damned day. I don't know what the solution is, but it is getting harder and harder to find quiet in the world because of stuff like this.
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I'd recommend moving out of the suburbs. Either into the city (no yard!) or rural (no neighbors!).
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You should have all gotten together and bought him a top of the line ultra quiet leaf blower. He might have gone from 3 to 5 times a day but at least he would have been quiet.
Waiting for the blowback (Score:2)
Of course, there will be the inevitable rejection of such SJW concerns like clean air and low noise.. looking forward to leaf blower nutz and seeing guys with giant smoke stacks on their backs so they can "burn coal" at all the eco-blowers. MURRICA!!
Real nerds (Score:2)
It's not OK to lie, even about Hitler! (Score:2)
...the fight against noisy leaf blowers is gaining momentum, in part, because residents are framing it as a public health issue. Two-stroke engine leaf blowers mix fuel with oil and don't undergo a complete combustion, emitting a number of toxins...
Don't fucking do that. If you hate leaf blowers because they make a giant fucking noise that makes the quiet enjoyment of your property impossible, then pass a law that bans making giant fucking noises in a residential neighborhood. Don't try to ban leaf blowers by coughing like a sad little passive-aggressive Chihuahua every time you hear one and then climb into your Land Dominator SUV and go vote down the latest mass transit initiative in favor of knocking down a forest and putting up a football stadiu
NO and CO are toxins? (Score:2)
When did NO and CO become toxins?
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==>"Two-stroke engine leaf blowers mix fuel with oil and don't undergo a complete combustion, emitting a number of toxins, like carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which their operators inevitably inhale."
Nitrous Oxide ? I get that at the dentist office. I think that they mean Nitric Oxide and Nitrogen Dioxide as components of incomplete combustion.
Leave the leaves (Score:2)
Get off my lawn! (Score:2)
And don't worry about what I'm using to clean it.
Yeah, OK. (Score:2)
Require electric on lawn mowers as well (Score:2)
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Re:What's wong with a rake (Score:5, Insightful)
I already have an environmentally friendly, much much quieter leaf mover called a rake. And best of all it is cheap to own and maintain.
Exactly.
And if you have a lot of leaves, buy a cheap heavy tarp. Rake leaves onto tarp. Drag tarp to desired location to deposit leaves. Done.
Not only that, but it's exercise. I'm always amazed at the people who show up at the gym or go running around the neighborhood, but they don't take advantage of natural opportunities for exercise. Instead of buying the leaf blower, buy the rake. Instead of the riding mower or the "self-propelled" push mower, buy a decent reel mower (they are a lot better than they used to be) and run around the yard with it. Instead of buying the power edger, get the manual one and dig. Rather than the rototiller for your garden, dig it up and turn the soil with a shovel. A lot of times you get a decent workout while actually accomplishing something, and you frequently end up using different sets of muscles for different yard tasks, rather than having to come up with an artificial "routine" to try to keep your whole body fit.
And if you say, "But, but... my yard is too big for this sort of thing -- it would take me way too long to maintain it manually." Well, then have a smaller yard. Even if you have a large piece of property, install perennial flower beds, install ground covers that don't require cutting every week (and often excessive fertilizer and irrigation), plant some trees. If you're rich enough to own a large piece of property and pay people to keep it like a golf course, pay a landscape designer to make it lower maintenance and with greater variety than a giant lawn or whatever.
That's actually the real problem behind all the leaf blower noise -- Americans in the suburbs often have giant pieces of property with unnecessary huge lawns and unreasonable expectations that they be kept up continuously as if they were part of a golf course. Maybe we should attack the underlying problem -- like avoiding giant unneeded lawns or getting rid of this notion that any leaves on the ground are bad or "untidy" (they can actually be good fertilizer if they aren't excessive).
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I already have an environmentally friendly, much much quieter leaf mover called a rake. And best of all it is cheap to own and maintain.
Exactly.
And if you have a lot of leaves, buy a cheap heavy tarp. Rake leaves onto tarp. Drag tarp to desired location to deposit leaves. Done.
Not only that, but it's exercise. I'm always amazed at the people who show up at the gym or go running around the neighborhood, but they don't take advantage of natural opportunities for exercise. Instead of buying the leaf blower, buy the rake. Instead of the riding mower or the "self-propelled" push mower, buy a decent reel mower (they are a lot better than they used to be) and run around the yard with it. Instead of buying the power edger, get the manual one and dig. Rather than the rototiller for your garden, dig it up and turn the soil with a shovel. A lot of times you get a decent workout while actually accomplishing something, and you frequently end up using different sets of muscles for different yard tasks, rather than having to come up with an artificial "routine" to try to keep your whole body fit.
And if you say, "But, but... my yard is too big for this sort of thing -- it would take me way too long to maintain it manually." Well, then have a smaller yard. Even if you have a large piece of property, install perennial flower beds, install ground covers that don't require cutting every week (and often excessive fertilizer and irrigation), plant some trees. If you're rich enough to own a large piece of property and pay people to keep it like a golf course, pay a landscape designer to make it lower maintenance and with greater variety than a giant lawn or whatever.
That's actually the real problem behind all the leaf blower noise -- Americans in the suburbs often have giant pieces of property with unnecessary huge lawns and unreasonable expectations that they be kept up continuously as if they were part of a golf course. Maybe we should attack the underlying problem -- like avoiding giant unneeded lawns or getting rid of this notion that any leaves on the ground are bad or "untidy" (they can actually be good fertilizer if they aren't excessive).
Okay, you had me with the first two paragraphs...absolutely, for the overwhelming majority of homes, the "rake and tarp" method is the way to go. One way to assess how much your possessions own you (as opposed to the opposite) is to "count the cylinders". Count how many internal combustion cylinders you have...the higher the number, the more likely it is that you are those cylinders' prison bitch. And, as you say in the second paragraph, it's exercise, which everyone needs...boy do we ever.
But when you s
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But when you say, "Well, then have a smaller yard," uh...yeah, no. It doesn't work like that. You are confusing leaves...which do not come from the ground...with a lawn.
No, I'm not confusing anything. I'm pointing out that good planning and yard design can make maintenance less. The vast majority of people I see out with leaf blowers are cleaning off large lawns primarily. Yes, there are flower beds and other things, but I see LOTS of people clearly wide swaths of grass.
Leaves (which fall from trees...FYI on that one) still land on flower beds; the flowers do not have magical force fields to disintegrate the leaves. And you can't rake flowers...which leaves you with only one option. Using a leaf blower!
Hmm... despite being a jerk, I'll give you a tip here. People actually lived before leaf blowers existed. They actually sometimes had flower beds too. Think about that for one second. Somehow they su
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... the flowers do not have magical force fields to disintegrate the leaves. And you can't rake flowers...which leaves you with only one option. Using a leaf blower!
It's a good thing flowers were invented after the leaf blower, or our ancestors would have been so screwed.
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... the flowers do not have magical force fields to disintegrate the leaves. And you can't rake flowers...which leaves you with only one option. Using a leaf blower!
It's a good thing flowers were invented after the leaf blower, or our ancestors would have been so screwed.
Those who question whether leaf blowers should exist in the first place should take a step back as the argument could apply to any modern convenience device. It's like saying that we don't need a dishwasher or clothes washer/dryer because our ancestors got along just fine without one and there are alternatives that use less energy, cause less pollution, and require more manual input / exercise (i.e. washing clothes by hand, air drying clothes, etc.).
Just like any technology, leaf blowers can be abused by
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Hell, show me an electric blower that meets my requirements at *any* price.
Yeah... crickets...
My neighbor picked up one of these )http://egopowerplus.com/products/480-cfm-blower#tab1) new this summer and it was basically a worthless piece of shit, and it's about as powerful as electric blowers get. He was outside for over an hour and ha
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Before leaf blowers there were no city ordinances to take care of the leaves, because there were no storm sewers either. Storm sewers become clogged and streets flood with the slightest rainfall if leaves are not tended to.
The smaller storm sewers in my area are 5' diameter tubes you can walk through. The large ones are 10+ feet wide and deep trenches. The really big ones (far downstream from me) are used to film car chases for TV (all those chases in the 70's cop shows). No amount of leaves will clog them or their inlets (which are also huge - during a heavy rainfall there's pretty good stream in the center channel on the end of my street. I used to jump it until I realized that I could easily end up a few miles downstre
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And you can't rake flowers...which leaves you with only one option. Using a leaf blower!
It sounds like maybe you should get out in the yard yourself and try some of this stuff out, so that you see how it actually works...or perhaps you live in a >1-floor home with no yard to care for, in which case you shouldn't be putting forth your uninformed opinion on these things in the first place?
I have a good sized yard with all sorts of things planted and have never had a need for a leaf blower. If you have actual delicate flowers, the blower is going to damage them, and unless you're an industrial gardner supplying florists, you could probably just reach in and pull leaves out with your hands. Or leave them as mulch-- much of my raking amounts to collecting the leaves from under the oak trees to use as mulch around the fruit trees.
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That's actually the real problem behind all the leaf blower noise -- Americans in the suburbs often have giant pieces of property with unnecessary huge lawns and unreasonable expectations that they be kept up continuously as if they were part of a golf course. Maybe we should attack the underlying problem -- like avoiding giant unneeded lawns or getting rid of this notion that any leaves on the ground are bad or "untidy" (they can actually be good fertilizer if they aren't excessive).
It's not just huge lawns. In SoCal even the postage stamp of a lawn gets blown using a backpack blower at least once a week by the "gardeners". Leaf blowers became popular during one of the droughts (the 70s?) because of prohibitions on hosing off your sidewalk. People don't even use them for leaves much of the time, in a lot of cases it's just to get the dust off the hardscape and much of it ends up stuck to the side of the house (or in your lungs).
Re:Quiet leaf removal option without fuel or batte (Score:5, Funny)
Not for long. What most American voters don't realise is that Trump has invested heavily in leaf blower manufacturers, deporting Mexicans is simply a way of boosting sales.
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What's this train thing you speak of?
Many (most?) places in the U.S. don't have public transportation and there are a multitude of reasons why people require cars to live in the U.S unless they live somewhere like San Francisco or New York City.
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There are also no straight or flat roads in this part of the state. My 25 minute drive to work would take hours on a bike.
Your bike cannot get round bends? It needs flat roads? And take hours?? - are you using it the right way up?
When I commuted in London it was faster by bike than by car - and that was in the outer suburbs. In the countryside of Southern England my average bike speed (17mph) was about half that of driving a car if not on motorways. The long-term average speed currently displayed in my car is 36 mph (there are only country roads in my area).
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My mains powered blower works great, plenty of power. Why would you go thru the pain in the ass of a petrol engine?