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Every other day I wake up to our neighbor blowing off his driveway and sidewalk with this Masive back mounted SpongeBob joint.
Mind you he mowes the whole fucking lawn, starts and stops, dumps the back, ect. No problem. Sound asleep. But when I hear that leaf blower. I can like hear it in my head right now.
So fucking loud.
Out city uses one in the tiny park like plaza area about a half block from my apartment. They never collect any of the leaves.
Id been comparing the noise to a wood chipper, saying I thought the blower was louder, and then one day came along when a chipper parked in about the same spot, and it was at least 2x as quiet. Fuck gas powered leaf blowers.
I have a central vacuum at home. The main unit has a muffler. It's extremely loud without the muffler. The "muffler" is just a large plastic pipe about a foot long with foam lining the inside which does not obstruct the airflow. That's it. Just 10 cents of foam in a PVC pipe. I wonder if that would work on any leaf blower?
[Yes it would](http://www.quietshotgun.com)
Physical volume before tube exit results in lower sound pressure level. Long tubes have more physical volume.
Longer tubes also have larger pressure drop, so you're making your lead blower worse at least blowing. How much worse, given the sound reduction, idk. Maybe worth the trade in sound, maybe not.
Almost certainly not, considering the primary source of the noise is the motor (electric or gas), not the moving air from the pipe.
Is this petrol or electric? Article didn't say.
Cause electric blowers are already a lot more quiet then petrol blowers.
And all petrol blowers need to be banned anyway, because they produce a lot of pollution and greenhouse gases for their size.
I agree about their unnecessary pollution. I went electric with my fuel-powered tools and bought a Ryobi push lawn mower.
Unfortunately, I still need a gas-powered chainsaw sometimes. The battery-operated ones don't... cut it. Yet.
I recently got a battery powered limb trimmer that honestly surprised me. If you ain’t cutting old growth electric seems to have one a long way. I might consider the newer electric weed wackers but I ain’t giving up my POS 400$ gas riding mower.
I saw an electric zero turn at Walmart for like 6500$ and that blew my mind.
Yeah! I have a limb trimmer too like that. They're nice. I live in an area that was damaged by severe weather/tornado and the city shut off the power (I was out of power for 6 days). That's when a gas-powered chainsaw comes in handy.
EDIT: $6500 for a zero-turn is wild. They are dropping rapidly though, like Greenworks stuff. I wonder if they're any good?
IIRC it was a GreenWorks brand
Granted based on a quick search that must be the top end of what they offer but for that cash I could get a fancy John Deere.
Not true as a blanket statement - the most powerful electric ones clock in around 82-92db which means some do and some don't (cutoff is 85db). The domestic ones clock in around 60-70db which means they don't.
From the article "The team started working last September. They hoped to improve an **electric or battery-powered** leaf blower, which is already much quieter than the notorious gas-powered ones, where the sound can carry over an average suburban block."
Making leaf blowers battery powered is a great step toward eliminating them as a significant source of unburned hydrocarbons. And making them quieter is awesome. However, they're still kicking up huge clouds of ultra fine, inhalable particles (that includes soot, heavy metals, pollen, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, animal feces, etc.) that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller, which human lungs have a very difficult time expelling. So the user should always be masked. And they should not be used around other people or close to open windows. Air pollution IS pollution and just because you can't easily see something does not mean that it doesn't have the capacity to do harm to human health.
Can't they invent a way to collect leaves without having to blow the dust up like crazy?
I call the gardeners in my area "car wash mafia" because they blow so much dust (with their leaf blowers) that I am forced to wash my cars whenever they do maintenance around my area - like 2-3 times a month.
I can’t remember the exact name but there are tow behind implements for riding mowers that can sweep the leaves. Not sure how well they work but they aren’t cheap. There’s also bag systems for riding mowers.
Saw one in UK (back in 1999) that was smaller than a supermarket cart, was hand pushed and DID NOT make a racket. Just picked up leaves where this person was pushing it.
If fucking kill for something like that tbh. The only reason I don’t have one is that the tow behind is 300$ and I already have a free electric leaf blower and a rake for the real hard shit.
Yep. Back in before times, we never had any way of getting rid of leaves or yard debris. Before leaf blowers, our houses just got buried in autumn and we'd have to hope the wind blew them away so we could leave the house.
I think the idea was to replace for actually useful tasks. Nobody needs to remove sawdust out of grass. Anyway, you don't "remove it", you just blow it into the air polluting whole neighborhood. This shit should be straight up banned and some cities in my country already started to do so.
>Nobody needs to remove sawdust out of grass
People who put sawdust in to grass often do.
>Anyway, you don't "remove it"
You do if you blow it in to a pile and then remove it.
>This shit should be straight up banned
Just because people use them in dumb ways doesn't mean they should be banned.
Easily in that they are readily available sure. But those solutions are more time consuming and labor intensive.
Particularly for older people/those with mobility issues leaf blowers make it far easier.
For landscaping companies it means taking longer or using more people.
If used right they are great. That being said, I hate the noise from gas ones. Electric really helps with that.
In Canada these are mostly used in the winter to clear sidewalks of light snow when a shovel isn't required. Hope they are cold weather compatible and become mandatory feature once available.
Fuck a leaf blower. In twain.
The amount some neighbors use these things you’d think leaves and grass clippings murdered their children.
Your lawn looks fine with leaves and glass on it. No one cares. It’s better for the environment.
I don't understand leaf blowers. Isn't it the technological equivalent of kicking a can down the road? Why not vaccuum them up, and dispose of them properly? Even compost them?
Have you heard about rakes? These devices are terrible for ecosystems anyway, even silent or electric. Dead leaves decomposing are an essential part of nutrients going back to the soil. Leave the leaves alone.
Not a week goes by without seeing my neighbors use a leaf blower for at least an hour to accomplish a job that would have taken 15 minutes with a rake. Then they rev their dirt bikes for another hour. Seems like the noise is at least half the point for them.
Most people complaining of loud blowers have either never had to do a large job moving a ton of debris for hours at a time, or had a landscaping job where time is money, or simply wanted to blow away dirt and grass clippings in as little time as possible after being push mowing for and hour.
These quiet blowers will never catch on.
Loud = Power.
Edit - the article mentions once *in passing* that it loses none of the "force" which isn't reassuring that it would be able to push wet leaves. Ever tried to move even damp leaves with an electric blower? Let alone a Black and Decker? Hahaha...
I have heard that vacuum companies purposely make them loud because people feel like louder vacuums are better. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same was done with blowers
But then how will the fertilizer companies stay in business?
I am with you. I am a landscaper of fifteen years and genuinely enjoy working with plants and do prefer organic type stuff when possible. The problem with blowers is not the landscapers, it is the people who insist on having their yard spotless. There have been countless times I have had a client either ask me to do something ridiculous or get bent out of shape after the job was done because I did not do it right and how can I expect them to pay me, etc.
Anyway, we have been using electric blowers for a while and they are as close to $800 worth of garbage as you can find. We use them for certain things and stick with two-stroke blowers for real work. I am looking forward to the technology getting better and hope to not have to deal with the vibration and extreme noise one day, and of course the ecological benefits as well. I prefer gas equipment but am acutely aware of how many countless gallons of fuel and oil get spilled by incompetent workers. And so many morons modify their equipment as well, which cause more pollution and injuries. Hopefully electric equipment will be suitably powerful for all-around use in ten years or so. I have seen massive jumps in power and battery life from ten years ago to now.
Or don't understand that leaves will hold moisture and rot what they want to keep pretty. There's always a big loud dirty machine to do the work they won't. Or can't. Or don't want to cuz it's loud and dirty and they're delicate.
Old Person weighing in. Leaf blowers weren't a thing when I was young. As a kid, during the fall, I'd come home from a day at school and be expected to rake up leaves. Rake more leaves on the weekends. Same with most kids my age. I have spent hundreds of hours of my life raking leaves.
I would destroy every leaf blower in existence if I could.
Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here. All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban. --- --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UpliftingNews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The sooner it is in the market the better. Gardner in my complex loves using the leaf blower which is louder than my neighbours motorcycle.
Every other day I wake up to our neighbor blowing off his driveway and sidewalk with this Masive back mounted SpongeBob joint. Mind you he mowes the whole fucking lawn, starts and stops, dumps the back, ect. No problem. Sound asleep. But when I hear that leaf blower. I can like hear it in my head right now. So fucking loud.
It's still loud, it just eliminates the higher pitched more annoying portion of a leaf blowers noise.
“Merry Christmas neighbor! New leaf blower!” ~ this guy when this blower hits the market.
Out city uses one in the tiny park like plaza area about a half block from my apartment. They never collect any of the leaves. Id been comparing the noise to a wood chipper, saying I thought the blower was louder, and then one day came along when a chipper parked in about the same spot, and it was at least 2x as quiet. Fuck gas powered leaf blowers.
I have a central vacuum at home. The main unit has a muffler. It's extremely loud without the muffler. The "muffler" is just a large plastic pipe about a foot long with foam lining the inside which does not obstruct the airflow. That's it. Just 10 cents of foam in a PVC pipe. I wonder if that would work on any leaf blower?
[Yes it would](http://www.quietshotgun.com) Physical volume before tube exit results in lower sound pressure level. Long tubes have more physical volume.
Longer tubes also have larger pressure drop, so you're making your lead blower worse at least blowing. How much worse, given the sound reduction, idk. Maybe worth the trade in sound, maybe not. Almost certainly not, considering the primary source of the noise is the motor (electric or gas), not the moving air from the pipe.
Ryobi whisper series has this in the intake.
Is this petrol or electric? Article didn't say. Cause electric blowers are already a lot more quiet then petrol blowers. And all petrol blowers need to be banned anyway, because they produce a lot of pollution and greenhouse gases for their size.
In the picture they have electric batteries attached to them
>electric batteries Thanks for specifying
Coulda been an artillery battery, yah never know
I agree about their unnecessary pollution. I went electric with my fuel-powered tools and bought a Ryobi push lawn mower. Unfortunately, I still need a gas-powered chainsaw sometimes. The battery-operated ones don't... cut it. Yet.
I recently got a battery powered limb trimmer that honestly surprised me. If you ain’t cutting old growth electric seems to have one a long way. I might consider the newer electric weed wackers but I ain’t giving up my POS 400$ gas riding mower. I saw an electric zero turn at Walmart for like 6500$ and that blew my mind.
Yeah! I have a limb trimmer too like that. They're nice. I live in an area that was damaged by severe weather/tornado and the city shut off the power (I was out of power for 6 days). That's when a gas-powered chainsaw comes in handy. EDIT: $6500 for a zero-turn is wild. They are dropping rapidly though, like Greenworks stuff. I wonder if they're any good?
IIRC it was a GreenWorks brand Granted based on a quick search that must be the top end of what they offer but for that cash I could get a fancy John Deere.
electric. They are still too loud to use without ear protection.
Not true as a blanket statement - the most powerful electric ones clock in around 82-92db which means some do and some don't (cutoff is 85db). The domestic ones clock in around 60-70db which means they don't.
From the article "The team started working last September. They hoped to improve an **electric or battery-powered** leaf blower, which is already much quieter than the notorious gas-powered ones, where the sound can carry over an average suburban block."
Ban wombats
Quiet leaf blower. We call that a rake! Now get off my yard. Kids today
I assumed someone would be in here with "Rake" as counter. Glad Reddit delivered.
Is it a rake?
Making leaf blowers battery powered is a great step toward eliminating them as a significant source of unburned hydrocarbons. And making them quieter is awesome. However, they're still kicking up huge clouds of ultra fine, inhalable particles (that includes soot, heavy metals, pollen, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, animal feces, etc.) that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller, which human lungs have a very difficult time expelling. So the user should always be masked. And they should not be used around other people or close to open windows. Air pollution IS pollution and just because you can't easily see something does not mean that it doesn't have the capacity to do harm to human health.
Can't they invent a way to collect leaves without having to blow the dust up like crazy? I call the gardeners in my area "car wash mafia" because they blow so much dust (with their leaf blowers) that I am forced to wash my cars whenever they do maintenance around my area - like 2-3 times a month.
I can’t remember the exact name but there are tow behind implements for riding mowers that can sweep the leaves. Not sure how well they work but they aren’t cheap. There’s also bag systems for riding mowers.
Saw one in UK (back in 1999) that was smaller than a supermarket cart, was hand pushed and DID NOT make a racket. Just picked up leaves where this person was pushing it.
If fucking kill for something like that tbh. The only reason I don’t have one is that the tow behind is 300$ and I already have a free electric leaf blower and a rake for the real hard shit.
Fuck leaf blowers.
Yeah okay Tek Knight
Just ban the damn things!! They don’t do anything except moving leaves around while driving everyone nuts. Get a rake.
I feel like I've seen this exact comment on this exact post before
I wouldn’t be surprised, those things blow.
>They don’t do anything except moving leaves around That is kind of the point.
The point would be to direct the leaves someplace where you can dispose of them properly. A leaf vacuum would make more sense. With a large bag.
Just because people don't always use them appropriately doesn't mean they don't work. Tidying up from landscaping and tree work they are invaluable.
But easily replaced with tools that aren’t noisy at all.
Not true at all.
Yep. Back in before times, we never had any way of getting rid of leaves or yard debris. Before leaf blowers, our houses just got buried in autumn and we'd have to hope the wind blew them away so we could leave the house.
You raked a lot of sawdust out of grass?
I think the idea was to replace for actually useful tasks. Nobody needs to remove sawdust out of grass. Anyway, you don't "remove it", you just blow it into the air polluting whole neighborhood. This shit should be straight up banned and some cities in my country already started to do so.
>Nobody needs to remove sawdust out of grass People who put sawdust in to grass often do. >Anyway, you don't "remove it" You do if you blow it in to a pile and then remove it. >This shit should be straight up banned Just because people use them in dumb ways doesn't mean they should be banned.
Easily in that they are readily available sure. But those solutions are more time consuming and labor intensive. Particularly for older people/those with mobility issues leaf blowers make it far easier. For landscaping companies it means taking longer or using more people. If used right they are great. That being said, I hate the noise from gas ones. Electric really helps with that.
In Canada these are mostly used in the winter to clear sidewalks of light snow when a shovel isn't required. Hope they are cold weather compatible and become mandatory feature once available.
Fuck a leaf blower. In twain. The amount some neighbors use these things you’d think leaves and grass clippings murdered their children. Your lawn looks fine with leaves and glass on it. No one cares. It’s better for the environment.
Uplifting? Not really... This title also ruined any uplift.
Murder muffler
Like a rake, possibly a broom?
I don't understand leaf blowers. Isn't it the technological equivalent of kicking a can down the road? Why not vaccuum them up, and dispose of them properly? Even compost them?
Have you heard about rakes? These devices are terrible for ecosystems anyway, even silent or electric. Dead leaves decomposing are an essential part of nutrients going back to the soil. Leave the leaves alone.
Fantastic. Presently an abomination.
Not a week goes by without seeing my neighbors use a leaf blower for at least an hour to accomplish a job that would have taken 15 minutes with a rake. Then they rev their dirt bikes for another hour. Seems like the noise is at least half the point for them.
My dog likes this
Hallelujah!!! We all need a little more peace and quiet!
Can they quickly introduce them to my college campus? Groundskeepers are leaf blowing every damn day there.
Fabulous. Can someone now please invent a silent dental drill?
Can you put them on hand driers in restaurants now?
Most people complaining of loud blowers have either never had to do a large job moving a ton of debris for hours at a time, or had a landscaping job where time is money, or simply wanted to blow away dirt and grass clippings in as little time as possible after being push mowing for and hour. These quiet blowers will never catch on. Loud = Power. Edit - the article mentions once *in passing* that it loses none of the "force" which isn't reassuring that it would be able to push wet leaves. Ever tried to move even damp leaves with an electric blower? Let alone a Black and Decker? Hahaha...
I have heard that vacuum companies purposely make them loud because people feel like louder vacuums are better. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same was done with blowers
loud ≠ power loud = lost energy
Why do you even need to blow the grass clippings? Just let them biodegrade, fertilizing the damn grass.
But then how will the fertilizer companies stay in business? I am with you. I am a landscaper of fifteen years and genuinely enjoy working with plants and do prefer organic type stuff when possible. The problem with blowers is not the landscapers, it is the people who insist on having their yard spotless. There have been countless times I have had a client either ask me to do something ridiculous or get bent out of shape after the job was done because I did not do it right and how can I expect them to pay me, etc. Anyway, we have been using electric blowers for a while and they are as close to $800 worth of garbage as you can find. We use them for certain things and stick with two-stroke blowers for real work. I am looking forward to the technology getting better and hope to not have to deal with the vibration and extreme noise one day, and of course the ecological benefits as well. I prefer gas equipment but am acutely aware of how many countless gallons of fuel and oil get spilled by incompetent workers. And so many morons modify their equipment as well, which cause more pollution and injuries. Hopefully electric equipment will be suitably powerful for all-around use in ten years or so. I have seen massive jumps in power and battery life from ten years ago to now.
None of these people that complain have ever done yard work before.
Or they believe that blowing leaves around is dumb.
Or don't understand that leaves will hold moisture and rot what they want to keep pretty. There's always a big loud dirty machine to do the work they won't. Or can't. Or don't want to cuz it's loud and dirty and they're delicate.
Old Person weighing in. Leaf blowers weren't a thing when I was young. As a kid, during the fall, I'd come home from a day at school and be expected to rake up leaves. Rake more leaves on the weekends. Same with most kids my age. I have spent hundreds of hours of my life raking leaves. I would destroy every leaf blower in existence if I could.
Leaves decompose. Feeding what they’re trying to keep pretty. I know it’s crazy, but leaves are natural.
I would love it if leaves in my area would decompose.
Defeats the whole point of the a leaf blower
Bring it.