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Comment by foobarian | Hacker News Reader

I got an electric leaf blower mostly to avoid the noise and partly to avoid gasoline engine issues (a Kobalt 80V blower). What baffles me is that here the designers had a chance to make something truly quiet but instead they blew it and used a super-high-RPM motor-powered narrow turbine placed inside the pipe. It sounds like a dental drill amplified through a set of loudspeakers.

I would kill to get a commercially designed blower powered with a large squirrel cage driven by a low-RPM brushless motor. I'm sure they exist by now and I imagine they are glorious. I'm not sure what these students did but if I was doing that project today that is the first thing I would try.

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> What baffles me is that here the designers had a chance to make something truly quiet but instead they blew it and used a super-high-RPM motor-powered narrow turbine placed inside the pipe.

They didn't change anything about the blower. They made an adapter you plug on the front that tries to cancel out the the worst offending frequencies. Like a silencer, but for leaf blowers. It's the red thing you see on the pictures.

I think foobarian is referring to is:

> I got an electric leaf blower mostly to avoid the noise and partly to avoid gasoline engine issues (a Kobalt 80V blower).

...and not the content of the post. I was a little confused as well though so you're not alone. But I'm pretty sure that's what they meant.

They are made. Of course a hand-held blower that has enough air velocity to do its job is going to make some noise, but I walked by a landscape maintenance guy outside work yesterday, he had a battery-electric blower and it was much quieter than the old two-stroke gas blowers they were using last year. I didn't note the brand but the casing was green. Maybe Deere, but it wasn't quite the Deere shade of green so I don't know. You know what's quieter than any blower? A broom. But not as fast.

Greenworks offers battery powered leaf blowers - might have been one of these? https://www.greenworkstools.com/collections/leaf-blowers

Or Ryobi. Though Greenworks is probably more likely for a professional.

EGO makes a really good one.

Likely Ego. Ego makes probably the most premium electric only power tools.

Makes me wonder if they intentionally kept some noise to combat consumer perception that it was weaker than gas models.

Good point.

If you want a good accurate model of human psychology, look to world of marketing.

There is a similar noise-is-strength in vacuum cleaner sales.

We all know loud pipes save lives, so just think of all of the lives you'd be putting at risk by making quieter anything.

Back before they started adding in artificial noise, I almost got hit by a Prius because I couldn't hear it and the driver was distracted. It was only due to the noise of some loose gravel on the pavement that I became aware of the car and got out of the way.

> There is a similar noise-is-strength in vacuum cleaner sales.

Thankfully that seems to only really happen on the cheaper, or smaller end of the vacuum spectrum. My Shark handheld is so obnoxious that the dog tries to rip it out of my hands so she can chew it to pieces. My Sebo canister vac, on the other hand, is much quieter. It's a selling point. And it really, really sucks!

>> instead they blew it and used a super-high-RPM motor-powered narrow turbine placed inside the pipe.

Because it is a handheld tool. It cannot be heavy. If you want to shove lots of power through an electric motor then that motor has to be either very heavy or very fast. The same is true for turbines. And a lighter consumer product will generally be cheaper to manufacture.

Another reason for smaller and lighter fans is the lower moment of inertia, which means faster spin up and spin down. Unfortunately, these frequent spin ups annoy me to no end.

I have had the twin battery Makita model for several years now. It’s a fabulous tool, basically functions how you describe I believe. Puts out a max of 61db on high. Expensive, but we already have makita tools, and it made a hated chore essentially not exist because its so convenient, fast and easy.

"instead they blew it"

I see you!

Elon Musk at one point once suggested Tesla would make a quiet leaf blower - due specifically to the noise.

I wonder if Tesla perhaps has a whole bunch of technologies they're developing incognito in the background - or if he's perhaps being limited for some artificial reasons?

It may just be a market size issue - and cities passing bylaws to disallow gas powered, only allow electric under a certain dBs is the fix; and for some reason aren't caught under existing noise pollution-nuisance laws.

Is that really what people want?

Leaf blowers to me are possibly the least interesting, least appealing way to use modern tech

To clarify, as a research project, cool. We can probably use any new developments elsewhere. But as a tesla product, just why?

They know and have the supply chain setup, and they are arguably specialists in electric motors?

Well, and technically specialists in rocket motors too - at least access via SpaceX engineers.

They could open source the tech and the take PR victory laps on how they are helping lower irritating noise, saving the environment, and being very cool about not trying to profit over it. That's the kind of thing that would blow up on this site.

How would an electric leaf blower (or anything electric/battery/motor related) released by Tesla be any different from a flamethrower made by Boring company? At least there's a bit of resemblance from the tech used, but a self-lighting gas device from a digs hole in ground company has nothing to do with anything.

I think enough of the ideological mob on HN that hate Elon would claim "he's just doing it to not look so evil!"

While I am reticent to speculate on anything Musk or Tesla…

> Is that really what people want?

I would literally buy substantially quieter leaf blowers, as gifts, for neighbors whom I do not even like. There are few things I want more.

"Oh, he gave me one too. They can't blow shit, they don't even sound like a leaf blower."

Your disliked neighbors talking to each other in the future, probably.

I want it. Specifically I want it to be mandatory for all of the lawn services that use straight pipe two stroke leaf blowers at 6 in the morning, every morning.

All other lawn equipment is loud but manageable. Leaf blowers are unreasonable. They are also the only equipment even the lawn service guys wear heating protection while using (sometimes).

i think i've just grown up in different areas to a lot of you all then. this has never been a problem for me, but maybe it's regional/cultural/climate-dependent.

It's probably just not a market anyone really cares.

The person who does it a few times a year just buys something cheap.

The professional needs to have it running the whole day. No cable and just noise means that the boss saves money and the worker can just use ear protection.

> (a Kobalt 80V blower). What baffles me

I don't understand. You opted to buy the inexpensive store brand tools (Kobalt is Lowe's house brand) and now you're complaining that shortcuts were taken and it didn't exceed requirements or your expectations?

I don't walk into Harbor Freight and expect Snap-On tools.

If I am not mistaken, the first sentence mentions what the GP commenter has, while the second sentence talks about what's mentioned in the article. You seem to be conflating the two.

EDIT: s/argument/article/

You'd be surprised with the quality of some of the latest harbor freight tools. They are still shaky with some stuff but they aren't the "hazard fraught" of 5+ years ago.

This is a good point but you're never going to win an argument with somebody who has spent more money than warranted on a purchase.

Whether it be title insurance, a name brand on an item that came from the same factory as another item, or even religious tithings, people are both financially and emotionally committed to past expenditures and it is extremely tough to fight past this commitment.

The Kolbalt 80V line was made by Greenworks, which makes excellent products for pros. I have the Kobalt 80V blower and it is an excellent blower (loud) and is just a rebranded 80V Greenworks. Not Harbor Freight cheapness for sure. I also have the 80V mower and trimmer and they too are just rebranded Greenworks tools. Excellent products overall.

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