Motorcycles and snowmobiles are mostly four-strokes these days because the increase in weight isn't a big deal compared to a chainsaw or trimmer.
Edit: and for that matter we probably need to stop clearing so much yard waste. My village has crazy expensive yard waste tags (with free pickup on select weeks of the year, usually fall) and everyone agrees it's not worth it to bag grass and leaves for the better part of the year. Unsurprisingly we have tons of pollinators, healthy firefly populations, and plenty of critters that feed on all the bugs. Not to mention during spring, every one who's too lazy to manicure their lawn sees blooms with dandelion, clover, ground ivy, and columbine. My block looks like a meadow for April and May with zero effort.
Some climates produce layers of thatch from simple lawn clippings, for instance, which can be problematic. And for some people, fallen tree leaves can be a real concern.
My lawns (all of which have been in Ohio) have never had these issues. I just mow the grass. Stuff (leaves, grass, whatever other stuff is growing or present) gets chopped up, either with a "mulching" mower or a side-discharge mower (and it'd probably work about the same with a reel mower). It degrades quickly-enough in-situ that neither lawn clippings nor tree leaves are ever things that are a concern. (The biggest lawn-oriented issue I ever had was that of having a large number of black walnut trees; the walnuts themselves were unseen ankle-killing traps and/or projectiles in the fall, and the abundance of food lead to an abundance of squirrels and thus fleas.)
But as I understand it, some others are not so lucky. I'm not familiar enough with the problems because I've never had any problems, but I understand that they do exist in some areas.
(Heavily-manicured deliberately-monoculture lawns are a different thing that I'm not even attempting to address here.)
Unfortunately, until the technology improves I think we have a tragedy of the commons scenario here, because gen pop is probably willing to trade the noise and air pollution for the cheaper service
It is a solved problem.
Running through an entire block would deplete numerous batteries, meaning you’ve got to purchase 2 dozen if your crew is going to do the average 20ish homes a day. The purchase cost is one thing sure, but batteries are a consumable and the logistics of charging are no joke for the average crew.
This is all just to blow some light leaves and clippings. This doesn’t account for running trimmers or god help you the lawnmower itself.
The tech just isn’t there yet and given the extremely high energy density and ease of use of gasoline, it may never match it.
Come on, they're expensive but not that expensive.
It is more expensive up front, from even the electric blower's own numbers, but they say it's much cheaper over a year if you have a 4 hour daily usage cycle.[2] I don't know enough to know whether the claims make sense or not. Maybe you know more about this, but maybe it's not as clearly one sided as you think?
1: https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/products/82ba26-52dp-82...
2: https://www.greenworkscommercial.com/cdn/shop/files/82BA26-S...
But for commercial use I agree, the upfront capex cost is prohibitive. And the need for charging infrastructure (in truck or other) presents an issue.
Plus there are trucks like the f150 lighting that have electrical outlets so you could recharge in the field.
Thirdly, with 1-2 spare batteries that you can swap and charge, you basically have zero downtime.
In the end the extra battery cost might be cheaper than the gas and maintenance requirements for gas blowers over time.
My 80v electric blower with a heavy battery runs for 21 minutes. A gas blower with 1.5 gallons of fuel will last 10 hours.
A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table.
I found backbpack models (and if we're comparing professional services that's what seems we should compare) that claim 60 minuntes on high at 800cfm+ and 20 hours on low, with dual charger systems you can buy to supplement.
I saw numbers quoting that most professional leaf blowers go through about 0.43 gallons of fuel an hour. The top backpack blowers I looked up didn't even have a 1.5 gallon tank. The Echo PB-9010T has a 83.8 fl. oz. tank. The Stihl BR 800 C-E Magnum has a 67.6 oz. tank. The SCHRÖDER SR-9900X 80cc has a tank size of 75 oz.
If you have to stop to refuel every hour or so anyway, swapping out a battery that's been charging doesn't seem like a big inconvenience.
> A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table.
I'm not sure we should be avoiding legislation meant to protect the public in general (air and noise pollution) because of possible affects to some specific subcategory (leaf blowing) of an industry (landscaping) which happens to employ minorities in a higher percentage than other industries. If we were to always do that, then we'd rarely ever have any useful public protections, would we?
How many professional leaf blowers per capita do you think we have, anyway, and if it costs more for everyone since it's regulated, why would the impact really be that great, since it should just mean they charge more?
People don't realize that wood smoke is every bit as harmful as cigarette smoke and much worse than modern car exhaust. Many (most?) days in winter around here fireplace smoke is by far the biggest contributor to general poor air quality, and then there are the days when my neighbor's chimney smoke blows directly into my yard where my children want to play, for hours...
Gas-powered leaf blowers typically operate around 90-100 decibels (dB), while electric leaf blowers usually range from 60-70 dB.
60 dB SPL: TV (set at home level)
100 dB SPL: Jackhammer
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure#Examples_of_sou...
So by halving the measurement distance and changing nothing else, a thing reads as being about 6dB louder. And by doubling the measurement distance and changing nothing else, a thing reads as being about 6dB quieter.
So stating that a jackhammer is 100dB and a television is 60dB is rather meaningless by itself.
If the jackhammer is measured at 0.5 meters (the distance of the operator's ears, say) and the television is measured at 2 meters (the distance of the viewer's ears, say), then there is a measurement delta of 12dB, which is a difference more than an order of magnitude in energy intensity.
And all we did to produce that massive delta was vary the distance where we've placed the meter.
(And, no, there is no standard measurement distance. Loudspeakers are often [but not always!] measured at a distance of 1 meter, and generators are often [but not always!] measured at a distance of 20 feet. It needs to be explicitly stated.
In all cases, if the only parameter relayed is "dB" then it doesn't really mean very much.
And this isn't even getting into other important factors, like if the measurement is performed in a half-space or anechoic or whatever environment.)
The equipment itself is not even really that big of an investment to my understanding. A good electric leaf blower and battery is probably equivalent or cheaper than its gas powered equivalent. It's the logistics and maintenance burden of having to constantly charge, swap, replace, and maintain the batteries. Kind of why electric cars only became viable in the last 20 years. The technology has been around a long time, it's just only now viable enough due to capacity restrictions.
Due to the form factor and energy requirements, it may be a long time before that happens to replace two and four stroke motors for commercial use cases.
Next up on my list, construction sites! We've had a small condo going up nearby, wood framed, and the generator is loud as fuck all the time. They use so little power though. A hybrid setup with 1kwh battery would let that thing rest 95% of the time. Ditto for their air compressor; a even modest sized 300 PSI air receiver tank would radically improve the neighborhood for nearly no cost.
Also sidewalks are routinely trashed by construction companies, destroyed to rubble even by their trucks and not repaired until the project is just about finished. Never mind the years where disabled people could not walk around the project.
I was eating lunch at a restaurant few weeks ago and a parking enforcer was ticketing a car right next to us. A few feet past the car three dudes on motorcycles were revving their engines and blasting music at the stop light. No one could talk and the air smelled for a couple minutes after they left. It just seemed so wrong who was getting punished and what cities prioritize in that instance.
Yay, for quieter cities!!!
I’m still surprised when I see some crews have hearing protection.
These are usually tiny businesses where the owner is busting their ass in the hot sun alongside their crew. These are usually the smallest of small biz, and oftentimes just a young guy and a single helper.
I don’t believe we can expect lawncare prices to 4x, but this is a perfect example of targeting those who we should be supporting. If anything, structure the regulations to tier controls by size of the operation.
We absolutely should not be making the lives of a 20 year old kid trying to start something up any harder than it already is.
Clearly, just because doing <something> is a path to making money, it absolutely does not mean we should automatically reduce all barriers and allow it to happen.
"More jobs" should absolutely NOT be the goal, and anyone that says it is clearly hasn't thought to hard about it.
Quality jobs are clearly much, much more important.
> But by that logic we should let a 20 year old kid start as asbestos mine with hand tools next to a drinking water source, or let them operate heavy machinery on a highway with no training of any kind.
This is a dramatically exaggerated equivalency and you know it. Comparing someone operating lawn equipment to driving heavy equipment without training or mining biohazards next to a waterway would be humorous if you intended it a joke.
> “More jobs" should absolutely NOT be the goal, and anyone that says it is clearly hasn't thought to hard about it.
Oh come on, this is so far from established societal norms that it’s a fringe statement as it is.
It’s a fact of life that someone’s going to need to mow lawns. The externalities are so minor that it makes those in opposite appear borderline petty, but certainly not based.
Also, leaf blowers make a lot of dust airborne, which can’t be good to inhale.
The rest of you need to catch up.
I for one am stoked to have a quieter electric one though of course I’m behind your sentiment!
But for Calfironians, it’s already better for the environment with all these small engines phasing out, and now it’s quieter too? Slick.
Use will take care of itself if you ban the sale, which is what happened.
Why the pessimistic take? Don’t you want to live in a quieter environment? Transitions take time — but we are well on our way. Most places can only dream about not having a gas powered leaf blower going on and on for hours while they try to work: here it’s already transitioning. So why be anything but positive about it?