Leaf Blowers prove to be quite a handy tool when it comes to your nagging-need of lawn cleaning. Primarily because people have a tendency to avert the task as much as possible as there aren’t many fancy tools designed for the purpose. It is easy to cut or trim the grass through a grass-cutter but it becomes quite a tedious task to actually mow away the shredded grass, the falling leaves and scattered debris from your gardens and the flower-beds. A Leaf Blower thus comes as a nice rescue for you, paying due attention to all your lawn maintenance needs.
Many health experts suggest the harmful health hazards of using a Leaf Blower, so it is very important to choose a Leaf Blower for yourself that emits the lowest possible number of air pollutants. Also, there are several opinions regarding the extreme noise being produced by the Leaf Blowers and becoming a major source of noise pollution. Nobody would like to clean their sidewalks at the cost of polluting the environment through this extreme noise. In any case, a detailed research of the technology specifications is recommended for all such kind of products which have been designed to ease out our everyday chores.
Leaf Blowers replaced the brooms from as early as 1950 when Dom Quinto introduced the tool as a chemical sprayer, which later took the shape of a Leaf Blower.
Contents
What is a Leaf Blower?
A Leaf Blower is a tool meant for the gardening purpose. It is primarily used to clear the leaves, grass, and debris off the ground to keep the lawns clutter-free. It has a nozzle through which air at a very high pressure comes out to whisk-off the unwanted matter from your gardens.
There is a huge variety of Leaf Blowers available in the market. These can be either electric or gasoline-powered. There are also battery-operated models available for areas difficult to reach through an electric cord. Nowadays gasoline powered models come with a 4-stroke engine as compared to the traditional 2-stroke models to minimise air pollution.
Due to various ergonomic research being conducted, Leaf Blowers come in various designs and shapes. Majorly these are operated as hand-held tools but there are also wheeled and backpack models along with the hand-held designs available in the market. It is really tough to choose as to which type of design suits you the best.
Top reasons why you must buy a Leaf Blower
- Highly efficient and convenient tools: Leaf Blowers are highly efficient and easy to use tools. These work perfectly to clear a huge amount of debris within minutes. You can easily use a backpack model or a wheeled cart if you find holding it too heavy for your hands. These also come with long electric cords to ensure ease of portability.
- Budget-Friendly: With most Leaf Blower varieties been available under $100, sometimes even less, these are quite budget-friendly products. Sometimes these have in-built shredders to simultaneously trim the leaves while collecting them to save on the space and ensure quick mowing.
- Replaces the need of a Landscaper: You might save on the cost of a Landscaper by using Leaf Blowers yourself. Landscapers help in all your garden maintenance needs at a certain cost. Since Leaf Blowers are very quick and handy to use, you might save on their fixed weekly charges.
- Nozzle reaches tough to enter areas: The thin nozzles of the Leaf Blowers can reach almost any nook and corner of your gardens. You can easily use these to clean the area around delicate plants and side-walks full of flower pots, without causing any unwanted disturbance around.
- Easy to convert leaves to compost: Collecting the leaves at one place through a Leaf Blower every day becomes a very easy exercise with the use of Leaf Blowers. This heap, when collected for over a year can be easily turned into compost. Performing the same task manually is essentially a cumbersome task.
Factors to consider before buying a Leaf Blower
- Types available: There are various types of Leaf Blowers available in the market. Backpack gas models add a lot of carrying weight and cost to the machine. Also, they are notorious for producing acute noises. These type of models also need refuelling from time to time. So you might consider buying hand-held or a wheeled gas model. The battery-operated cordless electric models are however lightweight, but provide very less motor-speed or airflow as compared to gas models or the corded ones. They also need to be charged very frequently. The electric models with cords sometimes make it difficult to cover wider lawns but produce lesser air pollution than all types of gas models.
- Cost of the model: If your mowing task is not very strenuous, you might as well want to consider a hand-held blower vis-s-vis a Backpack gas blower as they are more costly in terms of pricing. If, however, you have a time crunch and the job is tiring, Backpack models are a good option as they generally cost less than cord-less models, even though they are heavy in usage. The wheeled blowers though are the most expensive ones, are the most powerful, but also take more storage space, and are little less user-friendly.
- Vacuum-operated Leaf Blowers: Some Leaf Blowers also provide the option of shredding and vacuum cleaning along with the blowing jobs, but they have a very limited storage space to store the shredded leaves. The metal impellers are better than nylon versions for mulching the leaves in case of a vacuum-operated model.
- Sound-producing levels: Some Leaf blowers can be very high on the ears and can play a pivotal role in Neighbour wars! The specifications provide a complete detailing of decibel levels created by these Leaf Blowers. Depending upon the type of neighbourhood or the locality you belong to, you can choose the best leaf blower for yourself.
- Speed of the motor: One should always go for a variable-speed motor helpful in adjusting the flow of air from high to low. While high-level speeds might be used for quickly covering a large area within a short period of time, you might need the lower speed ones for your delicate flower plants and smaller shrubs.
- Nozzle types: Manufacturers these days are making Leaf Blowers with varied nozzle types. You can find flared or swivelling nozzles which make it easy for you to collect leaves into a neat pile.
- Suitability for wet leaves: You might also want to consider if your Leaf Blower is suitable for cleaning wet leaves because not essentially, that you will always find clean and dry varieties of debris material on your sidewalks!
Top 4 Best Leaf Blower Reviews of 2019
1. Hitachi RB24EAP 23.9cc 2-Cycle Gas Powered 170 MPH Handheld Leaf Blower
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) compliant Leaf Blower is an absolute relief for the mowing job as it is very handy and quite comfortable to use. Moreover, it provides for a good warranty period and produces minimum pollution.
- The product weight is 8.6 pounds.
- The product dimensions are 17.3 x 10.5 x 15 inches.
- It has a 23.9 cc, 1.13 horsepower engine which makes it ideal both for home as well as commercial usage.
- It is built with PureFire low-emission two-stroke technology.
- It provides with 170 miles per hour air velocity with an air volume of 441 cubic feet per minute.
- It comes with a free taper nozzle.
- It has a two-finger throttle lever for ease of usage.
- It has an auto-return stop switch which automatically turns on the blower between multiple usages.
- It comes with a 7-year consumer warranty, a 2-year warranty in non-rental commercial operations and a 1-year commercial warranty in rental-commercial applications.
2. Greenworks 24012 7 Amp Single Speed Electric 160 MPH Blower
This is a highly efficient Leaf Blower manufactured by the Chinese manufacturer GreenWorks. The product comes with a standard 4-year warranty and is ideal for heavy leaf- blowing during the autumn and the windy seasons. The product has quite an ergonomic design.
- The product weight is 4.5 pounds.
- The product dimensions are 17.3 x 7.3 x 9.8 inches.
- It used a voltage of 120 volts.
- It emits zero carbon fumes.
- It is a corded appliance with a 7-ampere motor.
- It comes with a 2-speed motor.
- It provides an air speed of 160 miles per hour.
- The length of the blower tube is 20 inches.
- It comes with a warranty of 4 years of parts and labour.
- The product is approved by the EPA (Environmental Protections Agency)
- It comes in a single green colour.
- It has a very lightweight design.
- It features a Safety Cord Lock feature to prevent the cord from disconnecting.
3. WORX TURBINE 12 Amp Corded Leaf Blower with 110 MPH and 600 CFM Output and Variable Speed Control – WG520
This Chinese manufactured Leaf Blower is useful for all the major gardening tasks of blowing away leaves and debris. It provided a unique variable air-flow pattern for precision functioning. It has three different power options to suit your cleaning needs.
- The item weight is 7.2 pounds.
- The item dimensions are 40 x 11 x 9.6 inches.
- It is a heavy capacity Leaf Blower.
- It features Turbine Fan technology.
- It delivers an air-volume of 600 cubic feet per minute.
- The air-speed of the product is 115 miles per hour.
- It has an in-built variable speed control system for efficient usage.
- The voltage requirement is 120 volts.
- It comes in Red and Yellow colours.
- It does not produce harmful air fumes.
- It is a corded Leaf Blower.
- There is a 3 years warranty being provided for any product defects.
- It is a light-weight and easy to function Leaf Blower.
- The air speed is twice as fast as the professional gas blower.
- The product comes with a hyper stream nozzle for an amazing performance.
- It has a power cord retainer for hassle-free blowing jobs.
4. Toro 51619 Ultra Blower/Vac, Red
This has a highly efficient design coming from the Mexican manufacturer, Toro. The product provides for variable speed functionality making it suitable for any kind of yard cleaning tasks, from huge passageways to small crevices having ornamental plants.
- The device weight is 8.5 pounds.
- The product dimensions are 9 x 41 x 14 inches.
- It is an electricity-based blower.
- It comes with a rugged metal impeller for better mulching activity.
- The air-speed created by the blower is 250 miles per hour.
- It is suitable for clearing leaves, small wooden sticks, and debris.
- It also has a mulching function to break the debris into small pieces.
- It has an attached zipped bag in which the debris keeps on collecting.
- The product has an in-built cord lock system for winding cord inside the machine itself.
- It comes with a 2-year warranty.
- It comes in Red colour.
- It has an easy quick release latch for comfortable release.
- It has good hose-power.
- It comes in various models based on air pressure capacity.
- It includes a Vacuum tube, a zipper bag, a power insert, a concentrator nozzle, and a cord storage.
The Leaf Blowers provide brilliant functionality for making your gardens look prim and proper totally free of unnecessary ruckus. The motors are designed to clear away the mess and perform the task as simply and as comfortably as possible. A Leaf blower is used for almost all the year round, but the trends have seen a greater number of these being sold in the autumn and the spring seasons. Leaf blowers are ideal both for garden areas and walk-a-ways.
Keeping up with the need of making our surroundings clean, Leaf Blowers come as a handy saviour for all outside chores. It is recommended to do a proper research on the product type, model, capacity etc. before buying it so that it best suits your kind of requirement. What again is of concern is the speed, efficiency, ease of usage, and the reliability of the product being bought. So there are a number of factors to watch out for before selecting an ideal Leaf Blower. Even though customers are buying almost all the varieties of Leaf Blowers these days, the corded ones are the most recommended by environmentalists mainly because of the toxic and harmful gases being produced by the gas models.
