[NA] Educate me on cordless leaf blowers

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Location
west Texas
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Dave Taylor
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KMRF
Its for blowing the huge amount of dust and dried vegetation out of my hangars; so need a decent run time.
CFM
MPH
Amp
A-H
Volts
lbs

all these are specs shown in the ads but which are important
I don't see much about 'this is good for edges' or 'get this if you are clearing large, wide open spaces'.

I’d like to get this, with battery for <$250
 
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I have this one and I love it. It seems to do a really good job, the battery life is good. I don't know the details I just snagged it off the shelf when I was at the store and it's great. I use it for my garage and sidewalks.

 
Do you have any other battery operated lawn tools? Compatible batteries between tools is a major decision maker for me.

I have 6 EGO tools that I really like. Blower, Edger, line trimmer, hedge trimmer, chain saw and Mower.

Here is the blower I have and love.
 
My father in law calls the electric ones hair dryers ever since we gave him the most powerful commercial backpack blower on the market at the time.
 
+1 for Ego blower, over 10 yrs old works great, as does the Ego cordless bush trimmer.
 
JOhnH said:
I have 6 EGO tools that I really like. Blower, Edger, line trimmer, hedge trimmer, chain saw and Mower.
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We settled on EGO and are quite satisfied to date. So far, from memory, leaf blowers (2), weed whackers (2), chainsaws (2), hedge trimmer. Where we have multiples it’s because we have 2 homes and a tool co-op with a neighbor. Batteries are nosebleed expensive, but seem to last a long time and we haven’t yet had to replace any.
 
FastEddieB said:
Batteries are nosebleed expensive, but seem to last a long time and we haven’t yet had to replace any.
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I thought I was going to have to replace one once, but I found out that often merely "resetting" the battery fixes a lot of problems.

To reset:
Tap the indicator light/button three times and on the third tap, hold it for 7 seconds.

I only had to do this once on one battery about 2 years ago on a battery that was about 6 yrs old. It would take a charge but it would die after a few minutes of use. After resetting it, it seems to be back to normal. It has been fine ever since.
 
I’ve wasted money on trusting these brands that lie about their CFMs. Just buy the ones with the big batts (E-Go) and you won’t be disappointed. Unless you just need light work then buy the cheap Chinese stuff.
 
asicer said:
:yeahthat:
Buy into an ecosystem or go corded.
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Yeah, I love my makita. Probably the most used tool I own because I blow off machinery and blow out the shop. Every bit as powerful as the 2-stroke it replaced but with a lot less hassle. Does go through batteries. I actually bought a second one because my wife steals one sometimes. I suspect the other name brands make one just as good. Makita, Dewalt, Milwaukee, ryobi, ego, stihl... at least 36V.
 
I know you asked for cordless, but hear me out:
You can get a decent corded leaf blower at a used/re-use it store for less than $20.
If your hangar has power, you're pretty much set for life.
 
I got a mower and leaf blower - Skill 40V - that are adequate for my small lawn. Once or twice the leaf blower battery has come up short for my yard, but I can use the battery from the mower.
In the winter, if you keep the batteries outside, they poop out after just a couple minutes if you are blowing snow. Start out with warm batteries and I can clear about an inch of snow from the driveway and sidewalk.
 
I use at home a hand held 2 stroke gas Stihl blower. I use it a lot, one is to dry our cars after a wash. That works good to keep away water spots without wiping on the paint with a towel.

My wife uses a battery Ryobi blower, it puts out about half of what the Stihl does.

Years ago I bought Toro corded blower for the hangar for 99 bucks. It puts out darn near what the Stihl does. Got to really hold on tight and wears your arm out pretty quick.

Our hangar walls are 2" off the floor and I discovered that I was blowing dust and leaves into my 2 neighbors hangar when I did the sides. So I stopped using it at the hangar because of that. Now I use a shop vac and a canister vacuum cleaner on the rugs I have on the floor.
I took the corded blower to a storage unit I rent that has block walls all the way to the floor so I don't have to worry about the neighbors units.

The one thing I don't like about using blowers inside they spread dust all over inside and trashes my shelfs and work benches with dust. Not optimal imo.
 
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For the same power, more voltage = less current.
Excessive current is hard on batteries.
Batteries are expensive.
So, to prolong the life of the expensive batteries, go for the highest voltage you can.

I really wish they'd advertise the "C" rating of the cells along with their capacity, since that is the figure of merit that matters.

I gave up on trying to have one ecosystem to rule them all.

ecosystem 1: greenworks 80v. Good for my bigger mower and snowblower. My leafblower uses the same 80V batteries, but probably doesn't need it.
ecosystem 2: sunjoe 40v. Good enough for my smaller mower.
ecosystem 3: greenworks 40v. Good enough for my portable shopvac.
ecosystem 4: 20V dewalt. Good enough for my drill.

Naturally, after probably 10 years, my 80v pack started to give up the ghost right before this year's snowcrete event. A replacement was north of $200, so I got the $79 version from aliexpress. It is significantly lighter than the previous one. I have not yet tried to measure its capacity or crack it open to look at the cells, but I wouldn't be surprised if I got what I paid for.
 
GeorgeC said:
For the same power, more voltage = less current.
Excessive current is hard on batteries.
Batteries are expensive.
So, to prolong the life of the expensive batteries, go for the highest voltage you can.

I really wish they'd advertise the "C" rating of the cells along with their capacity, since that is the figure of merit that matters.

I gave up on trying to have one ecosystem to rule them all.

ecosystem 1: greenworks 80v. Good for my bigger mower and snowblower. My leafblower uses the same 80V batteries, but probably doesn't need it.
ecosystem 2: sunjoe 40v. Good enough for my smaller mower.
ecosystem 3: greenworks 40v. Good enough for my portable shopvac.
ecosystem 4: 20V dewalt. Good enough for my drill.

Naturally, after probably 10 years, my 80v pack started to give up the ghost right before this year's snowcrete event. A replacement was north of $200, so I got the $79 version from aliexpress. It is significantly lighter than the previous one. I have not yet tried to measure its capacity or crack it open to look at the cells, but I wouldn't be surprised if I got what I paid for.
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Are any of those LiPo? Or are they all 18650's inside?
 
GeorgeC said:
For the same power, more voltage = less current.
Excessive current is hard on batteries.
Batteries are expensive.
So, to prolong the life of the expensive batteries, go for the highest voltage you can.
Click to expand...
That's true. I understand that. That's why I don't understand why Milwaukee "upgraded" their 28V batteries to 18V batteries. I know they say that advances in battery technology made it possible to get just-as-good performance with the 18V line, but why didn't they just use that technology on their 28V batteries so that my Redline Sidewinder could use the newer technology instead of making my sidewinder obsolete.
I listed my 6 EGO yard tools. (56 volt batteries).

I also have a bunch of Ryobi 18V hand tools (drill-driver, hammer driver, A stick vacuum, a 7 inch fan and two tire inflators (the old one is a pistol grip type, the new one is a different form and has more accurate pressure reading and an automatic cutoff when it reaches a pre-set pressure).

And I have my Redline Sidewinder with a 28V milwaukee battery. The original battery died and I replaced it with knock-off because it was cheaper but I don't trust in in the cargo area of the Bonanza on cross country vacations so I bought a Milwaukee brand second battery.
 
Jim K said:
Yeah, I love my makita. Probably the most used tool I own because I blow off machinery and blow out the shop. Every bit as powerful as the 2-stroke it replaced but with a lot less hassle. Does go through batteries. I actually bought a second one because my wife steals one sometimes. I suspect the other name brands make one just as good. Makita, Dewalt, Milwaukee, ryobi, ego, stihl... at least 36V.
Click to expand...
I also have the Makita. It’s a really strong blower with very good battery life but pricey. I as well have mostly Makita cordless tools so I have multiple chargers/batteries. That was an important driver of my decision to purchase. My backpack blower is a commercial RedMax (now Husqvarna); while the cordless unit is not up to that beast, it takes care of 90% of the tasks I use it for.
 
Tools said:
I started with a PA-28-140. Later upgraded to a SA-300… A hunnert ninety screaming horses, very effective. Hard to get in the corners….
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I thought you were more of a Hoover guy. Those things suck and blow.
 
What everybody else said about batteries. That said, I have a little Makita that only takes one 18v battery, and I like it because it's lightweight. It doesn't run all that long on a charge, but I have quite a few batteries, so it's fine. Most of my cordless tools are either Ryobi or Makita. I do have a couple of garden things that are DeWalt, because they just make a hedge trimmer than is stronger than anything else I've found, so I sadly have 3 systems. But the adapters from Amazon that let you go between systems have worked well for me. I have adapters to let me run the Makita batteries on either Ryobi or Makita. Oh, and wear hearing protection, these silly things are noisy.

JOhnH said:
To reset:
Tap the indicator light/button three times and on the third tap, hold it for 7 seconds.
Click to expand...

Best tip I've read on the Internet in a long time, thank you! I'm going to have to see if that works w/ my systems.
 
Make sure you get the gas/oil ratio correct, by the biggest blower you can get. Always use fresh gas.
 
Go with Stihl BR 800 C-E Backpack Blower Model... Your neighbors will love you!!
 
true-lies.jpg
 
PaulS said:
Make sure you get the gas/oil ratio correct, by the biggest blower you can get. Always use fresh gas.
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I have some pulse-jet plans around here somewhere. Give me the size of the yard and I can figure out the proper size "blower." :)
 
Volts = motor power
AH = battery run time
CFM = actual air movement

Amps and MPH are useless marketing specifications

I am invested in the Ryobi 40v line of powered yard tools and love them. Whatever you do pick a manufacturer that has a lineup so you don't have too have multiple battery systems as you add tools. One thing I love about the Ryobi is once you have a few batteries you can buy the tool only and HD always has something on clearance.
 
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