Sunshine (she/her)Gas-powered leaf blowers are being banned across US
GoretantathGood, they aren’t needed anymore since electric ones do the same job.
The amount of people I hear discussing their surprise satisfaction with electronic tools is pretty astounding, even coming from electrical engineers and similar. The skepticism and doubt, propaganda from Big Combustion is real 🤠
I got an electric mower for the lawn. It’s amazing. Now if I could just get rid of this lawn.
now we salt
CrisSalt seems like a really good way to destroy your soil so you can’t grow anything else either 😅
Can you imagine how pissed my neighbors would be if that bled into their property lol
It’s incredible how effective salt is. I had a bunch of “used” water softening salt I didn’t want to put back in after cleaning my system, so I spread it over some nuisance bamboo growing under my fence and a rooty bush near my septic line. It’s just sand now.
Try it on trumpet vine. I have been at war with this thing for easily 8+ years and it won’t fucking die. Salt, round up, boiling water, nothing works. I’ve never had a rivalry last this long.
Titled: Somewhat Verbally Abusive “kill your lawn” Instructional Video Nice
If nothing else it’s hilarious. Its dictated by a man who 100% sounds like he just finished breaking some guys knee caps in the other room before disposing of him for The Boss
(He gets rid of the lawn by cutting the lawn into carpets and flipping them over. He does actually give you information after insulting you for having a lawn)
Somewhat Verbally Abusive "Kill Your Lawn" Instructional Video Nice
I would not want to be the homeowner who didn’t pay him.
Humorously, there was an ad for lawn care chemicals after the video.
scsiHe’s kinda famous, been around for awhile - his first (original? main?) videos are all about him spreading random seeds in public places, walking around and checking about things he planted “illegally” and generally just fun to watch. :) All the time with his colorful commentary.
FredselfishDude had subscribe. In the deep south, but talks like a mobster that going break your knee caps if you plant grass in your yard.
I’m not sure if it was intentional or if brushless motors are really that much more powerful but electric tools are far better now than they were even just 10 years ago.
Battery pack improvements have to be right up there with why electric have gotten so much better now.
The new tabless batteries in particular are a good step forward even with older tools. And they are last 18 months or less depending on your tool colour of choice.
Really big tools like most landscaping or concrete tools that use the really big batteries (think back pack batteries) have an insane amount of watts they can push out.
I never used petrol tools but I did use mains tools a lot due to the extra power but now 240v is often lower than the top battery tools now.
I was an early adopter of an electric lawnmower, which I regretted. That thing had so little power that I had to mow like every 3 days or it would just push the grass over. I went back to gas after one season. However I went back to electric 5 years ago or so, and it’s FAR better. But for a blower, or weed eater, electric has always been superior.
What year was the weak one purchased?
I don’t remember exactly, but it would have been somewhere around 2010? Black and Decker.
josephaluminYou absolutely don’t need to buy garden tools that run on gas. The electric equivalent is at the same level or even better.
Playing devil’s advocate here (I use a battery one that’s lasted almost 15 years and works fine on modern Lithium instead of NiCad - Black & Decker came with a weedwhacker too). Electric is fine as a single home consumer, but not for working crews. Modern Li batteries last pretty long for a single user doing basic tasks. (The real racket is in weedwhacker spools, they’re like $10ea now. I digress.)
I live in the deep south of Texas (the muggy, humid greenish part not the desert) - it’s very common to have “working crews” of lawn maintenance out and about all the time. Generally speaking they just drive a truck + trailer full of gear around and look for opportunities. More common than an ice cream truck or FedEx driver after a flood rain like we get, get a deal for $20 fast & clean.
These working crews use gas powered gear simply because electric cannot keep up with the duration and use patterns required by their team without investing in a lot of batteries ($$) and a way to recharge them on the go (generator == gasoline, maybe natural gas if lucky). I haven’t looked into the CA ban from this article to find out if they’ve carved out an exception or not for working crews, licensed or not.
Regarding the linked Texas law - read it, it actually prohibits any local (non state, non Fed) municipality from banning any device based on it’s power source. This includes… surprise… solar panels on your roof! There are communities who think they’re “ugly” and ban solar roof panels, it’s real. The law does not prohibit any ordinances or regulation therein of said energy source (for example noise laws, quiet time laws, etc.) but they cannot supersede state/federal laws. This article flippantly wants you to believe it was enacted just to preserve gas lawn blowers using lazy wordsmithing for clicks.
A landscaping crew would require more batteries and/or a method to charge on the go. Cost might be prohibitive to do that now but in time it might work out. Imagine if you have a large battery in a trailer that charges up all the small batteries between sites or solar on the roof.
Considering most landscaping work is done in the summer months maybe a move to a different Lithium chemistry that is cheaper but doesn’t like cold as much could be beneficial for pro tools.
Cost might be prohibitive to do that now but in time
I was being subtle in addressing this, but it’s spot on - the lawn maintenance working crews in question are all folks out trying to hustle and earn a living, these are not “outfits” with disposable income to invest in the electric future. Quite often the gear is bought/sold in pawn shops all over town, tools are probably the #1 item in any given pawn shop around here (followed by the usual jewelry, guns, etc disposable income items).
Tangent: I lived in CA (SF) for ~18yrs and recognize a lot of the names of the cities and what they’re generally like. “Rich”, “white” (light-skinned any race/culture), “affluent” are the words that came to mind. I dare say that many of these enacted bans are based on “those brown folks making too much noise in my pretty neighborhood.” $0.02
These types of companies may not have tons of disposable income to invest in this but as they need new tools it will probably phase in.
It probably depends on the batteries, battery market, and repair market. We don’t really expect batteries to last a decade. The repairability of these tools is a concern.
Meanwhile, it’s pretty common to repair gas tools. Sometimes from multiple broken ones. Powering the gas tools is similarly simple. None of it requires a company to continue to develop their proprietary product to run.
This is an industry and a market that has been around for decades. I suspect the limited part supply and limited repairability of the electric tools is going to limit their practical lifetime compared to the existing ones on the market.
Great point about repairability. I’ve seen some interesting videos of EV repairs on cars with odd pack issues. Very specialized work right now but assuming skills will develop over time that makes it much easier.
I know a beekeeper who has a power inverter hooked up to his truck. He uses it to charge the batteries for both his power tools and bee vacuum systems. He can even use it to run regular plug-in AC devices. Lawn crews can just have the backup batteries charging while they drive from job to job.
That’s pretty sweet. More car company’s are including provisions for these types of systems built in to accommodate the changing trends too.
This isn’t true anymore. Go check out greenworks commercial line.
Or Ego.
Don’t forget electric weedeater and mowers are not designed for constant use. My buddy and I back in the day had a mowing business in Dallas, Texas. We had gas mower but electric weedeater. We had to replace it twice because it burn up after using it constant for 3 days. Don’t know why we didn’t buy gas one. I remember we used electric to begin with because all we had. But later? Guess they were cheaper back then.
Probably burned up the brushes in the electric motors. Those are usually replaceable. Many tools are now available in brushless.
This was in 1999 and it was a cheap weedeater.
Man you would be surprised how much the technology improved from 1999
Just because you bought a cheap electric weed eater doesn’t mean it was the electric that was the problem.
Why wouldn’t those crews just charge their equipment from the alternator? It’s additional wear and tear or the alternator, but far cheaper than a generator
I have an even more effective proposal that can run for centuries with minimal repair and does just as good a job on fuel that is practically free.
spoiler___
And it makes you healthier, and uses far less resources.
JoeBigelowLet’s see your ass rake for an 8-10 hour shift, come on now!
As a homeowner, sure. However, if I had a landscaping business, I would need something that can run all day.
VoidJuiceConcentrateThere’s plenty of landscaping businesses in my area that advertise as fully electric and seem to be making a profit.
Carpenters do just fine all day with electric tools. Replaceable batteries are a thing!
Most of the stuff’s pretty good but finish nailers aren’t quite there unless you’re using the smallest brads available.
Air tools for finish nailer. Any nailer air is going to be better (in my narrow experience with electeic nailers)
Air is definitely the preferred tool for the job.
The walking Dead just really say new 18 gauge that everybody’s gushing over. That said you’re not going to get that air Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam. It’s more like Bam…wazzit…Bam…wazzit…Bam…wazzit…Bam…wazzit…Bam…wazzit.
You underestimate just bow big and heavy of a battery you would need to power a leaf blower all day. Gasoline has 50-80x more energy density than a lithium battery. I suppose you could bring a bank of smaller batteries with you and swap them out throughout the day, but that means another piece of equipment to lug around, and climate control becomes an issue if you live in a hot climate. Batteries and heat are not a good combo for safety and reliability.
I was thinking in the context of a landscaping company driving to a bunch of different clients’ houses and doing general cleanup and maintenance, lawn mowing etc at each one. Electric lawnmowers now have dual battery packs that you can swap between, each one lasting about an hour. I wouldn’t expect a leaf blower to be much different in power requirements. Couuld probably even share the same battery design with the mower.
If you’re only doing an hour or less of leafblowing per client then you can just keep swapping batteries and have spares in the van/truck. For a really big job you might need more but then you could probably ask the client if you can plug your charger into their house to charge. I think a lot of people have outdoor outlets. Otherwise you could have a charger in the vehicle.
You get 5 minutes drive between clients bud. This whole thread is just Cory dwellers thinking they’re dunking on rural folks without a shit of a clue and it’s part of why both conservatives and leftists hate liberals
Commercial grade electric mowers can run for like 6-8 of straight mowing before a charge. They charge with EV ports like your moms tesla.
She might be a bitch but she drives a Mercedes thank you
Oh boy, rugged no nonsense suburban cowboy who drives 5 minutes between houses to move some leaves around, is trying to play big.
You, fucking libs, will not survive a day in out suburban town driving air conditioned truck from home to home to stand on a lawn and blow leaves around. You have no idea how hard the real life is, sometimes you don’t even get lemonade from the client, and standing on a lawn is a hard job none of you city dwellers will understand!
You, fucking libs, will not survive a day in out suburban town driving air conditioned truck from home to home to stand on a lawn and blow leaves around. You have no idea how hard the real life is, sometimes you don’t even get lemonade from the client, and standing on a lawn is a hard job none of you city dwellers will understand!
Power usage on an electric blower is very different than other power tools. With a drill you are not constantly revving it. You use it for a few seconds to drive a screw and then setup for the next one. With the blower it’s running continuously.
I have a drill than can run on a battery for most of a days work, while my leaf blower using the same batteries gets maybe 20 minutes of use, if I am conserving it.
I’m not a landscaper, so maybe it can be done, but I’ll believe electric is better when the landscaping companies start using electric tools, just like carpenters switched from wired to battery when it made sense.
It can take a while to switch over. If a landscaping company has been running for years they’ll have a lot invested into gas powered tools that they aren’t just going to throw away. Plus they’ll have a lot of experience and familiarity with the way their tools work and how they fit into their workday. Switching over to electric would be a big investment in tools plus a bunch of re-training and planning to avoid issues with running out of batteries on a job.
A company owner who does their research could potentially get ahead of the game and save a lot of money on fuel costs by switching to electric before their competitors.
I work trails, carrying a bunch of batteries out into the woods would be awful.
About the same as carrying a full canister of fuel.
Do you just assume that Gas powered leafblowers are lighter or did you do research?
I think they will eventually make sense. Extra batteries are very heavy and expensive though (I only have experience with Husqvarna and Stihl)
The Husqvarna BLi30 weights 1.9kg. Considering Gas powered leafblowers are often 10kg heavier, you can carry around 5 extra batteries without adding weight.
AlmaccaUse a rake?
Using a rake for 12-14 hour shifts, 5-6 hours a day in the summer sun? Get real, my dude.
What a creative way to tell me you’ve never worked a day of physical labor in your life, without telling me you’ve never works a day of physical labor in your life. Raking leaves by hand all day every day would absolutely destroy your shoulders and forearms.
And I hope I never will. And having to work those kinds of hours to make a living is the really fucked up part of your story.
I don’t work labor but that’s the reality of the world we live in, my dude. Landscaping sucks, and doing it without a leaf blower would suck even more.
I don’t appreciate that you downvote me just because I tell it like it is. Yeah I’m a dick but I speak the truth.
Bro has never had a callous