Cordless Leaf Blowers

[Out of Steam]

I've had excellent use from corded Toro blowers and they last a LONG time if not abused.

My corded Toro blower/vacuum is at least 15 years old. While I would buy a Ryobi 40V blower to match my string trimmer if I was replacing it, the blower simply keeps working.

 

[larry]

I have a two year old Ego leaf blower. We had a light snowstorm a few months ago with a real powdery 1-2" snow so I thought that I would just use my leaf blower to remove the snow (as were most of my neighbors). Still had very light, very fine snow falling, humidity level was extremely low and it was bitterly cold. The leaf blower began shocking the cr@p out of my hand. Was frequent enough that I had to quit and fire up the Ego snowblower. Was a truly shocking experience!

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

My corded Toro blower/vacuum is at least 15 years old. While I would buy a Ryobi 40V blower to match my string trimmer if I was replacing it, the blower simply keeps working.

I have an unusual use for my old B&D corded leaf blower. I have a wood pellet heater that is direct-vented like a modern LP or natural gas heater. The pellet burner picks up a lot of fly ash in the flue, so periodically I open a door to the burn chamber in the heating unit, clamp the intake of the leaf blower against the exterior opening of the flue and hit the switch. The suction from the leaf blower is very efficient at clearing out the fly ash. It makes a big messy cloud, so I try to do it when the neighbors aren't home.

This is SOP for people who burn wood pellets, known informally as "the leaf blower trick."

 

[Ready]

The Ryobi 18V wasn’t powerful enough for me so I returned it and ordered a Greenworks 60V blower from Home Depot. It’s a new model with almost no information on it but other Greenworks models seems to get good reviews. At 700 CFM and 170mph it’s comparable to the Ego unit that failed.

As an extra precaution I opened a Home Depot credit card to purchase the unit because they give me up to 12 months to return it if I have any problems with it. They don’t sell these units in the stores so it will take a few weeks to arrive.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Greenwo...-0-Ah-Battery-and-Charger-2419502VT/315277728

 

[Jerry1]

I have a two year old Ego leaf blower. We had a light snowstorm a few months ago with a real powdery 1-2" snow so I thought that I would just use my leaf blower to remove the snow (as were most of my neighbors). Still had very light, very fine snow falling, humidity level was extremely low and it was bitterly cold. The leaf blower began shocking the cr@p out of my hand. Was frequent enough that I had to quit and fire up the Ego snowblower. Was a truly shocking experience!

That situation is not limited to electric blowers. I have a Stihl backpack blower. I was clearing an area that was once covered in sandy dirt. When I hit it with the blower, it created a large cloud of dust. At that point, I started getting shocked at my hand that was on the control mechanism.

 

[Out of Steam]

I have an unusual use for my old B&D corded leaf blower. I have a wood pellet heater that is direct-vented like a modern LP or natural gas heater. The pellet burner picks up a lot of fly ash in the flue, so periodically I open a door to the burn chamber in the heating unit, clamp the intake of the leaf blower against the exterior opening of the flue and hit the switch.

I like it. Mine once was borrowed for use as a wind source in a trade show display.

 

[Montecfo]

My corded Toro blower/vacuum is at least 15 years old. While I would buy a Ryobi 40V blower to match my string trimmer if I was replacing it, the blower simply keeps working.

That sounds like the Toro I have. Light and powerful, i have found it hard to replace. I bought a Ryobi but did not like the additional weight, reduced power and the button setup was awkward. So it went back.

 

[triangle]

I understand that each property is different, but I am a little surprised to read multiple responses about that something like the Ryobi 18V 410 CFM was not powerful enough. My Makita blower is rated at 459 CFM and I often operate it at less than full throttle. Though I still mostly rake my leaves off the lawn since they need to taken up on a trap or otherwise gathered up from removal and there are too many small twigs that any blower will leave behind. Also when blowing hard surfaces I am concerned about blower overshoot into adjacent areas on my property or onto my neighbor. An ultrawide nozzle with 1k-2k CFM of airflow at moderate MPH would occasionally come in handy (if that exists), but it would really be overkill for my property.

 

[Ready]

I understand that each property is different, but I am a little surprised to read multiple responses about that something like the Ryobi 18V 410 CFM was not powerful enough. My Makita blower is rated at 459 CFM and I often operate it at less than full throttle. Though I still mostly rake my leaves off the lawn since they need to taken up on a trap or otherwise gathered up from removal and there are too many small twigs that any blower will leave behind. Also when blowing hard surfaces I am concerned about blower overshoot into adjacent areas on my property or onto my neighbor. An ultrawide nozzle with 1k-2k CFM of airflow at moderate MPH would occasionally come in handy (if that exists), but it would really be overkill for my property.

My experience with the Ryobi 410 CFM was that if I operate it in turbo mode, which is required to get the full 410 CFM of power, the battery lasted about 8 minutes. Granted it’s only an 18V 4.0 Ah battery, but still that’s a pretty short run time. If I operate it on high (but not turbo mode) it really did not generate much power. It was enough to blow around some light dirt and dry leaves, but if I wanted to clear any water puddles away it was completely ineffective.

The Ego blower (which worked for a total of 3 weeks before dying) was a monster. I never had to touch the turbo button. It had so much power that I could clear everything, including water puddles, with plenty of spare battery. I pushed it as hard as I could and couldn’t drain the battery all the way down. Most of the time it barely drained below 80%.

The CFM ratings on blowers have to be evaluated based on turbo mode, which is the mode required to get to full power. Most blowers are not designed to last very long in turbo mode. So my experience is that it’s better to get one that offers plenty of power in non-turbo mode to have a little room to spare.

 

[Ronstar]

That’s a nice blower. Let me know how you like it. My only hesitation that prevented me from ordering that one is I don’t own any other Ego products so the battery that comes with it would be my only battery and they package that unit with a 2.5Ah battery rather than the 5.0Ah batter in the LB5304 unit.

Got the blower yesterday. First run was great. 530cfm has lots of power. I like the variable speed, but probably will run it on high most of the time with the turbo button on.

I blew off my boat dock that had lots of sticks and built up leaf debris from the winter. Did a great job - probably as well as my Stihl gas blower.

Probably ran it 5-10 minutes. Don't know how long the 2.5 battery lasts, but it will work for as long as I need it to.

 

[Ready]

Got the blower yesterday. First run was great. 530cfm has lots of power. I like the variable speed, but probably will run it on high most of the time with the turbo button on.

I blew off my boat dock that had lots of sticks and built up leaf debris from the winter. Did a great job - probably as well as my Stihl gas blower.

Probably ran it 5-10 minutes. Don't know how long the 2.5 battery lasts, but it will work for as long as I need it to.

Sounds like it was a good choice for you. I have a Greenworks blower on order from Home Depot. Looking forward to getting it next week.

 

[Ready]

My Greenworks 60V leaf blower finally arrive today after a 3 week lead time. So far I like it. It's almost identical to the Ego LB6504 in size and weight but it seems to be slightly noisier. The Greenworks is rated at 700CFM vs 650CFM on the Ego but otherwise they seem almost identical.

It's a brand new model so there are very few reviews on it but I purchased it on a Home Depot credit card so I have a year to return it if I have any issues. I still really like the Ego leaf blower but after failing within three weeks of purchase I wanted to try something different. Hopefully this one is a keeper.