# Why leafblowers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751 "2023-01-24T21:55:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/21 "2023-01-25T07:12:24Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > ears ago she bought a backpack ICE lawn vacuum. It sucked. Clogged too easily and the bag filled up in a few minutes, then needed disassembly to dump. So perhaps it didn’t really suck. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/22 "2023-01-25T09:15:56Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > They do have leaf vacuums that they attach to mowers to suck up fall leaves, but they have to drive directly over the leaves much like a regular vacuum cleaner. They are not as cheap or easy as using a leaf blower to blow the debris off of whatever you want it off of. Yes, it’s easier to blow than to suck, but look at the results. When you blow, you’ve still got leaves on the grounds, just in a different place than before. If you just leave them there, then eventually the wind will push them to where they were to begin with. If you vacuum them up, you can dispose of them once and for all. Personally I’d rather we gave the workers efficient push brooms that work silently and ecologically, but I suppose that isn’t going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/23 "2023-01-25T12:19:44Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > A homeowner uses a battery once a week for a short time. The landscapers that do work for an HOA will typical use many blowers many hours a day many days of the week. The batteries for the good blowers are $150+ with a limited lifespan. I’m not sure that it would be economically feasible for a landscaper to use batteries. They’d have to carry a bunch of charged ones with them to last the day, and continually purchase new ones as the old ones died. I understand. My opinion is that the landscapers - and their customers - ought to bear the cost instead of imposing noise and pollution on everyone else. Just my preference. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/24 "2023-01-25T13:08:14Z")
Some people look at leaves and say, why? I look at a leaf blower and say, why not! There is a third way: my leaf blower is electric, but with a cord. Sure, it’s not ideal for golf courses, but it works fine for me, As quiet as a battery powered, but with the air force of a gas one. The Arizona area I live in doesn’t have many leaves (palm fronds don’t respond to a blower), but the church behind me hires blowers for all that dust that apparently bothers them, so once a week a fleet of gas powered maintenance dudes make the back yard uninhabitable for a couple hours. > [@snowthx](#): > > That is indeed what California is doing - starting 1/1/2024 you will not be able to purchase a new gas-powered blower (and other small gas-powered tools): Damn woke liberals! I have a right to a gas powered,…anything! It’s in the Constitution! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/25 "2023-01-25T13:23:37Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > The reason they are so loud is because they don’t have mufflers. Yes they _do_ have mufflers. The mufflers aren’t as effective as as they might be, but they are always there. It’s a trade-off; noise vs weight. A heavier unit is more difficult to use. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/26 "2023-01-25T13:47:22Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I’m guessing it was a joking reference to your typo. I’m laughing now at the typo @kayaker wrote and I read right over. Now I see the joke and am laughing. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/27 "2023-01-25T14:01:52Z")
Oops, sorry, not your typo, @kayaker’s. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/28 "2023-01-25T14:11:47Z")
Agreed, they are very inefficient because they are at the mercy of a much more powerful and capricious “leaf blower”, and that is Mother Nature! Blowing the leaves off your sidewalk isn’t solving the problem, it is relocating it to someone else’s sidewalk or lawn. Also, Mother Nature might blow the leaves right back. I have a better idea that doesn’t involve buying, maintaining and storing more equipment. Mow your leaves! If you have a lawn mower with a bag for sucking up the cut grass, it also works just as well sucking leaves. You’ll have to empty the bag several times, but it is much quicker and easier than raking them up and manually stuffing them into garbage bags. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/29 "2023-01-25T14:41:33Z")
I have a leaf blower. I only use the vacuum function, which has the added advantage of chopping up the leaves so you can fit more into the bags. It’s also electric, so it’s less noisy than a leaf blower. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/30 "2023-01-25T14:43:30Z")
Why leafblowers? Really lonely leaves. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/31 "2023-01-25T14:52:48Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I have a better idea that doesn’t involve buying, maintaining and storing more equipment. Mow your leaves! If you have a lawn mower with a bag for sucking up the cut grass, it also works just as well sucking leaves. You’ll have to empty the bag several times, but it is much quicker and easier than raking them up and manually stuffing them into garbage bags. Better yet, use your mower [electric, of course] to mulch your leaves, and leave them in place on the lawn. Even less work, and better environmentally. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/32 "2023-01-25T15:37:10Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Better yet, use your mower [electric, of course] to mulch your leaves, and leave them in place on the lawn. Even less work, and better environmentally. This works well only when there’s a very modest layer of leaf litter. Last fall I raked my yard in four stages, each time putting 6-10 bags of leaves at the curb for compost pickup. If I had mulched all of that with my mower, I probably would have smothered the grass. Several of my neighbors contract out for professional lawn maintenance. The leaf blowers are high-powered gas models and they’re damn loud. They use them for grass clippings during the mowing season, and based on the run time I often wonder if they’re using them to blow grass off of the entire lawn. They also get used in the fall for herding leaves onto a giant tarp for collection/removal, which once again means 45-60 minutes of a super-load leaf blower blasting away next door. I do have a leaf blower, but: - it’s electric (used to be corded, but a couple of years ago I went cordless), so it’s fairly quiet; and - I only use it to blow grass off of the street/driveway/sidewalk, so total run time (each time I mow the lawn) is maybe 1-2 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/33 "2023-01-25T16:10:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I have a leaf blower. I only use the vacuum function, which has the added advantage of chopping up the leaves so you can fit more into the bags. I got one of those recently, and I love it. I _rake_ the leaves into piles and then vacuum them into the stomach-shaped catcher bag, and empty it into leaf bags. Used to be my lawn was a 10 or 11 bag job. Now because the leaves are ground up, the same job is a 3 or 4 bagger deal. Not that noisy either: can’t hear it much beyond 70 or 80 feet, unlike those f\*cking orange and white gas backpack blowers you can hear an eighth of a mile away. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/34 "2023-01-25T16:17:31Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > Personally I’d rather we gave the workers efficient push brooms that work silently and ecologically, but I suppose that isn’t going to happen. That would also help drive down unemployment. Perhaps that’s why woke/liberal California has the gas-powered tool ban - more jobs, a la [Milton Friedman](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/10/spoons-shovels/): _At one of our dinners, Milton recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s and visiting a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: “You don’t understand. This is a jobs program.” To which Milton replied: “Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it’s jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels.”_ ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/35 "2023-01-25T16:22:19Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > "If it’s jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels.” Ah, the old reductio ad absurdum. Why not give them tweezers, or going reductio the other way, why not give them one big bomb? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/36 "2023-01-25T17:15:39Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > > [@Jasmine](#): > > > > I have a better idea that doesn’t involve buying, maintaining and storing more equipment. Mow your leaves! If you have a lawn mower with a bag for sucking up the cut grass, it also works just as well sucking leaves. You’ll have to empty the bag several times, but it is much quicker and easier than raking them up and manually stuffing them into garbage bags. > > Better yet, use your mower [electric, of course] to mulch your leaves, and leave them in place on the lawn. Even less work, and better environmentally. I do that too, but the leaves keep dropping (I have a big maple in my front yard) and would be too much to mulch. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/37 "2023-01-25T17:20:54Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I do that too, but the leaves keep dropping (I have a big maple in my front yard) and would be too much to mulch. Then rake them into big piles and have leaf fights! Much to my delight, I remember my big brother throwing me through the air into large piles of leaves. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/38 "2023-01-25T17:29:51Z")
When I was a small kid, my parents, new to living in New England, raked the leaves and made a big pile that my brother and I jumped into repeatedly. Except among those leaves were some from poison ivy plants, so we both had itchy rashes for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/39 "2023-01-25T20:23:20Z")
Some people do have so many trees. that they might be too much to mulch - but IMO that is no the case for the vast majority of folk. The other perspective that could use skewing is folk desiring perfectly manicured yards - and not minding how much noise and air pollution they create to get that. You really don’t need to get every single leaf out from under the bushes… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751/40 "2023-01-26T01:39:30Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > Why not give them tweezers, or going reductio the other way, why not give them one big bomb? A bomb probably isn’t a great idea, but if you want a job program _and_ a canal, it’s more efficient to have 49% of them dig with a shovel, 49% to fill the holes back in, and then have the remaining 2% operate the excavators. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-leafblowers/978751.md?page=3)