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Students invent quieter leaf blower

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Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#91

Post by spike021 »

lowercased wrote: post #15

Won't help much until these are mandated by law, or.. we just wait for a couple generations to die out. There's a section of folks who enjoy loud engines. It's their jam, they love being 'outdoors' with loud gas powered engines, big trucks, riding lawn mowers. It's a fantasy escape world for them. Over time, the next couple generations may hopefully adopt more battery powered outdoor stuff (mowers, blowers, etc) beca…

I don't think this is nearly the same thing as people being obnoxious with their motorcycle or car exhausts.

What I'd really say is maybe we should rethink if blowers are even useful or necessary at all over the old broom and scoop.

Many times I see landscapers use them to simply blow dust and leaves everywhere, including into busy streets, rather than using them to try and collect all detritus into a single pile for collection.

If that's more commonly the case, then why use them at all?

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#92

Post by SamBam »

mlrtime wrote: post #80
klankschap wrote: post #54

How about just leaving leaves for what they are. Just leave them and move on with your own life.

Have you ever considered it's just a name and it's actually used on more than just leaves? Or was the post sarcasm? Poe's law.

Err, they're mostly used on leaves. At least in my state.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#94

Post by paulmd »

Aurornis wrote: post #40
lowercased wrote: post #15

Won't help much until these are mandated by law, or.. we just wait for a couple generations to die out. There's a section of folks who enjoy loud engines. It's their jam, they love being 'outdoors' with loud gas powered engines, big trucks, riding lawn mowers. It's a fantasy escape world for them. Over time, the next couple generations may hopefully adopt more battery powered outdoor stuff (mowers, blowers, etc) beca…

> There's a section of folks who enjoy loud engines. It's their jam, they love being 'outdoors' with loud gas powered engines, big trucks, riding lawn mowers. It's a fantasy escape world for them. That’s an awfully uncharitable projection. The lawn business people I know would love to adopt full electric fleets of gear. They aren’t sending their teams out with gas engines because it’s a “fantasy escape world”. They d…

this is quite a straightforward reality for many people and calling it a “fantasy escape world” and “uncharitable” is itself miserly and uncharitable, and classic HN rules-lawyering in a nutshell.

like yes people do like using loud power tools for the sake of using loud power tools, most people would consider them at least moderately fun.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#95

Post by spike021 »

alamortsubite wrote: post #88
delichon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in cities for four decades and rural areas for two. Hearing late night gunshots was routine in cities. I think it's happened once in hearing from my rural home. My neighbor is a state biologist who put down a sick coyote. Or course it can happen a lot if you get the wrong neighbors. But that's more of a risk in the city where you have so many more neighbors.

Wow, which cities? I've lived between cities and the sticks in the U.S. almost my entire life and while I've never once heard gunfire in a city, in the country it's a daily routine (occasionally, if rarely, even fully automatic).

I lived in downtown San Jose for ten years and someone was shot to death right behind my apartment. San Jose isn't all that unsafe either, relatively speaking.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#96

Post by batch12 »

lowercased wrote: post #28
HPsquared wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally being a nuisance can be illegal, depending on the circumstances. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuisance If there's a quiet option and someone deliberately uses a noisy one, could that be considered a nuisance?

Not in rural areas. People shoot guns at 1am and... "god given freedoms" and "piss off back to the city y'all" and all that are trotted out anytime a complaint is made. Again, it may change in another couple generations, but it'll be slow.

Shooting guns here at 1am would get you a phone call to see if you're okay.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#97

Post by fkyoureadthedoc »

SamBam wrote: post #92
mlrtime wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever considered it's just a name and it's actually used on more than just leaves? Or was the post sarcasm? Poe's law.

Err, they're mostly used on leaves. At least in my state.

I think it varies and you probably shouldn't have that much confidence stating something you don't actually know as fact. In my personal experience I see more commercial operations using them to blow cut grass. Maybe a higher ratio are privately owned by individuals though. Who actually knows?

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#98

Post by maxerickson »

datavirtue wrote: post #56
Aurornis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a section of folks who enjoy loud engines. It's their jam, they love being 'outdoors' with loud gas powered engines, big trucks, riding lawn mowers. It's a fantasy escape world for them. That’s an awfully uncharitable projection. The lawn business people I know would love to adopt full electric fleets of gear. They aren’t sending their teams out with gas engines because it’s a “fantasy escape world”. They d…

I have been running the best of the best in tools and battery tech: Milwaukee. The blower and weed trimmer (especially) burn through very expensive batteries (XC8.0) very quickly. It is not a feasible replacement for even a moderate job. My yard is super small and I move quick and have learned to pull the batteries at 50% to keep from ruining them. But I have burnt up at least one $200 battery that will only charge t…

The higher voltage lawn care product lines typically have much larger batteries that are not strained doing a modest urban yard.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#99

Post by kortilla »

lowercased wrote: post #15

Won't help much until these are mandated by law, or.. we just wait for a couple generations to die out. There's a section of folks who enjoy loud engines. It's their jam, they love being 'outdoors' with loud gas powered engines, big trucks, riding lawn mowers. It's a fantasy escape world for them. Over time, the next couple generations may hopefully adopt more battery powered outdoor stuff (mowers, blowers, etc) beca…

This is a shitty take. Everyone I know who refuses to use battery powered landscaping equipment absolutely hates the noise and dealing with the gas engines.

The problem is that the battery stuff doesn’t compete on price/power if you’re doing basically anything more than a lawn measured in square feet.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#100

Post by sidewndr46 »

mikeyouse wrote: post #61
TOMDM wrote: post #4

If these truly sound that much better I'd personally buy every gardener in a 3 block radius one of these myself just to get rid of the bloody gas ones.

Many affluent areas have already banned gas leaf blowers and it’s incredible how quiet the battery powered replacements are. I was in Palm Springs recently and had nearly walked past a landscaper using one before if occurred to me just how quiet it was - didn’t even interrupt our conversation. I believe it was a Stihl backpack version (maybe https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/... ) but yeah,…

It isn't so much the noise that bothers me, what I've never understood about leaf blowers is what are they meant to accomplish? When I watch people use them they either blow the leaves into the street or the neighbors yard. What do they think that does?

Now on the other hand, I do own a very noisy leaf vacuum. But when I've collected a bag full I can just deposit the leaves in my collection container. They are taken off to be composted

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