It creates dustdevils that clean up your yard.
Students invent quieter leaf blower
301–310 of 440 posts
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#302I also have one, it's called a rake.
People don't have time to do physical work like rake the lawn. They need to finish the yard work and drive to the gym to get some exercise.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. If you want a good accurate model of human psychology, look to world of marketing. There is a similar noise-is-strength in vacuum cleaner sales.
We all know loud pipes save lives, so just think of all of the lives you'd be putting at risk by making quieter anything.
Back before they started adding in artificial noise, I almost got hit by a Prius because I couldn't hear it and the driver was distracted. It was only due to the noise of some loose gravel on the pavement that I became aware of the car and got out of the way.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#304We don't need quieter electric leaf blowers. We need to ban the gas ones, with no grandfather clause. Not just for the noise pollution but the local air pollution. It's crazy the volume of air that can be ruined by a single gas leaf blower, far worse than modern cars, and they are inescapable in cities.
I'm always shocked that small ICE equipment don't have catalytic converters, or any emissions reducing devices. Especially given the operator is actually holding the thing and the exhaust is just a foot or two from their face, surely the health consequences are capital letters bad.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
The switch to electric will help a lot in this situation. Unfortunately I don't think the equipment is good enough contractors yet.
Maybe it's just a UK thing but I can't think of the last time I even saw a non-electric lawn mower. Even going as far back as the 80s they were the standard, just don't mow over the cable!
> Maybe it's just a UK thing but I can't think of the last time I even saw a non-electric lawn mower
UK here. I've been using a petrol mower for the last 25 years. My lawn is 40m long. I do own a 50m extension cable but it would be a real hassle for grass cutting. My three adjacent neighbours also have petrol mowers.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#306How about leaving leaves for what they are. Just leave them and move on with your own life.
I tried this when I first got a house. The leaves decompose and you end up shoveling a layer of mud off your waking surfaces. It also becomes incredibly slippery when wet. A dense layer of waxy oak leaves can be like walking on ice.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#307We don't need quieter electric leaf blowers. We need to ban the gas ones, with no grandfather clause. Not just for the noise pollution but the local air pollution. It's crazy the volume of air that can be ruined by a single gas leaf blower, far worse than modern cars, and they are inescapable in cities.
They’ve been banned for years in some cities. The issue is there is zero enforcement.
Yeah a ban in a suburb of a city doesn't work because they are brought in by landscaping companies not based in that suburb.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#308We don't need quieter electric leaf blowers. We need to ban the gas ones, with no grandfather clause. Not just for the noise pollution but the local air pollution. It's crazy the volume of air that can be ruined by a single gas leaf blower, far worse than modern cars, and they are inescapable in cities.
They’ve been banned for years in some cities. The issue is there is zero enforcement.
And the other underlying problem implied there is that electric leaf blowers are only viable for household use. They are just so completely impractical for commercial use that no one will ever use them.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#309I got an electric leaf blower mostly to avoid the noise and partly to avoid gasoline engine issues (a Kobalt 80V blower). What baffles me is that here the designers had a chance to make something truly quiet but instead they blew it and used a super-high-RPM motor-powered narrow turbine placed inside the pipe. It sounds like a dental drill amplified through a set of loudspeakers. I would kill to get a commercially de…
> (a Kobalt 80V blower). What baffles me I don't understand. You opted to buy the inexpensive store brand tools (Kobalt is Lowe's house brand) and now you're complaining that shortcuts were taken and it didn't exceed requirements or your expectations? I don't walk into Harbor Freight and expect Snap-On tools.
You'd be surprised with the quality of some of the latest harbor freight tools. They are still shaky with some stuff but they aren't the "hazard fraught" of 5+ years ago.
Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower
#310We don't need quieter electric leaf blowers. We need to ban the gas ones, with no grandfather clause. Not just for the noise pollution but the local air pollution. It's crazy the volume of air that can be ruined by a single gas leaf blower, far worse than modern cars, and they are inescapable in cities.
They have been a bad idea from the start. Who thought an unbalanced, two-stroke internal combustion engine with a minuscule exhaust (and no muffler!) was a good idea for a tool operating in residential areas.