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Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

oregonlive.com

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Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#81

Post by pfdietz »

potato3732842 wrote: post #69
pfdietz wrote: post #16

Reading the law strictly, a leaf blower powered by a gasoline electric generator would be allowed, if the generator rests on the ground. A gasoline leaf blower (or vacuum) that you ride instead of carry would also be allowed.

>A gasoline leaf blower (or vacuum) that you ride instead of carry would also be allowed. That's likely an intentional exception because they don't wan't to have to field calls from every busybody who sees the someone riding a bagger equipped mower around in the fall (which serves both the purpose of a final mowing and picking up all the leaves)

"Walk behind" leaf blowers too. These can be had for as little as $400.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#82

Post by oooyay »

analogpixel wrote: post #48
oooyay wrote: post #5

I actually didn't know this was coming up and just bought an electric. They all kind of suck except for the Ego and the Ego is like $250. Portland has gotten quite a bit more expensive. We've begun rejecting taxes, which as the self-selected second highest taxed city in the nation is new. Our economy has struggled to return post-COVID lockdowns. There's a lot more I could say but people are really feeling the economi…

If you can't afford a leaf blower, you could try using a $10 rake. they usually work better and faster than a leaf blower most of the time anyways.

In East Portland we're mostly dealing with needles from Douglas Firs. I'm not sure this will help much, or be easier. Most people I know that use a leaf blower around here use it to clear pathways and the streets after cones and needles drop because the city doesn't send street cleaning this far.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#83

Post by quickthrowman »

boringg wrote: post #50
noodlesUK wrote: post #19

Whilst I seriously doubt that this will be regularly or universally enforced, I think that gas powered gardening and construction equipment is incredibly loud and annoying, and that especially in built-up areas it's not really acceptable where good alternatives exist. Noise pollution is usually very avoidable, and it can be quite disruptive and sometimes damaging to health. Further, where I live (in the UK), there ne…

What I find interesting about this ban: probably mostly makes sense in the for city for low workloads however the electric blowers (even the good ones that I am sure the city isn't paying for) are underpowered for real work leaf workloads. They operate as a midlevel gas powered blower. As someone who is on board with electrify as much as possible - I still see where there are limitations and chokepoints. Though for n…

Leaf blowers with EC motors and backpack battery packs perform just as well as the gas versions.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#84

Post by oooyay »

jermberj wrote: post #49
oooyay wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was you can still buy the gas ones in the store and they're substantially cheaper than the Ego I bought. I live in East Portland, which is why I was talking about cost. I wish the kind of suburban problems you're describing are what we deal with.

Howdy, fellow east Portlander, you might be interested in this: https://www.eptl.toollibrarian.net/TL/ourtools.php . They have 5 electric leaf blowers available right now. You mentioned you already bought one, but perhaps you could share this info with some of your friends or neighbors to save them the cost. :)

Hello! We do use the EPTL :) that did remind me to donate my old plugin blower though thank you. I will note that EPTL only has plugin blowers and there are good reasons I went with a more mobile blower.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#85

Post by rascul »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #7
lm28469 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've witness two municipal employees using gas powered blowers on bushes for like an hour right in front of my building. It's completely useless because no one ever goes in the bushes (duh), and it's depleting the ground from nutrients for no reasons. We really have to stop acting like gas is free and unlimited, burning fossil fuels used for legitimate reasons is bad enough, but burning them for such dumb tasks is an…

I don't find gas leaf blowers exceptionally annoying. They aren't really anymore annoying that anything else going on in my area. It's what leaf blowers are used for that bother me. I see people just using them to blow leaves either into the street or into neighbors yards. What is the utility in this? Do they think leaves disappear?

Some municipalities have leaf pickup service if you pile up the leaves on the side of the street.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#86

Post by bluGill »

jjav wrote: post #77
bluGill wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery operated leaf blowers are just as good - but few people are willing to try them. I don't know why. Batteries are more expensive up front, but they pay off long term.

Particularly for a contractor who uses it all day with no opportunity to recharge, they would need enough batteries to last all day. Not cheap at all.

Upfront not cheap, but long term they are not paying for gas and so it pays for itself. (a contractor will rig a dozen chargers onto the trailer and plug that in when they get home each night)

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#87

Post by [deleted] »

senbrow wrote: post #27
johnebgd wrote: post #17

I bought a corded electric snow blower this year for my driveway. My neighbor has a gas powered one. I sold mine after two uses because it was so ineffective it mostly just clogged. It is a highly rated unit on Amazon. My neighbor has used his for years. I hope this kind of environmentalism never comes for winter gear. At least not until we have fuel cell technology that far exceeds what batteries can offer.

Corded yard tools will always suck because they can only pull It's always better to go with batteries for electric outdoor stuff for that (and other) reasons.

[deleted]

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#88

Post by boringg »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #58
boringg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find interesting about this ban: probably mostly makes sense in the for city for low workloads however the electric blowers (even the good ones that I am sure the city isn't paying for) are underpowered for real work leaf workloads. They operate as a midlevel gas powered blower. As someone who is on board with electrify as much as possible - I still see where there are limitations and chokepoints. Though for n…

They shouldn't be underpowered. Small electric motors are way more powerful per mass/volume than small gas motors. You'd have to use a backpack mounted battery pack, but contractors are already doing that.

Have they started doing that? I haven't seen the backpack mounted version in use in the wild.

I haven't seen any electric blowers get to the same capability in the contractor market segment. Prosumer -- for sure no problems there.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#89

Post by cmxch »

throwway120385 wrote: post #28
noodlesUK wrote: post #19

Whilst I seriously doubt that this will be regularly or universally enforced, I think that gas powered gardening and construction equipment is incredibly loud and annoying, and that especially in built-up areas it's not really acceptable where good alternatives exist. Noise pollution is usually very avoidable, and it can be quite disruptive and sometimes damaging to health. Further, where I live (in the UK), there ne…

We have the same problem where I live in the US. When I get some free time I'm going to lobby our state congress to have the sale of them banned, because it's the only way to get people to stop installing them. There is a law against driving them but it's impossible to enforce because there's no means of measuring the sound and associating it with the vehicle quickly enough to enforce it. I'd love to have an ALPR sys…

I’d love to see it get smacked down in the courts.

Re: Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect

#90

Post by yetihehe »

mothballed wrote: post #70
pbmonster wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German police have a what amounts to a dyno mounted on a truck bed, and they pull over suspicious cars and sound check them while an officer goes through the gears on the dyno. Failing that test is expensive, and you don't see your car again for a few weeks. They revoke your permission to operate the vehicle on public roads, so in addition to the fine, you face fees (towing, storage of car in evidence locker, towing…

Ah yes, nothing quiets the streets like the police literally running a damn dyno roadside on an elevated platform for the loudest vehicles they think they can find, which by itself would likely also make the police violators of the law since they are the one operating the vehicle in public at the time of the sound infraction they have induced.

> Ah yes, nothing quiets the streets like the police literally running a damn dyno

It would be bad only if it didn't result in decrease of loud vehicles. If they run the dyno and impound vehicle, it means that this loud vehicle won't be coming back this street for some time.

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