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Students invent quieter leaf blower

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Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#331

Post by adrianmonk »

xkqd wrote: post #321
grecy wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

Usually the crews running them are more focused on feeding their families over their own long term health. I’m still surprised when I see some crews have hearing protection.

That is exactly the kind of situation where regulations are needed. Sometimes the market can take care of things, and regulation isn't needed. But these workers don't have lots of leverage. If conditions are bad, they can't tell the boss "I have other options" and quit. So the market won't solve this case.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#332

Post by shagmin »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #308
kjkjadksj wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

...yet where I live all the parks, public landscaping, etc., that are owned by the municipality are maintained with electric leaf blowers except for areas where they have it contracted out and then it's a mix. It's totally possible, but I think the larger problem is the sunk money on equipment that doesn't need to be replaced any time soon.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#333

Post by modeless »

xkqd wrote: post #328
kbenson wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? I'm sure they're less practical than the gas powered ones, but every tool system with their own battery standard seems to have one. Even if you had to have a few batteries charged in reserve, that seems more like slightly more expensive and annoying than utterly impractical. Am I missing something?

You basically can run through a high capacity battery in less than 10 minutes, completing a light cleanup of a standard 1/4ac lawn. The battery itself will take 3-4 hours. Running through an entire block would deplete numerous batteries, meaning you’ve got to purchase 2 dozen if your crew is going to do the average 20ish homes a day. The purchase cost is one thing sure, but batteries are a consumable and the logistic…

I understand that they are less convenient and probably significantly more expensive for commercial use. That's why legislation is necessary, so landscapers who choose them aren't at a cost disadvantage. Externalities like air pollution are the textbook reason for regulations like this.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#334

Post by brequinn »

iwontberude wrote: post #85
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…

Leaf blowers are already mostly electric, and they are annoying as hell. People will take time to replace them, but I assure you they aren’t loved at all.

Curious - why dont people love them? I assume just not as powerful as gas?

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#335

Post by cchance »

geocrasher wrote: post #248

What I loved about this is that all of their prototypes were with a stock leaf blower with *3D Printed* attachments. This really shows the value of the rapid prototyping that 3D Printing has allowed. It also shows that any of us could have done this with enough time and effort. And I don't mean literally any person- but there are a LOT of YouTube engineering channels that could likely have tackled this, had they been…

The funny part here is they say product, but in reality as soon as this ships someone will hit it with a hammer, figure out the internal layout with some calipers and we'll have an STL lol

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#336

Post by kjkjadksj »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #308
kjkjadksj wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They are also nearly as loud to my ear as a gas one. Turns out blowing air is noisy.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#337

Post by modeless »

slimsag wrote: post #330
kbenson wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? I'm sure they're less practical than the gas powered ones, but every tool system with their own battery standard seems to have one. Even if you had to have a few batteries charged in reserve, that seems more like slightly more expensive and annoying than utterly impractical. Am I missing something?

They're not even in the same ballpark My 80v electric blower with a heavy battery runs for 21 minutes. A gas blower with 1.5 gallons of fuel will last 10 hours. A ban on gas blowers - or blowing in general - will only harm minorities already underpaid, often under the table.

Those minorities get the worst of the air pollution and dangerous noise levels themselves. And you have to add the externality of everyone else being affected by the pollution before you weigh the costs and benefits. Of course landscapers shouldn't be expected to switch voluntarily when it puts them at a competitive disadvantage, it's a textbook case of externality needing regulations.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#338

Post by mistermegabyte »

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #252
foobarian wrote: post #158

I 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.

The Kolbalt 80V line was made by Greenworks, which makes excellent products for pros. I have the Kobalt 80V blower and it is an excellent blower (loud) and is just a rebranded 80V Greenworks. Not Harbor Freight cheapness for sure. I also have the 80V mower and trimmer and they too are just rebranded Greenworks tools. Excellent products overall.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#339

Post by kjkjadksj »

modeless wrote: post #307
kjkjadksj wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Usually the ban is something like you cant use it in 500ft of a residence, which obviates that issue if cops bothered to patrol for this or if there was a reporting hotline that was well advertised.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#340

Post by cchance »

digging wrote: post #318
cityofdelusion wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hm, residential walking surfaces are easily swept with a broom though.

He's saying to leave it on the yard to break down, if you do that it turns to slippery ass mud eventually, and guess what people like to be able to walk in their lawns, if we're sweeping up the entire yard so that we can use our yard without it being slippery and muddy from decomposed leaves... congrats you've just fucking reinvented the rake and leaf blower
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