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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

#61

Post by bluGill »

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.

This is about leaf blowers which do not need nearly as much power to function. I don't think anyone is using a leaf blower in such a way that gas is better (there are tractor mounted ones that might be better for some applications - but tractors are diesel powered)

I had a corded electric snow blower 20 years ago and it was great for light snows, but I needed the gas one for larger snows. Cordless tools often have more power than corded because there is only so much power you can get from a plug - of course the battery discharges fast when doing this.

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

#63

Post by kube-system »

pbmonster wrote: post #42
throwway120385 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

Police in the US can just give people a faulty equipment ticket based on their perception of it being too loud or visually modified.

But you are not likely to see this enforced outside of rich quiet neighborhoods where police don't have anything better to attend to. Culturally, sentiment in the US does not want the law coming down hard on drivers and their vehicles. For instance, most US states do not even require vehicles to be safety inspected. And in urban areas the police have worse infractions to be going after.

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

#64

Post by bluGill »

meindnoch wrote: post #40

We can make (more or less) silent gas engines for cars. Why can't we make the same for equipment?

We can, but size and weight are important for hand held equipment and so we sacrifice noise and pollution to meet the other requirements.

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

#65

Post by potato3732842 »

lm28469 wrote: post #4
collinmcnulty wrote: post #2

I would gladly be part of a neighborhood battery swap pool if it would help get rid of the near constant running of gas powered lawn equipment every morning. The sound and pollution are such a menace.

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…

Those bushes they're fluffing up likely only exist because in order to get the stormwater calculations to code they had to put them there for absorption for rain runoff (i.e. part of a SWPP). Or meet some stupid municipal requirement that precludes too much drab solid frontage on a building.

You paid for half a dozen people to spend a bit of labor on what would have 50yr ago been a simple "sidewalk for walking go here, grass everywhere else" exercise. And then every week you get to pay again to be annoyed by them maintaining it (in perpetuity, as they are required to by law, assuming it's part of a SWPP).

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

#66

Post by gwbas1c »

I bought my corded electric leaf blower about 10 years ago, before battery leaf blowers were reasonably priced and light enough to hold.

The irony: I often run my corded electric leaf blower off of my portable generator just so I can check to make sure the darn thing runs.

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

#67

Post by bluGill »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #9

This ban has been around for about 20 years in LA and is not enforced at all, no blowing 500ft of a residence. Recently they banned sales of gas blowers. Everyone’s gardener uses a gas leafblower still because that is what gets the job done in their time constraint.

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.

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

#68

Post by bob1029 »

I live with a national forest literally in my back yard. I've got to deal with more leaves than most people can imagine. I don't own a leaf blower. I use a rake (with my human hands) to get the leaves into the lawn and I'll mulch em down into bits about once a month with a mower. After mulching down the monster pile I'll run the irrigation system to get the microbial activity going. Things break down fast if you can keep em small and wet. Blowing the leaves off the lawn or collecting them for pickup is crazy to me. This stuff is free fertilizer.

The HOA quants who need their lawns immaculate 24/7/365 are neurotic freaks and no law is going to stop them from finding some new way to be obnoxious to those around them. You may one day find yourself wishing for the return of the leaf blower noise if you aren't careful with rules like this.

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

#69

Post by potato3732842 »

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)

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

#70

Post by mothballed »

pbmonster wrote: post #42
throwway120385 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.
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