Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by jjav » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

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.

What kind of batteries are you running that can support the equivalent of 15A AC for hours?

I have both a battery leafblower and a corded one. The corded is far more powerful and of course does not run out. The battery one is quick and convenient for small cleanups but only gets about 10 minutes from a full charge, then it's back to the charger for hours.

Recently I cleaned up a large roof full of leaves, took about an hour with the powerful corded leafblower. That would've taken weeks with the battery one given the small power and the ~10 minute runtime.

I mostly use the battery one since it's easier and most jobs I do are tiny. But it is no substitute for the corded one.

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

#72

Post by bluGill » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

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.

If the hand rake isn't enough you can put a rake on a small tractor (or lawn mower) and it is a lot easier to control where the pile ends up.

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

#73

Post by SirFatty » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

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…

"I think that gas powered gardening and construction equipment is incredibly loud and annoying,"

Hence the ban.

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

#74

Post by bluGill » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC

jjav wrote: post #71

senbrow wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What kind of batteries are you running that can support the equivalent of 15A AC for hours? I have both a battery leafblower and a corded one. The corded is far more powerful and of course does not run out. The battery one is quick and convenient for small cleanups but only gets about 10 minutes from a full charge, then it's back to the charger for hours. Recently I cleaned up a large roof full of leaves, took about…

You don't normally need that much power continuously, you need surge capacity.

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

#75

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:48 PM UTC

jjav wrote: post #71

senbrow wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What kind of batteries are you running that can support the equivalent of 15A AC for hours? I have both a battery leafblower and a corded one. The corded is far more powerful and of course does not run out. The battery one is quick and convenient for small cleanups but only gets about 10 minutes from a full charge, then it's back to the charger for hours. Recently I cleaned up a large roof full of leaves, took about…

[deleted]

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

#76

Post by kube-system » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:49 PM UTC

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.

Noise control laws typically exempt law enforcement and first responders, for obvious reasons. e.g. their vehicles have devices installed that are intentionally noisy: sirens.

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

#77

Post by jjav » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #67

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.

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.

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

#78

Post by kube-system » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

throwway120385 wrote: post #30

yabones wrote: post #25

This is a good thing. It might inconvenience some old suburban men that have no hobbies other than making their lawn look like astroturf, but those of us that breathe air regularly should be asking for this in their own jurisdiction. Unlike your car, a four-stroke engine with a catalytic converter, a leaf blower is a two-stroke that burns oil by design. The amount of particulate emissions is hard to understate, and t…

Most of them are four-stroke now. They just don't have any muffler on them.

I'm not sure where you are located, but that is not the case in the majority of the US. In most of the US they are overwhelmingly 2-stroke.

Just checked a couple local hardware store websites too to make sure I wasn't crazy... there aren't any 4-strokes leaf blowers available in-store, they're all 2-stroke.

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

#79

Post by cainxinth » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

SirFatty wrote: post #73

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…

"I think that gas powered gardening and construction equipment is incredibly loud and annoying," Hence the ban.

There is another issue. The 2-stroke gas engines in backpack leaf blowers emit very toxic exhaust. Much worse than a 4-stroke. The landscapers are breathing that in all day.

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

#80

Post by rimunroe » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 2:58 PM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #68

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…

I'm in Massachusetts and have been doing the same thing with our lawn in the five years since becoming a homeowner. We rake leaves away from the house a few times in the fall to make our house less attractive to mice and then run the mower around to mulch those piles and whatever else is in the yard. I let the leaves sit where the mower drops them, although I occasionally put the hopper on the mower and collect a few to throw into garden beds to help our plants overwinter. A lot of the trees around our property are oaks, which have leaves which take a while to break down, but when they're cut into tiny bits they seem to go away quickly enough. Overall it's worked quite well. It's low effort and is far less disruptive than blowing leaves around, especially with an electric mower.