When quick garden cleaning is concerned, no lawn carer feels complete without a proper leaf blower in their arsenal of power tools. But with the countless varieties of options available in the market, choosing the right one often becomes a tough job.
Selecting the type of power source for a leaf blower for your yard is one major part of your leaf blower buying process that is mostly responsible for defining the after purchase experience of the machine. And this usually sums up to the question – which one is better for my yard – a gas leaf blower or an electric leaf blower.
Understanding These Machine Types in Detail
Electric Leaf Blowers
Electric leaf blowers, as the name says, use electricity as the power source to make the tool blow wind at high speeds. While these equipment do perform well in clearing debris and dirt around driveways and patios, and leaf cleans your garden, they are bounded by the limitation that they need an available power socket within its reach. This also adds up for the portability limitations. While you can always overcome that issue with an extension cord, managing your leaf cleaning job alongside handling such a bulky cable can be troublesome. However, if you still tend to own a small yard within reach of 100 feet, an electric leaf blower may come in handy.
On the other hand, electric leaf blowers are also available in battery-powered cordless versions, which helps them overcome its portability issues. But in the meantime, users have often complained of the limited run time of 10 to 15 minutes that these cordless versions of leaf blowers deliver with stock batteries. So in such cases, adding a spare high-end battery often becomes a necessity to compensate for the demands. This can cost you more for your leaf blower.
The Benefits At a Glance
The cost of electric leaf blowers is as low as $35 making it a secure investment for a power tool.
These leaf blowers are light in weight and are easy to handle as well.
Electric leaf blowers are also available in portable ( cordless or battery-powered) versions.
Modern-day electric blowers are quite capable of matching with the wind speeds of the already powerful gas leaf blowers.
Electric blowers are environmentally friendly and contribute more towards clean energy consumption by lowering the carbon footprints as compared to the gas-powered alternatives. Besides, they are less noise creating at the same time, making them less bothering the neighbors.
Electric leaf blowers are usually maintenance-free and are also easy to store in the garage or compact size availability, in general.
The Downsides
High eng portability is one of the significant downsides of these types of machines as they’re quite not possible with the corded versions, the battery-powered also demand heavy-duty batteries, as well as backups to cope with mid or large-sized yards.
The relative wind speed of the standard versions available is usually between 50 to 100 mph, which is less than the gas-powered ones in comparison.
Gas Leaf Blowers
Gas leaf blowers are leaf blowers that use mechanical transducing engines to generate power, propelling the machine at tremendous speed for leaf blowing while using gasoline as its power source at the input on the other end.
Due to the additional engine, these types of leaf blowers often weigh more substantial than their electrical counterparts and come in two conventional designs, namely, the handheld and the backpack leaf blowers. The backpackers are usually preferred for heavy-duty purposes and are a common choice among the professional and commercial lawn carers.
The Complexity With The Machinery And Maintenance – A Possible Downside
While these may be best suited for larger yards and big gardens, storage and maintenance is one of the complexities and hassles when owning a gas-powered leaf blower. You need to own a proper and sturdy fuel tank for fuel storage and ensure engine oil availability. This also makes your garage more prone to oil spills and may require garage cleaning more often.
Operation Complexities
Gas leaf blowers are available in tow engine types, namely the 2-stroke and the 4 stroke engines.
The 2 stroke engine needs gasoline with engine oil mixed in proportion for smooth running. On the other hand, 4 stroke engines only run on gas and use engine oil separately as they demand a regular oil change at regular usage intervals. 2 stroke engines, however, are quite powerful compared to the 4 stroke ones, but then, the latter bodes well in producing lesser emission on the other hand when compared.
The way you use your leaf blower in this case entirely depends on the engine type. Apart from regular fueling and oil care as mentioned, these tools can also demand periodic maintenance in for of spare replacements of parts such as spark plug and others for a smooth startup and functioning.
However, if you are friendly to engines and do run a couple of other gas-powered tools, then a gas leaf blower maintenance and garage storage should not be that much of a hassle to you.
Another potential downside of gas leaf blowers compared to its electrical counterparts is the pollution factor, both in terms of smoke emission (carbon footprints) and noise. These machines emit harmful gases, including potential carcinogens. They have been regulated as unfit for use in quite a few localities, neighborhoods, and counties. So do check your locality rules and regulations regarding the use of such power tools when going to buy one for your home.
How To Say Which Is The Best For Me Among The Two?
While electric leaf blowers, on the one hand, offer a cleaner lawn caring solution and are maintenance-free, they also cost less in terms of price and overall expense in the long haul. But a reduced battery backup and mobility limitations often count as negatory for these machines apart from less power generation capacity.
On the other hand, gas leaf blowers are often preferred choices for their exceptional power generation, and wind speed and are best suited for big yard sizes. However, noise, emission, and maintenance count upon its downsides.
Apart from these, it is your locality regulations and restrictions that often don’t always permit the use of gas leaf blowers. So most of your choice of calling which machine as the right one often depends on many external factors as well apart from the performance comparison and the yard’s demands. Since no one size fits all, saying that one is better over the other majorly depends on the matter of preference and its right match with the existing requirements and lawn caring needs of an individual.