Leaf blower ordinances and Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers Bans

[PugetDude]

How are they going to blow all the turds off the sidewalks in California?

 

[kctyphoon]

I suppose if its a 2-in-1, and you use the vacuum feature - all good.

 

[Farmall450]

How are they going to blow all the turds off the sidewalks in California?

Funnel in the wind/hot air from their officials

 

[mikegt4]

They could get around it if they do like I do for blowing off my concrete pad in front of my garage. Gasoline powered 2 stage portable compressor, long air hose and a male thread coupler plug threaded on to a female thread coupler plug to form an air nozzle.

"No officer, I haven't seen any one using a gas powered leaf blower around here"

Admittedly leaf blowers, gas or otherwise, are very annoying to hear if they aren't yours.

 

[InsanePyro]

I think the real issue here is people who are far to hung up on what their stupid lawn looks like, never understood it, probably never will.

 

[Bighead38]

This pile is packed and stacked tight. I have to do it 3-4 times a year. No way I would be doing it with electric stuff and forget about doing it by hand.

 

[Dumber than lumber]

It's not really the pollution - it's the damn noise!

I know they banned them in Beverly Hills decades ago, all the Vietnamese landscapers went back to rakes and brooms.

2 of my neighbors have those things and they use them for hours at a time - drives me nuts after a while.

I agree with what you said about the stress that comes from the noise.
In some ways it is as irritating as being in an airplane with the person next to you smoking a cigarette. Now that's something they will outlaw some day.

 

[four.cycle]

yep.... dang California! we were a lot better off with leaded gasoline and no emission controls on automobiles! yeah!

bwaaaaahahahaaahaaa!

hopefully they'll institute a state-wide ban on the goddam things, and being the fifth largest economy on the planet, the manufacturers of such devices will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better product that doesn't make so damn much noise and pump so much **** into the atmosphere!

 

[Bigblockyeti]

How are they going to blow all the turds off the sidewalks in California?

It's my understanding that they just elect them into office.

 

[16again]

We have a similar “ban” here in a town in South Floriduh! [emoji6]
We use a Sthil cordless blower. Took some getting used to but works just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[American Locomotive]

If it were emissions, there would be a state wide ban. It's almost certainly because of noise reasons. I like leaf blowers, I think they're useful tools, but they are obnoxiously loud. It's not even necessarily that they're loud, it's that it's a sustained loud. You just hold them wide open for hours at a time.

Everyone's familiar with landscapers that will show up with a team of 3 guys, all with back-pack blowers going full throttle for 3 hours straight to blow some person's yard out fast. Everyone is familiar with that weird neighbor who needs to use their blower at 6am or 8:30pm at night.

If people could be responsible and respectful, it wouldn't be a problem. But they can't.

So my lawn mower that takes 6 hours to burn 1 gallon produces about the same air pollution as 43 cars burning 20640 gallons of gas?
What did I do wrong?

Small engines have obnoxiously bad emissions. Modern cars with with their tightly coupled catalytic converters and real time feedback with wide-band O2 sensors have extremely little emissions. In some cities, the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe of a modern car has less NOx, CO and HC than the "clean" air going into the engine.

For example, pre-EPA 1970 cars on average were releasing 13g/mile of HC, 87g/mile of CO and 3.6 g/mile NOx. The current limits are .004, 1 and .02 respectfully. So a pre-1970s car emits up to 3250x the HC emissions of a modern vehicle.

...and even then, those 60s cars had pretty sophisticated carburetors and generally acceptable combustion chamber designs. Lawnmowers and other yard equipment are using the cheapest, nastiest carbs possible and many of them are still flat-head engines. Then think of the 2-strokes that constantly emit a light haze of oil smoke... Factoring all that in - your calculations really don't seem too far off.

 

[bczygan]

Rants over???

Bill

 

[rlitman]

Nobody can argue that gas powered leaf blowers are f*cking loud. And if the truth be told, we all hate listening to them. Them's the facts...



That does not mean that they should be banned. But, they should be optimized like every other product in the world. Nobody can argue that automobiles of today are far superior to cars of the past; it is not a debate because it is fact. That does not mean that old cars are ****** or should be banned. It's just a fact. Look at phones, computers, flashlights, everything today is optimized and most of it we all love. At the same time, many of us love the old stuff too. Both old and new can coexist. We live in an AND world; not an OR world.



F*ck the politicians and the banning of Big-Gulps and all of the PC ****. Just use you gas powered leaf blower but be mindful and respectful of your neighbors.

I own a Stihl BR500 (bought it in 2006). It was designed to get around the bans based on decibel levels. It’s got sound isolation around the blower fan as well as a “muffler” in the output tube. It’s quieter than most electric blowers. It’s also 4-stroke and has a catalytic converters, so the exhaust doesn’t leave you stinking.

I’ve never seen a pro use one though, because there are far more powerful options on the market, even though they’re louder.

For me, I looked at the expense of a backpack blower as justified by the amount I use it. I hate the obnoxious sound of most blowers, and I dislike having to wear hearing protection. So if I bought a cheaper (and probably more powerful) blower, I’d use it only when I have to. Maybe as little as once a year. But with this beauty, I choose to use it as often as it is helpful.

 

[Bigblockyeti]

Then think of the 2-strokes that constantly emit a light haze of oil smoke.

That's what makes them smell so good!

 

[Citation]

I would like to see a study on how much of the total global pollution that small engines are actually responsible for. I would bet it's about as close to non-existent as you can get.

A quick Google brought this up: The EPA estimates that hour-for-hour, gasoline powered lawn mowers produce 11 times as much pollution as a new car. According to the EPA, each gas-powered lawn mower produces as much air pollution as 43 new automobiles driven 12,000 per year – lawn care produces 13 billion pounds of toxic pollutants per year.

While I loves me some internal combustion, I personally dislike gas powered mowers, weed whackers and leaf blowers. As much for the noise as for the stink. I live in a desert so I have no lawn, but the few shrubs that need trimming are done with an electric chainsaw or electric trimmer and any clean up that can't be done with a rake or broom is done with an electric blower. I don't miss cleaning carburetors and tanks either.

An important distinction here is ground level pollution vs greenhouse gases. I have no doubt that some California politicians are acting based on Eco-religion rather than data/common sense but, at least around LA, ground level air pollution can be a real issue. I suspect the EPA is talking about traditional ground level pollutants (NOx, SOx, unburned HCs etc) not CO2. I could see this being a legitimate concern but given these are the same areas that passed plastic straw bans, I would demand that this move be data backed. 11x more per hour doesn't mean much if the cumulative effect is still a drop in the ocean.

 

[casmurbax]

The ban isn't just in California, a few other states have restrictions in certain cities and/or counties.

LEAF BLOWER REGULATIONS
Below is a list of leaf blower regulations by region. This is for reference only. Double check with your city and/or county as laws can change over time.

Please select your state from the drop down list to see leaf blower regulations. Please note, not all regions have regulations. Check with your city and state for the most updated information.

https://hdsupplysolutions.com/s/leaf_blower_noise_regulation

 

[todd_fuller]

^ this. I’m TIRED of people complaining that what THEY dont like should be “banned”..
I have an idea - let’s BAN condos. Problem solved.. welcome to California.

The level of self importance in this world has risen to the point that masses of people feel as if THEY shouldn’t have to be “inconvienced” by the rest of society.

Says the guy who's pissed a place 2000 miles away banned something on their own volition and which will have zero impact on his life. Sorry you can't buy a 2-stroke leaf blower anymore... oh wait, you STILL CAN. Self-awareness is as dead as your claimed self-importance is alive.

 

[M635_Guy]

don't want to be told I can't use gas powered equipment.

Do you not want to be told you can't use leaded gas? Or asbestos?

Having been to Beijing a bunch of times (where the emissions are free-wheeling), I can tell you I don't mind getting things under control before the air has the flavor of a nickel...

Plus, I got to buy new tools! (no ban here, just hate the pollution, mixing and maint. of the gas and gas/oil stuff).

 

[seber]

I watched flabbergasted as a "professional" used a blower to clean leaves from a lawn across the street from my son's house. It took almost two hours including the final pick up and loading. It could have been done in 30 minutes using a garden tractor and leaf bag. That kind of thing brings on ordinances that affect us all.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I'll pull up my soapbox and be the 'Okay, Boomer' minority of 1 here and gladly suffer the consequences.

I'm no liberal, I’m no Luddite, and I'm certainly no fan of federal intervention, but I wish gas-powered leaf-blowers were banned nationally. And the noise, odor, pollution, and dust are only second, third, fourth, and fifth on my list of grievances.

Number 1 is the utter and absolute disgrace of the entire concept. If my parents and their parents and their parents before them etc could use a rake to clean up a yard, so can I, no matter how long it takes - and it usually takes me a whole day, with several breaks in between, three or four times a year, for a 1-acre yard with ten trees. My neighbor on the right is elderly, so me and the guy to his right do his, too. The local Boy Scout troop and a church group take care of people without friendly neighbors. The idea of wanting and trying to make this job quicker and easier reveals our cultural malaise. Quicker and easier is not always better. In fact, from my perspective, the goal of trying to make everything quicker and easier is what put us on the fat, dumb, and lazy road to hell in a handbasket in this country.

 

[nh_yota]

Gas-powered leaf blowers don't bother me because my dad and I have been using them for 30 years. It wouldn't feel like fall to me without the smell and sound of a backpack blower.

 

[Parrothead]

Guys...Husqvarna, Echo and Stihl all make battery powered leaf blowers. And mowers. And trimmers. And chainsaws. So does EGO which beats them head to head in some cases. Ask yourself why these pinnacles of gas powered lawn equipment are all producing battery powered equipment?

Small engine lawn equipment isn’t going away completely, but it’s use will be significantly diminished going forward. Honestly as an average homeowner I can’t for any logical reason think of why I’d buy a gas powered mower/trimmer/blower. Carbs, fuel mixing, maintenance, etc are all a PITA. Battery? Charge and go. Need more “fuel”? Buy another battery.

I’m perfectly fine with the ban on gas blowers, brought to you by the state that’s banning natural gas in homes. So there’s that.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-cities-banning-natural-gas-homes/4008346002/

 

[hsvtoolfool]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh3o1_whqu4

 

[Spacey_G]

The idea of wanting and trying to make this job quicker and easier reveals our cultural malaise.

That a desire to use a tool to make a job easier reveals a cultural malaise is certainly a hot take, especially on a forum for tool enthusiasts!

What a disgrace, getting a mundane job done quickly so we can move on to other productive tasks and make some real progress!

 

[PugetDude]

I'll pull up my soapbox and be the 'Okay, Boomer' minority of 1 here and gladly suffer the consequences.

I'm no liberal, I’m no Luddite, and I'm certainly no fan of federal intervention, but I wish gas-powered leaf-blowers were banned nationally. And the noise, odor, pollution, and dust are only second, third, fourth, and fifth on my list of grievances.

Number 1 is the utter and absolute disgrace of the entire concept. If my parents and their parents and their parents before them etc could use a rake to clean up a yard, so can I, no matter how long it takes - and it usually takes me a whole day, with several breaks in between, three or four times a year, for a 1-acre yard with ten trees. My neighbor on the right is elderly, so me and the guy to his right do his, too. The local Boy Scout troop and a church group take care of people without friendly neighbors. The idea of wanting and trying to make this job quicker and easier reveals our cultural malaise. Quicker and easier is not always better. In fact, from my perspective, the goal of trying to make everything quicker and easier is what put us on the fat, dumb, and lazy road to hell in a handbasket in this country.

The problem with this argument is that you're basing it on what you need to remove from your NJ lawn. Grass, leaves, acorns, etc. (and occasionally a bullet-ridden corpse)

No way you can clean up landscape trimmings in a desert landscape (aka gravel) with a rake or a broom. It's easy and quick to blow it- the stuff scoots across the surface and into a pile where it's easy to pick up. So, by your logic I'm supposed to pay someone to spend hours doing a half-*** job with a rake or a broom doing something that takes 10-15 minutes with a blower because it offends someone's delicate sensibilities? In this case, it's the right tool for the job. Since you're so concerned about becoming fat, dumb, and lazy, maybe you should throw away your ratchets and only use open ended wrenches, get rid of your power tools and go back to a handsaw, brace and bit...

And, yeah, I resent those that think they should dictate those choices for others because they think their opinion matters more than the next guy's.

Now, Get off my gravel!

 

[Wamsutta]

I own a Stihl BR500 (bought it in 2006). It was designed to get around the bans based on decibel levels. It’s got sound isolation around the blower fan as well as a “muffler” in the output tube. It’s quieter than most electric blowers. It’s also 4-stroke and has a catalytic converters, so the exhaust doesn’t leave you stinking.

I’ve never seen a pro use one though, because there are far more powerful options on the market, even though they’re louder.

For me, I looked at the expense of a backpack blower as justified by the amount I use it. I hate the obnoxious sound of most blowers, and I dislike having to wear hearing protection. So if I bought a cheaper (and probably more powerful) blower, I’d use it only when I have to. Maybe as little as once a year. But with this beauty, I choose to use it as often as it is helpful.

The BR500 is a 4-Mix ? I thought you had to step up to the BR700 to get the 4-Mix. The STIHL website is no help because they don't tell you whether their blowers are 2-cycle or 4-cycle.

 

[Jagmandave]

I don't understand why you guys make those huge piles of leaves every year, I have a 100 ft tall pin oak in my front yard that puts down about a 2 ft thick layer of leaves every fall....I just mulch them. It takes little time and it's eco friendly....give back to the earth and all that?

I mean, why the heck are you sending leaves to the land fill?

 

[Wamsutta]

I mean, why the heck are you sending leaves to the land fill?

The green recycle truck comes by to pick up your leaves to make the mulch commercially for a profitable market. Then they send you a bill for the service of taking your leaves away.

 

[dylanmitchell]

Though of another advantage of battery outdoor power equipment. It gets very dry around here and fires have been started by sparks from the exhaust or someone setting a hot engine down on combustible material. Battery-powered equipment would be less likely to start fires. Bladed tools like a lawnmower can spark when they hit rocks but you'd eliminate sparks and hot engines.

Lithium-ion batteries have their own issues with catching on fire. It's rare but does happen. I'm interested to see how landscape and garden crews set up charging systems for all the large batteries they'll have. A dedicated toolbox wired for power with fans exhausting hot air, and self-contained to limit any fires could work. I think it would be much easier to be able to charge batteries on the truck than have to pull them off at night to charge and put back on the truck in the morning.

 

[PugetDude]

yep.... dang California! we were a lot better off with leaded gasoline and no emission controls on automobiles! yeah!

bwaaaaahahahaaahaaa!

hopefully they'll institute a state-wide ban on the goddam things, and being the fifth largest economy on the planet, the manufacturers of such devices will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better product that doesn't make so damn much noise and pump so much **** into the atmosphere!

Something like this?

 

[CJM8515]

Not sure about you, but they dont send the leaves to the landfill here. They bring them to the town public dump and turn them into mulch which they give to you for free or they use around town.

 

[Nineeightyone]

All of this sounds like a case of trying to resolve an issue, while trying to avoid driving businesses elsewhere.

Problem: Air quality declining.
Cause: Emissions from fossil fuel-burning.

One of the biggest causes is large engines (looking at you, diesel big rigs). The thing is, if you tighten controls on emissions for diesel big-rigs, businesses that rely on them will potentially move to areas which are not as controlled, thus losing income for the state/locale they're operating in presently. This isn't really an option on the table because then the cost of goods and services goes up, and the whining begins.

Ultimately, just like maintenance on a car, we're going to have to spend some money to fix the pollution issue.

Something like this?

Doesn't this ultimately admit that there's an issue though, and that it's something we should be considering?

 

[lardy1]

I live in the woods, in the middle of eight acres, seven miles from the nearest town for a lot of reasons and this thread exposes several.

 

[rlitman]

The BR500 is a 4-Mix ? I thought you had to step up to the BR700 to get the 4-Mix. The STIHL website is no help because they don't tell you whether their blowers are 2-cycle or 4-cycle.

Yes. All three of the original turtles, BR500, BR550 and BR600 (eventually magnum) have always been 4-mix.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

yep.... dang California! we were a lot better off with leaded gasoline and no emission controls on automobiles! yeah!

bwaaaaahahahaaahaaa!

hopefully they'll institute a state-wide ban on the goddam things, and being the fifth largest economy on the planet, the manufacturers of such devices will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better product that doesn't make so damn much noise and pump so much **** into the atmosphere!

4.c! I missed this until someone re-quoted you. I take back my minority of 1 math!

That a desire to use a tool to make a job easier reveals a cultural malaise is certainly a hot take, especially on a forum for tool enthusiasts!

A rake is a tool. A hand tool. I prefer the original models made out of cane, but I hear they make these new-fangled jobbies made out of plastic, and I hear they are just as effective.

What a disgrace, getting a mundane job done quickly so we can move on to other productive tasks and make some real progress!

I move on to other productive tasks the next day, and the day after that after those are accomplished. All good things in their time. Quicker isn't always better, progress is debatable, and in our haste, in the guise of progress, we are making a lot of collective mistakes that affect everyone. But we can agree to disagree.

So, by your logic I'm supposed to pay someone to spend hours doing a half-*** job with a rake or a broom doing something that takes 10-15 minutes with a blower because it offends someone's delicate sensibilities?

By my logic, I'm simply pointing out the irrefutable fact that for centuries, Americans found a way to clear their property of natural deciduous and coniferous droppings and refuse before the advent of gas-powered motors. Whatever it was in the plains or the Badlands or in high mountain desert, they did it. There is no argument that it probably took longer and required more manual labor than a gas-powered blower. But I've already said my so what? piece about that. You equating clean air to a delicate sensibility tells me that nothing positive can possibly come out of further discussion between us on this point.

And, yeah, I resent those that think they should dictate those choices for others because they think their opinion matters more than the next guy's.

And I resent people who attempt to cling to an erroneous, misguided idea of personal liberty. We are all free to do whatever we want - as long as it doesn't harm others. Some things are not a matter of opinion and personal preference. Thankfully, emissions is one of them.

 

[Farmall450]

Guys...Husqvarna, Echo and Stihl all make battery powered leaf blowers. And mowers. And trimmers. And chainsaws. So does EGO which beats them head to head in some cases. Ask yourself why these pinnacles of gas powered lawn equipment are all producing battery powered equipment?

Small engine lawn equipment isn’t going away completely, but it’s use will be significantly diminished going forward. Honestly as an average homeowner I can’t for any logical reason think of why I’d buy a gas powered mower/trimmer/blower. Carbs, fuel mixing, maintenance, etc are all a PITA. Battery? Charge and go. Need more “fuel”? Buy another battery.

I’m perfectly fine with the ban on gas blowers, brought to you by the state that’s banning natural gas in homes. So there’s that.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-cities-banning-natural-gas-homes/4008346002/

DeWalt makes a battery leaf blower too, but none of these keep up to gas

What is burned to make that states power? Coal or NG of course. What a bunch of fools

 

[2ndGearRubber]

Battery leaf blowers are all fine and nice, unless you need to move major amounts of stuff for long periods of time. My father and I searched for a battery option to meet his needs, they didn't exist 24 months ago. If the leaves are wet at all, the mower can rut the thinly grassed over areas. Which there are a lot of, since he has tons of tree cover limiting sunlight.


How about just a dB limit? Fixes all problems. For those complaining about the times the blowers are used, existing noise limit laws should already apply, and are simply not being enforced.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

Something like this?

Amen.


While the effects of CO2 on the planet are debatable, the fact that electricity production produces emissions is not. Yes, there are some areas with wind/hydro/solar/nuke. But the vast majority of the US runs on fossil fuels.


If I hear one more person call electric cars zero emissions.

 

[MattT]

I am going to make some assumptions.
car = 25 mpg, 60 mph = 2.4 gallons per hour
43 cars x 12000 miles per year (each car)= 516000 miles
516000 / 60mph = 8600 hours
8600 hour * 2.4 gph =20640 gallons

my gas powered lawnmower will cut grass for an hour on 20oz of gas.That equals 6 hours of cut time per gallon of gas.

So my lawn mower that takes 6 hours to burn 1 gallon produces about the same air pollution as 43 cars burning 20640 gallons of gas?
What did I do wrong?

even if you break it down to 8760 hours per year burning 20640 gallons it still comes down to cars burning 14.14 gallons in 6 hours vs lawn mower burning 1 gallon in 6 hours.

You didn't do anything wrong, they did. They've compared annual car emissions against ~1,000 hour lifetime lawnmower emissions. That's how they jumped from 11 times worse to 43 times worse. Typical lying with numbers propaganda.

One thing that does seem a little off with your figures is the mowers hourly gas consumption. Guessing it's a push mower rather than a rider. I've never formally checked it but my rider seems to use about a gallon per hour.

 

[MattT]

I'm interested to see how landscape and garden crews set up charging systems for all the large batteries they'll have. A dedicated toolbox wired for power with fans exhausting hot air, and self-contained to limit any fires could work. I think it would be much easier to be able to charge batteries on the truck than have to pull them off at night to charge and put back on the truck in the morning.

Guessing they'll either leave the truck idling, so they can use inverters, or run generators...........................................