72 hours of research! Yes, it took me 72 hours of researching to prepare this ultimate leaf blower buying guide. I googled, created spreadsheet to compare among different leaf blowers and mostly, thought from a customer viewpoint. I found 6 things to look closely before deciding to buy the ultimate leaf blower to clean the mess around our homes. These are –
MPH vs CPM
MPH stands for miles per hour showing the speed at which air comes out of a leaf blower. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute showing the coverage area per minute of a blower. You need to keep a close eye on this to get a leaf -blower with balanced CFM and MPH.
Fuel Types
There are different power types of a leaf blower. Amount of work done by a blower largely depends on its power source. So, you need to be aware of it. Power types are-
- Electric: It runs with the help of electricity. Corded ones are directly connected with the power source through an output. It works great in a short distance. Cordless one uses removable batteries as their power source. It has limited run time but is user-friendly.
- Gas: Gas driven leaf blowers are powerful with long run time. It provides extreme performance although its biggest setbacks are loudness, fuel and maintenance cost.
Handheld vs Backpack
Handheld leaf-blowers are lightweight. Thus, they are easy to maneuver and known for their versatility. They are appropriate for cleaning small lawn and porches. They are most effective to remove light snow, dust, and sawdust.
On the other hand, backpack leaf-blowers are known for their long run time and extreme power. They are ideal to clean debris in your garage, large shops, and big grounds. It is appropriate against wet leaves, twigs, pebbles, and metal shavings.
Noise level
If you live in a community that takes sound pollution seriously, you need to be cautious about the noise level of your leaf-blower. While a 65-85 decibel is normal, some communities allow up to 95 decibels, a normal sound produced by your food-processor. Corded blowers create less noise compared to cordless and gas drove blowers.
Maintenance
While you are deciding to buy an ultimate leaf blower, you need to know about their maintenance too. Although maintaining blowers are easy, following things need to be done if you want to store your blower for a long period-
- Fuel-stabilizer: If you find any fuel left in the tank, simply add a fuel stabilizer to keep the fuel in a good state.
- Running: You need to run your leaf-blower for around two minutes to allow the fuel-stabilizer to do its job.
- Restarting and choking: Restart your leaf-blower for the one last time and then choke it before winterizing it for a long period.
Pricing and Customer-review
It is absolutely necessary to budget according to your ability and market-price. You need to make a balance between the both. You also should go through different customer reviews about different brands and their products to get a clear idea.
The leaf blower is handy for all the year round serving different cleaning purposes. This ultimate leaf blower buying guide will hopefully come to be a tremendous help for you.