California To Ban Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers and Mowers (newsobserver.com) 374
"California will soon ban the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers," reports the Associated Press, calling it "a move aimed at curbing emissions from a category of small engines on pace to produce more pollution each year than passenger vehicles."
California is the only state with the authority to regulate air quality this way, part of an exception carved out in federal law in the 1970s. While other states can't enact their own regulations, they can choose to follow California's lead. Last year, California regulators approved a first-of-its-kind rule to force automakers to sell more electric work trucks and delivery vans. Also last year, Newsom ordered regulators to ban the sale of all new gas-powered cars and trucks in California by 2035 — a date that has since been embraced by some of the world's largest automakers.
California has more than 16.7 million of these small engines in the state, about 3 million more than the number of passenger cars on the road. California was the first government in the world to adopt emission standards for these small engines in 1990. But since then, emissions in cars have vastly improved compared with smaller engines.
Now, state officials say running a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour emits the same amount of pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver, a distance of about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers). The law Newsom signed also orders regulators to offer rebates for people to change out their equipment, a move aimed at landscaping businesses that use these machines more often. The state budget, approved earlier this year, includes $30 million to pay for this effort.
California has more than 16.7 million of these small engines in the state, about 3 million more than the number of passenger cars on the road. California was the first government in the world to adopt emission standards for these small engines in 1990. But since then, emissions in cars have vastly improved compared with smaller engines.
Now, state officials say running a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour emits the same amount of pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver, a distance of about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers). The law Newsom signed also orders regulators to offer rebates for people to change out their equipment, a move aimed at landscaping businesses that use these machines more often. The state budget, approved earlier this year, includes $30 million to pay for this effort.
My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:2, Insightful)
noisy, stinky, and obnoxious [Re:My elected...] (Score:5, Insightful)
Banning lawn mowers wont make much a difference.
It will make a different locally, in that the things are noisy, stinky, and obnoxious.
Re:noisy, stinky, and obnoxious [Re:My elected...] (Score:5, Interesting)
All of the above applies to Landscaping gear from mowers to brush-cutters I have already replaced nearly all my landscaping tools with battery versions. (One exception the mulcher is corded but it is much quieter than the gas version and just as powerful ). And have seen commercial crews with backpack batteries doing larger jobs
. Summary
Noisy is reduced to in some cases no longer requiring ear protection
Stinky - masks not a requirement for many tools and can be used indoors
Maintenance - much less work in that regard with battery electric
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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The fact gasoline-powered leaf blowers are more polluting than cars has been widely known for a while, so yes, it'll make a difference.
Not in the context of global warming... that said, the local pollution from those is bad (they're not exactly burning the petrol efficiently or fully). I'm so happy that I converted to electric gear 6 years ago, as the exhaust fumes from them certainly don't smell like they're good for you.
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:4, Insightful)
Claims that contradict the summary, story and previous Slashdot stories require citations.
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From the summary:
on pace(1) to produce more pollution each year(2) than passenger vehicles.
From this I take it that (1) cars produce more pollution than blowers, but the trend shows this reversing in the future and (2) that they're talking about cumulative pollution ("each year").
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:4, Insightful)
And efforts are being made to tackle car pollution already - this is in addition to that.
The world can work on more than one approach at once - ICE cars are being dealt with, and now so are other polluting ICE-using tools.
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:4, Insightful)
You do realize that there are lot more cars and they run a lot more often?
Did you read the summary? "California has more than 16.7 million of these small engines in the state, about 3 million more than the number of passenger cars on the road." Granted that the ratio of cars vs small 2-stroke engines in other states might not be the same as California, it still isn't an obvious conclusion that there are more cars everywhere.
Also "state officials say running a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour emits the same amount of pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry about 1,100 miles". Most people drive about 1000 miles each month or about 12,000 miles a year. Add the total pollution from the leaf blowers plus the associated lawn mowers, mitigated by the fact that they both probably are only used 9 months each year, and you find that eliminating all the ICE leaf blowers and lawn mowers would have the same effect as converting all the cars in CA to BEV. Add in converting all gas-powered string trimmers to the mix and you have a huge savings in pollution.
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Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:5, Informative)
The ICE engines in garden equipment are horribly inefficient and produce large quantities of pollution compared to the engines in a vehicle. When did you last see a fuel injection, catalytic converter etc. on one. Yep that will be never. So if you remove CO2 as a pollutant it is highly likely the amount of NOx, and particulates from garden equipment is approaching that from cars.
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:4, Informative)
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When did you last see a fuel injection, catalytic converter etc. on one. Yep that will be never. .
When did you last see the majority of the population commuting 20 hours per week with a leaf blower?
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:4, Interesting)
I had a Husqvarna hedge trimmer close to 20 years back with a catalytic converter. Stihl at least is putting computerized fuel injection in their chainsaws. Friend has a 4 stroke Honda weed eater with an oil sump that runs pretty clean. My Honda lawnmower meets California emissions standards according to the sticker and seems to run pretty clean. There's also the Stihl 4mix engines that are 4 stroke but still use mixed gas, they're cleaner but not as clean as something with an oil sump.
Commercial small engine manufacturers have seen the need for cleaner machines for years and been working on it.
Nearly all mowers are 4-stroke (Score:5, Informative)
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I've heard so many poor stories of Ryobi items that I just can't see buying one. Maybe their batteries and leaf blowers are okay but all their power tools, saws, etc, get really horrid reviews. I'd rather pay 30% more for something that will just last and not break in the first year or major project.
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The Ego ones are decent, depending the tool. Nothing professional quality, but if you have a normal suburban lawn you will do fine with them. I haven't had any fail, though the first couple of batteries I got are nearing time to be retired.
The self-propelled walk behind mower is significantly more powerful than any gas powered one I have used. As long as the blade is kept sharp you can chew up long grass or wet leaves one problem. You can "drive" it without the blades spinning, which is handy. I never use
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Ryobi is sort of a nice balance between cheap, versus paying a ton for something that isn't used. From what I've seen, they seem to be a notch above Hart tools, and a step above Harbor Freight stuff. However, if one is looking for Mac or Snap-On quality, or needing some tool that is used all the time, it might be wise to shop elsewhere.
The thing that sets Ryobi apart is the number of items one can use their batteries on, as well as availability of batteries. Pretty much the same lithium cells are used ac
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:5, Interesting)
The total pollution released from cars is order of magnitude higher than the total pollution released from gas powered blowers.
As is the total benefit to society and the negative effect of society of banning them.
Ban leafblowers and a few Americans cry about the audacity to have to use a battery powered one or use a rake. I mean that may take them 15min longer!
Ban cars and you may as well set off a bomb in your economy. America is built for the automobile. You couldn't ban it if you tried.
If you only ever focused your only effort on the largest magnitude source you'd never get anything done, and as it is all western countries aren't making enough meaningful progress as it is.
Re: My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:5, Insightful)
You should take your own advice. When it becomes clear that a thing we are doing is causing harm, and there's a way to mitigate that harm without causing significant problems, we are obligated to it. You do not and should not have the liberty to shirk your responsibilities. Getting rid of small gasoline engines is a fantastic idea. It mitigates a significant harm. We should do it. Does this really cause infringement of your liberties? No. You can still mow your lawn. You'll just have to buy an electric mower when your current one dies. So fucking what? I don't want to hear any crap about your rights, either. You don't have the unlimited right to harm others, even as indirectly as running a two-stroke lawnmower or weedwhacker.
If you haven't already done so, go get your COVID vaccine while you're at it. As with the lawnmower case, you don't have the unlimited freedom to expose everyone else to deadly viruses because you don't like shots or trust science. Don't give me any pseudoscientific garbage about vaccines being possibly worse than the illness or whatever other bullshit you think of. I don't care. Grow up, be an adult, and do the right thing. Get vaccinated. Get your kids vaccinated. Do it now. If not for society, which is more than enough reason, then for yourself. Without the vaccine, you have a ~2% chance of dying from COVID, assuming you're otherwise healthy, and a 100% chance of getting sick. If you have any underlying health issue, or if you smoke, that 2% becomes 5%-20%, depending on this health issue. COPD patients, for example, have a 20%+ chance of death if they catch COVID unvaccinated. That's Russian roulette territory. And without the vaccine, you absolutely will catch COVID. So have fun with that. Remember, that 2% is per person. A family of five, all unvaccinated and otherwise healthy, has a 10% of at least one of them dying. A family of five smokers has a 1 in 4 chance of at least one of them dying.
Re:My elected leaders are stupid/evil (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know if that's hyperbole from TFA or not, but here is a fun fact. You've probably seen the meme about committing suicide by redirecting the exhaust into a car using a hose connected to the exhaust pipe. It wasn't a bad way to go, as carbon monoxide poisoning just puts you to sleep. It no longer works. Emission controls on cars are so tight now the exhaust is harmless.
You can still go that way if you choose. Rather than redirecting car's exhaust, just start a small gas engine in the car with the windows shut. It will take you out very quickly, so quickly you won't realise it's happening. We know that because many people don't know how dangerous small ICE's are, and start in enclosed spaces regularly, with predictable results.
Reading the Wikipedia article (Score:3)
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No One Likes to Hear Leaf Blowers (Score:2)
Re:No One Likes to Hear Leaf Blowers (Score:5, Informative)
electric one are no quieter. most of the noise is from the air movement not the 2 stroke.
Uh.. Bullshit. I have an electric leaf-blower that is comparable in power to an ICE one. It is nowhere near as loud.
It is loud, but maybe... 50% as loud as the gas powered ones I hear.
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And the electric leaf blowers don't run the motor when you aren't pressing the button, so it makes no noise, creates no pollution, and uses no power at all unless actively being used.
Re:No One Likes to Hear Leaf Blowers (Score:5, Informative)
Your electric leaf blower probably also has a quarter or less the air output of even the cheapest gas blower.
Probably? The manufacturers list the CFMs of their blowers. My electric leaf blower is 650 CFM. The cheapest gas one on amazon is only 400 CFM, and the gas ones with over 650 CFM are the ones you wear on you back.
Re:No One Likes to Hear Leaf Blowers (Score:4, Informative)
electric one are no quieter. most of the noise is from the air movement not the 2 stroke.
Yeah, 2-stroke motors are well known for being quiet. Not.
Standard Batteries? (Score:5, Insightful)
This would be great - except for proprietary battery packs. I really wish this legislation was paired with requirements for "generic" rechargeable battery packs or formats for all these electric tools.
One of the things preventing me from getting more electric tools (like a lawnmower) is that I don't want to be stuck with a particular brand's battery system.
Not that you can't get "generic" packs for any brand mower, for example, but if the mower dies and you get another brand, the packs are often not compatible between brands.
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Standardization would be nice, but is it really that big a deal? My lawn mower is one brand, by leaf blower is another. They use different batteries, but so what? They each came with a battery and charger anyway.
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Yes, it matters. One day you might need a new mower. Do you REALLY want to have to re-buy spare battery packs and trash the old ones?
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Among the same manufacturer, batteries are shared. My Black & Decker hedge trimmer, string trimmer, and chainsaw all use the same type of battery. Likewise, all my power tools. So I've got two sets of batteries - not the end of the world.
I also don't want to prevent manufacturers from creating better or more innovative batteries by constraining them to a standard design. Government really shouldn't over-regulate to that degree. The B&D batteries are more powerful for the size because they're mu
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Internally, those battery packs use nearly identical lithium ion cells, but the packs are sealed shut and the cells are soldered in.
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My Black & Decker hedge trimmer, string trimmer, and chainsaw all use the same type of battery. Likewise, all my power tools. So I've got two sets of batteries - not the end of the world.
From what you are saying, it looks like proprietary battery packs are a way to get you to buy all of your tools from one manufacturer. It is more convenient to buy another Black and Decker tool, rather than an alternative, if you already have other Black and Decker tools that use the same battery. I recall TV adverts for various brands of tools, emphasising the convenience of a common battery type. The thing is, this looks like unfair customer lock-in. You are right that it is not the end of the world, but
You have 20 lawn tools? WTF are you doing? (Score:3)
20 differents implements, 20 differents batteries / chargers ? No thank you.
While standardization sounds nice, I am not fully sure I want to be forced to use a subpar battery technology. An example would be DeWalt's FlexVolt. It's pretty awesome. Their 60v saws feel just like their corded counterparts, power-wise and you can you use your oversized 60v battery on your 20V drill if you're in a pinch. However, no other vendor has this feature. if we were forced to 18v, this would not be possible. I'd need a dedicated 40v or similar battery. It's not an impossible problem to sol
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I'm a big fan of those unpowered rotary push mowers and plug-in electric blowers and line trimmers.
When I get my lawn tamed and smooth enough, I am tempted to get a push mower. Maybe not quite as big as the one my dad used to use, even though I might actually have more lawn, or maybe because I have more. The big ones are nice in racing green but damn expensive!
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They pretty much all use standard cells. If it's actually such a big problem for you, download the model for the battery pack you need, send it off to a 3D printer, put the cells from your current one in, and enjoy.
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I've seen people do it. It works. Various designs freely available on the Internet even improve the ergonomics. You don't really have to worry about the voltage and current because the packs are pretty much just standard cells. Make sure you've got the same type of cell (lithium ion or nicad usually), keep the number of cells the same, and you're good to go.
it's even easier (Score:2)
the physical size of the 80v packs is the same gross the major brands. The difference is in the grooves on the pack and/or tool.
You can cut corresponding grooves, and use a different brand b battery; there are a handful of sites with instruction.
It's similar, but as I understand not quite as universal, for 40v.
(and to be clear: 18v and 20v are the same; 80v=4 * 18v, etc. The multiples of 20 are using "peak" voltage of a fully charged 18v).
also, inside those packs are standard 18650 cells; other sites wi
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If I was still an EU citizen I'd be lobbying for this. USB C for charging, and how about USB C for connecting to the tool as well?
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I mean, battery powered tools are pretty popular already.
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The problem is the manufacturers are using it for competitive lock-in. Standardization would be quite welcome, but I worry about what it would do to the three Dewalt 20V tools I have, specifically purchased for battery compatibility.
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Oh yeah. That's be fuckin' great. Let's mandate every goddamn tool uses the same battery interface. Pick a brand a stick to it.
For things you might not want the battery in, so as to reduce weight, I don't see the problem. For other tools, I don't see why a small set of standard connections would be an issue. Other standards for connections seem to have worked in the past, or indeed batteries. With some work I think some reasonable set of standards could be devised. It's not rocket surgery.
Idiots (Score:2)
leaf blowers are 2-stroke, they already forced gas mowers to be 4 stroke 10+ years ago
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leaf blowers are 2-stroke, they already forced gas mowers to be 4 stroke 10+ years ago
Blowers are much smaller than mowers.
A 4-stroke will be too heavy.
Electric is the future.
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I have a 4-stroke leaf blower / weed eater combo. It's heavy and doesn't work quite that well as a blower but it's a decent weed eater. The biggest advantage is that it doesn't go to shit if I forget to drain the fuel out of it when I put it up for storage in the winter. Starts up pretty easily every spring, so overall I'm happy. Could I switch to electric? In my case, I don't see why not. Although I although bought this thing when the electrics weren't quite up for doing a big job.
As for lawn mowers, no wa
Raises hand ... (Score:2)
Now, state officials say running a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour emits the same amount of pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver, a distance of about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers).
Is that a 2-stroke or 4-stroke engine on that leaf-blower -- 'cause they make them both ways but they emit much different levels of pollution.
Did y'all miss the part about generators? (Score:2, Interesting)
The language of the law is "small offroad engines" and tfa explicitly mentions generators.
I'm sure this will go over swimmingly in a state where green mandates means the power might go off at night or when the wind isn't blowing, and the money diverted from line maintenance to green mandates means the power might go off because it's a day that ends in a y.
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The language of the law is "small offroad engines" and tfa explicitly mentions generators.
Why can't we power the generators with batteries?
that much pollution with so little gas? (Score:2)
Sure, the chemical reactions might be different an less eficient and whatnot - but in the end, it's the gasoline that will be converted to CO2 and other stuff - so how do these devices manage to produce that much nasty stuff for the miniscule amount of gas they burn?
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Because they don't have ECU's with fuel injection and catalytic converters. So the amount of NOx and particulates they produce is truly horrific in comparison to even a diesel gate car. They produce less CO2 but huge quantities of other frankly nastier pollutants.
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They are talking about traditional pollution, not CO2: CO, NOx, hydrocarbons, etc..
Explain to me,,, (Score:2)
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The car has pollution controls, the lawnmower does not
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Because they don't have an ECU with a bunch of sensors, doing fuel injection with a catalytic converter. As a result they produce large amounts of NOx and particulates, as a result a lawnmower with a 2 gallon tank will produce more of the above than a ICE car even after several fillups.
Besides which the comparison is to aggregate amount of garden equipment to the aggregate from cars. As more and more cars become electric then the average amount from a car drops.
I personally never understood Americans fascin
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I personally never understood Americans fascination with ICE garden equipment, especially with battery power equipment being so good these day
Because to get electric battery equipment working like gas and not anemicaly accomplishing the minimum acceptable you need to pay about triple price. In America we only have 1800 watts available on common circuits where the average leaf blower is about 2250 and mower 3750 making corded options very under powered by comparison.
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So what's the ratio per gallon between them?
How much worse, per gallon, does a lawnmower pollute than an ICE vehicle?
I'm entirely willing to believe that it's worse, as you say...But exactly how *MUCH* worse is it?
Per gallon. None of this aggregate crap.
Where my incredulity comes from in this regard is not out of any personal passion for gasoline powered garden equipment, but that when you factor in how often they need to be refueled, we are talking about more than an order of magnitude of differe
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I personally never understood Americans fascination with ICE garden equipment, especially with battery power equipment being so good these days.
I like battery powered lawnmowers. They are quiet and starting is nice. Don't work so great on less than perfect conditions such as damp and or tall grass at least on a (all plastic) model costing over $500 but my ICE lawnmower isn't that great in that dept either.
My lawnmower is 20 years old purchased for something like $150. Once about every three years I take a 5 gallon can to the gas station to get filled up and change oil every other year.
Batteries alone for electric lawnmowers cost more than ICE m
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Nobody said anything about "more".
Both are wrong. The problem here is that ICEs aren't already banned since at least 30 years, like any sane person would have done, because some literal mass-speciecidal* psychopaths wanted to up some fucking number in some fucking bank database! Jeez, name any mass-murdering dictator, and he can't hold a candle to those psychos!
__
* Don't like the word either. Anyone got a better term?
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The car has a catalytic converter to greatly reduce NOx emissions. It has fuel injection and advanced electronic ignition to limit CO, particulates, and hydrocarbon emissions.
The car will emit more CO2.
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,,, how a lawnmower with 2 gallons of gas in it that doesn't need to be refilled very often can pollute more than a commuter ICE car with a 12 gallon tank which will need to be refilled at least every other week.
It's possible to use things other than 2-stroke leaf blowers in future (and it's banning sales, not use, AFAIK) with little impact to most people. There are electric-driven alternatives that people use in other countries. Getting rid of gasoline cars is more complex, so needs a longer time horizon. The point isn't total impact, but low hanging fruit (which leaf blowers are ill-suited to deal with, though).
Generators too? (Score:2)
Erm... You can't exactly run a generator on electricity like others of those items.
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The purpose of gas-powered leaf blowers (Score:2)
Extremely misleading (Score:2, Informative)
The main problem is lawn mowers are typically around
You must be (Score:2)
new around here
Re:Extremely misleading (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, they cause lung cancer but aren’t the global environment destroyer for the foreseeable future that CO2 risks.
So your argument is that while they will kill people, they won't kill all the people so it's OK? Are you fucking kidding me?
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There are actually zero deaths that can be actually attributed to leaf blowers
Not true. A EPA study from 2011 found that Gas powered lawn and garden equipment (GLGE in the study) contributed 4% of all VOC emissions from all sources of gasoline combustion, around 1% NOx, 11% CO, https://www.epa.gov/sites/defa...
We also know that fine particulate matter is a major health issue. WHO estimates 4.2 million premature deaths attributed to PM2.5 and smaller, mainly due to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and cancer. https://www.who.int/news-room/... [who.int]
NOx pollution is estimate
Used market boom in California. (Score:2)
Ban ALL leaf *blowers*. (Score:2)
The tool that you use for converging leaves to one point... that has only one mode of operation: Diverging leaves from one point!
They are so mind-blowingly stupid, surpass even tiny touch screen "keyboards" where you can't even see what you will be activating, and almost beat wireless bike computers that use two batteries and lose several convenient features to span a gap of all of 2 ft! ^^
Just make a vacuum cleaner for leaves. Done.
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Diverging works too. You just have to diverge them into someone else's property, and hope they don't have their own blower.
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Just make a vacuum cleaner for leaves. Done.
Doesn't work well in a hand portable unit because you need a large vacuum holding canister. Some leaf blowers (rare) DO have a reverse lever and act as a vacuum but the problem is all the debris goes directly into the high speed impeller blades. It mulches leaves and does not clog easy probably due to high centrifugal forces but despite careful throttle control itâ(TM)s only a matter of time till a rock, or pine cone, or stick gets sucked in and fucks it up. They do have them on some riding mowers,
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So what are all those suddenly unemployed Mexican illegals going to do for a living?
This would increase employment for minimum-wage gardeners (legal or otherwise), since it takes more manpower to rake leaves by hand.
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So what are all those suddenly unemployed Mexican illegals going to do for a living?
Maybe electric? So much depends there on the source of the electric power but electric motors tend to be cleaner, quieter -- even prettier -- than loud stinky gas guzzling two stroke engines.
Re:Ay, Carumba! (Score:5, Insightful)
So what are all those suddenly unemployed Mexican illegals going to do for a living?
Maybe electric? So much depends there on the source of the electric power but electric motors tend to be cleaner, quieter -- even prettier -- than loud stinky gas guzzling two stroke engines.
They will move to cordless. No one is developing plugin-in outdoor power equipment except at the low-end homeowner level. Ego, Stihl, and Echo all have commercial lines now. There are already cities using noise ordinances to ban gas powered OPE and companies expect that trend to continue.
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So what are all those suddenly unemployed Mexican illegals going to do for a living?
Too bad you aren't pondering why all those eleventy billion '"illegals" that "voted for Joe" aren't filling all those vacant job positions today.
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Supposedly, the labor saving multiple is "two". And that's from an industry source.
Washingtonians Are In A Huff About Leaf Blowers Again, Pandemic Edition [dcist.com]
DC banned them (for some values of "ban"). Unfortunately, I don't live in a municipality with a ban, so my lungs and ears are still under assault.
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You're doing it wrong then. (Score:2)
i own both gas and electric. electric mowers are fine for small yards without a ton of overgrowth. when you get into bigger projects gas is still king. same for electric weed eater great for small jobs but when you need heavy duty work they not only lack the addons but the power to cut threw small trees etc.
Sorry buddy, the 12" Ryobi 18v mower with a plastic blade you got on sale from Home Depot isn't going to compete with gas. However, do some research and buy good mower and they're quite decent. The same with trimmers. The $50 Ryobi 18V suuuucks. The 60V DeWalt? I'll bet money it competes well with a routine gas line trimmer. I've used both. A good electric tool is overall much nicer. If you have a 20 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere, maybe not so much. If you have a typical California yard, the
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Yup. Californians are going to just let their yards go back to nature.
That would have a whole bunch of benefits. Unfortunately you're full of shit and there isn't the slightest chance of it happening.
Re:Say goodbye to the landscaping business (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Say goodbye to the landscaping business (Score:5, Funny)
Using electric tools is unsustainable commercially or lese they would have already done it.
An economist and his little boy are walking though central park. "Look," says the boy, "there's a twenty dollar bill under that bench!" The economist says "There can't be, someone would have picked it up!"
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Using electric tools is unsustainable commercially
Works in other countries.
Buh-bye native plants (Score:2)
Although not in California, I use a hand-held gas-powered string trimmer to control infestations of garlic mustard -- an invasive species of the forest understory brought from Europe to here, where it has no natural predators, a plant that has its own natural herbicide that kills native plants. This is on a 100-acre tree plantation.
Re:Prepping for the next BIG wild fire season... (Score:5, Informative)
Ahhh California. Just one dumbass libtard idea after another.
Let's take away everybody's power tools so that leaves, twigs, and other sources of fuel don't get cleaned up. Then stand back and exclaim, "The climate change is fo' realz, yo! Climate change is fo' realz!!" when the fires inevitably blaze again.
SMH. FJB.
Well, climate change - warmer and drier in the case of California - is certainly a big factor here. What is discussed here isn't used in the forests...
That aside, I've used electric gear in my garden for many years. The lack of noise and funny-smelly fumes certainly makes me feel better than when I used old-style gear. Also, I love my robot mower that I got three years ago - and those are obviously electric.
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It all depends on the task at hand. For someone mowing a 1/4 acre yard, a lawn mower that uses Ryobi 40 volt batteries can be good enough, and needs pretty much zero maintenance other than battery care. However, if someone is mowing a golf course, that is a different story.
Leaf blowers... similar. For a lot of tasks, if there is a rack of batteries on hand to allow easy changing and swapping, it might just be possible to run completely on electric for most jobs.
Even for light duty work, an electric chain
Re:Prepping for the next BIG wild fire season... (Score:5, Informative)
The grounds crew recently switched to battery powered riding mowers. They are quieter and don't seem to have any problems with endurance.
Re: Prepping for the next BIG wild fire season... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Prepping for the next BIG wild fire season... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
a blue haze of 2-stroke exhaust over silicon valley every summer makes me suspect these things are worse than farts at scale for localized pollution.
Re:I am banned from pissing off my neighbor (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure they make pollution, but this is for silencing those noisy machines. There is no way these pollute more then farts.
Small engines are much worse for the environment than motor vehicles. Lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chainsaws, etc. don't have catalytic converters and they are terribly inefficient. These are precisely the type of thing that needs to become electric.
Plus, if you have any experience with small engines and the electric devices that are replacing them, you would know that the former suck ass and market forces will naturally steer everything toward electric anyway. The reduced noise is nice, but that's just icing on the cake.
Re: (Score:3)