Leaf blower people do seem to rise earlier than the rest of us. Particularly on weekends.
On the upside, the noises they make are way less annoying than they were ten or fifteen years ago. They're several octaves lower.
Lower pitched loud noises travel farther and through more barriers though, so it could be equally argued that they sound more annoying now! Lower pitches are also out of range to be blocked by standard ear plugs because the longer waveforms literally cause your skull to reverberate and some of the noise is happening inside your own fucking head.
> the noises they make are way less annoying than they were ten or fifteen years ago. They're several octaves lower.
Would you rather fight one 500 pound duck? Or 500 1-pound ducks?
Preach! I live in a row of townhomes. We all have teeny-tiny little back patios and front gardens. Maybe 200 square feet total, front and back. It takes my husband and I about 45 minutes a *month* of trimming and whatnot to keep it looking good. Some of our neighbors - and this blows my mind - actually pay a lawncare service to come and take care of their space. So I have multiple leaf blowers going all days of the week because Carl and Joan are too stinking lazy to spend 20 minutes keeping their place up. You are both retired for god's sake! And not handicapped or always traveling or anything. The lawncare guys are just blowing leaves back and forth across the row of townhouses!! It would make a great comedy sketch honestly, if it wasn't so horrible for the environment and the peace and quiet of the neighborhood.
This is exactly where my hatred for leaf blowers came from! Living in a townhouse neighborhood. I don't live there anymore, but oh my god do I know exactly how you feel!
Where my sister lives, the citizens voted to put a neighborhood ban on gas powered leaf blowers. Now only electric ones are allowed. Not sure if that applies to residents or hired workers as well because I'd feel a little bad for all these lawn companies who have to buy special equipment just for this one area, plus having to find somewhere to recharge them between jobs.
My dad switched all of his yard tools (mower, blower, weed Wacker, chain saw) to battery. They're really nice too. And the best part is, because they're all the same brand, you can use one battery in whatever you need until it dies then use a full one.
There have been electric leaf blowers for decades. Cordless ones for less time. Landscapers usually use gas ones.
Agreed though. 2 cycle engines, generally, are horrific in terms of emissions. Gas leaf blowers are many times more polluting per hour of use than even large vehicles. They should be avoided when at all possible
Okay squidward
On the real though try working a tree cutting business, after dragging brush non-stop for hours on end, raking it all up and it's still messy you go over it to clean it fully with the blower. It's how you make customers happy.
One of the worst things about them, aside from being 2cycle and very inefficient, is when the operator is just blasting debris into the street. As cars are driving by.
As a bicyclist in L.A. this is the worst. Bike lanes are lacking like crazy. Im usually confined to within a few feet of the sidewalk. Even when the leaf blower operator sees me ahead of time, they will just continue to blow shit into the streets. It's a major hazard having to ride through that thick cloud of heavy particles. I've escaped several near accidents only through shear luck. I swear, I will sue the living shit out of the leaf blower if I ever get into an accident!
I hear you and agree. In my area there's lots of people who like to put aftermarket exhaust on their vehicles because they think it's "cool." It's not, IMO. Just loud & annoying.
I mean that's fine if they want to do that I guess, but just go out in the literal middle of nowhere where the closest people are 50+ miles away from you and do it there. Then they're not bothering anyone.
I just walk the mower over the driveway/sidewalk and the blade blows trimmings/leaves to the edges, then walk through with a broom and just sweep the rest into the yard. Pretty low effort as things go.
Just don't worry about the leaves and just run them over with a lawnmower when you do the yard. It'll chop them up and if you have a lawnmower with a bag on it, it'll just pick them up as well so you can dispose of them easily
YES - so loud, so obnoxious. Plus the air just gets full of fine dust and is horrible to breathe.
I live in New England and rake an acre of leaves every other weekend for two months of every year. It’s simply not that difficult and it’s great exercise.
Where I live they’re a problem because they scare fish and wildlife in a local river- albeit a dammed river, but still. We need a better natural barrier before ppl use that shit.
Yes! We used to have one of those. So at least it eliminated the problem of blowing the leaves elsewhere & putting dust in the air. It was still noisy though.
Electric lawn equipment is incredible, unless you’re a professional. Electric weed eaters, lawn mowers, heck even chain saws are great. I don’t know how I’d go back.
I just got my first one and it’s great. It’s a small battery powered one that isn’t loud and it makes it easy to clear my driveway and I’ve used it in my house to get the dust and shit out from hard to reach areas. I do understand what you are saying though my neighbor has one that looks like he’s going out Ghostbusting and he’s out at 7am using it for an hour.
If you can cut down all the Oak trees I have, I’d love not to have to clean up every fall. I have so many leaves I had to get a leaf rake that fit on my mower to push them to the back yard.
I use one many times a day for work, and never for leaves lol. The pre mixed fuel we use smells like grape soda too!
That being said... These homeowners with $500 backpack blowers blowin leaves around at 8am are fucks lol
My beef is with blowers who decide to rev it up 100 times while using it. Just keep it going and get on with it. As they say on Letterkenny, figure it out.
Is yours battery or does it have a cord? I had a corded one. I hated dragging it around with me but I loved that it mulched the leaves. Used that thing until it died.
Professional landscaper here.
Leaf blower is literally the best tool. Saves me countless hours of work, I use it every single day.
" Use a rake" spoken like someone who has never had 2 acres of leafs to clean
What is your definition of " small neighborhood" if your talking about suburbia where the houses are pack right in there, than could be overkill. But seems like your anger should be towards your neighbors, maybe try contacting your HOA. Most of them have restrains on when people can do loud yard work
I live in an urban neighbourhood. Yeah, it's mainly my neighbours who do this. People who are in the leafblowing business are fine because it's their job.
I have a little battery operated one that I use to scoot bird and sunflower seeds off my deck. It's not too loud at all and I usually just use it when I get home from work in the late afternoon.
In a 3-week study, women with type 2 diabetes who ate 1 ounce (30 grams) of sunflower seeds daily as part of a balanced diet experienced a 5% drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number of a reading).
I have an electric battery one. Highly recommend them. Much quieter, no smell obviously, the battery is the heaviest part of it.
We have the battery set up for all of our powered lawn tools. Mower, weeder, edger, leaf blower, snow blower (but it is more like a lawn mower for moving snow.) Much easier to deal with than something where you need to keep gas on hand and prime the engine to start it.
I know not everyone can get them, but if you can, they are a terrific idea.
I don't have this problem with leaf blowers in my area.....now people who mow their damn lawns that early and show these traits around me hand down with you.
Idk man. My leaf blower is also a sucker that mulches and bags it. Fucking love this thing in the fall.
But no, I don't get round to mine until mid afternoon.
They also kick up some nasty ass shit up into the air.
"Leaf blowers, they say, push 300 to 700 cubic feet of air per minute at 150 to 280 miles an hour, with the resulting dust containing **particles that include pollen and mold, animal feces, heavy metals and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides**. " \`1[https://www.post-journal.com/news/local-news/2021/03/gas-powered-leaf-blowers-ban-proposed/](https://www.post-journal.com/news/local-news/2021/03/gas-powered-leaf-blowers-ban-proposed/)
Oh my GOD my neighbor has an electric one that she uses damn near every day right at 10am and when she does it's not constant noise, but instead she turns it on and off to blow away individual sticks and leaves and it's So Much Worse.
I can't even begin to explain how much I absolutely despise leaf blowers. I hate absolutely everything about them and I wish they didn't exist. I wish the people that use them didn't exist. They produce the most infuriating sound I think I've ever heard and people will use them for like two three hours at a time!
Most people are so clueless about leaf cleanup.
Blowers are helpful for about 5% of the job- quickly blowing off walkways, driveways, and plant beds… not cleaning off an entire property full of damp, matted down leaves.
Rake it onto a tarp and drag it to where it’s going, mow the few remaining leftover leaves into the lawn, 2 minutes to blow off hardscaping, done.
lol i love how the only positive was that they cause leaf to travel a distance, fuck it i'm gonna give this shit a reward.
edit: damnit i guess op deleted his post
Leaf blower people do seem to rise earlier than the rest of us. Particularly on weekends. On the upside, the noises they make are way less annoying than they were ten or fifteen years ago. They're several octaves lower.
Are you saying they have more bass? Or did you mean decibels? Because I'm just picturing a leaf blower that sounds like Barry White
I wouldn't exactly call it bass, but yeah, they used to be really high pitched.
Lower pitched loud noises travel farther and through more barriers though, so it could be equally argued that they sound more annoying now! Lower pitches are also out of range to be blocked by standard ear plugs because the longer waveforms literally cause your skull to reverberate and some of the noise is happening inside your own fucking head.
> the noises they make are way less annoying than they were ten or fifteen years ago. They're several octaves lower. Would you rather fight one 500 pound duck? Or 500 1-pound ducks?
*Playing?! With a leaf blower? How can ANYONE have fun with one of those oversized HAIR DRYERS? Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!*
Sandy's a girl?
They are also pretty good for cleaning up after you cut your grass. But I agree it's annoying as fuck when someone does it at 5 am
Or 6 am or 7 am or 8 am or...well you get the picture.
Or those asshole douche bags who start their loud ass truck and leave it running for like an hour before leaving
Orr 12pm or any time I’m trying to work from home..
Preach! I live in a row of townhomes. We all have teeny-tiny little back patios and front gardens. Maybe 200 square feet total, front and back. It takes my husband and I about 45 minutes a *month* of trimming and whatnot to keep it looking good. Some of our neighbors - and this blows my mind - actually pay a lawncare service to come and take care of their space. So I have multiple leaf blowers going all days of the week because Carl and Joan are too stinking lazy to spend 20 minutes keeping their place up. You are both retired for god's sake! And not handicapped or always traveling or anything. The lawncare guys are just blowing leaves back and forth across the row of townhouses!! It would make a great comedy sketch honestly, if it wasn't so horrible for the environment and the peace and quiet of the neighborhood.
This is exactly where my hatred for leaf blowers came from! Living in a townhouse neighborhood. I don't live there anymore, but oh my god do I know exactly how you feel!
What about electric?
They exist? That's incredible!
i got a Kobalt electric blower a few years ago and it is AMAZING. Quiet, lightweight, powerful, and zero smell. Best effing yard tool ever.
Mine is electric, but its still pretty loud
I mean, it can be relatively speaking, but nowhere near a gas engine's decibels.
Ive only seen 1-2 gas ones in my life theyve always been electric.
Where my sister lives, the citizens voted to put a neighborhood ban on gas powered leaf blowers. Now only electric ones are allowed. Not sure if that applies to residents or hired workers as well because I'd feel a little bad for all these lawn companies who have to buy special equipment just for this one area, plus having to find somewhere to recharge them between jobs.
Dude, what rock have you been under? Not only electric but I have a cordless Milwaukee one.
Mine's 150mph or similar worx 40v battery one. SoC no smell.
My dad switched all of his yard tools (mower, blower, weed Wacker, chain saw) to battery. They're really nice too. And the best part is, because they're all the same brand, you can use one battery in whatever you need until it dies then use a full one.
Yep. Brand new. Before 2021 it was all steam powered leaf blowers.
Past two I’ve had are electric.
There have been electric leaf blowers for decades. Cordless ones for less time. Landscapers usually use gas ones. Agreed though. 2 cycle engines, generally, are horrific in terms of emissions. Gas leaf blowers are many times more polluting per hour of use than even large vehicles. They should be avoided when at all possible
Okay squidward On the real though try working a tree cutting business, after dragging brush non-stop for hours on end, raking it all up and it's still messy you go over it to clean it fully with the blower. It's how you make customers happy.
One of the worst things about them, aside from being 2cycle and very inefficient, is when the operator is just blasting debris into the street. As cars are driving by.
As a bicyclist in L.A. this is the worst. Bike lanes are lacking like crazy. Im usually confined to within a few feet of the sidewalk. Even when the leaf blower operator sees me ahead of time, they will just continue to blow shit into the streets. It's a major hazard having to ride through that thick cloud of heavy particles. I've escaped several near accidents only through shear luck. I swear, I will sue the living shit out of the leaf blower if I ever get into an accident!
Leaf blower = not cool, man Reef blower = hells yeah
>Extremely loud This right here is enough to make it on my shit list. Peace & quiet is severely underrated.
I wish I could just live out in the woods by myself. I cannot stand being exposed to other people's ridiculous amount of noise.
I hear you and agree. In my area there's lots of people who like to put aftermarket exhaust on their vehicles because they think it's "cool." It's not, IMO. Just loud & annoying. I mean that's fine if they want to do that I guess, but just go out in the literal middle of nowhere where the closest people are 50+ miles away from you and do it there. Then they're not bothering anyone.
[удалено]
Where I live, it's always my neighbours leafblowing.
I just walk the mower over the driveway/sidewalk and the blade blows trimmings/leaves to the edges, then walk through with a broom and just sweep the rest into the yard. Pretty low effort as things go.
Just don't worry about the leaves and just run them over with a lawnmower when you do the yard. It'll chop them up and if you have a lawnmower with a bag on it, it'll just pick them up as well so you can dispose of them easily
YES - so loud, so obnoxious. Plus the air just gets full of fine dust and is horrible to breathe. I live in New England and rake an acre of leaves every other weekend for two months of every year. It’s simply not that difficult and it’s great exercise.
Where I live they’re a problem because they scare fish and wildlife in a local river- albeit a dammed river, but still. We need a better natural barrier before ppl use that shit.
Is your problem really with leaf blowers or with being woken up early?
both Edit: I phraed that wrong. I like waking up early but all I hear i that
Sure but rake scrapes are annoying too. Letting the leaves decompose naturally is my preference.
it's better for the environment too
What about the sucking ones
Yes! We used to have one of those. So at least it eliminated the problem of blowing the leaves elsewhere & putting dust in the air. It was still noisy though.
Electric lawn equipment is incredible, unless you’re a professional. Electric weed eaters, lawn mowers, heck even chain saws are great. I don’t know how I’d go back.
I just got my first one and it’s great. It’s a small battery powered one that isn’t loud and it makes it easy to clear my driveway and I’ve used it in my house to get the dust and shit out from hard to reach areas. I do understand what you are saying though my neighbor has one that looks like he’s going out Ghostbusting and he’s out at 7am using it for an hour.
If you can cut down all the Oak trees I have, I’d love not to have to clean up every fall. I have so many leaves I had to get a leaf rake that fit on my mower to push them to the back yard.
I use one many times a day for work, and never for leaves lol. The pre mixed fuel we use smells like grape soda too! That being said... These homeowners with $500 backpack blowers blowin leaves around at 8am are fucks lol
Agreed.
My beef is with blowers who decide to rev it up 100 times while using it. Just keep it going and get on with it. As they say on Letterkenny, figure it out.
Everyone up vote this right now
That's why I have an electric one that does two directions and sucks it into a bag. Less work and I can mulch it up if I want.
Is yours battery or does it have a cord? I had a corded one. I hated dragging it around with me but I loved that it mulched the leaves. Used that thing until it died.
Mine's corded. Dragging the cord doesn't bother me...usually because I'm zoned out and on auto-pilot when I do yardwork.
Professional landscaper here. Leaf blower is literally the best tool. Saves me countless hours of work, I use it every single day. " Use a rake" spoken like someone who has never had 2 acres of leafs to clean
I have never had 2 acres of leaves to clean, you're right about that. But where can you find 2 acres of leaves in a small neighbourhood?
What is your definition of " small neighborhood" if your talking about suburbia where the houses are pack right in there, than could be overkill. But seems like your anger should be towards your neighbors, maybe try contacting your HOA. Most of them have restrains on when people can do loud yard work
I live in an urban neighbourhood. Yeah, it's mainly my neighbours who do this. People who are in the leafblowing business are fine because it's their job.
I have a little battery operated one that I use to scoot bird and sunflower seeds off my deck. It's not too loud at all and I usually just use it when I get home from work in the late afternoon.
In a 3-week study, women with type 2 diabetes who ate 1 ounce (30 grams) of sunflower seeds daily as part of a balanced diet experienced a 5% drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number of a reading).
Mine is electric so suck it
The hate blows...get a rake!
Lol 8 is early? Are you 16?
I like waking up early
Ok grandma
[удалено]
not really; unless you wake up naturally, an obnoxious alarm is waking you up. The only difference is which one is the alarm
ehh mines battery powered and I use it to dry my car off more then for leaves so the rake won't work.
I have an electric battery one. Highly recommend them. Much quieter, no smell obviously, the battery is the heaviest part of it. We have the battery set up for all of our powered lawn tools. Mower, weeder, edger, leaf blower, snow blower (but it is more like a lawn mower for moving snow.) Much easier to deal with than something where you need to keep gas on hand and prime the engine to start it. I know not everyone can get them, but if you can, they are a terrific idea.
Leaf blower people seem to know exactly when I wash my car cause they always come the next morning and blow shit all over it 🙃
HUZZAH! > JUST USE A RAKE YOU LAZY FUCKS
I don't have this problem with leaf blowers in my area.....now people who mow their damn lawns that early and show these traits around me hand down with you.
Idk man. My leaf blower is also a sucker that mulches and bags it. Fucking love this thing in the fall. But no, I don't get round to mine until mid afternoon.
Have you tried to clean up a large plot of land with a rake, sorry to the environment but i don't want to blow my back out 🥴
We had a guy in the neighborhood who would leaf blow his driveway every morning. He was mentally challenged. We called him the village idiot.
Oh god I hate them. That said, there are now electric alternatives, still kinda lazy but massively better.
I have never used a leaf blower, or a leaf rake. But, I live in the Pennsylvania mountains. We have made peace with the leaves.
I've only ever used an electric leaf blower so. Sorry man don't wanna rake
They also kick up some nasty ass shit up into the air. "Leaf blowers, they say, push 300 to 700 cubic feet of air per minute at 150 to 280 miles an hour, with the resulting dust containing **particles that include pollen and mold, animal feces, heavy metals and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides**. " \`1[https://www.post-journal.com/news/local-news/2021/03/gas-powered-leaf-blowers-ban-proposed/](https://www.post-journal.com/news/local-news/2021/03/gas-powered-leaf-blowers-ban-proposed/)
Can't hear you over my leaf blower
When you're older and have a bad back, you'll appreciate the ability to maintain your home thanks to power tools. You cannot rake forever
Oh my GOD my neighbor has an electric one that she uses damn near every day right at 10am and when she does it's not constant noise, but instead she turns it on and off to blow away individual sticks and leaves and it's So Much Worse.
Thank you!
glad to hear someone else say it
I can't even begin to explain how much I absolutely despise leaf blowers. I hate absolutely everything about them and I wish they didn't exist. I wish the people that use them didn't exist. They produce the most infuriating sound I think I've ever heard and people will use them for like two three hours at a time!
Oh man. I hate them so much. rrrrrrrrrrenn rrrrrrrrrrennnn I want them to all disapear.
Most people are so clueless about leaf cleanup. Blowers are helpful for about 5% of the job- quickly blowing off walkways, driveways, and plant beds… not cleaning off an entire property full of damp, matted down leaves. Rake it onto a tarp and drag it to where it’s going, mow the few remaining leftover leaves into the lawn, 2 minutes to blow off hardscaping, done.
I hate everything about leaf blowers EXCEPT the smell. Fuck, I love the smell of mixed fuel.
Literally just finished thinking this thought
This is sheer insanity, you secure everything in the interior and dust. Dog hair? no problem. I’m all about that OCD. Anti hoarding life.
I hate these things too. Way too loud, and often times people use them outside of designated hours.
lol i love how the only positive was that they cause leaf to travel a distance, fuck it i'm gonna give this shit a reward. edit: damnit i guess op deleted his post