9 of the Best Leaf Blowers to Clean Up Your Yard in a Hurry
By now, if you live in a climate with deciduous trees, you’re probably seeing leaves falling at rapid speeds. While they undoubtedly make for a beautiful autumn sight and can create a nice micro-ecosystem for critters in the area, they can also wreak havoc on your yard, drains or roof, as thick mats of leaves may kill the grass, encourage pests and fungus and clog your drains and gutters. If you’re wondering what to do with them all, it’s high-time you invest in one of the best leaf blowers around. Not only can these machines help you save time when it comes to cleaning up your property, they can give both your back and legs a much-needed break from manual raking.
We’re here to help you weed out of the best of these machines from the pack. But before you skip ahead to our list, here are a few helpful things to know about purchasing a new leaf blower.
How Do Leaf Blowers Work?
Leaf blowers operate on the basis of something called centrifugal force. If you're going, "Huh?", that’s when power is pushed outward from the center of a spinning object and away from its source. In this case, the spinning object is the motor-powered fan blade, which first pulls in air from the outside before pushing it through a tube-like structure to create a jetstream of air that can move leaves and other debris around.
How Much Are Leaf Blowers?
Leaf blowers can vary in price depending on the brand and how much power you require (most electric models range between 7 and 12 amps). Generally, a corded electric leaf blower can cost around $50, whereas a battery-powered cordless option might be a little pricer, running you upwards of $100. The most expensive leaf blowers tend to have gas-powered engines and can cost more than $200, plus the price of gasoline.
What Are the Different Kinds of Leaf Blowers?
The most common types of leaf blowers have electric motors, battery-powered motors or gas-powered engines.
Electric: Electric leaf blowers rely on long extension cords to get their power. While they may seem a little inconvenient when it comes to mobility, they tend to be lighter in weight and quieter than gas models, more powerful than cordless models and release no harmful emissions into the air.
Battery-powered cordless: This option has many of the same benefits of an electric leaf blower, including a light build (usually less than 10 pounds) and quiet operation, only without the cumbersome extension cord, since it’s powered by a rechargeable battery.
Gas-powered: If you're looking for ultimate power when it comes to taking care of those pesky leaves, then a gas-powered leaf blower is probably your best bet. Although, with great power comes heavier weight, more noise and harmful air pollution due to the burning gas and fuel. In fact, a 2011 test by Edmunds found that a commercial-grade leaf blower emitted more pollution than several car models. Yikes!
Now that you are ready to battle those fall leaves, check out our list of the best leaf blowers on the market to keep your yard looking fall-tastic.
The Best Leaf Blowers at a Glance
Best Brand-Name Leaf Blower: BLACK+DECKER Axial Leaf Blower
Most Versatile Leaf Blower: Papaco Cordless Leaf Blower
Quietest Leaf Blower: Ryobi Whisper Series Cordless Leaf Blower
Longest Leaf Blower Run Time: EGO Power+ Cordless Leaf Blower
Best Lightweight Leaf Blower: WORX WG543 Cordless Leaf Blower
Best Backpack: Schröder SR6400-L Backpack Leaf Blower
Best Leaf Blower Battery: Greenworks 2411902 Cordless Leaf Blower
Most Powerful Leaf Blower: Hyper Tough Leaf Blower and Vacuum
Most Efficient Leaf Blower: Worx WG584.9 Cordless Leaf Blower
RELATED: 5 Things to Do With All Those Fall Leaves You Just Raked
1. BLACK+DECKER Axial Leaf Blower
Best brand-name leaf blower
If you prefer to stick with a brand name you know, then this electric leaf blower from BLACK + DECKER is the option for you. At 7 pounds, it’s light enough to hold onto with ease, but still powerful enough to clear your yard of all kinds of debris. This baby's got a whopping 9 amps of force that the company says can blow leaves at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour. You can also take advantage of the built-in scraper, which can be used to remove any debris, grass or dirt that might require a little extra man—or woman!—power to unstick from the ground before you're able to blow it away.
2. Papaco Cordless Leaf Blower
Most versatile leaf blower
With six different speeds of airflow, this machine can do much more than rid your yard of falling foliage. Depending on which mode you set it to, this 5.5-pound pick can also target dust, light snow and even pet hair—a big plus for pet owners dealing with lots of shedding. It also has a pair of detachable air tubes—one with a wide opening and one with a narrower opening—that can help you reach difficult areas.
3. Ryobi Whisper Series Cordless Leaf Blower
Quietest leaf blower
Whether you’re trying to be conscious of your neighbors or you don’t particularly enjoy the whir of a loud blower, the new Ryobi Whisper Series will be right up your alley. While most leaf blowers clock in around 70 to 75 decibels, this one emits just 59, making it one of the quietest models around. It’s cordless, so it won’t release any nasty pollutants, and it has a turbo button for when you really need to get down to business.
4. EGO Power+ Cordless Leaf Blower
Longest leaf blower run time
There's powerful, and then there's this leaf blower, which can reportedly produce an airflow of up to 180 miles per hour (for context, that’s as strong as a category 5 hurricane!) and run for up to 200 minutes on the low setting. Because of that, it can blow away much more than leaves—it can also rid your property of soggy debris, mud, snow and even rocks. It's battery-powered, meaning that it's light (6.8 pounds) and less harmful to the Earth as its gas counterparts.
5. WORX WG543 Cordless Leaf Blower
Most lightweight leaf blower
This battery-powered gadget uses something called sonic turbine tech, which the company says enables it to use less battery while spinning out more air. It also has two airflow options—a faster, narrow stream and a slower, wider stream—to direct power how and where you need it. Perhaps most impressively, it manages to do all this with a design that's ultra-slim and manageable—we're talking just 3.7 pounds without the battery.
6. Schröder SR6400-L Backpack Leaf Blower
Best backpack leaf blower
This leaf blower will not only get the job done, it will make you feel like a proton pack-wearing ghostbuster. Featuring padded straps that allow for comfortable back support, this model's backpack design means you won't have to support its full 19.5-pound weight with just your arms. Better yet, it’s EPA approved for California and the U.S., according to Schröder. Its two-stroke motor is said to emit air speeds as high as 230 miles per hour, too—yowza!
7. Greenworks 2411902 Cordless Leaf Blower
Best leaf blower battery
This is an ideal choice if you have a lot of lawn tools. That's because the battery pack that fits this leaf blower will also work on more than 40 different tools from the brand. When placed inside this tool, the battery will reportedly give you enough juice to tackle a half-acre-sized yard and can quickly be recharged if you run out of power. Better yet, this blower is no muss, no fuss, since you won't have to change any oil or filters.
8. Hyper Tough Leaf Blower and Vacuum
Most powerful leaf blower
Some leaf blowers, well, simply blow. Others, however, blow and suck, and that's just what this model does. Featuring an ultra-powerful motor that can move air at up to 250 miles per hour (!) and a vacuum that will hoover leaves up before turning them into mulch, this is a two-in-one tool that will “leave” your yard sparkling. It comes with a collection bag for up to 1.2 bushels of debris, and conveniently weighs only 7.5 pounds.
9. Worx WG584.9 Cordless Leaf Blower
Most efficient leaf blower
Tackle a large lawn or just clear your property of unwanted debris faster with this wide-mouthed leaf blower. The larger opening at the end of the tube allows three different speeds of air pass through, giving you the option for a more passive stream for smaller spots or a "turbo stream” for a bigger blast. With no cord to get tangled up in, it's also user-friendly—just note that you’ll have to purchase the battery separately.
RELATED: The 7 Prettiest Places to See Fall Foliage Near New York City
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