Last Updated on October 2, 2023 by Kyle Whitley
A battery powered backpack leaf blower is essentially a blower and motor that are attached to a backpack frame. The blower forces air into a tube that is mounted usually to the right hand side of the blower. The tube has a trigger assembly where you can adjust the speed of the blower.
With a battery backpack blower, you can work longer with fewer problems than other types of leaf blowers. You won’t have to set up an electrical cord, and there’s no need to worry about reaching. Since the main unit hangs from your back, you can carry the electric motor, and batteries around more easily, and use the machine for much more time.
Since it is electric, you won’t be breathing in toxic emissions and your hearing will thank you for using a much quieter leaf blower.
Table of Contents
Why You Need a Good Battery Powered Backpack Blower
A battery powered option is a good choice for most homeowners. Battery powered options are less expensive, but require charging. Gas-powered options provide more power, but also require maintenance.
Electric powered blower are easier to use, quieter, cleaner, and light. Battery powered blowers are easy to use, quiet, clean, and lightweight.
Battery Powered Tool Advantages and Disadvantages
There are many advantages to using battery powered outdoor equipment in general, and these same advantages apply to battery powered backpack blowers as well.
Advantages
- Little to no maintenance
- No fuel to maintain
- Less Noise than a gas leaf blower
- No emissions
- Less Weight than a gas leaf blower
Disadvantages
- battery runtime
- cost of extra batteries
I own several battery powered leaf blowers, and they eat batteries like a kid eating candy. I have a two (well three RYOBI leaf blowers if you include my string trimmer attachment), and they all eat through batteries relatively quickly.
My two 40V leaf blowers run through a 4ah or 5ah battery in around 15 -20 minutes easily. I have an 18v leaf blower/sweeper and it does actually run quite a long time with a 4ah battery, maybe 30-40 minutes.
All that being said it takes me way longer than 20 minutes to blow off my yard. I do have a larger lawn to clean up, and it takes around 4 full batteries to complete the task.
Noise Levels
Leaf blowers make noise, and gas leaf blowers make a lot of noise. The noise of these devices isn’t always appreciated by neighbors.
Electric leaf blowers are much quieter than gas-powered ones and don’t pollute the air as well. Some cities are now requiring the use of electric blowers instead of gas-powered ones.
While battery or electric leaf blowers are far from quiet, they are much quieter than gas models. I often (though I don’t recommend this) run my blowers without hearing protection for short runs like blowing off my driveway or pool deck. They are really that quiet.
Always wear hearing protection when operating any kind of outdoor power equipment.
CFM or MPH for Leaf Blower
CFM (cubic feet per minute) or MPH (miles per hour) is more important with a leaf blower. Well they are both important, but in my opinion, the CFM number is more important in the actual movement of leaves.
The good thing is with a backpack blower you will more than likely get good CFM and MPH numbers. Backpack blowers are usually a manufactures top-end model. So they generally have higher-end specifications.
Weight Management
Hand held battery powered leaf blowers can be heavy. Moving the weight of the blower to the shoulders and back with a backpack-style blower helps distribute the weight so that you can keep working for a longer period of time.
Leaf blowing is a physical task. You are moving around your lawn or yard sweeping back and forth to blow the leaves in your desired direction. Being able to do that with less fatigue is no brainer, and backpack blowers help.
Adjustable Speed Settings
The slowest speed gives you the most time before your battery dies. The fastest speed drains your battery faster than any other setting.
So an adjustable speed definitely helps with extending the life of the batteries, as I mentioned earlier are the main weakness in leaf blowers are the batteries they consume.
An adjustable throttle will allow you to conserve battery power and you also will be able to adjust to areas in your lawn where you might not need wide open throttle like around flower beds for example. Sometimes a more delicate touch is needed.
Battery and Charger
Most leaf blowers include a battery and a charger. You may be able to borrow a battery from another tool, such as a hedge trimmer or weed eater. Also, there really is no need to purchase another charger if you already have one.
Leaf blower batteries need to be replaced frequently. This means that you’ll need to keep a few charged and on the ready when blowing a large number of leaves. I have multiple chargers and when I am blowing a lot of leaves I might have two chargers going at the same time so my batteries are being recharged as I am using fresh ones in my blower.
However, I would recommend if for instance you already have an EGO trimmer that you might want to purchase an EGO backpack blower. The same goes for other brands like Greenworks, Sthil, or RYOBI. You will want to stay in the battery echo system you have already invested in to save you some money.
Buying a tool by itself is much cheaper than buying a tool and batteries.
Battery Powered Backpack Leaf Blower Manufactures
Those are just some of the many outdoor power tool manufactures that make battery powered backpack leaf blowers.
Summing it Up
A battery powered backpack leaf blower is a great addition to your outdoor power tool collection. They are quiet, powerful, and back saving tools that can get those leaves blown and cleaned up in no time.
I highly recommend getting one if you have a large lawn or you need to move a lot of leaves quickly. Trust me your arms and back will thank you
