# Battery Powered Backpack Leaf Blowers



## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Has anybody here used these? If so, what are your thoughts?


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

I have an Ego backpack blower. I have several Ego tools so I have 3 different sized batteries. A small (2.0A), medium (5.0A) and large (7.5A) with two standard chargers and one fast charger. The large that comes with the blower will get you a realistic 20-40 minute run time with a combination of medium and high speed use (variably adjusted with a thumb knob and a button that jumps to max). It's a LOT quieter than a gas blower. Harness is comfortable with shoulder straps and a waist belt.

For normal post mowing cleanup it's great. For leaf cleanup it will depend on the size of your yard, whether the leaves are wet, and the amount of leaves. It's plenty powerful enough to move dry and wet leaves, even big piles of ankle deep coverage can be moved successfully.

The challenge is with battery life if you have a large yard or a large amount or wet leaves. So depending on your combination you may come up short with only one battery.

For comparison I have 10K yard with large mulched beds that easily add another 2K+. And I have many trees on the property and am surrounded on all sides by trees. Leaf fall is overwhelming (dozens of trash cans full and leaf bags every year). Last fall for the massive leaf drop I started with the small battery when it died it went on the fast charger; then used the medium and when it died it went on fast charger and if small was not yet done charging moved to standard charger. Then moved to the large. When large died, repeated cycle starting with small, then medium, at this point I'd have to keep the large on the fast charger to finish it up perhaps another 30 mins. This rotation got me around 90+ mins of work before I had to allow charging to catch up.

So bottom line:

It works well on standard cleanup, leaves and even stubborn wet leaves.

It's comfortable and easy to use.

It's quiet.

Battery life will be an issue for large yards or heavy work.

Buying a second battery is very expensive. It was noted recently on the hot deals thread that you can buy the handheld ego blower with a 5.0A battery for less than you can buy the 5.0A battery alone. So if you buy into the Ego family getting those extra batteries with the tools makes the decision much easier. If this is the only tool/battery you'd buy from Ego then I'd say it would work fine with a smaller yard.

But if you think you'd buy another tool/battery, even if a year or two later, then it would definitely work for a larger yard too.

Fyi - I have the mower, line trimmer, hedge trimmer, and backpack blower. I'm considering the chainsaw. Ruggedness and reliability have been good, and again the 3 batteries benefit heavy use but most of the time I only need a single battery to do what I need done in normal use.

And by the way it's the top-rated in consumer reports.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

@BigBlue , thanks for your reply! As I suspected, battery life and battery cost is the main issue. In late 2020, I bought two of the battery operated Toro tools - their lawnmower and chain saw. I am very happy with the performance of each - even battery life! However, as you mentioned with your leaf blower, the largest 7.5Ah battery cost more than the lawnmower itself! The upside is I can mow the whole lawn on 3/4 of a charge! The chain saw came with its own 2.5Ah battery, so I can use that as a backup if the big battery isn't enough.

The downside is that Toro does not make a battery powered backpack leaf blower, only a wimpy hand held blower. So now that I am effectively tethered to Toro because I have their tools and batteries, buying a different brand of leaf blower would mean an additional investment in their batteries too. So I am vacillating between biting the bullet and investing in a different brand and their expensive batteries, or waiting for Toro to come out with their own version sometime in the future. Oh well.

The bottom line is that battery technology has been slow in comparison to other aspects of green technology. For off-grid systems, solar panels have become quite inexpensive and efficient, but batteries which are necessary for storing the power are still heavy and expensive.


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

Completely understand and agree! It's a heck of a business model to get the consumer locked into their ecosphere of products. Because you'd buy that backpack blower from them if they had it even if it wasn't the best one just to leverage the batteries.

Maybe a million dollar idea: battery conversion kits.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

It's important to remember that battery is changing the configuration of our equipment in addition to the power source. Many of the handheld blower options are more powerful than the EGo backpack unit. Backpack battery systems combined with a lightweight handheld blower may become the more common configuration instead of having a semi-flexible tube connected to a backpack power unit.

https://egopowerplus.com/commercial-blower/
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/battery-blowers/bga200/
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/CBU01Z

The whole backpack battery solution doesn't help at all with cost - but the backpack is useful with other tools as well as long as you don't mind the tool being tethered to the backpack via a cord. Much like the contractor power tool segment, we'll see several instances where the battery is much more expensive than the tool itself.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

MasterMech said:


> It's important to remember that battery is changing the configuration of our equipment in addition to the power source. Many of the handheld blower options are more powerful than the EGo backpack unit. Backpack battery systems combined with a lightweight handheld blower may become the more common configuration instead of having a semi-flexible tube connected to a backpack power unit.
> 
> https://egopowerplus.com/commercial-blower/
> https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/battery-blowers/bga200/
> ...


I actually have an older Black & Decker hand-held corded leaf blower. It is quite powerful and as a result, there is an unpleasant force which pulls on my back. That is why I am looking for something I can wear as a back pack.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Deadlawn said:


> MasterMech said:
> 
> 
> > It's important to remember that battery is changing the configuration of our equipment in addition to the power source. Many of the handheld blower options are more powerful than the EGo backpack unit. Backpack battery systems combined with a lightweight handheld blower may become the more common configuration instead of having a semi-flexible tube connected to a backpack power unit.
> ...


Have you considered hiring the job out? When moving from NY, I hired a crew to come in and do a spring clean-up despite having the tools to do it myself. Was not very expensive, and saved me a ton of time. I lived in an Oak forest and two big cleanups annually kept the leaves from getting deeper but that was about it. :lol:


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

I just sold my battery powered Ego backpack blower and got a Stihl. The difference is night and day.

I still have numerous Ego tools but their backpack blower was not cutting it out for me.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

JerseyGreens said:


> I just sold my battery powered Ego backpack blower and got a Stihl. The difference is night and day.
> 
> I still have numerous Ego tools but their backpack blower was not cutting it out for me.


I see that there are now 4-cycle backpack blowers. I might go this route. I just hate the noise and smell of 2-cycle motors!


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

MasterMech said:


> Have you considered hiring the job out? When moving from NY, I hired a crew to come in and do a spring clean-up despite having the tools to do it myself. Was not very expensive, and saved me a ton of time. I lived in an Oak forest and two big cleanups annually kept the leaves from getting deeper but that was about it. :lol:


I used to hire it out, but it cost $400-$500 each cleanup. If I could get it done for half that I'd pay it in a heartbeat!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

BigBlue said:


> MasterMech said:
> 
> 
> > Have you considered hiring the job out? When moving from NY, I hired a crew to come in and do a spring clean-up despite having the tools to do it myself. Was not very expensive, and saved me a ton of time. I lived in an Oak forest and two big cleanups annually kept the leaves from getting deeper but that was about it. :lol:
> ...


That's outrageous! I have never hired a lawn service, so I had no idea what these guys charge these days.


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

Deadlawn said:


> BigBlue said:
> 
> 
> > MasterMech said:
> ...


Yeah and he was on the cheaper range. But in their defense I tried to look at it from their perspective: a crew of 5 for 4+ hours, plus machine time (mowers, blowers, line trimmers) doesn't seem too egregious (roughly $20/hour/person).


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

BigBlue said:


> Yeah and he was on the cheaper range. But in their defense I tried to look at it from their perspective: a crew of 5 for 4+ hours, plus machine time (mowers, blowers, line trimmers) doesn't seem too egregious (roughly $20/hour/person).


Well I guess it all depends on property size too. How much land do you have?


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## massgrass (Aug 17, 2017)

I bought the Ego with a 7.5 Ah battery on clearance at Home Depot last year. I like it a lot, but I agree that battery life can be a bit limited if you're dealing with a large amount of leaves, particularly wet leaves.

Last year I used it to clear the mess of leaves and pine needles that had covered the top of my street after a storm since I nearly wiped out there when riding my bike. It turned out that my fully-charged battery died before I could finish the job. I had to walk back home and grab my Hitachi gas-powered handheld to finish the job.

I rarely use my old Hitachi any more, but from now on I take that one if I'm clearing my neighbor's long driveway or the common areas in my neighborhood.


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