I bought a new tool today; I’m very happy with it. This is what it looks like after the first two hours of use in a pollen-rich environment.
With my back issues ongoing, I’m not in shape to do any significant raking, so I splurged for the most powerful leaf blower that The Home Depot1 had on the shelf. This is the Echo PB-500T and I spent $300 on it. A wonderful $300.
The previous leaf blower I owned was a Homelite and I economized a bit on price when I purchased it. Alas, I regret that decision. Like hard drives, you’ll always need more than you think from a leaf blower. I would classify it after several years of use as “slightly anemic” and while it would do the job, it just couldn’t handle all that I wanted it to (thus the needing to rake).
Fortunately, the Homelite died and forced me to get a new blower. Knowing I needed more oomph than previous, I didn’t flinch at price, and I’m glad I did. I spent two hours blowing a winter’s worth of crap and leaves to places where I don’t mind them being, and now I feel like my yard doesn’t hate me. Which is important if you’ve ever seen Poltergeist. It’s also important because I wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of the work I did today with the old leaf blower, and thus would have had to hire someone. Therefore, I saved at least $100 already. This is how I justify my purchases.
The one issue I have with the Echo so far is that it randomly stopped, twice. If it continues to do that I’ll post about it.
An interesting aside is that the Homelite I owned was rated for 400 cubic feet per minute (cfm) at 170 mph while this Echo is rated at 450 cfm at 162 mph. If these numbers are accurate (and I have no method of evaluating that) then that extra 50 cfm makes a huge deal. I estimate that this blower is at least a third again more effective than the old one.
- With Jenn working for THD, I’m required to use the full correct name. [↩]