New Leaf Blower!

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 Depot ((With Jenn working for THD, I’m required to use the full correct name.)) 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.