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I hate those fucking things so much. To anybody who uses one: I hate you!
Fully agree! I’ve read that devices that run on electricity are not so loud.It’s the mobile ones running on fossil fuel that are so loud.Even with ear-plugs in it is distracting me to be productive or to relax.I’ve talked with people I know, and told them about the unbearable noise.Their response : “Yeah, but think about elderly people that could slip because of all the leaves”.Well, how did people cope with this decades ago when these loud devices were not super popular ?
I have an electric leaf blower. It is indeed significantly quieter than a two stroke gasoline powered one, albeit not exactly what you’d call “silent.”
I primarily use it to dry off my bikes after washing, and to blow dust off my shop floor and outside. Sweeping is for chumps. I also use it to remove the grass clippings from my sidewalks (I just blow them back into the grass) because the very same Karens who bitch about leaf blower noise are also the very same Karens who bitch about the sidewalks being “untidy” and getting grass clippings on their shoes.
Unfortunately, my leaf blower is not powerful enough to blow them away.
Lol I will never for a moment care about people complaining about grass clippings on my sidewalk. The wind will always take care of it in the end. You do you, I have nothing against it, that just made me laugh.
have we thought about all the elderly people that might get run over by vehicles they can’t fucking hear?
So we can’t use technology to make life easier and faster?
Sure you can be out there for 10 hours fighting the wind with a broom doing a 60% job or you could be done in 10 minute with a leaf blower and be 99% done. It does it better in a fraction of the time.
Fuck people for getting chores done and enjoying life eh?
Better use a scythe to cut your grass, no mowers for you….
When I wrote my comment I was thinking of the municipality workers with these gadgets in my area, sometimes using no ear protection! Hardly anyone at home, where there’s mostly just small gardens, uses these super noisy things.The city council probably thinks that they are saving a lot of money and time and giving their workers a much easier time. And like I wrote : I’ve read that devices running on electricity are quite silent. If there can be electricity poles for E.V. why not for this ?
My electric battery one is just as noisy as most gas ones. They just aren’t feasible for city work since they would need a genset to charge them anyways, or they would be having to need 60 batteries for one crew for a day.
So we can’t use technology to make life easier and faster?
I can rake a yard in half the time it takes you to blow your leaves into a pile. People here in California spend hours - HOURS - blowing around leaves. It’s NOT efficient.
Your aren’t getting as good of job done, that’s just reality, and maybe they should use a vacuum option instead? Same noise, more efficient.
What job exactly? What are you trying to achieve that would outweigh the noise and pollution, you’re creating?
People do still use reel mowers and such.
Golf courses, definitely. I managed a hardware store for a while and our primary customer for reel mowers, as well as sharpening services for the same, were golf courses.
That makes sense. In town I still see enough of them that they stand out, but these aren’t huge yards or anything either.
but to make them, and ship them to you is more destructive than a scythe.
That’s how stupid these arguments are. Forgetting the big picture while looking at a blade of grass.
mmmmm leaded gas, make my engine go brr more harderer, but make my brain go bonk, totally worth it.
So we can’t use technology to make life easier and faster?
Not when it makes the lives of others shorter and worse.
I mean, you CAN, just not without being a dick 🤷
Hard physical labor like raking and shoveling snow is directly linked to increased heart attacks, so that’s kinda disingenuous.
I really hope noise pollution in general becomes a bigger topic of conversations. Yes, I hate gas leaf blowers and they ruin so many spring and fall days. But what about my annoying neighbor who insists on revving his Corvette at 5:30am? I hear that damn car for a good five minutes as they are driving away from the neighborhood.
Most suburbs have noise ordinances for max decibels, if you can record it a few times and include the db at the time.
I think even skimming under the noise limit won’t remove the annoyance of these things. And why is it even necessary to blow grass clippings off the sidewalk? If it’s really that bad it didn’t take much more effort to just sweep them back on the grass.
I wish there was I could do that. But what am I supposed to do? Stand on the corner of a street with my phone out and a DB meter in hand?
There are apps to let your phone do both or more reasonable would be to set up a security camera to record your backyard or something innocuous, use it to file a report and if nothing happens from the police report take it to the city council to show they aren’t enforcing city ordinances. I’ve seen a few people take noise complaints to council to get it enforced.
Mowing lawns is killing pollinators.
People put so much energy into growing grass. Seeding, liming, fertilising, watering… so they can create endless, mindless busywork and destroy biodiversity.
Lawns were originally a status symbol. A “hey lol look at me I have enough land I don’t have to grow food.” Shameful that it took off as a defacto standard.
This. I am SO sick of lawn mowers! My neighbor does the lawns once every single week. She will spend all day mowing it and using weed whackers etc. I am so sick of the noise! I don’t want to always be forced to wear my noise canceling earbuds. I want to hear the birds and the wind for god sake…
Also, people driving slowly down the street with their car music so damn loud that you can hear/feel them coming 2 streets away because of the subwoofer…
But how else will you know how rad their taste in music is?
It’s so rad. The listener is so cool.
Mowing lawns is killing pollinators.
People put so much energy into growing grass. Seeding, liming, fertilising, watering… so they can create endless, mindless busywork and destroy biodiversity.
Lawns were originally a status symbol. A “hey lol look at me I have enough land I don’t have to grow food.” Shameful that it took off as a defacto standard.
Good point. As a matter of fact a friend of mine living in another country in Europe told me that in his country it is forbidden for people to have a garden and put only stones and tiles (sp?) in it so it cannot breath. In my country there has been a trend for many years that people turned from a garden with plants and flowers to a garden with just stones and zero green. This week I saw in an on-line newspaper that lots of people in my country are now getting rid of the stones and buying plants. The “help-the-bees” cry of help which some people have been talking about seems to finally take off with larger numbers! Fingers crossed.
I’m in the process of overseeding my yard with clover so I have an excuse to not mow nearly as often. Literally the first mow of the season was just to chop it down to give the clover room to grow.
I have a lot of clover covering my yard. I really love it when it blooms. My whole yard looks magnificent and I don’t mow for about 2 weeks as I enjoy the carpet of color.
Hell yeah. I love to hear that.
Thanks! I’ve been itching to get this done for a couple months (because I fucking love clover), but weather and waiting to see pollinators prior to mowing were keeping me from getting it done. Can’t wait for it to start growing!
I take advantage of not having an HOA and have curtailed lawn mowing to 3-4 “harvests” a year in order to comply with county ordinances. Clearly this is helping the local ecology as we have a robust population of lighting bugs every summer, unlike the neighbor’s yards.
That’s actually amazing. For real, thanks for sharing that. I love hearing about these decisions can have such a positive impact in our small corners of the world.
Leaf blowers strike me as a very American thing. People do use them here in the UK, but rarely
The US specializes in technologies that enable laziness
Me: opens windows
Saws, ATVs and motorcycles: Doom Blood Swamps noises
I like the German approach of having silent Sundays.
not just fucking leaf blowers, but mowers, weed wackers, and edgers as well, they’re all so fucking loud.
I can’t believe the house i currently live in is considered to be worth more than 150-200 thousand dollars. It’s 1.5-2x the price of that btw.
Electric lawn tools are pretty great. The blower is still pretty loud but everything else is comfortable without ear protection. And they don’t stink or require as much maintenance. I can’t see why they aren’t more popular.
yeah i can’t imagine why. I can see why ride on mowers aren’t, but thats only going to get better in the next 5 years lol.
Everything else can be replaced though, trimmers, edgers, blowers, everything.
I know it’s spring because that’s when the drone of small gas motors starts up. Non-stop mowers, blowers, trimmers, and chain saws.
I’ve started moving towards electric. Some of the newer, smaller equipment like trimmers have gotten really good with good power and longevity. I prefer it to gas. However, bigger equipment like mowers haven’t caught up yet, there are quite a few for smaller lawns, but bigger lawnmowers are quite expensive so far.
Hope that continues to improve.
E: it takes me an hour to do my lawn with a gas ZT mower, we have a large lot with lots of trees. Thank you, northeast US, for large lawns being in style when this house was built. Yes, we’ve looked/are looking at low/no-mow lawn alternatives. The closest in performance replacement mower in electric costs nearly $6k. It’s just not in the budget.
Honestly, if you have a relatively small yard, an electric one works great. I had cheap, battery powered Ryobi mower back when I had a yard. It lasted two years without an issue before I moved and didn’t need it anymore. I’ve definitely had gas mowers that cost more that started needing extra attention after the first year.
Mate I got my mom a ryobi 40v to cut her lawn and i can do the whole thing on a half a charge. If you need more, it can carry an additional battery on board and youre total capacity is as unlimited as gasoline.
I use a pair of snips to do the edges. No stupid fucking weed whacker is even necessary.
The future is electric.
I have the 40v Ryobi mower and it works great. Also have the 40v weed wacker and it works equally as well (I also have the pole saw attachment for it.) And I have the 18v leaf blower. All electric and no issues in the 4 years I’ve had them.
When I was younger I spent an afternoon hanging out with my grandfather. We sat on the porch of my fathers house smoking cigarettes. My mom came outside and asked me to clear the fallen leaves off the porch. Well, young me went to the garage and pulled out the awesome backpack leaf blower my Dad had. Proceeded to spend a few very noisy minutes trying to get some leaves out of a corner, when my grandfather laughed and said, “you know, sometimes the harder way is easier.” and handed me a broom. Took all of a 5 minutes to sweep everything off nicely, whereas I was getting nowhere blowing leaves every which way.
I don’t even own a leaf blower now, don’t need one.
Yeah, I am always surprised when I visit friends in the suburban parts of Germany. We live in an appartment in the middle of the city and it is so much calmer here. :)
But German suburbia at least has sundays when lawnmower (etc.) are illegal to be used.
The timing of this post could not be more perfect. I’m sitting at my desk at home, with the windows open for the first time this year, sipping coffee and browsing Lemmy… and the duet of leafblower and weedwhacker begins next door. The most infuriating part: the property in question is a NEVER-used artist’s studio/gallery that nonetheless gets multiple visits per week from landscapers/caretakers/contractors/etc. I’ve lived next to the property longer than the studio has even existed, and I’ve seen the owner once.
Funny, I was reading the post while my gardener was outside. At least they don’t stay long.
I used to have a neighbour who would use a leaf blower purely to blow away litter from his driveway, which would then blow back onto his driveway shortly after.
I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just use a brush like a normal person.
Related: AC. I live in an apartment complex in which each unit has a shitty, absurdly loud AC unit. Come 17 °C and one jackass ruins it for everyone else who might to sit outside or have their windows open. Between that and landscaping…
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