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PRO
One of my pet hates in the summer is the over use of backpack blowers by Pro operator's, now I understand that a backpack system during the leaf season in maintenance gardening is a must, and it can have to run for a good amount of time to get the job done, however I was at a job today and the contractor a couple of gardens down was using his blower for a solid 3 hours, with the exception of fuel refills, and I have to say I drove past this particular garden before and after he'd finished and if I had taken a before and after pic you could not have seen a difference, what on earth could he have been doing other than polluting us all with excessive fumes and noise for 3 hours..... So my question is do you carry a backpack blower or handheld blower or both on the van? And if you carry both do you automatically grab the backpack blower for ease of use? Also do you as a company take into account the noise pollution given off by the machinery you use?Many thanks everyone

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  • I look after some very large sites with loads of trees. Handheld only so I have no choice. Backpack seems like a pig to store to! The ground area covered and volume of leaves I can shift on one tank is unreal (clearly work to hard).

    Sometimes it will sit in the van and only be fuelled Monday morning, lasting until Friday. I only use where necessary! Along with most of my powered tools. I even did some hedge trimming the other day with shears as it was early and the weather was good!
  • Sounds like an odd one, I can't imagine why you'd spend three hours with a backpack blower unless there was a reason!

    I don't even put mine in the van except for the autumn, and even then only for a couple of sites, but I don't do massive commercial contracts. I do strugle to understand people belting themselves in to backpack blowers for domestic gardens, but I always assume they are larger set-ups and it's a one-off for them.

    Regarding noise, we're a business. I couldn't work without power tools and make a living: it's all about speed as much as quality of the work, and a noisy blower used carefully is faster and more efficient than a broom. In and out as fast as possible, so the noise is kept to a minimum, but it's rare that hand tools are more profitable than power tools in reality.

  • hand held most of the time much more adaptable (angles, direction) even blowing borders out blow either way and get between plants better I can blow round after grass cutting faster, can have the job don by the time I get the back pack out and on

    I use the back pack mostly in winter for large gardens and car parks

  • PRO
    Hand held in the summer for grass cuttings. Hand held and billy goat in autumn for leaves.
    Same as James though 1 fuel fill a week is about normal until leaves drop.
  • My backpack is invaluable for autumn leaves but it's been in storage since Christmas and most likely won't be coming out until October. I carry a hand-held for the rest of the year but only use it for clearing grass cuttings off of paths or as a vacuum for sucking up the lawn edge and topiary clippings.

    I had an argument once with a client's neighbour about leaf blowers. He mentioned an "article" in the Daily Mail which turned out to be an opinion column by John Humphreys and it was obvious that Mr Humphreys has never had to clear a single autumn leaf in his life. I ignored the neighbour, there's no way I'm clearing an acre of garden of leaves with a rake.
    • John Humphrys made a completely ill informed prick of himself in that article. I thought journalists were supposed to actually research their chosen subject not just spout shite in the daily mail because some groundsmen  are disturbing their peace.

      If you buy a house next to a park then at some point you are going to hear garden machinery being operated.

  • PRO
    Completely agree, we as pro's cannot do our job without machines, they are essential, when I asked about noise pollution I meant more from the point of view of buying specific machines that have lower noise levels To make life slightly more bearable for clients neighbours when we are on site all day?
    • PRO
      When I say neighbours I include in this residential, businesses and wildlife..
    • PRO

      That is one of the reasons i have been running Pellenc tools for over four years now. The reduction in noise makes working much more bearable for me and any one in the vicinity. I can't see myself ever going back to 2 stroke - makes me cringe just thinking about it.

      • PRO

        Is the Pellenc setup still going strong?

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