Autumn arrives quickly in Edmonton. One week the yard is fine, the next there is a layer of poplar and birch across the lawn, the driveway and the gutters, and it needs shifting before the first snow packs it down.
The trouble is that "leaf blower" covers everything from a light handheld unit to a commercial machine that will move wet leaves and gravel. Buy too small and you will spend your Saturday fighting it. Buy too big and you have paid for power you will never use.
Here is how we help customers work it out at the counter.
This is the single most useful question, and it settles most of the decision on its own.
Small city lot, up to a quarter acre. A handheld blower is almost certainly the right tool. Light, easy to store, and more than capable of clearing a lawn, a driveway and a patio. Anything larger is money spent on power you will not use.
Quarter acre to an acre. This is the middle ground and where most Edmonton homeowners sit. A more powerful handheld will manage it, but if you have mature trees, a long driveway or you find yourself clearing more than once a week in October, a backpack model will save you real time and shoulder ache.
An acre or more, acreage properties, or commercial work. A backpack blower is the sensible choice. The weight sits on your back and hips rather than your arm, which changes everything once you are past twenty minutes of continuous use. Run times are longer and the air volume is in a different class.
Ten years ago this was an easy answer. It is not any more.
Battery has come a long way. It starts instantly, weighs less, produces no fumes and is quiet enough that you can clear a yard early on a Sunday without a neighbour appearing at the fence. For a typical city lot, a modern battery blower will do everything you need and do it more pleasantly.
The considerations are run time and cold. A battery gives you a fixed window before it needs charging, so for larger properties you are looking at a second battery. Lithium batteries also lose capacity in the cold, which matters in Edmonton if you intend to use the machine into late autumn. Keep the battery indoors until you are ready to work.
Gas still wins on sustained power and continuous running. If you are clearing an acreage, working through wet leaves, or you need to run for an hour without stopping, gas remains the practical answer. Refuelling takes a minute, and there is no cold weather penalty.
A useful way to decide: if you would finish the job in under half an hour, battery is likely the better experience. If you would not, gas is likely the better tool.
Every blower is advertised with two figures, and most people focus on the wrong one.
MPH is air speed. It tells you how hard the air hits. High speed is what lifts wet, matted leaves off grass, or shifts material stuck to a driveway.
CFM is air volume. It tells you how much air is moving. Volume is what actually pushes a pile across a lawn and keeps it moving.
Speed without volume gives you a machine that lifts a leaf and drops it again. Volume without speed struggles with anything damp. You want a sensible balance of both, and between two similar machines, the one with the higher CFM will usually clear a yard faster.
For most Edmonton yards, wet leaves are the real test. We get enough autumn rain and early snow that leaves are rarely bone dry when you get to them, and that is where underpowered machines disappoint people.
A blower that feels fine in the shop feels different after forty minutes.
Handheld units are typically light enough that this is not an issue for short jobs. Once you pass about half an hour of continuous use, the difference between a handheld and a backpack becomes very obvious. The backpack harness spreads the load across your back and hips instead of hanging it off one arm.
If you are unsure, come and hold both. It takes two minutes and it tells you more than any spec sheet.
Noise matters more in a city neighbourhood than people admit until they own the machine.
Battery units are considerably quieter. Gas units are not, and if your clearing tends to happen early morning or in the evening, that is worth weighing. Whichever you choose, wear hearing protection. Prolonged exposure to a gas blower will damage your hearing, and it is the sort of damage you do not notice until it is permanent.
Worth knowing before you buy: if you also need a trimmer, a pole pruner or an edger, a combination system may make more sense than buying separate machines.
A KombiSystem or Yard Boss uses one powerhead with interchangeable attachments, including a blower. You buy the engine once and add tools as you need them. It costs less overall than four separate machines and takes up considerably less space in a garage.
Not the right answer for everyone, but a lot of customers wish they had known before buying their third separate tool.
If we had to give one answer for a typical Edmonton homeowner with a city lot and a couple of mature trees: a battery handheld blower, with a spare battery if you have more than a quarter acre.
For acreages, properties with heavy tree cover, or anyone clearing professionally: a gas backpack blower, without much hesitation.
For everyone in between, come in and try both. That is genuinely the fastest way to decide, and it costs nothing.
Whatever you buy, a few minutes of maintenance makes a real difference:
If something does go wrong, we repair outdoor power equipment of all makes in our own workshop, whether or not you bought it from us.
We have been selling and servicing outdoor power equipment in Edmonton since the 1960s, and we would rather sell you the right machine once than the wrong machine twice.
Browse our full range of handheld blowers, battery blowers and backpack blowers, or come in and try them.
Timberland Supply Inc. 11010 Mayfield Rd NW, Edmonton, AB T5P 4B6 780-452-1863 sales@timberlandsupply.ca
Monday to Friday 8.00am to 5.00pm, Saturday 9.00am to 2.00pm. Closed Sunday.
Found a better price somewhere else? Come and see us in store and we will beat it.
