Emissions Test: Car vs. Truck vs. Leaf Blower (Edmunds)

[usonian]

You can guess where this is going, but no spoilers. They have the receipts from the fancy AAA testing lab.

https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-car-vs-truck-vs-leaf-blower.html

It would have been easy to load this test in favor of the vehicles by hand-picking the cleanest combustion-powered vehicle we could find. No, only the biggest, baddest truck will do, and they don't come much bigger or badder than the 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Crew Cab. Acting as a counterweight in perception to this pickup is our long-term 2012 Fiat 500.

[pwb]

1. No Catalytic converters on the leaf blowers?

.

[usonian]

2. Lol! It would skyrocket the cost of one.

and besides, since none exist, an unfair comparison.

In the "old days" it cost me $300 to replace a stolen one on a Tacoma. Can't imagine what one would cost now, nor one for a garden tool.

Figure in Ryobi's R&D cost to design and build!!!

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Lost in this discussion is Carbon Dioxide

The tests measured NMHC, NOx & CO, leading to this startling comparison:

Let's put that in perspective. To equal the hydrocarbon emissions of about a half-hour of yard work with this two-stroke leaf blower, you'd have to drive a Raptor for 3,887 miles, or the distance from Northern Texas to Anchorage, Alaska.

A quick bit of common sense: What are the capacities of the fuel tanks on these vehicles and leaf blowers? How many times will that “Raptor” tank be filled on that drive? How much fuel will be burned? How much CO₂ will be created? How much fuel will be burned during that "half-hour of hard work?”

Don’t get me wrong. First off, I hate leaf blowers (of all kinds.) Secondly, if I used a leaf blower (I don’t) it would be electric.

https://egopowerplus.com/power-blowers/

[usonian]

7. All my power tools are electric.

It's fire prevention time here in the foothills and there's so much buzzing going on.

I cleared acres (so it feels) of brush (the 6-10 ft. kind) over time with loppers and different electric chain saws. My neighbor said I did it "in stealth mode".

My uncle was the small gas engine wizard. I can't get them to start, so I don't.

[flvegan]

3. 2011 article?

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Perhaps. I can't find a date on it. Does that matter?

Has leaf blower technology changed significantly (other than the introduction of electric leaf blowers?)

[flvegan]

8. Offers some context.

Date:
https://www.edmunds.com/about/press/leaf-blowers-emissions-dirtier-than-high-performance-pick-up-trucks-says-edmunds-insidelinecom.html

While I'm unsure about improvements in small engine emissions (or the assumed lack thereof) I'd question if the difference (leaf blower v vehicle) was even greater with improved vehicle emissions over the past 14 years.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. I share your suspicion (i.e. that vehicle "emissions" have improved in the years since then)

However, as I pointed out, the article does not look at CO₂. So, I think it’s kinda misleading anyway.

At this point, I think battery technology is good enough that people should be kissing their old two-stokes goodbye.

[flvegan]

12. Speaking only for myself

I've thankfully long embraced rechargeable tools, including my lawnmower and leaf blower. I very much agree that battery technology is quite good at this point, within reason. If I had 20 acres to tend to, I would probably think differently.

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. Some years back, my (elderly) father got tired of fighting with his old gas lawn mower and wanted an electric

After doing some research, I recommend an E-Go Power+ (it was new on the market, but Consumer Reports had a glowing review.) We bought one, and were immediately impressed with its design & engineering.

Of its battery life, he said that after mowing one lawn, it needed recharging, and, so did he. He put the battery on the charger, and took a break. When he felt he was ready to get back to work, so was the mower.

If I had a large lawn to mow, I would purchase two batteries, and swap them between the charger and the mower. By the time the first was drained, the second would be charged.

To mow 20 acres, I might get one of these: https://www.egocommercial.com/products/pgx-commercial-charging-bank-kit-pgx3100k

[RockRaven]

4. Gas leaf blowers are banned in my area for air quality reasons.

There were programs to subsidize the transition to battery/electric.

IIRC, there is a future date when gas lawn mowers will also be banned. I didn't pay too much attention to the date because we got rid of our lawn (and mower) years ago.

[hatrack]

9. I always wondered . . . .

How many Waspmasters (because that's what I call homeowners who own these buzzing monstrosities) also have gym memberships so that they can get regular, gentle upper body workouts?

Still raking after all these years . . .

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. Yeah, but do you do it every week?

Me, I’m a great fan of “mowing the leaves” (some people call it mulching.) Why haul away all of those nutrients, and then spread fertilizer to replace them?

[NNadir]

14. That's interesting. I have a cordless electric mower with which I mow the leaves for mulch.

I also have an electric cordless snowblower, because I have finally reached an age where shoveling the walk will screw up my joints.

I have an corded electric hedge trimmer I use two or three times a year. Electricity on my grid has a carbon intensity 361 grams CO₂/kWh over the last 72 hours according to the electricity map as of this writing which is likely to typical for the time my mower is in use. I have show by appeal to a paper that on my grid, an electric car has a greater carbon impact than a gasoline car, if as one does in an LCA study, one includes embodied energy.

Since a lawn mower is much smaller than a car, it may be true that the embodied energy will be smaller, and thus the carbon impact lower. I let my lawn and yard go wild in places, and hose parts I do mow, I mow infrequently. I'm sure my neighbors are unhappy at times, but that's just too bad.

Most people around here use lawn services. I would never use them. Sometimes they mow wild plants, and their always doing stuff like pouring fertilizer on grass, "weed killers" (The "weeds" on my property are not weeds if I like them) I cover my poison ivy outbreaks with mulched grass.

I'm not happy with my grid, of course, but my candidate for Governor, Mikie Sherill is open to new nuclear reactors in New Jersey. That would make electric devices cleaner.

[taxi]

15. There have been advancements made in outdoor power equipment motors. Two ways are scavenging and stratification.

Scavenging is clearing the exhaust gasses from a cylinder, and stratification adds passages to the intake side of a motor to allow a charge of fresh air into the crankcase. This reduces the amount of unburned mixture flowing through the motor.

The stratification of the fresh charge intake has a positive effect on engine performance parameters and reduction of the toxicity of exhaust gases (Fig 7.). ... Reduction in the direct losses of the fuel mixture by blowing is reflected in the reduction of emissions of unburned hydrocarbons CH from the exhaust gases by 25-30%. The content of carbon monoxide CO on the power mode is reduced by 1.5 times.

https://trans-motauto.com/sbornik/2015/1/03.A%20STUDY%20OF%20CHARGE%20STRATIFICATION%20IN%20THE%20TWO-STROKE%20ENGINE%20WITH%20GASOLINE%20INJECTION.pdf

There are some more advanced motors that operate without crankcase oil and require mixed fuel to run but have valves and operate on the Otto cycle.

In summary, no case can be made that motors of this type are a solution to excessive emissions, or that battery technologies are not the direction we need to promote. As advances are made consumers will make better choices.