How Leaf Blowers Work
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In the Beginning
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The first machines that we know as leaf blowers were developed as pesticide fumigators. By removing the chemical reservoir, a creative owner could convert the machine for clearing leaves and other light debris. By the late 1970's, the leaf blower was being marketed. At one point, someone suggested reversing the way the machine was used by putting a bag on the exhaust end of the machine, making it a vacuum as well as a blower---even a light-duty snow blower---and they sold like crazy. Today, they can be found in models sized from hand held gas and electric to walk-behind and tractor-mounted models.
The Basics
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A leaf blower is basically a two-cycle gas engine (or electric engine) that powers an impeller, a set of blades that draws air in one end of the machine and out the other. The motor and impeller pull the air through a channel that opens under (usually) the blower housing on handheld machines or the sides of larger machines through. Air is drawn in through an air filter to protect the engine and impeller and channeled out through the front of the machine which is, essentially, like the exhaust on a jet engine. The "exhaust" end is used to blow leaves away. The bigger the job or longer the time the machine will be used, the more horsepower is required because the small two-cycle gas engines that run leaf blowers are rather inefficient. Convertible blowers allow the removal of the blower nozzle and attachment of a bag to catch leaves vacuumed up through the intake end of the blower. Unfortunately, the combination of the engine and the exhaust makes for a lot of noise---as much as 100 decibels for the operator according to EPA studies and about 70 decibels for the neighbors. Electric motors are quieter but have not yet been developed with sufficient power to operate the larger machines.
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Power
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Smaller leaf blowers come with either gas or electric motors, but the larger units use a two-cycle internal combustion engine. The pistons in these engines complete the process of fuel intake, compression, power and exhaust in two strokes of the piston instead of four as in a "four stroke" engine. Oil is mixed with gasoline in a two-cycle engine. The difference in the fuel intake system makes a more compact engine, but it also means that some un-combusted fuel is expelled along with the exhaust, leading to the release of relatively more pollution per gallon of fuel than the larger four-cycle engines. Although the pollution and the noisy nature of the two-cycle engine have resulted in many manufacturers phasing out the motor in larger lawn equipment such as lawn mowers, it is still used in small tools like the leaf blower where its better power-per-weight relationship makes it a more practical choice.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Sears
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Comments
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all I want to know is do the waste exhaust gases from the engine eg carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (normal exhaust from a petrol engine) get vented down the blower funnel? Or is there a seperate silencer/baffle exhaust.
