Last Updated on October 2, 2023 by Kyle Whitley
It’s not just lawns that require maintenance. Leaves also need to be cleaned up from around your house and yard. A battery-powered or corded electric leaf blower is perfect for this job. Let’s take a look at a battery powered leaf blower vs electric corded leaf blowers.
Table of Contents
- 1 Corded Or Cordless Blower? What Is Best For me?
- 2 What’s The Difference?
- 3 Advantages And Disadvantages Of Corded and Cordless Leaf Blowers
- 4 Summing it Up: Battery Powered Leaf Blower vs Electric
Corded Or Cordless Blower? What Is Best For me?
Whether to use a corded or cordless blower depends entirely on what you want out of it. If you’re looking for mobility then a cordless model might be best for you. A corded model might better suit your needs if you prefer endless runtime for longer tasks. So let’s take a look at both options.
What’s The Difference?
Cordless blowers require batteries, which adds weight and cost to them. What you gain in mobility you give up with lower cost and endless power.
Corded blowers are lightweight and only require a wall plug so that you can power the blower. You can get farther away from the power source if you use an extension cord which can expand your range.
So the big difference is the power source and the mobility of the blower itself.
However, there are some things that you should consider before making your decision. This article aims to give you a better understanding of both types of machines.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Corded and Cordless Leaf Blowers
Both corded and cordless blowers are great for moving leaves and debris around your home, but both have advantages and disadvantages.
You have to choose between runtime and mobility. Corded blowers have a nearly endless runtime, but you are tethered to your nearest power outlet, and this might not be a bad thing if your yard or the area you are blowing leaves from is relatively small.
If not, then you will have to string together extension cords to get you around the area you are blowing so that you can complete the work.
On the other hand, cordless blowers can be taken anywhere, but you have a runtime equivalent to the number of battery packs you have on hand. Recently, there have been great strides in the capacities and motors on these blowers, giving them greater runtimes.
Let’s look at the different types of blowers to see which one might be right for you.
Types of Leaf Blowers
There are three types of electric blowers we need to take a look at today.
- Corded electric blowers
- Cordless or battery-powered blowers
- Battery-powered backpack blowers
These different blowers come in all ranges, from $60 – $800 or more. The corded models are the cheapest, and the battery-powered backpack blowers are the most expensive. The higher-end blowers generally have higher specs for mph (miles per hour) and cfm (cubic feet per minute), which are critical to leaf blower performance.
Corded Electric Leaf Blowers
Leaf blower manufacturers have been trying to make cordless models since the 1990s. But it wasn’t until 2010 that the technology became reliable enough to warrant widespread adoption. And now, there are some pretty good options out there.
Corded leaf blowers are manufactured by pretty much every popular outdoor power tool company. There are great models from Toro, GreenWorks, Worx, RYOBI, and Black and Decker. Toro makes a particularly popular model that seems to be a perennial favorite.
Corded blowers are basic, generally packaged with the blower body and the nozzle to direct the airflow. Extension cords are a must if you want to use the blower at distances greater than just a few feet.
Cordless or Battery Powered Leaf Blowers
A cordless blower is a tool used to clear leaves and grass clippings off your lawn. They are often powered by rechargeable batteries and come with either single-speed or variable-speed settings.
Cordless leaf blowers are manufactured by pretty much every popular outdoor power tool company. There are great models from Toro, DeWalt, Makita, EGO, GreenWorks, Worx, RYOBI, HART, and Milwaukee.
Most of these blowers will be available as combos with the tool and battery or just the tool. If you have already bought into a particular brand you might save quite a bit of money by sticking with a blower for the same manufacturer so that you don’t have to buy new batteries.
Battery-Powered Backpack Leaf Blowers
Leaf blower manufacturers have been making gasoline-powered backpack blowers since the early 80s. In the last few years battery, powered backpack blowers are starting to hit their stride with most of the major battery-powered outdoor tool manufacturers.
The most common type of battery-powered backpack blower uses rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Some blowers opt for using the tool lines standard batteries plugged into the backpack blower, such as the models for RYOBI and HART.
Some newer models use backpack-style battery packs that power the handheld cordless blower like EGO and RYOBI is currently used on some top-end models.
Where there is a large single battery or several smaller batteries that are used together to provide power. These new hybrid style models give you greater battery capacity while allowing a lightweight handheld blower.
Advantages Of A Cordless Leaf Blower
Leaf blowers are great tools for homeowners. They help you clear leaves, grass clippings, and other debris from your yard without using gasoline. Cordless leaf blowers seem to be the most popular electric leaf blower.
I agree I currently have 3. It seems like something always needs to be blown off, the deck, the driveway, or the back of my truck. Here are some of the advantages of cordless leaf blowers.
Mobility
Cordless leaf blowers are great for homeowners who want to clear leaves from their property. These compact, lightweight, and portable machines make moving them around your yard easier. They have no cords, so mobility is king.
Versatility Is A Considerable Feature
Cordless leaf blowers can be used for all kinds of tasks, not just blowing leaves around the yard. You can do some snow removal, clean your gutters, and even clean the dryer vents.
Quieter Than Gas with Equal Power
Cordless blowers are typically quieter than gas models because they use don’t have a noise engine running at high rpm while in operation. I won’t say they are quiet, but they are leaps and bounds quieter than any gas model.
Environment-Friendly
Leaf blowers are environmentally friendly because they don’t emit harmful gases like gasoline leaf blowers do.
Cordless leaf blowers require less maintenance than gas-powered models. You won’t have to worry about replacing filters or oil.
A cordless leaf blower takes up much less room than a gas-powered model. Plus, you’ll save money on fuel costs.
Ease-Of-Use
A cordless leaf blower allows you to easily maneuver around your lawn without tripping over wires. The operation couldn’t be simpler either with just an “On/Off” switch or just a throttle trigger.
You can even use it indoors, and I have occasionally blown some debris out of a door.
With a cordless leaf blower, all you have to worry about is recharging and replacing batteries.
Lightweight
Most cordless leaf blowers are on the light side. Even with larger batteries, they are nearly as heavy as gas blower handheld or backpack.
I remember using handheld gas-powered blowers years ago, and my arms and back got tired way before the work was completed. Cordless blowers, on the other hand, are much less taxing on the body.
They Are Affordable
Cordless leaf blowers are cheaper than gas powered ones. You also don’t have the expense of buying fuel which isn’t super cheap these days.
Also, if you buy into a brand you already have existing batteries for, you can get the blowers fairly cheaply. Batteries add some extra expense if bundled with the leaf blower.
No Fuel Costs
Let’s face it, gas is expensive, and even when you buy gas it has a limited storage life if you don’t add additives to it, which costs extra money.
Cordless electric leaf blowers just have a battery that you can reuse hundreds if not thousands of times before you have to get a new battery. Also, recharging a battery costs pennies compared to the several dollars a gallon you pay for gas.
Disadvantages of a Cordless Leaf Blower
A cordless leaf blower is great because it doesn’t require a power outlet. But there are some disadvantages to consider before buying one.
Some of the major disadvantages are runtime and the cost of batteries. Overall though, I think they are much easier and more affordable to use than gas leaf blowers all day long.
Limited Runtime
The most obvious disadvantage is runtime. While batteries have gotten better over the last several years, runtime on a single battery, depending on the model of blower you get, is anywhere from 15 – 30 minutes. That isn’t spectacular, especially if you have a larger yard or many trees that always drop leaves.
Manufacturers are getting around this by making larger batteries and blowers that can simultaneously use multiple batteries to extend runtimes.
Battery Cost
Lithium-Ion batteries are not cheap. Some of the larger EGO, Greenworks, and RYOBI batteries can cost over $100 a piece. That might be hard for some users to stomach.
Advantages of Corded Leaf Blower
Corded electric leaf blowers have been around for decades. They are pretty basic pieces of outdoor power equipment but are great at the job of blowing leaves. They, however, have been less and less popular over the years as cordless leaf blowers have shown up. Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a corded electric leaf blower.
Endless Runtime
The biggest pro of using a corded leaf blower is the endless runtime, or nearly endless unless you lose power. As long as you are near a power outlet you can continuously run a corded leaf blower indefinitely.
When compared to cordless leaf blowers, which have relatively short runtimes this could be a plus if you have a small yard with lots of leaves to blow around.
Light Weight
Corded leaf blowers tend to be light in weight as well. This is mainly because you don’t have the extra battery to weigh the blower down.
This light weight makes using the blower for long periods of time much easier.
Low Cost
If you are concerned about the bottom line, a corded leaf blower would be your first choice. These blowers usually start off in the $60 – $70 range, so they are relatively affordable for most households.
Disadvantages of Corded Leaf Blowers
Like all power tools, corded leaf blowers have their disadvantages as well. The need to be around a power outlet or a power source is why people tend to shy away from corded leaf blowers because it limits where you can use the tool.
Power Outlet Required
Having to be near a power outlet to run a corded blower limits the applications for this tool. Its biggest plus becomes its biggest weakness.
This limits where and how you can use the blower. A corded blower wouldn’t be very useful for me because I have a large yard and only a few outside outlets around my home. This would cause some issues when doing my fall cleanup.
Cords and Extension Cords
If you want to extend the range of a corded blower, the obvious choice would be to use an extension cord. This is a good idea, until you realize you have to manage that extension cord when you are using it.
Extension cords while extending the range and locations you can use the corded blower also add a tripping hazard and weight to the blower.
If you have a landscape with lots of shrubs or flower beds, having to keep up with an extension cord when you are cleaning them out leads to all kinds of headaches as the cord gets wrapped around plants and possibly you.
Summing it Up: Battery Powered Leaf Blower vs Electric
In conclusion, battery-powered leaf blowers are a great alternative to corded electric ones. However, they aren’t perfect either. While they’re easy to set up and operate, they tend to run out of power quickly, so you’ll have to keep switching batteries.
On the other hand, electric leaf blowers are generally more lightweight and cheaper to purchase than their cordless counterparts. They require a constant source of electricity, which can be difficult to deal with at certain locations in your home.
Ultimately, though, choosing these two options depends on personal preference. Either leaf blower will help you clean up the leaves in your yard, and you will be happy with either purchase.
Resources
Washington University in St. Louis
