Finally! Noisy Leaf Blowers Will Soon Be Gone
Noisy leaf blowers are the scourge of Florida. Because we don’t really have a ‘winter’, there’s no break from noisy leaf blowers wrecking the neighborhood peace once a week. In my neighborhood, it’s on Monday, and it starts around 8 am.
I know it’s for sun protection, but it feels like they wear face coverings to protect their identity. 
Noisy Leaf Blowers In Southwest Florida.
Naples, Florida has already stood up to the problem, enacting an ordinance back in 2021 banning gasoline powered leaf blowers within city limits. The also made the restriction that battery and electric powered leaf blowers cannot exceed 65 decibels. I live in Estero, which does not have a similar law. You see that picture above? That’s the kind of leaf blowers that are used in my neighborhood. Gasoline powered. And they are LOUD! Upwards of 100 decibels.
But there’s also a challenge to that law. According to a tweet from Jason Garcia “the Florida Senate wants to stop cities and counties from imposing any kind of restrictions on gas-powered leaf blowers”. How this bill could affect Naples in not known. Gas-powered leaf blowers are just the worst.
The End To Noisy Leaf Blowers
Innovation to the rescue. According to a press release from the school “The challenge before Johns Hopkins University engineering students: Take a leaf blower, but make it quiet. Make it work as powerfully as ever, but do not allow it to emit the ear-piercing caterwaul that has gotten leaf blowers banned in some communities and cursed in many others.”
And they did it.
The student’s leaf blower design drops the noise level by 40%, virtually eliminating the most obnoxious frequencies. And it’s retail ready – Black and Decker plans on having them in the stores within 2 years.
“Our product takes in a full blow of air and separates it,” said team member Leen Alfaoury. “Some of that air comes out as it is, and part of it comes out shifted. The combination of these two sections of the air makes the blower less noisy.”
Their design does not reduce the power of the machine, it just reduces the noise. Something those of us in Florida who are trying to sleep in would absolutely welcome.
Team adviser Stephen Belkoff puts it bluntly: “It’s still a leaf blower but it’s not nearly as annoying as it was before they got involved.”
The tricky part will be adaptation. A lot of the landscaping services using gas-powered leaf blowers will continue to do so because of the cost to upgrade. They’ll keep using what they have until they break, but when they do, the price point and power of battery powered blowers is where they need to be. Plus, a 56 volt leaf blower costs half as much as one of those backpack style blowers.
Not Just For Noisy Leaf Blowers
Although the student’s task was to reduce the sound of noisy leaf blowers, the design can be adapted for use on other loud appliances like vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.
