Most of the leaf blowers you will find at Lowes or Home Depot produce 70 – 90 decibels of noise.
That doesn’t sound like something your neighbor would be comfortable listening to continuously for a long time.
The high-pitch whine can upset anyone’s pets as well.
Still, leaves have to be blown off the lawn, sometimes during inappropriate hours.
But, Is It Rude To Use A Leaf Blower In The Evening Or Early Morning?
Yes, but can depend on the type of device, whether it’s a one-off thing, and what the ordinance rules say. Provided you don’t make it a habit, you may stir your neighborhood with noise once in a while with your leaf blower and proceed to apologize soon after. Think about it – who doesn’t forget to clean their yard sometimes only to embark on it at odd hours?
However, to avoid upsetting anyone, ensure you have a plan in place and stick to the acceptable time brackets. Anything before 9:00 a.m. is too early. No one wants to hear noises from your backyard past 8:00 p.m. either.
Still, you might need to choose your leaf blower a bit more carefully.
Gas-powered blowers are the noisiest of all. Conversely, electric blowers are quiet – you may use one of these any time you please because most of them barely generate a sound.
If you must blow your leaves during the wrong hours, you should use one of these or put up other measures to reduce the annoyance.
Having said that, it is also important to understand what makes some blowers produce a lot of noise.
The loudest leaf blowers out there are capable of generating as much as 100 decibels – that’s close to a chainsaw!
The reason for this is the similarity between the internal structure of the chainsaw and most gas-powered leaf blowers.
Fortunately, many devices sold nowadays feature an electric motor (powered by a battery or but can be plugged on a wall socket), meaning less noise.
Electric VS Gas Leaf Blowers For Noise Reduction
Since gas-powered leaf blowers are the noisiest, electric machines are certainly the best choice if you want to reduce the amount of noise emanating from your yard.
Perhaps the quietest leaf blower out there is Ryobi RY40440 which generates just 59 decibels, about as loud as background music or few people conversing in a room.
The second quietest is probably Ryobi P2108A Leaf Blower designed to produce 65 decibels.
The quietest gas leaf blower you could find is in the region of 65 decibels, like the Echo Leaf Blower. This blower is doesn’t come with the characteristic high-pitched whine found in most other gas-powered devices.
It’s worth mentioning that noise reduction in leaf blowers comes at a considerable cost—quieter devices aren’t as powerful as their noisy counterparts.
So if you are clearing a large walkway or yard, sacrificing this is probably not worth the additional time you will need to spend working with your less powerful motor.
Read The Manual
You will be surprised by how easy it is to cut the level of noise by reading the manual that came with your device.
Many leaf blowers are shipped with special attachments or nozzles designed to cut noise production.
What many users don’t realize early enough is that these attachments will only work if you attach them to the device in the right way.
While shopping for a leaf blower, remember to ask the knowledgeable salesperson for a specific model that comes with noise-reducing attachments.
Once you get home, go through the user manual to understand the noise reduction properties of these attachments and how to use them.
Variable Speed Motors
Manufacturers have taken the noise reduction game a notch higher beyond elongated and bothersome attachments.
More and more electric leaf blowers now come with motors that can operate at a range of speeds.
Check out this list of such blowers at Home Depot.
The maximum air rating of a leaf blower is often used to determine the effectiveness of the device.
Although machines with higher maximum airspeed ratings are considered to be the best, you want a device that can alternate between different speeds not just to cut the noise levels but reduce the wear and tear.
The usual range for the maximum airspeed on electric leaf blowers is 60 – 250 mph.
Buy A Product From ECHO
In 1995 and 1999 respectively, California introduced a series of noise regulations that forced brands dealing in noise-generating equipment to make changes to their products.
Many leaf blower manufacturers would modify their engines and even market the adjusted products in other states.
That’s exactly what ECHO did and has proved to be so good at it that their leaf blowers – even gas-powered ones – are some of the quietest in the industry.
So maybe you should limit your choices to ECHO products and give your neighbors an easy time.
Researchers at ECHO seem to take noise pollution more seriously than the laws governing it.
Most of their neighbor-friendly leaf blowers are a result of careful analysis of the spectrographs of sound waves leaving the device and taking measures to eliminate nothing but the peak sounds.
To accomplish this, the machine has to undergo many modifications, including switching the mufflers with better alternatives more suited at weakened the sound volume.
The modifications done on the scroll and the blower fan removes almost 100 percent of the familiar high-pitched squeal.
Better yet, some of ECHO’s products feature a revamped nozzles and blower tubes that can adjust the air intake/output.
They introduced their 4-stroke engine leaf blower because the air rushing through the cannon of the carburetor in their traditional 2-stroke engine was incredibly noisy.
They would go on to redesign the cooling fins in the engines to cut on vibrations.
Parts of the engine are coated with acoustic foam to muffle noise even further.
Finally, the engine you will find in most of ECHO’s products feature sound-deadening properties, including vibration-resistant plastics.
ECHO claims they have cut sound pressure in virtually all their low-noise leaf blower models by 75 percent (from about 77 dB to 64 dB).
Check Your Neighborhood’s Quiet Hours
You should start by checking your local area’s rules on noise.
A quick internet search would do – look for “noise ordinance” followed by your town’s name. The ordinance rules in most areas dictate quiet hours 10 p.m. – 7 a.m. during weekdays. This quiet time usually ends at 9 a.m. on weekends.
Still, your assumption that a war would ensue if you blew your leaves at the wrong time is overblown especially if there are no clear rules on this subject.
However, it is considered polite to start by informing them beforehand, respectfully.
Can be something like, “Would you mind if I worked in my yard with noisy equipment today evening?”
100 percent Quiet Leaf Blowers?
These don’t exist yet but sound long overdue.
Even Elon Musk realized this and has promised to introduce his line.
How practical would be 100% silent leaf blowers? We’ll know soon.
Conclusion
So, is it rude to use your leaf blower early in the morning and\or evening evenings?
Yes, but may not be an issue if you do it once in a while. Go for quieter electric leaf blowers.