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Comment by fodkodrasz | Hacker News Reader

For the eastern-european eye the whole leaf-blower contraption seems to be an extreme waste of resources. A broom and a rake are better in almost every way in my untrained broom&rake using eyes. The single reasonable usecase I saw it in action was when street-cleaners blew out cigarette buds (another waste of resources actually, both cigarettes and littering) from the rock ballast of railway tracks using leaf-blower machines (or something similar).

How could it become so popular, does it have any benefits apart from using a machine for the sake of using a machine, and showing off (as it initially has been probably)?

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Americans have an extreme fetish about lawns (it's a matter of social status), and in temperate climates, they want lawns to stay green throughout the winter, so instead of "leaving the leaves", they often rake or use leafblowers (or for the case of 40% of homeowners, hire somebody). In the case of hired labor, homeowners are usually commuting from suburbs and their kids are at school so they don't have to deal with the noise themselves. Lawn grass is the number 1 crop in the United States, and it exists only to absorb excess wealth and make work for others in games of social status in a culture that originally sought to emulate the symbols of wealth of English landowners, as a neatly cut lawn was an indication of wool production, originally the primary English export during the time of the enclosure movement. But with post-WWII suburban housing subsidies, each house began to have a lawn and most people don't want sheep, so the use of lawnmowers and fertilizer to began to supplant the job of sheep.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practic...

https://dcist.com/story/20/03/06/the-white-house-lawn-was-on...

> How could it become so popular, does it have any benefits apart from using a machine for the sake of using a machine, and showing off (as it initially has been probably)?

When one has 10,000 square feet (or more) to "rake" and multiple large trees (either your own, or blown in from neighbors) dropping leaves on that 10,000 square feet, a leaf blower can change an 8hr+ job with a rake into a 30-60 minute effort by a single person.

Which is the biggest reason why they were adopted by lawn care contractors, the contractor could now "rake" 10-12 jobs per day vs. 1-3 jobs per day with the same crew of 2-3 employees.

A riding mower with sweeper is more effective if the terrain permits.

I have an acre of land with multiple large trees. I have an electric sweeper but never really loved the job it did.

There exists in very many areas of the US a common property size for single family homes that is large enough to make "rake by hand" a significant time investment, but that is simultaneously small enough that a riding mower and sweeper is "too much" and/or "too awkward" to use. These tend to fall out into the 5,000 to 15,000 square feet (464.5 m^2 to 1,393.5 m^s for those using metric) range (with some slop on both ends of that size range). It is for this size yard where the 'leaf blower' found a "useful market" by turning an all day effort using a rake into an hour or so's effort using a blower.

In my area, all the leaf blowers that do arrive are all carried by lawn work contractors. However, personally, I'm not bothered by them so their arrival during summer (grass clippings cleanup - always seemed a bit overkill but it is what the 'lawn work contractors' do) or fall (leaves) has never caused me an issue. Note: I'm not detracting from or dismissing the fact that others may be significantly bothered, just stating the fact that I'm personally not bothered by them.

I'm interested in why you're doing it in the first place?

With one or more large Oak trees the amount of leaf cover is such if left untouched that the yard would revert, typically in only one fall season, to "forest ground cover" (old rotting leaves, mud, and the hardy weeds/vines that will grow in "forest ground cover"). Which rapidly becomes not very useful as a "yard", a ripe source of ticks (and the diseases ticks carry) in much of the US, and in many areas will quickly result in a "HOA nastygram" [1] from the HOA busybodys regarding not maintaining the grass properly with the ensuing fines that go along with that nastygram.

[1] in my specific case not, as I do not, and will never, live in a HOA area -- but eventually even the local govt. will send out a "nastygram", they are simply by far less sensitive than HOA busybodys and it takes a quite significant divergence from the typical before they notice and send out a "nastygram". And the local govt. nastygrams most often include a compliance period before any fines are imposed vs. an HOA one which begins with a fine and escalates from there.

I’d say it actually has negative overall effects. Removing the leaf drop deprives the soil of a nutritional opportunity, but if you do still want to do that then raking helps aerate the soil as well as pull any moss.

If you're raking your yard, a rake isn't so bad. If you're running a service, you can move much faster with a leaf blower.

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