It’s snowing again.
I woke up this morning with a great idea. Since this snow is cold and fluffy, what’s stopping me from using my handy dandy backpack leaf blower to clear off the front walk and steps? Absolutely nothing, that’s what.
I decided to go outside and give it a try. I pulled the backpack blower off the wall and rested it on the ground. Then, I went outside and took some “before” pictures.
At the time of these photos, I would estimate there being about 3 inches of snow on the ground.
I started up the backpack blower and put it on my back. I only hung it on one shoulder because I really didn’t want to commit to the entire project. I had no idea how it was going to turn out.
I started blowing off the sidewalk and the bushes. About halfway down the walkway, I was totally snow covered. I plowed on and finished up what I was going. Here, take a look at these “after” shots.
I guess the reason I am writing this is to warn you not to use your backpack leaf blower to clear off your walkway. You will get snow covered and cold. I will say that it does a tremendous job at cleaning the snow off the bushes, which would otherwise suffer damage without being cleaned. Also, I may give the blower a shot at the back deck and stairs. Those are always a real pain in the butt to do with a shovel.
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Hi, I was using my leaf blower this way also, but it doesnt seem as efficient or as quick as just using a nice wide broom to sweep the light snow about 3 or 4 inches deep max and not letting the snow get too deep to deal with this way.. “Blowing” the snow is probably not very efficient unless the outlet for the air is fairly wide, so probably it would be just as good to use a good high powered ShopVac on the blower setting, and experiment with various nozzles to find the one that works best for light snow without crust. However, while looking for info and tips on this topic I thought, why not use my Leaf Blower as a vacuum if the Leaf Blower can stand up to some moisture going thru the blower area? I.e., if the Leaf Blower is designed with some “wet/dry” capacity, then instead of vacuuming the snow into a large bag, just vacuum it up and let it be thown off the the side of the sidewalk. But only with a wet/dry LeafBlower that will not fail due to the snow melting around the blower area. Also I assume it’s not safe for the machine to try to vacuum up any chunks of frozen snow which can actually be rock-hard ice chunks, or even small rocks could be picked up by mistake. Last year i killed an electric snow broom type of device by trying to deal with hard packed snow near the edge of the driveway. Totally killed it.
What? You’re an idiot! Vacuum the snow? Wet/Dry leaf blower..? Use a Shopvac..? Pillock! If you have a high powered commercial leaf blower, this will be in the form of a backpack then you will make short work of fluffy snow. However if you have a cheap consumer oriented home depot special that “doubles” as a leaf vacuum (LOL!!) then what you need is a shovel and a broom!
Seriously. So so seriously. First of all, leaf vacuums are such a joke. I mean really.
I remember this one time I was driving to Piggly Wiggly. I passed by this guy who was standing in his front yard sucking up leaves one by one with his little leaf vacuum. On the way home, the guy was still sucking up those leaves. About an hour had passed. I wanted to pull over and jump out of the car to finish the job for him.
Yes folks, this is what society has come to. People trying to suck up leaves and snow with little vacuums.
I truly believe all these guys who have these leaf vacuums know they look like fools. They are still using them just to get their moneys worth.
There’s nothing better than a powerful backpack air blower for cleaning fluffy snow off of sidewalks, driveway, cars, decking etc…
I’m with you ! I live in Canada where we get long, snow filled winters – my backpack blower (Shindaiwa EB633) is the start of my block. I can fire it up and clean the sidewalks of the entire block in roughly the same amount of time that I used to spend with the shovel and broom method. It also clears the concrete more thoroughly than a shovel as it doesn’t leave a film of snow behind so the walks stay dry. The best part of this is that my back never gets sore after doing this, unlike the shovel.
Very true Johan! If the snow is light enough, it’s a great idea. No doubt about it. Thanks for commenting!