Landscaping Equipment

What leaf blower haters overlook

The one thing many leaf blower haters overlook is the struggle of building caretakers as they try to keep leaf debris out of their buildings every fall. Jackie is a caretaker, and she loves my leaf blower. No, it’s not a mistake, she loves my leaf blower because she has three buildings to maintain and keep clean. Whatever leaf debris tracks in with residents and wind must be removed. But not if I get to the leaves outside first.

By the way, Jackie is a real person but she’s a bit shy. I even offered her a free West Coast Landscape Pro mug for providing her picture, but it didn’t work. She’s a middle-aged lady with long blonde hair and a smoking habit. Occasionally, she freaks me out when she smokes in the shrubbery by the side exit.

I also use the word love in a professional, platonic sense. Don’t rush out to buy an expensive leaf blower because Vas promised you easy caretaker’s love. This is a family blog, not a hook-up site.

Use it or ban it?

Yes, leaf blowers are loud, and they create noise and air pollution. They also stir up unhealthy dust in summer.

Someday soon, the technology will improve, and we’ll be able to use battery-operated leaf blowers. Then there won’t be any need to write blog posts like this.

If you’re a landscaper, you know that your leaf blowers are indispensable. If you’re a homeowner, you can afford to quietly rake up your leaves.

So far, only a few places have successfully banned leaf blowers. The only place I know of in British Columbia is Vancouver’s neighborhood around Denman Street. Built up with residential towers, the noise tends to echo throughout the neighborhood. I worked there before the ban and I’m not sure how the landscape contractors are managing every fall.

When you hear a leaf blower in your neighborhood, remember caretaker Jackie before complaining. She loves me. You should, too.

I use small engine machines almost every day in the field, mainly Stihl models. I use them but I don’t pretend to understand them. My favourite tasks are almost always related to plants; machines I barely tolerate. When something breaks down the machines go straight to the dealer for repair.

This simple blog post covers low idle problems and it’s intended for mechanically-challenged people.

The problem

Once in a while a problem pops up and I know there must be a simple explanation. Take this recent example from the field.

Power shearing cedar hedges is a common fall task in our West Coast landscapes. Usually there are miles of hedging to shear and time is short. Now imagine my frustration when I let go of my machine to move the ladder along and the engine dies. Once I’m ready to continue the engine starts and functions properly as long as I keep my finger on the trigger.

I also had the same problem with my backpack blower. As soon as I eased up on the trigger, the unit would shut off. Moving the blower off and on my back and restarting it is extremely annoying.

The fix

At it turns out, this low-idle problem has an easy fix which is great news for this mechanically-challenged landscape professional. The fix is so easy, I had to write a blog post about it. Slowly, very slowly, I learn about the machines I use every day and you can too.

Step 1

Grab a small screw driver provided by Stihl or any other model. Until now I’ve been only using it to execute blade changes on blade edgers.

Step 2

Find the circular port hole labelled LA on the back of your blower or small engine. That’s where the screw driver goes.

Step 3

For this step you should consider using a mask because the unit has to be turned on and sucking exhaust isn’t safe. With the unit running, stick the screw driver in and move it until you hear the engine speed up. It took me a while to do this but eventually I let go and let the blower idle. Once it stayed on without shutting off I was back in business. It was an easy fix. I had no idea.

Let’s review. If your blower or small engine shuts off instead of idling, you can easily fix it with a small screw driver. Doing the repair yourself in the field will save you time and needless frustrations with repeated restarting.

Aspen 2 full range technology

I rarely get excited about machine fuel but Aspen fuel for landscape machines is a great invention! The new Aspen 2 full range technology fuel is designed for engines that work hard, like chainsaws.

High combustion temperature machines get the right lubrication to cope with high temperatures. There is increased torque and acceleration.

Machines with lower combustion temperatures, like leaf blowers and hedge trimmers, are easier to start, air filters stay clean longer, and there is 6% improvement in engine acceleration.

Oil

Aspen fuel comes pre-mixed. No need to stock oil. No more spills behind the truck or incorrect ratios. It’s completely synthetic with 60% renewable content, biodegradable, and free from ash and solvents.

One of my previous employers used the older Aspen 2 fuel and it worked fine. The company mechanic told me that my line edger could be started in my kitchen! With little kids at home, that would have been extreme blog content creation. I passed on the test. But I did witness a demo at the 2015 Can-West horticulture show. Two beakers, one with conventional gasoline and one with Aspen fuel. A piece of Styrofoam is floating in each beaker. The gas just erases the foam in no time; Aspen ignores it. It just floats there. I took in the test result and then helped myself to free Stihl candy.

I believe our machines worked fine. There was an issue with re-fuelling time since we went through a lot of the orange containers in one week. This is unconfirmed information from friends, but the City of Coquitlam gave up on using Aspen 2 this year after too many containers piled up in the works yard. What do you do with them? They should consider the same drum refuelling idea. Good on the city to at least attempt the switch.

Biggest drawback

Cost! Piles of used containers are nothing compared to the retail cost. It runs anywhere from $2-3/L. Most small landscape companies won’t even consider that. My ex-employer had the advantage of being a distributor. The boss loved the fact that Aspen fuel use would lead to lower repair costs.

I thought about my work mates. Gasoline machines generate unhealthy exhaust. What if we had cleaner burning fuel to use all year in the field? That would be a bonus. Considering the retail price, it’ll be a while. But I can dream my Aspen 2 fuel dreams.

Source: Aspen.se