MAKE GAS LANDSCAPING TOOLS ILLEGAL
Give away free electric tools if they trade in their gas ones. It’s so bad for health to be huffing 2 stroke fumes all day every day.
Edit, I realize that this is meant for a electric leaf blower since it would do fuck all for a gas one. Doesn’t change my opinion about landscaping tools tho
“Electric leaf blowers are already far quieter than their gas-powered peers, but they still aren’t the kind of thing you’d like to hear first-thing on a Saturday morning. Looking to improve on the situation, a group of students from Johns Hopkins University have successfully designed a 3D printed add-on that manages to significantly reduce the noise generated by a modern electric leaf blower without compromising the amount of air it’s able to move.”
First two sentences of the article.
I don’t know mate, I wouldn’t replace my electric tools–drills, grinders, saw… with gas ones. But these outdoors tools are a different kind of beast. I’ve only used an electric chainsaw and it was an absolute crap, maybe there are better ones but it was crappier than the smallest and shittiest gas chainsaws I’ve used, and a cord around you in that setting isn’t great either.
Look again! I have a dewalt chainsaw, and I love it. I burn about 13 cords of wood each winter as it is our primary heating source. It runs and runs and runs.
I think the key is to keep the chain sharp. I use the timberline sharpener, and it gets the chain razor sharp, which means less stress on the motor and longer battery life.
They already are in many communities. Enforcement is an issue.
If it were me that designed this, I would license out the design for manufacturers to use in their production models instead of making some kind of attachment that is unlikely to work on all models. That seems much more likely to achieve the goal of reducing noise from leaf blowers long term. Get like 3 manufacturers on board that could even charge a premium, and you have reduced the noise potentially forever while still making a tidy profit.
It was a collaboration with the company. They probably helped fund it for exclusive licensing to start.
Electric is so much quieter. They have them in Singapore
The gardener in my last apartment replaced all of his powertools (mower, blower, trimmer, …) with electric ones powered by an accu-pack he carries on his back. This is an absolute game-changer! I could actually sit outside again and even do stuff for work, when he was there.
This thing influence how air moves through it, so it would make electrics more silent too
Pretty sure when I saw the original post talking about the design, they said the students were only working with electric leaf blowers. So this was designed to make electric leaf blowers even quieter.
This was designed for electric leaf blowers, not gas leaf blowers.
Electric leaf blowers are much much better, but they’re still loud, and that’s what these students were attempting to address.
The video in the article shows them testing with an electric leaf blower.
Why do leaf blowers exist in the first place?
To blow leaves.
And clean up after mowing.
I also use mine when starting a fire. Way easier than using a pot lid for stoking.
Ha! I have the smaller work bench cleaning “blower” for my fires. It’s awesome.
Back when I used a Weber charcoal grill I’d bust out the blow dryer.
Nice
I often see those things with a sack on public workers here. They suck leafes. 🤯
Some leaf blowers are also leaf suckers but it can get a bit messy since they usually mulch the leaves, too.
So annoying twats can be annoying.
Have you never raked a yard?
I still say replace them with rakes.
I get what you’re saying, but leaf blowers are also commonly used for cleaning up extra grass clippings from the roads, etc.
And sand/dirt after a windstorm, at least in my area. They’re really quite useful.
Companies know they can make tools quieter. They didn’t do it because louder sounds more powerful to consumers.
For the stupid maybe.
Turns out they number around 70 million in the US…
They do the same thing with vehicle air intakes to eliminate annoying sounds and make the car sound more throaty. Don’t forget about cars that have engine noises come through the stereo. People think they need to “feel the engine” in order to drive. I would rather it be completely silent, not that’s not possible because of tire noise.
Luxury sedans have done a damn good job at shutting out road noise for a long time now, but there are obvious (and less obvious) costs associated with that.
seems like snake oil. whe using my electric leaf blower all the noise sounds to be coming from the big fan at the top of the device and not the nozzle
Now pretend your electric blower is actually a super loud and inefficient two stroke motor.
The movement of air isn’t noisy, the motor is.
Ah spring! Flowers blooming, bird songs… BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA… Goddamn leaf blowers.
Yeah, I thought this was for those pieces of shit.
I’m sure electric ones are being used around my city, but that’s not the ones I notice.
There’s no way this won’t affect the final CFM or Velocity of the air.
This would be no different than running it at a little less than 100% power, but wastes that energy instead.
Why else would they not provide any technical detail, even a wind velocity test would be huge FFS.
I don’t know, it sounds like it slightly redirects only the air at the margins that contacts the blower tube, which reduces turbulence. The noise reduction is due to the decreased turbulence, not a reduction in airflow. If I had to guess, the actual reduction in airflow is probably negligible, and they don’t describe it in more detail because they’re trying to commercialize it
So they could provide the testing data to prove it. Even the numbers, don’t need a full detailed video.
The lack of proof to their claims is concerning.
They’ve made a claim they should have known would need to be verified, eventually…… its bush league for that on its own.
You seem really worked up about these undergrads’ project
I thought having a conversation about the validity of their claims would be an okay thing to do in this community?
Or are you saying this place is for something else?
You demanding more evidence right now and saying these students’ project “is concerning” is not having a conversation about the validity of their claims, it’s just being petulant. Saying, “I’ll be interested to see the specs” or “I’ll keep an eye out for testing data before I believe this” would convey the same thing without coming off like an asshole
It’s data they should have had to begin with, they made the claim. Of course it’s going to be questioned, they could have been upfront with the data.
What other reason would they omit it? Other than to mislead if it wasn’t actually 100%.
It’s funny how I am “demanding” something that would be just basic decency to include along with their claim, they provided the data for the sound after all……
They are almost certainly restricting the amount of information they release under the advice of the legal team at the University, in preparation for the impending commercialization. I agree, it’d be great to have the details and to live in a world where all information is free and open. However, we don’t on both counts. The assumption that they could only be attempting to mislead people when this isn’t even a product for sale yet, is at best naïve and at worst willfully obtuse.
They wont release anything because the design is being sold to black&decker, yay
As soon as it’s out to market someone will clone it and have an STL available
it literally doesn’t matter because most people don’t 3D print
Ok?
So it’s taking some of the air out of the stream, slowing it down, and putting it back in the stream… How does this not affect the performance?
Because that isn’t how it works. I’ve been working on this idea in my spare time for a patent, for months. I have the CFD models to prove it. I learned ELMER and perfected the solvers and meshing process.
It grinds my gears that they stumbled upon it, get all the credit, and apparently don’t know how it actually works.
Never been scooped before. But man it doesn’t feel good.
Did you put your information somewhere they could find it before you got the patent? If you have authorship doesn’t that mean you have grounds to sue?
I’m sure it has a marginal effect, the drag would have to reduce average velocity somewhat, but maybe it is negligible. Or maybe the overall drag is equal to an unmodified tip due to other changes such as reduced restriction.
Why isn’t there video of this yet? I didn’t care at all what an article says. Show me the video
Somebody tell Kate Blanchett
??
I’ll wait until I can 3d print my own. I’m not paying for a hunk of plastic.
Lol what do you put into your 3d printer?
A string of plastic, not a hunk =D
Fair!
But a rake is not powerful, you want proof? It barely makes any noise!
Lol also thrice the arm workout.
Not gonna 3d print a rake.
Maybe a baby rake for sand or something
Based on how it works, (not how they say it works) you need a different geometry depending on the frequency. So it’s only going to work at select rpm.
It squashes the fundamental and certain harmonics and fractional harmonics.
Since I probably won’t be able to patent the idea myself anymore, maybe I’ll publicly disclose.
If anything changes, and you have an STL or 3d model you can still sell it.
I want the stl!
Why not just use a rake and a broom?
Good. I fucking hate leaf blowers.
