Best Leaf Blowers for 2024
We love our data, so we make sure to collect and analyze manufacturer specifications alongside our own test data. There are two main pieces of data we collect for leaf blowers: The first is noise level.
As a contributor to the restrictions placed on outdoor equipment across the country, excess noise can be quite annoying. That’s why we perform a sound level test on each model, placing it about the distance you’d expect this type of product to operate from your ear. We place it perpendicular to the sound level meter and record the results. You can see those results in the graph above, where it’s clear that the Ryobi leaf blower is by far the quietest of all the units we tested. Everything else is in a cluster as they race for the loudest leaf blower — a title currently held by the Enhulk Max Pro Series 58V.
This is where our propulsion cannon comes in. Yes, we could have grabbed some leaves and loose debris and blown it around our test areas and said, “Hey, this thing blows leaves,” but we wanted to take it a step further and see how the output of the leaf blowers translated into raw power.
CNET’s air cannon for testing leaf blowers.
To do this, we built an air cannon, primarily from 3-inch PVC. Features included are an air port, so we can elevate each unit and let all the air escape directly into the cannon, and a restrictor plate, to keep the projectile from entering the core of the device. There is also a base for balancing and a 5-foot barrel to launch the projectile.
The projectile itself is a round plastic tube (similar to the pneumatically powered tube containers at bank drive-throughs) containing a sand mixture and weighing a total of 210 grams.
Here’s Eric from our lab demonstrating the air cannon in action. Each colored line represents the longest average distance each model achieved — of all the models, the Greenworks Pro blower shot our weight the furthest. All of those high scores were achieved in that blower’s turbo mode, except for the DeWalt blower, which has just one setting.
We load the projectile into the gun, attach the nozzle of the leaf blower to the feed port, bring the leaf blower to full power in the selected mode, open the air port and stupid. We measure the distance the projectile travels from its resting place in the gun to the place of first impact on the floor. We average this distance over several attempts. Voilà.
We tested each blower on both normal and turbo modes, noting that the DK2 blower and the DeWalt Max Flexvolt 3 each only have one setting. The colorful visualization above shows the maximum average distance each brand reaches, and it’s clear to see that our top pick from Greenworks blows away the competition in terms of air power, nearly punching above our weight in the commercial-grade DK2 blower, which costs just over $1,500. You can see the full results from both rounds of testing in the chart below.
The test results here are interesting when you compare specs. Take the Milwaukee and Craftsman blowers for example. The advertised CFM and mph specs are nearly identical — 120 and 450 for the Milwaukee and slightly lower numbers of 110 and 410 for the Craftsman. Our test data shows that the Craftsman outperforms the Milwaukee by more than 12 feet in normal mode and by more than 10 feet in turbo mode.
