Which piece of outdoor power tool/equipment that you own is your favorite to operate?
Comments
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Snowblower
My snow blower co-op is with a Duck, but his garage is smaller than mine so the blower usually lives with me.
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Chainsaw
I get more done with the backpack blower than anything else, but you just can't beat what a chain saw gets done. I love the way a saw with a sharp chain buzzes through a tree. I should have been a logger.
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Chainsaw
My chainsaws are trash but they do the job. Slicing through wood is cathartic. I have an extension for one that is great for pruning. I have a long pruner I love as well. Fortunate part of living in the PNW, its pretty difficult to kill shrubs or trees.
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Leaf Blower
The first draft of my post got a bit too technical into motor torque and horsepower (the blower you pictured above is only 5.5hp, which can be matched by an electric motor that would fit in a thermos), but it ended with something like "the only thing keeping gas powered yard tools in existence is the cost of batteries."
So, you're absolutely right at the moment. Getting a cordless tool that is the match of gas-powered for certain applications is still very hard. My main critique was your assertion that you don't see electric ever replacing gas. It is inevitable. Cheap enough batteries, and it doesn't matter how long they last: pop in a fresh one and keep on going.
As for the EGO batteries starting on fire, I've actually had one fail on me. Didn't start on fire at all, just probably got charge imbalance due to a failed BMS. I took it apart to attempt to test and replace the failed cell, but those fuckers pot the circuit board end in epoxy! These aren't LiPo, they're much safer chemistry. The batteries have thermal protection circuitry, which is actually one of the things that keeps them out of prime time at the current level of the tech. A battery that theoretically could clear an aircraft carrier deck of snow comes to a screeching halt after 100 feet of blowing because it overheats. Then you can't put it on the charger until it cools down.
After my drunk concrete guy poured my shop foundation, I checked it with a transit laser, finding it to be 3/4" off between the highest and lowest spot on the wall, and no way was I going to frame on that. Luckily, the DeWalt 60V (actually 54, but marketing) grinder is a BEAST. Traced that transit laser's line on the wall at the height of the lowest spot, then spent three days with a cheap HF diamond wheel and a square to check my work. Had that thing flat and level to 1/16". It would have only taken a day if it weren't for the batteries not being rated for that kind of continuous horsepower. The battery would overheat after about 20 minutes of holding the trigger down, then refuse to charge until cooled off. I had to buy a third battery ("look, Honey: it came with a sawzall!…") and get a system going: One battery on the grinder, one battery on the charger, one battery in the freezer getting ready to charge.
I've been hearing "solid state is just around the corner!" for like ten years at this point, but that would put an end to the thermal management concerns.
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F.O. Row Peter Puffer, You Left Off...
since moving into the trailer trash life - all of the above suck and are not necessary to trailer trash.
I do jump out and tell the park attendants to turn that shit off
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Leaf Blower
I like my Stihl Magnum back pack blower, it weighs 157lb and sounds like a big block Chevy @chuck on those cool, crisp fall mornings. If you’re not careful it can take the paint off your house, ask my neighbor how I know this
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F.O. Row Peter Puffer, You Left Off...
I need to change my vote
