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Battery care, storage and basic safety for a cordless blower
Updated
A yard-tool battery pack holds a lot of energy. The biggest kit pack here is 280 Wh. Treat it well and it is safe and lasts for years. The short list: use the maker's charger, keep packs dry and away from heat, stop using a damaged pack, and never put one in the trash.
Charging and storing
NFPA says the chance of a lithium-ion battery overheating or catching fire goes up when it is damaged or improperly used, charged or stored. For a blower pack, that means in practice:
- Use only the charger made for that battery line. Follow the manual that came with your tool. It overrules anything general you read here.
- Let a hot pack cool before charging. Turbo work heats a pack fast.
- Charge on a hard surface, not on a couch or a pile of rags, and not where it blocks your way out.
- Store packs indoors, dry, away from direct sun and freezing sheds if the manual says so. Leaf season ends right before winter, so this is the step people skip.
- Stop using a pack that is swollen, cracked, leaking, smells odd, or gets hot when idle. Contact the maker.
When a pack dies
EPA says lithium-ion batteries should not go in household garbage or recycling bins. Take them to a separate battery recycling or household hazardous waste collection point. EPA also says to tape the battery terminals or bag each battery separately to prevent fires.
Eyes and ears
A blower's whole job is to throw things. OSHA's eye protection page says thousands of people are blinded each year by work-related eye injuries that proper eye and face protection could have prevented. The same logic applies in your driveway. Wear safety glasses, and keep bystanders and pets well back.
NIDCD lists leaf blowers among harmful noise sources at home, and says long or repeated exposure at or above 85 dBA can cause hearing loss. Battery blowers are quieter than gas, but you hold them close. For anything longer than a quick sweep, wear ear plugs or muffs. More on the numbers in noise and gas blower rules.
Make the pack last through the job
The kindest thing for both runtime and battery heat is to stay off turbo. On the EGO LB7654, EGO's own figures work out to about 1,120 watts on turbo and about 112 on low. See turbo mode and runtime.
Plan your own yard with the battery calculator, or compare all seven picks on the roundup page.