The Best Backpack Leaf Blower in 2021

Backpack Leaf Blowers: A Brief Introduction

If you’ve never tried using a backpack leaf blower, you’re in for a treat! Backpack leaf blowers might just be the most satisfying tool in the garage. As fall approaches and leaves begin to pile up on your once-pristine lawn, there is nothing quite like the feeling of blowing them to one side and into a neat pile. We highly recommend it!

Leaf blowers obviously come in all shapes and sizes. However, the backpack variety really does have some benefits over their handheld cousins. With the help of your favorite wheelbarrow, you will be cleaning up your yard in no time!

Why Choose A Backpack Leaf Blower?

There are a few significant advantages to backpack leaf blowers. Firstly, with the motor (or battery) strapped to your back, the weight of the machine is much better spread across your shoulders.

Secondly, as you navigate your yard to clear it, you don’t have to put the machine down. Things always end up in the way, and having two free hands is a big help.

Finally, because the weight is spread onto your back, these backpack leaf blowers are generally much more powerful than their hand-held relatives. In some cases, they deliver so much whoosh you could be forgiven for feeling like you’re wearing a jet pack!

In this deep-dive review, we’ve assembled our top picks for a variety of different use cases and buyers. We’ll also answer a lot of common questions buyers’ have about backpack leaf blowers in the final section.

What To Consider When Choosing Your Backpack Leaf Blower

CFM

CFM, or cubic feet per minute, is a measure of how much air the blower moves. Bigger motors will produce higher CFMs, which can be useful when you’re looking to cover large areas like lawns. If you use case is very heavy duty, you’ll want to combine a high CFM with a high MPH for maximum power. If you’re covering large areas without a heavy thing to blow, you could go for high CFM with lower MPH.

MPH

Miles per hour is the speed at which air comes out of the blower nozzle. You should be careful not to only measure a blower’s effectiveness on MPH because it’s not the whole story. In actual fact, you’re looking for a combination of MPH and CFM for maximum power.

Remember though, power comes with weight most of the time, so you should aim to pick a blower that meets your needs, not just the most powerful.

Weight

Since you’re wearing the machine on your back, weight is obviously a consideration. A lighter weight blower is undoubtedly better, but it often comes at the expense of power. You should aim to make a trade-off between the two. Indeed, if you are covering large areas of land there are lighter blowers that are designed for just that.

Fuel Capacity

For commercial and heavy users, good run time is important. Most commercial blowers will run for about an hour on a single tank, and it’s surprisingly similar across different machines in that category. Residential models with smaller tanks won’t last as long, but it’s not as important if you’re only doing light usage.

2-Cycle vs 4-Cycle

2-cycle motors will be your go-to for most professional applications because they are very powerful for their weight. That makes them very attractive for the commercial setting, but it does come at a price. They are generally louder and require a mix of fuel and oil to refuel them. This also adds some complexity for owners, as well as the additional mess and products to transport with your blower.

4-cycle motors are less powerful for their weight, as a general rule, but do come with their own advantages that make them attractive to the residential owner. These motors are generally a little quieter, and they just take regular gas as fuel. This makes them a little more straightforward to operate.

Ergonomics and Vibration

The leaf blower will be on your back, so making sure it’s comfortable will make a big difference in how enjoyable it is to use. All the blowers in this review are pretty comfortable, but the only way you can really be sure of how it’ll feel is to try and put one on. If that’s not an option, generally more commercial blowers will be more ergonomic.

Noise

If you’re using your blower in a residential setting, you should consider the noise of your blower because these are loud machines. The quietest backpack leaf blowers will be electric ones, followed by four-cycle machines and finally two-cycle machines.

If you’re a home user, you might want to look for the quietest machine possible. Aside from keeping your friendships with your neighbors, this could mean you can use your machine at more hours in the day, such as after you come home from work.

For commercial users, noise is not so much of a concern as landscaping companies are generally operating during normal work hours. There is also a general acceptance that the machines can be loud. That said, it’s worth ensuring that you have a good set of ear defenders. You can give yourself long-term hearing problems if you use loud machines for extended periods without adequate protection.

Cruise Control Setting

All the blowers in this review have the ability to hold a certain speed or throttle setting. This can be extremely useful when blowing for long periods of time. You should check any machines you are looking at have it, as it will help to prevent finger cramps from holding your hand down on the throttle.

Top 10 Backpack Leaf Blowers

Buyer’s Guide Questions

MPH Or CFM – Which Is Important?

You’ll often see both these numbers quoted above, and also extensively on spec sheets. We’re here to help you break it down and understand what all the numbers mean for your blower.

What Is MPH?

MPH stands for miles per hour and is the speed at which air exits the nozzle of the blower. This can be a factor in the power of the blower, but it’s not the whole story. If you imagine a very small pipe with air being pumped through it, you could achieve a very high MPH, but it would be a very focused beam of air. That’s where CFM comes in.

What Is CFM?

CFM stands for cubic feet per minute and is a measure of the quantity of air moved by the blower. A very powerful blower will have a very high CFM and a high MPH. Imagine a heavy freight train moving at high speed – not something you want to get in the way of!

The nuance comes with balancing the two, however. Let’s say you have a large area to cover (like a big lawn), with relatively light leaf fall. In that instance, we recommend a blower with a relatively higher CFM but only a medium speed. This is because it’ll have a nice wide band of air, with enough power to move small leaves.

In heavy-duty applications, you’ll need both the CFM and MPH to generate blowing force. This will help move heavy objects or large piles of leaves. Obviously, that power comes with additional weight and cost attached. You’ll need to make a judgment for yourself about exactly what type of usage characteristics you require.

How Do You Start A Leaf Blower?

Leaf blowers, much like chainsaws, can be a little tricky to start. Once you get the hang of it though, you’ll find it relatively straightforward. We’ll only discuss starting the gas blower here since the electric models are pretty straightforward on and off switch.

Pre-Start Routine

Begin by checking that the power switch is in the on position. Often it won’t be after the previous user shuts the machine down. Have a quick look and make sure you have adequate fuel.

Next, you’ll want to engage the choke by putting it to the start setting. Move the throttle to a mid-setting. Now you’re ready to start, so find yourself a steady big of level ground (muddy ground won’t work), and make sure the air ducts on the back of the blower are clear.

Starting Your Leaf Blower

When you’re ready to start, stand the blower upright, with your foot against the base. Next, use one hand to hold the backpack steady, and the older to grip the starting cord. Pull the cord gently until it engages, and then pull it hard. Do this repeatedly until the mower fires.

If it’s not firing after 5-10 pulls, and if it’s getting stiffer to pull, you may have flooded the machine. When that happens, you’ll need to leave the machine for 10 minutes before you try again.

If it has fired and the engine is now running, flick the choke back to the off position, and now leave the blower for a minute or two for the engine to warm up before you start to use it.

What Is The Best Value Gas Leaf Blower?

It’s a complex question really and depends on what you’re going to use your blower for. We’ll describe some of the main use cases, and which blowers we think are the right choice.

Best Commercial Leaf Blower

For commercial applications, the best blower for the money might not necessarily be the cheapest one. If you buy a cheap one that isn’t up to the job, you’ll end up wasting more money on parts and/or an actual replacement.

We would suggest you look at the Husqvarna 580BT, the Makita EB5300TH, or the Thanos or Mellcom models. These are all hugely powerful and hugely reliable blowers that are very popular with the commercial community.

For more of our commercial level reviews check out our guide to the best commercial pressure washers.

Best Residential Leaf Blower

For a heavy residential user, who perhaps has a larger yard area and a heavy leaf fall, there are a number of good options. Here again, you’ll be looking for something that can do the job, is reliable, and is easy to use. Our top recommendation would be the Husqvarna 150BT, which comes with many of the features of the commercial blowers in a smaller and lighter package.

For a light residential user who is working to a budget, the Troy-Bilt TB2BP is probably your best choice. These are good light residential blowers and work well for light seasonal use. Their price point reflects this – but it’s worth noting they aren’t a whole lot cheaper than the Husqvarna 150 BT. Given that fact, we’d probably opt for the Husqvarna.

How Do You Use A Leaf Blower?

Although a relatively simple tool, backpack lead blowers can actually cause nasty injuries if you don’t observe some obvious precautions. Most importantly, it’s critical to make sure your machine is well maintained, and regularly serviced by a certified garden machinery business. Some people also like to use their riding lawn mower prior to leaf blowing to aid in the cleanup.

Fuel Or Electric

Before you get started with blowing leaves, your first job is to fuel up your blower. For backpack leave blowers, the fuel tank is found on the backpack portion of the device. Now, machines fall into three categories, electric, 2-cycle, and 4-cycle.

Electric ones are obviously not worth discussing because you just charge them, but for 2 cycle motors, you’ll be fueling them up with a mixture of two-cycle oil and water. A typical ratio for this is 50 parts fuel (regular unleaded gas) to 1 part 2 cycle oil. You’ll want to double-check your machine for any specific requirements since these ratios do vary slightly from motor to motor. For a 4-cycle motor, you can fill it up with regular unleaded gas.

Before You Start

Before you start the blower, you will want to ensure you’re appropriately dressed. First off, eye protection is a must for leaf blowers, as stones and debris can easily rebound into your eyes and cause long-term injury. Next up, you should make sure you’re wearing pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Overalls work great, and a bandana over your mouth or a mask will also help with the dust.

Next up, make sure you’ve got adequate ear protection. Backpack leaf blowers are actually very noisy as machines go, and because they are strapped to your back, the noise is very close to your ears. You’ll want to get the best ear protection you can lay your hands on.

One final point before you get started – be courteous with the time of day you’re running your blower. Unless you have an electric machine, you could end up making your neighbors very unhappy if you’re running it late at night or early in the morning!

Best Practices

Once you’ve started the machine, you’ll be making a sweeping movement with the blower to push leaves like you would with a broom. Aim to work in sectors, and push the leaves into piles for collection and disposal. Be especially careful when working your way around shrubs or other plants, and you can easily damage the leaves. Sometimes a smaller lawnmower is more effective at going around the edges of your garden.

If you have a powerful blower be careful working around parked cars, buildings or people, and always make sure you’re blowing away from them. Did you know one study found that rotting leaves contribute to greenhouse gases?

How Much Is A Leaf Blower?

Prices vary greatly depending on what type of blower you’re considering, whether it’s a commercial or residential machine. For commercial machines, you should be looking to pay $350-$500 for a good machine. This will be a great investment if you’re a heavy user, and we would strongly discourage you from trying to play it cheap – it’ll only come back to bite you in the end.

For a residential blower, you’re looking at closer somewhere between $200-$350 for a residential backpack leaf blower.

What is the Top commercial leaf blower?

For commercial usage, there are a huge number of great options out there. We would suggest you consider your use cases in more detail before you make a decision. Broadly, we fit commercial blowers into two groups.

Lightweight blowers with low speed and high CFM are great for covering large areas.

Heavy-duty blowers for moving large quantities of leaves and materials.

For the first use case, we recommend the Husqvarna 380BT or the Makita EB5300TH. If you’re looking for a hard-wearing and heavy-hitting blower, we suggest the Husqvarna 580BT or the Mellcom or Thanos models