Best Cordless Leaf Blowers of 2022
These are top handheld and backpack electric blowers from CR's tests
CR test engineer Thomas Johnson assesses how well a leaf blower removes embedded leaves from grass.
By Paul Hope
In the past decade, cordless leaf blowers have evolved from a niche product for light leaf cleanup to a viable alternative to heavy-duty gas-powered blowers.
These tools, also called battery leaf blowers, battery-powered leaf blowers, or cordless electric leaf blowers, are now worth a serious look.
“Cordless leaf blowers are more convenient and quieter than gas, and the best ones are every bit as powerful,” says Misha Kollontai, a CR engineer in charge of leaf blower testing.
In fact, there are more than a dozen handheld cordless leaf blowers that outperform the best gas model in our ratings across all leaf blowers. In addition to starting instantly and running more quietly than gas models, cordless leaf blowers also spare you the need to mix oil and gasoline for the two-cycle engines used in most gas-powered blowers. They also produce no emissions and are vastly better for the environment.
There are two types of cordless leaf blowers: handheld and backpack. Most handhelds max out in 12 to 15 minutes before needing to be recharged, so they make sense only if you have a few small trees or if you’re diligent about blowing leaves as they fall.
If you have lots of trees on your property, a cordless backpack leaf blower is a better option. These have bigger batteries that run for 30 to 60 minutes on a single charge. They’re pricier than handhelds, but you can use their batteries in other outdoor power tools—like string trimmers, lawn mowers, and chainsaws—of the same brand.
In CR’s leaf blower tests, we rope off a swath of grass and dump leaves inside the boundary, going through some 2,500 pounds during a busy year. We time how long each blower takes to clear the pile and how thoroughly it removes leaves near the bottom of the pile, which can become embedded in the grass. For more on how we test leaf blowers, see CR’s leaf blower buying guide.
Below, we highlight five cordless leaf blower models that are at the top of the heap in our tests.
Best Battery Handheld Cordless Leaf Blowers
Best Battery Backpack Cordless Leaf Blowers
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