Best lightweight cordless leaf blower

A leaf blower is held out in front of you, one-handed, for as long as the job takes. Published bare weights in this category run from 4.6 lb to 12.5 lb, and that spread decides more about whether you finish a big autumn clear than any airflow figure does.

The short answer

The published weights

1. EGO LB7650 — lightest and most powerful, which should not happen

4.6 lb bare with 765 CFM and 200 MPH behind it. Those are the top figures in all three columns, which is not how this category usually works — airflow normally costs mass.

It also publishes both ends of its runtime honestly: 15 minutes on turbo and 150 minutes on low from a 5.0Ah pack. That matters for fatigue as well as battery life, because the low setting is where a light tool stays comfortable and the arithmetic gives you a reason to stay there.

Honest cons: it is sold bare in most configurations, so the real purchase includes a pack and charger. And 200 MPH is more air speed than a small courtyard wants.

#ad Check the EGO Power+ 765 CFM Blower LB7650 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

2. Greenworks 80V axial — second-best airflow per pound

730 CFM from a published 8.82 lb tool-only weight is about 83 CFM per pound. That is the second-best figure here, but not a close second: the LB7650 manages 166. We previously published 133 CFM per pound for this tool, from a 5.5 lb weight that matches nothing Greenworks publishes today — that was our error, and 83 is the corrected figure.

The published cruise control is a genuine fatigue feature that nobody frames as one: it removes the need to hold a trigger for the whole session, which on a long clear is a different kind of tiredness from carrying the weight.

Add a published 40-minute recharge and a four-year warranty on tool and battery. Against it: 170 MPH is the lowest peak air speed of the handhelds, and Greenworks publishes no noise figure and no minimum airflow.

See the Greenworks 80V 730 CFM Axial Blower on Greenworks's own site — no Amazon listing right now, so this link earns us nothing. How we're funded.

3. EGO LB6000 backpack — heaviest, and the right answer anyway

12.5 lb is the heaviest published figure on this page, and for sessions over about half an hour it is the most comfortable tool here. The weight sits on a harness with a waist belt rather than on your wrist, which changes what it costs you to carry.

It is also the runtime champion: 180 published minutes on low, against 150 for the LB7650. On a big property that is the difference between one session and two.

The honest limits are published: 145 MPH is the lowest air speed of any blower we hold, and the harness makes no sense for a ten-minute job. The class trade is in the backpack roundup.

#ad Check the EGO Power+ 600 CFM Backpack Blower LB6000 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

Reducing the weight you actually carry

1. Fit the smallest pack that covers the session. Low-mode draws in this category run about 1.9 to 3.3 watt-hours a minute, so a 30-minute clear needs roughly 60 to 100Wh — far less than the largest packs hold.
2. Work at the bottom of the variable range. Turbo is ten times the energy and considerably more effort to hold steady.
3. Use a strap if the tool takes one. It moves load off the wrist.
4. Swap hands deliberately rather than when the first one gives out.
5. Narrow the nozzle before raising the power. A concentrator at a mid setting often finishes a stuck patch that turbo was being used for — see the nozzle guide.

#ad Check the EGO Power+ 650 CFM Blower LB6504 price on Amazon — how we're funded.

What we cannot tell you

Nobody publishes a loaded weight, a balance point or a vibration figure for any blower in our registry, and EGO publishes no weight at all for the LB6504. Balance matters as much as mass on a tool held at arm's length, and nobody quantifies it.

What is published: 4.6 lb at the light end, 12.5 lb at the heavy end, and one tool that somehow tops the weight, airflow and air-speed columns at the same time.