Public opinion, policy-makers, and $5-a-gallon gasoline are all lining up against gas-powered leaf blowers.
A ChangeHampton petition calling for a full ban throughout East Hampton Town gained momentum this past winter.
North Haven Village made headlines this spring for doubling the fines for violating its ban, which runs from May 1 to Nov. 1.
Last week saw a new push from the East Hampton Village Board to extend its own ban to match North Haven’s, and this week, East Hampton Town’s sustainability committee discussed recommending that the town match North Haven’s ban as well.
Meanwhile, Southampton Village just celebrated the two-year anniversary of its own ban, which is year round and covers commercial operators and homeowners alike. It is currently the only local municipality with a full ban.
All of which was the backdrop to an electric-blower demonstration, sponsored by ChangeHampton, held on the Town Hall campus May 16. Despite perfect weather a week ahead of Memorial Day, when landscapers should have been busy preening and perfecting properties ahead of the holiday, a number attended to see what the future held.
A “mowbot” was on hand as well, silently mowing the lawn while people chatted. A song sparrow sang.
“We’re having a public event here and he just mowed this whole courtyard here and nobody even knew it, right?” said Adam Goldwasser, vice president of Greener, whose mowers are used by East Hampton Village on some of its properties.
So, if electric is the future, what’s the holdup? Only money, logistics, and a paradigm shift.
“There’s not an electric blower on the market that can replace a gas blower right now,” admitted Nelson Munoz, who switched his landscaping company over to electric five years ago and is now an educator with the Electric Switch Group. If that’s what people think, however, they’re missing the point, he said. Landscapers can change their practices to blow less. That’s the paradigm shift part.
Still, the revolution seems to be coming. Representatives of Stihl, Kress, Milwaukee, and Pellenc, all said sales were incredibly strong.
“The adoption rate has accelerated exponentially over the last two years,” said Chad Woodring of Kress.
The start-up costs of going electric can be scary, though. Including a battery, commercial models can run you four to five times what a gas-blower costs.
Mr. Munoz says this is where things can get interesting. “The up-front cost is higher, but the maintenance and long-term costs are lower,” he said.
Operating a gas blower, he said, costs $5 per hour, while operating an electric blower costs between 11 and 17 cents per hour. “Whatever you save in gasoline you can put back into the battery equipment,” he said. “We found that within three years, you’re getting your money back.”
Gas blowers rarely get though two full seasons before they need to be replaced, Mr. Munoz maintained. They have more parts and vibrate more, he said, speeding wear. Electric blowers create less friction and heat, doubling their life span. “Even when the blower is finished, you still have the battery.”
Don’t believe him? Okay. Financial help from New York State may soon make switching even more enticing.
Dr. Bonnie Sager, founder and head of the Quiet Clean Alliance, was at Saturday’s event. Both the State Assembly and the State Senate have passed a bill that will provide rebates to landscapers who switch to electric blowers, she said. The bill, which awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature, should make the upfront costs less burdensome to landscapers.
Dr. Sager, who is an optometrist, commented that what first brought gas-powered blowers to her attention was injuries from pebbles being launched eyeward at 200 miles per hour.
“Do you need hurricane force to blow a leaf or grass clipping? I don’t think so,” she said.
While some commercial-grade electric blowers can match the power of gas blowers, (the Kress 41N backpack blower has a maximum air speed of 230 miles per hour but emits only 63 decibels of sound), some batteries last less than half an hour, making multiple batteries necessary.
“Instead of stopping and refilling with gas, you just go get a charged battery,” said Paul Munoz (no relation to Nelson), who owns the local landscape company Eco Harmony Landscapes.
Landscapers, he said, have to commit to a brand. “It’s kind of hard if you buy the batteries and chargers of one and then have to start over. No one brand is perfect, it depends on what you use it for.”
He was trying out a blower from a French brand, Pellenc (167 m.p.h., 80 decibels), on fallen cherry blossoms. “This one is $2,800 for the blower and the battery? That’s crazy good,” he said.
The Pellenc sales brochure said an UliB 1500 battery, for use in its Airion backpack blower, would last one to three hours for “standard maintenance” and for 40 minutes to nearly two hours for “intense road clearing work.” That was the longest battery time of the models at the show.
“I don’t run my blowers in the fall much,” Mr. Munoz said. “We rake; we keep our leaves where they’re supposed to be. I think blowers are evil, even these things. But if you use them mindfully, then you’re okay.”
Mr. Munoz of the Electric Switch Group acknowledged that charging is important (he charges all his batteries overnight in his garage). And, he remarked, landscapers have to evolve -meaning not blast every fallen leaf into a pile that gets tossed into the back of a dump truck and carted away. If cost is a hurdle, a lot of leaves can just be mulched on site, saving dumping and fertilizing fees. The clippings feed the lawn.
“I don’t know, it’s going to be hard for a lot of people who have no money to buy these,” said Pedro Rebara, a landscaper, listening to Mr. Woodring explain his products. “I got in the raffles, and I hope I win.”
Told about the pending state rebate, he allowed that it would make a difference.
“Landscapers have a lot of concerns,” said Gail Pellet, a co-founder of ChangeHampton. “That’s why we’re doing this,” she said, as she asked Mr. Rebara to sign the yearround ban petition.
Town employees were at the demo as well. Kim Shaw from the Natural Resources Department was trying to figure out how to make a bulk purchase. “That seems to make so much sense,” she said.
Later, Councilwoman Cate Rogers and Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte showed up.
“It was a great event,” Mr. Calder-Piedmonte told his colleagues at Tuesday’s town board meeting. “I learned a lot.”
Interested residents were also on hand. Bob Hoguet, who has a threeacre property on Further Lane and has been “visiting East Hampton for 85 years, if you include the time in utero,” said that “the biggest change here has been the increase in noise.” Rather than wait for laws to be passed, Mr. Hoguet has told his lawn and leaf crews not to use gas-powered machinery on his land.
“Initially, people didn’t like being told that smoking was going to be illegal in public places,” said Kress’s Mr. Woodring. “Restaurants said they were going to go out of business. Within two years, they had even more business, because people didn’t realize how offensive smoking in restaurants was. It’s the same thing here. Communities that start twisting the arm of landscapers a bit, within a couple of years they’re going to see incredible quality-of-life benefits.”
Kress has been in the market only since 2023. “Here in 2026, we can’t keep up with demand,” Mr. Woodring said.
Twenty feet away, Ms. Pellet announced the winner of the first raffle, a Greenworks 80-volt backpack blower.
Mr. Rebara won. He walked away smiling, box in hand. “This is going to make a lot of difference,” he said. “No noise. No gas. You can help your lungs.”
East Hampton Town’s gas-blower ban went into effect Wednesday. Currently, it lasts until Sept. 20. The petition can be found online at bit.ly/4uGjLPv.
