[vel0city]

My main use case for a leaf blower is to blow lawn clippings off the sidewalks, paths, and roads back on to my lawn after mowing and trimming. Rakes aren't effective for such small trimmed parts.

My leaf blower is battery electric though so its a good bit quieter than the gas ones others use, although I do agree its still one of the loudest parts of my yard maintenance.

[BobaFloutist]

> Rakes aren't effective for such small trimmed parts.

Well, yeah, they have such big gaps because leaves are big. Have you tried a push-broom? That would be the first thing I'd reach for.

[vel0city]

Sure, a push broom would work for the base task of getting the trimmings moved off the path, but then I'd want to disperse said trimmings somewhat evenly across the yard instead of just piled up at the edges. A push broom wasn't as effective to do the same while taking more effort and time. Especially since for the trimmings that went out into the street I need to get them up over the curb as well.

I used to use a broom before I got the leaf blower. The blower is way faster and disperses the trimmings more evenly across my yard than the broom.

I do end up using a rake though for leaves, as for actual leaf gathering usage the rake is faster and far more efficient at actually making nice, easy to handle piles.