<story><title>How a small group of activists got gas-powered leaf blowers banned in D.C.</title><url>https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/james-fallows-leaf-blower-ban/583210/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rootusrootus</author><text>The real issue IMO is that the battery powered yard tools are infected by the same planned obsolescence as existing power tools.  Most gas-powered yard tools last damn near forever even if you don&amp;#x27;t do maintenance on them.  The battery powered ones are good for three years and then you&amp;#x27;re buying a new one.  If you&amp;#x27;re lucky they still make the battery, but it costs as much a whole new tool.&lt;p&gt;Wish we could standardize modern rechargeable batteries the same way we did with old lead acid models.</text></item><item><author>adamswann</author><text>The ban is on &lt;i&gt;gas&lt;/i&gt;-powered leaf blowers.  I’ve switched to all electric yard tools at home.  No regrets; the tools are durable, can easily handle the whole job on a single charge, quiet enough that I feel comfortable letting my children assist (they can hear my instructions and generally what’s going on around them), and no gas engines to maintain.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gambiting</author><text>Am I missing something? Most Bosch tools for instance use their universal battery packs, they fit nearly all old tools and it&amp;#x27;s a pretty safe bet that they will fit all the new ones too. There&amp;#x27;s plenty of 3rd party replacements on the market, but there&amp;#x27;s almost zero chance that you won&amp;#x27;t be able to buy a replacement battery for your bosch leaf blower in few years.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s their standardised battery pack - it fits dozens of different tools:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bosch-do-it.com&amp;#x2F;gb&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;diy&amp;#x2F;tools&amp;#x2F;battery-pack-pba-18v-6-0ah-w-c-3165140843010-category-pmdb-id.jsp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bosch-do-it.com&amp;#x2F;gb&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;diy&amp;#x2F;tools&amp;#x2F;battery-pack-pba...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How a small group of activists got gas-powered leaf blowers banned in D.C.</title><url>https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/james-fallows-leaf-blower-ban/583210/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rootusrootus</author><text>The real issue IMO is that the battery powered yard tools are infected by the same planned obsolescence as existing power tools.  Most gas-powered yard tools last damn near forever even if you don&amp;#x27;t do maintenance on them.  The battery powered ones are good for three years and then you&amp;#x27;re buying a new one.  If you&amp;#x27;re lucky they still make the battery, but it costs as much a whole new tool.&lt;p&gt;Wish we could standardize modern rechargeable batteries the same way we did with old lead acid models.</text></item><item><author>adamswann</author><text>The ban is on &lt;i&gt;gas&lt;/i&gt;-powered leaf blowers.  I’ve switched to all electric yard tools at home.  No regrets; the tools are durable, can easily handle the whole job on a single charge, quiet enough that I feel comfortable letting my children assist (they can hear my instructions and generally what’s going on around them), and no gas engines to maintain.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Pfhreak</author><text>&amp;gt; If you&amp;#x27;re lucky they still make the battery, but it costs as much a whole new tool.&lt;p&gt;Aren&amp;#x27;t most companies working on a standardized battery (at least within their brand) so you can swap batteries between your drill, blower, trimmer, etc? It would seem that if that&amp;#x27;s the case, changing battery form factors would be a real bad idea.</text></comment>