Gas vs. Electric Leaf Blower: Which Is Better?

Our rigorous battery of tests settles the question

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When you upgrade from a rake to a leaf blower, there’s no going back. Moving lots of leaves—and blowing other types of debris, such as beach sand from a deck—is simply so much easier, faster, and less labor-intensive with a leaf blower.

For a long time, this has been especially true with gas leaf blowers. But over the past decade of testing, the experts at Consumer Reports have noticed significant improvements in electric models, making the decision between buying a gas or electric leaf blower a tougher one.

“Every year, there are fewer and fewer reasons to tell people to choose gas models,” says Misha Kollontai, CR’s engineer in charge of leaf-blower testing. “That’s even more true with the advancement of larger batteries and the introduction of battery backpack leaf blowers, which are built for larger yards.”

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If you’re just starting to shop, look to our leaf-blower buying guide for advice about types and features. You can also jump right to our ratings of dozens of models if you’re ready to browse, or see which models CR has deemed to be the best overall. But if you want to see how gas and electric leaf blowers perform head-to-head in our tests, read on.

CR’s test engineers rope off a standardized swath of grass and dump bags of leaves inside the boundary, making sure we use the same quantity of leaves for each test.

We time how long each blower takes to clear the pile, and whether the tool moves every last leaf. Some models struggle at the bottom of the pile, where leaves can become embedded in the grass. Only certain technicians, who use similar techniques with each model, do this test.

We also note how hard it is to maneuver each leaf blower, how heavy it feels, and how intuitive the controls are to use.

Some years, we go through 2,500 pounds of leaves in the process. And because we can’t rely on that quantity to fall on our Yonkers, N.Y., campus each autumn, we often start collecting and storing fallen foliage a year in advance.

Our engineers took years’ worth of leaf-blower testing data to build a tool that allows us to compare scores from dozens of models, including gas and electric. We compare average scores for both types of leaf blowers in the following tests: sweeping, loosening, vacuuming, handling, noise at the ear, and noise at 50 feet. We also look at run times for every electric model and across electric models in general. (There’s no real limit on run time for gas models because you can quickly top off the tank and keep working.)

One thing to note: Averages can be misleading because the scores can be diluted by outliers that are either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. A bell curve shows where a majority of models of each type fall in terms of performance; our results are below. Keep in mind that we devised this head-to-head to compare models across categories. But in your own yard, the only thing that matters is the performance of the specific leaf blower you choose.

The ability to sweep leaves into a tidy pile is a leaf blower’s most important attribute. Airflow, power, and design all influence how effectively a model accomplishes this task.

Which is best? Gas—by a tiny margin. On average, gas models earn a 4.6 on a scale of 0 to 5.5 in this test, while electrics earn a 4.4. But plenty of electric leaf blowers individually earn near-perfect scores in our sweeping tests, just like the best gas models. And, in fact, the best electric models earn a sweeping score of 5.2, identical to what we’ve found from the best gas models. What throws the scales here is that some of the electric leaf blowers in our ratings are really crummy, and not viable contenders. The worst earn a score of just 0.5 for sweeping. (Even the worst gas model we tested still musters a sweeping score of 3.7.)

It’s one thing to blow dry leaves off a firm surface, like concrete or short grass. But loosening leaves that are embedded in taller grass poses a challenge, even for powerful leaf blowers, unless they’re designed to funnel airflow into a tight stream.

Which is best? Gas blowers, as a group, get the edge here, but the best electrics actually outperform them. On the whole, gas blowers earn an average score of 4.1 for loosening, compared with an average score of 3.5 for electrics. But even the very best gas model maxes out with a score of 4.8 in this test, while the best electric earns an impressive 5.5, our highest score. What’s the takeaway? Gas wins as a group, but choosing the right electric leaf blower ensures performance that even gas can’t match.

If you have a smaller yard, a leaf blower with a vacuum function is a great option. The vacuum mode sucks up leaves and shreds them before discharging them into an attached bag. While only a handful of models have this feature, we do see differences in performance.

Which is best? Electric, but leaf blowers with a vacuum function are few and far between. Only a single battery model we’ve tested has this feature, but it handled the task masterfully. Four gas models in our ratings have a vacuum function, two of which excel at the task. We’d argue that vacuuming is far from the most important consideration and shouldn’t sway your choice between gas and electric leaf blowers.

This test reflects how evenly balanced and responsive a leaf blower is. Gas models need to account for a heavier engine and gas tank, but electrics need to balance the weight of lithium-ion batteries, which can be heavy.

Which is best? As a group, electric leaf blowers earn a score of 4.4 on this test, while gas models earn an average score of 3.6. But if you only look at the very best models of both types, it’s a tie, with a score of 4.9 for each. This test was done with the smaller batteries electrics are sold with. So keep in mind that if you choose to use a beefier battery at home because, for instance, you already have a lawn mower from the same brand and want to use its battery with your blower to cut down on cost.

We measure noise both at the ear of the user and at 50 feet to simulate what the experience might be like for your neighbors.

Which is best? Electric. It’s probably no surprise that electric leaf blowers are quieter—after all, it’s one of their big selling points. Of those in our ratings, electrics earn an average score of 2.9 for noise at the ear, while gas models average out to a score of 1.7. (The lower the score, the worse the noise.) Even the worst electric model scores twice as high as the worst gas. The disparity grows at a distance. When measured at 50 feet, the electric leaf blowers in our ratings earn an average score of 4.8 compared with an average score of 2.5 for gas.

At first glance, it might look like a draw, with electrics outperforming gas in many tasks, but gas acing it in key areas, like sweeping and loosening. But when you look more closely, electric is the clear winner. That’s because while gas models as a group do well in a few important tests, on average, there are in each instance also at least a few electric leaf blowers that match or beat that performance. In contrast, no gas models are quiet by any stretch, and the best electric leaf blowers we’ve tested match or beat the best gas models in every single test we conduct. The only case to be made here for gas relates to charge times and run times for batteries. If you have a yard with dozens of deciduous trees shedding leaves, gas could make sense. But keep in mind that the batteries for the leaf blowers we’ve tested charge in 5 to 48 minutes and work for an average of nearly 94 minutes.

That’s a pretty strong case for electrics. What’s more, they’re also better for the planet, better for your ears, and over time, they’re probably better for your wallet, too, when you factor in a gas model’s lifetime cost of gas and (in some cases) oil.

Electric leaf blowers also have an advantage: the interchangeability of electric batteries. Brands that make electric leaf blowers know you’ll likely want to use that same battery in, say, a lawn mower, string trimmer, hedge trimmer, chain saw, or even a snow blower.

And in most cases, you can. If you buy an electric outdoor tool, make sure to buy into the platform, not just that one tool. You can do that by confirming that the brand you buy also offers other outdoor tools with high scores in our ratings. The advantage here is twofold. If you amass enough tools from the same brand over time, you can buy some of them without batteries, saving you about a third of the cost of the tool. Then you can simply use the batteries among multiple tools and keep one charging at all times. With a charged battery on hand, you’ll never run out of juice.

All that said, a gas leaf blower might make sense if you’re not ready to buy into a battery platform and you have a big yard filled with leafy deciduous trees. That’s why we’ve also included a couple of great gas models, along with three excellent electric options, in our roundup of high-performing leaf blowers, below.

Paul Hope

Paul Hope is a senior multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports and a trained chef. He covers ranges, cooktops, and wall ovens, as well as grills, drills, outdoor power tools, decking, and wood stains. Before joining CR in 2016, he tested kitchen products at Good Housekeeping and covered tools and remodeling for This Old House magazine. You’ll typically find him in his old fixer-upper, engrossed in a DIY project or trying out a new recipe.