Never do This to Your Leaf Blower

(Image: Screenshot from video)

Steve of Steve’s Small Engine Saloon tells us about something we should never do with a leaf blower — and (spoiler alert) that is restricting the air flow to concentrate it.

You know how it is; the blower comes with a big round opening at the end of the pipe, and you just want the thing to concentrate the air flow so it’ll do a better job at blowing away leaves and dirt. So you come up with some kind of rig to narrow the opening… but Steve says that will kill your blower’s engine!

Now I suppose I’m in the clear, because the flattened nozzle on my blower is a factory item… here’s hoping Stihl wasn’t trying to kill my blower when they made it.

Oddly enough, a restricted tube will cause the engine to rev faster than it should. You would think the engine would be working harder to force the air through the tube, therefore if anything the RPMs would be lower — but that’s simply not the case. I suppose the backpressure inside the restricted tube acts with the fan blades to “help” the engine spin faster.

Steve runs the same blower with a wide-open tube and a restricted tube, and the RPMs take an amazing jump from 7300 to 9020! Extended use at that speed would certainly kill the machine.

Bottom line: Enjoy the video, and don’t squish or restrict your blower tube. You’re welcome!

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.