It's going to be tough to hit all those requirements with a gas blower. I have a Husqvarna 125 and it has served me well for the past 5 years - it's 9.4 lbs. It takes 3 solid pulls to start, but that's a given for a 2 cycle engine. A 4 cycle is never going to be anywhere near the 9 lbs.

Not liked my ECHO blower since the day I got it. Really should have returned it when I could but kept thinking to myself that it gets good reviews and probably will get better. 4 years later, I still struggle with it. My next blower will be a Stihl.

Stihl BG50. I cannot vouch for it but it meets your requirements.

https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/homeowner-blowers/bg50/

While the Makita BHX2500 is a pound or two heavier than your requirements, it is well worth the weight to have a very reliable blower. I got my Makita about 10 years ago, and it has been 0 trouble. Change the oil and clean the surfaces are all that is needed. After 10 years, it is still the easiest of my lawn equipment to start. I do no special preparation for the winter, but after sitting all winter, all I need to do is pump the fuel through the carb and pull the cord about twice and it starts.

Back to the weight issue. I have found that a well adjusted harness takes care of the weight issue. I use the one that came with the unit. This harness takes the stain from your arms and puts it into your shoulders and back.

Whether you go with gas, battery, or electric depends on the size of your yard. For a large yard I would not touch a battery unit, I would never get the leaves blown off of my 3/4 acre in the fall. If you have a small yard a corded unit may work for you.

For a quick blow job on the yard, do you want a slightly heavy unit or one that takes several dozen pulls on the cord to start it.

The Stihl BG50 mishmosh mentioned might be a good choice. All the specs on it are the same as the BG56 except for weight including engine size. My parents have the BG56 and I can say it is very easy to start, runs good and is surprisingly powerful for a small hand held blower. A buddy of mine has the new Stihl cordless blower and it does good for what it is.

krnuttle said: Whether you go with gas, battery, or electric depends on the size of
your yard. For a large yard I would not touch a battery unit, I would
never get the leaves blown off of my 3/4 acre in the fall.

Why would you blow the leaves off your yard instead of mulching them in?

"For a quick blow job on the yard, do you want a slightly heavy unit
or one that takes several dozen pulls on the cord to start it."

Well I got a pretty good laugh out of this.

I have nearly more flower beds to mulch than I have leaves. Everything that grows in the yard stays in the yard. It is just where are the materials need more.

I bought my wife a stihl bg85 years ago. Amazingly I have not had to rebuild the carb, but it is a little oily now. The new model is a bg86. I have a front yard that is about an acre. No way that is enough machine in the fall, so I have a back pack too, but its fine the rest of the year. I would strongly suggest looking at the 50+ volt battery rigs. I have anecho 58v blower I bought on a model changeover clearance sale for 100 bucks and I use it at one of my stores. Its amazing, but the one like dchall was talking about is even lighter and stronger. I have started using the battery rigs more and more, trimmers, chainsaws etc and really enjoy not rebuilding my 2 cycle gear, because I have a lot and its a time eating hassle. No way anybody can tell me they don't have the power to get it done. EGO 58 is a good design. Lowes has an 80v blower. They are built like a turbine with a handle on top.

Jon

"For a quick blow job on the yard, do you want a slightly heavy unit
or one that takes several dozen pulls on the cord to start it."

Well I got a pretty good laugh out of this.

LOL

Whether you go with gas, battery, or electric depends on the size of your yard.

I guess it depends on what you're blowing. I use mine to blow grass back onto the lawn from the street. Takes about 10 minutes. My battery powered stuff usually runs about 40 minutes. Of course if you have a spare battery you can go longer.

And back to the battery...if she has trouble handling a 10 pound unit, there is a lot to say for the instant start of an electric trigger rather than yanking a cord on a 9-pound unit. This EGO Leaf Blower weighs 5.1 pounds.

The EGO leaf blower may weight 5.1 lbs but the battery weighs 4.5lb...and that's for the puny one that runs for 10 minutes on high.

I doubt that. a 2 amp hour battery vs a 4 amp hour battery delivers for an hour. And by the way, these things are digital and computer board controlled. In other words they run right up to the point they run out of gas so to speak, just like your cell phone. You talk like a Ni-Cad person in a Li-ion world. But hey, I get older every year too. That was a joke btw, I dont see grey hair in your pic but cute kid!

mishmosh, thanks for the added info. I didn't see that. 30 minutes to charge and 10 minutes up time. That might work for my situation, though.

Ok. So now I am going to have to run my stih bg85l against tbe echo 58v and just see how long they run. Surely the gasser will last longer, we only run 1/3 to 1/2 tank out but the driveway is 4-500 feet plus around the house and back deck. But I have never killed a battery either. I dont kill the 2 amp hour battery on the trimmer, but I also do not have to run it wide open like I would a blower either.

I have an ego 56v blower & will never go back to a gas blower or trimmer

Thanks everyone for the good ideas here. I agree that the Makita BHX2500CA 4-cycle blower is very good and I would recommend that as a reliable leaf blower.

My family member just purchased a Husqvarna 125B leaf blower from Lowes. It comes with a 30-day return policy so she is trying it out. It's getting mixed reviews on the Lowe's website. She likes the fact that the 125B starts very easy, and is fairly lightweight, but we've noticed the blower sometimes stalls out when going from idle to full throttle. Other reviews on the Lowe's website also notice this issue, so it's not just us having this problem. We have 2 weeks left so we may return the unit. We're using the premixed 50:1 fuel so it has nothing to do with bad/stale gas or bad fuel mix.

Corded blowers won't work in her situation since she likes to move from front yard to back yard, then driveway, etc. and carrying around with an extension cord won't work.

An electric (battery) blower might not be a bad thing to try, assuming they hold a charge well and they are powerful enough and lightweight. I looked at the specs for the EGO LB5302 blower from HD. The reviews look good, but the weight is a bit too heavy for her at 10 lbs. The replacement batteries cost about as much as the blower itself.

I'll send her the links for these batter leaf blowers. As long as the stores have a 30-day return policy they might be worth looking at.

Thanks.

The stalling issue could be from the engine not being broke in yet. If it's still doing that by the end of the first tank of gas then it's a carb issue and the carb would need a slight adjustment. Sounds a tad lean on the low speed needle.

Thanks for the suggestion forsheems. I'll be able to take a look at the leaf blower myself this weekend. Is that a simple carb adjustment that I can make myself? Hopefully it's an easy adjustment instead of having to take half the blower apart. I think the blower only has maybe an hour or so of running time since she bought it but the stalling out is the only bad feature so far.

Thanks.

All of the new stuff has limiters on the carb adjustment screws which only allow about 1/4 of a turn. If the low speed screw is already backed out as far as the limiter will allow you will have to figure out a way get around it. Some you can just pop the limiter cap off of the screw but a lot of the new models make it much more difficult. If for whatever reason you can't adjust it or don't feel comfortable doing it I would take it to an authorized Husky repair shop and they should be able to adjust it. Don't bother taking it to Lowes.

Tell her to only use ethanol-free gas (she can google availability in her area) and unless she uses it very frequently, to run the gas completely out of the blower each time. These two tips will greatly improve her odds of being able to successfully start it.