What's the best backpack blower on the market?

[porsche965]

Good question.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

At wide-open throttle a lot of fuel is burned, and significant heat is generated in the combustion chamber, which is removed by the cooling fan and incoming cool mixture of air/fuel. Remove the ability for the engine to cool itself (such as by turning it off) and all that heat is trapped in the cylinder, possibly ceasing the rings to the cylinder wall, or more commonly just overheating the rings to the point they deform (reach critical temperature, or "melt") and the engine loses compression.

At idle the engine generates a small amount of heat as not much fuel is burned and has a lot of ability to cool itself through air movement from the fan and the cool incoming fuel/air mixture. A hot engine can therefore continue to shed the heat built up from a hard run.

2-Stroke snow blower engines that are used to clear heavy snow on flat driveways (blowing snow both directions) more easily overheat than the same engine on an incline where the engine is loaded by blowing snow on the downhill push, but unloaded on the drag back up hill.

2-Stroke chainsaws that are "leaned on" or have a wide carbide chain (beyond mfg. spec.) cook themselves and lose compression (overheated rings) where the same saws run with less load last much, much longer.

Therefore, I let my engines warm up and cool down for about two minutes each way, and try to not run them full load nor wide-open throttle (less heat is better, plus the Engineer's Law: Speed kills).

-----

Took delivery of a RedMax 8500, girlfriend snagged it and is putting tank after tank through it, I ~maybe~ put 5 minutes on it....will post a review when she lets me use it. $520 shipped from Russo Power Equipment.
http://www.russopower.com/search/?keyword=8500

Short of it: Like many lawn-care heroes*, I recommend the Stihl BR600 unless you need more power/volume, then the RedMax 8500 with some additional parts does the job.


*I am not a lawn-care hero, just worship at the temple.

 

[blsnelling]

Thanks Brad!

 

[Andyshine77]

I've always let my air cooled ope idle for at least a minute to cool down, especially my commercial mower. In the evening you can see the muffler can glow, a few seconds at idle and it cools down.

 

[mr.finn]

In talking to my dealer they say that BP blowers create heat from running wide open for long periods of time(I have run mine full throttle for an entire tank) that it is best to let the engine cool down a bit before shutting off. Not sure if it works or is true but makes sense to me and I still do it.

 

[mr.finn]

Thanks Brad for clearing that up. No sooner did I post about how great my 802's have been, i think the older one may have self destructed on me yesterday. Stopped running, tried a couple pulls, it ran and coughed a bit so I shut it down and pulled the plug. The gap was smashed shut, not good. Dropped it off at dealer for them to check out.

 

[z71mike]

Thanks Brad for clearing that up. No sooner did I post about how great my 802's have been, i think the older one may have self destructed on me yesterday. Stopped running, tried a couple pulls, it ran and coughed a bit so I shut it down and pulled the plug. The gap was smashed shut, not good. Dropped it off at dealer for them to check out.

That's crappy news. No time to open it up yourself, huh?

 

[LegDeLimber]

By any chance was the adjustable carb a Walbro WYK-192-1 ?
http://www.russopower.com/products/walbro-carburetor-wyk-192-1/ I just linked this is for the photo.
If you look at the carb body and imagine a line from the fuel inlet up to the idle speed screw,
It looks like there is a hidden screw hole in the carb body just above the metering block.
At one time I had bookmarked the thread where Brad was swapping his carb, but can't figure out where I saved it.
Somehow I thought the one Brad found had a proper screw head protruding from its hole though.

Mercy Sakes, I hate to admit how many hours I've spent reading threads about these carburetors and then trying to find correct illustrations of them vs generic photos
that aren't correct on the important details.

 

[mr.finn]

That's crappy news. No time to open it up yourself, huh?

I don't really have the time right now, trying to wrap up clean ups. This was the older unit and will probably replace depending on the asessment.

 

[KG441c]

Brad which blower did u end up with?

 

[blsnelling]

I still have the EB802 I bought a few years ago.

 

[KG441c]

Oh ok. Was just wonderin if u had bought another. I used my BR600 yesterday and noticed it changing rpms , dropping and raising just alil on topend. Probably that plastic cam follower worn some?

 

[blsnelling]

Oh ok. Was just wonderin if u had bought another. I used my BR600 yesterday and noticed it changing rpms , dropping and raising just alil on topend. Probably that plastic cam follower worn some?

I doubt it. The wear isn't going to change intermittently.

 

[KG441c]

What do u think it would be?

 

[blsnelling]

What do u think it would be?

I really don't know. Post up a vid so that we can hear it. When did you last adjust the valves?

 

[KG441c]

About 6 months ago I rebuilt it and set them @ .010

 

[sawfun]

Brad, are you not happy with that Shinny ? That was a very close second choice to my br600. It was kinda a toss up. I have a Shinny handheld 4-mix type.

 

[blsnelling]

It's a great blower, no problems at all. I just like how much lighter my dad's BR600 "feels", although the specs don't show it.

 

[sawfun]

I can't even feel mine except that it sticks out when going through tight spots, but they all do that.

 

[porsche965]

I use a Husky 580 and a Stihl 600. After this last season of leaves they both are keepers. 600 is light and nimble and the 580 is simply a Monster. STihl does have a chest strap and a waist belt that replicates the 580 Husky. That was my only gripe on the Stihl was the strapping set up after using Husky's superior set up. What a difference with the STihl now! I don't even know it is back there. Very pleased with both.