18V blowers do lack power, I'd only get something 40V or higher. If you're a glutton for punishment, an 18V to 24V brushless blower with an upper tier, high current battery might be borderline powerful enough.
In that case, of 40V+ higher performance blowers, they do typically have 15 mins or less runtime on a single series, 2.5Ah or lower capacity pack, and the next size up double capacity pack, may cost more than the entire blower kit does, and of course adds weight.
Sometimes even the first same-capacity battery that came in the kit, can cost as much to replace as the kit if you found the kit on sale. It can make sense to buy two entire kits in some cases. Wacky internet pricing for the win!
Considering what you already have, I'd read some reviews on the 40V Worx, OR sometimes you can get pretty good deals on the Ryobi 40V kits as factory blems or refurbs, for example these two right now are discounted:
www.directtoolsoutlet.com
www.directtoolsoutlet.com
The first one being brushless is probably worth at least the $20 price difference because you'll get more work done per charge or that translates into less discharge depth counting against total # of charges, so the battery pack lasts longer before below a capacity where you need to replace it down the road.
Rakes my arse! lol, maybe in certain limited applications but if you have much in the way of leaves, or pavement where grass clippings deposit after mowing, a rake is a tedious, time consuming, chore that doesn't have to happen. Besides I find the noise from running a rake along concrete, trying to get up sparse stuck-on grass clippings for a half hour or longer, more annoying than the sound of a leaf blower that does the job 5X as fast.
The electric blowers make plenty of noise, but it is higher pitched than with gas blowers and I don't find that the sound penetrates buildings as much, unless of course the owner has the windows open and then they get whatever they hear as there's almost constant mowing/blower/etc noise here at this time of year on any day it hasn't rained. Heh, any minute now I'll be done digesting dinner and be out mowing and blowing again.
When I replaced my gas blower, I got a Craftsman. It was on sale, and I figured that with this being Black & Decker's new line of Craftsman 60V tools, they'd be around a good while, at least until I needed a new battery.
Nope, they shut down their 60V line so I'll end up rebuilding the pack myself when the time comes, or recently I got a lead on another option which is that SB&D are still making compatible batteries for their Cub Cadet branded blower which is the same thing but different brand name and coloring. It's still more expensive than the entire Craftsman kit was, but at least it blows good and I should have a fairly low yearly TCO.
Corded, just no unless you have a very small property area to blow. I'd go back to a gas blower before a corded one, something with a commercial engine, not a $90 homeowner grade. This is in the context that I need to blow practically every time I mow. Leaves in fall, I mulch mow those, no reasonable way to tackle the amount of leaves I have, with a cordless blower, and I'm better off not bagging and disposing of them because my high clay soil benefits from mulching/composting to enrich the topsoil... though I'm not one of those guys that's really picky/obsessive about his lawn, but I don't want spring grass muck stuck to my paved areas either.
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