By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Gas blowers are obnoxiously loud. And ultra polluting. But people seem to have a hard time giving them up.

Including my dad. He loves his power tools, and even though I've explained to him that gas blowers have been known to produce as much pollution in 30 minutes as driving for 3 hours, he wasn't ready to let his go.

So I was hopeful when I learned about Black and Decker's new rechargeable battery–operated blower. It's emission free, the charger is Energy Star rated, and is supposed to be powerful. So I got one for my dad to try.

After the initial charge, he swept his backyard with the blower and was really impressed with the power and performance. "After years of using a gas blower, this one is a godsend," he said. Here's his comparison chart—maybe you'll be converted too: