carb icing -- small engine -- any brilliant cures

That's true, but with any significant fall of rain or snow the runoff would wash all the salt away. Wouldn't do the trees much good either.

 

Yeah, but.....I wasn't suggesting covering the air intake on the carb; just some of the louvers on the case, so that air would be drawn over more of the engine, and get warmed up. Surely warmer air would help?

 

I've noticed the latest crop of Li-ion cordless blowers and related tools (from outfits like Ego Power+) are not just for messing around any more. (I replaced an older cordless blower with the Ego one this last fall, and doing the leaves I had to be careful not to blow the grass out of the ground, which had never been a problem before.) No icing, no fueling, no oiling, no rope-pulling....

Ego, usefully, sells a range of battery sizes depending on the capacity you need (and the weight you'll tolerate), all interchangeable, and a couple flavors of charger depending on how fast you want to charge. The chargers directly fan-cool the battery while charging it, and so can charge faster than used to be typical. (For a big area, I'm not sure whether I'd prefer a big battery, or two smaller ones, one on the charger while one's in use.)

Might sound like I work for Ego, but no, just satisfied so far.

-Chap

 

Would ashes have a useful effect and be environmentally OK?

Bob Wilson

 

Wood ash should be ok as it's natural, but mineral ash would not be encouraged imho.

 

I suggested it only for ice to keep it from building up on the gravel. Easier to keep ice off than get rid of it. Unless you have a torch or flame thrower. Maybe I'll test my propane torch out if we get an ice storm.

Not as a pretreatment since the ash can just fall between the gravel. Fertilizers work as ice melt. I've used old lawn spread as such. Don't know how soluable they are for making a solution, buying bags of sodium nitrate might be questioned.

But will it warm up enough? Blocking part of the grill means the amount of the air coming in hasn't change, but it will be moving faster now.

Freezing temps will be hard on the batteries. They won't last as long, and might provide less power. When we got our electric snowblower a few years ago there wasn't anything cordless that was made for winter use. Corded isn't a solution because of the area though

 

Maybe some entrepreneur will come up with a short, heavy-gauge cable with the matching blade connectors, letting you wear the battery under your parka. Shoot, there goes my patent.

Or maybe the battery will be warmed enough naturally by the current flow. Years back, there was a post on here somewhere about how quickly a cold Prius HV battery could be brought to normal temperature just by supplying or drawing a moderate current.

-Chap

 

I hope you meant "ammonium nitrate." As long as you're not buying a petroleum liquid from the same vendor at the same time. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

I used to describe my employers innovating 'recycling' of used diesel and motor oil in ANFO, not so much anymore. They are still recycling, but we do not explain in any detail.

(good moves sections of earth up and then down in same place, bad shoots earth in a trajectory elsewhere, potentially hurting someone or collapsing the slope of the mine)

 

A hybrid battery is in the passenger cabin, or trunk at worst, which shelters it. Plus, it's also big. The little battery on a blower will be right out in the cold.
Now a cordless blower won't be completely unless for this job, but I think @cyberpriusII will be going back in to recharge as often as the carb iced up.

 

I'm never a fan of cordless power tools, or lawn mowers. Love the corded ones though, over gas, so simple. Strange how the local hardware flyers have the first 4~5 pages just wall-to-wall cordless tools and gizmos: I just glaze over flipping past all that stuff.

In Kris's situation though seems like gas is the only reliable way to go.

 

I wasn't a fan for a long time. The Toros I had before prior to these Egos I would have described as "barely adequate" (and only because I have a small urban space), plus Toro played games with battery specs that led to me crossing them off my list.

But looking at the trend indicated by the latest offerings, as usual, technology has a way of outpacing my prejudices....

-Chap

 

Yeah could be, I'm a bit of a luddite. I recall a few years back a guy was installing our new internet connection, down in the crawl space. He pressed me into service, swapping batteries on some external charger. It's kinda nuts to drive a few screws and then have to swap packs. Everything I have is within reach of power cords, but corded vs cordless, it's plain to see the latter is winning. I guess contractors like them.

I get the sense the cordless are going to be a lot tougher on the environment, and cost consumers more in the long run. They seem much more short-term, disposable.

 

If you possess the skills, swapping out old cells in the battery pack isn't tough.
The question I have, is will my DeWalt charger work with NiMH once the NiCads go? I suspect yes.

 

aid the melting with an axe or sledge hammer

 

Hang on. She's not a brutish lumberjack ya know. She's a young woman with a badly sprained wrist. With the best will in the world, I wouldn't want her wielding a hefty axe or sledgehammer until she's good as new.