A backpack blower is the tool for a big yard: an acre of lawn, a long drive, a line of oaks. It also runs the longest, so the neighbors hear more of it than of any handheld. And in a growing number of towns, a blower has to meet a written limit, usually 65 dB(A) at 50 feet measured to the ANSI B175.2 standard.
This guide narrows our quietest leaf blowers guide to backpacks. We read the maker pages and manuals for 21 backpack blowers from eight brands, gas and battery, and sorted every noise figure by what it measures. The ranking is by the 50 ft figure, because that is what a rule is written in. The figures for your own ears come after, in their own list. If you only clear a patio, a deck or a short drive, our guide to the quietest handheld battery leaf blowers ranks the smaller tools on the same 50 ft figure.
Our picks are listed above, with full specifications for each.
Backpack makers publish three kinds of noise figure. They measure different things and are never ranked against each other here.
The 50 ft bystander figure. Sound pressure 50 feet (15 m) from the blower, under ANSI B175.2. It is the closest thing to what the house next door hears, and it is the basis of the city rules below. Makita, Milwaukee, STIHL, ECHO and EGO's commercial line publish it. Husqvarna prints it only in the 550iBTX manual.
The operator's ear figure, LpA. Sound pressure at the user's ear, declared in Europe under ISO 22868. Husqvarna's US pages carry it, and so do EGO's European manuals. It is always far higher than the 50 ft figure, because your ears are a couple of feet from the fan, not fifty.
Guaranteed sound power, LWA. The total sound the machine puts out, with an allowance for variation between units, under the EU's outdoor noise directive 2000/14/EC. It is not a distance figure at all.
A bare "dB" with no distance or standard is a fourth thing, and not a ranking basis. RYOBI's 730 CFM backpack lists 59 dB and Greenworks' 60V backpack lists 72.8 dB, both with no basis. New to the units? dBA explained covers the A in dB(A).
The 50 ft ranking
Every figure below is dB(A) at 50 ft (15 m) under ANSI B175.2, in the maker's own document:
- Makita GBU04Z, battery: 60
- Husqvarna 550iBTX, battery: 61 (manual only)
- Milwaukee 3009, battery: 62
- STIHL BGA 300, battery: 62
- STIHL BRA 200, battery: 64
- ECHO PB-265LN, gas: 65 (its 2013 manual prints 64)
- ECHO PB-760LNT, gas: 65
- EGO LBPX8000, battery: 65
- STIHL BR 200 and ECHO PB-580T, gas: 70
- STIHL BR 600 and BR 700, gas: 75
- STIHL BR 430, gas: 76
- STIHL BR 800 C-E, gas: 77
Read the gaps with the usual rule of thumb: about 10 dB(A) sounds twice as loud. Makita's 60 against STIHL's BR 800 at 77 is a 17 decibel gap, so the big gas backpack sounds more than three times as loud next door. Even the 5 decibels between 60 and 65 is easy to hear.
Two cautions about this list. None of these makers says which throttle or power setting its figure describes. And the 550iBTX row in Husqvarna's manual is labelled "Sound power level, measured at 50 ft. (15 m) per ANSI-B175.2" with the value 61 and no unit beside it; the manual's symbol key describes the 50 ft label in dB(A). We read it as the 50 ft figure, but Husqvarna's product page does not print it.
What your own ears get
For the operator's ear, Husqvarna and EGO declare figures for backpacks in their own pages and manuals, and Husqvarna disagrees with itself in one case:
- Husqvarna 550iBTX, battery: 73 dB(A) on the product page, 86 dB(A) in the manual
- EGO LB6003 (EU LB6000E), battery: 82 dB(A), K 2.5
- EGO LBPX8000, battery: 82 dB(A), K 3
- Husqvarna 350BT, gas: 94 dB(A)
- Husqvarna 360BT, gas: 95 dB(A)
- Husqvarna 580BTS, gas: 106 dB(A)
STIHL gives operator figures for its backpacks only in its UK product data, each with K 2.0 dB(A) and no test standard named, as our STIHL decibels page explains: 84 dB(A) for the BGA 300 and BRA 500, 85 for the BRA 600, 86 for the BRA 200 and 88 for the BRA 280 on battery, and from 100 for the gas BR 600 to 104 for the BR 800 C-E. Because no standard is named, we list them here and do not rank them against the Husqvarna and EGO figures.
By guaranteed sound power, LWA: Husqvarna 550iBTX at 94 dB(A) on the page and 96 in the manual, EGO LB6003 at 95, EGO LBPX8000 at 98, Husqvarna 350BT at 104, 360BT at 111 and 580BTS at 115. Our EGO decibels page explains where EGO's European figures come from and how its US and EU model numbers match.
The gap between the two audiences is the whole point. The LBPX8000 is rated 65 dB(A) at 50 feet and 82 dB(A) at the ear. A blower that is polite to the street is still loud on your back.
Blower rules and what the makers claim
Two rules show how this works in practice.
- Portland, Oregon. From March 1 through October 31, only blowers on the city's certified list of 65 dBA or quieter at 50 feet may be used; from November 1 through February 28, the list is 70 dBA. The lists include only blowers certified by a third-party lab using ANSI B175.2. In residential zones, no blower may run from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
- Los Altos Hills, California. Blowers cannot exceed 65 decibels at 50 feet under the ANSI standard, residents must carry the maker's sticker certifying it, and use is allowed from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday through Saturday.
So a maker's 50 ft figure is the right kind of number, but in Portland it is the city's list that counts. Check that before you buy.
Some marketing gets this wrong. Husqvarna's 550iBTX page answers whether it is quiet enough for noise-restricted neighborhoods by citing "just 73 dB(A) at the operator's ear" and calling it "fully compliant". An ear figure is not what these rules measure; the 61 in its manual is the relevant one. STIHL says the BRA 200 "hums along at just 64 decibels" and calls that "quieter than a normal conversation", but 64 is measured 50 feet away, not where you stand. Makita's flyer says the GBU04 is "up to 65% quieter" than a 64.8 cc gas backpack, comparing its 60 dB(A) with 75 dB(A); a 15 decibel gap is about a third as loud by the rule of thumb, so the claim adds up if both figures share a basis, which the flyer does not state. RYOBI's "85% quieter than gas" and EGO's "up to 30 times quieter" for the LB6003, footnoted "Based on 80dB gas equivalent", give no basis we can check.
Run time at a quiet setting
A big yard needs a backpack that lasts, and the quiet way to run one is below full power. Here is what each maker publishes:
- EGO LBPX8000: up to 120 minutes on low, 30 on high and 25 on turbo with two 6.0Ah batteries.
- STIHL BRA 200: 14 to 97 minutes on an AP 300 S, and 18 to 115 on an AP 300.0 P. STIHL says its working times are "indicative and may vary depending on the application and operating mode", and does not say which setting gives the long figure.
- STIHL BGA 300: 60 to 137 minutes on the AR 3000 L backpack battery, but only 10 to 25 on an AP 300 S.
- Milwaukee 3009: 30 to 60 minutes of continuous use with four HD12.0 batteries, "based on the selected mode".
- RYOBI RY404170: "Over 50 Minutes of Runtime Using (2) 40V 6Ah Batteries", setting not stated.
- Makita GBU04Z and Husqvarna 550iBTX: no run time published.
No maker publishes a noise figure at its low setting. What they do publish is advice. ECHO's manual says "the higher the engine speed, the louder the blower noise." STIHL's BR 800 manual says to operate blowers "at the lowest engine speed necessary". Husqvarna's 550iBTX manual says "many work procedures can be done at half airflow" and that "a lower airflow means less noise and less dust". The quiet setting and the long run time are the same setting.
Gas or battery on a big property
On the 50 ft figure, battery backpacks win: 60 to 65 dB(A) against 65 to 77 for gas. ECHO's two low-noise models are the only gas backpacks we found at 65, and STIHL's whole gas range sits at 70 or above. Gas still has a place where you clear for hours and do not want to carry spare batteries, and in Portland's winter months a 70 dBA blower can still qualify if it is on the city's list.
Weight is the other trade-off. ECHO's PB-760LNT weighs 26.2 lbs dry and STIHL's BR 800 25.9 lb before fuel. The battery backpacks start lighter, 11 lbs for the Makita and 13.9 lbs for the Husqvarna without batteries, but batteries add back much of the difference: Makita's flyer puts the GBU04 at 19.4 lbs with two 8.0Ah packs, and STIHL says 23 pounds for the BRA 200 with two AP 300 S. STIHL marks each of its gas backpacks not available for purchase or delivery in California.
The hearing protection the makers require
Every manual we opened asks for it, battery or gas:
- STIHL's BRA 200 manual: "Wear sound barriers (ear plugs or ear muffs)", and regular operators should have their hearing checked periodically.
- EGO's LBPX8000 EU manual: "Always wear ear protection when operating this product."
- ECHO's PB-265LN manual: "ECHO recommends wearing hearing protection whenever unit is used."
- Husqvarna's 550iBTX manual: battery products are "relatively quiet but damage can result from a combination of noise level and long usage", and Husqvarna recommends hearing protectors for longer use.
- Makita's GBU04 manual: "Wear eye protection and ear protection."
- Milwaukee's 3009 manual: always wear eye protection, hearing protection and protective clothing.
A two-hour session on a backpack is exactly the long use these warnings describe. Our quiet yard overview sets blowers beside mowers and trimmers if you are planning a quieter routine for the whole yard.
How we chose
We read each maker's US product page and, where we could open it, the operator's manual, plus EGO's European manuals for the operator and sound power declarations. We recorded each figure in the maker's own words with its basis, and ranked only like with like. Where a maker's page and manual disagree, we show both. Prices are the maker's own, where one is shown; Makita, Milwaukee and EGO show none. For why two brands' figures rarely line up, see why you cannot compare dB ratings across brands.
We did not measure any of these blowers ourselves. Every figure here is the maker's, quoted with its distance and standard, and the operator's ear and sound power figures are kept apart from the 50 ft ones. Where a maker publishes no figure, as ECHO does not for its DPB-5800T, we say so rather than guess.
