When you’ve got a good thing going, why stop? We’ve been breaking out individual spotlight reviews from our huge cordless blower shootout for a few weeks and we’re on a roll. It would be time- and cost-prohibitive for an individual to give even a handful of blowers a full review, but comparisons like this are in our wheelhouse. As improvements in battery technology allow cordless tools to do more and better work, the number of contestants in our shootouts have grown. In fact, there were 16 cordless blowers in this shootout – 14 fully handheld and 2 with a backpack battery design. Today, the Snapper XD 82V Max cordless leaf blower gets to make its case.
Snapper introduced the OPE industry’s first self-propelled rotary lawn mower in 1951. Sure, you’ll still see some purists out there using a reel mower. But for most of us, Snapper’s contribution to lawncare has removed the elbow grease from the task. Since the 1950s, Snapper has expanded into most corners of OPE tools and made yards look better for it. Briggs & Stratton now owns the brand – you’ll even see its mark on this blower.
History class is over – let’s clean up some debris!
Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower Key Features
Motor, Battery, and Power
Ok, just a bit more history: although brushless motor technology came into being in the 1960s , it was two decades before the componentry improved enough to make them commercially viable. The technology’s now trickled down in size and price and into our tools – and that’s great news! Brushless motors extend tool life and support smart electronics – communication between the motor and battery that protects the tool from thermal overload. Perhaps even better, this technology makes app-based tool management and tracking possible. Brushed motors require more maintenance and can be overloaded to the point of causing battery and motor damage – but they are cheaper. Fortunately, the Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower has a 750-watt, high-efficiency brushless motor.
Different lithium-ion batteries are labeled with significantly different voltages but the tools they power can compete with each other. That’s because nominal voltage doesn’t tell the whole story of a tool’s power. An 80V battery isn’t necessarily more powerful than a 20V. A truly fair assessment among batteries includes their watt-hours (Wh). Watt-hours is a common denominator that reveals the amount of work that a tool can perform. This work is calculated by multiplying voltage x amps x hours. It’s likely that any battery in your hand has its amp-hours (Ah) printed, so to find Wh you’d multiply amp-hours by the nominal voltage. Although 82V is quite high for nominal voltage, the Snapper’s Briggs & Stratton 2.0 Ah battery that comes with the kit places it 11th of 16 in watt-hours. For a boost, Snapper does offer a 4.o Ah battery. Both have convenient gauges so you know when to recharge.
Airflow Design
All but two blowers – both DeWalts – in the shootout had an inline airflow design (DeWalt had a side intake). If cordless blowers are ever to match their gas-powered counterparts’ power, they will need to wring all the efficiency they can from their designs. Inline intake is one way to do that because it reduces air friction and boosts efficiency. Ten of the shootout’s blowers – including Snapper – had the added bonus of a rear intake in the inline design, making them conducive to use with both hands. Legs and clothing can block side intakes and restrict airflow.
The blower and 2.0 Ah battery package adds up to about 8.5 pounds – certainly on the lighter side of the competition.
Variable Speed, Cruise Control, But No Turbo
A variable speed trigger is desirable since you can easily overshoot the area you intended to blow the debris on full blast (Wide Open Throttle – WOT). This is especially helpful when blowing off a sidewalk that has a patch of grass between it and the street. Snapper calls their version infinite speed control, which maintains airflow up to 550 CFM and 130 MPH.
In your car, it’s convenient to use cruise control for long stretches at a static speed. The same goes for blowers – as squeezing the trigger for long periods of time can be fatiguing. Fortunately, the Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower has one! A sliding mechanism modulates the speed while a push-in trigger lock holds the throttle.
Sometimes WOT just isn’t enough, and you need a blower that flexes a little more muscle in the form of Turbo power. This is a short blast of strength that can move stubborn debris. The Snapper lacks this feature, however, as do 9 other of the 16 blowers we tested. So hopefully the WOT (wide open throttle) power is enough to get the job done.
Other Notable Features
Power lockouts aren’t as critical on blowers as they are on saws, but we don’t sneeze at extra features! Snapper included a power lockout on this blower to prevent accidental startups. If a blower doesn’t have a power lockout, you can remove the battery as a workaround of course – but who likes those?
A metal ring encircles the end of the plastic composite tube to protect it from damage. We’ve all seen – and owned – blowers whose tube ends were eaten away by concrete, so the metal ring is a nice touch. It’s important to note, however, that some manufacturers call this a scraper to help with stubborn debris, but Snapper only considers this a defensive feature.
We also like the 5-year limited warranty.
Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Blower Performance
Tool reviews are art and science combined. Subjective measures, as well as objective ones, really give us the complete picture. We often start on the softer side of that data – ergonomics and other thoughts before moving on to measure of power and math-based assessments. So, we picked up the Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower to see how it felt initially, what it felt like after a practical use, and whether or not it’s a tool we’d want to use for bigger jobs. Then we whipped out a pencil and paper to see how it stacked up.
Trigger Warning
The Snapper did not suffer the same ergonomic deductions as many of the shootout’s blowers who had an irritating plastic/overmold ridge where the handle halves came together. We weren’t too keen on the anti-tip balance offset, but that didn’t ding it too badly. Overall, it was comfortable in the hand but its trigger spring didn’t fully return the trigger to a fully extended position. It created a bit of a wiggle that we don’t like.
Make It Snappy
We’ve either had the neighbor or neighbor’s lawn crew – or been the neighbor (stop it!) – that fires up a loud gas blower at the crack o’ dawn on Saturday morning. But battery-powered blowers have a distinct noise advantage over their petrochemical counterparts. Some communities have even instituted noise restrictions that particularly target OPE. We’ve heard from many Pros who must now use battery-powered tools in some cases. Even still, there’s a range of noise levels among blowers. In our shootout’s case, we found the range from 82 to 95 dB(a) at the user’s ear. The Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower fell about in the middle of the range at 88 dB(a).
Tug O’ War
You say your blower pumps out “X” amount of CFM. I say mine reaches a wind speed of “Y” MPH. How do we know who has the better blower? Well, we have to make a fair comparison. Just like watt-hours is the common denominator in battery power, Newton Force (at Wide Open Throttle) levels the playing field in the CFM versus MPH battle.
This Snapper produced 13.75 Newtons, good enough for 7th overall place out of the 16 contestants. If you’re wondering how this compares to Professional gas-powered blowers: they can reach 600 CFM and 200 MPH – and about 70 Newtons! So there’s a significant difference in ability.
The Bottom Line
This Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower – made by the same parent company that makes Greenworks and Kobalt – earned a 6th place finish in our competition. It had the 3rd best ergonomics, the 3rd highest efficiency rating, and it was the 3rd lightest. Not too shabby. It was also tied for 2nd in the in CFM and it has a solid 5-year warranty. It’s got a lot of features we like but stumbled in our ratings due to the lack of Turbo power and the loose trigger.
Snapper XD 82V Max Cordless Leaf Blower Features
- Convenient controls for airflow up to 550 CFM and 130 MPH
- Anti-tip base
- Powered by Briggs & Stratton
- Comfortable, ergonomic handle
- Brushless motor technology
- Tube bump/scrape protection metal ring
Snapper XD Cordless Leaf Blower Specifications
- Model: 1687879
- Marketing Model: SXDBL82K
- Max Voltage: 82
- Battery: Briggs & Stratton® 82V Max* Lithium-Ion 2Ah or 4Ah (2Ah included)
- Charger Included: Rapid Charge
- Charge Time (min): 2Ah: 13 (50%), 30 (100%) 4Ah: 25 (50%), 60 (100%)
- Run Time (min): Up to 40-minutes (with full 2Ah battery charge)
- Motor Brushless: 750-watts
- CFM: 550
- Air Flow Speed (MPH): 130
- Fan: Style Axial
- Product Warranty: 5-Year Limited
- Battery Warranty: 2-Year Limited