They are back and better than ever! Alright, well they are at least just as good as ever. We’re talking about the spotlights of each of the cordless blowers that took part in our huge cordless blower shootout back in August. We had 16 blowers in the ring competing for king of the wind. Events included ergonomics, air volume, wind speed, power, design, battery life, and more. It was a lot of work putting all those tools through their paces, but the result was well worth it. We’ve highlighted about half of the contestants with their very own reviews since then. Today, we’ll be talking about the Worx 56V cordless blower.
Positec Tool Corporation, owner of the Worx brand, was originally an OEM manufacturer founded in 1994 . It launched Worx a decade later and brought in Tom Duncan, an executive well-acquainted with the tool industry, to be President and CEO. It seems like a good move in retrospect. Now the tools are sold by many big retailers, and Worx has even received some tool innovation awards . Has all that good OPE juju been imputed to the Worx blower? We’re about to find out!
Worx 56V Cordless Blower Features
Motor, Battery, and Power
The Worx 56V cordless blower is just one of five models from Worx. This one represents the top model and features a brushless motor . We like these for their higher efficiency, lower operating temperature, lower maintenance, and generally longer life. Brushless motors are also the foundation of smart electronics, that is, motors and batteries that communicate to optimize performance and guard against thermal overload.
56V is the highest nominal voltage Worx offers. But if you’ve been reading along – or you’re already wicked smaht – you know that nominal voltage only tells part of the story of a battery’s power. Although many manufacturers trying to impress us with higher and higher voltage levels, we’ve seen 20V batteries outwork 60V batteries. How is that? Because you can only get a real sense of the work a battery can do by knowing its watt-hours. Its formula is volts x amps x hours. Most manufacturers print amp-hours on their batteries. You can find the watt-hours by multiplying the nominal voltage x amp-hours. By this measure, the Worx Turbine56V Cordless Leaf Blower, with its 2.0 Ah battery, can do 112 watt-hours of work. That places it 15th out of 16 blowers in terms of power.
We’ll quickly compare gas- and battery-powered blowers later, but suffice it to say that the battery type needs to wring every bit of efficiency from its design to approach its gas counterpart. Manufacturers increasingly design blowers with inline, rear intake fans that reduce to accomplish this. This Worx blower has just such a design, as did 9 others in the shootout.
Variable Speed and Cruise Control
The Worx Turbine56V Cordless Leaf Blower has a variable speed dial that allows the user to modulate speed. That’s important because sometimes too much airspeed/volume just moves the mess around. Think of trying to blow clippings from a sidewalk onto a grass patch without putting the mess in the street.
A cruise control function eases the fatigue on the user’s hand, especially during long jobs and extended use. Set the speed and forget it. As battery-operated blowers try to edge (pun!) into Professional/commercial usage, features like this help build their case.
In the shootout, we mentioned that the Worx has no Turbo function, but the manufacturer’s claims contradict this. The issue – and feature – needs some qualification. We consider a true Turbo function to be a temporary boost of power over and above a blower’s Wide Open Throttle (WOT). As it stands, the Worx’s Turbo function is WOT and not a short burst. It’s possible to turn the dial to Turbo and leave it there.
In any event, at full strength, the Worx 56V cordless blower pumps out 125 MPH and 465 CFM.
Other Notable Features
Although it would be cool if the turbine you see through the transparent orange thorax of the blower actually moved, it’s non-functional and decorative only. But hey, it looks pretty slick. Worx’s Hyper-Stream air nozzle concentrates the airstream to strike what it thinks is the right balance between speed and volume.
The whole package weighs in at 8.1 pounds – the lightest of the group of 16. Now that’s an auspicious start!
Performance
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we size up a tool for subjective things like feel and finish first. We don’t want a lack a familiarity to translate to a poor rating – it might just be different to us. This takes time and use. Then we’ll move to objective measures like power, wind speed, efficiency, and so on. Doing this allows us to report just how well it can work and how much you’ll like using it.
Light Your Candle
Several of the shootout’s competitors – including the Worx – suffered from a slightly irritating feel in the hand. The cause was tool plastic or rubber overmold seam that created a small ridge that rubbed the palm. A glove would prevent the irritation but we had to deduct a bit for this issue since it made it, well, a little hard to handle.
Hear We Go
On balance, battery-powered blowers are easier on the ears than their gas-powered counterparts. That’s good since more communities are instituting noise restrictions that affect OPE equipment. As a result, some lawncare Pros are compelled to supplement their work with them, even if they can’t pack the same punch. But even within the battery-powered group, decibel output varies significantly. Our shootout’s 16 blowers produced a range of 82 – 95 dB(A). The Worx 56V cordless blower cranked out 92 for a second place finish. Unfortunately, this is an event where you want to place last! It’s a loud blower.
Cage Match
Despite any marketing focus on a high MPH versus a high CFM, the only way to objectively measure a blower’s strength is with Newton Force. Newtons allow a true comparison by taking both MPH and CFM into account in their proportion. The Worx Turbine56V Cordless Leaf Blower measures 7th out of 16 in MPH, 11th in CFM, but at Wide Open Throttle, places 10th in the pack as measured by Newton Force.
Could the Worx cut it as a Pro level blower? By way of comparison, the best backpack blowers can reach about 600 CFM and 200 MPH, or 40 Newtons. Not only is that well above the Worx’s capabilities; it’s above the capabilities of the most powerful battery-powered blower in this shootout. So the Worx is solidly in the consumer category, but that’s ok – it never made claims otherwise.
The Bottom Line
When the debris settled, the Worx 56V cordless blower placed 9th out of our 16 cordless blowers. Even with the deduction for the slightly irritating grip, it had the best overall ergonomics, it was the lightest, and with a fairly low price tag, it had the 3rd highest value rating. Not too shabby. It struggled due to a high decibel output (being the second loudest) and it had what we consider a pseudo-turbo mode that’s really just Wide Open Throttle.
Keep an eye on the Worx brand – it has a solid offering and a penchant for innovative tools. If the company offered a shovel, we’d dig it! Until then we can use its blower.
Worx Cordless Leaf Blower Features
- Turbine fan technology delivers forceful, high-capacity air volume
- Highly efficient Brushless Motor for long lasting power
- Multi-speed fan control with Turbo boost
- Features a Hyper-Stream air nozzle for extra tough conditions
- Powerful 56V MaxLithium battery provides cordless convenience to quickly clean up your outdoor spaces such as decks or patios
Worx 56V Cordless Blower Specifications
- Model: Worx WG591
- Air Speed: 125 MPH
- Air Volume: 465 CFM
- Tested Noise Rating: 92 dB(a)
- Tested Runtime: 9:08 (2.0 AH battery)
- Bare Weight: 5.50 lbs
- Battery Weight: 2.25 lbs
- Tested Battery: 2.0 AH
- Warranty: 3 years
- Price: $179
- Included in Kit: Battery & charger sold separately
