How To Properly Remove Snow From Your Driveway Using A Leaf Blower

Winter, in many locales, brings with it some amount of snowfall. Thus, figuring out how to keep your driveway and walkways clear becomes a top priority, with the usual suspects of shovels and snow blowers being preferred options. If you don't or can't use these, though, you can get creative with other tools. A leaf blower, for example, is a perfectly viable way to get snow out of the way. Just start up your leaf blower, choose a starting point, and walk forward while blowing the snow from side to side. While you could likely remove most of it with a regular leaf blower, you can invest in a leaf blower-to-snow blower attachment to make it even more effective at the job.

There are a lot of snow nozzle attachments for leaf blowers available from retailers such as Amazon. Prices tend to vary, though you can generally find them around the $20 mark. These work by focusing the blower's air stream, which increases the velocity to allow the blower to remove stuck-on snow patches, albeit at the expense of a narrower focus. Before buying, though, it's a good idea to do some research to ensure you're getting an attachment that actually connects to your leaf blower. 

If you don't already have a leaf blower, there are plenty of strong options available, though there are some leaf blower models from major brands that users recommend avoiding. All in all, a leaf blower with a snow attachment should be adequate in many cases. However, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of.

There are multiple upsides to using a leaf blower to remove snow, especially with the aid of an attachment. It saves space in the garage since you don't need a dedicated snow blower, for one. Leaf blowers tend to be pretty user-friendly and lightweight, and they're far less physically straining than shoveling. At the same time, it's not ideal for all situations. The biggest issue is that a snow blower attachment will sometimes only get you so far. Low-power, battery-operated leaf blowers will lack the velocity to effectively push away heavy, wet snow. Thus, they're limited to just the light and fluffy stuff that you could shovel away without much trouble anyway.

You could use a higher-powered leaf blower, but there are risks to using a powerful one to clear your driveway or walkway. High-power models tend to be gas-powered and, as a result, emit hot exhaust gases. If you're not careful, this hot exhaust can melt leftover snow behind you and, should the temperatures drop below freezing, form a dangerous sheet of ice across the paved ground. Additionally, using a leaf blower risks flinging loose stone, wood chips, and other debris around, so this method of snow clearing could become a hazard to those around you if you're not careful.

No one likes having to remove snow from their driveway and walkway, but a leaf blower with a snow blower attachment can often take care of it. It's a fine example of a practical way to use a leaf blower for other purposes, just so long as you're aware of the limitations and potential risks of this method.