Ego Power+ 580 CFM Review

Finishing right at the top of the entire group of cordless blowers, the closest competition to the Ego's performance is the Makita XBU02PT1. The Makita can't quite compare to the power of the Ego, failing to levitate the beach ball quite as high, and couldn't move sand from as far away. These blowers are about the same when it comes to ergonomics and have comparable list prices. The Ego definitely has an edge when it comes to battery life, but is a bit louder than the Makita. Basically, we would recommend the Ego over the Makita for just about anyone, with the exception of someone who already owns Makita tools and wants to keep the same battery system across the board.

Power

The Ego Power+ had exceptional power and unmatched performance in our review.

This cordless yard tool did the best in our tests at floating the beach ball, hovering it at about 5 feet in its highest standard mode, and boosting it up to 7 feet when the Turbo boost was engaged.

In our sand tests, using the High setting, this cordless blower was able to clear sand up to 164 inches away — a solidly respectable distance compared to the other products. However, this product definitely took the lead when the Turbo mode was turned on, clearing sand just shy of 20 feet (238 inches) away!

This blower is a total powerhouse when it comes to clearing mixed debris, sending leaves, dirt, and pine needles flying. It can even move a mound of pine needles when they start to mat together, as well as loosening packed in dirt and sending small pebbles and stones flying.

Battery

The Ego Power+ 580 CFM includes a single 56-volt, five amp-hour battery. This battery lasted 36 minutes and 53 seconds on its high power mode and 19 minutes and 17 seconds with its Turbo setting engaged. Assuming our 70/30 usage split, this comes out to an effective runtime of 24 minutes and 24 seconds.

The Power+ charges just a bit faster than average, usually taking around 90 minutes to completely refill a dead battery.

Ergonomics

We had a group of different people try out each blower to get a more diverse opinion when it came to comfort and balance. The Power+ weighs about 10 lbs. with the battery installed, which is a little heavier than the average of the group.

The intake location on the Ego is on the back of the blower, but it is shielded by the battery, which we found to be quite useful. This means that it almost never caught your shirt or pants when you were using the blower or switching it between hands, as other products were prone to do.

We liked the grip on the Power+ but weren't the biggest fans of the overall balance, with this blower pointing too much at the ground when held naturally. It doesn't take a ton of effort to raise it to an optimum blowing angle, but it is still a bit more fatiguing to use than some of the other products.

The blower has a trigger control system, as well as a cruise control dial.

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Noise

We liked that this blower doesn't have any particularly bothersome tones — no high-pitched whines or squeals — but it is a bit on the loud side, measuring in at 86 dBa on High and 94.5 dBa on Turbo for the person using it.

Noise dropped to 83.4 dBa at a distance of 50'.

Value

While the Ego Power+ is an exceptional leaf blower, it isn't necessarily the best value option. It delivered one of the absolute best performances we have seen to date, but it is also one of the most expensive products we have seen to date, potentially putting it outside the budgets of many people. There are other products out there that aren't quite as powerful but give you a bigger bang for the buck.

Conclusion