Growing up, I used to watch my dad use the leaf blower at least twice a week. He’d clear the dust that accumulated on the porch or blew the leaf clippings from the sidewalks after he mowed the yard. I never understood why he did it so much. Wouldn’t the wind just blow the leaf clippings away? And then I bought my house – and I understood.
Many homeowners take pride in the place they live and that includes keeping it free and clean of dust, dirt, leaves, pinecones, twigs, and other debris. Unfortunately, a broom just can’t handle the job the way a leaf blower can.
After buying my home, my dad gifted me with a gasoline-powered leaf blower, but admittedly, it’s loud, heavy, and requires the purchase of gas and oil. I’ve been wanting a battery-powered leaf blower for the longest time, so I was stoked to test out the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower.
With half an acre covered in lots of trees, I had plenty of space and yard debris to test against this leaf blower. With it being October, there were leaves covering my back patio, dust and dirt in my garage, and fallen twigs on my driveway. Over the course of two weeks, I tested this Sun Joe on all manner of items in different parts of the yard and I can say with confidence that I gained a full understanding of what it can do and who it best suits.
Read on to see the results then, head to our best leaf blower guide to see how it compares and our Black Friday leaf blower deals for bookmarking to see if this Sun Joe leaf blower gets a discount for the holidays.
Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower: Product specifications
Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower: First impressions
The Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower arrived in a compact box. Inside the box was one battery, a charging cord, and the blower in three pieces. It took a minute to snap the two pieces of the nozzle cone to the main part of the leaf blower.
I could tell immediately that this leaf blower would take up very little room in my garage. If you don’t have much storage space, you could fit it under a bed or even in the corner of a closet.
This is the first gardening tool that I’ve ever tested in which there is a small battery charging cord for the battery. Most gardening tools have battery ports that you plug into the wall and then you fit the battery onto the port to charge. Sun Joe has created a much better space-saving solution by having a very small battery charging cord that you plug into the battery. (Though I do wonder if such a small battery cord contributes to a long battery charge time.)
Once I charged the battery, I slid it onto the back of the leaf blower. To remove it, I have to press the side buttons of the battery inward at the same time and slide the battery up.
Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower: price and availability
For the price of $99, you get a leaf blower, battery, and charger when you buy the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower. If you already have a Sun Joe 24-Volt IONMAX battery, you could opt to buy the leaf blower on its own for $39.
This product can be bought direct from Snow Joe and other sellers like Amazon, Walmart and Lowe’s.
Score: 5/5
Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower: Design
When it comes to design, there is nothing over-the-top or complicated about the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower. It’s simple with a capital “S.”
Once assembled and fitted with the battery pack, the leaf blower weighs 4 lbs. That’s incredibly lightweight. I have quite a large yard and I have found that my forearms grow tired and strained when I’m using a leaf blower. This does not happen with this Sun Joe leaf blower. With such a light leaf blower, you’ll be able to remove dust from areas above your head with no problem such as the dusty, cobweb ceiling of your garage or your covered porch.
There is nothing complicated about this leaf blower – it has a mid-length cone and a single button on the top of the handle. When ready, I pushed the power button forward and the leaf blower turned on. There is no trigger or button that allows you to adjust the speed. It’s one button that you move forward to turn on and backward to turn off.
Score: 5/5
Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower: Performance
I used the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower to remove leaves, twigs, pebbles, rocks, dust, and other debris from my garage, driveaway, back porch, and front walkway. When turned on, the blower makes 88 dB of sound. I’ve tested vacuum cleaners that are louder than that.
The 100 mph blow speed performed about as I expected -- average. It did a good job at moving most all material, even piles of wet leaves, in the direction I wanted it to go. However, if the material was slightly heavy like large twigs or branches, rocks, or pebbles, I had to get quite close to that material to be able to blow it away.
The manufacturer does not list a battery life estimate, so I had to time it myself. The battery lasted about 11 minutes for me. At 11 minutes the leaf blower shuts off completely. I was able to switch the power on and off twice more to get a little more leaf blowing power. It ran for about 30 seconds the first time and then 10 seconds the second time. The leaf blower didn’t work after that, and I had to put the battery on the charger for about five hours.
For someone like me who has half an acre with a lot of trees that drop leaves, pecans, and twigs, this leaf blower doesn’t have the battery life that I would require to get a single yard job done. I would need a backup battery (or two more) to manage my whole yard.
This leaf blower is a better choice for when I need to complete a single job at a time – like quickly clean out my garage or blow leaves off my small back porch. The convenience of the battery makes it easy to turn on and go – if only it lasted longer than 11 minutes. (For comparison, most battery-powered leaf blowers have batteries that last anywhere between 10-25 minutes).
So, to sum it up – the Sun Joe leaf blower is a better fit for those with small-to-medium yards who have less leaves and debris littering their yard or who simply want to use it for small, quick jobs.
Score: 4/5
How does the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower compare?
If you’re tight on cash, you could go for the MZK Cordless Leaf Blower. It weighs about the same as the Sun Joe Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower but offers a 50-140mph speed flow. The MZK design lets you use whatever speed necessary and then lock that speed in place with a trigger lock. At the maximum speed of 140 mph, the battery could last up to 15 minutes, which is slightly longer than the Sun Joe.
The SnapFresh 20V Leaf Blower offers two blowing speeds – 60 mph and 130 mph. Unfortunately, you can’t set the blower at say 100 mph. Unlike the Sun Joe leaf blower, the battery only takes an hour to charge, and it lasts only about 15-20 minutes. At 2.9 lbs., the SnapFresh blower is a lighter leaf blower.
While the Greenworks 48V (2 x 24V) Cordless Axial Leaf Blower might be more expensive and heavier than the Sun Joe leaf blower, it has a maximum speed of 125 mph and can last up to 19 minutes when set on high.
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How I tested the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower
I tested the Sun Joe 24V-TB-LTE 24-Volt IONMAX Cordless Compact Turbine Jet Blower over the course of two weeks in my large yard. In addition to blowing leaves, twigs, and debris from my driveway and patios, I also used it to clean off outdoor furniture and to remove dust and dirt from my garage.
Read more about how we test
