Hart 550 CFM Blower Highlights 40V Lawn Care Lineup
As a relatively new brand, Hart has several battery-powered blowers to choose from, including handheld and backpack models. Today, we’re considering the brushless Hart 40V 550 CFM Turbo Fan Blower. It has the highest performance of Hart’s handheld blower and we’re out to see what it can do.
Pros
- Delivers the power of homeowner-level handheld gas blowers
- 20+ minutes of runtime on high
- Excellent balance
Cons
- Turbo button can be fatiguing to hold down for continuous use
Hart 40V 550 CFM Blower Performance
Blowing Force
Hart boasts 550 CFM air volume and 125 MPH airspeed with this blower. In the overall landscape of battery-powered blowers, that gets you into the middle tier. It’s a class filled with other models that have shown a nice balance of power and value.
To get a more apples-to-apples comparison, we set up our force meter. At high speed, we registered 10.2 Newtons using a 4.0Ah battery. Kicking it up with the Power Boost button, that number jumped to 14.0 Newtons. Quality homeowner gas units start around 12.0 Newtons, so Hart has the power to compete at that level.
The blowing force is plenty to quickly clean hard surfaces after mowing and helping pile those fall broadleaves. As it is with all blowers at this power level, wet grass, soil, and leaves are much more challenging.
Runtime
Running any battery-powered blower in its boosted mode drains your juice quickly. To get an idea of its most useful runtime, we started the blower at high speed with the 4.0Ah battery that comes in the kit. By the time it shut down, it had run for 20 minutes, 21 seconds continuously.
Just for kicks, we wanted to see how much time you could run in Power Boost mode. Unsurprisingly, it was a much shorter 14 minutes, 18 seconds. The takeaway here is to kick into Power Boost only when you need it to preserve your runtime.
Practically, it’s pretty fatiguing on your thumb to keep the Power Boost button pressed the entire time, so that might discourage you from using it constantly, too.
Hart 40V 550 CFM Blower Design
Hart goes with the popular axial inline design for their 40V brushless blower. Rather than pulling air in from the side, it pulls it straight through from the back, reducing the friction the air encounters as the impeller accelerates it through the nozzle.
In that sense, it’s very similar to other battery-powered blowers. where it departs from tradition is with the handle design. Rather than using a full D-handle, it’s open on the front, allowing you to slide the battery in. By shifting the battery weight directly under the handle, the balance shifts a little further forward, keeping the nozzle naturally pointed at a nearly perfect angle for blowing.
There’s no cruise control like some blowers offer. However, the trigger is variable speed if you need to feather a lower speed. We found that wide-open throttle is the way to go for outside surfaces and a lower speed is really only necessary when we’re blowing out the shop and want better control over where the debris goes.
Hart 40V 550 CFM Blower Price
The Hart 40V 550 CFM Brushless Turbo Fan Blower runs $197 with a 4.0Ah battery and charger from Walmart. That’s a little more than some of the similarly-powered competition. However, most of those brands are including a 2.0Ah or 2.5Ah battery and you’re getting a higher-capacity pack from Hart.
The Bottom Line
Hart’s brushless 550 CFM Turbo Fan Blower supplements their 40V line well. Its brushless performance offers better power and runtime than brushed models and it delivers the power of a gas-powered homeowner handheld blower in Power Boost mode. It’s certainly possible to get more power, but you’ll need to boost your budget to get a meaningful upgrade.
Hart 40V 550 CFM Blower Specs
- Model: Hart HLBL031VNM
- Motor: Brushless
- Battery: 40V Li-Ion
- Air Speed: 125 mph
- Air Volume: 550 CFM
- Weight: 7.85 lbs.
- Warranty: 3 years
- Kit Price: $197
