I just calibrated my leaf-blower!

[Mike Everman]

I have a toro electric leaf blower that says "up to 215mph". Since I need to send specific speeds of ram air in my intakes for the work I'm doing, I wanted a rough idea of how far away to hold the blower's nozzle from my inlet.
I went to a buddy's house that builds aircraft and used a pitot tube and indicator, taking readings at various distances.
I put a bit of a conical restrictor on the blower, exit diameter 35mm. The readings were these:
25" 65mph
20" 80mph
15" 105mph
12" 130mph

The indicator topped out at 140, so I couldn't get any closer to the nozzle, but expect that the curve will tell me where the higher speeds are.

[Irvine.J]

Man thats excellent! 130 MPH is damn fast!
How many Watts is this blower rated at?
Haha looking forward to where this thread might lead.

[Mike Everman]

I'll have to get a airspeed indicator that's up to the claimed speed of 215mph. Here is a plot of the blower on the high setting. I added a data point that would be 215mph at 5" (a lower setting, without nozzle, showed not much change in speed from 5 to zero inches).
I'll update this graph when I get the right indicator, but for the purpose I intend, this is close enough.

[pgup]

The readings were these:
25" 65mph
20" 80mph
15" 105mph
12" 130mph

The indicator topped out at 140, so I couldn't get any closer to the nozzle, but expect that the curve will tell me where the higher speeds are.

Can you tell us the pressure readings (in inches WC or mm Hg) from the pitot static gauge that correspond to these velocities?

[Mike Everman]

I didn't hook up the static line. If you want the quasi-static pressure due to the velocity, well, you just gave me an approximation yesterday! ;-)
I have a more precise one (I suspect) and graph to check yours against.