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Greenworks 24 Volt, 2-speed Cordless Sweeper: Product Review

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Ease of Use:
Quality:
Performance:
Final Thoughts

A great dual speed sweeper for the money.

Overall Score 4.6

Available on Amazon

Buy It

Greenworks was kind enough to send us their 24 Volt, 2-speed Lithium-Ion Cordless Sweeper for review. Unlike most sweepers on the market today, it offers something special – two speeds for maximum sweeping capabilities. But do you really need two speeds? Let’s find out.

PACKAGING

Like most products shipped in the first world, virtually all smaller items come in cardboard boxes. The Greenworks sweeper is no exception. When I received it, the box was dent free (thanks UPS).

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-packaging-1

The sweeper was nicely packaged and came through with no damage

Enclosed in the box was the blower in three parts – main power unit, sweeper nozzle tube, and a curved extension tube end. Also included were a battery charger, a 24 Volt/43 Watt hours Lithium-Ion battery, and instruction manuals for the sweeper and battery/charger.

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-box-contents

Contents out of the box

EASY TO ASSEMBLE

Basically, all I had to do was take the sweeper nozzle and slide it onto the motor assembly. With an audible “click” the tube became fastened to the main body of the unit.

Greenworks-24-Volt-blower-nozzle-end-1

Sweeper tube in the back, angled blower attachment in the foreground

Then came the curved nozzle. This is attached to the front of the main sweeper nozzle tube. Its purpose is to angle the air in more of a straight shot when the nozzle is placed against a flat surface (like a deck, driveway, patio, etc.). It’s not necessary to use it but I decided to put it on anyway. While it doesn’t increase the velocity of air coming out the end, it makes it a lot easier to blow leaves and debris without having to bend over.

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-sweeper-tube-with-nozzle-tip-2

Sweeper blower tube with the attached curved nozzle

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-angled-nozzle-and-tip-3

Angled nozzle tip made it easier to blow debris while standing straight up

SPECS:

Battery: 24 Volt Max Lithium Ion (Li-Ion)
Battery charge time (from zero): 60 minutes
Airspeed: 90 & 130 MPH
Air volume: Approx. 130 CFM
Weight (with battery): 4.5 ¼ lbs.
Weight (without battery): 3.3 lbs.
Motor type: Brushed
Overall length with sweeper tube + bent tip: 33″
Overall length w/ sweeper tube alone: 31″
Overall length w/o sweeper tube: 18″
Cont. run time with fully charged battery (90 MPH): 14 minutes
Cont. run time with fully charged battery (130 MPH): 10 minutes
ON/OFF switch: Toggle switch on top handle
dB 90 MPH: 79
dB 130 MPH: 85
Warranty: 4 years/Sweeper, 2 years/battery

A NEW BRAND OF SWEEPER

Today’s market seems to be filled with battery-powered cordless sweepers – like Black & Decker, WORX, Milwaukee*, Dewalt*, Sunjoe, Earthwise, Ivation, etc. As of the writing of this review, most are single speed units, although a few are either two, three or variable speed. Multiple airspeed speed units have their advantages as they give an extra boost of MPH (somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 – 40) to move just a little more debris, but not to make them into a full fledged blower (CFM in excess of 350).

WHAT DOES MPH & CFM’S HAVE TO DO WITH BLOWERS?

You may be wondering why the unit is called a sweeper instead of a blower. Good question. It has to do with the amount of air (CFM – Cubic Feet per Minute) that exits the nozzle, and what the units are used for.

First, large blowers expel anywhere from 390 CFM to 500+ CFM. Sweepers, on the other hand, are in a different class and the air volume moved is substantially smaller – somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 – 130 CFM. Both have the same air velocity (or nearly the same, measured in MPH) but the CFM is substantially different. Think of it like water. A large leaf blower would be like a large river while a sweeper would be more like a garden hose – the water might be moving at the same speed but the river carries a lot more of it.

Blowers and sweepers frequently have about the same MPH. Part of the reason is that the manufacturer doesn’t want a substantial amount of back-pressure on your arm as you’re trying to hold onto the unit. A large CFM coupled with a large MPH creates a blower that is hard to control.

There are applications where a large blower is needed – like moving piles of twigs, wet leaves and yard debris. A sweeper simply doesn’t have enough CFM for those jobs.

But when creating a tornado of airborne dust and flying debris is not the objective, that’s where a sweeper comes in. Sweepers excel at blowing lighter debris (such as grass clippings and dry leaves) from flat hard surfaces and keeping it close to the ground.

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-blower-versus-sweeper

The unit on the right is the Greenworks 24 Volt Sweeper (approx. 130 CFM). The unit on the left is the Greenworks 40 Volt Blower (with 390 CFM).

WHERE THE AIR GETS SUCKED INTO THE BLOWER

The Greenworks Sweeper has a bottom air intake. Personally, I like these better than side intakes. The side intakes are more prone to have clothes (pant legs) sucked into the impeller area. Bottom intakes have the advantage of staying free from most if not all clothing (except maybe a long tailed shirt that is untucked).

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-air-intake

I prefer the bottom air intake as it is less likely to suck up clothing

Performance

As a sweeper, it’s awesome. Dirt in my pickup bed, dry leaves and twigs on my patio and dust that collects everywhere in Tucson where we live are no match for this sweeper.

The thing I like the most about the Greenworks 24v sweeper is the dual MPH setting. The extra 40 MPH (it goes from 90 MPH to 130 MPH) makes a big difference on those hard to blow away cobwebs. The same is true for sand that gets stuck in patio cracks and the ridges in my truck bed liner. When I want that little extra oomph I just press the On/Off switch one click forward to give me the 130 MPH blast of wind I need.

And because it’s a sweeper, rather than a blower, the material you’re moving stays low to the ground, making it that much easier to control.

Short Run Time

The downside to this sweeper is the short battery life. The 24 Volt, 43 Watt hour battery only lasts 14 minutes on the 90 MPH setting and 10 minutes on 130 MPH setting (continuous running for both cycles). But to be fair I haven’t found a sweeper yet that lives up to its stated run time(s). I’m not sure where and how the engineers get their testing specs, but they surely don’t match up with my real-life testing.

Battery Charging Issues

I did find that I had to follow the instructions and let the battery cool down for up to a ½ hour after running it continuously before I put it on the charger. If I didn’t, the charger indicated that the battery was full.

The tag on the charger said that if the battery was in an overheated condition when it was put on the charger, then one of the LED charging lights would turn orange. That didn’t happen. Instead, the battery lights on the charger indicated that the battery was fully charged.

This was a mystery to me, so I tried the battery after only charging it for a couple of minutes. Sure enough, the battery went dead in less than a minute. I think there needs to be some work done on the charger in the engineering department

But other than that, the charger worked fine.

Greenworks-24-Volt-Sweeper-battery-and-charger

Charger and battery make for a compact unit either for a stand-alone on a bench or wall mountable unit.

LITHIUM ION POWERED

I don’t know if I could find a sweeper, blower or any other hand tool on the market today that doesn’t run on Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. There real advantage is that they don’t have the memory problems like the older Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries, the predecessors to Li-Ion. See more on this topic in our FAQs About Lithium Ion Batteries.

Run time is dependent on the battery’s Ah (Amp hours, milliamps, or Watt hours) and the electrical “load” that the motor experiences. The higher the load (or more energy it takes to power the motor), the less battery life there is in a charge.

A BATTERY COMPARTMENT MADE FOR ITS BATTERY

I’ve tested my share of blowers/sweepers and lots of battery-powered equipment. Some batteries are a real bear to retract from the battery compartment and/or charger. But it was a real pleasure to work with the Greenworks Sweeper. Inserting the battery into the sweeper is a piece of cake and so is retracting it.

To insert it into the compartment, simply slide it down the molded plastic rails until you hear a “click” of the clip on the battery (so that it won’t fall out of the sweeper). To remove the battery from its compartment, just push up on the retention clip and slide the battery out. It’s that simple.

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The sweeper has a silky smooth battery insertion and retraction feature

NICE ERGONOMIC FEATURES & EASY To USE

The plastic and rubberized molded parts are expertly crafted, and everything fits together like a glove. And it’s as easy to take apart as it is to assemble – I can strip the unit down to its three components in about 10 seconds (great when I need to store it in a small space at the end of the season).

With the battery inserted, the Greenworks sweeper has perfect fingertip balance, making it comfortable and easy to hold and use. No fighting with a sweep nozzle that droops or points up.

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Perfect balance makes the sweeper a joy to work with

The thumb control is perfectly recessed and placed within the sweeper’s handle. There’s no chance of accidentally hitting the switch and turning it on or off.

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The On/Off switch is expertly mounted in the handle

SAFETY

When working around flying debris and loud noises, it’s important to wear safety glasses (we like these from Wiley-X) and earplugs or earmuffs. The sweeper is rather loud, particularly on the highest speed (130 MPH) – about 85 dB – so we especially recommend ear protection if you’ll be using it for a while. And make sure any bystanders are well away from flying debris.

WARRANTY

Greenworks offers a 4-year, limited lifetime warranty for the sweeper and a 2-year limited lifetime warranty on batteries – both for defects in manufacturing and workmanship.

RECOMMENDATION

I would unequivocally recommend this sweeper. It has a lot of nice features, first and foremost of which is the dual speeds. I liked the extra power when I needed it and the lower MPH when I was just using it for normal applications (and conserving battery life). It removed the debris that a broom couldn’t touch, and it did it with speed and precision. Additionally, its light weight and balance were a perfect combination. Overall, this is a very nice sweeper.

On the improvement side, I would like to see some engineering tweaks to the battery charger. When the tag on the charger says that one of the LED’s is supposed to turn orange if the battery is too warm to charge, and it turns green instead (indicating a full battery) then something has to be re-designed. I’d also like to see the battery life increased or the run time specs decreased to be more consistent with my test results (I did not mark down for this as I’ve consistently found similar results with other sweepers).

WHERE TO BUY

The Greenworks 24 Volt Cordless Sweeper is available on Amazon (of course – pretty much everything is these days….). You can also purchase it at Walmart and The Home Depot.

Greenworks 24 V, 2-speed Cordless Sweeper
Greenworks 24 Volt, 2-speed Lithium-Ion Cordless Blower

Last update on 2024-03-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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Disclaimer – GPReview would like to thank Greenworks for giving us a free sample to review. There was no expectation that it would be a positive review and we received no compensation for writing it. All opinions expressed here are those of the author based on personal experience using the product.

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