Bosch ALB 36 LI Cordless Leaf Blower Review

Assembling this leaf blower was extremely simple. It came in three parts; the main unit, the nozzle, and the battery. After I charged the battery up, I then assembled the blower by clicking the nozzle onto the main unit and sliding the battery into place. 

All in all, excluding battery charging time, assembly took less than a minute (it took longer to open the well-wrapped box than it did to assemble the blower!).

Just like all of Bosch’s other products, this cordless leaf blower sports the brand’s signature green, red, and black colour palette. It looks modern, professional, and very capable.

At first glance, you can see that this isn’t an overly complex garden tool – rather than having several different buttons and dials to deal with, there’s just a single dial wheel that controls both power as well as speed. 

Speaking of speeds, this leaf blower offers several to choose from. I can’t tell you exactly how many because the dial wheel allows you to increase speed in a gradiant, rather than having set speeds, but there are at least four to play with. Some of the cordless leaf blowers out there, such as the Ryobi ONE+, only have one speed – in my opinion, multiple speeds make the tool much more versatile.

As mentioned, this blower’s nozzle is detachable from the main unit. It’s easy to take it apart (just press the red button and pull the nozzle out), which is handy for when it comes to storing the machine.

Dry Leaves

I started with something easy – dry leaves on short grass. The blower did everything that I needed it to without any problems and I was able to quickly clear the lawn.

Wet Leaves

It’s worth keeping in mind that leaf blowers should ideally be used on dry, rather than wet, leaves. However, this isn’t always realistic – if you’re having a rainy autumn and don’t want those leaves to pile up, then chances are that you’re going to have to use your blower while they’re still damp. 

So, I gave the blower a try on some wet leaves in long grass – the leaves were trapped in and tangled around the long blades. Unfortunately, the blower wasn’t quite powerful enough to move them in large quantities. I had to position the nozzle so that it was almost touching each individual leaf that refused to budge in order to lift it out of the grass, which pretty much defeats the purpose of a leaf blower.

Finally, I used the blower on wet leaves that my car had packed into my chuckie-filled driveway. After the disappointment with the wet leaves in long grass, I wasn’t expecting much. However, the blower did fantastically and cleared my driveway in no time.

At 1.9kg, this was one of the heaviest leaf blowers that I tested. That said, 1.9kg isn’t a significant weight. It gives the machine a sturdiness that the other blowers didn’t have, which actually made it easier to manoeuvre. 

I also appreciated the simplicity of the single dial wheel. It’s positioned perfectly – it’s so easy to adjust the speed as you’re working, although I mostly kept it at maximum. The fact that you don’t need to keep your finger on a trigger (as you do with many other leaf blowers) also makes this tool very comfortable to use. 

Being tall means that I usually need to stoop over quite a bit when using cordless leaf blowers. However, the nozzle that came with Bosch’s was one of the longest that I tested, which, again, made the machine easier to use. I still needed to bend, but not quite as much!

As with most of Bosch’s battery-powered products, this battery has an LED indicator that clearly shows battery life. This is extremely convenient, especially if you have a large garden (or multiple areas) that you need to clear.

Out of all of the best cordless leaf blowers I tested, this one was the most powerful. It offers a maximum blow speed of 250km/h, with its minimum being 170km/h. As mentioned, this is powerful enough to make light work of both dry and wet leaves (so long as they’re not on long grass!). 

That said, I was disappointed to find that the blower’s power seemed to decline each time the battery dropped down to one bar. Interestingly, I noticed this when testing the brand’s cordless strimmer too. 

Bosch claims that a 36V 2.0aH battery will give you 35 minutes of continuous blowing time, even when using the blower at its highest speed. However, I found this to be closer to 20 minutes, or even slightly less if you account for the decrease in power when the battery level drops down. Still, 20 minutes of continuous blowing time is more than what I had with the other blowers I tested, even though they had the same sized battery.

Even better, I had spare Bosch batteries that I could easily swap around. The batteries also charge in just over an hour – that’s one of the fastest charging times out of all the leaf blower batteries I used. The only faster one was the Makita, at 45 minutes.

There aren’t too many safety features that can be included in a leaf blower, but Bosch has done its best! To start with, just the design of the blower and the positioning of the dial wheel makes it difficult to accidentally turn the machine on. 

Bosch has also slapped on a few safety stickers, although, in all honesty, I doubt that many would actually bother looking up what some of those symbols mean! 

It’s worth noting that, at 90dB(A) on its highest setting, this was one of the quietest leaf blower that I used. You’ll be able to safely clear large areas without the need for ear protection, and without annoying your neighbours!

Out of all of the leaf blowers that I tested, this was the most expensive. However, as I’ve mentioned a few times now, it does boast some useful perks that the others don’t have, from its high speed to its clever design. 

So, you may be paying more, but you’ll also be getting more in return. In my opinion, this blower offers good value for money, especially if you already own another battery-powered Bosch tool. I would still recommend purchasing the blower with, rather than without, a battery, especially if you have a large garden – it may cost more but it’s so useful having a spare battery to extend your overall blowing time.

If you’re on a tight budget, then this probably isn’t the right tool for you – it sits at the higher end of the pricing scale, and there are plenty of cheaper options out there that work almost just as well. 

However, if you’re willing to spend that little bit more, then this is a leaf blower that you won’t regret buying. It may be designed for medium to large gardens, but even those with small spaces to clear will appreciate the Bosch ALB 36 LI machine’s power, convenience, and reliability.

Thanks to its higher speed, you can get the job done significantly faster, which is something that most gardeners will appreciate!