ECHO PB-9010T vs. PB-7910: Which Blower is Right for You?

Hi everybody, I'm Nick Phillips with P and H Lawn Care and a member of the ECHO Means Business User Advisory Group. Today, I'm talking about two of the most talked-about backpack blowers on the market in the past few years. Number one, the one that everybody knows and loves and affectionately calls the Beast, is the ECHO PB-9010T. The other one is the recently released ECHO PB-79010.

Since the release of these and back in October, I think October November whenever I posted this, I've been getting a flood of questions about these two blowers, so I'd like to address some of those today. Number one, is the 79010 more powerful than the 9010T? No, it is not. The 79010, I believe, has been released as an option to phase out the one that y'all, a lot of y'all, use and love, and that's the PB-770. The 770 is going to stick around for a while, but eventually, everybody's going to convert to the 79010, and it'll phase out the 770. But getting back to whether or not the 79010 is more powerful than the 9010T, no, it is not.

But let's talk about some specs on it. They both have the 79.9 cc engine on them. However, the 79010 has a smaller fan and a smaller tube. As you can see right here, it’s much smaller than the one on the 9010T. Let's talk about force, pure blowing force. Many of y'all, like me, are not astrophysicists or anything like that, but anyway, the 9010T has 48 Newtons of force, and the 79010 has 40 Newtons of force. Now, this is where it gets kind of weird because at the tube, the 79010 is 240 mph, whereas the 9010T is 220 mph. Now, what I attribute that to is the smaller tube. As you can see here, the end of the tube on the 79010 is a lot smaller than the tube on the 9-10T. As you can see, you can fit the end of this tube into the 9010T tube, so that's a big difference as far as power.

How I like to illustrate it in my own words is the 9010T will blow down a whole wall; the 79010 will blow the door open. So, whereas the 9010T gives you a wide, powerful angle, the 79010 is more targeted, like a precision hit, where this is like carpet bombing. Does that make sense? So I'm throwing all these analogies out at you, but maybe you'll get the point of what I'm trying to illustrate. Another question that I've been getting a lot is which one performs better. Well, guys, they're both ECHO blowers. If you're an ECHO fan, you're going to love them; if you're not an ECHO fan, you're going to hate them. So I wouldn't per se that one outperforms the other because it's going to give you the same durability and reliability as any ECHO product. I mean, it's an ECHO Backpack Blower.

However, let's talk about blowing leaves, because whenever you have this size of Backpack Blower, usually you're getting them for leaf jobs. Now, this one is going to move massive amounts of leaves. This one, I believe, with the targeted and more smaller tube, for those of y'all that know, the little helicopters and the smaller leaves that will just stick in the ground. The 9010T will just keep blowing them and blowing them and blowing them, but it's like it's blowing it harder into the ground. The smaller tube on this and the more precision hit with the wind force is going to lift that up and separate it from the grass to make it easier to blow. Now, will this move the volume of leaves as this will at the same time? No. Will this help in situations such as flower beds and those leaves that I was just talking about where they stick to the ground? I think this one will perform better in that sense. So, like I said, to use another analogy, this is going to be more targeted, whereas this is more of a full swath.

So we've covered those things. Let's talk fuel capacity. You're going to have a much bigger fuel tank on the 9010T. You've got the more recently redesigned fuel tank on this. It does not hold as much, and you will run out quicker, but it's a smaller backpack. So, of course, the fuel tank is going to make it a little bit lighter and reduce the size of it in comparison.

The other thing that I was wanting to talk about is weight. A bunch of people have been coming at me with, ""Nick, it's only one pound lighter than the 9010T, so why am I going to sacrifice the power of the 9010T for only saving one pound on my back?"" Let me show you why, because ECHO has done an excellent job in the harness on this blower. Very, very thick pads, and especially on the lower back. As you can see here, these three huge pads, very thick padded here. You can see how thick those things are, so this makes it, right on the lower back, very thick pads here, which makes it extremely more comfortable than the 9010T. So the harness actually makes it feel like it's a lot less weight than one pound, and it makes it so much more comfortable for carrying around on those big jobs or, like I'm at here, on a commercial property blowing off parking lots. So this is what makes up the difference in that one pound to make it feel so much lighter. Let me show you what you're dealing with, excuse me, on the 9010T. As many of you know, there's no padding. Well, it's rubber, but it's hollow back here, so there's no three pads down here to rest on your lower back. It's still rubber up here, and believe it or not, even these shoulder straps are not as thick.

So what I would love to see is ECHO somehow come up with a harness like this and implement it on the 9010T. That, in my opinion, would perfect the 9010T because it isn't as comfortable as the 79010T is, and since it does weigh just a little bit more, but you're lugging it around doing these big leaf jobs, I think that would be very beneficial.

Other than that, I don't have any cons for these blowers. I have two 9010Ts. I've had them for several years now. I've had them ever since the release of the 9010T. I've had one, and then I added another one two years ago to my fleet, and I just love this blower. But what has happened since the 79010T has come out, I have kept this as my secondary, and this is my everyday grab and go because of the comfort and the versatility of the tube. A lot of complaints I get about the 9010T is how stiff the tube is. The 79010T is very flexible. For those of you that are familiar with the ECHO 580T Backpack Blower, it's as flexible as it is, just a little bigger. So, I refer to these, I affectionately call the 79010T the 9010's little brother or the 580T's big brother. It fits right in between those for you gas-powered Backpack Blower guys, that's the niche of it. But for me, as far as an everyday grab and go, you can tell this is right here at the back of my trailer. This is the one I'm going to grab and go to first on my weekly residential yards. This one's on here for a backup just in case something does go wrong with the 79010T, which I don't anticipate happening, but I've got my backup blower. I also keep it on here, like I said, for commercial properties because it can clear off the parking lot a lot faster than this one. So I hope I've answered all the questions, the specs, the performance, and all that on these two blowers and eliminated the curiosity on whether this is the big brother of this one or not. It's not. We're still going to have to wait a while for something like what I keep hearing it called the 1010T that is going to be bigger and more powerful than the 9010T, but for now, the 9010T delivers all the power you need, in my opinion, and the 79010T is a great powerful grab and go blower.

I hope that answered all you guys' questions. If not, leave some down in the comments. Please check out ECHO Means Business.com, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all the social media channels, because we cover a lot more products and give you a lot more pro tips on those sites with other pros like me that'll bring this information to you. Thanks so much for watching, and again, if you got any more questions, drop them down in the comments, and we'll be sure to answer them for you. Thanks, guys. Have a great day."