EGO Power+ 3-Speed Turbo 56-Volt Leaf blower (Tool Only)

[Edited at the end to update after owning for 2-yrs] This leaf blower is as powerful as I’ve found, less a larger back pack, gas powered unit costing much more. Testing environment: I have 3/4acre property with (4) full grown oak trees and one grouped silver maple of (3). Additionally, neighbors have trees all around too. We have curbside leaf retrieval trucks. Used this unit against the first fall leafs when they were wet and heavy. Performance was really good. Good run time but didn’t quite make it to the next battery recharge. Slight lag, but nothing crazy. * Harshest test: wet leaves- blower cleared entire front and 1/2 the back yard with a single layer of leaves with relative ease. Used the surge, or hyper, button only a few times. *Largest push: having dried leaves, several layers deep, started at the furthest point back and blow ALL the leaves forward to the road. Took roughly 4.5hrs. I know, this isn’t the tool for this, but I wanted to see how far I could push it. Once the backyard was cleared to midway and my car, the pile was as tall, long and wide as my 300 Chrysler. Finally, after 4.5 hrs, all the leaves were at the road. In closing: I’d suggest this blower all day! Neighbors even commented how nice they thought theirs were until they saw mine in action. Having (2) batteries is nice for these larger tasks, although for what a leaf blower is truly for, detailing the yard, a single battery would work well enough. This is slightly heavy and will test your forearms the first couple times you use it, if for a duration like I did. Typical usage, likely not so much. Also has a hook for a neck strap attachment. I’d definitely recommend this tool. Reading the above, we see how impressed this equipment was out of the gate. While it maintains it's power, the failure lies within the batteries. Cycling through two batteries allows for continues operation, however, this 2nd year, I found the batteries won't take a full charge anymore, and then the unit will abruptly stop working with a battery that shows 3-4 green bars (Full is 5). This is odd, since the unit doesn't 'run hot', and has not reason to simply cut off. I either have to wait a few moments to start again, or pop the battery out and reinsert to resume. Given the degrading functionality of these VERY expensive batteries, I've gone back to gas powered equipment and left my EGO products behind, as expensive back-ups. I've also written a highly detailed review for the EGO 21" snow blower. If you're interested in this line, which has a high selling point, maybe give yourself a few minutes and read that one before jumping in head first. After 2 years, I went back to gas and it cost me double.