Chippers & Shedders

[Skyedriver]

Most chippers and shredders for a couple of hundred pound get rubbish reviews. Anyone suggest a decent one that will cope with rhodedendron prunings up to about 50mm
Thanks
Tony H

[Simpo Two]

Having just come from the shed thread, is a shedder a device that shreds sheds?


(Blimey, that's hard to say)

[V10Mike]

We have had an Al-Ko silent power 3500 for ten years or so, and it has been perfect. Quiet, self-feeding, robust, reliable. Highly recommended, but it will only take branches up to about 1 1/2". I'm not sure any domestic shredders will take two inch branches.

[langy]

why not hire a decent sized one

[Stegel]

We have a Bosch AXT 2200 HP shredder which will cope with anything up to about 38mm - as has already been said anything domestic is unlikley to cope with 50mm. It has a crushing gear mechanism rather than fast rotating blades, so is relatively quiet and once it has started chewing a branch nothing is going to stop it. Copes well with conifers and laurel, rhododendrons. Only thing it does not like is too many leaves at once - it sometimes disposes of the thicker part of a branch but gets choked by the log jam of leaves towards the outer parts of the branch. Would recommend it unreservedly, and far superior to the cheap screamers that can cope only with single twigs. I have hired a few larger ones, but they are noisy, large and probably quite dangerous!

[Duke Thrust]

I went through a number of electric shredders and was never very happy with them, got this now for the back of my Countax and it's fantastic, very pleased with it indeed. (Interestingly in the instructions that came with it, it says up to 3" on the web it says 2.5" - it's done over 3" with no probs)

http://www.countax.co.uk/Accessories/index.php?id=...

If you've not got something to power it with then it's of no use obvioulsy but I'd say that if you're going to use it a lot get a decent petrol one or hire one for the weekend. The electric ones are okay if you feed a branch at a time but frustrating otherwise. All IMHO of course.

[Rollin]

Stegel said:

We have a Bosch AXT 2200 HP shredder which will cope with anything up to about 38mm - as has already been said anything domestic is unlikley to cope with 50mm. It has a crushing gear mechanism rather than fast rotating blades, so is relatively quiet and once it has started chewing a branch nothing is going to stop it. Copes well with conifers and laurel, rhododendrons. Only thing it does not like is too many leaves at once - it sometimes disposes of the thicker part of a branch but gets choked by the log jam of leaves towards the outer parts of the branch. Would recommend it unreservedly, and far superior to the cheap screamers that can cope only with single twigs. I have hired a few larger ones, but they are noisy, large and probably quite dangerous!

My local Homebase has 2 of these on offer at £70 each.

[Steve_W]

Had a mountfield that just had a single drum flying round on the horizontal axis and wasn't good with small stuff as it just dropped through.

Then used a Bosch with the twin spirals that intermesh - much better at crushing and chopping things - including the hickory hammer handle I was using as a rammer!

[mrmaggit]

langy said:

why not hire a decent sized one

Quite. We hired a diesel 5" chipper a few weeks ago, governing speed was how fast we could put stuff in it.

[Gnits]

The Bosch 2200 drum style is so far the best out there that I can find. The chipper style Bosch with a rotary disk blade is not as good - noisy and does not self feed as well and blocks up readily. Tried a Timberwolf a couple of weeks ago and that was a case of run for 2 mins and then take apart to unblock!
The choice will be the Bosch AT25D or a PTO driven jobber the rest that I have ever tried are worse than $H!TE

[richyb]

Hire one. For 50mm stuff onwards the domestic ones will just end up clogging and you'll spend more time taking it apart than chipping. £100 will get you a small towed petrol chipper for 24 hours if you shop about.

[langy]

Speedyhire hire them out.

[Skyedriver]

Thanks everyone, reasons for buying are that I will use it regularly and as my moniker suggests I live on Skye where hire shops are few and far between. Plan is to chip/shred regularly to top up areas as mulch to keep weeds down when away from home
Looks like a Bosch or Atko then
Cheers

[HiRich]

Gnits said:

The Bosch 2200 drum style is so far the best out there that I can find. The chipper style Bosch with a rotary disk blade is not as good - noisy and does not self feed as well and blocks up readily.

Having the latter, I would now broadly agree. It's OK, doesn't clog that often, but it's not brilliant.

For what the OP wants, I would suggest upping the power and doubling the budget.

[Skyedriver]

Rollin said:

Stegel said:

We have a Bosch AXT 2200 HP shredder which will cope with anything up to about 38mm - as has already been said anything domestic is unlikley to cope with 50mm. It has a crushing gear mechanism rather than fast rotating blades, so is relatively quiet and once it has started chewing a branch nothing is going to stop it. Copes well with conifers and laurel, rhododendrons. Only thing it does not like is too many leaves at once - it sometimes disposes of the thicker part of a branch but gets choked by the log jam of leaves towards the outer parts of the branch. Would recommend it unreservedly, and far superior to the cheap screamers that can cope only with single twigs. I have hired a few larger ones, but they are noisy, large and probably quite dangerous!

My local Homebase has 2 of these on offer at £70 each.

Homebase in Darlington only have the one with the disc type cutter at £160 and the blade is rusty!
Think its going to be the AlKo at £299

[netherfield]

http://www.globeorganic.co.uk/products/shredder/in...

Depends how much you want to spend.