Looking at the archives for this group I note that Garden Shredders were last raised as a topic in 2003.
I am thinking of buying something like:
Bosch AXT 2200 Bosch AXT 25TCE Ryobi RSH-2455
Any thoughts or guidance or better alternatives in the price range of approx £200 would be appreciated.
km
Should read Bosch AXT 25TC
km
Garden shredders were on Radio 4's Gardener's Question time last Sunday, as part of the "garden equipment you wish you'd never bought". One of the panellists said that after getting everything set up to use it, it really was just too much hassle.
JW
Our solution is simple. We drive straight from the garden centre to the local tip - this saves storing all that weird greenery in our garden for 6 months, and then having to dump it.
HTH but I rather doubt it :-)
AXT 2200 make sure it is the HP not the Rapid - totally different machines. HP is a quiet drum cutter- Rapid is the flail blade noisy one AXT2200HP is now an old model so you might get it heavily discounted AXT 23/25 is the new range and you might want to consider the D (drum cutter range) over the TC depending whether you are shredding woody or more fleshy stems. Drum cutter should clog less with the latter.
Ryobi - no experience apart from local garden centre chap said if you can't get a Bosch, go for Ryobi.
Bob
Hired one once .. wish I han't ... complete waste of time practically feeding each branch in twig by twig ... ended up just having a nice little bonfire instead ... glad I never bought one.
Ash.
3 trips a week, with loaded trailer and boot, on a 14mile round trip, has made me decide to break down the pruned branches etc and spread over the more remote parts of the garden.
km
Plus the inconvenience of being stopped from using the nearest tip because of local council boundaries and forced to make a longer journey to a smaller tip which always has queues.
km
8O)
Works v well, tuck them behind shrubs, periodically jump on them or get kids to do so :-) You end up with nice humus & forest-floor type of mulch and if you have a fireplace you can pick out the smallish dry twigs for kindling and the larger ones for firewood - not long-burning but FREE and that's got to be good, right?
A L P
Small prunings can be reduced quite a lot by running the lawnmower over them. Works v well for hedge clippings, moderately for more substantial pruning - put mower at highest blade setting - and if you cut hulking great branches down they probably wouldn't fit through the shredder anyway. Certainly not a little cheapie.
A L P
I have a Bosch AXT 1600 hp - it has a screw type shredder. If you put green stuff in, it cloggs, so for ex budleigh 3/4 ft long but wait until the leaves have dried, etc. Longish prunings of apple etc I wait a few eeeks.
The main load of, laurel, box & leylandii I take to tip.
Colin
"Bob M>> Looking at the archives for this group I note that Garden Shredders
FWIW we 'inherited' a shredder when we moved here along with a whole load of other equipment as the seller was looking to buy a flat UK and abroad. I used it a very limited number of times before selling it on. I find the easiest way to shred rubbish is to drive over it a few times with the tractor mower - far simpler, more effective and less time consuming. It then goes onto the compost heap in the 'far reaches' where it all rots down before being added to the borders etc.
Like you, we are a long way from the nearest tip!
My Billy Goat ( the noisy machine not the smelly animal) takes care of all my hedge cuttings. No need to pick them up even, it sucks them up, chews them up and dumps them in a big bag. I then compost them for a couple of years and use it all as mulch. It happily digests quite big cuttings from my many laurel, yew, holly and other hedging. The only thing it does not like is short dry sticks. They tend to go in sideways and block the throat, long sticks are fine they find their way in end first, anything with leaves attached rarely block it up. I have become quite lazy with weeding as well. Just throw all the weeds on the path, when finished suck them all up with Billy Goat.
Mike
Billy Goat range is too expensive for me. Have ordered Bosch AXT 25TC. Thanks for everyone's comments.
km
I started a thread a few days ago in uk.d-i-y
I saw a second-hand Al-Ko for sale on Saturday for around 1/3rd of the current new price. I assumed it would need new blades, but a quick search shows they're under £20. A very solidly made shredder, which when new is some way above your range (and I wouldn't have spent that much in any case).
Took it home, and sure enough, it wouldn't even shred a twig. I removed the blades to see if I could sharpen them (not having any spares yet), and found they're double sided, with the other side unused. Reassembled, and it's fantastic. It pulls in 3/4" branches at almost 2 feet/second, without struggling. Smaller twigs need manual feeding because they tend to snap when being pulled in. Actually really enjoyed myself shedding up the last 5 year's tree cuttings. Worked very well with the long straight privet branches which auto-feed in. Curved/bent branches from holly and roses needed more intervention. This model claims to work best when the cuttings have dried out, as all mine had.
So my suggestion would be to look out for a professional grade shredder which is going cheap second-hand, rather than buying a less capable new one. As others have said, shredders can be found second-hand. I'm not familiar with any of the ones you've listed. I have used a cheap garden one belonging to someone else, and it was useless in comparison.
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