I'm tarting up the dumping area at the end of the garden, so will be losing my "bonfire" space. I've got assorted shrubs and a hedge so have a certain amount of cuttings and trimmings to get rid of periodically. I wondered if I can get away with a shredder (the council are going to start collecting bagged stuff, or I guess shreddings can go on my horse muck-heap). Any comments, advice, recommendations on hardware?
They are useless, very very noisy and clog constantly. Only worth considering if your garden is tiny.
Philip
Clearly you've never seen or used a Bosch Quiet Shredder.
We used to have an AXT2000 which used a spiral cutter (like a meat-mincer) and was very quiet but did start to clog when the cutter got blunt.
I replaced it with an AXT2200 which uses a large, slowly-turning cog against a sacrificial plate. It's just as quiet (84dB apparently) and never clogs.
Only the hi-speed rotary type are really noisy, clogging is down to feeding the thing too much soft green material. Best to leave fresh trimmings to dry for a few days before shredding.
Seconded. I've had one for several years and it's been very reliable, quiet and nearly uncloggable; on the rare occasions it does clog you simply press the 'reverse' button. It will also chomp branches up to an inch diameter, which it self-feeds happily.
Stephen
yes shreddings will compost well. Just makje suire te sgreeder is man enough for wahatver you want to put through it.
I personally leave them where they fall and ruin a 13 hp rortary mower over the top. A week or two later and they are all dust and ashes so to speak.
Worms eat grass clippings and general leafiness. wood fibres seem to meed fungal action to break them down, but it all helps make better topsoil.
I wouldn't give it to the council if you have any space to compost it - even if its just on a patch of rough lawn.
Thirded! AXT2200 Excellent machine
The bosch quiet ones are not bad. Self feeding etc. If you have one of the older spiral feed ones, then its better to let the stuff dry for a few days prior to shredding.
Thanks to all, some very useful and almost entirely consistent advice there!
Looking on the Bosch site, the AXT2000 Rapid and AXT2200 Rapid are both rapid spinning blade types. The AXT 22D and 23D Quiet are the cog and plate version while the AXT 23TC and 25TC Quiet are turbine cut which maybe your 'mincer' version.
Have you got the models right or have Bosch changed them?
Bugger, I think they must have. Just ordered a 2200 from Amazon too. Should have looked more carefully. OTOH Amazon seem to have a good track record for exchanging stuff.
Both - I got the models right and Bosch have changed them.
Some info here:
There's a video of the turbine mechanism here:
Cancel the order - you have the benefit of the Distance Selling Regulations:
guess) you can't cancel an order, but there will be no problem sending it back, though you will have to pay the return postage for a mis purchase normally.
spinning plate ones, that is lack of torque leading to regular stalling and laborious dismantling to clear.
The cog and plate would seem to be a slower, higher torque system, and with reverse would seem to be a better bet.
It looks look like the Turbo range are low speed / high torque like all the other Quiet range. There's a better demo here (not an animation):
Looking at the Amazon reviews, the Rapid 2200 with cutter rather than cogs seems generally to have good reviews. I think I'm going to give it a go and then post a review, giving suitably grumpy warnings about the confusing change of number. The "modern" 2200 is significantly cheaper than the cog based 25 D Quiet.
Thanks to all for the various suggestions.
That's what we bought a while back after quite a bit of deliberation.
Part of the logic was the cost of replacing the 'blades' on the turbine or cog versions, v the fairly simple flat blade type.
In use it's effectiveness and efficiency really depend on two things.
The shape and density of the material being shredded and the sharpness of the blade(s).
We first took down and pretty well entirely shredded the greenery of a conifer of some sort. Daughter and her b/f then trimmed off and stacked up everything smaller than about 1" in diameter and I fed it though the shredder. When I say 'fed it though' that was mainly just standing a length (or two / three, if thin enough) in the hopper and the lengths just seemed to fall though. I was chipping it straight into 'garden bags' are there are two projections onto which you can hook the handles of the bags (there is quite a draught blowing through the shredder as it's part of the motor cooling cct). So, the biggest issue there was how fast it could fill each bag!
If it ever get's overloaded (too much at once or a particularly hard / big bit) it cuts off and you just have to turn it off and on again. No need for reverse, you just take the load off the blade, restart and off it goes again.
If it does jam (and it hardly ever did on the conifer) it's just one long threaded hand screw to open the entire front up and access the hopper / blades etc (the 'hopper' is actually split in two with the front off like that).
The next tree was an old crab apple. That wasn't half as easy because it was extremely gnarly and miss shapen (no nice long straight runs like the conifer) so the biggest task was threading the stuff into the mouth of the hopper. Secondly, much of it was dry / dead / stick-like and sounded more like you were planeing a length of dowel than shredding greenery. ;-)
Again, and *as long as you keep the blade sharp* (I kept a fresh edge on it with a diamond sharpener every few hours or changed the blade over maybe once in a days work) and were a bit selective what you put through it, it worked very well.
For the rest ... brambles or general leaves and other garden waste ... again, the long straight stuff tends to fall straight though, the bulkier more leafy stuff required the use of the plastic 'pusher' (supplied), but again, rarely clogs / jams with that stuff (although it does need more 'feeding' that the sticks).
As I said at the beginning, blades are quite cheap, can be found easily in most sheds and are quick to change (pozidrive screwdriver and two screws). The problem with all these devices is when you get a stone in there and how then you finish your job with a £100+ 'blade' that's now mullered? ;-(
So, we think they are brilliant. Not the quietest or highest capacity things in the world [1] but with the right stuff they are pretty fast so you won't be out there with it on all day (although we worked ours
8 hrs a day for three days straight and it was faultless). Definitely wear hearing protection, goggles (stuff can whip round) and gloves.YMMV of course.
Cheers, T i m
[1] Both the kids are tree surgeons so are used to 'proper' 6"+ 'chippers'. Both agreed this was a good bit of kit for the money and size / weight etc.p.s. We typically ended up with: Chogs (mainly the trunk) Logs (sections of branch)
These we given to people to store / burn.
Sticks (A bit too big to go through the shredder, took to the dump or wete taken to burn)
And many many bags of shreddings where we used some for compost and stuffed the rest in the green bins. ;-)
That's very encouraging. I did in fact order a spare blade which has already arrived. I'm probably not going to get through the volume of stuff that you have. Good to hear that it deals with both "wood" and "brambles". I also have a woodburner which I fired up last night and got rid of a bag full of stuff between 1 and 2 inches. As an aside, the little Black and Decker cordless chainsaw is brilliant for this sort of stuff.
They are very sharp! You need to stop the blade rotating when you take it out (which you can do 'under' the plate that goes over it) so I think I found an old Philips screwdriver or some such to keep with it that acts as a holding tool (there is a suitable hole in the ally plate that goes over the blade for the purpose).
Oh, and Hawthorn but you really do need the strong leather gloves for that.
Yup. That was the range that is often most awkward to get rid of.
I've also considered one of those as although we have a proper (but cheap) electric chainsaw [1] I'd generally rather get some exercise with my bow saw than much about with that. ;-)
The B&D 'Alligator jobbies look pretty safe to use though.
Cheers, T i m
[1] Bought for daughter when she was doing chainsaw carving demos at arb shows and carving in the back garden. ;-)HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.