Garden shredder/wood chipper

[PureBlackVoid]

Does anyone have one of the cheaper ones (around £100)? I google these every time I fill my garden waste bin after pruning, and think what a waste. A few of the cheaper ones have mixed reviews though.

I have a couple of fruit trees, forsythia, magnolia and conifer. Pruning just one of these will fill my brown bin. I have other plants and shrubs, but these are the ones with the thickest branches.

Any recommendations?

We got a chipper from Screwfix, it cost around £130 couple of years ago. It's been a godsend, wish we'd had one earlier. We have a large garden with shrubs and trees so there are always prunings to chip. We use the chippings as a mulch, so it isn't wasted and also on paths in the veg patch. It chips up to 1.5 inches diameter. It doesn't chip as small as the more expensive models, but then again, the chippings don't rot down so quickly.

I acquired a Bosch AXT Rapid 180 shredder. It was fun to play with when I first got it but (a) it will only take fairly small diameter wood, around 1" and (b) it tends to get clogged up if the wood is soft (i.e. newly cut).
Hence it has been sat in the shed doing not a lot recently.
When I say 'acquired', I mean I got it through one of those by-the-side-of-the-road giveaways.
Nuff said.

I have a shredder but it broke after the second use and we are still trying to get the money back.

So I use larger wood as kindling, green wood in the compost and smaller brown I pile up in the compsot area, and then mow it and use what gets collected for paths.

There are 2 basic types of shredder - the (usually more expensive) sorts that actually chop, and the sort with a sort of spiral crushing drum rather than blades.

The latter type is quieter, but fussier about what it can cope with. It will cope with a lot of normal home garden prunings, but not big branches and it doesn't like too much leafy matter or things like brambles that wrap around the crusher and clog it. So things like hedge trimmings need to be left a week or so for the leaves to dry a bit, and it's best to keep a few dry branches on hand to put through between leafier batches to clean it out. The stuff that comes out composts beautifully, though - having been squashed, it breaks down fast and makes a good hot heap.

I had one about 30 years ago, with blades. Noisy, kept clogging. Clearing the clog takes several minutes. I haven’t used it in 20 years.

I thought it was the ones with blades which were cheaper, the spiral ones dearer.

I chop thin soft twigs into 3-6 inch lengths and add them to the compost heap. Anything that needs loppers goes on the woodpile. In between I cut into straight lengths and pile up as a “habitat pile”. Rots down over several years and meanwhile provides a home for invertebrates. I tuck them under and behind large bushes.

Prickly stuff goes to the Council tip.

Thanks all. These replies sort of reflect the reviews😄 I really don’t want to end up spending money on something that will end up unused, which is why I dither every time.

I have no use for kindling, and my one attempt at composting just ended up in an awful stench which I can’t erase from my scent memories.

I think I’ll try out going over with the mower or chopping them up myself first, and dither some more about shredders!

Thanks for tip about putting through dry branches, I’ll keep that in mind if I do decide to buy one.