Yard Machines 14 Amp Electric Chipper/Shredder #24A-404A900  Product Reviews

"It's a good workhorse for your pet yard projects. It chews leaves and branches, occasionally getting stuck, in which case it needs a 3min unstucking procedure. Don't spend too much time agonizing between choosing the red Yard Machine and the yellow McCulloch - whichever you choose, you will get the yellow McCulloch. This is the same product."

"Does the job for me turning garden debris in Southern Louisiana into chips that work well as compost. Care must be taken with vines especially if green. Machine will stop if the blade is fouled by vines but it is easily cleared. A bit of a challenge mounting the steel tube legs, but it worked out."

"Well, in just under an hour of usage, the screw that holds the center shaft and blades in place came out and sent several pieces of metal bouncing all around the inside, doing wonderful things to the cutter blades, and the unit. It worked great, while it was intact, but..... Off to the repair shop they gave me and I sure hope it is covered by the warranty (including the cutting blades!)"

"Over the years, my brush pile grew head high and spilled over into a second pile, and a third. I needed a chipper/shredder because I wanted the mulch for compost. I looked at many, many possibilities, but some were way more than I needed, and a couple were possibly OK but too big and 'iffy' in reviewers' perceptions of ease of use and reliablility. I found this one, and after reading favorable reviews and opinions, ordered it. What a pleaseant surprise. First of all, it's heavy and stable because it has a very powerful motor, but the base is on wheels and rolls to and from the brushpile easily. It takes a little while to learn how to use it, and find out that certain things, like tough fibrous vines, tend to not chip, but wrap around the cutter head. This means you have to stop and unscrew the three thumbscrews and remove the feeder chute assembly. Not hard, but after a while you learn what to put in and what not to - now most of my chipping sessions go straight through without a jam. Another important hint is to watch the exit port. If you're putting stuff in and nothing's coming out but it's still running, leaves and other material have clogged the exit - poke a stick up in it and jiggle it around and the leaves will come out. Do I HAVE to say don't use your hand or fingers? Chipping limbs is a lot more work than I thought, but now I pull a 'working pile' of limbs over to the chipper first, pull up a stool and some shears, have a seat, and start feeding the limbs in. The chipper handles diameters up to about an inch-and-a-half, and I select out, for firewood and kindling, anything larger. This chipper performance exceeds what I expected and I would give it a thumbs up recommendation. For the money, it's a powerful 'right-sized' tool perfect for yard maintenance. As an added benefit - it takes no gas/oil and because it's vertical, and stores in a very small footprint. DO have some cookies or iced tea for the UPS guy - it's a very large and heavy box. AND it requires assembly. Don't try to lift the motor on and off the base like I did, but follow the directions and assemble it correctly the first time - assemble the base first and slide it over to the motor assembly, and make sure the wheels are on the same side as the switch/powercord. YES, I am well over 13."