Garden Shredders

jj@8cv

I do not possess a lawnmower (no grass). I am looking for a shredder that would chop up broad bean plants, potato halms, dwarf and runner bean plants etc. as well as, if possible, brassica stalks to put on my compost heap.
Due to a shoulder injury I find this difficult to do by hand. I do have a few small woody shrubs which I have to prune but it is not essential to do these in the shredder.
Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

tdiman

Hi
I would wholeheartedly recommend a Bosch shredder. I had one of those ones with a rotating blade but the noise was unbelievable and it frequently jammed. The Bosch one I have used a spiral cutter that crushes and cuts. Compared to the rotating blade one it is almost silent. It is expensive, but still under £200, but you get what you pay for.

Davesnave

The rapid, noisy shredders in the very large size that takes small tree-size branches are great, but the average garden wouldn't supply enough material to feed one of those and they cost a mint.

The smaller versions are almost as noisy, tediously slow and apt to jam particularly on damp, non woody material. Put it another way; I'm not even sure where mine is now.

I haven't tried the newer, quiet crushing models, as mentioned above, but if a someone would use it a lot, the cost might be justified. It doesn't sound like it would in your case, however.

EpsomOldie

I found this site very useful to help me decide if a shredder would meet my needs, and if yes, which type.

http://www.fredshed.co.uk/homepage.htm

I'm glad I visited Fred's Shed as I would otherwise have been ignorant of the types of shredder and would probably have bought a spinning blade type, which although great for the stuff that you've described in the OP, would have been useless for my needs.

In the end I got a Bosch shredder - although it's actually a chipper - as the majority of the stuff I wanted to dispose of was woody, like end of season buddleia, overgrown rambling roses, and next door's manic philadephus, brambles etc which it gobbles up like an animal.

It's relatively quiet and works by grinding and crushing between two cogged plates rather than a spinning blade. It's not so good - in fact it's rubbish - with soft, fleshy green stuff, but I knew that and that's not what I wanted it for as that stuff goes on the compost heap (as do the chippings from the 'shredder' as brown waste).

It does however make short work of the tough fibrous stems left over from the purple sprouting broccoli from the allotment which are a pig for composting.

Re cost, mine was reasonably priced for the time and effort it saves and its quality / reliability - just under £200 about 7 years ago.

In that time I have used it regularly and am astonished every time at how a humongous amount of stiff, unyielding shrubbery which would have been hell to bag up and transport to the Council tip have been reduced to a couple of bags of chips that can be composted.

My neighbours have also felt the benefit - one of them had hired a skip to accommodate all the overgrown stuff from his garden. He borrowed the 'animal' as we call it, and in one afternoon it was all chopped up and in tidy bin bags. The skip was cancelled. We all like using it as it's so powerful but quiet and quick.


Hope this helps.

jj@8cv

Thank you for your replies. tdiman and EpsomOldie can you tell me what Bosch models you have.

EpsomOldie

Hi - the one I have is a Bosch 2200HP AXT, but from Googling it I think it's been discontinued / superseded.

Do please email Fred at Fred's Shed to ask which is the best current model for your needs rather than relying on the blurb on the Bosch / Amazon / B&Q / Garden4Less sites. The spec of the models is so weird that even the retailers get it wrong. And sorry to sound cynical but they don't really give a monkey's...they're trying to sell you something. Whereas Fred is a private and very knowledgeable individual who's extremely keen - even geeky - on identifying the pros and cons of tools. He doesn't charge for his advice - I think his website is financed from his own pocket plus commission from his affiliated links.

Happy shredding whatever you decide. Get the machine to do the work and save your shoulder!

tdiman

Hi
I have had mine, Bosch 16-30 AXT, for a few years now and it has been discontinued. However it is still working well after all these years. Mine is a cut and crush type also. Not sure if the newer axt 2200 uses this system.

jj@8cv

Thank you for your replies. I will check with Fred's Shed.

arbrighton

We have a Mcallister job from B and Q but we have quite a large garden with lots of shrubs etc that make it worth it, ours probably wouldn't do so well on the softer stuff you describe but for us is invaluable for reducing volume and therefore trips to the tip