Earthquake Chipper Shredder K33, 33964 Heavy Duty 301cc, 4 Cycle Viper Engine, Dock-and-Lock Debris Bag, 3" Max Wood Diameter Capacity, Red

I went looking for the best wood chipper I could afford with my limited budget, and selected the Earthquake K33 after weighing several variables. I am in no way disappointed with my choice. It's not a Vermeer, but for a limited, budget chipper, I would have settled for less than I got with this purchase. I think it's a good value for the money. It has less capacity than some chippers at this price point, and it also has more power relative to the capacity it does have. It should be strong and capable, within the limits of what it can do.If it fits, it chips. I was honestly expecting more of a struggle to peck my way through some of the more challenging pieces I needed to chip. Nope. For the most part, this machine just sucks the wood in, and spits out chips. While its ability is severely limited, it does have some ability to suck in branches complete with side shoots. You don't have to trim away every single lateral branch to get something to feed. At least not with fresh, green pine.The bag attachment is convenient, and it works well. When the machine starts to get "wood chip reflux" and starts burping chips out the feed opening, that's your clue that it's time to go dump the bag. It just takes a minute or so. I didn't think I would like the bag, and I originally tried running it without the bag attached. With no bag, it blasts chips out hard enough to rip up your grass, and they go everywhere. It's probably pretty dangerous, too, which is why there are strongly worded warnings about not doing that. It turns out that it's not worth doing that anyway. The bag provides an efficient way of directing the chips into a yard cart or whatever, and it holds just about as much of a load as I would want to heft and dump. It's quite manageable as is, and I would not want a bigger bag.Assembly took about 30 minutes, and it was pretty obvious how to fit everything together. The instructions were incomplete as far as what sizes of wrench I would need, but that's not worth a star. I've read other reviews that complained that the unit did not ship with enough oil, and I also found that to be the case. The supplied oil was enough to get the level up to the add mark. I had to add significantly more to get it up to the full mark.The unit was rather hard to start the first time, and it has continued to be quite hard to start. This is a pretty big engine for a pull start, but if you work at it, you can coax the thing to life eventually. It's not as bad as that '60s era pull start riding mower my parents had when I was a kid, but it's definitely the worst pull start machine I've experienced since The Beast. I'm not 16 anymore, so I'm glad it's not quite as hard to start as The Beast. Still, it's pretty bad. I won't lie about that. You need some upper body strength to get this thing fired up. It's a lot of engine for a recoil starter.Once it gets running, it's not as loud as I was expecting. Fuel economy also exceeded my expectations. I pretty much planned to have to top off the gas tank every little bit, but so far, I've done about 70% of the wood I needed to chip, and I haven't run out of gas yet.I processed some old, dry hardwood branches, and a lot of fresh, green pine. The machine chewed through both with gusto. I managed to stall it out exactly twice. The first time was an old, dry, hardwood branch about 2" in diameter and about 10' long. I expected to have to peck away at the branch, but the machine just grabbed it, and sucked it in all the way to the end. It sucked it in so fast that it bit off more than it could chew, and stalled out on the last little bit. I didn't have to clear that jam. I just emptied the bag, restarted, and continued.The second time it stalled, I took a long pine branch that was near max capacity, and whittled on it with a hatchet where there were branch clusters I didn't expect to pass through. I fed the branch short end first, and kind of expected the machine to reject the last couple feet of this branch as too much of a meal. To my surprise, the machine sucked it all in, all the way to the very end. The fat end was a little too much of a meal for the Earthquake, and the machine stalled out and jammed hard. That time, restarting it wasn't an option, because it was impossible to turn the engine with the pull cord.Clearing the jam was a simple matter of removing three bolts with a 13mm socket, then poking around in there to loosen things up. It wasn't an unreasonable amount of effort, and it wouldn't have been necessary if I hadn't pushed things as far as I did.One bolt has fallen out and gotten lost so far. It was one of the bolts holding the cover over the recoil rope. It's just gone. Vibrated out and lost, apparently. Meh. I should probably contact the manufacturer about procuring a replacement for that, but it's not a high priority.The machine has exceeded my expectations so far. If this machine lasts enough seasons, it will eventually pay for itself in the money I save on gas and dump fees. It's also better to turn all the trimmings into something useful than to chuck them into a landfill. I'm a native plant gardener who turned a nice suburban grass patch into something more like a forest, and over time, these wood chips will break down and make my nice black humus even more rich.

I have owned this machine almost two months and have used it approximately 20 hours. It is a real workhouse. Assembly was slightly complicated by the fact that the flange bolts were missing--but I could use other bolts provided for some of the packing material as almost identical replacements.BUT some of the welds holding the flanges for attaching the hopper to the shredder are breaking. I am writing to Earthquake to see about a fix. I'm a little nervous though because when I put the machine together I was never able to register my purchase for the warranty. I could get to the site. Then I would get a message to try again later. I finally gave up. Fingers crossed.UPDATE: Within 24 hours of filing my warrantee claim, I received an email that a new hopper is on its way. Very fast and friendly service. I'm leaving my review at 4 stars, though, because the weld on the hopper seems to be a common problem, the instructions are not easy to decipher, and I had to jerry-rig some other bolts to attach the hopper because it was missing 8 bolts when it arrived. Nevertheless, excellent machine. Worth the trouble, especially given the great service.

So my first review stated it was damaged when it arrived. They sent the damaged hopper but did not have the part in the right color.... Now that I have used it over the past few weeks, I am impressed at how well it works. I had a Troy Built in the past that was always a struggle to start and feed. This one starts everytime on the first pull. It gets a little bogged down with long 3 inch lengths so I just listen for the strain and pull the peice out of the blades for a few seconds and it continues to work like an animal. The mulcher guard does not open and close easily, so sad to say I have to leave it open. Compared to my past machine, this one is a 5 star.

After being told to stay home because signature required delivery canceled last minute due to "unforseen circumstances" that circumstance was that the product was not even in Illinois but no one could be bothered to let ne know. Rescheduled for 2 days later evening delivery.Product dumped at 6 am , no inside delivery, left in full view for thieves, and upside down.Hopper is damaged where it would connect to the main base as the fins with the slots are bent. I don't care about scratches or dings ..... it's a chipper. But when you have to spend 2 hrs realigning parts.... what a pain.Axle is so sloppy over painted that washer could not fit and paint had to be chipped off so washer then cotter pin installed. Then repainted for rust prevention.Of course product support equals ZERO and my concerns over delivery by this company and Amazon are ignored.Oh well. On the plus side the engine is excellent and it is assembled enough to run and use the 3" port. Viper engine took 2 pulls to start. I don't trust the hopper as I literally had to use vice grips to squeeze fins together to give enough space for bolts to receive nuts. Given the damage I think this will be a point of failure.

I live on a heavily wooded lot. Lots of branches fall into my yard on a regular basis. I purchased the chipper as a way to manage those branches. It works, great. It handles anything up to appx 4 inches.

Another update I noticed putting this together. It came shipped with 20 FL. OZ. or 10W-30 oil. Oil capacity and type according to the engine manual is 1.16qt/37.2 oz (1.1 liters); SAE 15W40 (in freezing weather use 5W30) I can only guess that I should go by the manual.

Just started using, but this is great for all those sticks in the yard. Also got the vacuum and tow bar so ready for some serious yard cleanup.