ES1600 14-Amp Electric Chipper / Shredder / Mulcher

This shredder exceeded my expectations in terms of how well it worked, and I am so happy I decided to spend a little more for it than the other electric shredders in its class that I also considered (most of the others were top-only feed while this one has a side feed chute for larger branches as well as a top feed for leaves, twigs and smaller branches). I wanted an electrical motor-driven shredder, but I was worried that it would not be powerful enough to handle my seasonal yard and garden trimmings (branches up to about 1" diameter), but the Eco-Shredder with its 2.5 hp motor handled everything I threw at it, and it didn't bog down at all. I was also amazed at how quiet it was - about 65-68 db without load (ran very smoothly) and up to around 78-82 db chipping thicker branches. However, I would still recommend you wear ear plugs, safety glasses and also a dust mask especially if you plan to shred dry leaves or twigs. As an engineer, I appreciate good, simple design, and this shredder, in my opinion, was very well designed (appears to have been originally designed and manufactured by McCullough) but is now manufactured in China by Durostar. It has a very heavy motor, and there is nothing flimsy or light weight about it at all. It weighs something like 70 lbs. but rolls easily on the wheels on hard surfaces and grass. My only suggestion to improve the overall design would be to make the wheels larger and wider to better distribute the load going over loose gravel which I have a lot of in my garden as pathways. The side feed chute is designed for larger branches, and it worked really well, easily handling branches up to about 3/4" to 1" in diameter which was the largest I had. It more or less feeds itself, pulling the branches into the chute - all you need to do is guide them in. I also would put 4-5 smaller branches in together in a bundle (maybe each branch 1/4" diameter), basically whatever would fit in the chute, and it would chew through those bundles very easily. The top hopper is made for smaller leafy branches, twigs and leaves. The feed paddle, made from the same heavy duty plastic as the hopper, is very useful for pushing the trimmings down into the revolving blade chamber below. There's also a slot in the hopper that the paddle fits into which keeps it very handy to pull out and use - no having to lay it down or misplace it while you use both hands to load the hopper up. Although it would be difficult or nearly impossible to inadvertently get your hand down into the blade chamber as the chute entrance is fairly narrow and the rotating blades are about 10"-12" below the entrance, using the feed paddle provides an extra safety feature. The paddle and slanted hopper chute seem very ergonomically designed to easily push and slide leaves and small branches into the hopper and down into to shredding chamber. The shredder has an auto shutdown protection feature if you ever have a jam. In 4 days of using it, I never had a jam with any wooden material I fed to it. However, I did accidentally scoop up a small rock when shredding leaves which jammed in the blades and caused the motor to stop. However, it was easy to clear as I just turned the shredder upside down and used the included allen head wrench to turn the rotor at the bottom of the motor (like a garbage disposal) freeing the motor up and causing the rock to fall back out the feed chute. No damage was done that I could tell.All in all, this is a quality product that I am very pleased with. I recommend it highly for anyone who has seasonal yard trimmings to deal with and who, like I was, is tired, of having to cut and bundle them up into 20 or 30 plastic bags and then cart them to the curb for the garbage men to haul away. Of course, reusing the trimmings as mulch is also a much more environmentally friendly practice than filling up our landfills.

I've now used this shredder for a few different things. I am not a long-term user yet, but have enough experience to know how well it will work for me.I typically avoid things with as many bad reviews as this has, but there doesn't seem to be a good alternative. I don't want the trouble, cost, and noise of a gas chipper and there didn't seem to be anything else that would be better at processing things like bush trimmings, so I ordered this.So far, I've used it for leaves, vines, and a bush.- Leaves: It didn't do a lot to the leaves I put through it. From what I've seen, there are better tools for this. I think it'll be good enough for the compost heap, though. Next fall, I'll try this, but may also get a mulching blower/vac.- Vines: I posted before/after photos of this. It jammed a couple times on the vines and a lot of pieces were still 2"-3" long. I'll use it for mulch. It seems good enough for that.- Bush: It did this best. There were no jams and it made fairly small pieces.The good:- Cheap and low-maintenance compared to gas-powered alternatives.- Does a good job on small branches and bush clippings. Adequate job on leaves and vines.- Pretty quiet. I use ear protection, but I'd consider it optional.The bad:- It has a 1' cord. I am using it with a 14 ga 25' extension cord, which is barely adequate for my fairly small yard (0.2 acre lot). If you need to get a 50' cord or longer, you may end up spending quite a bit extra on that. Make sure your cord is a length/gauge that can handle 15 amps.- Clearing a jam is kind of a hassle. You have to remove 5 screws to separate the yellow and black parts and access the blades. You can see these screws in the photos. They're yellow. Fortunately, you don't need tools, but it takes longer than I'd like. In one session I had to take it apart 3 or 4 times and it got old.- It jams some, but it depends on what you're putting through it. I had the most jams on some really wet, fibrous plants. I ran a whole bush through with zero jams. Vines jammed some, but rarely.- It's heavy. The body is all metal, and fairly thick. According to Amazon, the shipping weight is 71 lbs. Take it out of the box and you're still looking at almost 70 lbs. It's a bit awkward to pick it up and move it (e.g. putting it in your trunk). Also, on bumpy terrain, you have to be careful to keep it from tipping over.- Input size is limited. Don't plan on putting a lot of branches through it. See the photo I posted showing branches it wouldn't take. Branches should be an occasional thing. If you're doing a lot of woody stuff, you probably need something else.- The 'clippings' slot is pretty small. For vines and bush trimmings, you have to cut them into pretty small pieces for them to fit and do a lot of jamming them in with the pusher.Final notes:- Sometimes, I use it with a concrete mixing bin. The bin is maybe 1.5'x2' and 6 or 8 inches deep. I put the bin under the machine so I can put the shredder right next to the bush or whatever and the shredder fills up the bin which I can then take to wherever I want to put the shredded plant parts. This seems to be easier than hauling branches to the shredder.- I took out a bush which was about 3'x3'x6' tall. It took about 30 minutes of cutting and stuffing into the shredder. I posted a picture of what it looked like after it went through the shredder as well as a few pieces that wouldn't go through it.