Garden Shredder - buy or hire?

[endecotp]

Dear All,

I have been pruning bushes in our neglected communal garden, and would like to turn the prunings into mulch. This is probably a one-off job. Having failed to find anyone who owns a machine they could lend me, I'm now considering either hiring one for a weekend from HSS (about £50 plus delivery), or buying a cheap one (maybe £80 inc delivery). The question is, will the cheapest ones to buy be total junk? I'm not much concerned about long term reliability, just whether it will actually survive a weekend of bush munching. Does anyone have any experience to share about the cheapest garden shredders?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Or get a second hand one, they turn up on ebay and often don't go for much as they're always collection only, assuming you can collect locally that is.

 

[wrathkeg]

Not sure which one from HSS you are thinking of, but a few years ago I hired one of these:

https://www.hss.com/g/62806/Portable-Chipper-Shredder.html

It was terrible. Blades were effective enough at chipping (made lovely chippings/mulch) but I had to feed and poke everything through bit by bit. Certainly not like the ones you see contractors lobbing branches into as quick as they can.

 

[Mursal]

Hire, at least until you see what size you need. Always get a bit bigger than you think you need, but if you are local to a good hire shop, no need to buy unless you have a lot of work to do.

 

[kbdiy]

I would agree that hiring would be the best option. Buying a cheap one is likely to give poor results and you could end up doing the job twice. When hiring you should be able to find a good spec machine and cheaper unless you can see yourself doing this on a regular basis.

 

[Beefpotnoodle]

I went the 'buy' route via ebay. I got a decent machine but as stated by others not really effective as you'd think. Hire a really good one, it will save you some time and effort. Mines good for the odd bit, but does consume time for big jobs.

 

[endecotp]

Thanks for the comments. I'm not expecting anything like the tow-along ones that you see contractors using, either to buy or to hire, and I'm familiar with how the "poke bits in one at a time" machines work. I really don't have a lot to do.

The HSS machine that wrathkeg linked to is actually more expensive than the one I was considering; that one is £52 (+vat +delivery +petrol) for a weekend at their current special offer price. It claims a maximum capacity of 50mm. I was looking at their cheaper electric one:

http://www.hss.com/g/62812/Electric-Shredder.html

That is £39 (+vat +delivery = £100.80) for a weekend; the same machine seems to retail for about £250. It claims a max capacity of 40mm. The cheapest ones on e.g. Amazon claim only 25mm but cost under £100 with free delivery.

Hmmm......

 

[wrathkeg]

I don't know if you watched the video for the electric one but while I like Bosch tools generally I was surprised by how much difficulty he seemed to be having shredding with it! Not used that one myself though.

 

[wkdhd]

I used to own a diy electric one, quite useless, jammed up frequently. I once hired for £60 a weekend a thing with a big funnel and a petrol engine, this included deleivery and collection. That shredded as fast as I could chuck stuff in it. There are two sorts, chippers and shredders (the delivery bloke said). Mine was a shredder which chopped everything into 10cm lengths whereas a chipper does chips!
As a one off it was well worth it

 

[endecotp]

> I once hired for £60 a weekend a thing with a big funnel and
> a petrol engine, this included deleivery and collection

I'd be interested to know where that came from (and how long ago)!

I don't have a car, and HSS's delivery charges double the cost for something like this. It would be cheaper to go and get it in a taxi, if a cab driver could be persuaded to have something like that in his vehicle.

 

[Burnerman]

If you want to buy, something like the Bosch AXT 2000 range is fine for garden stuff up to around 30 mm diameter....naturally enough the more gnarly the timber the harder it is to feed!
Avoid the cheaper ones with the high speed flails....they are only good for privet and such like.
The Bosch machine has a low rpm slab cutter which pulls the brash through .....and should give good service.
John

 

[wrathkeg]

>
I don't have a car, and HSS's delivery charges double the cost for something like this. It would be cheaper to go and get it in a taxi, if a cab driver could be persuaded to have something like that in his vehicle.

You might try somewhere else. I have a local, very well stocked hire place that only charges £5 each way for delivery, and does pretty much immediate collection/delivery. And lower hire charges than HSS.

 

[wkdhd]

endecotp beaver tool hire in Chichester. This one http://www.beavertoolhire.co.uk/too...ardening-and-Forestry/Shredders-and-Chippers/

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

There are some shredder reviews on Freds Shed, worth a look. I have the Bosch AXT2000, I've used it for 2+ years, works a treat, but the blade needs filing every now and again, and then replacing. It is quite tedious to use as you have to feed in a handful of branches at a time. It does make good mulch.

I would avoid cheaper ones, they are said to be so so, the Bosch ones are quite good but almost £200. I paid £140. Sounds like hiring is the way to go.

If this is a communal garden, can't one of the tenants drive you to and from the hire shop?