I've researched some chipper shredders. I don't know the thread you were talking about though. So far most of the electric ones I've seed had pretty mixed reviews.

What do you concider all regular garden uses? I fear there could be a wide variation between one person's idea of regular garden uses and another's. Most farms probably use a PTO driven chipper/shredder powered by their tractor which is going to be far more powerful than any electric chipper/shredder and far more likely to handle "all regular garden uses" but most of us with a backyard garden are not going to own a tractor to power such a shredder.

The inexpensive electric 2-4 HP electric shredders I looked into might be fine for straight sticks from pruning your crep myrtle or other landscape plans, shredding dry corn and sunflower stalks (though I'm not certain that the slot would be big enough for the corn stalks and they might choke on corn cobs). They couldn't really handle leaves very well and definetly not branches. You would have to cut branches into small sticks and nothing more than perhaps 2" tops in diamiter. What looks like a nice leaf shoot in the top isn't, it just has a slot in it for feeding in sticks.

There was a heavier duty electric chipper/shredder I saw. It still couldn't accept much more than 2" of woody material and big branches would still need to be clipped into feedable bits. It did have a leaf shoot though and I expect it would be more useful than the under $300 variety.

Advice I've heard about chipper/shredders is that you definetly need about 4 times the HP than you think you will for a given job. The material to be shredded needs a conciderable amount of prep unless you have access to something similar to what tree services pull behined their truck and the material you will get out of a given job will be rather measly. In other words a huge pile of branches will become a very small pile of chips.

I'm still looking for an appropriate chipper/shredder for our use. It needs to be small enough to transport inside a van (rather than on a trailer hitch.) Big enough to chip small branches and corn cobs. Able to shred leaves/cardboard. Finally, within my budget. So far no luck.

g'day patty,

from my experiences i'd put it this one the electric models are more like toys, so if you have only very little lite material to shred then buy an electric but as always not from a discounter buy a better quality model from a specialist store.

the petrol models do far more and heavier grade work, so in these models nothing under a hp rating of 5hp, there are different shredder methods so you need to consider the material you will need to put through them if you have lots of fibrous material like palm fronds and ginger lillies that type of stuff then you need to look for a model that will handle that material.

just for comparison check out greenfield shredders made in australia they do all material including fibrous, and they are a top quality machine so this will give you an idea what to look for.

remember but the common garden type shredder/chipper is a shredder by name and nature they all have some chipping capacity, so if you have lots of material that needs chipping then you need to look at chipper machines, generally more expensive than a shredder.

another thought though you realy need to generate a lot of work to justify having one in the shed, for most planning this shredding job for 2 or 3 times a year and then go hire a shredder is the most efficient way. and by hiring you get to use different models and then be able to better choose a model that you may buy.

buy from a specialist lawn mower garden equipment store who offers after sales service.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

If an electric chipper/shredder were to have the same size motor as a gasoline chipper/shredder there might be some possibility of comparison, but to have an electric motor of say 8 HP the machine would be too large and heavy for the average person to move around and you would need, most likely a power source around 440 volts not the normal 220 v a house normally has. Simply because of the size of those motors, usually not more than 1 HP, three is no really good comparison that can be made. The single advantage is that the source of pollution is moved from your yard to someone elses backyard.

I am still hoping someone can point me to that other thread.

Does anyone else remember it? The woman who was advocating the electric shredder was the daughter of someone in the auto industry.

(normal garden waste = nothing woody; this is for the community garden and so there are dozens of plots generating tomato plants, corn stalks, etc.)

Perhaps look into a leaf shredder for such a situation then. They look like part of a barrel on a stand that you can put a can or bag under to catch the shredds of what you drop through it. I believe the shredding implement used in those is actually a string like what you use in a weed whacker.

Just a thought as I think it would be a real pain to try and feed a tomato plant into one of the electric chipper/shredders I've seen.

I've got a leaf shredder ($30 from Craigslist!) like the one you describe, Tclynx. It's a Vornado Leaf Eater and it does indeed have a string trimmer-type mechanism in a sort of barrel.

It's great for dry leaves, pine needles, and similar lightweight dry stuff. It does not like sticks or wet materials, which make it stick and jam.

Overall, though, it's quite the nice little toy to have on hand. And the price was certainly right.

I seem to remember the thread that you were talking about, but if I recall it was about TILLERS, Electric Vs. Gasoline. A very opinionated woman who made some ludicrous claims that an electric powered motor (which puts the pollution of generating the electricity to run it onto someone else) was much more practical and powerful than a gasoline motor. People pointed out to her that an electric motor of equal horsepower would be much heavier also and that if she had one large enough to do much, she would not be able to move it. A 5 hp electric motor alone probably weighs around 135 pounds, which is probably as much or more than the motor and tiller of a gasoline model would weigh, THEN, you would have to figure out how to drag a long extension cord around without winding it up in the tines and cutting it. Most 5 hp electric motors would probably require 220 V power supply instead of regular 110 house current. I think that she really had no real, practical facts about what she was trying to discuss, just thought that it sounded good. You might try checking for something relating to that thread using ELECTRIC TILLER in place of chipper.

She also had some really strong opinions about not letting any horse manure touch your garden, or your compost pile untill it was a year old with two years old being better. And was convinced that pill bugs absolutely did not eat anything but decaying plant material.

She seems to have since moved on, I have not seen any of her postings in some time.
Bill P.

I have an electric chipper/shredder. But it only chips up to 1 1/2 inch diameter. It's great for me, I do a lot of rose pruning and other small stuff.

It depends on what you need to use it for.

Thank you - and I think you're right Bill, I think it was an electric tiller. Ho hum, my brain has seen better days. :)

OK, right then, I suppose we need to start from scratch.

We used my 5.5 HP gas shredder last weekend, at the comm garden, and it groaned a bit mostly because the material was fairly wet (fresh tomato plants etc) which compacted in the chute and decreased the air flow. In general the material was easy enough to shred, although the stalks from the broccoli plants and brussel sprouts were very tough. The tomatoes and sunflowers had to be fed slowly, and the process required some patience.

Given that - I don't think a leaf shredder would work. I think we definitely don't want to go under 4 HP, and ideally we'd have at least the 5.5 that we had last weekend with the gas shredder.

I'm open to any input anyone has - electric would be nice because it would be more in line with the organic philosophy of the garden.

Here I am wondering how they did it in the old days? Well, much of it they probably tossed in the compost or to the pigs hole. If it was woody, they probably burned it.

I suppose if you want to get really organic, you would need to get a diesel powered chipper/shredder and convert it to run on plant oils. Is option may only be appropriate for larger farm operations that would have a shredder/grinder that operates from the tractor pto, then they only need use biodiesel or convert the tractor over to Strait plant oil operation.

Another option (though probably hard on a lawn mower) might be to run over the stuff with a mower. Probably not as effective as a chipper.

The problem at the garden is that when the plant material output peaks, like at this time of year, a few gardeners throw the material in the dumpster, just to be rid of it. If there was an easy way to reduce the bulk, that would help us keep the material in the garden. Shredding also generates really hot piles, which solves the problem of composting weeds. Et cetera.

Some gardeners maintain their own piles in their plots, and either chop by hand or not as they choose.

The garden is organic, and part of that involves maintaining a dialogue among all the variety of people that participate, as to how to "walk more gently." Some organic practices would be inappropriate at the garden (like the use of humanure) because it is a community setting and not someone's backyard. In a similar vein, a little more thought has to be given to appearances than would be the case in the backyard, and big piles of garden waste, while beautiful to some, are not as appealing to others. :)

patty,

why not return it back the garden as we do pull it break it up a little and then cover it with some fresh mulch or lift back the mulch already there and tuck it under?

a bit of a waste dumping it as most would break down rather quickly if just left in a pile, and if you mulch the gardens well enough weeds won't be a problem either.

len

It's a community garden, with all the variety that that entails. I touched on this in my last post. The solution you might choose for yourself rarely works for others.

The best compromise between the people who think everything should be recycled into the soil and the people who think it should all be put in the dumpster is a chipper shredder.

Any additional input on electric shredders is welcome.

I concur with the consensus on the utility of the electric shredders. I have a Chicago Electric chipper/shredder. It handles limbs up to about 1 1/4 in in diameter and really does best with mostly woody stuff, so I usually just use it on tree branches and so forth.

The gas powered ones handle larger stuff as well as wetter stuff, so if you'll have much of either, that's the route to go. The drawback to the gas powered ones is the cost.

it's called mind over matter patty,

all we do is as nature would do so it is nothing new all we might claim is an adaption maybe??

yes chipper by all means so you need to research which may work in your totally variable situation, but a chipper is not needed to recycle vegetation back to the soil it's that easy.

we have community gardens over here i've not yet seen a chipper as their main stay to recycle.

again it is mind set and thinking outside the square that will perservere.

len

It sounds like the electric units are better for woody material. That's a shame, although we could let material dry out a bit before chipping it, I suppose. Will a dry tomato plant behave like woody material in a unit like this?

bpgreen, I looked up chicago electric chippers, and found a 2.5 hp model. Is this the one you have? I also found tips that leaf shredders are better for wet material.

I will definitely take the info back to the plot manager and president. I suspect they will want something more powerful and that can handle wet material - so I am still hoping to turn up something that fit the bill, otherwise, they'll go for a gas powered unit - which would be a shame.

That sounds like the one I have. Here is where I got mine. It lists for $159.99 there, but seems to be on sale perpetually for $119.99 (big part of why I bought it).

They've got some gas powered ones for a lot less than most of the gas powered ones I found a few years ago. Their shipping charges are pretty low, too.

Patty- I do recall a recent thread on shredders, but this doesn't seem quite right as to what you're looking for.

As for chipper shredders, two of my brothers and I split the cost of a used Troy Bilt 8 horse about 8 or 10 years ago (about $100 apiece). Worked great until I blew the engine this spring chipping pine cones (they made great mulch- but stuck like velcro to my dogs). Anyway, in the end I was the only one using it anymore so it didn't matter to my brothers. Point is, a reputable repair shop may have more power for less if you want to buy used.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Shredding oak leaves

What I do is let larger items dry out before chipping. Wet stuff will clog up an electric chipper shredder. This does require piles of stuff being left for weeks, but it's easier than putting it in bags and trashing it.

My question is, once the stuff is dry, is it green or brown?

Which "stuff"? It depends on what you have. Most material is a green if it was once a green, but there are materials that loose the Nitrogen they had while green when they turn brown, like tree leaves. Green tree leaves and the small branches they grow on have a lot of Nitrogen while the leaves are green, just chip up a pile of green wood with leaves and watch that pile heat up from bacterial activity. But after the tree leaves turn color and those small branches go dormant for the winter, that Nitrogen is, apparently, sent the the roots for storage for next spring, because that same material later in the fall needs a lot of Nitrogen for proper digestion.
Grain straw, after the seeds are harvested is a brown, but if you harvest that same grain before the see heads ripen the straw will be a "green" because of the Nitrogen in the stalks, many green manures are just that, unripened grains.

Horsepower = good shredding.
I removed my 5 hp gas engine and installed a 10 hp.
Life is good.

Gary

I am sorry if this thread is old, but the people who are putting down electric shredders as being weak are clueless.

An electric shredder of appropriate horsepower rating equal to a gasoline one WILL shred better than then gasoline one. What you need to look for is the TYPE of single phase electric motor used. This is VERY important as there different types of single phase motor configurations having vastly different torque characteristics which is suited for a particular application.

For a shredder I recommend using a capacitor start/capacitor run motor or a capacitor start/induction run motor; both are very torquey. Usually the motors are called "compressor duty" or "farm duty". To give you an example of a farm duty rated single motor's torque ability have a look at this
Leeson catalog number 131543 by copying and pasting it into the catalog form at http://www.leeson.com/findaproduct/index.html#1 and pressing search. You will find a farm duty rated motor.

This baby has a starting torque of 43.5 ft*lbs at zero and a breakdown torque of 35.5 ft*lbs which means when the motor is at full speed it requires a load that will cause it to go to its breakdown point of 35.5 ft*lbs before the motor will stall.

Now you all tell me if there is a 5 hp Briggs, Honda, or Tecumseh gasoline engine that makes 35.5 ft*lbs of torque!! They don't exist folks for that horsepower range. Sorry electric wins this one. Oh yeah btw, the 240 volt circuit is used for single phase motors up to 10 horsepower so, no you do not need a higher voltage circuit.

Your only advantage for gas is weight savings.

Mighty3
Ok, that is over $1000 for the motor alone (none of the rest of the machine.) This is probably about twice the price of a similar HP complete gas chipper/shredder.
How many people are going to have appropriate power cable to hook up that 240 out in their yard to shred their garden waste? At 95lb it is heavy but I think price and dealing with the 240 circuit are more of a disadvantage than the weight? The problem is that most of the electric shredders on the market for home use, really are not compairable to the similar priced gas chipper/shredders. I really have not seen many electric chipper/shredders of much more than say 1-3 HP and most of those are similar in price to a gas unit of twice the HP.

I would like a electric chipper/shredder if all other things were equal but since the best advice if one buys a chipper/shredder is "get the biggest/most powerful one you can afford" that makes getting an electric version difficult since they cost so much more for the HP.

That is ok mighty3, I'm not really looking to design and build my own electric chipper/shredder. Compairing motors that are not attached to the rest of the machinery doesn't really help those of us who are not equiped with our own machine shop to build such things.

There is no need to design a chipper/shredder. You can buy the unit without the motor. I just wanted to prove that it's a fasle statement to say electric can not handle the work loads of gasoline powered chippers. It really depends on the type of single phase motor used. I have a feeling that the cheap electric ones use the wrong type of motor to save on price; probably an induction start/induction run which lacks torque compared to a capacitor start/induction run or capacitor start/capacitor run motor.

So just buy a chipper/shredder unit and attach a farm duty single phase motor and you'll be taking on large 4" to 5" size limbs with ease.