From I've read, they're all pretty useless unless you restrict yourself to soft prunings. Anything vaguely resembling a stick jams it up, particularly electric ones. So really, the biggest powerfulest (and most expensive) appears to be the only way to go.

Sorry for the bad news. This is only hearsay mind you, no doubt other have real evidence!

The Victa 1600 that I use chomps maize stalks to a fine texture; which I think will speed the compost process a lot. But too slow for a garden of say 10 beds sized 80cm x 6M. Still, I think they're useful. pict01

Sorry, can't agree with Jennie. Ours is a Rover (electric) and it works fine. It is our second one, the first lasted over ten years and we bought another exactly the same. It is possible to jam them; material like flax tends to wind into a cord and wrap around, but as a general rule it will cope with most garden cuttings, and sticks up to finger thickness. We bought an ordinary plastic garbage bin at the same time, threw away the lid and cut a piece out at the top on one side. This fits under the outlet and is very convenient. We also have a compost tumbler and the shredded material is ideal for this. Can't remember the price, but I think it was around $300 or $350.

We're (that reads, 'as at the weekend, we were') currently on our second Rover, and consider them to be totally useless when it comes to anything other than soft, green prunings. We won't be getting another one.

Ummm... if they are totally useless why did you get a second one?
If you want a chipper then that is another thing altogether. Most garden clippings ARE soft green clippings and, as I said, they will handle stems up to finger thickness. They only have a fairly narrow slot, but if you don't try to over-feed them then it is amazing how much you can munch in a fairly short space of time. I can munch enough to half fill our compost tumbler in about half an hour. (The other half is usually grass clipping.)

AH, I agree with the last statement. We have a 20 year old mower and it does a beautiful job as a muncher. We shred the bigger material with a petrol driven machine.

We bought a GMC mulcher after seeing it work at a friends, he was very pleased with it.
So far I have trimmed and mulched, Poincianna, Bougainvillea, hibiscus and palm fronds and they have all gone well. The largest stick was about three quarters of an inch thick.
Amazing how a large pile of what we either burnt or carted away is turned into a small pile of good stuff.

Marion

Quote: If I am going to have a mulcher taking up space though, I require it to do more than I could do by simply throwing the material on the lawn and running over it with the mower.
Couldn't agree more! For autumn leaves that have dropped onto the lawn and similar work they are fine, but when you have regular garden prunings by the multiple wheelbarrows full then a lawn mower is not the answer.

I have an electric rover mulcher and it works pretty good, Ive put entire trees through it (when I say that, I mean everything but the thick branches) and that bigger stuff can then go out for the council collection.

Ive found that the thing that jams mine up is too much soft stuff, e.g. long soft growth like strelitzia stalks so I cut them in half before putting them through so they dont wrap around the blades. If it stops working properly, it usually just needs the top taken off and a clean out, and every now and then just a quick sharpen of the blades to get it back into service. Im just curious too about some of the other mulchers mentioned here, mine has a small spout on the side for thicker branches that are too thick or woody to go through the top, maybe a few people have one on their mulcher and never noticed it.

If you think theyll save you time, then I would say, no they wont, but youll be able to use up a lot of garden waste that would normally go in the bin or out for collection, but you do need to be fairly dedicated or you wont use it.

Liatris, I just thought Id mention this just in case, because you mentioned you have a rover too and this is just what Ive learned from using mine, but just check your mulcher to make sure it has packed in before you throw it out or get it repaired,

check the blades and make sure they arent jammed up because the mulcher may not start properly and will keep shutting off, but if it went completely dead, it could be that if you use an extension cord,the plug may have started to come out (mine does this where the plug gets vibrated loose and just needs to be pushed back in), and the other thing is, it may have overheated and have an automatic cut off, so the mulcher will go dead until you leave it to cool down, but it might just be worth checking.

Yes, Trancegemini, it used to almost live in a state of automatic cut out. Hubby has 'had it' with the machine and doesn't want to bother with looking at it. That won't stop me from pulling it apart to see if I can find anything obvious though.

Liatris, if you turn it off when there is still semi-munched material inside then it can jam as it stops. Quite small pieces of branch can jam between the rotating head and the housing. If you take the top off and give the rotating head a couple of turns you will clear this, (good idea to brush out any remaining moist munchings too to prevent corrosion). If you don't clear the heads it will still be jammed when you try to start it next time.
Tracegemini, sounds like your machine is the same model as ours. I agree with all your comments, though ours has never overheated.

bilnrobn, it only overheats when ive been working it way too hard, like having it running all day long or for hours on a hot day and I havent given it much of a break. It just shuts down if it overheats which really is a good thing because otherwise I probably would have burnt it out long ago with the way Ive pushed it sometimes. ;)

mostly now though I dont have a big mountain to put through it and it's just a few wheelbarrow loads at a time, thats no problem for it and probably closer to what it was designed to do instead of the hard labour Ive put through. :)

i have a ryobi shredder and it is crap, in saying that it does shredd, but the feeding chute is too wide and material gets stuck in the chute = very annoying. look for a machine that had a straight feeding chute with no space for brances that open and tangle. i like the looks of a alko shredder but i will echo jenni60 in saying that you pay for what you get now days!!!!!

Thanks, everyone. I bought the GMC MX 555 for $149 at Bunning's yesterday after seeing it in action at a friend's place last weekend. It was a bit of a pain to assemble but it works satisfactorily for my purposes. I've already put a considerable quantity of rose prunings through and have got a nice fine mulch. Cheers, Rosewater.