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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 26, 2006 9:25:41 GMT
I bought a Bosch shredder (Archimedes screw type) it cost me over £125 I have used it twice, second time just proved what I had thought at its first use.
Its noisy (gives me a vile headache), it makes a lot of choking dust, and its innefficient, blocking up every 5 minutes and taking ages to take apart to clear it
.I persevered for ages just to shred half a bucket of hedge trimmings, and ended up being told by OH to do it when he wasnt there PLEASE!
Has anyone had a similar, (or better) experience, which product was it, and how much did it cost?
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Post by Plocket on Sept 26, 2006 9:39:00 GMT
Can't help you I'm afraid Sweetleaf but your thread has certainly made me think more carefully about rushing out to buy one. I've considered getting one but quite honestly don't think we generate enough harder prunings to warrant the expense. We do have a garden vac/shredder which shreds the fallen leaves for me and because that's pretty good.
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Post by oldmoleskins on Sept 26, 2006 9:51:57 GMT
Sorry, Sweetleaf - came to much the same conclusion. Noisy, output poor, inward capacity limited, sold through the small ads, and felt a bit guilty passing on the trouble...
I was never very sure that the material it produced was attractive enough to use as a mulch anyway - if I want that sort of thing I prefer bark - but I suppose in a town garden it's a way of minimising awkward prunings you can't burn and converting them into bags of stuff you can more easily get in the car to the dump.
OM.
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Post by Spruance on Sept 26, 2006 9:56:31 GMT
Hi Sweetleaf,
I have an Alko shredder which I bought around 7 years ago also for around £125. It has a spinning double edged blade, similar to a rotary mower, but shorter and thicker.
I did use it quite a lot at the outset, and whilst it is fantastic for privet hedge clippings, it soon gets blocked if you introduce general garden clippings or anything not completely dry. When it does get blocked, it is a pain to dismantle and clear the blockage, and if you don't clear it completely, it just blocks up again straight away.
Like yours Sweetleaf, mine is also terrifically noisy and really the noise alone is enough to put you off using it.
Still, all is not lost. It does make a handy temporary shelf for standing things on in the garden shed!
I think if I was buying one now, I would go for more of a heavy duty model, as I think that the one I have now simply can't cope with the majority of the material I want to shred.
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 26, 2006 10:15:34 GMT
My front garden has a tall hedge on 3 sides, as I have a "corner" plot the hedge is about 70-80 feet long taking into account the direction changes. It was planted over 60 years ago and is still going strong, so the shredder seemed a REALLY good Idea at the time! I thought that I would be able to make use of the shreddings and cut down on trips to the tip/landfill. I feel robbed by the Bosch company as the product is what I would call "unfit for purpose" How are you supposed to get redress from companies that sell inferior products?  |
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Post by piggingardener on Sept 26, 2006 10:24:42 GMT
I bought a shredder from B&Q and only used it twice. Yep, it kept blocking, didn't reduce the clippings into anything usable, and was also sold through the small ads. I just cut stuff up with my trusty ratchet secateurs and bung it in the brown recycling bin now.
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Post by Rosefriend on Sept 26, 2006 11:01:02 GMT
Oh well - I suppose I have to be the odd one out. We bought one years ago - I have forgotton which make. However it was obviously similar to your Spruance.
It was bought because up to last year OH and I did FIL garden (1000sq.m) every week and in Autumn there was always so much to get rid of.
We found that it was great - well I found it was great - every machine has a trick to it and it took me a while but I found out that for some reason it always went to the left - so I helped it along. Also hedges are a waste of time to put through - too gnarled. Straight things are a dream, too many leaves block so I always use things between, use fresh cuttings not week old cuttings for some reason.
I open ours up every hour or so just to clear out but I haven't had it blocking very often at all. Normally I tell the neighbours here when I am starting to shred and they all bring there stuff and help. We always find some poor soul to fob the shredded stuff off to - mainly because we have massive oaks here and oak leaves and twigs etc contain an acid (can't remember what it is called) that you do not want in your gardens.
Otherwise without oaks and if I had the room I would certainly use it all for compost.
As far as noise is concerned - well I cannot say that it bothers me at all.
Rosefriend
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Post by madonplants on Sept 26, 2006 12:02:53 GMT
I have a Bosch shredder and I wouldn't be without it. It is only useful if you have enough branches to make it a viable product. Like rosefriend, I share mine with my neighbours. I have had it for about three years and only badly blocked once, my fault, hadn't cleaned it since the last time used. So the material that was still around the blade, had started to decompose! Yug!! If you get one, get a self feeding one like mine. One of my old neighbour said once, it's an animal! It helps with the compost bin, when I put too much grass in, again my fault!
Keith
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 26, 2006 12:26:55 GMT
Hi madonplants, is yours an archimedes screw type shredder? Mine is and I`m trying to discover if it is a poor design (prone to blocking) and if I might have been better buying the spinning blade type, like Spruance
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Post by lottielady on Sept 26, 2006 13:04:53 GMT
I know this is not quite the same but I had one of those vac/shredder things( B&D) It managed to suck up a stone, which shot through the casing and nearly took my eye out, same thing happened to a friend with their one. Mine went in the bin!
LL x
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Post by Rosefriend on Sept 26, 2006 13:08:17 GMT
Mine is also the spinning blade type which we can sharpen and buy when we need them. Perhaps the screw type are prone more to clogging.
Rosefriend
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 26, 2006 13:15:00 GMT
Thats conclusive then...I bought the wrong one!  |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 26, 2006 13:16:00 GMT
I have "borrowed" my Dad's shredder to do my hedge trimming and I love it. It is an elderly Bosch with a spinning blade and once I got the knack it was great. It is quite noisy but since I am regularly deafened by tractors and american planes I don't really mind. The resulting shreddings don't look very attractive initially but once they've been down a while they go a nice greeny brown which looks fine.
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Post by Rosefriend on Sept 26, 2006 14:36:40 GMT
We have actually got two vac/shredder things - only because OH declared no 1 vac to be dead and after buying a new one, I dropped the old one on the concrete by mistake - I tried it and it has worked ever since.
Same with the lawn mower - we now have 2 - similar reasons to the above. Didn't drop it - just fell over it.!!!!
Rosefriend
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Post by Dr Bill on Sept 26, 2006 15:01:18 GMT
Well I must say I think the shredder is worth it's weight in gold to me. It is the screw type and only gets blocked if I try to feed the wrong sort of stuff into it, and then it is usually easily released y stopping and reversing the motor
It creates a superb mulch which gets spread all over my borders
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Post by jlottie on Sept 26, 2006 17:43:56 GMT
I've had a shredder for a few years now and it gets used regularly, can't remember what make it is but is has spinning cutting blades. I put the shreddings back through the shredder a couple of times to get it fine enough to add to the compost bin.
It does get blocked and only takes stalks no thicker than my thumb but it certainly saves me quite a few trips to the tip.
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Post by Auricula on Sept 26, 2006 20:27:23 GMT
I bought a shredder for about £100, 3 years ago. Rubbish!!!! Although it's not too noisy it is very picky about what it will shred and gets "gummed up" at the slightest provocation - a waste of money methinks!!
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 26, 2006 20:57:42 GMT
Hi Auricula, is your shredder an archimedes screw type or has it got blades?
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Post by netherfield on Sept 26, 2006 22:05:17 GMT
I Bought one off Ebay hardly used,it's got the spinning blades and works a treat,the guy who sold it was a contracter and found it was not quick enough for the jobs he was doing,he lost a fortune on it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2006 22:15:08 GMT
The best piece of garden machinery I have bought is a shredder. I am now on the second one and would not be without it. Piles of garden waste are reduced considerably and compost very quickly.
Both machines have been electric. Noise has not been a problem. Although blocking can be a problem if soggy plant material is fed into the machine cleaning is easy.
My main selection parameter was to have a chute wide enough to take a good handfull of plant material and without any of the safety barriers found on shredders from places like B&Q etc. The chute also has to be long enough for me to push the plant material down with a stickand sometimes by hand without there being any chance of reaching the blade.
Mine cost about £180.
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Post by borderbabe on Sept 27, 2006 8:34:12 GMT
I used to have a Bosch shredder and managed to burn the motor out. I replaced it with another which doesn't work as well as the Bosch. I managed to feed some metal through the new one and a large part fell off from underneath. I think I managed to glue it back together with some stuff called liquid steel - a two part adhesive but am very aprehensive about using the machine again. Also have told OH that a second shredder has been b******d by me!! Does anyone think its safe to use the repaired shredder or not???
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 27, 2006 8:54:33 GMT
Cant say really without seeing it, what does the repaired part do? If it holds the blade I would say NOT  |
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Post by borderbabe on Sept 27, 2006 9:48:00 GMT
It seems to be shaped so directing the stuff against the screw part
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 27, 2006 9:58:01 GMT
I wouldnt use it then, if it blew apart under pressure you could be seriously injured, blinded by shrapnel etc. I`d get rid of it after putting it "beyond use" so no one else can attempt to use it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 7:31:08 GMT
Hi
I have a JCB bought on special offer from Crocus . Its got a circular blade and has a loud humming sound until you put your stuff in and then it crackles a bit. I use if for Weigela, budjelia, ..anything with a long stem, and also lupins,hellebores etc. It has given me the best ever crumbly compost and a mulch which gives an open tilth on the surface.
I haven't used it for short hedge trimmings as it would be too time consuming to bunch them up to put through the rubber slot and poke them down.
It never blocks and I leave most of the leaves on the stems or branches.
Hope this helps
Wx
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Post by blodau on Sept 29, 2006 10:15:27 GMT
We have an Alko (?) one. I never use it but OH uses it all the time and it seems to do the job. It does seem to get blocked now and then but is relatively easy to clear. All the seems and apparentlys come from the fact that I am only observing proceedings from the other side of the garden. It does mean that we can compost things more easily and it means that OH comes out to the garden and that's it's main plus as far as I'm concerned. It would be difficult to fit some things into our composte bin and a pain to have to chop them up by hand.
Blod
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Post by Chuckles on Oct 18, 2006 11:25:14 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2006 12:18:58 GMT
One thing about the spinning blade type of shredder, you must keep the blades sharp. Because the blades are quite small for grinding I always clamp them in a pair of "Mole" grips to grind them. It's a bit of an art grinding them properly but it can be done. The alternative is buying new ones each time. The ALKO 1100watt will shred branches up to 1" thick when sharp.
Repairing anything which has fast revolving parts is a job for a skilled welder, do not use two part chemical glue even if it is called Liquid Steel.
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