"H Ryder" wrote

I too had exactly the same addiction with the same result - it was not
a Bosch 2000 - think that it was a B&D something. It happened twice,
first I got it repaired, second time I gave up. After talking to guy
in repair shop and various others it seems that the average "garden
shredder" is not actually for serious shredding but for disposing of
the occasional pruning. I was told that I'd be better off with a big
semi industrial thing if I wanted to shred lots of stuff and this
proved prohibitally expensive

IMO the guy in the repair shop was talking nonsense. There are some very
good and effective shredders for general garden use - check out previous
URG threads. As I said the other day, the ones to avoid are the cheap
ones with blades which do blunt easily and clog up continuously, but
sturdier machines with a chopping, crushing action will do the business.

I can pull my Alko model along with one hand; it's robust but not too
big or heavy. It'll crunch up woody branches up to about 45mm diameter,
plus all the smaller twigs and leafy material too, and has done so with
no problem for several years. The trick is to feed in woody branches or
twigs along with any greener stuff to give the shredder something to
bite on. Mine has never had to be taken apart - there's an automatic
reverse action that clears itself and it only ever jams up if I get too
enthusiastic feeding it excess soft sappy stuff at once. Shoving in a
woody branch will then pull the obstruction through, and away we go
again. Don't know what they retail at now but iircc it cost me about
£220 or so, and it was worth every penny.

LOL, I feel as if I'm getting evangelical about shredding.

--
Sue