On Sep 30, 12:50*pm, Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I was considering buying a garden shredder. As I understand it there
are two types: one that has rotating blades, like a large food
processor. The pros are that it will cut leaves into a fine mulch but
the cons are that they are noisy, the blades quickly blunt, and they
don't like thick branches.

The other sort is supposed to crunch the waste between cogs. These are
supposed to be much quieter and require less servicing and cope with
thicker branches but apparently they do not shred leaves. Leaves get
spat out whole, unless you can feed them in amongst some wood.

Have I got that about right?

Sounds it. The bladed ones also tend to clog up quite easily if you
feed sticky stuff in (slightly rotted leaves for example).


I quite like the silence and reliability of the second type but I feel
that although we prune branches, I would expect we would want to
dispose more green matter than wood. Does these mean I need the first
type?

Probably not. The green matter doesn't need shredding (except for
thick stuff like the stalks of broccolli plants - which the cogs will
handle).

Are they really noisy?
Yes
Do the blades blunt that quickly?
Pretty quickly - particularly if there is /any/ soil involved (it's
the stone that blunts them)
Can they be resharpened at home?
Yes - but with difficulty (the nicks can be substantial)

What size branches can it cut without complaining?

Mine will cope with stuff a bit thicker than my thumb when the blades
are sharp. If I bought a new one, I would get one of the cog ones.


I understand there is a third model made by Bosch that uses a helical
blade. How does that compare? What are its pros and cons? Would that
work in my situation?
No idea.

I have seen Bosch ones at all the DIY stores but I also noticed Aldi
and Focus are selling Einhell models, much cheaper than the Bosch. Who
are Einhell and are their machines any good?

They produce stuff down to a price for places like Aldi.