Tell me I'm not the only one to be disappointed with the new breed of
'quiet' shredders.

My trusty B&D impact shredder finally gave up the ghost after many
years of faithful service, so I thought I would try one of the new
'quiet' shredders - I chose a Performance Power PWR2400QSB from B & Q.
OK so it is relatively cheap but seems to be a really solid, robust and
well constructed piece of machinery. But I was so disappointed with the
results - for a start it is not technically a shredder - it's a crusher
and it only really works well on woody stuff and anything long and
straight. Green stuff is difficult to push through - the feeding slot
is inadequate and difficult to use resulting in frequent stop starts.
Worst of all the end result is far from shredded - too many long
stringy bits which will take ages to compost down and is probably most
useful as a mulch. Has anybody got any comments on this - or have I
just bought the wrong machine?

"Dave" wrote in message
oups.com...
Tell me I'm not the only one to be disappointed with the new breed of
'quiet' shredders.

My trusty B&D impact shredder finally gave up the ghost after many
years of faithful service, so I thought I would try one of the new
'quiet' shredders - I chose a Performance Power PWR2400QSB from B & Q.
OK so it is relatively cheap but seems to be a really solid, robust and
well constructed piece of machinery. But I was so disappointed with the
results - for a start it is not technically a shredder - it's a crusher
and it only really works well on woody stuff and anything long and
straight. Green stuff is difficult to push through - the feeding slot
is inadequate and difficult to use resulting in frequent stop starts.
Worst of all the end result is far from shredded - too many long
stringy bits which will take ages to compost down and is probably most
useful as a mulch. Has anybody got any comments on this - or have I
just bought the wrong machine?

The Bosch version has teeth along the crushing part and is excellent,
although from time to time the plate against which the crushing is done
needs to be adjusted by the key to make sure the stuff is cut through. so
maybe yours just needs a tweak!
Soft green stuff will clog it so that either goes straight in the heap or we
keep a pile of stick handy to follow it through.
We mostly use it as mulch but any summer shredding has to go in bags and
these heat up very quickly so although the lump size is bigger it still rots
down really quickly.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea