I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was becoming
aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

I bought a "Mountfield", but I'm not too impressed ny the shreddings or
chippings. If you try to shred somethng about 18mm it just chops it into
21mm pieces - NOT-shredded. OK for shredding privet cuttings though.

Bill

On 30/08/2010 20:57, Gordon H wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few reviews...

People in this forum generally swear by the Bosch range.

Black and Decker tools are only that in name nowadays. I used to swear
by that brand name, but now I just swear at it. I think the name was
sold or otherwise outsourced to factories churning out cheap crap made
in China. I've stopped buying B&D now due to its poor build quality and
unreliability.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was becoming
aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few reviews...
--

I bought a yellow one named J. It's OK, but like the other one it will not
do anything bigger than a broomstick


ike the other o

In article ,
David in Normandy wrote:
On 30/08/2010 20:57, Gordon H wrote:

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few reviews...

People in this forum generally swear by the Bosch range.

Specifically the Bosch 2200 silent, which has been rejigged and
renamed, so might be a bit different.

Black and Decker tools are only that in name nowadays. I used to swear
by that brand name, but now I just swear at it. I think the name was
sold or otherwise outsourced to factories churning out cheap crap made
in China. I've stopped buying B&D now due to its poor build quality and
unreliability.

You and me, both.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:57:55 +0100, Gordon H wrote:



Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...

We know a FAQ about that, don't we Billy.

On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. * After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? * * I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.

There are two technologies.

There is a high speed rotating disc usually with two reversible cutter
blades. Thes are very noisy, prone to jamming, slow and the material
has to be stuffed down the slot. The cutters need constant
maintenance.Crap in my view.

The other technology has a gearbox and cogwheel(s)/roller with pointed
teeth. The stuff is drawn into the cogwheels and is cut up and
crushed. Almost totally silent, self feeding and no maintenance. And
more expensive but I think worth it.
I have a hundred yard natural hedge, I put all the cuttings througj
the shredder and use the result as anti-weed mulch under shrubs and in
the veggie plot between rows. If there's plenty of leaf. it rots down
well in the compost heap.
My cuttings, hazel, elder, ash &c are ideal to go in the shredder as
they are straight rods, not twiggy branches. It crunches up stuff up
to 1.5" dia.

Nick wrote
David in Normandy wrote:
Gordon H wrote:

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...

People in this forum generally swear by the Bosch range.

Specifically the Bosch 2200 silent, which has been rejigged and
renamed, so might be a bit different.

Black and Decker tools are only that in name nowadays. I used to swear
by that brand name, but now I just swear at it. I think the name was
sold or otherwise outsourced to factories churning out cheap crap made
in China. I've stopped buying B&D now due to its poor build quality and
unreliability.

You and me, both.

Same here, but they have been rubbish for some while now, relative had a
mower that was badly (or well?) designed internally so it could not last too
long and was unrepairable, and that was at least two decades ago.
Strangely I believe B & D are the same firm as DeWalt which is often the
choice of professional builders etc so they appear to have split up into
rubbish tools for the occasional handyman and solid professional tools.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 08/31/2010 09:14 AM, harry wrote:
On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.



Harry, this is very interesting to me as I'm considering buying an ALKO
shredder this winter. Competing seems to be Viking (Sthil). I've been
very happy with my Echo machines but their models seem much larger.

Have you ever jammed it with a stick that's too large? Can you go right
up to the limit with hard woods like oak or chestnut?

Thanks for any info.

-E

"harry" wrote in message
...
On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.

Somewhat OT, but it's interesting that you have been successfully using a
3500w device for years without problem. This equates to just over 15 amps
(never mind any surges when you stuff in a particularly thick branch!) and
the 13A plug fuse and supply box fuse/power breaker don't complain.

--

Jeff

In article ,
lid says...
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...

If you don't need a fine mulch then the only one I would consider would
be the Bosch 2200, its quiet, handles big woody stuff well and doesn't
clog, not sure what they have done to the newer version
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

In message
,
harry writes
On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. * After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

[..]

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? * * I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.

There are two technologies.

There is a high speed rotating disc usually with two reversible cutter
blades. Thes are very noisy, prone to jamming, slow and the material
has to be stuffed down the slot. The cutters need constant
maintenance.Crap in my view.

The only attention my B & D shredder has had was the occasional clean
out when shredding soft or wet stuff, and it has been abused I suppose
by being left outdoors for a number of years, so no complaints, it owes
me nothing!

The other technology has a gearbox and cogwheel(s)/roller with pointed
teeth. The stuff is drawn into the cogwheels and is cut up and
crushed. Almost totally silent, self feeding and no maintenance. And
more expensive but I think worth it.
I have a hundred yard natural hedge, I put all the cuttings througj
the shredder and use the result as anti-weed mulch under shrubs and in
the veggie plot between rows. If there's plenty of leaf. it rots down
well in the compost heap.
My cuttings, hazel, elder, ash &c are ideal to go in the shredder as
they are straight rods, not twiggy branches. It crunches up stuff up
to 1.5" dia.

I appreciate your comments and understand them, but my requirements
would not justify such a powerful unit, as I have only a small garden,
and at 76 I am attempting to minimalise! However, I do prefer to
make my own compost/mulch, so I will probably go for one of the B & Q
offerings.
The reviews on their web site are quite useful if I eliminate each end
of the "bell curve".

Thank you for your response.
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

In message , Jeff Layman
writes

"harry" wrote in message
...
On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.

Somewhat OT, but it's interesting that you have been successfully using
a 3500w device for years without problem. This equates to just over 15
amps (never mind any surges when you stuff in a particularly thick
branch!) and the 13A plug fuse and supply box fuse/power breaker don't
complain.

Good point! My garage and the RCD socket I use for outdoor equipment
are wired for 13A maximum.
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

On 31 Aug, 09:59, Emery Davis wrote:
On 08/31/2010 09:14 AM, harry wrote:





On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. * After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? * * I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. *I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.

Harry, this is very interesting to me as I'm considering buying an ALKO
shredder this winter. *Competing seems to be Viking (Sthil). *I've been
very happy with my Echo machines but their models seem much larger.

Have you ever jammed it with a stick that's too large? *Can you go right
up to the limit with hard woods like oak or chestnut?

Thanks for any info.

-E- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well if you get something in that it won't handle, it instantly
reverses and chucks it out. Doesn't happen often. There is also a
manual reverse switch on it. As long as it's wood and fits through the
hole/slot it will generally go throught machine and come out cut up
about 3/4" long and all splintered up. Rots down pretty quick. It's
best to wood through whilst it's still green ie immediately after
you've cut it down. hardwoods are no problem as long as they are
green.

If It's too big to go in the slot, it's big enough for firewood is my
policy :-)

On 31 Aug, 10:37, "Jeff Layman" wrote:
"harry" wrote in message

...





On 30 Aug, 19:57, Gordon H
wrote:
I did some severe pruning today of a large Freesia shrub which was
becoming aggressive towards me...

Halfway through shredding the off-cuts my shredder started making
interesting noises that I could hear even through the ear defenders, and
soon there was smoke. * After dismantling and cleaning it, only a hum
could be heard, and it will have to be dumped.

Glancing through B & Q offerings, they all look rather plastic compared
with the sturdy B & Decker which has served me for about 20 years, in
spite of being left outdoors much of that time.

Any recommendations for electric shredders please? * * I am not entirely
sure whether the "silent" ones are effective, having read a few
reviews...
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

The shredders you but in garden centres are crap. *I have a "ALKO"
commercial one with a 3500watt motor. Had it for years.

Somewhat OT, but it's interesting that you have been successfully using a
3500w device for years without problem. This equates to just over 15 amps
(never mind any surges when you stuff in a particularly thick branch!) and
the 13A plug fuse and supply box fuse/power breaker don't complain.

--

Jeff- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

These big induction motors are fitted with a soft start device that
limits the starting current nowadays. If the motor is overloaded, it
instantly reverses on this machine. Obviously most of the time it's
running on a much lighter load.
In days of yore you couldn't connect much more than 1500w motor via a
plug as direct on line the start current would be nearly double the
run current.