Garden shredder — how to choose the best machine for processing branches and grass (85 photos)

Any owner of a garden square or a private house certainly met with the task of processing plant residues. In particular, this problem increases with spring work and with the end of the season, in the autumn. It is brought to invent various methods of liberation from multiplied sawn branches, dried grass and leaves, from dead shrubs and remaining tops, etc.

A garden shredder is a necessary device that allows for very rapid crushing of a variety of plant residues: branches, plant stems, leaves. By equipping your site with this device, you will forget about the need to take out or burn organic waste, and your area will look cleaner.

The crushed material can be used in every garden. From now on, you don't need to throw anything away!

First of all, you will be able to completely resolve the issue with the need for constant purchase of fertilizers, since the crushed waste rotts in a short period of time and forms a significant peat compost.

Later, the sawdust formed from the device you will be able to instantly apply as fertilizer for your favorite plants. Below are photos of a garden chopper, so that you understand what is at stake…

Summary of the article:

A motor functions inside the shredder, which makes the grinding knives work. To achieve your goals, it is possible to choose a device with an electric or gasoline engine.

Electric shredders are an excellent version for not very large–scale work, if not thick branches and stems with a width of 3-4 cm are crushed. But the shredder for grass and branches with more remnants will not cope in any way, because of the insignificant power – 1.6-2.6 kW.

The inevitable presence of an electric cord that needs to be connected to an outlet also belongs to the weak point of the device. In accordance with this, this cord significantly restricts the movement of the shredder on the garden area.

But, despite these minor disadvantages, this device is more common than its gasoline friend. It depends on the relatively affordable price, low weight (15-25 kilograms), simple service.

By the way, if there are few trees on your site, and leaves and plants go into fertilizer to a greater extent, in this case you need to focus on another unit — a garden vacuum cleaner shredder. This device will not only grind light waste, but also then remove them from the place.

In the case when you need a strong device that can "snack" large branches 6-7 cm thick, you should pay attention to the shredder for the garden on gasoline. Its power reaches 8 kW, which makes it possible to use it for operation in large garden farms. The disadvantages of gasoline shredders are a huge mass, high cost and significant sound during operation.

Knives – we select the method of cutting

During the processing of the initial material, a device with metal knives or a screw-like conveyor can be located in these installations. In the initial case, crushing is performed by a disk, on which there is usually a pair of knives.

Summer residents who express their opinion about this device, and who have their own opinion about the operation of the device, concentrate their interest on the fact that such an arrangement of the knife is more suitable for tops, leaves, early, freshly cut branches.

If you want to get mulch from a significant amount of previously stale, dried raw materials, in this case the blades of the knives will immediately dull and you will have to sharpen them.

The cutting structure with a screw–shaped conveyor is called milling - it assumes a rotating solid gear. It is the strongest than a disk with knives, for this reason it will not be damaged at the time of cutting dried dense branches up to 6 cm in diameter.

In addition, the milling design has the ability to pull branches into the base and you will not need to regularly direct them to the knives.

There is another example of a knife – multifunctional, which combines the advantages of milling and disk design.

Selection of a chopper for the garden according to the degree of power

Comparing modifications and analyzing certain models for working in the garden better, focus on the power of the device. All crushing units for the garden are rectified according to power classes: non-professional models, middle class and high-class modifications.

Non-professional shredders

This type includes weak installations (up to 1.6 kW) that operate from the power grid. Their knife concept is disk. Before purchasing this type of unit, you should specify the material for making knives.

The best kind is hardened steel. The mass of such installations is up to 20 kG and they are ready to crush branches with a diameter of less than 3 cm.

Mid-range shredders

These are transitional types among non-professional and high-class types. Such devices are capable of operating both on fuel and electricity. The maximum power is 2.5 kW.

Suitable for houses and cottages where the garden area is small, but overripe. The units are equipped with milling knives, for this reason, branches are freely crushed up to 3.5 cm.

Devices of a high-class profile

There are three-dimensional structures with a sufficiently large weight that they are ready to produce power up to 4 kW. The motor is capable of operating both on gasoline and electricity (three-phase). They are ready to function for a long period and crush branches up to six to seven centimeters in diameter.

In addition, the crushed base undergoes compression, as a result of which a magnificent mulch comes out. The units are equipped with large comfortable funnels, a strong milling-type cutting device and are ready to swallow the remains without pushing.

Recommendations for the selection of a certain brand

Going for a shredder, you must know exactly what you have to grind them and how often.

After choosing a certain brand, concentrate on the design of the funnel. The simplest in the service is a funnel, similar to a cone and slightly lowered.

To grind the residues into different groups (large pieces, sawdust, etc.), the pace of movement of the knives in the device must be coordinated.

It is more practical to use a device in which there are a number of holes for various types of residues: you send branches into one hole of the shredder, and grass and leaves into another.

Modifications that take into account advance cutting knives will serve for a long time and it is easier for them to cope with various garbage.

Reverse will be a good application. If the knives get clogged during cutting or do not overpower a very strong branch, in this case you will be able to immediately slow them down and force them to rotate in the opposite direction, so that the problematic waste is pulled back.

In some electrical devices, the blocking of the self-start of the shredder is taken into account. This means that if the electricity disappears, and then suddenly reappears, in this case the device will not work without the help of others. This will protect you and especially your child from involuntary injuries.

There should be a pusher in the set for the shredder, since it is risky to push the garbage into the recess with your own hands.

A small analysis of models from the catalog of garden shredders

The variety of forms of shredders for the garden is a huge amount, which sometimes prevents a competent choice of a suitable brand. Equipment of this class can be attributed to an expensive pleasure, for this reason, you should buy only high-quality products.

In fact, a large number of different units of absolutely unknown manufacturers have appeared on trading platforms, hiding behind ringing European or Russian names. The restraining part of such products is clandestine manufacturing from China in the negative meaning of this phrase (there are a lot of high–quality equipment from this country in the implementation and in fact).

A distinctive feature of shredders is that the effectiveness of their activities depends not only on the drive, but also on the features of the cutting equipment. And here the dishonesty of the manufacturer is very often expressed – knives or cutters are made of attractive and sparkling steel in appearance, in the initial period they are the sharpest, but after a while they will be blunted in work, and high-quality sharpening is simply not subject in any way.

And if we add to this that the cutting equipment is not repairable, then it may soon happen that the device received not so long ago will become ineffective in the absence of work simply because of its own "incompetence".

Bottom line, when a garden chopper is purchased, it is recommended that the selection be made towards the best trusted manufacturers of choppers. Modern models "Viking", "AL-KO", "Black&Decker", "Gardena", "Bosch" can be counted among such models.

Additional functions – a course on convenience and safety

Reliability is considered a significant feature of an impeccable shredder for the garden. Preferably, the chopper self-start locking system should be installed in your chosen device. In addition, there should be a voltage splitter in electric units, which, after a power outage, prevents the chopper from starting independently when the current supply is restored.

The chopper of branches is able to possess even more of the necessary qualities. For example, to crush the initial raw materials into particles of different groupings, adjust the height of the body, have the necessary "reverse" function.

If the unit you have selected has a large list of components, distinctive features and additions mentioned earlier, in this case the manufacturer's name is no longer important. However, the products of famous manufacturers are still better, as they have passed the test of time.