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 is aggravated with spring work and with the end of the season in the fall. It comes up with various methods of liberation from multiplied sawn branches, dried grass and leaves, from dead bushes and leftover tops, etc.

Garden shredder - the right tool, allowing very fast crushing of a variety of plant residues: branches, plant stems, leaves. Equipping your site with this device, you will forget about the need to remove or burn organic waste, and your area will look cleaner.

Crushed material can be used in every garden. Henceforth, you do not need to throw anything!

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

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

Summary of the article:

We select the type of engine - gasoline or electric?

There is a motor inside the grinder that makes the chopping 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 works, if not thick branches and stems 3-4 cm wide are crushed. But the shredder for grass and branches with residues can not cope anymore, due to its insignificant power - 1.6-2, 6 kW

The inevitable presence of the power cord, which needs to be connected to an outlet, also belongs to the weak point of the device. In accordance with this, this cord significantly limits the movement of the chopper in the garden area.

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

By the way, if there are few trees on your site, and leaves and plants go to 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 it from its place.

In the case when you need a strong machine that can "bite" large branches with a thickness of 6-7 cm, you should pay attention to the shredder for a garden with gasoline. Its power reaches 8 kW, which makes it possible to use it for operation in large garden farms. Cons of gasoline shredders - this is a huge mass, high cost and significant sound during operation.

Knives - we select a method of cutting

During the processing of the initial material in these installations, there may be a device with metal knives or a screw-like conveyor.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 on this device, and owning their own view on the operation of the device, focus their interest on the fact that this arrangement of the knife is more suitable for tops, leaves, early, just sawn branches.

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

The cutting design with a screw-like conveyor is called a milling - it involves a rotating solid cast gear. It is the strongest than the blade with knives, for this reason it will not be damaged when cutting dried dense branches up to 6 cm in diameter.

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

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

Chopper selection for the garden according to the degree of power

Comparing modifications and analyzing specific models for working in the garden better, focus on the power of the device. All crushing aggregates for the garden are rectified by power classes: non-professional models, middle class and high-end modifications.

Non-professional shredders

This type includes weak installations (up to 1.6 kW), which operate from the mains. Their knife concept is disk. Before purchasing this type of unit, the material for making knives should be clarified.

The best view is hardened steel. The mass of such installations is up to 20 kg and are ready to split branches with a diameter of less than 3 cm.

Middle class shredders

These are transitional species among unprofessional and upscale types. Such devices are capable of working both on fuel and on electricity. The maximum power is 2.5 kW.

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

High-profile devices

Volumetric ones with a sufficiently large weight of the structure are here that they are ready to generate power up to 4 kW. The motor is capable of functioning both on gasoline and on electricity (three-phase). Ready to function for a long period and split branches up to six to seven centimeters in diameter.

In addition, the crushed base undergoes compression, which results in a magnificent mulch. The units are equipped with large comfortable funnels, a strong milling-type cutting device and are ready to swallow residues without pushing.

Recommendations for the selection of a particular brand

Going for the chopper, you must know exactly what you have to grind and often.

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

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

It is more practical to use an apparatus in which there are a number of holes for various types of residues: you send branches to one grinder hole, and grass and leaves to the other.

Modifications that incorporate advance cutting knives will last a long time and make it easier to handle various debris.

A good application would be reverse. If during cutting the knives get clogged or do not overpower a very strong branch, then you will be able to instantly brake them and force them to rotate in the opposite direction, so that the problematic garbage is pulled back.

In individual electric devices, the blocking of the chopper itself was taken into account. This means that if 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 kit for the grinder, since it is risky to push the garbage into the recess with your own hands.

A small analysis of models from the garden shredders catalog

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

In fact, a large number of different aggregates of completely unknown manufacturers appeared on the trading floors, hiding behind the voiced European or Russian names. The restraining majority of such products is clandestine manufactures from China in the negative sense of this phrase (there are a lot of high-quality equipment from this country in the sale and actually).

A distinctive feature of shredders - the effectiveness of their activities depends not only on the drive, but also on the features of cutting equipment. And here the manufacturer’s dishonesty is often expressed - knives or milling cutters are made from the appearance of attractive and sparkling steel, in the initial period they are sharpest, but after a while they become dull and simply can’t be sharpened with high quality.

And if we add to this that the cutting equipment cannot be repaired, then it may soon happen that the device received not so long ago becomes inactive in the absence of work simply because of its own “unsuitability”.

The result, when a garden shredder is purchased, the selection is recommended to be made in the direction of the best attorneys of the shredder manufacturers. It is possible to classify such models as “Viking”, “AL-KO”, “Black & Decker”, “Gardena”, “Bosch”.

Additional functions - a course on convenience and safety

A significant feature of a perfect garden shredder is reliability. It is preferable that the device of your choice of the device had a blocking system for self-starting the chopper. In addition, there should be a voltage splitter in the electrical units, which, even after a power outage, prevents the grinder from starting up automatically when the current supply is restored.

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

If the unit you have selected has a large list of components, the previously mentioned distinguishing features and additions, then the name of the manufacturer is no longer important. However, the products of famous manufacturers are still better, as they have passed the test of time.