Garden shredder purchase shared.

[Ricard with an H]

What I mean is that i'm sharing my experience of a recent purchase after much deliberation.

I don't usually go for the economy option when buying tools though I have found that most failures with other peoples economic purchases have been as a result of either ineptitude or ignorance when it comes to recognising the limitations of economy machinery.

I've been wanting a shredder for a few years now, the perfect choice would have been a motorised 6/7 horse powered B&S engined and easily £700.

I have owned an electric blade-type shedder, it worked fine if you keep the blades sharp and always clean the cutting chamber out but was incredibly noisy so I decided to go for a cruncher. I already knew the cruncher wouldn't shred as fine as the spinning blades so I ignored all those type of complaints on the forum pages. The remaining complaints were the regular overloading-type issues.

Finally decided to give the B&Q Mac Allister cruncher an opportunity at £120 with a two year warranty. It felt heavy and looked strong, I took the cutting chamber to pieces to see what I might be up against because there aren't any spare parts available. This is a throw-away machine, scandalous-yes ?

A heavy steel cutting roller crunches against an aluminium-alloy pressure pad which has to be recognised as sacrificial, shame if no-one could produce a spare. The claimed 42 mm branches do go through though the motor slows down dangerously so as usual the claims are validated but more for marketing purpose. 25 mm-ish is much more sensible.

Probably made in China for B&Q, the 2 years warranty would be adequate for most domestic users though the death of that pressure pad would mean the death of the whole machine which is a shame because for £120 it does a good job and hardly more noisy than our old Kenwood mixer in the kitchen. Both are crude engineering, the Kenwood mixer is 30 years old.

After all that, what do I do with the crunched branches and twigs ?

[Nature's Babe]

Sadly it's called built in obsolescence Ricard - use it as often as you can and hopefully it will break down before the guarantee runs out!
I just received the gift of a shredder from my father in law have yet to try it out and as I only want it for sredding small branches canes and prunings it should be fine, the smaller branches are actually a vey good long term fertiliser that won't strip nitrogen like the big branches. he also generously gave me his greenhouse heater !

[Ricard with an H]

the smaller branches are actually a vey good long term fertiliser that won't strip nitrogen like the big branches. he also generously gave me his greenhouse heater !

I'm not sure what you mean by "smaller branches". By the sound of your advise it seems I should have segregated twiggy branches from anything thicker than a finger.

Some of the crunched material will burn on our multi-fuel if I can dry it, the more I get involved in this gardening lark the closer I get to another appropriate-outbuilding that is dry, but ventilated.

[peter]

Either use them ad an addition to your compost bins together with weeds mowings & other stuff, or, use it as a mulch.

Can compost on its own, but tends to dry out and can produce vast clouds of grey mould spores when moved.

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks Peter, i'm already looking for another compost bin because i'm mixing stuff with grass cuttings. I have lot's of grass and the Pembrokeshire banks still need cutting. Wildflower stalks from all-sorts of tall-growing buzzy-bee inviting plants that I don't know the name of but they have been too course to go in the bin without shredding.

Within another year my soil should be massively improved as a result of all the stuff i've dug in.

I just tested this B&Q shredder at the end of a 25 metre extension, remarkably it hardly seems to be affected by the volt-drop. Very useful piece of kit but shame on B&Q for selling throw-away machinery. It's easy to identify the few parts that would need replacing. I called the B&Q service centre, they told me they have spare handbooks and spare wheels.

The machine will work without either but not without the sacrificial pressure plate. If anyone buys one of these machines be very careful not to over-tighten the pressure plate.

[ben the gardener]

Parts for Qualcast SDS2810 available may fit. I believe it is the same machine. Parts from BuySpares. The aluminium backing blade is under £4.
I hope this is of some help.

[Ricard with an H]

Ah yes.

Since making those comments I noticed Qualcast have an identical except machine, I'll be ordering a spare today and thanks Ben.

The crunchings are spread between the raised beds of the number two plot and form a nice walk-way though mushrooms grow on the rotting crunchings not many weeds pop up.

And just to reiterate, I pushed a branch though that was close the maximum of 40mm and could smell that classic smell of burning shellac as the motor windings stared to get hot. Best not to do do it eh.

[Tony Hague]

I have the rather similar Bosch ATX25D. If I were you, I'd avoid those burning varnish smells. Mine seemed to stop shredding properly after getting hot once, and on closer inspection the motor was stuck in reverse ! Stripping it down there were tell tale blackened components on the PCB. No spares to be found - I ended up repairing the PCB (involving picking away some sort of thick varnish coating, drilling out the rivets to remove the triacs, then a magnifier and a lot of Googing to identify the parts). Works again now. I was shredding thicker, dry stuff, in direct sunshine which probably contributed to the heating.

Aside from that, it is a great machine.

[Ricard with an H]

(Smile)

My thoughts-entirely Tony, it was thin and then it got thick. I was thick for not spotting it and the reason I made the comment. Once you smell shellack burning it's like a major heart-attack.

Close to terminal.

[PLUMPUDDING]

What texture does it produce. Doesn't it chop up the crushed twigs as well. I can't imagine what use crushed twigs would be.

[Ricard with an H]

I'll take a photo for you after tea and crumpet. Er.......crumpets.

[Ricard with an H]

The photo with the twiggy bits illustrates how limited the machine is even though perfect for most of my needs. It's useless for a compost bin and the reason I'm on the lookout for a discounted shredder as well as this crusher.

In the second photo the crushings have rotted since spring this year.

Now you know why I'm gadget man, I don't shoes or handbags or shopping bags or fancy clothes. Just toys to make life a little easier.

[Tony Hague]

My Bosch version crushes stuff more than that. I get thick bits cut into 1" lengths like that, but also quite crushed, and thinner bits rather than coming through unscathed come out at least nicked at 1" intervals, usually just hanging together by a thread.

It does compost quite well in a mixed heap, or I spread it on the paths and leave it to compost in-situ - in a couple of years it can be skimmed up and sieved to make a decent base for potting compost. After all, most of the peat free composts are made from wood waste - but I don't put old kitchen units complete with formica in mine !

[Ricard with an H]

The term used for my type of shredder is, "Impact'. No term seems to used for the spinning blade type that actually shreds depending on how much pressure you apply. I used to have a spinning blade type, it was very noisy but shredded perfect for composting, do all the spinning blade types shred finely ?

Screwfix are selling one for £90 that comes recommended and they actually sell spare blades. Has anyone used one of these ?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb353s ... 240v/39931

For the purpose I use the cruncher for ground cover it's perfect, a good shredder would be far too fine but I want a shredder for composting. Will this machine do it ?

[Ricard with an H]

Too late, I bought one.

I went through all the comments and not one negative enough to put me off, the cruncher cost me £90 from B&Q and they are going for a lot more than that. Now I spent another £90 so for £180 I'm hoping to get the best of both shredding and crunching for which I have a lot of work from time-to-time.

I don't have to worry about it being stolen and though I have a lot of storage space I have been filling it with 'useful things'

I'll report back when I had a test drive, lots of growth to shred down.