A real time saver

I bought this at the weekend, very sceptical having read the different reviews but I can honestly say its probably going to save me 4 times the mount of time it would have taken to clean my blocked drive with just the lance, where there is a lot of moss in between bricks you will have to go over a few times to get it up but its hardly hard work!

The best time saving device I have bought for a long time..

light

Light weight, adds to extend the original lenght of hose. A trife pricey but very functional.

You're going to need a bigger compost bin

I bought this when an old, smaller and noisier shredder (not a Bosch) gave up the ghost. I ordered it yesterday morning, and it arrived by 10 this morning - well done Amazon and City Link.

The reviews were right - it's a really good machine. It's simple to assemble - six bolts for the stand and wheels; tools supplied; assembly instructions which for once actually made sense - took me 5 minutes. A minor grouse - the packaging uses a lot of expanded polystyrene, which most councils don't accept for recycling. How about something greener? It comes with a collection bag, which doubles as a dust cover when the machine is back in the shed. The machine is very easy to operate. It chomped its way through branches up to 4 or 4.5cm wide. The automatic feeder is wide enough to take several sticks together, which speeds things up. It works at a comfortable pace. It prefers woody material to thin green stuff, so it seems best to mix the two. It is comfortable to use - no whipping or snatching, so no sore hands after a long period of use. It took me an hour to do what took three hours with the old machine. But best of all, it's quiet. You can hear the birds sing, and you don't have ringing in your ears for the rest of the day. The chips are a bit bigger than with a bladed machine, but I don't think they'll take much longer to compost. In any case it's useful to have a bit of bulk material to mix with grass clippings. I should be able to shred and compost a lot of material which previously I'd have put on the bonfire, so I think I'm going to need a bigger compost bin. Yes, it's more expensive than a smaller, noisier machine, but it's definitely worth paying the extra.

All in all, an excellent machine, which is a pleasure to use. (Yes, that sounds sad, but it's true!)

Why bother - The power of water is just as good.

This stuff just doesn't work. Karcher are great at the washers but should not bother with the detergent, at least not until they can make one that enhances the cleaning performance.

Does what it’s supposed to

Nice strong pressure wash which can be regulated or switched to lightly spray detergent drawn through a feeder pipe.

Note that (any) pressure wash will not take off all dirt completely. A thin layer of dust remains after drying (sponge action required to get 100% clean car).

Karcher Hose Gun

Product Spot On!!! Especially when I sourced locally, price quoted for high pressure hose only was Approx £35!!! Thanks again H.M.

Unstoppable for woody waste but no good for soft material

This shredder will eat almost any branches that you can feed into it and is almost unstoppable for shredding tree branches and woody prunings, but for softer waste ( flower stems, leaves etc ) forget it. It clogs easily and finding the right balance of woody waste and leaf waste is almost impossible.

For my garden, which is 1/3 acre and mostly herbaceous borders, I need something that's happier with softer material, so I'm looking for another model this autumn.

pleasantly surprised

Having already ordered my shredder before reading the posted reviews I was expecting major disappointment. Happily after putting half a willow tree through the machine over the weekend I find myself very pleased with it. I suffered three blockages, all of soft material, mostly leaves which can build up inside the hopper, and all easily cleared by opening the hopper. No, large forked branches will not go through the feed slot, but you cut them off the tree so cut them again and they will! Remember this is not a professional tree surgeons diesel powered chipper. If shredding masses of soft stuff follow it at regular intervals with harder waste, the one pulls the other through! Compared to the Makita professional shredder I hired some time ago and which I spent all day unblocking, the Ryobi performed adequately, produced bag after bag of small chips and represents good value to my mind.

A bit disappointing

I had thought that this shredder would do what it says on the tin, errr sorry, box ie shred! When I put thin branches in to be shredded they came out badly bruised and not shredded, others gave me 9-10 inch-long thick slivers of wood and most leaves remained totally untouched. I had such high hopes of it paying for itself with a fast turnover of good quickly made compost, but I can't see that happening any time soon! All in all, a bit disappointing.

Still chopping by hand...

We have lots of shrubs in the garden needing to be cut back every year - we normally cut these up by hand before disposing of the cuttings.
The idea of a shredder doing this for us, and being able to use the waste on the garden appealed.
We saw the Draper advertised with its abilty to chop 40mm dia cuttings and with a powerful motor and thought that this was the answer.
We started to use the shredder, and within minutes it jammed, and jammed again and again, never actually shredding the material - more like"chewing" it.This was on small branches/cuttings, no where near the apparent maximum diameter of 40mm.
A phone call to Draper told us to turn the blades around - which we did with no improvement. Another call to Draper told us that there had been a number of problems/complaints with the machines, and the offered to look at it for us.It was returned to us a few days later saying that there was no fault with the machine.
Overall, this is the worst bit of garden equipment we have ever bought, and cannot recommend it to anyone.

Make sure you buy a screwdriver too - you'll need it. Often.

"Effortlessly shreds branches up to 3.3 cm in diameter" said the advert. Maybe I'm just a bit naive, but I actually expected to be able to shred 3cm diameter branches with this machine. Instead, it jammed if I put in anything much over 1cm diameter (yes, one at a time, yes, I measured) and had to be taken apart to be unjammed. After about the eighth time of taking it apart I gave up, put it back in the box and asked Amazon for a refund. However, if all you want to shred are trimmings from your hedges twice a year, it'll probably do.