Customer Reviews

McCulloch MCS2003 15 amp Electric Chipper/Shredder

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For years I've envied the city crews who trim the trees on our boulevards. They have this tow-along chipper and they just throw the trimmings into it. I've thought that would be a GREAT thing to have for yard waste, especially if it is going into the compost pile. So I got the McCulloch electric shredder. Well, my initial tests aren't too thrilling. They designed two intake holes, one for leaves and grass, the other for trimmings. The raspberry canes I tried to shred in the trimmings hole did not get pulled through by the spinning shredder blade. I needed a stick to push the stuff in, and still it didn't get shredded fine. I finally took off the part that separated the input. That helped a little, but the bottom line was that shredding raspberry cane was too hard and time-consuming. I ended up bagging it for city pickup. It'll be a while before I know how well the machine can do other jobs. I'm thinking now that maybe the "Ultimate Shredder" with its bigger mouth might be better. The other thing to do might be to rent a shredder until you find the style that works best. I didn't try that.

This chipper works for me. I've owned this model for seven years and it's been worth it's weight in gold. I'm about to order another one because the plastic has become cracked and distended to the point where it no longer feeds correctly and I have to keep unjamming it; but this is just a recent development. Up until now it has worked really well for my needs which I think are typical of the average homeowner with a house in the suburbs. I've got half a dozen trees, none over twelve years old plus an arbor with wisteria and grape plus assorted odds and ends of flora. This machine chops it up nicely and reduces a big pile to a little pile fit for composting. It won't grind the Amazon or main branches from large old-growth trees but for guys like me, and probably you too, it's been a really valuable asset.

I wanted an chipper/shredder because I have a lot of trees and bushes in my yard, and an electric model because spilled gas is very bad for ground water. I got the opportunity to pick up this model cheap at online auction. Assembly was pretty easy, and I started working on a big pile of accumulated branches in my yard. I got about halfway through it in three hours, part of which was getting the hang of how best to use the unit. I couldn't shred anything but tiny twigs *completely* without risking a jam. I'll explain... Anything large enough to push through the rubber guard should go through that hole. Best to do only one significant size stick at a time. When it's pushed down as far as it will go without sticking your hands past the hopper's safety zone, it's best to just pull out the rest of the stick and toss it aside for kindling, rather than try to grind it completely. There is a reamer that looks like a shovel handle, to push things down further, but it rarely works because the branches need to stay more or less vertical, and there's no real mechanism to hold it that way. Once you get a few medium sized pieces of wood floating around the blades, there will be a jam sooner or later, and you want to avoid that. So I pull out the rest of the stick while it's still long enough to do so safely. Jams are pretty easy to fix, though, which is good because they happen frequently enough even if you are pretty careful. Bigger sticks, toward the size limit of the hole (about 1.5" diameter tops) took a little more working and rotating around, pulling them back up every couple of seconds so the motor could get back up to speed before chopping a little more, especially with harder and fresher pieces of wood. A few pieces just weren't going to go very far. Also didn't seem very handy nor effective for leaves, but I just mulch them with my (Black and Decker electric mulching) lawn mower anyway. The MCS2003 ain't the greatest, but it's among the cheapest, and works well enough once you have the hang of it. You're not going to be able just toss in huge branch after huge branch like the street crews, that's for sure. But once I get through the backlog of debris, I think this unit will be handy enough for keeping yard debris under control. One more thing, follow the safety instructions and be careful, that's still a pretty powerful motor and some sharp blades, plus debris can go flying!

This device claims to handle branches up to 1.5" in diameter. After working with it for over an hour I found that small branches (<1/8") would routinely jam the device while branches over 1/2" would not be cut at all. All-in-all, I spent more time clearing jams than chipping wood and only managed a small pile of mulch after quite a bit of effort.

This machine is designed very poorly. In less than a half hour the first side of the blades were too dull to cut. Less than 1/2 hour more and the second side was too dull to cut. Not only that but the machine plugs up constantly. I tried to buy an extra set of blades but there are no parts available. Do not buy this machine.

What a nightmare to put together & operate. Even the smallest of sticks get stuck! Also horrendously LOUD & noisy!

Don't even think this thing is anything but a cheap poorly designed under powered piece of scat. Save your money for a gas chipper.