Customer Reviews

Patriot Products CSV-2515 14 Amp Electric Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First off, it is not a gasoline engine so it is not going to have the same power due to the limits of amperage typical households can supply. However, even with these power limits I was very impressed with the power this electric chipper has. I was able to chip wood up to 2 inches in diameter with no problem except that the chipper pulls the wood into the machine faster than the machine can handle. So when chipping thick branches it is important to grasp them firmly and pull back when the chipper starts to pull them in too quickly. Be prepared, it pulls hard! If you are patient and feed at the correct rate you should not have any problems with clogs.

If the unit does clog the engine pulls too much power and your breaker will trip, which did happen to me a few times before I learned what the machine could handle. This chipper needs its own 20 amp dedicated circuit or it will trip the breaker when it starts. I live in an older house with older wiring that is mostly 15 amp, which could not handle the current. Luckily, the circuit my refrige is on is a 20 amp circuit that is close enough to a door so the extension cord can reach, but now I have to unplug the refrige when I want to run the chipper. (i'll fix this inconvenience by running a new 20 amp circuit to an exterior plug) So you should plan to put in a dedicated 20 amp circuit if you don't have one before you purchase this.

This chipper is very solidly built. If it does clog the plastic leaf bin is sturdy enough so that the entire unit can be upended to clear the chips, but it is heavy so be careful flipping it. The chipper cone isn't too hard to take off either in case wood gets stuck there. Since it is electric you just flip a switch to turn on and off, which is much more convenient than a gas engine. It is also much quieter than a gasoline engine, but you still should wear hearing protection when using it (no complaints from the neighbors so far).

The wood chips it produces are very fine, but the shredder doesn't work that well on green stuff. In fact, the shredder part is the easiest to clog. I tried a palm frond in the shredder opening and it clogged the machine. So now I just have to pull the fronds apart and put them through the chipper. It seems the shredder isn't much good for anything but dry twigs and leaves. But that is no biggie as it is not hard to feed most stuff into the chipper.

I bought this unit when I read the poor reviews for the cheaper electric chippers (free shipping if you order direct from their site). You get what you pay for. Patriot sells a quality machine that you can buy replacement parts for and that can be serviced. The other cheapo chippers don't even sell replacement blades! What do you do when your blade wears out? Don't buy a foreign-made piece of crap that you'll just end up throwing out. No regrets with my purchase.

If you have a huge job and little time, stick with an 8 hp gas machine or better. After two trips to ACE with my old gas one and it still wouldn't start I bought this one. Took 20 minutes to assemble, If I had to do it again 7. (easy). To use it, plug it in, turn it on. With the top safety shield in place you can't get stuff down very fast.. remove guard but use provided goggles. It turns dry leaves to powder mulch, use a stick to poke stuff down. If stuff is wet or green it will plug up and not turn. Unplug it (duh), turn it on its side and hose it out.... a few minutes and your good. You can't get better mulch... but slow. I will keep my old one and then run the stuff through it (if it starts) and then through the electric one for top dressed mulch... better than commercial mulch.

This is one of the best-designed, best-built and solid pieces of equipment I own. I was not sure I wanted to pay the $900 for it. Now that I see the quality of this machine, I am certain that buying a cheaper one would have been a big big mistake.

Every part of the machine is very solidly built from the best material for the job, and the sturdiness and thickness of the parts surprised me. There is no thin gauge metal or cheap plastic here. Also, someone must have spent a long time researching and designing the packaging--there is not much chance this could get damaged on the way to you. It is worth saving the box, it is made so well. Also, I did not realize this thing has an onboard vacuum for leaves and such--very handy.

The instruction manuals (both assembly and operation) are short and tell you everything very clearly. IMO, they are a work of art as instruction manuals go. I am surprised they were able to make them so concise and also get so much useful info in there. The simplicity, layout and clarity of the instructions saved me a lot of time. It was a joy to open the box and put the thing together.

This is a piece of equipment that is designed to last a lifetime and pass on to the kids--as long as you keep it clean, sharpen the blades, exert minimal effort to maintain it. And I like the fact that this is an American company that I will be able to get replacement parts from, although I am unlikely to need them. I am very happy with my purchase.

Now I will be able to make my own mulch instead of wasting trips to Home Depot, and will be able to use the prunings from my lot instead of wasting them and needing to take them to the dump. Because I garden a lot, I am convinced this tool will actually save me money, and save a lot of time in the long run--while improving the quality of my garden and orchard.

Update after a week of use: The chipper is amazing. I have only stalled it once when I put in a bunch of dry hardwood (firewood) twigs that were too small to feed properly. It is actually easier to feed large branches than small ones. when clogged, it was not necessary to turn it upside down or wash with hose. Instead I just turned it off and used my leaf blower in the feed cone--that blew the clog out the chip exit. Once, I accidentally put a rock in the shredder (Granite, about 1". It was in a bag of leaves from a neighbor). It made a lot of noise but otherwise did not seem to hurt the machine. Obviously, trying to shred rocks is a bad idea, but no harm this time. Good buy...this one.

The Patriot CSV-2515 1.5 HP Electric Wood Chipper functioned reasonably well, but it doesn't take much to blow a 20 amp circuit breaker. I did so using both of the input options. I also had the machine clog up on me and found it very difficult to remove all of the debris that had collected around the blade. I was almost ready to tear the entire machine apart but decided to attempt to wash the debris out of the machine with the hose. Surprisingly this worked, so I did not need to dismantle the entire chipper. I will try in the future to chip some green with some brown in an attempt to prevent the buildup of material around the blades. I would also recommend purchasing the tool that allows you to push material in the hopper toward the blades because one should really not attempt to do this with one's hands.

Two years ago, I decided that bagging and disposing of leaves was pretty silly - you pay for the bags and then the city hauls them, and come spring you buy the very mulch at the garden center that you disposed of the previous fall. So, I started on my mulching journey with an inexpensive model, the Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder. After two seasons of marginal performance that unit imploded so I had a choice between a small step up to a unit like the McCulloch MCS2001 14 amp Electric Chipper/Shredder or to go all out, and get the Patriot Products CSV2515. Even though the Patriot unit is at a much higher price point, you realize from the moment you un-box it, why it is...

The motor on the Patriot unit weighs probably twice the weight of a Flowtron 800, fully assembled. It's huge. The chipping/shredding assembly is solid metal with welded reinforcements as necessary. The wheels are solid rubber, will never go flat. The only plastics on the unit are part of the feeding cone for the chipper and the funnel for the leaves/twigs... Assembly was fairly straightforward and faster than the Flowtron too. And unlike the Flowtron (my only comparison at this point), Patriot uses real locknuts that are less likely to go loose.

Performance-wise, the Patriot was a huge step up as well - it eats it's way through a shredpile much more quickly than the Flowtron could. If you can loosely drop the leaf matter into the hopper from above, the suction generated by the shredder will suck it in and spit it out as mulch. The bag that patriot products encloses will hold about two 33-gallon garbage cans of loosely packed leaves/twigs before you have to empty it (Patriot Products also offers a bigger bag on their web site). The mulch produced by the Patriot unit is quite fine - it's about 1/4 the volume of the incoming packed leaves. You can also elect to skip the bag if you have a spot where you can simply blow out the mulch. Leaf matter usually gets reduced to 1/4" by 1/4" squares or less.

I had a couple of clogs in the shredder chute, usually caused by odd clumps of leaf matter being just large enough not to fit through the hole. I found the Patriot Products tool I bought for clearing these clogs to be pretty useless, however. A 2' by 1/4" thick bamboo stick is more effective - simply swish the leaf matter a little and then the suction does the rest. Since I kept an eye on the bag, I never managed to clog the actual shredding chamber itself. I also never managed to have any issues with the chipper - but the branches that fall here are typically rotten already and hence an easy meal. The 100' power-cord worked like a charm - I never had the circuit breaker trip.

Patriot Products encloses a pair of form-fitting safety glasses, a nice touch. Even though I was dinged more rarely by the CSV2515 than my Flowtron, I still recommend the use of gloves and the eye protection. I also recommend hearing protection even though the CSV2515 is quieter than a Flowtron when running empty. But once you start shredding wood chips and over debris in the shredder, the noise levels mount, though still not as high as the Flowtron. I credit the steel construction, almost closed chamber for that performance.

Another neat feature of this unit is its use of mass/momentum - because household electrical circuits in the USA are so limited in their power delivery, it makes sense to store up energy in the flywheel that makes up the rotating cutters/shredders. Every time a heavy clump came through the shredder chute, the unit would slow but then work itself back up to full speed again. The motor on this unit is fantastic. And, unlike the Flowtron, it is totally enclosed.

Another nice touch are the massive bearings this unit uses. Anytime you shred materials, heavy loads are imposed on the shaft that is driving the cutters/shredders. If the shaft does not feature multiple bearings close to the point of where the bending moment is applied to take that load, either the shaft or motor will break with time. From time to time a small stone did sneak into the leaf pile... it would cause sparks and then get spat out. I'm sure the blades/hammers will reflect that at the end f the season.

If there is one construction aspect I would change on the CSV2515, it would be the location of the back wheels. They are not far enough back to protect the motor when one is going up or down stairs. Thus, to avoid scratching the motor one has to lift the unit up/down stairs (a 2-person job, unless you're Hulk Hogan). But on most grounds, the simple tripod stand that makes up the CSV2515 is more than adequate to maintain a solid stance. Additionally, it would be nice if the mulch was a bit finer to allow it to 'soak' more quickly into the ground.

All in all, a fantastic product. It's way more effective at shredding leaves, twigs, etc. than my Flowtron ever was. I may have to sharpen the blades once a season but the much higher productivity of the unit makes it all worthwhile. You will go through multiples of what other electric shredders offer and if you value your time, this is reason enough to switch to the Patriot CSV2515.

The Patriot CSV-2515 1.5 HP Electric Wood Chipper is one of the best-designed, best-built pieces of equipment that I have used. I have owned two of these (the 1st left with my ex-wife on a 1 acre property; the 2nd I presently use). The shredder is received in two boxes and needs to be assembled, which is relatively straight forward. Preferably the machine should be used with a heavy duty extension cord (12 amp rated) and plugged into a circuit protected by a 20 amp breaker.

Although it's not as powerful as a gas model and there are limits to what it can handle, with reasonable care, it can be a solid performer.

When attaching the bag catching the chips (before turning on the unit), straighten it out so as to not create a kink in the bag thus clogging the outlet and possibly causing the circuit breaker to trip off.

To use the chipper effectively, one must learn what the machine can handle. Continuous amounts of green debris in the open top shredder can indeed clog up the machine and cause shut down. The shredder part is the easiest to clog and is limited to small dry twigs and dry leaves fed slowly. However, one can feed most of the green material into the cone shaped chipper opening.

If you are patient and feed at the correct rate you should not have any problems with clogs.

Cleaning clogs is not easy and it can be very difficult to remove all of the debris collected around the blade. Some users have used water hoses and blower or even turning the heavy machine upside down. After learning to go at the correct rate & using the chipper opening, I have never had a subsequent clog.

I would recommend either purchasing the tool that allows you to push material in the chipper toward the blades (do not attempt to do this with one's hand) or as I did, purchase a 2 ft length of 1 ľ" PVC pipe and a "T" connector as a handle. If one accidently pushes too far, the blades will chip the PVC pipe and not your hand.

Finally, I agree that buying a cheaper chipper/shredder would be a mistake.

Last Sunday, my wife turned on our old shredder (McCulloch MCS2001) and got to work on our 4' x 4' x 4' stack of leaves from last fall while I put together our new Electric Chipper/Shredder from Patriot. A surprisingly short time later (it took less time than I thought it would, and I was deliberately going slowly), I wheeled it out to set it up next to my wife. I plugged it in and turned it on.

Now, my wife and I were sure it would take us many weeks to get through this stack of (mostly wet) leaves. A short time later, I was done. With the whole thing. And it didn't jam once. I was shredding them faster than my wife could pitch them to me. This gave us time to clear the needed space where the leaves were to plant the roses. That made my wife very happy. When my wife is happy, I am happy. Thank you, Patriot, for providing such an excellent product that I now cannot wait to get out there and use some more. Kudos to your crew!

Our garden generates a lot of limbs, twigs and green growth every week. This unit is good for tidy up but the feed rate on green leaves must be slow or it clogs. The only solution is a time-consuming disassembly and reassembly. Mixing the green leaves with dry leaves or twigs helps 60:40 ratio.

It has handled iron-wood (Australian Pine) without a problem (including the needles on the twigs). As long as you don't rush it, this machine is quite efficient and makes good mulch for the compost bin or direct spreading.

We had to get an electrician to put in a stronger breaker to run the machine, otherwise it kept stopping.

I wanted to try an electric motor since they're so much easier to maintain than a gas motor, and I was fully aware the electric motor would produce far less torque. But even going into this purchase with that understanding, I've been terribly disappointed. It cannot handle any amount of green debris, clogs up, and shuts down within a few minutes. It doesn't seem to matter how slowly I feed it, or even if I alternate green with brown yard debris. It cannot handle more than a couple cubic feet (loosely packed) of green debris before it clogs up.

Cleaning out the clog is not easy either. At first I couldn't get the cover off, contacted the manufacturer, and they sent me a tool to remove the cover. Apparently the newer models are different from the directions and this tool is needed, yet they don't supply it with the sale. The manufacturer suggested they would send this tool to me for a fee, and I let them know how ridiculous it is that I pay EVEN MORE when this tool should have been included. The tool arrived and now I'm able to remove the cover and clean out the unit, but this doesn't solve the problem of how easily it clogs.

I can't imagine what good a shredder is to anyone who can only do small branches. If you can't run green yard debris through it at all, no matter how careful you are, what good is it to anyone?

Now I have to decide how to get rid of it. I can't in good conscience sell it on Craigslist. I'm stuck.

Got this for my Dad. He doesn't like to maintain small gas engines. I didn't think that this chipper would have much power, but I was wrong, it does. I felt like I was looking at something built back in the 1960s! All of the components are very sturdy. The motor was very smooth. It was a bit loud due to the air flow, but I'm sure that it was quieter than a gasoline model. Even the plastic is thick and only used where it should be (the shroud, the cone and the wheels). The main cardboard box that it came in was double walled and there was no damage even though the main box weighed 120 lbs. There was some extra dense foam around the base.

I think that this unit needs to be kept out of the rain. There is so much steel that I think it would rust if left out for a long time. The gray paint seemed to be powder coated and baked on, so a little water won't hurt, but still I think it should be garaged. I'm sure that the electric motor would like that too.

It's somehow warmly reassuring that there are still products made in America that are built to last.

You probably never see this chipper in Home Depot or Lowes - the quality is too high. I would buy this chipper again if I had the same set of purchase criteria.