Customer Reviews

Yard Machines 24A-452G700 205cc Briggs & Stratton 800 Series Gas-Powered Chipper Shredder

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

 

 

I have owned a 1998 version of this shredder for 8 years, and finally gave it away. I plan to upgrade to a 8HP Bearcat or similar (more robust) shredder.

I have 1/2 acre with Douglas Fir trees which tend to drop branches in windstorms, like the one that hit Dec. 14. I have also had ivy and blackberry bushes to clear, so I knew that one blue yardwaste bin 2x a month would never cut it. I bought my shredder at the local Home Depot, mostly because I did not know what else was out there, and it seemed like a good product (at the time).

I found out over the years that it is really just a very light duty machine, and that actually using it will wear it out pretty easily. I only used mine 2-4 times per year, whenever I had a pile built up, but anything which could wear out did.

The axle for the two wheels runs through the base plate, which is just bent sheet metal with no bushings for the axle. As a result, vibrations elongated one of the axle holes such that it dropped right out of the plate.

The small feed chute is for branches up to 2" diameter. It works fine as long as you are pushing the branch down. Once the branch gets down to about 18" long, the blades just won't grab the stick and bite it, and itstead it sort of bounces up the chute. Eventually, it may get consumed in micro-bites, but you are probably better just pulling the remnant out and putting it in the firewood pile.

The big feed chute for leaves and small branches is a blow-molded piece of plastic. They wisely made both chutes just longer than a man's arm's length, to prevent idiots from sticking their fingers into the blade area. But the molded-in stresses on the big chute resulted in stress cracks at all four corners. I had one chute replaced for these cracks while it was still under warrantee, and the new chute quickly developed the same sort of cracks.

The discharge chute is stamped and spot-welded sheet metal, and it too developed stress cracks from the vibrations, and the welds eventually gave way. There are hand-knobs for unscrewing the bolts which hold that discharge chute in place, and I became well acquainted with them. The screen that stops the big chunks for rechopping is a set of four bars, through which the flails reach like 3 fingers in order to grab anything that was too big to fly through. Unfortunately, the metal used in the screen was so soft and ductile that it quickly went from convex to concave, so that debris piled up just out of the reach of the flails. That means I had to shut down, open the discharge chute (which does not stay open on its own, but instead falls down on your hands), then find a big bolt or pin to hammer out the two pins which hold in the screen. Once I pulled the accumulate debris away and got that screen out, I would flip it around 180 degrees so that the newly convex side faced the flails, and reassemble. I have gone through 3 screens in 8 years because metal does not like to be bent back and forth like that very many times (think about bending a wire coat hanger), and it eventually breaks. They need a beefier screen to stand up to the force of wood chips hitting it.

The shredder blades are not easily sharpened, and my attempts resulted in a horribly imbalanced machine. One must also entirely remove the big shredder chute to access those blades, involving taking nuts off of 6 lugs, which don't line back up again very well with the housing when I tried to reassemble. That housing also developed stress cracks in the plastic at the point where it joins the metal shredder wheel housing.

Vibrations also caused the gas tank mounting slots to break off, such that the plastic gas tank was barely held in place by the time I gave mine away. The engine still ran nicely, although I did have to replace the carburetor after the old one got clogged with some gunk and the rebuild kit failed to work. One other interesting vibrational behavior was that the machine liked to "walk", such that I had to dig a hole in the dirt for it to sit in just so that it would not wander away from where I was using it.

The unit came with a mesh bag for catching the chips, but it was so small that I never used it. The chips come flying out so fast that they will travel 30-40 feet unless you have some sort of back stop.

On the whole, this shredder does do what the advertising says it does, but it just does not do very much of it without a lot of attention, TLC, and swearing. Luckily, it makes so much noise that the swearing is not heard by others if done while it is running. If you just want to shred maple leaves once or twice a year, this may be okay, provided that you have some degree of mechanical aptitude. But for me, I am happy to leave that flimsy contraption behind as a regrettable chapter in my life.

This machine is a total waste of money unless you just want to shred leaves. It won't take anything much larger. I have had numerous carburator problems and it is very difficult to work on. I recommend looking elsewhere

I bought this product this past spring to replace a very similar Craftsman chipper that was 10 years old that was worn out, which had replaced the previous chipper that had also worn out after 10 years (I'm guessing I have averaged 15 hours of use per year for an average of 150 hours of use per chipper). The biggest changes in the units has been redesign of the engine air/fuel ratio control system (probably to comply with federal air pollution control rules) and the shredder chute. I agree with some of the detailed comments by Thomas Mcclelan about the product, but my overall assessment is much more positive.

1. The engine on the MTD chipper is very easy to start (the engine on the previous chipper had become almost impossible to start) and has enough power to chip 2" limbs efficiently.

2. The plastic shredder chute is in several ways better than the metal chute on the previous chipper (for example, although perhaps not intentional, their is a rounded bowl at the bottom of the chute hinge that catches gravel and pebbles that were in the debris; catching this material reduces that chance of dings in the shredder bar and improves the safety of the unit). It did take a few uses to figure out how to load the shredder chute without periodic plugging, but with a little experience it works fine.

3. I agree that this is not the Cadillac/Lexus/Mercedes of chippers, but compared to the price of larger machinces, it meets my needs very well. I have roughly a 0.5 acre yard that is roughly 1/3 native woods, 1/3 grass, and 1/3 perennial borders. With the exception of an occassional tree or branch that exceed 2" diameter, it does a good job converting yard waste into mulch for the perennial beds and composit pile.

I purchased this brand of chipper 6 years ago or so. I chewed up a mound of limbs 10 times a year or so. It was a work horse for the first few years, but it's falling apart, and I need to get a new one. Last year, I replaced a plastic hopper that cracked in half. This year, the internal metal components were shredded, and its beyond repair.

Is this normal for a chipper? I don't know, but will take my chances on a new brand this year.

My other beef with this chipper was that it gets plugged up pretty easily, and its a real SOB trying to unplug it. (Imagine your self laying in a pile of shredded leaves with a hammer and screwdriver drying to knock a branch loose.)

On the bright side, the price is real attractive. But, you get what you pay for.

I use this machine almost on a daily basis now. My property is surrounded by many trees and shrubs so I perform a lot of trimming and pruning. I have also started to clear out my stone garden that I never knew I had until I was informed by an older woman who knew the area well. It has shredded much ivy, branches, leaves and weeds that I pulled from around the property and continues to get the job done. I had to buy the oil dip stick which it did not come with but that was trivial. I am pretty impressed with it's performance and I think I should have bought the larger model. This would allow me to chip larger branches.

Bought mine six years ago and could not be more satisfied. Engine starts every time - what a blessing. Racking in leaves with the shoot lowered
is great. And it chips small branches very efficiently. Want more and have unreasonable demands on a garden machine go and rent a professional
chipper. And wearing out the wheel axel (one reviewer claims) - must have been towing it around the neighborhood. Such a person hould be arrested.