After much head and chin scratching i decided to buy a shredder today. Obviously i did'nt want to spend too much money and did'nt want to be left with a machine that was'nt big or quick enough. I narrowed it down to two manufacturers- Eliet and the greenmech CS100.
CS100 is really a chipper and a new one was too expensive - £4,400 ish. Could'nt find a 2nd hand one nearby. So the search changed to Eliet. I was considering models in the middle of the range i.e major and prof 4. I ruled out the major as i thought it was too small. So this left the prof 4. New ones are out of my price range and i thought i would never find a 2nd hand one. Until now that is.
Found one on ebay an hours drive away. I pondered so long that the auction ended without it selling. It was also listed in july at £250 more and nobody bidded. So a quick call to the seller (trade) and i arranged to go demo it.
It was infact the hydro model (drool) with 13hp honda engine and hydraulic feed. Took some waste with me - laurel branches, hedge clippings and a bag of perennial prunings. Anway, i was so impressed that i bought it, brought it home and gave it some work this afternoon. It handled everything i put in - branches upto 3 inch, leaves, hedge clipplings, newspaper, cardboard, straw and perennials.
I'm very happy with it. Its 4 years old and in excellent condition - hardly any paint off it, runs perfectly. I managed to get it for £2200 inc vat. They retail at about £6K !
There is only one slight problem however. It weighs about 250kg and i cant manage to pull it up the trailer ramp. As i work alone usually this is a bit of a problem. I'm going to have to sort out some sort of winch. I'll start a new thread about that i think.
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will you compost the waste or take away to skip yard will it save money long term ?
I'm going to compost it. As far as saving money is concerned, i dont know the answer to that yet. All i know is it will save alot of work dragging brash etc from back gardens. Instead i can take the shredder to the waste and either leave the chip there or take away. Nice to have a usable product at the end.
does it chip as well as shred ive hired one before but still had to wheel on to trailer and take away
The end product is more likely to be called shred than chip. The Eliet chopping principle shreds with the grain rather than across it. The pieces are a little more elongated than square chips. If taking the material away i would rather move small bags/dustbin/wheelbarrow to the trailer than arm/ton bag full of brash etc.
If the waste was accessible i would probably leave the shredder in the trailer and do it there.
well i hope it works well for you and will deffo be an assett to your business
Ta mate
That's great Stuart, making a stand for independence though maybe they should've put an engine on it to drive the wheels :) did you consider the Jo Beau 200 or 300? they do come up on e-bay occasionally - these things are so damned expensive aren't they!
We only really do general maintenance and have ended up with a Makita, we've been cutting back the holly and laurel from this driveway and it's painful slow going.
We have a video facility thanks to Phil and I'm sure it could be useful to members if we were to post some footage demonstrating these shredder/chippers - there's not a lot of info around about them and pictures can be clearer than text – how 'bout it Stuart?
We have an Eleit Major and want to upgrade to a small chipper. The Eliet has been useful, is very narrow and maneuverable, so can be used in rear gardens. However its a slow process and the end product is disappointing, Is it an efficient use of labour? Almost certainly not.
The CS 100 looks good, but at £4K it needs to earn its money and be a big improvement - will it?
I dont know if the CS100 will be a big improvement but the guys on arbtalk same to rate them highly. If it was'nt for the hydro feed on mine i would be dissapointed i think. The end product is different to what comes out of a chipper as it looks to be more elongated than square. Time will tell how well it composts.
Pete - i would love to show what it can do on video. Just need to borrow a decent camcorder and find the time to put it on the net.
There is a self powered version of my shredder and i may look in to having it converted.
Colin i have one and would definatley recommend it if you do a lot of tree/hedge work. Its not great for green waste but if you keep the blades sharp it will easily swallow 4" branches in a few seconds. I give the woodchip to a local nursery so it saves me having to pay to dump it.
Colin Hunt said:
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