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A chipper sounds a great idea but in reality, particularly with a small one, you can spend an awful lot of time feeding the stuff through which doesn'tmake it economic to use..... you've got the hassle of loading/unloading it + taking up valuable space in the van.... then you've got to dispose of the chippings....... is it really worth the hassle? I find with my regular jobs, I can usually dispose of all the green waste in the customers garden wheelie bin................ amazing how much will go in if you slice it up and tread it down. Bigger jobs I just use a trailer though I try to avoid due to the hassle of empting it and tipping costs.
as Graham says. there has been posts about chippers som quite recentley and the conclusion is that they are not worth it as for the time it takes to do it and getting bunged up with leafy stuff
I’d suggest that’s only true at the bottom end of the chipper / shredder market and is also linked to type of jobs you do - ie mainly mow, blow & go would probably agree.
We’ve just coppiced a whole area of 6ft high Cornus - no waste, straight into the throat and spread as a mulch.
If you chose wisely ( ie an Eliet Major ) can take no more space than a Mower..
i have used the major and tried the different screens in it, any thin leafy stuf bung it up tryed to keep the clean wody stuf to push it through a real pain quicker to take it to the bonfire
this time of year there will be no leaves on the Cornus so perfect chipper fodder
I work with chippers day in day out and the real question to tell you what to go for is if you can tow or not and do you need to always take the watse.
A very small towable gavity fed chipper is capable of chewing up to 4" wood which for most gardeners is plenty big enough for your pruning works and you wont have these issues with it getting clogged up etc. Theres a good 4" bear cat on ebay bidding atm for £500 that is a brilliant starting point for anyone.
If you need to go smaller then your limited on what you can chip but youll be able to put it into the back of a van but then where are you putting the waste?
The other thing id always say you everyone is do the nptc chipper course as itll teach you how to maintain it and spot problems and how to retify them. I.e. The woods not chipping and starts to strip - needs the baldes sharpening.
Using our Major shredder regularly out on site for various green waste and with properly maintained blades it processes both green and wood well.
They guys like it and it fits across the baulkhead of the van and still leaves room for 2 mowers in a vivaro and is a great alternative to our larger towed TS industries hybrid chipper / shredder.
Agree about the ntpc Woodchipper course tho, the guys found it useful and means we’re covered for best practice. It later proved its worth when we were approached by HSE on a business park site once with a snap inspection while using a towed chipper / shredder
It looks as if a new set of blades for an Eliet Major costs around £230? Do you have any idea how many hours you might get on average out of a set and is maintenance of them easy enough to do in house? I found this aspect to be be quite costly with our previous chipper.
The blades are reversible which saves money and can be reground, but blade life is difficult to predict as it depends on how it’s used, as a shredder it will deal with ‘dirty’ green waste ( unlike a chipper ) which will shorten their life.
I’ve reversed them once and it’s not that hard, just need a pair of mole grips to pull them out as they get encased with resin etc, but personally have never replaced them having been in the ‘shop’ for that.
I think we on a 2nd or 3rd set after many, many years use, having been reground in the meantime.
Cost wise - I can’t remember
Interesting,thank you - I may consider the Major 4s in the near future.
They're also propular with hire companies, so may be worth while checking around and hiring one for a few days to check it out and find it's limits for your use (also a useful source for a 2nd item - just cost in service with new blades and a belt).
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