Sun Joe Corded Leaf Mulcher and Shredder with Adjustable Control Dial, 8,000 RPM, 13-Amp Motor - Portable Electric Mulching and Shredding Machine for Lawn, Garden, and Yard Care, SDJ616

Bought this product because of another review I read from a lady in New Mexico who used it to chop hay for an old Horse. I am in the same situation with our old Arab. He is 37 and has worn out his teeth, can no longer chew hay and everything I can buy over the counter is too course, so I thought I would give this a try. Worked great, very dusty but the finished product was what i was after. took about fifteen minutes to grind up a bale of alfalfa hay, used a set of strings, but not complaining because I moistened this fine hay slightly and my old man tore into it like a teenager. Seeing him eating hay and not water logged hay pellets alone was worth the price of this piece of equipment. Note to people looking, this is not a chipper, it is a shredder. It will not handle wood because it is not designed for wood, it does however do a fantastic job of shredding. It is dusty, so if you are afraid of getting dirty you might want to look elsewhere. Otherwise put on a dust mask long sleeve shirt, gloves and safety glasses and get the job done. Great machine for what it is designed for. Easy to assemble and easy to operate. Five stars.

After some online research looking at Flowtron and WORX, I concluded that Flowtron burns out motors too fast, and WORX does not have an adjustment for how finely or coarsely it shreds the leaves, and the gauge of the trimmer line it uses is too small. Since the first problem with the WORX was not that big a problem for me, and there was a simple modification described to retrofit the WORX to use a heaver line, and I have a WORX blower/vac combination that has worked well for several years, I decided to order the WORX. As I was in the process of placing the order, an add for the Snow Joe shredder popped up. I was not previously aware of it's existence, but I bought a Snow Joe electric chain saw last year and was very impressed with both the quality of the saw and the service from the company. Looking into the Snow Joe, I found that it used the heavier gauge shredding line, and had an adjustment for fine/coarse shredding. I changed my order to the Snow Joe. With Amazon Prime it came in two days. It was well packaged, assembled easily (10 minutes), and ran for about 6 hours over 2 days producing about 10 large trash bags of finely mulched oak leaves. It handled twigs in the leaves up to about a quarter of an inch in diameter with no problem. Adding bigger twigs forces you to change out the shredding lines more frequently. I replaced the mulching lines 3 times during the entire shredding process. Line replacement is simple (5 minutes) and does not require any tools. Overall the shredder worked very well. It shredded levees about as fast as I could bend down and pick them up out of a pile and load them in the shredder. My experience is with dry oak leaves, and for those, the shredder worked great. When I was done, I found that the shredder disassembles easily and packs into a very small volume for storage.

This shredder works very well. I was a bit concerned when I purchased this due to some of the negative reviews. However, I ended up choosing the Sun Joe over the Worx and Flowtron due to it having multiple settings, a .1" thick trimmer line and 13 amp motor (both comparable to the Worx), and I also like the design better (ensures better shredding and provides better dust protection for the motor and the user). I've only used it twice so far so I can't speak for its longevity but I had it running continuous for about an hour each use with no motor issue. During my use it reduced what would've been 8-10 hand packed 39 gallon flex bags of leaves and twigs down into 1. It was a mix of wet and dry leaves, as well as twigs and branches about 3/16" in diameter. I figured it could handle those size twigs and branches due to the line thickness since my trimmer has no issue with that size twig or branch either. It even shredded a few pages of old newspaper I missed sorting out of the pile, also some old chunks of mulch. Both trimmer lines still look like new. Sun Joe offers replacement lines for convenience but I recommend just buying a spool of similar size trimmer line and cutting down to 12" to save some coin. Definitely wear eye protection. Probably best to wear a filter mask as well since it does produce dust, depending on which way the wind is blowing it may not be an issue. Also, have a leaf blower or air compressor handy to clean the shredder off after use. Pros: - Thick trimmer line (can probably modify with a thicker line if desired) - Multiple settings - Lightweight - Can fit on a trash can (not sure what size though) - Easy to strap a bag around it - Dust protection for the motor - Greatly reduce the amount of bags produced - Shreds wet and dry leaves, even small twigs and branches Cons: - Made of decent plastic - The locks on the legs aren't very good but do hold - Dust, although not as much as the other brands of leaf shredders from what I've watched on youtube and read on reviews. - Takes more time than bagging leaves by hand (my 2 hours of total use would've taken me maybe an hour of bagging leaves by hand, however that would've easily been 8-10 bags instead of the 1 bag from shredding. So IMO, well worth the extra hour.) - The design of the hole where the leaves enter the shredding compartment. Compared to the other brands, the Sun Joe offers less space for leaves to enter which is better for shredding capability and producing less dust, but also makes the process slower. If you put a lot of leaves in they most likely won't fall into the shredder, they'll just sit on top and will need to be pushed down. I recommend not using your hand to push the leaves down to reduce risk of injury. I used the triangular box that the legs shipped in to push the leaves down but anything like that would do. I have this as a con only because it slows down the process of shredding but I actually prefer this design over that of the Worx and Flowtron. Like I just mentioned, this design ensures better shredding and less dusting, and also less chance of bigger debris shooting out and hitting someone. Overall, its a great device. I didn't rate this 5 stars because it could've been made with more durable materials and I wouldn't mind paying more for better quality.

After reading many reviews and waiting a year to order, I was thrilled with how easy this was to use and how well it shredded the leaves. I am very happy! Concerns I've read with other brands: - Difficult to assemble - this comes basically assembled, just connect the top basin, then insert legs. - Filament breaks too often - this is thick and lasts. I only had to change it twice during the day. - Difficulty changing filament - super easy with no dismantling necessary. - Leaves not shredding properly - my leaves were mostly dry. The basin creates a cyclone effect and leaves were shredded very finely before falling through the grate. No adjustment for shredding size - easy slide adjustment. I had mine midpoint and leaves were shredded very finely. Leaves getting jammed - adjust legs so the machine is level and shredded leaves will fall through the grate. Only time it jammed was when I didn't notice a large stick (1" thick) that wore down the filament. I sorted most of the sticks out before putting through machine but it still managed to shred small twigs. - Dusty and noisy, what do you expect! To minimize dust I cut the bottom off a large trash bag and connected it to the bottom of the machine, then placed it over a large basin. I wear earmuffs whenever I use loud machinery so noise wasn't an issue.

*My individual model was not defective. I received a replacement model and it was just as bad and within a few hours of use the engine just died completely. Yes, died. Where to start, where to start. Let me get the very worst out of the way first. There's not much good to say at all but varying degrees of horror dealing with this disaster of a product. After 2 days of use, which was ultimately maybe 10 minutes of the product actually working as near expected and hours of cleaning, repositioning, rechecking the manual, adjusting settings, dealing with the horrible locking feature on the legs, replacing the weed whacker plastic strips after about every 4 handfuls of leaves, the thing died. Completely died. 1. Leg locking features is awful. For a product this expensive they could've had the push button and adjust to height locking system you see on a variety of products unfortunately there is a twist locking system which continued to come unlocked during use and nearly caused the system to collapse with the motor running. I checked the locks many times before use, nothing was moving, they were locked in place following exact steps of manual. Unloosening the locks and adjusting to the desired height is a tiresome ongoing process as after you adjust to a certain height you then just see small measurements painted on to go off. Good luck wasting time if you want to even adjust the leg slightly. 2. Not sure who this product is for. I have a significant amount of leaves in my yard. I'm seeding in the spring and rather than buy straw I'd prefer to have the shredded leaves over the seed to keep it wet while adding a layer of protection against birds. If you have a small amount of leaves then don't even consider this. Its not worth the time or money. Like everyone else my leaves fall from the branches of trees. Sometimes branches or pieces of branches fall onto the ground as well and unless you are going to handpick every tiny branch out of massive leaf piles you've bought yourself a disastrous product. This thing becomes jammed so easily its mindboggling how this product got approved for wide release manufacture and distribution. I did small handfuls of leaves as the manual states and even this resulted in constant clogging. After about every 5 handfuls I had to make sure it was turned off and reach in and clean out. Don't bother taking the plastic top off because it is not shaped exactly as needed to align easily and when removing as well as attempting to put this back on the experience was 10 times more difficult because the legs kept unlocking. 3. You are given a bag of the weed whacker type ties that are used to shred. In the manual it states you should only buy their specially manufactured ties for this product. How nice of them, you think when you realize you've been given 20 extra replacement lines included in your purchase. HA! Small twigs and wet leaves destroy these things easily. Had to replace the ties about every 10 small handfuls. Once again don't bother taking off the plastic tub. Unplug the product and have a screwdriver or small knife handy to remove the ties and replace them. Get used to this process which will waste about 5 mins each time (if you're lucky and the legs don't unlock and adjust while you are attempting to do so. 4. The manual says the product requires minimal maintenance. There are several settings, one especially for wet leaves. Only put in 1 handful of wet leaves at a time vs the two handfuls at a time for dry leaves. Even following these instructions it constantly clogged. Unplug the machine, reach your gloved hand in and remove all the dirt, mud and other residue that has built up and once again rendered your machine worthless in a matter of minutes. This debris builds up quickly because for reasons unbeknownst to logic the bottom of this machine doesn't have large openings for material to fall through into the bag. There are four small openings within the plastic piece which cause residue to build up quickly, more easily breaks the plastic ties and takes far longer for the machine to clear and have the leaves placed in the bag. After about 4 attempts of the bag filling up slightly, rubbing the plastic legs and causing them to unlock and add about 10 more minutes off maintenance I said no more bags thinking things would work far better. After not having a bag there you will also realize rather quickly that it doesn't shred the leaves very finely. This would've required me doing about 3 runs of processing on each handful of leaves. More wasted time. 5. How valuable is your time??? As said before you probably only need this if you have a lot of leaves. I had cleared about 20 contractor bags of leaves out of the yard before I said, no more trips to the landfill and theres still probably 15-20 contractor bags worth left over. The irony here is if you have minimal leaves you don't need this and if you have a lot of leaves, well this machine is not well built enough, reliable or powerful enough to get the job done. If you have a small amount then just rake them into a bag lined trash can, tie it up and call it a day or mow them and shred in a matter of minutes. You'd even be better off buying a large tub or bucket, dropping the leaves by hand in there and then placing a weed whacker in it . Then repeat that process. That would save you a tremendous amount of time and effort. Oh yeah put in headphones or earplugs because this piece of work is incredibly loud, which was hilarious given how ineffective it was at doing its job and the lack of power it seemed to have. Loud bark and no bite and your neighbors will despise you quickly. The vacuum feature to suck the leaves downward to shred is not as strong as you would think given how loud this baby is and so when you feed leaves be prepared to put your gloved hand or the end of a rake, shovel etc to move the leaves to feed it. This wastes even more time of an already bad process. So the process is this. You'd already need to have leaves raked into piles or maybe in a garbage can. You really cant dump the can into the machine because it will clog. So after you've got your pile ready now you need to grab a handful or two at a time. Wait to see that each handful clears the machine completely and then drop your next handful or two into the plastic tub portion. Make sure that as you wait to drop the next handful you pick out any and all small twigs, debris, roots, etc otherwise its going to get jammed in a matter of minutes. Also, unless your yard is completely flat this is not a real mobile machine. It's light and easy to move but you'll need to go through the cumbersome process of adjusting and readjusting which means bring all your leaves to one large pile or separate into multiple piles throughout but prepare to deal with the adjustment process so the machine will avoid falling over while running. From a value perspective, assuming things worked near as expected this thing is overpriced $120-$150? Should be about $75 tops which you'll realize once you see and feel the material especially with the legs which are of bad material and undersized which makes this a top heavy machine. Expect to spend time and money replacing the shredder lines, prepare to be disappointed about its effectiveness, the waste of your time for a product that was supposed to save you time and be fully aware of your refund deadline. *I decided to let Amazon send a replacement shredder in and effort to determine if mine was defective. I have not used it yet since I received it in the evening however as I am putting it together I am noticing significant scuffs on the funnel/feeder cover portion as well as various yellow discolorations showing on the green plastic. This replacement has clearly been used and then sold and shipped as "New". I will update the review regarding its performance after I test it tomorrow but to have a shoddy product replaced by a refurbished/used model is such a low blow.

I had a whole bunch of weeds come up after the rains in the areas that were mulched. With intermittent rain, I could not get to them till last week, by which time they were all about 1½ feet tall! After pulling them out by the roots, I decided to use my Patriot Shredder to grind up this stuff. I have had the Patriot for several years, and it has been great for chipping and shredding broken branches and after pruning the hedges. It gets through dry and wet branches with ease, as long as I don't "choke" the machine with too much stuff at one go. Well, I put the fresh, long weeds through the top hopper, and it just would not suck the stuff down. I then used the chipper opening, and there was nothing coming out of the discharge chute. The machine bogged down and stopped. I found the entire flywheel, hammers, and chipper blade coated with wet green "mush". The machine just could not handle this stuff. It took me about an hour just to clean out the Patriot. I was looking for an alternative, so read some reviews, and decided to go with the SunJoe Shredder. Most reviews were negative regarding "wet" stuff, but I was willing to give it a try, especially with the price being less than $100.00. I used the cloth bag from my Patriot Chipper and it was a perfect fit! I would strongly recommend you use some sort of "cloth" bag. Plastic bags tend to get ripped if there are stems or twigs. Paper bags tend to rip when you are trying to secure them, and it is hard to get the right size. The elastic cord is very tight, and in the process of pulling the bags to fit around the bottom flange you will end up ripping the bag. The Patriot bag is a heavy gauge synthetic material and is "breathable" so as the bag fills up, air can be pushed out. The bag can also be reused for many years. The bag is expensive, about ½ the price of the shredder, but I think it would be worth the price if you are planning on doing a lot of shredding. It is available here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Products-888000100-Shredder-Collection/dp/B004W5YKBE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1437233760&sr=8-3&keywords=Patriot+Shredder. The bag has a cord which cinches the opening of the bag. The bag is an almost an exact fit for the bottom of this shredder. I hook one edge under the bungee cord, and then work my way around the bottom rim with the bag. Then I just cinch up the bag with the built in tie. The bag works well with dry or wet material. I already had the bag, so it wasn't an issue. This bag has held up for several years, chipping branches so should hold up with shredding leaves. If cost is an issue, I would suggest you look for other re-useable "cloth" bags. It makes it a lot easier to use this machine. Back to the review of this machine: I was apprehensive about how this would perform, but with care, and slow feeding, it ground up all the fresh weeds and stems without an issue. It does get clogged up after about 10 minutes. It is easy enough to stop the machine, and reach in from the top and scrape off the accumulated "mush" and push it down through the opening into the bag. It never tripped the circuit breaker, but I was careful about how much I put in. I filled up 4 bags of this mushy green ground up weeds, and all of it went straight into my composter! I changed the "string" on one side because it was becoming short. I wish they had put the blade that cuts the string our further, so that the string could reach a little wider in the hopper. As it is, there is about a ¾ inch gap between the end of the string and the sides of the hopper, and this is where stuff builds up. Not a big deal, but an annoyance. I am very pleased with the way this made short work of grinding up this wet stuff. As a bonus, it was ready for the compost! If you work within it's limitations, it is a great machine. I cannot vouch for it's longevity, but it has already been worth it. My only advise is to get a cloth bag, unless you really need to put stuff in paper bags for disposal. If you have a composter, you would not need to worry about disposal either. Guide to images (for some reason the order of the images changed after it was posted and I can't change the order, so follow the numbers to the right image): 5. Weeds growing in front of hedging - looks like tall grass 3. Sun Joe Shredder with Patriot cloth bag attached 1. Shredder, cart with weeds to be shredded. Please note the gloves, goggles, and ear protection - makes quite a bit of noise 2. String and internal blade that cuts string to length. The gap between the outside of the blade and the hopper is where stuff builds up 4. Size of shredded material. Note: one or two long stems get through unscathed 6. Composter with material from three cart loads of weeds (please refer to picture #3 for "one" cart load). Nice reduction in volume.

Overall the thing works. I didn't have problems assembling the thing (unlike others). But I can confirm the extendable legs' fixtures may not hold well in place. You need to apply extra (not excessive, though) force to tighten them up. It can shred leaves (both dry and wet ones) pretty effectively. The 16:1 reduction rate is an overstatement, though. I could barely see about 3:1 (at most). I guess, this ratio represents the number of shredded bags of leaves I will get out of the original volume. No, nowhere close to that. 12 gal/min shredding speed seems to be a little exaggerated, too. It took us about an hour to get through two 50 gal bags (and there were 2 of us working). Also, not sure about the shredding speed. You can get a 'continuous' shredding only if you put a handful of leaves in (literally), any more and you gotta wait until they're done. The whole body is plastic and the security cover is held in place by plastic pieces. It's not easy to get the cover off without braking those small plastic pieces. I already (after 3 uses) have one broke off. The overall process gets really messy. The dust will cover you head to toe, so make sure you wear your work clothes (I really mean that). And, of course safety glasses and gloves are a must. Sometimes small pieces fly back out, so safety first! Oh, and it makes perfect sense to get those dust masks (not to breath that dust which flies around). As it was mentioned, the protective cover of the on/off buttons is not too soft, so turning the thing on/off with your gloves on is a bit hard. The shredded is pretty noisy. Make sure you don't work too late. Now, the plastic line used to shredding is okay against plain leaves. If you start getting twigs, the line breaks pretty quickly. It gets shorter and shorter and you start getting leaves accumulating under the cover. Yes, it can handle thin twigs, but at a cost. And you have to replace the line more often. Basically, it's not a bad thing. But given the ratios above (and extra time to shred, and the cost of electricity) you better do you math if you need those savings or just want to have your leaves collected w/o shredding. By the way, you can't have a full 50 gal bag of shredded leaves, it's too heavy and most likely won't be picked up by your refuse service. I guess, if you only need to shred some leaves for your compost heap or to add to mulch it may make sense to get something cheaper. And if you're looking to save on leaf bags... not sure if this will deliver huge savings.

The assembly was a whiz. Putting in new plastic shredding line is easy and new ones can be easily purchased on- line for relatively cheap. The box comes with a very good supply of them. The shredder operates in a similar manner to a weed whacker, but it is quadruple lined and more powerful. I have run my Sun Joe shredder for several hours this past fall and this winter and it is marvelous. I have shredded perhaps 20 packed garbage cans full of leaves, mostly dry ones, and maybe four cans of plant stems. My wildflower plant stems are pretty hard but the shredder gets through them! I go through more plastic line shredding stems than shredding leaves. With dry leaves, I can shred many garbage cans full of leaves before the line gets worn out. Wet leaves will kind of stick to the inside of the shredder and it is best to clean it out every several minutes, but it will still run. Don’t expect to machine to break any hard sticks, even small ones. Occasional small sticks will generally get through the shredder with minimal damage to the shredding lines. The machine is quite loud and it is wise to have good ear protection. Over all, it is a great investment for what it does. I put all of my shredded leaves and stems on my many flower beds!