Sun Joe Electric Leaf Mulcher/Shredder, Outdoor 13 Amp 8,000 RPM Machine - Mulch up to 55 Gallons per Minute, Adjustable Control Dial, 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 branchesCons:- 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.