AXT RAPID 2200 UK
Razor sharp – for excellent shredder performance
The Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid shredder is a fast and powerful shredder, perfect for green, soft material. Powered by a high speed 2200 watt Bosch ‘Powerdrive’ motor, it enables high material throughput. With its laser-cut precision blade, made from especially hardened steel, it provides excellent cutting performance of green or woody garden debris.
Technical data
- Wattage: 2200 W
- Cutting capacity: 4,0 cm Ø
- Torque: 12 Nm
- Material throughput: approx. 90 kg/h
- Weight: 12 kg
Further Information
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|---|---|---|
High cutting capacityWith its uniquely designed motor the AXT 2200 Rapid is lighter and faster than most other shredders available on the market today. With it’s laser-cut precision blades the tool is made for cutting wood-containing waste and lopping and bringing order back to your garden. | Comfortable handlingThe fast feed hopper and a tamper allow an easy fill in of the shredder and a fast material throughput of up to 90 kg/h. The low weight of 11,5 kg and the practical wheels permit a effortless moving of the tool, which can be used almost everywhere in the garden. | Easy to useThe AXT 2200 Rapid shredder is extremely easy to assemble. It has wheels for convenience and, weighing only 12kg, it is easy to move. It comes with a large capacity hopper and a full-width practical plunger for increased material throughput. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Cutting system | Cutting blade | Cutting blade | Turbine Cut |
| Engine power | 2000 W | 2200 W | 2500 W |
| Cutting capacity | 35 mm Ø | 40 mm Ø | 45 mm Ø |
| Material troughput | 80 kg/h | 90 kg/h | Approx 230 kg/h |
| Cutting speed | 3650 rpm | 3650 rpm | 41 rpm |
| Torque | 12 Nm | 12 Nm | approx. 650 Nm |
| Even enter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Collection box | – | – | 53 l |
| Weight | 11,5 kg | 12 kg | 30,5 kg |
| Weight: | 12 kg |
| Dimensions: | 7.54 x 4.34 x 3.71 cm; 12 Kilograms |
| Model: | 600853670 |
| Colour: | Green/Black |
| Manufacture: | Bosch |
| Colour: | Green/Black |
What a revelation this Bosch shredder is! It is quick, really quick, and pulverised branches down to the consistency of a cross cut paper shredder, something the old one never did.
I have just finished shredding the branches from following:
* A large Buddlea
* A very tall Mahonia, cut right back
* Chamaecyparis cuttings
* Two fruiting trees, a flowering cherry and a crab apple, taking off 2m of growth since their last hard prune at 3m height.
* Yew branches.
* A stagshorn sumach, cut right back.
The shredder coped with all of this, finally jamming on the yew, but that was solved by turning a knob and removing the entire top and front, exposing the jammed up needles, which took a minute to brush out.
After all this, the blade is still cutting keenly. I have heard these blades blunt easily, but there is nothing so far, and that is my largest shred of the year. If the blade blunts, just reverse it, or try sharpening it. A new one costs between 20-30. I think the one shown in the bundle is incorrect, by the way, the correct one is more rectangular with four sharpened edges, so there are two cutting strokes per revolution.
Any niggles? Well, there are some five variants of the 2200, all requiring different blades, on the Bosch site. There seem to be two disjoiht sites to register your warranty. And finally, the on/off mechanism is the most peculiar I have ever seen, and does not always work; if this is a fault, I may need to return it.
But, compare this with the cost of huring someone to fo it, or a skip, and it will more than pay its way.
This is a Which? best buy, by the way.
[Later] I bought this machine to deal with heavy stuff that my blade shredder wouldn’t handle. It does this brilliantly. As I say above, the end result is a bit coarse for composting(some very thin branches are just chopped into 6″ lengths), so I had the idea of running the ‘choppings’ through my old shredder. Success – the stuff goes through lightning-fast – a hopper-full in less than a minute with no jamming or blocking. Pre-chopped, so it should. The end result is a bag of really fine shreddings perfect for the compost bin. So don’t pension off the light-duty shredder.
[6 month report] Still going really well – just done a huge heap of berberis, with a really difficult mix of thick and thin stems. Handled it brilliantly, and very fast. The machine pulls the stuff through itself, which with very spiny stuff is a great help. Best garden machine I’ve ever bought !
[two year report !] Still going well. Haven’t needed to adjust blade. I did add ‘outrigger’ wheels to stop it tipping over. Just demolished two trees in short order, with minimum cutting up beforehand. Wouldn’t be without it.
This is my second purchase of this model. I have only given four stars for overall rating despite this being a very easy to handle machine and it certainly does what it is designed for. My only beef is that the blades, despite being double-sided need replacing rather too often and they are not that cheap. I hate to think how much I have paid for replacement blades over the years. The reason that I bought a second machine was the fact that the first one was extremely reliable. It is a shame that the motor finally gave out after many years of service. One final piece of advice, Only buy Bosch replacement blades that come with a new bolt and washer each time.
The machine’s best feature, perhaps, aside from its power, is the way it pulls the branches through for you, thus massively reducing the effort to push them. Straight-ish branches were easiest, of course, and none of ours were greater than about 30mm in diameter but they all went through with ease. When there were lots of leaves or smaller branches, rather than a single pole, we either broke these off or pruned them with secateurs first, or simply pushed them through with the plastic paddle that comes with the machine. This really does work and all kinds of bushy material just went through with ease.
All-in-all, we were nearly put off by the one star reviews. Well – I don’t know what happened in those cases but based on this morning’s experience, this is a truly first-class, very useful garden machine. Well done Bosch!
I was particularly impressed with how LIGHT the whole machine turned-out to be, and how manoeuverable. I cannot recommend it more highly.
This shredder will not cut or shred acorns.
This shredder will not cut or shred only leaves.
This shredder will shred twigs.
This shredder will shred branches.
My garden has borders of plants and shrubs.
This shredder clogs-up shredding wet or damp soft only material.
This shredder will shred shrub stems and branches in leaf or not.
This shredder will shred long dry grass and dry soft material.
The Shredder itself.
The rotating drum of integral non-removable blades that cannot be User-sharpened will be expensive to replace.
The drum of blades rotates relatively slowly and will not dull or damage easily.
Processing shredded material more than once progressively reduces the material for finer mulch.
The shedder is unstoppable with material that it is able to shred, and it pulls-in and shreds stems and branches quickly.
The shredder is easily manoeuvrable in spite of its weight and is easy to operate.
As I say, the safety aspect is brilliant. The only thing I would say to look out for is very long branches suddenly taking an unexpected turn and whacking you on the side of the head (I speak from bitter experience)
So, all in all, romance comes in different guises, and I am grateful for that!
Much more powerful than the older model and a lot easier to use, with the push button controls and integrated chipping collector. This doesn’t seem to clog as much when you have green leaves going in and if it does, the plunger soon sorts it out. They branch need to be helped along sometimes by having to push them down as they don’t get pulled through in the same way as the screw thread system on my last model but then again it doesn’t jam anywhere near as much either.
Although probably twice as much as the smaller model, this is well worth the money if you have a lot of work or regular hipping to do
This is a very useful machine to dispose of general garden waste. It will do all greens asked of it and also small branches. Too much greenery at once can cause the shredder to clog up though, but once I found out how to do this, it was very easy to do. I thought the instructions were very confusing – mostly in diagram form which didn’t really explain what was required. Once assembled though, I was very happy with it. Don’t be put off about all the negative remarks about high noise output – I thought it would be far louder than it is. Yes, I would definitely recommend this product.
Been using this shredder every weekend to clear masses of green waste including branches up to 1 inch . I tend not to go above this to spare the blade.
This product has outperformed my expectations.
Won’t clog unless you really abuse it with very wet waste. Can be cleared very easily.
I’ve found each side of the blade will last about 10 hours of heavy use but you can clear a lot of waste in 10 hours.
Just bought a new blade at 30 which seems excessive.
I bougth this last year, and have given it heavy use – clearing a 1/4 plot almost completely covered in brambles and overgrown shrubs. I has exceeded expectations – but a few points of advise for good results:
1. Don’t leave thicker prunings (1.5-2.5 cm) to go dry and woody before shredding – as this will make the work much harder for the shredder and cause the blade to go blunt more quickly.
2. Put very thin sticks through together with a few thicker sticks as this will help the shredder cut them more reliably (a few thin sticks tend to rush through, cut only in a few places).
3. Allow branches with wet leaves to dry before shredding (or the shredder will clog – you can clear this easily, but it is a nuisance.
4. If the shredder struggles with thicker sticks or pushes them through split lengthwise, they blades may be getting blunt – turn or change it. (A’ blade that is not very sharp can still do OK with medium thick, green prunings, but struggle or fail with thick, woody sticks, and only give thin sticks a few cuts.)
5. When buying a replacement blade, be aware that blades that are much cheaper than the ‘official’ replacement blades from Bosch may be of thinner metal, which may struggle more with the difficult (thicker, woodier) sticks, and become blunt more quickly.
What’s good about this product is its quick, powerful and easy to use,however after 8 hours of use the blade went blunt but I turned it over and it worked well still.
Put it through its paces with 4cm branches going through it, it coped well with continuous use, but I wouldnt want to push it too much! Did the job it needed to do, and would recommend, no collector but just put a sheet down or put it where we wanted the shredings to go.
Sometimes got blocked up but easy to free with the red un-blocker gadget.
Shredder is excellent at dealing with most materials up to 40mm; it pulls it all through thanks to its 2.5kW induction motor driving a rotary drum type cutter at a constant 40rev/min. If you overload it, a safety cut-out stops the motor, and you then need to touch the reverse button in order to clear the logjam. Don’t expect the machine to handle soft fleshy material, for which it is not designed, unless you can mix it with heavier stuff.
Finally, the one major drawback (as other reviewers have also noted) is the weight (30.5 kg) combined with a high centre of gravity, supported on a narrow wheelbase. This makes it very unstable when manoeuvring on uneven ground (such as a gravel path), with a tendency to topple if you are not careful. A wider separation of the 2 wheels would help, but that would take up more storage space. Have Bosch considered a simple spring suspension to allow the wheels to absorb some of the vertical movement so the bulk of the machine maintains a more even keel when on the move?
It ran reliably and without jamming on branches up to 2.5cms but it was clearly starting to struggle on thicker branches. (and everything was dry.) Foolishly I let the shredded material back up into the machine and that stopped it (while cutting a 3 cm branch). The large black button for disassembly was stupidly tight and I had to use a pair of grips but once undone all was revealed and it didn’t take long to clear it. But there doesn’t appear to be any overload trip or reset. I was using a breaker at the mains end and that tripped. The rotating on/off switch is confusing; it goes 0 (off) 1 (on) and 2 whose use is not clear but I suspect that that is the reset. The instructions say rotate to 2 then back to 1 to start.
Overall o.k. but it’s early days. (My last shredder was hopeless, continually jamming, so I’m a bit wary.)
Fantastic shredder. We looked at hiring one (a lot of clearance needed for an extension) but hiring one over the bank holiday weekend was not a lot less than buying this (and we will be able to use this again).
It has eaten several small trees now, with just the main trunks being too big. It’s also munched ivy with no bother. It clogged up a couple of times (heavy usage, lots of fir tree leaves) but it’s surprisingly easy to open and clean.
We didn’t buy a specific Bosch bag, just a large garden waste bag which we laid on it’s side underneath it.
It’s very easy to use. Saved ourselves a lot of trips to the tip!
I first used it on Buddleia prunings and went on to use it on apple, holly and other dry garden herbaceous prunings.
Be careful to avoid soil inclusions as these will rapidly blunt the blade.
I have sharpened the blade several times using the roller end of a belt sander, thus keeping the concave edge. If you do this take care to take equal amounts off both edges (to retain blade balance) and of course be careful of the sharp edges!
Use thick gloves as it can pull things sharply – and it can kick back if it hits a tough knot in the wood. I used a forestry type helmet with face guard and ear defenders.
I’ve only had this machine for a couple of weeks but I’ve intentionally tried it with numerous different materials to see how it performed.
Garden materials fed into the machine:
Birch, ash, apple branches up to 45mm
It handled these branches brilliantly, without any hesitation.
Note: large branches are essentially sliced and crushed, so you end up with (e.g.) a 45mmx5mm slice where the slice is intact but fractured (almost like a concertina) – you do not get wood chippings like those you buy in bags from the garden centre. (this is important to know if you’re hoping to produce that type of chippings)
image attached
Smaller birch, beech, ash, privet branches, vines, 5-10mm
It also handled these branches really well.
Note: smaller branches are cut into 15mm-50mm lengths, some have also been crushed (lengthways) by virtue of being through cutter.
images attached
Tough (woody) grasses
I tried the machine on New Zealand wind grass which has tough lower sections and grassier top sections.
It did shred the woodier bits into 25mm-50mm lengths but the greener bits were only cut into 100mm-150mm lengths – however this is still much better for putting on the compost heap than in its natural state.
image attached
Flag irises
Not especially successful, it did ‘damage’ and slash the irises but they essentially remained intact.
Cardboard packing boxes
This was a real revelation as I want to recycle as much cardboard as possible and use in my hotbin composter.
If you cut and fold the cardboard into a shape that fits into the end slot (roughly 100mmx30mm) the shredder delivers neat 10-15mm slices of cardboard – perfect for composting. (just make sure there are no staples in the boxes)
image attached
Summary
The (very) good
Very easy machine to use.
Easy to move around. (it is a bit top heavy -so you need to exercise some care)
Handles all woody material you can feed into it without any hesitation.
It has never blocked and only ‘stopped’ a couple of times when the end of a large branch had turned and presented an oversized aspect to the blades. (a quick reverse and start-up again saw the shredder continue every time)
It’s not particularly loud but loud enough and I wear goggles, gloves and ear defenders out of good practice.
The bad
It is not particularly fast, so be prepared to spend time with your shredder (but in my opinion it more than makes up for this by its relentless performance)
Trying heavy duty greenery (irises) was not especially successful (they do say that if you mix your materials, e.g. branches and greenery it will shred greenery – but I don’t know anybody who has mixed piles of garden waste lying around to do this)
The jaws are not particularly wide, so feeding a lot of privet cuttings and vine runners into it was bit tedious, likewise you need to remove side branches from larger branches in order to feed them into the machine – so loppers are a must
(I suppose the limited jaw width is to stop users feeding in a lot of large waste at once – which we would of course if we could)
All in all, a very, very, good machine, however, seems more suited to woody waste rather than green waste.
Not cheap but money well spent in my opinion and I have rarely been so pleased with a purchase.
I’ve only had this machine for a couple of weeks but I’ve intentionally tried it with numerous different materials to see how it performed.
Garden materials fed into the machine:
Birch, ash, apple branches up to 45mm
It handled these branches brilliantly, without any hesitation.
Note: large branches are essentially sliced and crushed, so you end up with (e.g.) a 45mmx5mm slice where the slice is intact but fractured (almost like a concertina) – you do not get wood chippings like those you buy in bags from the garden centre. (this is important to know if you’re hoping to produce that type of chippings)
image attached
Smaller birch, beech, ash, privet branches, vines, 5-10mm
It also handled these branches really well.
Note: smaller branches are cut into 15mm-50mm lengths, some have also been crushed (lengthways) by virtue of being through cutter.
images attached
Tough (woody) grasses
I tried the machine on New Zealand wind grass which has tough lower sections and grassier top sections.
It did shred the woodier bits into 25mm-50mm lengths but the greener bits were only cut into 100mm-150mm lengths – however this is still much better for putting on the compost heap than in its natural state.
image attached
Flag irises
Not especially successful, it did ‘damage’ and slash the irises but they essentially remained intact.
Cardboard packing boxes
This was a real revelation as I want to recycle as much cardboard as possible and use in my hotbin composter.
If you cut and fold the cardboard into a shape that fits into the end slot (roughly 100mmx30mm) the shredder delivers neat 10-15mm slices of cardboard – perfect for composting. (just make sure there are no staples in the boxes)
image attached
Summary
The (very) good
Very easy machine to use.
Easy to move around. (it is a bit top heavy -so you need to exercise some care)
Handles all woody material you can feed into it without any hesitation.
It has never blocked and only ‘stopped’ a couple of times when the end of a large branch had turned and presented an oversized aspect to the blades. (a quick reverse and start-up again saw the shredder continue every time)
It’s not particularly loud but loud enough and I wear goggles, gloves and ear defenders out of good practice.
The bad
It is not particularly fast, so be prepared to spend time with your shredder (but in my opinion it more than makes up for this by its relentless performance)
Trying heavy duty greenery (irises) was not especially successful (they do say that if you mix your materials, e.g. branches and greenery it will shred greenery – but I don’t know anybody who has mixed piles of garden waste lying around to do this)
The jaws are not particularly wide, so feeding a lot of privet cuttings and vine runners into it was bit tedious, likewise you need to remove side branches from larger branches in order to feed them into the machine – so loppers are a must
(I suppose the limited jaw width is to stop users feeding in a lot of large waste at once – which we would of course if we could)
All in all, a very, very, good machine, however, seems more suited to woody waste rather than green waste.
Not cheap but money well spent in my opinion and I have rarely been so pleased with a purchase.
I’ve only had this machine for a couple of weeks but I’ve intentionally tried it with numerous different materials to see how it performed.
Garden materials fed into the machine:
Birch, ash, apple branches up to 45mm
It handled these branches brilliantly, without any hesitation.
Note: large branches are essentially sliced and crushed, so you end up with (e.g.) a 45mmx5mm slice where the slice is intact but fractured (almost like a concertina) – you do not get wood chippings like those you buy in bags from the garden centre. (this is important to know if you’re hoping to produce that type of chippings)
image attached
Smaller birch, beech, ash, privet branches, vines, 5-10mm
It also handled these branches really well.
Note: smaller branches are cut into 15mm-50mm lengths, some have also been crushed (lengthways) by virtue of being through cutter.
images attached
Tough (woody) grasses
I tried the machine on New Zealand wind grass which has tough lower sections and grassier top sections.
It did shred the woodier bits into 25mm-50mm lengths but the greener bits were only cut into 100mm-150mm lengths – however this is still much better for putting on the compost heap than in its natural state.
image attached
Flag irises
Not especially successful, it did ‘damage’ and slash the irises but they essentially remained intact.
Cardboard packing boxes
This was a real revelation as I want to recycle as much cardboard as possible and use in my hotbin composter.
If you cut and fold the cardboard into a shape that fits into the end slot (roughly 100mmx30mm) the shredder delivers neat 10-15mm slices of cardboard – perfect for composting. (just make sure there are no staples in the boxes)
image attached
Summary
The (very) good
Very easy machine to use.
Easy to move around. (it is a bit top heavy -so you need to exercise some care)
Handles all woody material you can feed into it without any hesitation.
It has never blocked and only ‘stopped’ a couple of times when the end of a large branch had turned and presented an oversized aspect to the blades. (a quick reverse and start-up again saw the shredder continue every time)
It’s not particularly loud but loud enough and I wear goggles, gloves and ear defenders out of good practice.
The bad
It is not particularly fast, so be prepared to spend time with your shredder (but in my opinion it more than makes up for this by its relentless performance)
Trying heavy duty greenery (irises) was not especially successful (they do say that if you mix your materials, e.g. branches and greenery it will shred greenery – but I don’t know anybody who has mixed piles of garden waste lying around to do this)
The jaws are not particularly wide, so feeding a lot of privet cuttings and vine runners into it was bit tedious, likewise you need to remove side branches from larger branches in order to feed them into the machine – so loppers are a must
(I suppose the limited jaw width is to stop users feeding in a lot of large waste at once – which we would of course if we could)
All in all, a very, very, good machine, however, seems more suited to woody waste rather than green waste.
Not cheap but money well spent in my opinion and I have rarely been so pleased with a purchase.
On the plus side the unit has shredded small branches well. The blade has two sides so when one is blunt, you just swap it round. As a result, I filled 5 green wheelie bins before I needed to buy another.
Replacement blades cost 25 a throw, so if you have an angle grinder or something, it’s much cheaper just to sharpen them yourself.
Bear in mind your local council will quote to take away garden rubbish – I was quoted 45. So if you are looking at a one off exercise, consider that as an option.
I found it was fine for branches up to 15mm. Beyond that it regularly jams – and it gets worse as the blade gets blunter. Twigs and leaves don’t really break down well. Avoid hardwood.
The subsequent mulch is great for the soil -although use with a nitrogen based fertilizer in the first couple of years if planting with it (it won’t contribute anything until it starts breaking down). Good weed suppressant.
Make sure you have a large container to stick under it, Gorilla Tubs work well.
Conclusion – disappointed in the build quality, I certainly didn’t feel like I was getting any benefit from buying a Bosch product this time. But overall it did the job and I am pleased with it.
On the plus side the unit has shredded small branches well. The blade has two sides so when one is blunt, you just swap it round. As a result, I filled 5 green wheelie bins before I needed to buy another.
Replacement blades cost 25 a throw, so if you have an angle grinder or something, it’s much cheaper just to sharpen them yourself.
Bear in mind your local council will quote to take away garden rubbish – I was quoted 45. So if you are looking at a one off exercise, consider that as an option.
I found it was fine for branches up to 15mm. Beyond that it regularly jams – and it gets worse as the blade gets blunter. Twigs and leaves don’t really break down well. Avoid hardwood.
The subsequent mulch is great for the soil -although use with a nitrogen based fertilizer in the first couple of years if planting with it (it won’t contribute anything until it starts breaking down). Good weed suppressant.
Make sure you have a large container to stick under it, Gorilla Tubs work well.
Conclusion – disappointed in the build quality, I certainly didn’t feel like I was getting any benefit from buying a Bosch product this time. But overall it did the job and I am pleased with it.
Trick is, to take your time, don’t force 537 branches down in one go, if a branch looks like it will get stuck, it probably will. It easily chipped branches of 35mm, but if you try to chip 5 x 15mm branches… Its gunna fail.
I use power tools all day, so far, this is doing well!
I was quoted 1,700 for a local contractor to clear our garden, so looked for alternatives. At c10% of the price, and a days work be my I thought this would do the trick – and it did.
The borders of our garden were becoming overgrown with mature shrubs – Hebes Choisyia (?) etc.
Having read some reviews where blades becoming blunt was a feature, I tried some “blade management”, and any branch etc thicker than about 2cm was left until the end of the days chipping. I was cutting back branches etc and once the pile was about 4 foot high, I started to shred.
By was of comparison, one bush that I cut back a few years ago, about 6 foot round, filled up our brown wheelie bin. The same size bush after shredding filled up around 20% of the wheelie bin. Also of note is that the border was infested with some quite sharp brambles – again with the wheelie bin 3 – 4 foot lengths would be dumped – the shredder mulched this to next to nothing.
What I was impressed with was that the machine itself, in some instances is self feeding, and at around 10 inches wide I could place a lot of waste in it at any one time, but that did require the use of the bright orange “stuffer” that it comes with. Over 8 hours I created around 3 – 4 wheelie bins of mulch / chippings and the shredder worked perfectly, even accepting the thicker material towards the end of the day.
The only advice I would give, is to make sure you buy a collection bag (6 – 7) as its not supplied with one. I bought the recommened purchase version and was surprised at how finely chipped the material was, and how many breaches twigs etc could be processed before having to empty.
I was very pleased with the performance.
Surprisingly, despite the extra cost, this shredder doesn’t shred as quickly as the cheaper model which has a much faster spinning blade.
This version slowly crushes branches at the same time as cutting them. It very rarely jams up but you have to push branches in at the right angle for the turbine to grab it.
It is much quieter than the axt2200 too which required new blades on a regular basis.
I notice that while the turbine blade on this model is meant to last a long time, when it finally does go blunt a replacement blade is almost as costly as the shredder itself.
Overall, I am happy with this quieter model despite the slower speed. I just hope the blade lasts.
The price is regularly reduced to 300 and my review is based on this price. I wouldn’t pay more.
I have only used this shredder once but it worked very well. Fast, not too noisy, the outcome well shredded. Easy to move and easy to clean. The pusher was a great help. I was amazed how a large pile of apple prunings, some quite thick were reduced in an hour to a pile of lovely chippings, not nearly as much as I had hoped for though. It has saved me having to buy bark chippings and will continue to do so.
Having used other smaller shredders, which were slow going, constantly clogging up, and blades blunting quite easily; this Bosch machine is a revelation. I’m really glad I paid the extra for the Turbine Cut. My neighbour has the cheaper drum cutting equivalent, and he also speaks highly of it, but I think the TC gives you an edge on larger branches. Its copes happily with branches up to the advertised 45mm. If you can get it in the hopper, it can munch it. The resulting shredded material makes great mulch around trees.
It’s quiet enough that I can run it for over an hour without the feeling I’m annoying the neighbours, and it’s fine to use it without ear protection in my experience.
A few tips about use….
If you’re working with brown material, or small leaved evergreen leaves you shouldn’t have any problems with clogging. A previous review mentions that the blade appears to clog when you put large branches through. This is true, but doesn’t affect it’s cutting performance. The bits lodged in the blade will free themselves and fall through. If you try and put lots of green leafy material through, it will clog up. If you have got a lot of leafy material, leave it to dry out for a week before shredding, and that will make your life easier.
The blade is located towards the front of the machine, which means the box doesn’t fill up from the centre. Every so often, pull the box out, give it a shake to flatten the shreddings, and you’ll need to empty it less often.
If the machine does clog with leafy material, try putting some branches through. This can often pull through some of the leaves clearing the blockage. If that doesn’t work the best way of removing blockages is to pull out the hopper and reach under and scope out (with gloves!) the blockage from around the blade. This takes about a minute and is quicker than removing the top of the machine.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this if you want an efficient, easy to use machine.
Read the reviews, and had to add, put together in moments even without any guild, fairly simple, starts easy once you discover it turn to 2nd position and hold, it starts and it then turns to position 1 easy, someone said greedy, yep its greedy alright, 3 dust bins in less than an hour, it would have taken me 3hrs plus otherwise, cuts a very fine mulch, looking forward to the next tree to cut down, the brush is now not a problem. Happy days !
It is a lot of money for a single garden tool, but bearing in mind that it can shred branches up to 40 mm in diameter it has to be very sturdy. My experience is that it works well provided care is taken in what is fed into the machine AND HOW IT IS FED INTO THE MACHINE. I think the promotional video and some videos on Youtube are a bit misleading. You have to take care when feeding material into the shredder.
At one end of the scale if there is a lot of soft material it will clog up the blades/rotating disc, at the other end of the scale with larger branches if they are knobbly and in places exceed 40 mm you will get a blockage and have to remove the cover to release the blockage. I find as soon as the the motor sounds stressed, switch off, do not rely on the cut-off switch which works well, but clearly even if the motor struggles only for a few seconds before overload, it is unnecessary wear on the motor.
I have two old apple trees which had not been pruned for two years. There was a lot of branches removed. It is amazing how quickly the shredder disposes of branches around 30 mm diameter, several feet long, no leaves, just branches, BUT I had to take a lot of care preparing the pruned branches. Knobbly bits around the maximum 40 mm diameter can easily get wedged and cause a blockage. Forked branches can be a problem and may jam on entry to the rotating disc. Tangled light branches can get jammed at entry. If you are just putting light stuff through, some thin twigs may get through not properly shredded. I do not find that a serious problem at all.
I fitted a new blade just after starting disposing of apple tree prunings and was surprised what a difference this made. It only requires removal of the cover and an Allen key to remove a single bolt that holds the blade, once the bolt is loosened, the blade can be slid out with a bit of fiddling and the new one slid into position.
Incidentally, the shredder has gone up in price 12% since I bought it!
My conclusion is that this shredder is worth five stars, BUT unless you are careful and get used to what it can do and what causes blockages, you will have blockages and FRUSTRATION. In turn this means you that if you have a lot to go through the shredder, it will be a fairly slow job.
Very good for munching up sticks and small branches, tall, tough grasses (e.g. miscanthus) and even tall, tough royal fern (which doesn’t rot down in my compost bins otherwise). I also use it for woodier herbaceous stems like tall phlox, helenium and aster, as long as they’re not wet.
If leaves clog it up, it’s fairly quick and easy to clear from below, if you’re careful and sensible.
Surprisingly quiet. I don’t feel any need to wear ear defenders
The blades pull the longer pieces through well, without pushing
Easy to move round the garden
Cons:
This type of blade isn’t suitable for lush greenery but is ideal for long, woodier garden waste. Not easy to feed in short hedge trimmings.
You have to use the collection box (which is a safety feature, as it prevents people putting their hand into the whirling blades). The shreddings pile up in the middle long before the box is full, then backup into the machine. I kick the side of the box every now and then, to settle the contents. Not a big problem, but a bit annoying and I guess I may break the box one day!
I recommend looking at Fred the Shed’s website if you need advice about what kind of shredder is best for the kind of garden waste you have.
I have used this over the summer and tend to use it for general and sometimes damp garden cuttings and bush branches but not tree branches, I think the maximum I would shred is 1/2 inch and that can get rather noisy. So it gets plied with all types of cuttings and those perhaps it is not designed for that would normally get sent to tip and does occasionally get blocked so unscrew (which is one hand safety screw to be turned many times) and an easy clean out, not an issue. It is light easy to use, mobile and easy to store and for the price it suits my small/medium sized garden requirements. All shreddings go back onto the garden as a mulch and rotting so just what I wanted.
It works fast, and pulls in the handful you’ve just fed it, so you can get on with selecting the next stems.
Larger stems are cut and crushed into pieces about 2cm. long, and smaller bits finish up reasonably well chopped and crushed, so they’re compacted and will break down when composted.
It is indeed very quiet – it can hardly be heard from the length of our garden – and makes quite a companionable, low-pitched chugging noise as it works, unlike our previous shredder, which made high-pitched screaming noises hard on the ears.
When in action, I couldn’t ask for a better performance, and although it’s not cheap, I feel sure it will go on working for me for many years. It does have a 3-year guarantee as well.
So why only 4 stars?
It’s been designed to go under a worktop when not in use. The top comes off and is stored in the collection box, which sits under the mechanism. this is fine for those who want to store it like that, but doesn’t save any floor space and it’s more difficult to manoeuvre in and out with the top off, as the handle which swings the weight over the wheels is part of the top section. I don’t need this modification, the top stays on in my shed.
It’s very heavy indeed, and difficult to move around, especially when going down even small steps. If you ease the machine down on the wheels, there comes a point where its weight takes over and it drops hard on to the lower level.
The collection box has to be replaced correctly under the machine, as a safety feature, or else it won’t start. Unfortunately the box doesn’t hold very much, and it’s hard to see how much has gone in. The machine deposits shreddings in just one area of the box, so when you see you need to pull it out, you find the box is only about half full. Take care also when pulling it out – it needs a firm jerk, and can give your shins a painful knock. Lastly, it’;s not easy to transfer the shreddings from the box into a bag for temporary storage or transport. The box is rectangular and you need a very large bag or container to shake the contents into. It’s difficult to fit a rubble-sack-sized bag over there end of the box, and not too easy to shake the last pieces in to it. On both our previous shredders, I greatly preferred the option of placing a storage bag or container directly over the exit chute, and then just removing it when full.
The instructions are poor, and really I do feel that, when customers are spending this sort of money, Bosch could afford to produce a more attractive and informative booklet, rather than a few pages on very cheap paper, mainly concerned with all the normal common sense precautions for using electrical equipment. My machine started up OK but stopped running after about 10 minutes. Fortunately my mechanically- minded husband worked out for himself, (no help from the handbook) how to re-set the cutting mechanism so that slivers of metal were shaved off, which needs to be done ready for the initial run. Why this could not have been set top in the factory as part of its quality checks, I do not know.
Finally, I’ve not yet been able to register the guarantee, as mine appears not to have the identity plate with the individual number of the machine, though I have looked most carefully all over it. I have e-mailed the Bosch helpline but so far, have had no reply.
Am I glad I bought it? Definitely. Its a very good machine and I enjoy using it (apart from emptying the box.) I really like its quietness, its speed and power. With a 1/4acre garden with large hedges and many shrubs, it gives me a sustainable way of managing the pruning without too much strain.
I think its probably the best available on the domestic non-professional market at the moment, and would certainly recommend it to anyone with a large garden and limited time to look after it.
*Pros*
Cuts branches with large diameter.
Once you feed a branch it ‘pulls’ it all the way in.
Quite enjoyable to use
Quiet compared to other shredders.
It is ideal for shredding something like a large budleia bush or privet hedge.
The shredded material takes up less space and can be composted (given right mix)
Once you read instruction manual and set up correct (quite easy to set up) it works very well, Hardly ever jams and works through big piles of stuff quickly.
*Cons*
Pricey
Quite large thing in your shed
The shredded material isn’t super fine. If you shred a tree branch, I wouldn’t advise putting on standard compost heap.
*Overall*
Very happy with purchase. Not needed for v.small gardens, but if you cut a lot of shrubs and woody perennials, this will make gardening more fu
I bought this to to replace my previous one of these. I have had the old one for 5 years and was very pleased with it until the motor died. (Although I did have to get it repaired by Bosch under guarantee after a couple of years). I decided that I would have to get a new motor and another blade, so I decided to junk it. I have just used it and it worked well and comes with a 3 year guarantee. I hope it lasts longer than that.
Plus points:
* it cuts chunky things easily – you can leave it to get another branch while it munches away and if cut fresh will easily do 45mm thick stems
* it doesn’t spin like a food chopper/dervish (like the Viking) so holding a branch is not something to be feared
* the supplied stuffer is a great tool to apply pressure on material into the cutting blades
* it has a “rewind” button so if at any point it does get stuck you can reverse the motor and pull out the offending item or use the ‘stuffer’ to redistribute and restart
* built in blade adjuster/sharpener is a great tool to ensure small (1-2mm) twigs get chopped up cleanly without having to take the thing to bits
* great for preparing a mulch for flower beds etc. or for large chunks for composting
* built in hopper is great and has reasonable/practical capacity – doubles as storage for upper body when disassembled.
Minus Points:
* leafy material can clog it up if you put too much in at any one time
* chunks of cut material are quite coarse, so can require more composting to break down – but are better for a mulch…
In summary glad I got it. It takes much less time than the Viking (constantly having to stop, remove the lid, untangle a load of mess, put it back together and restart) – very frustrating at times… Also the Viking is MUCH more noisy and cant cut such large material. If you are happy with a more coarse cut then this is the best.
Coped well with the garden waste I produced through the severe spring pruning exercise. As long as you accept that some thin / stringy items are going to pass through intact and that larger off cuts (up to approx 4cm in diameter) need to be stripped back to single branches, it did a grand job. I expect the blade will blunt quite quickly and you could very easily overload it but as it will only be used 2/3 times a year I’ll skirt over that.
I didn’t buy the collection bag based on other reviews as I knew I had an Ikea blue bag languishing in a cupboard which has now been re-deployed and works very well. You could use a small plastic tub just as well but the machine conveniently has hooks on the side to attach straps to hold the bag in place. Out of the box, attaching the wheel frame is a bit of a fiddle and you’ll need a hammer and screwdriver but it’s a quick job and I was soon(ish – discounting cut-off switch/failure to read manual issues) up and shredding. All in all, I think it’s good value and seems to have coped well with my far from gentle touch. Will update at some point in the future, when it next gets wheeled out. Happy pruning / shredding!
Comparing size to my previous cheap shredder, the floor area is the same, yet its larger on top. Consequently so is the solid collection bin – less emptying trips. Incidentally much better than using bags, less waste spilled everywhere. But the magic trick of taking the top off and storing it in the underside collection box, means it does fit under units. Taking up far less space.
One notable difference between this and my previous cheap shredder, is that all the controls on this and knobs work well. There is no fiddling to insert bolts into rotating bars, bending into awkward positions. At times my old shredder could take 5-10 minutes to open up and close again (feeding the frustration), this one just seconds, allowing you to finish sooner and get on with shredding.
I still make sure branches are reasonably trimmed of side branches, but this is definitely a larger aperture and ingests material much more easily. I don’t find myself hammering stuff down as much with the prodder.
Engineering-wise this is really well built and controls are a pleasure to use. Well worth the money and on registration the warranty extends to 3 years. The better engineering makes it much heavier than my previous unit, but the wheels on it are good and its easy to move about.
However, be warned that the blades on this are quite sharp, so like most tools you do need to store this out of child access. If they open the top flap or remove the collection bin they could reach the blades. I solved this by putting a cover over it tightly, storing it in a locked shed.
Although not supplied with any safety equipment, be sure to wear gloves, eye protection and ideally some ear plugs / defenders. You do need to cut the branches, so also have suitable ratchet cutters or whatever you prefer at hand. You can’t feed the tree into it whole. 🙂
Make sure you use it correctly: keep checking intermittently that you can see the shredding drum from the top as it fills the bucket quite quickly and then it literally chokes on anything.
Also make sure that the pressure plate is properly adjusted and that you can hear the gentle grinding noise. It is very binary: if you follow these instructions it will grind effortlessly for hours, chomping on green, dry, and anything that fits through the 4cm wide plastic feeder. If not, you will spend hours untangling the drum terribly frustrated. I don’t give it five stars because the learning curve for a client to use a product should not be so steep..
First use compared to my old shredder …WOW it was so much quieter so happy with that one ,got to say that one again so happy with the noise levels ..to be honest I even think it’s quieter when munching on garden stuff rather than running idle .
I’ve rammed this machine will all sorts of suff from my garden old branches new shrub willow birch sycamore …the way I use the machine if it fits down the shute it’s gets ground up … yes I’ve jammed the machine up but but a quick reverse then re start simple all gone and I’m more then sure it was way past the 45mm limit .now I have read reports about this machine getting jammed up and not shredding wet green stuff leaves… hense some of the negative feed bad ….now I think this happened to me, the Green stuff goes down shute hits the roller and just sits there as there is no bulk to pull it through…simple simple remade shove a branch in force it threw the the leaf level onto the cutter and the leafs just get pulled through auto clean blockage .
Nit picking flaws ….. the collection tub soon gets full , yes you could make it bigger but then it would get to heavy to lift .
When wheeling the machine around I find it safer pushing rather than pulling as it’s a bit top heavy and wobbles out of control when trundling down the garden
And the last none important flaw is the cable a bit to short if it came with say 100ft of cable that would of been great .
All in all the question is
Would I buy this machine again if I reversed back time ..Yes is the answer I was worried about the cost as it is one of if not the most expensive electric shredder out there but all in all I’m still buzzing about my new shredder .
Hope this review helps
The fact that it does not cut up branches as small as previous models and that it is awkward to move around really limits this to four not five stars in my view. Still I have to have a good shredder. I have many shrubs and two large hedges in my garden and my nearest recycling centre come dump is a twenty mile round trip away and the Council charge a fortune to take garden waste away so it is a no brainer. No shredder based on this crushing deign deals well with green sappy material but most people already have a machine that will deal with such material. A good lawnmower will readily cut up green sappy branches as long as they are not woody and fresh leaves get suitably mashed for the compost heap.
This was quite expensive for our needs but I wanted something that would be up to the job without burning out. It is quiet by virtue of a slow chomping action via a gearbox and not a high speed flail.
I’m disappointed that an adjustment knob for the blade looks those something to turn when assembling it or collapsing it for storage and does not have a lock nut.
To keep you from putting your hands into it, the feed in throat is quite narrow so things can get stuck. I guess that’s difficult to get around. It sounds as though some lubrication might be a good idea but I think it’s all sealed and not designed to need maintenance.
The plastic prodder is fairly ineffective so I tend to use a stick that’s straight and about to be chomped anyway, to push things in. We have used it for hours and have procedsed loads of stuff. There should be better advice on what you can do with the resulting coarse granules that come out. We have used some for mulching but do you need to store if for a bit first? It might be good for making a path too. Different stuff is more or less suitable. Long slim staight branches are ideal as they pull themselves in. Leaves alone would not work well I think, as they would not self feed. Like a lawn mower, the bin needs emptying well before it is full for optimum chomping. If you have a massive pile of brush and branches wood to clear up then it’s good. Best to use it on fresh branches before they get brittle though. It looks as though it will last. Probably best not to lend it as it can be mistreated. Probably more expensive than we could justify, but it us quite satisfying to use. 4 stars.
I like the electronic governor. The motor speed just does not change whatever you ask it to do. Slow and steady it chomps away.
Really impressed with this shredder, looked at lots of reviews and this seemed to be the pick of the bunch for electric shredders so ordered and it arrived really quickly. Easy to assemble and operate and very impressed with the machines ability to handle whole range of tree and shrub branches and clippings. The cutting blade is conical and mashes the garden waste against a metal pad, the resulting pieces are small enough to go straight on compost heap and the design of the cutting mechanism feeds the branches almost automatically, there is supplied a plastic handle to push stuff down if its not feeding well, so all in all a very impressive machine that is also pretty quiet given what its doing. The design of the unit does allow for the top to be taken off and stowed in the collection bin thus making it much lower for storage….so given all this good stuff why only 4 star “Almost Flawless”? well the following are issues in my and clearly others experience.
1. The instructions are pretty poor, especially concerning adjustment of cut and no decent information on how to change blade once it needs it.
2. The unit is really heavy (it needs to be naturally) but the wheels are too small for trying to move unit over uneven surface or just a lawn.
3. If you are trying to wheel the unit anywhere using the already mentioned too small wheels, there is no handle, you have to bend over and try to move the unit whilst doubled over, not good for backs or anything else for that matter.
So does the job of shredding really well and would recommend it but be aware of the issues
My only reservation is that, even with careful use, the blades seem to go blunt rather quickly and the quality seems to be variable. Amazon market two apparently different replacements for about 13 and 30. Other correspondents to these columns suggest that Bosch say there is no difference. I cannot believe that Amazon don’t know that if it’s true. I have other Bosch tools: electric plane, circular saw, jig-saw and drill bits and all seem to do their allotted job for longer than the shredder blades. Are there different qualities and how would we know?
I bought mine in December 2012, two years ago. I’ve used it regularly since – initially to shred an out of control 30 metre long Leylandii hedge. In the last year a mini jungle in the back garden. I’ve had to sharpen the blades a few times but thats not hard. It’ll cut through any green wood up to an inch thick. I wouldn’t recommend anything thicker than that or you’ll jam it. If this ever stops working I’ll be buying another. A real workhorse
Tips: make sure the rear vent stays clear or it can overheat. Brushing the vent with a broom when you’ve finished using it will suffice.
Got this shredder to replace my existing Alco shredder which was on its last legs and spare parts aren’t available. Because I have some Bosch power tools which are excellent I went for Bosch again with this shredder. The shredder arrived well packaged and assembled easily. Have recently cut down a 25 year old ornamental cherry tree and had a lot of branches to shred. This shredder went through them with no problems whatsoever. I haven’t tried it on “softish” material as yet. Didn’t buy the Bosch collection bag but used some of the bags I had that you grow potatoes in. Worked fine. Would recommend this shredder.
Used this for the first time yesterday and it performed faultlessly. No jams, no choking, it just chomped through its work without missing a beat. Would advise taking care when feeding it, as branching sticks get whipped around a bit; if concerned get a face mask, but after getting caught slightly once I just kept my hands between the sticks and my face. Cleaning is easy. Just info the big knob on the front and the cover comes away allowing easy access to the blade compartment. Just be sure to do this after use as quite a lot of debris can remain inside, which i imagine wouldn’t do the mechanism any good if left for a long period.
I learnt that no shredder does everything (unless you have a huge budget), so you need to decide what is most important to you. I wanted one that shreds wood for hot composting & doesn’t block. I did want to shred soft stuff too but it can always be easily chopped by hand so not as important.
So how has it been? It’s brilliant! It was ready to go and it’s first use was a constant half day’s work. It chomped its way through endless wood. We had just felled a tree so fed through all it’s branches. It didn’t block once & just kept going! It isn’t super fast but it doesn’t really matter as you just put some branches/twigs in & leave it chomping through them whilst you get the next lot. You do have to chop any big side shoots off before loading but that’s inevitable and doesn’t take a minute. Everything keeps flowing so smoothly.
It’s now had a lot more use and has got through a few trees! It takes all branches & attached leaves up to about 45mm (I’ve not measured!) We’ve had it running for full days at a time & it’s never got tired. It’s never had a proper blockage and the blades still seem perfect.
We haven’t used it much for soft stuff but I did put some nettles through it & it was better than I thought it would be. I think it would clog if you only did soft stuff, but if you keep adding wood in between it clears it out. It hasn’t had much use yet with soft stuff but I’m sure it would be fine as long as you are careful and don’t push too much through at once without adding harder stuff. The couple of times it started to get a bit clogged because we pushed too many nettles through at once, we just used the reverse button, let it chomp through a couple of woody bits and off we went again.
The chippings themselves are not ultra fine but I think this is because we were shredding a lot of biggish branches. They have still been good to use for hot composting & would be great on pathways too. It is only the big branches that come out as bigger chippings and they have still been crushed so will break down well. I think it is best to leave them for a few days so they are not too green. The shredder didn’t have a problem with the green wood, but I think the chippings were better – crushed better so less solid if not as green. As with most shredders, leaves themselves do not really shred. We only added the ones attached to the branches – any loose leaves go into our leaf compost pile which will be left for a year or two.
We haven’t had a problem at all with the bottom drawer sliding out. It slides fairly firmly into place & never pops out. It is easy to empty. Occasionally you might have to pull it out & shuffle the chippings back a bit – but only once a load if that.
I agree with some other reviews that it could do with bigger wheels as it isn’t that stable to pull around, but it’s really not a big issue. We still pull ours around and it’s fine – not that heavy or anything anyway. I guess it depends where you’re going with it but we just take our time over uneven ground.
Overall I’d highly recommend it. It chomps through wood, copes with soft stuff if you’re a little careful, is quiet to use & is self-sharpening! Well worth the money!
I collected a large pile of various types of clippings, that was about 4 ft high x 5 ft wide. I turned the clippings over on the grass a couple of times with a rake, before feeding it in, as its been there such a long time and I wanted to make sure no stones had gone in amongst it. Then shoved armfuls into the jaws of this shredder, always using the red tool push it down. After about an hour, the 4×5 ft pile was no more. I reckon that would have taken at least 3 trips to the dump using my old system. It was such a relief to get such a lot of clearing up done in a short time.
I had no jams or anything, and quite a lot of the leaves were very damp. The bag that I bought to collect the clippings was too awkward, so I opted for a large bucket instead. The bucket filled extremely quickly, I suppose I emptied about 14 buckets?
I wore ear defenders (see that review), because I’ve worked out you can work for longer if the sound is not affecting you.
Glad I got this model, because the speed of the thing is really pretty remarkable. My husband was very pleased with its power and said anything less powerful would not have been as good.
The job took an hour mainly because of having to empty the bucket, because if you just did straight shredding, it would probably have only taken a third of that time.
I collected a large pile of various types of clippings, that was about 4 ft high x 5 ft wide. I turned the clippings over on the grass a couple of times with a rake, before feeding it in, as its been there such a long time and I wanted to make sure no stones had gone in amongst it. Then shoved armfuls into the jaws of this shredder, always using the red tool push it down. After about an hour, the 4×5 ft pile was no more. I reckon that would have taken at least 3 trips to the dump using my old system. It was such a relief to get such a lot of clearing up done in a short time.
I had no jams or anything, and quite a lot of the leaves were very damp. The bag that I bought to collect the clippings was too awkward, so I opted for a large bucket instead. The bucket filled extremely quickly, I suppose I emptied about 14 buckets?
I wore ear defenders (see that review), because I’ve worked out you can work for longer if the sound is not affecting you.
Glad I got this model, because the speed of the thing is really pretty remarkable. My husband was very pleased with its power and said anything less powerful would not have been as good.
The job took an hour mainly because of having to empty the bucket, because if you just did straight shredding, it would probably have only taken a third of that time.
I have had a Bosh before and also another make that is of the quiet type with a cutting crushing drum.
The former was a long while back and it was not very good and always jamming up. The quiet type eventually died when the adjusting screw and nut broke out of the housing with a big branch. I chose the new AXT barbecue it cant fail like that.
Its very good with green stuff , Leylandii green ends which chocked my drum type shredder just fly through.
It takes a bit more care to feed than my drum machine which used to draw through but when you get the hang of it In think its better for the large garden but not quite man enough for a small wood.
Tips
Strip branches of any significant down. It doesnt like Y joints in the wood.
If you are feeding it larger branches trim them completely with a hand axe or billhook and feed it in a bit a time pulling back a bit when the motor slows (as it does).
MUST wear gloves and eye protection and cover arms if shredding bramble.
The main reason that I like this is that is cuts everything into cornflake sized bits, which compost or burn really well.
The smaller pieces also take up much less space than the Ryobi version which cut into larger pieces – great for chip wood applications.
The Bosch design is far more logical than the Ryobi and can be taken part with a single large knob that auto magically cuts the power off when it is slightly un-done. – Handy child safety lock as you can store it with the knob partly undone and thus will not start until you do it up. – Not an obvious requirement to someone who is un-aware of this feature.
The Start-up is also safety featured, as the instinctive thing to do is to grip the knob and turn it to II position, but this will not start it unless you hold the knob gently, without pushing it in. (Pushing it in creates an instant emergency stop action.)
Shreds up to 50mm branches, if you place the branch in the right hand side of the slot. Before you start using it for the first time, open the machine up and look at the way it works. This will help you to understand the best way to feed the machine.
The blade is two sided, with only one side doing the cutting and so when it dulls, simply turn it over and use the other edge. Replacement genuine Blades are available from Amazon. I have just finished shredding 560 feet of 4ft high and 3ft wide Hazel Bushes along with 24 young, but 15foot + high Ash trees, and it is still working as well as day 1 on the first side of the blade.
It loves thick Bramble bushes, cutting 30 foot long branches in seconds and it shreds them, unlike the Ryobi which just crushes them.
The safety features, the speed and the ease of use makes this a perfect machine.
You don’t need to but a shredding bag, I use my Mountfield power mower’s collection bag, or you can use a large box.
Comes in a box with no obvious way to open although Bosch with typical German efficiency provide detailed instructions on how to open (ripping open the glues side if anyone interested) unfortunately you have to open box to get these instructions. This is a large and heavy piece of kit it isn’t going to slip onto a shelf in the shed so make sure you have space! Bosch have been kind enough to provide wheels but for me they are at the wrong end as they are at same end as only thing that could remotely be mistaken for a handle is I found this awkward. As for its actual function it performs well obliterating wood and ‘sappy’ stems with equal aplomb Bosch claim it will deal with stems up to 40mm although who carries a tape measure when doing this work? The feeder gap is about 42 mm so I took approach if it went through it should be OK however the noise it made on a stem about 30mm I doubt if I will try anything thicker! On the noise it is amazingly quiet and you could easily use it on a quiet Sunday afternoon without driving the neighbours into a pschotic fit. One last niggle I would place it on a sheet as every time you empty it half a ton of cutting drop out of the blade chute unless you enjoy picking up pulverised wood bits. Despite the couple of niggles I would highly recommend this product its performance is 5 sta
I purchased this through Amazon (UK) several months ago and shipped it down to Spain where I live. Have only now got round to using it over the last week, and thought a review appropriate.
First great point is that the Amazon UK price is just about half what the DIY shops are charging here for the same product.
The machine was very easy to assemble, taking ten minutes at most, and requiring a Phillip’s, screwdriver and a small (preferably rubber) hammer to knock the wheels onto the axles. As usual with Bosch, instructions were very clear and comprehensive.
I have used it intensively over the last week to do about 20 hours total shredding of a mixture of woody and green plant material (which I intend to compost)..
I have to say that overall I am delighted with the machine. I clearly has a ver robust mechanism, including the motor, since it coped well (though see below) with almost everything I threw at it. Produced finely shredded material which is just right to go on the compost heap. I don’t think I could have shredded this material finer, if I done it by hand (which would have been far more arduous).
Inevitably, the machine clogs from time-to-time – mostly from operator error (feeding too much at the same time, and not paying attention to the output), also occasionally because a branch which is exactly the same size as the gap between the cutting blade and the rotating arm gets jammed between the two (and the usual sign of this is a smell/signs of burning wood).
It is when the machine does jam (and cuts out automatically) that the clever design comes out. Disconnect from the mains (for absolute safety), unscrew the cover (which ale isolates the electrical supply), and it is really easy to then unclog the machine – simple and non-time-consuming process.
A few hints for really successful operation :
– if you’re shredding a lot of green material, it tends to clog more easily – mix in as much woody stuff as you can
– keep an eye on what is coming out at the bottom – this is usually (absence of) a sign that things are getting clogged up, and best to go through the simple cleaning routine described above rather than let it overload and then cut out.
– also watch your output bucker/container – if it builds up back into the machine, it will contribute to clogging.
– inevitably, and with the best will in the world, a few nasties (stones mainly) tend to get into the mix. You can pick them up quite quickly through a relatively high-pitched “rattling sound” – stop the machine as soon as you can and clean them out
– I had a few stones, but nevertheless I reckon the blade continued doing its job perfectly for the first 2-3 hours. Signs that it’s lost its edge are when large pieces of hardwood are going through with no cutting. Time to (first time) reverse the initial blade, which again is a simple five minute operation if you follow the instructions exactly, and specifically the blade alignment to allow for easy extraction/re-insertion.
i had anyway purchased a replacement blade, and fitted this after the second 2-3 hours with the first blade. Having examined the first blade, which appears mainly to have suffered from the odd stone, and a couple of pieces of really hard wood, I think I will be able to largely re-grind the blade on my bench grinder – may not last as long as the original, but worth doing as the replacement blades are (inevitably) relatively pricey – will let you know how I et on with the regrinds.
Overall, a high-quality, strong and well-built machine, which does (more than) what it’s supposed to, and is easy to nurture and maintain even if you abuse it slightly.
Well done Bosch
How I wish I had bought one of these years ago. It is fantastic. Chips up branches in a jiffy. It can do surprising large branches too with little effort. You need a box to catch the chips in and this will sit on the feet of the machine. I don’t know whether they do a purpose made bit of kit I just use an old cheap plastic box.
A horticultural friend has told me to use the chippings as mulch around the garden and this means I don’t even have to put the arisings in the green bin.
An absolute bargain. I’ve got a reasonable sized garden too with quite a few trees so should be adequate for most users.
Today I have used my new shredder for the first time. I am absolutely delighted with the way it performed. All the material put through it was wet and a lot was in leaf. Once the storm debris was shredded I did some heavy pruning of the hedge line’s top growth and lightened those shrubs that had suffered wind rock. Even branches of over an inch and a half went through. Occasionally I had to stop to un jam the exit shute but this became less frequent as I got used to the machine. It is most important to make sure the shredded material can drop away and for this the orange feeder paddle is great to push the stuff to the edges of the bag.
Before putting away I opened the shredder to clear any shredded remnants from within (some sap acts like glue and could cause problems at the next use). With only one large knob to unscrew in order to get the front off this is hardly difficult. It is the same process for clearing a jammed shute but do disconnect from the power supply first.
I found this machine to be well designed, robust and ideal for a medium sized garden. It is light enough to move around easily, even up and down all the sleeper steps in my garden.
I cannot comment on the blades yet although having read other reviews I did buy a spare when I ordered the machine. I also bought the Bosch collection bag and am glad I did.
The Bosch AXT Rapid 2200 Blade Shredder arrived (much to my delight), from the UK to Bulgaria in double quick time . Well packaged and instructions for assembly easy to follow. I have started a compost bin so the shredder is perfect for chopping up material from the garden to add to it. A word of warning about cardboard, you will need to watch that it doesn’t become compacted inside which did happen to my shredder (was a bit to ambitious with the volume) but it was easily removed by unscrewing the top to clear the debris build up inside. I didn’t order a bag to collect the shredded material but instead, strung a bin bag with handles and a couple of lengths of string to slip over each bag holder fitted on the side of the shredder, which has worked reasonably well. All in all I’m very happy with the product and the delivery. My Bulgarian friends, who had never seen such a devise were fascinated to the point that one of them even wanted a photograph taken whilst using it to be posted on Facebook to show her friends! Although I haven’t had the shredder for long, sI have no qualms in recommending
I chose this model because it had a slightly bigger cutting capacity (40mm as opposed to 30mm) and I knew I would be tempted to put bigger branches in it. It’s great – the minute I switched this one on, I knew I was right to replace my ancient old shredder. I used to think it was normal for a shredder to take an hour to shred one twig.
The controls allow you to keep the machine running while you feed in twigs and branches (on my old one, you had to keep holding the button down). It vibrates a lot as it chews up the wood, so it’s best to wear gloves AND to use the red plastic feeder that comes with it. As with all shredders, watch out for branches whipping about as they go down through the machine.
There’s a bit of self-assembly required (basically, you have to put the wheeled frame bit together), but it’s not too arduous and any able-bodied person could do it themselves without help. However, one bit of the instructions – the bit about unscrewing the front of the machine – is really unclear, which is why I have only given the machine four stars. It took me three cups of tea to work it out, and I’m still not quite sure why I had to do it in the first place. Ikea would be proud.
It’s not an industrial shredder, so it wouldn’t be any good if you’re a tree surgeon, but for a private gardener who does regular pruning of, say, hedges and shrubs, it is ideal.
I didn’t find it too noisy, but it does make a bit of noise.
I was very wary of garden shredders after my daughter bought a cheap one and found it almost useless. However, after reading the reviews I invested in this Bosch, and I am very impressed.
Good points: quieter than expected; very efficient in dealing with all shrub prunings; there’s no need to buy the special bag if you already have a “Flexitub” garden bucket, which is ideal for the job; the blade is easily accessed if necessary.
Shortcomings (probably shared with all shredders): leaves (including those on hedge clippings) went through largely unchopped; soft herbaceous prunings have to be dealt with in small batches; side branches of woody prunings often have to be removed first; branches can be snatched through very quickly (hence the need for gloves, especially with roses and brambles).
Overall: an efficient, well-made tool that seems to be up to the usual high Bosch standard, and well worth the extra cost over cheap brands. I wish I had bought one years ago!
I have cleared the this season’s growth from my 28 metre beech hedge plus some other cuttings from other shrubs and a small tree. I have read some of the negative reviews so the maximum diameter cuttings I cut were about 15mm but most were less than that. However I was stuffing quite a few through at a time. The machine still cuts well. I suppose one wouldn’t expect a razor blade to last more than a certain number of cuts so it isn’t reasonable to expect that the blade in this machine won’t become blunt. The instructions for assembly of the machine were those horrible drawings. It didn’t take too long to work out what they were trying to say but they are awful things. I call them cave man drawings! The machine looks well designed and there are a number of safety features. Very pleased so far.
I spent a long time choosing this shredder and found other reviews particularly helpful. This is the third shredder I have had and it is by a long way the best because it seems to cope with bundles of thin branches with lots of leaves as well as larger stems. Previous shredders – no longer manufactured – got clogged up very quickly if you used bunches of material. The Bosch blade got blunt in the first day, I think because I tried to shred some extremely hard branches. I was pleased to discover that it is very easy to turn the blade over and use the other side. Since then, side 2 has coped with everything I have put through, including some quite thick branches. Some very thin branches get through with the bark stripped off but without getting chopped up – but since I use the chippings as rough mulch for paths than is not a problem. Note to self – buy a spare blade!
I really like this machine and it would have had a five star rating from me if it had come with a collection bag. It either doesn’t or mine was missing however the day was saved by the use of an Ikea blue bag which hooks on to it really well by the shorter of the straps.
It handles shredding very well indeed copes with upto 4omm dia small branches pushing the long ones down into the beast it just chops them up and sucks the branch down as it goes. Don’t be temped to push the start button in and twist it to the on position as tjis won’t work you have to just switch straigt across to on even the slightest pressure inwards on the switch will ensure that the shredder won’t go on.
Have fun.
This is a cheap shredder make no mistake. But it really is capable and good value for the money. I cut trees down to logs for burning, and anything down to about 60 mm diameter is good for logs for the fire. From 60 down to 30 mm is good for kindling to start fires, and anything 30 mm and under goes into this machine and ends up as bedding for chickens or on the borders. It chews through it easily and is very easy to clear in the event of any jams. One piece of advice… A new double blade costs about 15.00 so don’t try wrestling canopy into the shredder when you know the blades areast their best… It really is worth changing out for a sharp blade. Overall very good value c/w others available.
This is the third shredder I’ve used, first was very noisy and power cut-off was defective, lasted about 6 months and got a refund B&Q, was careful to try and get a quieter one, B&D was quieter but still very noisy. But it worked for about 8 years, needing careful techniques to keep it going.This Bosch is a huge improvement.
It revs high, in tone and volume it is like a high revving lawn mower, . First time I didn’t use ear defenders, it is borderline and I decided it is worth them.
It slices small branches into chips, just right for composting, and it does green material well. Has trouble with very irregular material like hard budlea stems. I found feeding a mix with some straight material sorted this.
The Bosch shredder range is confusing – there is a previous model called the AXT 2200 Silent (or is it called Quiet)? The previous 2200 does not have the red prodder / Plunger. The current model is also classed by Bosch as a quiet/silent shredder, it could be a matter of Bosch being realistic that they don’t make this the main claim for the current model, its not quiet, but it is quiet for a shredder.
Amazon price is very competitive.
I did a lot of research before buying this as it is expensive and I feel I should pass on what I’ve learned over the years – especially as there were a significant number of 1 star reviews for this model.
This shredder is as good as you’ll get.
There is no magical shredder that will shred everything and anything at high speed, to a fine texture and never get blocked – that is unless you pay a fortune for some huge industrial scale machine like tree fellers use, and they’re really dangerous.
Firstly, no shredder will deal perfectly with both green/sappy material and woody material. The rapid shredders [have a number of blades that whizz round at very fast speed] are in my experience more or less useless. They will only shred quite thin twigs and green material and clog very easily. If you have a lot of say, hedge clippings, they’re OK, but that’s about all they’ll shred.
The crushing type shredders – like the 25D – firstly will not shred to a very fine texture and secondly don’t cope very well with a lot of green sappy material; they need something a bit harder to keep the stuff passing through without clogging. So you need to mix up green stuff and woody stuff – prunings are fine.
But you you need to ask yourself, what are you shredding for? The texture to which the 25D reduces material is absolutely fine for reducing bulk – for a trip to the dump – or crushing/shredding sufficiently for effective composting. No one needs to shred leaves or other soft green material; just stuff it in bags or stick it on the compost heap.
Secondly, the thinner stems and twigs that come out of a crusher type shredder will still be in one piece; but they are crushed enough to collapse into a bag and compost easily, so the bulk is reduced.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it is a immutable fact of shredding life that all shredders will clog up at some point unless you have the patience of a saint. Inevitably you will push too much of the wrong stuff in – because you’re trying to get the job done – and you’ll need to clear the shredder. so you’ll have to dal with blockages; the issue is, how easy is it to do so?
Fourthly, with all shredders you have to keep an eye on the output. If you do not empty the collecting box/bin/bag the shreddings will back up and clog the shredder: that’s another fact of shredding life.
So from my experience you need a shredder that has, in order of priority,
(a) a powerful motor and sharp crushing cog that will not chew through the toughest stuff and not blunt or corrode
(b) a feeder hopper that is easy and quick to remove to clear any blockage and
(c) a decent sized collection box that is easy to empty
I say ‘in order of priority’, but if it falls down on any of these counts you’ll be in for a life of frustration and fury.
The Bosch 25D scores well on all counts. My old and cheaper shredder had problems with the crushing cog which corroded but the biggest problem was you needed to undo 4 screws with a screwdriver to take off the feeder hopper to clear blockages. The Bosch just has one knob to turn and off comes the feeder in seconds.
The feeder hopper seems very well designed and I’ve had very few difficulties – compared to my old shredder – in getting material into the shredder.
A lot of people don’t seem to like the collection box as it is too small or causes blockages when only half filled with the shreddings backing up. The same thing happened with my old shredder which had no box but needed a bag put underneath it. You do have to empty the box regularly but it is simplicity itself. The problem is that for health and safety reasons you do need a cover over the bottom of the shredder to stop people reaching up and under to clear blockages – and losing their fingers; trust me, it does happen. The other good thing about this shredder is it cuts off the motor if you pull it out and so clearing blockages underneath is easy and safe.
This shredder is heavy and tips over easily if you wheel it around over uneven ground, but that could only be avoided if it’s profile were a lot wider, which would make storage more problematical.
I have one quibble; why oh why is there no decent cable storage solution?
Apart from that, this has lived up to expectations and is well-worth the – fairly high – price. I can assure you cheaper ones will be a lot more frustrating and difficult to use.
his goes through everything I threw at it, I borrowed one from a friend and tested it to capacity. piles and piles of brambles and wood trimmings and pine trees and ash elm oak, you name it, it chewed it. the only trouble it had was some thin pieces of shrub slipped through so I minced them twice. it also minces grass into a lovely powdery substance that makes composting so much more rapid in its breaking down. what ever did we do before this machine, I will never know, completely removes the need for irritating fires, as all we have to burn now is the leftover logs, and they are good for the wood burner so no waste at all.
17/04 update. works just as good as the one I borrowed, if not better, but ever so slightly noisier, I can recommend this product, but I would only go for this 40mm one and not the lesser 35mm, it’s just not worth scrimping for the extra powe
This is a replacement for a 2000 unit that I have had for many years and whilst still in general good condition the motor failed and it did not seem economic to replace it. I like the large cutting blade which is easy to sharpen and has plenty of metal to sharpen a number of times. When needing replacement there are a number of retail outlets where replacement blades are a available at a reasonable cost. Eventually we all get a stone or two in the hopper and that does blunt the blade. All of this type of shredder block up when in use but this machine does not block as much as the B & Decker equivalent. I have certainly been happy with its performance. It has an all plastic construction for the main body and is therefore not prone to corrosion.
I was lucky enough to get this machine on offer at 119.99 and it is a first class buy.
My partner and I have recently taken over a house with an overgrown 0.15 acre garden which we have been normalising. This has (is still) resulting in vast quantities of cuttings to dispose of, useless in their raw form. Hire of just one disposal skip would have been well over 100 and you lose valuable soil conditioning material; so we took a chance on a shredder to solve our problem and produce a useful product.
Enter the Bosch. For the last 10 days (5 x 2hr shredding sessions) it has graunched its way through this stuff at a phenomenal rate to produce to date about 2 cubic metres of useful shreddings to be used as mulch or composted. I have only gone to about 30mm size but that proved easy. Softer stuff like clematis debris or rhododendron branches should be taken with care but if you mix the feed sensibly between wet and dry things usually work OK. On the odd occasions where the user has become too enthusiastic or the outlet blocks it is a matter of 2 minutes to open the body and clear the problem.
Of course this is early days and I wonder how long the (very sharp) blades will last but on the performance to date I can thoroughly recommend this shredder.
I have been using a generic cheap impact shredder, with self sharpened blades for years. Then a small bearing blew apart and a repairable machine became useless when the manufacturer refused to sell the spare parts.
So this machine is a big move forward, because Bosch do sell replacements parts readily, from blades to switches etc.
Now I’ve tested it over a weekend of shredding tough Pyrocantha branches of up to 30mm in thickness, and some light fresh and dry garden prunings.
In use it has been excellent. It is so much more steady in operation compared to previous units, i.e. the motor hardly seems to vary away from it’s top speed, even on inch thick branches. It hums away with a whistle that is quieter and bearable without, but is still advised to use ear defenders with, for extended work periods. Material is easy to feed in even with horiziontal sprouting side branches. For which the included plastic paddle seems light, but is actually very good at helping to feed through branches.
Output of the woody material varies from small chippings on the branch stems to some stringy bits on smaller thin twigs, with leaves chopped up medium to roughly. However as the aim is to provide material to be composted, this is excellent stuff, because all the bruising and chopping provides the edges/wounds that help to break it down quickly.
After a day and a half of solid pyrocantha shredding work I only just needed to turn the blade over. Here is an innovation too, it is a single blade not two seperate blades, and so much easier to turn over. Also, never once did it block or jam up over the whole weekend.
The power switch is a useful design too. To start you turn it to position 2, until the motor spins up, then release it to return to position 1. To stop the shredder, simply hit the power switch in the middle, it depresses and instantly turns off the power. So much safer in case of emergency usage to have a simple action stop switch as this.
The whole unit is well built, with superb attention to design detail. It’s well worth the money, wish I had bought one years ago.
I have been using a generic cheap impact shredder, with self sharpened blades for years. Then a small bearing blew apart and a repairable machine became useless when the manufacturer refused to sell the spare parts.
So this machine is a big move forward, because Bosch do sell replacements parts readily, from blades to switches etc.
Now I’ve tested it over a weekend of shredding tough Pyrocantha branches of up to 30mm in thickness, and some light fresh and dry garden prunings.
In use it has been excellent. It is so much more steady in operation compared to previous units, i.e. the motor hardly seems to vary away from it’s top speed, even on inch thick branches. It hums away with a whistle that is quieter and bearable without, but is still advised to use ear defenders with, for extended work periods. Material is easy to feed in even with horiziontal sprouting side branches. For which the included plastic paddle seems light, but is actually very good at helping to feed through branches.
Output of the woody material varies from small chippings on the branch stems to some stringy bits on smaller thin twigs, with leaves chopped up medium to roughly. However as the aim is to provide material to be composted, this is excellent stuff, because all the bruising and chopping provides the edges/wounds that help to break it down quickly.
After a day and a half of solid pyrocantha shredding work I only just needed to turn the blade over. Here is an innovation too, it is a single blade not two seperate blades, and so much easier to turn over. Also, never once did it block or jam up over the whole weekend.
The power switch is a useful design too. To start you turn it to position 2, until the motor spins up, then release it to return to position 1. To stop the shredder, simply hit the power switch in the middle, it depresses and instantly turns off the power. So much safer in case of emergency usage to have a simple action stop switch as this.
The whole unit is well built, with superb attention to design detail. It’s well worth the money, wish I had bought one years ago.
I bought one of these shredders a couple of months back and have used it several times over the summer. I wanted a shredder that would chop the green waste for composting and also turn the woody material into a wood mulch. This type of shredder is not best suited to making mulch, but I have been pleasantly surprised. The mulch it makes is quite fine chunks of wood, about 1cm sq. so much smaller than commercially made bark mulch. But it works just the same, and actually looks nicer.
I was concerned about how long the blade would last given that I have a lot of woody material to shred, but it has been absolutely fine. I took the advice of another reviewer and have not put any mud through the shredder, and I also gave the blade a spray of WD40 after each use and so far it seems as sharp as when new. I notice that the blade seems to be double sided, and that when this side does dull I can just flip it over, which if correct is a bonus.
It doesn’t come with a bag or anything to catch the output, but I found my wife’s big ikea bag for life is a good fit, and at 40p is a lot cheaper than the one that Bosch are offering to sell as an extra.
The only other bit of advice is if using it with dry and dusty stuff, check the motor filter regularly as it tends to collect dust and clog up, then it will overheat.
I picked up the first recommendation for the ATX 2200 from usenet and links to excellent reviews in various gardening review sites, where you will find favourable comments about the “gear” type shredding mechanism. Be warned, that is the ATX 2000 or 2200. The ATX 2200 Rapid has a completely different, spinning blade type cutter. I think it is a bit disingenuous of Bosch to trade on the reputation of a different design in this way.
That said, I was very impressed indeed when I first used it. As promised, it copes with 35 mm branches with ease. It’s not too noisy, but you should wear stout gloves at least, because protruding branches can sometimes vibrate rapidly and violently. I’ve never had anything ejected, though. In my first batch, I reduced a huge pile of cuttings, probably a cubic metre, to about 100 litres volume in an hour without a single jam. After that, the blade became blunt. You will easily recognise when this has happened because it won’t “self feed”, and depending on the material is much more prone to jamming. The blade is double sided and easy enough to reverse.
I’ve now blunted both edges of two blades, I find I get about half an hour out of a new side. I’ve also tried sharpening blades, initially with a diamond lap, then with a low speed whetstone on a two speed bench grinder. It’s not too difficult to sharpen, but the new blades are either flame or induction hardened: once the hard edge is gone, I only get about fifteen minutes out of a newly sharpened side. So it is certainly not a tool for all day, or professional use (but to be fair, of course, it is *much* cheaper than “pro” models).
But for ordinary domestic use, you will shred a vast amount of stuff with a single new blade, and the time saving over dealing with stuff by hand is very substantial.
Recommended, but only four stars, from me. And I’ve ordered a couple more blades.
I must say we are living on Rhodes in Greece so things might be different in the UK.
We had a Bosch Shredder in the UK, but that garden was mature and we had quite a lot of heavy branches but it did not like fresh stems. It gave us a long and reliable service.
A couple of people mentioned FredtheShed in the reviews and I contacted him and he recommended this shredder.
We were a little worried with our experience with green stems before but Fred said go for it.We have only had it a few days and it is fantastic. I think it has a different action to our previous one which once you got the branch started it fed itself through where as this has to be helped through or maybe that is because we have not any thick branches as most things get hacked right back every winter. We have thrown everything at it and it copes brilliantly, Weeds, rose and geranium prunings, honeysuckle and vine tendrils, dead headings and even a very invasive and fleshy ground cover plant which we thought might cause problems.
We have only had it a few days so it is early to say and I gather that dirt blunts the blades in seconds so you would have to be careful with weeds. I would also think it has to remain very sharp to cope with this type of material so time will tell. We throw weeds in a large bucket of water anyway and use that to water the vegetables,emptying it weekly but of course they dry out very quickly here. The new blades are around 13.50 so we are keeping one in case.
Our aim is to get lots of organic matter to improve our soil and because of the heat, everything has to be shredded first so we bought a Flymo Scirrocco Leaf Blower/Shredder at the same time which was a great disappointment – see my review and although the leaves went through the Bosch OK we were worried about the dirt element so will be putting them on the lawn and chomping them up that way.
So Far very pleased. It does more than we ever expected from it.
Tried this out at the week-end. Worked very well for 2 hours of shredding, small, medium sized branches (apple, brambles, laurel bush, leylandii and other twigs etc) and easy to use. There is a plastic flap / guard across the opening which is better than other models I’ve used before. The red plastic ‘pusher’ works well too. Got caught out once though as I had my gloved hand knocked by a small twig which was rotating v fast, wasn’t pushing down with my hand but it was several inches above the opening and the twig hurt my finger. Do wear heavy duty gardening gloves. They do warn you about this as well as things flying out.
I was told by son who was in the house that it’s not too noisy, but difficult for me to assess as I was wearing ear protectors. It is not too heavy so I could carry it from the house into the garden. It chopped up branches about 350mm (~1.5″) diameter not sure though if it can cope with larger / wider branches . There didn’t seem to be any guidance on this. It was handy that once you put in the longer, smaller branches eg bramble, leylandii and laurel which had some side shoots and leaves, it pulls them down into the shredder which was nice feature. I folded some of them over too so the side shoots were taken in and chopped without too much difficulty.
The shredded wood came out in small chips. The leyandii leaves were broken up in small sections or they may have been torn away from the wood so should be OK for mulching / composting I think. However the result for the laurel leaves was not so good. I’ve never found anything to chop these up, but the good news is that the brown leaves (rather than still a bit sappy, they take ages to die off) did seem to get torn up a bit. It may be because the bag was getting full.
I didn’t put in a lot of waste at the same time think you need to be careful about not overloading it.
I did not have a clear collection bag so it is not easy to see when it gets full but this was obvious when the chips went onto the ground!
I’ve given it a 4 star though because one of the wheels kept coming off. It is fastened by a plastic ‘bung’ which you have to hammer in place but it kept slipping out, luckily I didn’t lose it, otherwise not sure how one could fasten the wheel. Also I couldn’t open the cover to store the alan key, which is advises in the instructions. These are pictorial so some people may find it difficult to follow. Asked my son what some of the diagrams meant.
However, it seems to be better than previous more expensive models I’ve tried in the past but it is early days. It did not get clogged although I used fewer green waste, works better with dry / dead material I’m sure and I left in running some of the time while I cut off more branches.
You need a hammer and a screwdriver to assemble it.
It arrived the day after I ordered it,, brilliant.
Well done amazon.
Would recommend it.
Bought this item to deal with some bushes i was removing. Item came quickly and ran very well for first few runs but then started to resist restarting after cleaning- finally stopped restarting- so amazon replaced it with very good service. Delivery company- yodel -would not take old unit when they delivered new item even thought new item was put right next to old item and was packed ready to go!! After much aggravation finally took old item –useless shower!! New item very good but eats blades and difficult to get good new edge on old blade- maybe not intended for resharpening . shredder will take a lot of material and mulches down to small chips while blade lasts. Well impressed with item.
I bought this after owning a large, noisy and rather alarming old shredder for some years. I got rid of this a couple of years ago, but found that I missed the usefulness of being able to shred prunings, etc. I researched new machines online, and this one seemed to get good reviews overall. I have now used it twice, both times for a couple of hours. It works perfectly, does not jam, and produces a good quantity of chippings quickly. If, however you put thin twiggy branches in, you get thin twiggy shreddings. These are OK for composting, but less good if you want to use the shreddings as a mulch, or path covering. In essence, as with much in life, you get out what you put in! I would, on the basis of admittedly limited use so far, definitely recommend this machine.
I wanted a simple shredder to get rid of the Xmas tree branches and a fair amount of ‘brush’ lying around the garden. On the basis of other reviews I went for the Rapid 2200 and I am not disappointed. The unit is light, easy to use and comes with a very useful tool for pushing the last bits into the shredder. It made very light work of everything I threw at it and if even managed the 25mm – 40mm branches just as stated in the description. I suspect it would not be so good for heavy work or constant use, but for light garden use, I’m very impressed. I also like the fact that getting at the blade for replacement or clearing a blockage (I have not had one yet) is just a matter of unscrewing a single knob on the top, at the back.
After a lot of research, and a pile (and I mean a huge pile) of shrub cuttings that needed getting rid of, I opted for this; other reviews on Amazon were fairly positive, so it was ordered; arrived the next day before 8am and not wanting to annoy the neighbours too much, I built it; very very easy assembly, slip in the bar for the wheels, tap on the wheels and attach the body of the shredder to the stand with two screws and hey presto, ready to use. Still before 10am (one review had said it was noisy, well it’s a shredder, so what do you expect?) so quick cup of coffee, caught up on some work and at 1030am, started to use it.
Very very simple to use; screw in the safety switch (mine came already screwed in), start it up with the on/off switch and start feeding in your cuttings. I didn’t buy a separate waste bag, I used a large bucket that I already had, and that sufficed.
What can I say, it made light work of hard wood around 4cm in diameter, you do need to feed the cuttings in a bit, sometimes it will take them (depends on the thickness) on its own, and it produced very small chippings. It does tend to leave the really think wispy tops of branches as they are, but that’s not really a problem.
All in all, this is an excellent piece of equipment – some of the reviews stated that if a stone or mud gets in it will blunt the blade very quickly – I had piled my cuttings on stones, so was just careful that only the cuttings went into the feeder – simples tsk.
Really recommend this – it does exactly what it says on the box !!
I’ve tried several shredders, including the ‘quiet’ ones, and have always been disappointed by them. They have all become blocked or cut out every few minutes. This one is different. It is very fast (although it is noisy and you ought to wear earplugs when using it) and it just eats up branch after branch after branch without getting clogged up or cutting out. It’s better with freshly cut branches than dry ones and it deals with leafy branches easily.
I would have liked to have taken half a star off for the noise, which gets to you after a couple of hours, even with protection, but it’s more worthy of five stars than four.
All my electrical tools are Bosch now. They are reliable and well priced and have not yet let me down.
Good points first. This shredder prefers wood to sinewy brambly material as these can wrap themselves around the blade. It’s super fast motor can chop and deal with branches fed into it up to about 2cm in diameter {across} very very quickly. Anything fed into it that it can’t cope with causes it to turn off. A good feature as you soon learn what it can and can’t do. The blade is reversable and easy to turn over but should I have began to notice wear on the blade after 12 hours of heavy use? Mmm. Whatever, I carried on and found that a worn blade can still do the business if not quite as happily. The good news is that you can find replacement blades on the internet at a reasonable price. This shredder is fairly loud and I found myself retreating to the garage in order not to gets anyones back up in a built up area. You might need to consider this. I was also expecting a collection bag but apparently these are separate purchases…one way to keep your profits up I suppose..naughty. Fortunately I run mine in a large plastic storage box which I empty as needed thus giving the motor a rest and a chance to cool for a while. All said this is a good purchase at a good price and small niggles aside I am pleased with this item. It’s down to how much you have or want to spend…but that’s life!
I really have no complaints at all, I am seriously impressed. The shredded product is pretty much what I expected, perhaps not fine enough to quickly make good-quality compost but perfectly adequate for a coarse mulch. And if what you’re looking for is a way to reduce large volumes of garden waste to a couple of bins full this will do the trick.
Yes, it’s a bit noisy. I’m not quite sure what people expect from a machine that grinds up wood, but this device is hardly likely to be quiet about it. If we avoided feeding in branches that were too large for it, it sounded about as loud as a petrol mower. I didn’t think it warranted ear protection but for repeated, prolonged use it would probably be wise.
Some kind of hopper to catch the chippings would possibly be a small improvement but a pair of garden grabbers make short work of gathering it all up.
I’d buy this shredder again without hesitation.
I was looking for a replacement and really fancied another Bosch.After reading many reviews I bought this one and have not been disappointed. It went about reducing the branches I had cut to a very fine mulch in almost no time at all.
Two points though (and the reason for four stars and not five). first it is fast but a bit on the noisy side and secondly, when handling the larger diameter branches it tended to slow down almost to a stop and I had to ease up on the preasure momentarily to let the motor get up to speed again,but I soon got used to that.Everything else including leaves it handled with no problem at all
Easy to assemble; though when the body was attached to the leg frame, it was lopsided; only a little, but it should have sat uniformly on the frame; the manufacturer had not drilled the screw fixing holes uniformly into the metal legs; anyway no matter; that’s just me. 40mm is the rated maximum diameter for shredding; a bit optimistic because to shred that diameter unless the branch is very soft will stall the motor. So the best method, for example when in my case shredding conifers is first to lop the branches into handlable lengths then snip intermediate branches again so that you are feeding single branches into the machine and best not to exceed 18mm diameter and of course note the icon on the feed opening; feed from the righthand side. I put a bog standard plastic bucket under the hopper and when filled; either loaded it into a flexible trug or directly onto the garden and this worked very well indeed. To start the shredder; simply turn the large red start knob fully clockwise and release and away you go; don’t forget the ear defenders and I suggest a perspex face guard; not that anything kicked back; just commonsense and protection….just in case. I also wear red rubberised gloves to protect hands from any sharp splinters. To stop the machine, either press the center of the large red knob once and this is the emergency stop; works well or turn the red knob fully anti-clockwise; to the left to stop and release the knob. Regardless of the comment about not shredding maximum diameter branches; best to cut these up for burning or disposal in the bin. My overall thoughts on this shredder is good I thoroughly recommend this machine for garden shredding including in my case conifers; excellent machine, no known problems todate and it shreds pretty quickly if you use some commonsense and don’t attempt to go to maximum size shredding. I would buy one again if necessary. As soon as you put a branch into the shredder the automatic feed takes the material down so keep fingers away from the feed area and don’t hold onto the branches; if the branches stops, then use the push stich provided; works very well indeed; the machine will take it through. Good machine, recommended and value for money and it’s made by a well known company Bosch
I selected the AXT Rapid 2200 Shredder after reading the Amazon user-reviews. After many years of Shredder purchase/use I am convinced that 2 types of Shredder are required for the average garden – one such as the AXT Rapid 2200 for the small-stuff & a larger slow-speed/high-torque unit for the larger branches. I have that combination now (or I will have when I replace the defective Electrical Cut-out Device on the large-unit). This also is a Bosch Model.
The AXT Rapid 2200 is the second “small-stuff” Bosch-Shredder I have purchased. The original had a “corkscrew” cutting action, & gave good service, but wear of the corkscrew blade brought it to the point of poor performance. I looked at replacing the cutting parts myself, but the parts-cost alone was considerable & I decided that the difficulty of repair warranted purchase of the apparently-superior AXT Rapid 2200 unit. This proved to be the better decision. I expected heavy wear-rate of the Blade from the user-comments, (& also because of the arduous duty that the blade has to do). I have not had the unit long, & recently rotated the Blade to use its second cutting-edge. I will be purchasing a new Blade in the very near future. The beauty of the Bosch Units I now have is that the Blades are so easy to change, & on changing the machine perform as new, giving maintenance at a fraction of new-unit cost. When I fit a new blade I will be showing the old one to local repair-shops to see if there is local facility to improve on the hand-held grinder refurbishment that I would be limited to.
I fully recommend the AXT Rapid 2200 unit for small-stuff use. Anyone expecting this unit to action large-branches will be disappointed. Get the larger Bosch slow-speed machine for that duty. I would like one-unit to do both jobs, but after a few years of shredding experience I am not living in hope. However, when shredding think Bosch, you will not go far wrong.
Everything I have thrown at this thing has been shredded in fine style, and believe me, we have thrown A LOT through it in the short time we have owned it … dry dead wood, soft leafy stuff, even the palm branches go through it as long as you feed them in nice and steadily (well, all except the first 20-30cm which is too thick to go in the hopper).
Previously our land was strewn with overgrown trees, or dead bits of branches and twigs, and each time I thought of cutting something back I was wondering how I would rid myself of all the excess without having to burn a fire all day … not any more. The thicker stuff is piled up drying for the log burner next winter, and the thinner and leafy stuff is being used as mulch under our trees.
Use of this thing is simple and very quick, it does slightly self feed, but the design of the hopper combined with the use of the paddle that comes with it makes life simple. As long as it goes in the hopper (which will take a decent sized branch easily larger than the dimensions quoted in the specs), then this thing will turn it into chippings in no time.
Woody stuff gets chopped into nice small pieces, leafy green stuff shredded with ease … some of the leaves come through, but they will compost down in no time.
I was considering the more expensive Bosch shredders, but to be honest I am VERY glad I chose this one. At the price Amazon charged me for this machine plus a spare blade and the paltry amount for delivery, I also have more change in my pocket than I would have had I bought the cheapest “home brand” strimmer here in Portugal, which I am certain would have lasted me no time at all.
Tips
– I use one of those large rubbery, double-handled style garden waste buckets underneath it to catch all the shredded material in … if you have one you will have no need for the accessory bag that can be purchased for this machine.
– One time I thought I had dulled the blade, but after quickly removing the cover and taking the blade out (which is a 2 minute job) and clearing all the build up of mulch that I could find, it started shredding again as if it was new.
UPDATE: Sadly the alloy feed mechanism which covers the blade area has developed a fault (it has “chunked” and chipped away leaving too much gap) which means that wood is being shredded more like a paper shredder than chipped as it should be. Seems it could be a design fault :/
Amazon are replacing it without any quibbling and all shipping totally free of charge (another reason to use their fantastic service), which is great, but will the next one do the same? I sincerely hope not as I was really happy with it until this happened.
I’ve used it four times so far. The material is shredded into quite fine particles which are settling down nicely on the compost heap. I have shredded branches up to 40mm across, occasionally the shredder has stopped but has continued quite happily when the start button is operated again.
It is well worth taking thicker side shoots off a branch before feeding it through the shredder, this little bit of effort makes the whole operation run smoother.
Although I haven’t had to change the blade so far I have looked to see how to, and it looks straight forward, as is taking the top off (after unplugging) to clean the inside after use.
While not quiet it is by no means as loud as I had expected and there are no complaints so far from neighbours.
I’ve now had it for over 3 years and I’ve found it to be quite temperamental! It was great to start with and got a lot of use (we’ve about half an acre). When working it’s still good (the blade has lasted well and I’m still using the original one, albeit I have turned it over to use the second side) but by the end of the first year (just outside the guarantee period of course!) it started cutting out after just a few minutes and then stopped working. There are few user-serviceable parts within but the fault seems to be with the microswitch/safety switches and some judicious use of electrical contact cleaner seems to help get it going again for a short while. As it’s designed to shred wood, I’m disappointed that after not that long and with proper use it’s failed. I’ll probably have to get replacement soon and am unsure I want another one like this but most reviews still rate Bosch as the best bet.
I claim to be an experienced shredder user – I have had several machines over a good number of years. For me the problems to overcome are blockages when feeding material through (my last shredder, an Alko New Tec 2500R, was dreadful for this), wear on the blades reducing performance, and noise.
In selecting this shredder I took in to account that it was given the thumbs up by Which? in November 2007, and had a very positive write-up on the “fredshed” website, a first-rate source of independent advice. I must endorse what Fred says about keeping the blade sharp:
“Take care with what you put in the shredder and especially do not get ANY soil in it. With the high speed even a small amount of soil acts like an abrasive and quickly blunts the blade.”
The machine is the best one I have had. It is well designed and constructed and also very powerful. The blade wears well (if you follow the advice above and also make sure no stones find their way in to the machine) and is a bit cheaper than most brands to replace. It is the quietest machine I have used…..but probably could still annoy the neighbours if run at unsociable hours. The best thing for me is that it is not prone to blocking. If used sensibly, with the help of the wide prodder, you can easily go whole sessions without a blockage.
The collection bag offered as an accessory is not really necessary. A large plastic crate/storage box does just as well in getting the shreddings to the compost heap.
To appreciate this machine you need to have tried some of the others. I recommend it to anyone considering buying a shredder to help control their garden waste.
On the down side, after a few uses (say about an hour) the blade was blunt and unless changed the mulcher clogged up quickly. It was used for only light mulching (eg. sweet pea plants, runner bean plants, hedge trimmings), no wood branches above 1 cm. diameter. After I turned the blade over for replacement and it was great for another couple of weeks until that also got blunt causes constant blockages after an hour or two of use. Replacement blades are not cheap, almost 12 pounds each.
On the plus side although the manual states that the blades cannot be resharpened, I nevertheless resharpened mine and they were good for another hour or so.
The only other minor niggle is that blockages were fairly frequent, admittedly I was using a lot of “green” material but if the outlet throat width of the mulcher were a couple of centimeters deeper I think most of these blockages might have been avoided.
Despite these comments I’m delighted with the shredder/mulcher, it makes composting so much more effective.