Bosch Shredder AXT 25 TC (plunger for trimmed material, 53-litre collection box, cardboard box, material throughput: 230 kg/h, max. cutting capacity: Dia. 45 mm, 2500 W)
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Space-saving storage
The removable hopper fits exactly into the collection box. This facilitates easy, practical and space-saving storage of the shredder. When collapsed for storage, the AXT 25 TC is only 67 cm high.
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Impressive performance with any garden materials
Shred green trimmings and woody garden materials without having to separate them first. The impressive performance of the AXT 25 TC is ensured by the hopper in combination with the drum cutter unit
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Practical collection box
The removable 53-litre collection box not only collects the shredded material, but is also easy to transport and empty thanks to its handles.
Technical data
•Motor power: 2500 W
•Cutting capacity: Dia. 45 mm
•Material throughput: 230 kg/h
•Collection box: 53 l
•Weight: 30.5 kg
 AXT 25 TC |  AXT 25 D |  AXT 22 D |  AXT Rapid 2000 | |
| Motor power | 2500 W | 2500 W | 2200 W | 2000 W |
| Cutting capacity | Dia. 45 mm | Dia. 40 mm | Dia. 38 mm | 35 mm dia. |
| Material throughput rate | approx. 230 kg/h | approx. 175 kg/h | approx. 170 kg/h | approx. 80 kg/h |
| Cutting speed | 41 rpm | 41 rpm | 41 rpm | 3650 rpm |
| Torque | approx. 650 Nm | approx. 650 Nm | approx. 600 Nm | approx. 12 Nm |
| Voltage | 230 V | 230 V | 230 V | 230 V |
| Weight | 30.5 kg | 31.3 kg | 31.3 kg | 11.5 kg |
| Collection box | 53 l | 53 l | 53 l | – |
| Automatic feed | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Space-saving storage | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Weight: | 30.5 kg |
| Dimensions: | 77.6 x 68.4 x 39.4 cm; 30.5 Kilograms |
| Model: | 600803370 |
| Part: | 600803370 |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Bosch |
| Quantity: | 1 |
This is a heavy weight Shredder which requires some muscle to move it around. After cutter adjustment it provided great results, as good as my previous Bosch Shredder.
The AXT 25 TC is a very powerfull quiet (Ear muffs not required) machine easily ably to chomp 40mm green brushwood and softer stuff such as ivy and honeysuckle. However, like most machinery, there is a technique to using it. If you ram softer stuff down too hard the cutter can’t get hold of it and it blocks but if you work with the machine it is remarkable what it will chomp.
I have only given it 4 stars for manoeverability as it is quite top heavy and needs a steadying hand. Also the cable is a bit short for a garden machine necessitating the use of an extension cable. Note that a heavy duty cable is necessary: a 1.5 sq mm is good for 10 m or so but 1.75 sq mm is better for up to 25 m and must be uncoiled.
Bruce
Great at shredding all sorts of vegetation without too much trouble. Powerful. Shredding is also reasonably small.
It folds into a very compact space.
Quite noisy but not unbearable.
Getting the collection bin in and out can be a bit of a struggle if not on very flat ground.
It is very heavy and the centre of gravity is quite high so it tends to fall to the side when being transported over uneven ground.
The cable storage does not work well especially when moving it about. Can be overcome with looping through the handle but not well designed.
Overall happy as it works so welll as a shredder. The turbine blades are an excellent design.
There is nothing to dislike about this. It is easy to use and does the job nicely. I bought this one to replace a cheaper brand that broke after minimal usage.
This machine does the job it says it will do. A little slow but only to be expected with the capability of shredding large diameter material. It shreds material well but not as fine as I would liked however the end result in the composter has yet to be proved
Felled a tree and put most of it (except for the large, fire-log-like lower parts of the main branches) through this. Also put about 10 cubic metres of hedge through it.
It does a great job of chomping through meters of branches, pulling them in and cutting them down to nothing.
It does take a lot of tending. Even the big agricultural chippers take a fair bit of tending. So don’t expect to clear up a felled tree in 20 minutes, or as an aside to whatever else you’re doing, like hedgetrimming. Think more like hours or a day, just for the shredding.
BUT, with some work, it’ll turn a small garden’s worth of branches into a few much smaller piles of woodchips.
It does struggle with wetter stuff, like very leafy upper branches and shrubs. But if you’re a bit strategic, keeping some woodier branches around, you can feed them in after the leafy stuff, and it’ll clear itself.
Almost never jams, unless you’re really pushing what you can fit into it.
The auto-sharpening mechanism (where you just tighten a knob to sharpen it) is pretty cool. Be sure not to tighten the wrong knob when assembling though, or you’ll waste some of the brand new blades as soon as you turn it on.
Bear in mind that buying a trailer and taking the branches to a council dump might be more suitable for you. Depends on what you need, and how you want to work, I guess.
I am not going to write a novel on this item but as headline implies I am glad I chose the Bosch. My wife and I have used it many times and have used it much more frequently than I would have expected to. It is a very strong machine and its capacity is more than expected. This is not a cheap option but I have no regret in buying this item as it has repaid its value a few times over and looks to have a long life ahead of it. I have not top rated its manoeuvrability or noise level. With noise level – we would be odd to not expect noise. It is not the most easily transported item but one gets used to it – not really a problem at all.
Bought this over a year ago and love it. The chute works well to feed items through it. Love the red plastic tool for poking things down the chute. I like that it can be made smaller for storage. Blades can be altered so good if been cutting thick items and want to change to smaller items or if the blades have just worn. Went for the TC version and glad I did as it shreds well. Easy to undo to unblock the blades from too much in the waste container. Yes noisy but not any where near as noisy as other shredders we’ve had. It is heavy to move even on the castors but that’s because it’s a solid bit of equipment. Not flimsy and wobbly like some. If someone could just make it quieter and find a way to stop the shreddings piling up in the middle of the container then blocking the blades it would be perfect. Also although there is a section that you can wind the cord around, if does keep coming undone. An area to plug the plug into once it’s wound to stop it moving would be very helpful. We have used it a lot. I would recommend this shredder if you want something sturdy that will last.
Bought this over a year ago and love it. The chute works well to feed items through it. Love the red plastic tool for poking things down the chute. I like that it can be made smaller for storage. Blades can be altered so good if been cutting thick items and want to change to smaller items or if the blades have just worn. Went for the TC version and glad I did as it shreds well. Easy to undo to unblock the blades from too much in the waste container. Yes noisy but not any where near as noisy as other shredders we’ve had. It is heavy to move even on the castors but that’s because it’s a solid bit of equipment. Not flimsy and wobbly like some. If someone could just make it quieter and find a way to stop the shreddings piling up in the middle of the container then blocking the blades it would be perfect. Also although there is a section that you can wind the cord around, if does keep coming undone. An area to plug the plug into once it’s wound to stop it moving would be very helpful. We have used it a lot. I would recommend this shredder if you want something sturdy that will last.
I dislike power tools for noise and this is the quietest one I have found that is electric. this is because it doesn’t ‘chew’ like petrol commercial shredders, it chops which does mean you have to carefully put things in.It is compact, heavy and not easy to move, the wheels are not great, I found if I took the box off I could wheel it at an angle. So while it is on the high end for price, for me who likes to make a mulch rather than drop to the tip, without waking the whole street, then it is great.
My wife and I have just spent a couple of days mulching a load of branch clippings and the Bosch has proved up to the task. A bit unwieldy to move on its wheels (we took the feeder and bin off and just carried it to the work area), but once in place it was steady enough. I was going to buy a Mac Allister shredder from B&Y at less than half the price of the Bosch, but now having seen the Bosch the difference in build quality is noticeable. Also, the Bosch comes with a 3 year warranty and, importantly for me is built in Europe.
I just used this today for the first time and its great. Crunches up leaves, pruned branches, older wood. Great for my compost heap as all in smaller bits. Great fun to use too. Really happy with it. Easy to setup, use and store.
So, this Bosch Shredder AXT Rapid 2200 had very good reviews on Which? and is currently only 169 on Amazon.
It’s nice and light too. Easy to wheel around or even lift in and out the car, if you need to take it down the allotment.
I’ve just spent 3hrs shredding a mass of ivy plus a few birch and ash twigs and branches. This shredder worked very well. Didn’t block or snag once. It’ll take branches up to 40mm in diameter. Anything thicker simply goes on my wildlife log pile.
Great piece of kit. Made mince meat out of an old plumtree and a rambling rose that had been brought down by high winds (apart from the main trunk). However, I would have prefered the chips/waste to come out a bit smaller so that it could have been used in the borders. Never grumbled, very “hungry”, but was easily cleared if anything did get a bit stuck (with a long stick/rod – make sure you unplug the machine, just in case….) Would defintely recommend!
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.
finally a shredder that doesn’t get stuck when faced with leafy twigs! I have huge hedges to cut every year,almost a kilometer long. shredding the cuttings has always been quite a struggle as my previous shredder didn’t like small bendy twigs and leaves and kept stalling. The new machine roars just through the lot and leaves me with masses of mulch, Great!
I purchased this as it was the most powerful domestic shredder I could find, and it has not disappointed. I have a a lot of bushes and trees which need trimmed back, and this has made that job very easy to have the branches disposed of.
As long as the diameter is not too big, it is possible to feed in a branch (of any length), and walk away. The branch will be chopped up into little pieces, ready for the next one. This will also chop up smaller bits of garden rubbish like twigs and leaves (so long as they are dry).
This is one of the best garden tools I own, and have recommended to a number of neighbours.
Had a petrol shredder previously, very heavy and easily clogged up. This is in a different league. Eats up the cuttings from our large hedges and also deals with the autumn cut back of mature shrubs. No clogging if you feed it steadily and it is extremely quiet – less noise than the mower and a great deal less than a strimmer. Easy to use and empty and move about the garden. Delighted.
Perfect for shredding willow, leylandii, green and woody waste. The turbine cut copes with all sizes as long as you don’t try to force too much through at once.
It is quite heavy even with the pair of wheels.
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!
This is a really sturdy- not so little -machine it cuts with ease is very quick and much quieter than most others, it shreds into nice size pieces although the more solid branches cut better than twiggy bits, if any twiggy bits slip through I just take them out or represent them…..I have really searched for something say that is a fault but can find nothing…..it can be a bit wobbly when you move it, just walk slowly that seems to stop the wobble….also I wish there was a bit more clearance under the collection box, it would make it easier to pull it out, but these are minor issues.
Would I buy this again? YES, I wish I had bought it sooner, it is a Brilliant, solid machine.
It handles both hard branches and soft live plants without blocking. I removed a small tree and several bushes and it all fitted in to my garden waste bin after processing. Not super fast, but I guess that’s for safety. The guarantee is 3 years when you register it with Bosch online. A good product.
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
After watching cheaper brands on youtube struggling with thicker branches this shredder literally makes mince meat of them. Not so good on light fir type bushes as it does clog the cutter. Could do with a handle to manoeuvre around as it is quite heavy.
This is a solid shredder. Great for woody bits upto 5cm ish, not so good for lots of green leaves.
Waited ages and researched shredders to death. This came out on top for branches. It’s easy to use. I would say it can tip over a bit when dragging it up and down the garden. I still would not swap it for any other shredder. Does the job nicely.
Awesome. Read the reviews in Which and decided to get this one. Have not been disappointed as it has done a fantastic job of shredding a large collection of branches in my garden. Tore through lots of Leylandi branches. If it blocks then it is really easy to unblock, by simply putting in reverse and pulling the offender out. Can’t recommend enough. Only marked it down (slightly) as it is heavy and not that easy to manoeuvre … I had to carry up some garden stairs.
It does the job but it is a bit slow, I would not say it shreds rather chops into small bits .
Hard to pull about. Be nice if it had four wheels instead of two . I had to tie a rope to it.
I think the cheaper one would have been better for my garden tree branches etc
I read a few reviews to get my choice made. A fair sized garden with quite a bit of shrubbery. Previously had the Bosch stand-up shredder which lasted well but couldn’t cope with anything very thick and was pretty noisy. Have used this several times. A slower turning action so noise problem. Coped with everything I put through it and chopped up well. Does need to be dry materiel as anything damp does look as if it might clog . Pleased with this and hope it lasts as long as the previous model.
It is pricey but I guess you get what you pay for. It is quite heavy but i guess it needs to be as the branches do move about quite a lot. Please make sure you wear glasses when feeding this as the branches do whip about.
Plus: Does the job / shreds very well – even thick branches / has a quiet motor / a good sized collection box / easy and safe to use / doesn’t jam.
Cons: Difficult to manoeuvre (the wheels are too small and too close together) / very heavy to move / the cable storage system is useless.
Dont worry about the wheels as some other reviewers pointed out. They are not important. However, this workhorse tirelessly does the best that it is designed to do. Branches, mulch, leaves, vines, ivy… everything got consumed like a charm. It is also very safe.
Arrived damaged but got a rebate for all the scratches. Then on sale for much less than paid the week after 🙁
Very effective, but still clogs with smaller twigs etc.
Moving it isn’t as easy as you think even with wheels. It’s very heavy.
Getting the collection box on and off is awkward. The box catches on the floor (design issue)
Effective tool but over priced
What a beast! I’ve named mine Audrey, after the voracious plant in “Little Shop of Horrors”.
The Bosch was bought to replace my ailing Al-Ko shredder, and they’re very different. The Al-Ko relied on rapidly spinning blades which often got blunt or jammed. The Bosch has a cog-like toothed wheel that drags the material in and crushes it into small pieces. It runs much more slowly, but relentlessly, dragging branches up to 40-45 mm in without pausing for breath. This afternoon I shredded branches from a fir, enough to fill my estate car three times on a trip to the tip. I’m left with a dustbin full of wooden chips to go on the borders, and another bin full of softer material to rot down.
It’s at its best with woody branches and twigs; soft material won’t get chopped up as small as my old Al-Ko could manage. This doesn’t matter to me, though, as it will still rot down eventually.
I planned at first to buy a cheaper bladed shredder, but I’m very glad now to have paid the 100 or so extra for the Bosch. It feels very solid, as if it will go on for years (it has a 3 year warranty). And it’s very small and neat (though heavy, and a bit awkward to move around as it’s quite low). And feeding in the branches is quite addictive! (Who saw Fargo?)
What a beast! I’ve named mine Audrey, after the voracious plant in “Little Shop of Horrors”.
The Bosch was bought to replace my ailing Al-Ko shredder, and they’re very different. The Al-Ko relied on rapidly spinning blades which often got blunt or jammed. The Bosch has a cog-like toothed wheel that drags the material in and crushes it into small pieces. It runs much more slowly, but relentlessly, dragging branches up to 40-45 mm in without pausing for breath. This afternoon I shredded branches from a fir, enough to fill my estate car three times on a trip to the tip. I’m left with a dustbin full of wooden chips to go on the borders, and another bin full of softer material to rot down.
It’s at its best with woody branches and twigs; soft material won’t get chopped up as small as my old Al-Ko could manage. This doesn’t matter to me, though, as it will still rot down eventually.
I planned at first to buy a cheaper bladed shredder, but I’m very glad now to have paid the 100 or so extra for the Bosch. It feels very solid, as if it will go on for years (it has a 3 year warranty). And it’s very small and neat (though heavy, and a bit awkward to move around as it’s quite low). And feeding in the branches is quite addictive! (Who saw Fargo?)
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.
This shredder is quieter, smoother and feeds easier than my previous one. And it didn’t block up for the whole job.
My biggest problem is now working out what to do with the previous one, which still works, but I got fed up with having to dismantle it every time it blocked.
Happily munched its way through all sorts of branches from my garden, up to an inch or two thick. Produces mulch for under shrubs and areas i don’t want weeds growing so a win-win! Far easier than burning or dragging prunings to the dump. Folds up neatly for storage too.
A number of years ago I had a cheap shredder which never worked well and then stopped working altogether.
Therefore I was unsure that domestic shredders were of any use!
Having felled two large trees I had a large quantity of branches to dispose of.
After reading the reviews I decided to buy the Bosch ATX25 TC. It has been the best purchase that I have ever made. It shreds branches, complete with green leaves, up to 2 inch diameter with no effort. I have shredded over 50 large sack fulls in a very short time.
I an an engineer and familiar with machinery therefore not easily impressed but this shredder has amazed me.
You get what you pay for, if you want perfection this is definitely the multi-purpose shredder for you.
Well done Bosch.
We decided to take down our Leylandii conifer hedges as part of landscaping the back garden. In all we took out 29 trees of 6′ to 8′ in height. In 3 days I shredded a mountainous pile of branches without it jamming once! The Turbine system is a huge improvement over a previous blade shredder. So long as you are patient and don’t overload the Hopper , and be careful with the branch size it shreds very well. It also shredded wet branches and softer material without any problem. The mulch produced is a good size to put on the garden. I wore ear protectors but my neighbour told me it was very quiet and not annoying! You do need to be careful moving it as the weight is above the stand. It is more expensive than some other models but it was worth every penny.
Awesome. Used this to clear up after chopping down 2 trees in my garden. They were way too big and we had no time to really manage them. One was a plum tree and the other was a very overgrown pine tree. Thing beauty managed to mulch through all of the branches and leaves. Absolutely worth the price. A tree surgeon would have charged me 2K easily. I managed to get the job done for less than 500 after purchasing this a mini pole saw (chain) and the van hire to get rid of the waste. Perfect if you even need this for a large scale one time job. Never missed a best.
Decided to trim down my large garden then realised I would easily fill a large skip or many many trips to the dump so decided to buy one of these. Used it for about 3 hours of continuous shredding and as long as you don’t get carried away ramming branches in there it made light work of everything I put in there ( nothing over 30mm though) Noticed the blade is getting a bit blunt now but you can turn it over as they are double sided. It has jammed up a couple of times when I put lots of leaves in there but it’s easy to clear out. Should have got one ages ago
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.
This is an excellent product and does exactly as advertised. We have a large garden with lots of trees and hedges, most of the trees are dealt with by tree surgeons on a regular basis but some of the smaller stuff we look after ourselves – this product (so far) does a great job. Howe Tools are also a good company to deal with; I had need to contact them when the shredder arrived and my problem was dealt with within 24 hours – good product and an excellent company – thank you
Thicker branches come out in somewhat crushed slices rather than chips but rarely blocked in an afternoon of non stop shredding, didn’t overheat and took everything reasonable thrown at it. Trivial to unblock on rare occasions I was too enthusiastic. Can be difficult to get smaller soft stuff through but mixing thin branches with loose stuff solves. Buy again? Definitely.
Chomps up dry wood, stalks, leafy hazel branches with no problem at all. The box is a convenient container to take the shreddings to the compost heap or to use as a mulch. I have a lot of brambles and this shredder copes well with them particularly if you feed them in unbunched, so the shredder pulls them into its hopper bit-by-bit. Convenient to put away in the shged as the feed mechanism goes away into the shreddings box.
This is an excellent heavy duty garden shredder that munches through the the thicker stuff with ease. Health and safety has been improved but at the expense of mobility and convenience. Getting the box in and out is no mean feat! The really disappointing aspects that made it 4 star were the small wheels with a small wheelbase that made moving the shredder over even slightly rough ground difficult and with a danger of it falling over. the AXT 2200 HP had larger wheels and much wider wheelbase making it easier to move. the final disappointment was the plug … an ordinary indoor household plug rather than the rubberised outdoor plug.
Put simply, this is the best bit of kit I’ve ever bought. It does exactly what it’s supposed to. It shreds stuff easily and I’ve put some big branches through it and have shredded a huge amount of stuff which would have taken hours to dispose of with it. I wished I’d bought one years ago. (And no, I don’t work for Bosch ). Amazon customer service as usual was excellent when the first one was delivered damaged but they replaced the next day. Set up is child’s play. Fantastic product and well worth the money, plus a three year warranty, you can’t go wrong.
I have used this now to create over 10 cubic metres of mulch over three years and it is still going strong. First shredder I’ve ever owned that doesn’t get blocked and didn’t break from normal use. (The most you have to do is put it on reverse and then put through a thick branch to clear any twigs, or) Totally different mechanism from the cheap ones. Rotating set of blades pulls the branches in. Well worth the investment.
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.
Another big plus point for me is that the shredder is much quieter to operate than many garden shredders. I used ear protectors to operate the machine but in practice it is not likely to cause huge noise interference for your neighbours.
At the moment I have not yet used the machine on any wet garden material so cannot pass comment on how it copes with this.
I am very pleased that I decided to spend a bit more on the shredder than I had originally intended to get this model.
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.
OK, I’m usually too lazy to write a review unless something really impresses me – this does! Having purchased a Bosch ATX 2000 some years ago, which I was seriously unimpressed with, I figured that garden shredders were poor. However, with a very large quantity of tree branches to dispose of, I read many reviews. It seems that designs have improved somewhat. This is expensive – but about the same cost of having my branches disposed of commercially (this time). So I bought one…and WOW, what a machine. It’s pretty big and very heavy, but good heavens it does the job. It’s pretty quiet too. The blade isn’t going hyper-fast, then slowing down as it starts to ‘chew’, it just rotates slowly and chomps everything you throw at it. I doubted that it could cope with the advertised 45mm, but it easily gobbled up the 50mm willow branches. It doesn’t cut these into tiny pieces though – you end up with 50mm * 15mm hockey pucks – but these look quite attractive when scattered over my flower beds. Very pleased I bought it.
Not being an expert at shredding anything other than paper I did some research and this machine seemed to be one of the best. Scored 74% in Which.
It has not disappointed – it basically EATS wood for breakfast. Brilliant and as the ads suggest the machine is very quiet considering what it is doing. Had a few initial set up problems due to the very poor instructions and the basket not fitting just right but I got there in the end. Good fun day in the garden had by me. What can I cut down next?
This has coped with everything my garden “tidy up” has thrown at it including laurel, conifers, holly and buddleja. As long as you take your time feeding the branches into the machine and alternate the very leafy stuff with the more woody stuff it copes really well. It’s not as noisy as I thought it would be, but I would still recommend ear defenders and definitely safety glasses.
This really is an excellent shredder – not cheap but worth the money. We previously owned a JCB and it was extremely noise and clogged easily while chopping green materials. The blade on this turns much slower and there is quite a low level of noise while it is cutting quite significant branches. It seems to handle green stems without clogging and has a large collecting tank for the shredded material.
It seems very well designed with a blade that can be adusted to self sharpen and a feeding assembly that easily stores to minimise the footprint.
the only negatives are that it is quite heavy and can be tricky to manoeuvre. The shredded branches are also shredded into coarser pieces than some shredders – although this is not really a big issue.
The only negative
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.
This has been a fantastic purchase. The setup was easy. It’s very quiet and shreds a fantastic variety of thicknesses. I’m using the shreddings as a mulch. The pieces are a bit too large for compost (unless you’re prepared to wait ages); I tried putting the shreddings through again to cut them smaller but that didn’t work… I’m happy with the mulch I’m getting though. Well worth the cost, in my opinion, after having binned a previous cheaper shredder. You get what you pay for.
Has proved to be an excellent help as I have a large garden that needed a lot of cutting back. I was putting it off because the only way the get rid of the cuttings was via a bonfire. Now this machine chomps up an unbelievable amount and converts it into mulch. I have not had the plastic tool contact the blades as some others have, so assume there has been a redesign. I have found it easier to push rather than pull around the garden as it is a bit top heavy and other than emptying the bin as soon as the chomping slows, cannot think of any negatives.
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. 🙂
I cut down a huge volume of saplings from my fig tree, enough when passed through the machine to fill two tall wheelie bins of chippings and it took me several hours, but it was worth it as the chippings are taken away by the council as part of my garden waste contract and not stuffed into the boot of my car to take to the green waste bin at the council tip.
It deals with twigs and saplings up to 25 mm diameter perfectly, and like others have said, it isn’t necessarily good at leaves on their own unless they are attached to the twigs. It is relatively quiet, not as noisy as an electric lawn mower and much, much quieter than my previous blade based shredder. It works on a series of blades in a conical drum, much like a cylinder mower works.
I like it and enjoy using it as it is fast, quiet and efficient.
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
Really excellent tool. We are trying to clear a neglected garden and have been pulling out ivy down, up and sideways! This machine has coped really well with it. I have overloaded it and it was easy to clear, sometimes a small piece of wood will jam itself in the mechanism, but this doesn’t stop the machine from carrying on working and it does eventually clear itself. All in all for the price of the item this is a piece of equipment I would recommend – and it is quiet as advertised!
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.
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.
Sure, it doesn’t shred as finely as some of the ones with the spinning blades, but it nonchalantly chomps its way through every bit of garden waste I throw at it. In a couple of hours last month for example, it disposed of cuttings/branches/foliage from: one plum tree, two red robins, two bays, one crab-apple, 20 metres of mixed English native hedge, and 10 metres of box hedge. It hardly ever gets blocked up, and it’s not too noisy, either.
Sure, the box fills up more quickly than I had anticipated, but it’s a tiny price to pay for all the recycling that this thing does. Wouldn’t want to get too lazy, now…
All that useful stuff gets recycled as top-dressing and mulch. Very pleased
Although it is very good at chipping small sticks, twigs, and branches, I’ve found with experience it’s not that great with very leafy material especially if it’s a bit wet, it just sort of chews the leafs over and over, you have to put more plain sticks in with the leafs to help them pass through in to the bin.
Also, it is a little slow when have barrow loads of stuff to do, having said that though, it is what it is and I think this is the best, most powerful electric chipper you can buy at the moment. To get anything better than this, you would have buy a one with an engine, which is obviously a lot more money.
I also like the idea that you can partially disassemble it. It then fits nicely under a work bench.
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
Bought as an upgrade to a more basic Bosch spinning blade shredder, much quieter and chomps away through larger branches. More compatible with the neighbours! As it tends to pull the branches through it can be left unattended while you cut the next piece, Storage box works well, better than having to pick the chipping off the ground. Still need to use the paddle to push softer green bits through, but so far no need to clear any blockages. Bit top heavy when wheeling it across the lawn but not a big problem.
It munches very methodically and crushes as it goes,leaving uniform chunks that will easily break down.
Build quality and design seems well thought out.Compact storage is a bonus.
Over the few weeks since purchase, i’ve used it for about 3 hours with no jamming what so ever.This may be due to only passing branches and not green leaves.It does state about what it can do and can not,so stick with the advice offered by the manufacturer.Usual rules apply.Don’t put anything in bigger than 4.5cm and don’t get carried away and cram as much as you can in.. 🙂 .
Time will tell,but i’m Happy so far..
I traded up from an old, cheap spinning wheel type which used to make my eardrums bleed it was so loud, and spent a long time deciding whether to risk the extra cash for this model. So far this has eaten everything I’ve thrown at it with ease justifying the extra cost, in my opinion, on time saving and the general bonus of spending time in the garden without needing to wear ear-defenders (I do but my ears are a bit older than they used to be so taking care). Yes, wheeling the beast around isn’t the easiest (it is a heavy duty motor sitting high on top of a light rolling base so unavoidable but just grab the side and take care). That is the only issue I have. It has consumed every branch up to the max thickness of a silver birch that was dying in our garden, half a laurel tree and assorted other substantial content. Branches, twigs, leaves, everything has gone through this almost without a hiccup. I wouldn’t use it for industrial-scale disposals but for our mid-size garden, it is easy to use, quiet, effective, and so far, trouble free (four years). I suspect some might want the output to be more finely ground but I’m not too picky about that.
Downside is that it copes less well with sappy stringy material (my first go with it was old runner bean stems – bad idea!), but then shredders are best at one or the other type of material – horses for courses. Other problem is that it’s not all that easy to wheel across a bumpy garden – you need to go slow and guard against it tipping. Bigger wheels might help or a wider base, but then it would be less easy to store. Dealing with blockages is relatively easy: like any dangerous machine, it’s designed to stop you getting fingers in the cutter, so removing jammed stuff takes a minute or two of loosening off the hopper. A small price to pay for the safety!
I’ve not had it long enough to say how well it lasts, but so far the signs are good. Glad I bought it.
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!
Brilliant piece of kit – it has it limitations. Fresh smaller branches tend to get mangled rather than chopped but it all collects into the bin and is easily transfered to bag then skip. Once going its self feeding giving you time to grab the next branch. It has a rotating cutting cage moving past a fixed plate. The gap between plate and rotating balde is adjustable – be careful it cranked the pressure on the plate causing the blade to take shavings of the metal plate. The best method is to adjust whilst running with say a quarter of a turn see how that performs and then adjust further if required.
Now we’re tackling bigger jobs in the garden knowing that it willll be chopped and mulched itno a mangable size for our green bin.
I have found the shredder works well with both wet and dry timber. It works better with dry, but will cope with a mixture off branches and leaves. The mechanism is slightly tricky to set up so that it cuts the branches through. I got a lot of mostly severed branches when I first used it. It is quite easy to clear when it gets jammed, which is not very often. I think because of its mechanism it will last longer and be more robust than the previous shredder I has which constantly needed its blades sharpened. It draws the branches in very effectively and you need to make sure that you don’t have any loose clothing that can get snagged. As previous reviewers have reported, the bin needs frequent emptying and you have to be careful when moving it over rough ground as it is top heavy.
Never had a garden shredder before, and never thought I would have – until a BIG tree fell in the garden and I decided to cut it down to firewood myself. After two weekends of work I had a substantial pile of small branches which would fill the car ten times over to transport. Grudgingly I realised I needed a shredder. Having read the feedback on many shredders I decided on this one based on the feedback – and it’s a Bosch, a brand which hasn’t gone wrong in our house to date.
Now, after 4 weeks, I am very happy with it. It has reduced a the pile of branches in to a tenth of it’s forner volume – and most impressively it chews absolutely eberything I can manage to get through the inlet, eg up to around 3,5/4cm thick branches.
It has got stuck a few times because I haven’t cleared up the pile of chips under it, and it has been very easy to open, clear up and get going again.
In summary, it does a great job and I can’t really think of anything to complain about.
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.
My old Bosch screw type shredder was useless for softer material so I decided to try this one.
It works a treat and handles cabbage stalks, Leylandi prunings and fresh cut branches etc without a problem.
Obviously wear gloves & eye protection as it can snatch long fibrous material such as briars especially if the blade is losing its edge. UPDATE – November 2017 and I have had this unit a number of years now and it has done many hours of shredding. I find that after about 3 hours shredding branches etc the blade needs sharpening carefully with a fine/medium grinding wheel (don’t overheat it) and finish with a diamond hone. The difference is immediately apparent and it draws in the material and finely chops it without long fibrous stems blocking it up. Keep the black knob tight as it holds down the safety micro switch that allows the motor to run and keep the motor cooling holes free of dust.
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.
I have a lot of trees and bushes in my garden, mostly fir trees, that I wanted to either cut down or shorten. having read a few reviews on the Bosch AXT 25D I decided to purchase this model. This garden shredder certainly saved me a lot of time in having to cut up the branches and take to the local dump. The shredder coped well with quite thick branches, however, it chewed them out in 1 inch or sometimes slightly larger pieces that could not go in my compost bins. It also struggled with the thinner pine branches, often jamming on them. This was helped a lot by pushing larger branches through at the same time. the shredder was a bit disappointing with the thinner bush branches though because these came out in shreds. None of the shreddings were really suitable for adding to my compost heap, but they would be OK for mulching. fortunately I have a ‘rough’ area beneath a row of pine trees where I can dump most of these shreddings. my overall opinion is that this shredder does a very reasonable job of crushing through a wide variety of woody shrubs and trees but is not too happy if you have mostly fir trees.
Bought this to deal with large budleija’s ‘trees’ ~ 6-10′ tall.
Does well on the dry thin bits or any large branches (what it is designed for). Too much leaf / small green branches tend to block or chain – but I did better on the second attempt – my tip feed next bit of main branch as last leafy bit of the previous one going through.
Sets up easily.
Collector bin is easy to get in and out for emptying.
Good ‘wedge’ piece – which sits neatly to hand in part of the top section whilst shredder is in use.
Not very stable to wheel around once set up – too high a centre of gravity vs narrow footprint.
Uncomforable to wheel around when ‘packed’ as you need to bend over to get a hold.
No sensible place to wrap the electrical lead when packed away – so this keeps ending up on the floor 🙁
I had high expectations of this machine. It does the job reasonably well, I have been using it to shred the remains of a large holly bush. One problem that seems to bedevil all domestic shredders is that it doesn’t like any quantity of green material ie leaves. It constantly clogs up meaning that you have to remove the feed hopper to clear the cutter which is a bit of a bind (it does state in the instruction booklet that it is intended for cutting woody and fibrous garden waste with no mention of greenery!).
It copes very well with branches up to the maximum size stipulated – just make sure that the pressure plate is adjusted corectly.
The noise level is quite low meaning that that you are not deafened when using it, also good news for your neighbours!
I suspect that if I wanted a machine which would cope with all my garden waste without clogging etc I would proberbly have to purchase an industrial unit which would no doubt be powered with a petrol engine.
So I phoned Bosch and they said to package it up in a box and they would collect it. Well the box was gone because it was too big to store. So I took the shredder to an authorised Bosch repair centre. It’s been there for well over a week and they are waiting for Bosch to reply so that I can get a new one. However if the new one has the same flaw, I’ll be replacing it soon, too.
It is my understanding that this is a new machine and I would guess hasn’t really been properly road tested.
All I can say is that this is very disappointing.
The shredder worked efficiently for four weeks, cutting up a fair amount of tree foliage and small branches reasonably quickly. We were impressed by its performance, and considered it good value for the money spent. Then suddenly it ‘died’ – for no obvious reason. The problem appeared to be with the motor. It had not been misued in any way, and had only been used on 5-6 days, albeit for around five or six hours on each occasion.
It may be we were just unlucky; we have not, as yet, had occasion to put its replacement to any lengthy test.
What was impressive was Amazon’s response to our telephone call advising them of the problem. They offered to send an immediate replacement, which arrived within a few days.
They advised we could wait until the new machine arrived before returning the original, so that we were able to re-use its cardboard box; they sent a pre-paid return label for the faulty product which was collected from us, and which meant that we incurred no further cost.
I have used this shredder for about an hour at the time of writing this review, so it’s too early to say much about the lifespan of the blade however, based on other reviews, I purchased a spare blade at the same time to be prepared. Although Amazon are the cheapest for replacement blades they still seem expensive items. Hopefully with care they will last a season.
I was quite surprised to find there is NO auto on/off, which means the shredder whirrs away whether shredding or not. I would recommend the wearing of goggles and gloves… and possibly earplugs if you intended using this all day long. I didn’t find it as noisy as I’d expected, but my hearing wasn’t 100% to start with!
I’m not expecting to give this much hard use, but shall be interested to see how it lasts over time. We shall see.
I shall report back if anything additional warrants me doing so. I cannot see why the price tag is such a hefty 128 except for the Bosch label?
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.