I've been using my Patriot chipper/shredder for about 10 years (as of 2021) now and am very impressed with the quality. It's nice to see good old American Made products made with high-quality standards. This equipment is not intended to compete with the $150 stamped sheet metal Harbor Freight shredders. This is heavy cast steel body, thick plastic feeder and cone (of about the same thickness and durability as a 55 gallon plastic rain barrel), and a powerful electric motor protected by a high quality over-temperature shut-off switch. It's beefy. A petite woman may have some difficulty wheeling it up a hill, but generally, the large wheels make it easy to navigate despite its weight. I'm 150lb and can maneuver it without difficulty, even up moderately sloped hills.
Let me address several of the concerns mentioned in other reviews:
1) WET LEAVES: The worst reviews are from people who tried to shred wet leaves. This will be a problem for just about any shredder, so if you need to shred wet leaves, do extensive research and you'll almost certainly have to eliminate any electric shredders. I live in Seattle (frequently have wet leaves in the fall), and I've learned how to wait until the leaves have had a couple days of "air time" to dry out before shredding. Don't rake them into a pile if you're not going to shred them immediately. Once the pile gets wet, your leaves will be very hard to shred since the middle of the pile stays wet and starts to get slimy as it decomposes.
2) GREEN STUFF: This shredder absolutely CAN shred certain green yard debris. Green branches are no problem. Green laurel leaves are no problem (I shredded trimmings from about 100' of 8-foot laurels). It could be that some green leaves turn "pulpy" and build up, which does occur on occasion.
3) CLOGGING: When buildup does occur, I have ALWAYS been able to clear the buildup with a bent wire (about the gauge of a coat hanger) without disassembling everything. First turn off the shredder and unplug it. Unscrew just the front cone (requires loosening one bolt and removing one other). Feed the wire into the output port where the bag attaches and pull out any clogs. Then, feed the wire into the front port where the cone attaches, along the bottom of the fly wheel and pull out any clogs built up along that bottom. Done.
4) FEEDING: I always have a 2 or 3 foot stick (1/2" to 3/4" thick) handy to help fluff the leaves in the top hopper and help them feed into the shredder. This is not a big hassle that some have described. Be careful not to push that stick too far down into the blades, though.
5) CHIPPING: This chipper AMAZED me when I got ambitious and chipped a 20' branch that I think was about 2.5" diameter at the thickest. Whatever diameter it was, it just barely fit through the bottom of the cone. It did require me to carefully control the feed rate and hold the branch tightly (with gloves). But after it got down below 1.5" thickness, I pretty much let gravity feed it and loosened my grip. It took me about 15-20 minutes to chip the entire branch, and I got a large bag of beautiful, fairly uniform wood-chip mulch for the flower beds from it.
6) SHUTOFF: There is a thermal shutoff that does a great job of protecting the motor. It has tripped a few times while I was feeding damp leaves and the motor bogged down. If you listen to the motor, you can adjust your feed rate to minimize the motor dragging.
Overall, I highly recommend this chipper / shredder for fairly heavy home use.
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Customer Review: Absolute waste of time and money
Piotr A. Fraczek
Reviews with images
Absolute waste of time and money
Not my first rodeo with chippers - I've been taking care of 1+ acre with tons of trees in a residential setting for a while now. I truly regret getting this chipper -- by far the most overpriced, underperforming equipment I've ever owned. My last chipper was earthquake and it was light years above this one. It was a costly mistake as the returns are paid by the buyer so get ready to lose few hundred more after you realize how bad this thing is.This chipper is very underpowered with a dinky 1.5 hp motor. While it will take care of straight, dry branches, it's completely inadequate as a mulcher due to very poor reduction ration. The media generated by the hopper/mulcher is equivalent in size to the chips generated by the chipper so you will not get further reduction of your chips when you decide to run it via the hopper. And if you do run it via the hopper, you'll be standing for 10-15 minutes slowly dumping the bag to avoid overwhelming the motor. Should you be unfortunate to stall the motor -- good luck as it's a nightmare to unclog. Because it uses a electric motor you'll end up overheating it tripping the heat circuit breaker having to wait while the motor cools down. What's worse, if you get any moist media, you can call it day cause it will take you hours to unclog it. The Q&A suggestions say to run water through it -- yeah, ok, do that on an electric chipper not only risk electrocution but you'll be rusting and dulling your blades in no time. Literally, out of 6 hours of work time, I spent 4 hours unclogging the unit from a stall due to moist leaves (and they were not very wet either). After wasting better part of the day trying to make this electric chipper work, I finally threw in the towel and asked for a refund. I could not accomplish the task in 6 hours when the same job would take me 2 hours with a gas powered chipping.The unit has a very primitive bagging system - you'll be working with a lot of chips flying out of the bag and much dust flying around. Very very dirty chipper compared to the Earthquake machines.Other than that, the wheels are great, the idea of removable blade is good. Too bad the rest is absolutely useless. As much as I loved the idea of buying USA made equipment, I was severely let down by the value and the lack of efficiency and and power. Do not buy unless you're looking to chip dry, straight limbs only - this is really a very expensive dry wood chipper only.Be aware that the return shipping will be paid by YOU (the buyer) and I can't wait to spend few hundred dollars shipping it back hoping it makes it in one piece. What a waste of money and time. In the end I am sending this one back and I went with a replacement earthquake chipper which is cheaper, more powerful, has a better warranty and it has phenomenal reduction ratio. It's a shame that this is even being offered as a product -- it just doesn't cut it (put intended).
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Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2014
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2024
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2021
This chipper is very underpowered with a dinky 1.5 hp motor. While it will take care of straight, dry branches, it's completely inadequate as a mulcher due to very poor reduction ration. The media generated by the hopper/mulcher is equivalent in size to the chips generated by the chipper so you will not get further reduction of your chips when you decide to run it via the hopper. And if you do run it via the hopper, you'll be standing for 10-15 minutes slowly dumping the bag to avoid overwhelming the motor. Should you be unfortunate to stall the motor -- good luck as it's a nightmare to unclog. Because it uses a electric motor you'll end up overheating it tripping the heat circuit breaker having to wait while the motor cools down. What's worse, if you get any moist media, you can call it day cause it will take you hours to unclog it. The Q&A suggestions say to run water through it -- yeah, ok, do that on an electric chipper not only risk electrocution but you'll be rusting and dulling your blades in no time. Literally, out of 6 hours of work time, I spent 4 hours unclogging the unit from a stall due to moist leaves (and they were not very wet either). After wasting better part of the day trying to make this electric chipper work, I finally threw in the towel and asked for a refund. I could not accomplish the task in 6 hours when the same job would take me 2 hours with a gas powered chipping.
The unit has a very primitive bagging system - you'll be working with a lot of chips flying out of the bag and much dust flying around. Very very dirty chipper compared to the Earthquake machines.
Other than that, the wheels are great, the idea of removable blade is good. Too bad the rest is absolutely useless. As much as I loved the idea of buying USA made equipment, I was severely let down by the value and the lack of efficiency and and power. Do not buy unless you're looking to chip dry, straight limbs only - this is really a very expensive dry wood chipper only.
Be aware that the return shipping will be paid by YOU (the buyer) and I can't wait to spend few hundred dollars shipping it back hoping it makes it in one piece. What a waste of money and time. In the end I am sending this one back and I went with a replacement earthquake chipper which is cheaper, more powerful, has a better warranty and it has phenomenal reduction ratio. It's a shame that this is even being offered as a product -- it just doesn't cut it (put intended).
Absolute waste of time and money
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2021
Not my first rodeo with chippers - I've been taking care of 1+ acre with tons of trees in a residential setting for a while now. I truly regret getting this chipper -- by far the most overpriced, underperforming equipment I've ever owned. My last chipper was earthquake and it was light years above this one. It was a costly mistake as the returns are paid by the buyer so get ready to lose few hundred more after you realize how bad this thing is.Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2021
This chipper is very underpowered with a dinky 1.5 hp motor. While it will take care of straight, dry branches, it's completely inadequate as a mulcher due to very poor reduction ration. The media generated by the hopper/mulcher is equivalent in size to the chips generated by the chipper so you will not get further reduction of your chips when you decide to run it via the hopper. And if you do run it via the hopper, you'll be standing for 10-15 minutes slowly dumping the bag to avoid overwhelming the motor. Should you be unfortunate to stall the motor -- good luck as it's a nightmare to unclog. Because it uses a electric motor you'll end up overheating it tripping the heat circuit breaker having to wait while the motor cools down. What's worse, if you get any moist media, you can call it day cause it will take you hours to unclog it. The Q&A suggestions say to run water through it -- yeah, ok, do that on an electric chipper not only risk electrocution but you'll be rusting and dulling your blades in no time. Literally, out of 6 hours of work time, I spent 4 hours unclogging the unit from a stall due to moist leaves (and they were not very wet either). After wasting better part of the day trying to make this electric chipper work, I finally threw in the towel and asked for a refund. I could not accomplish the task in 6 hours when the same job would take me 2 hours with a gas powered chipping.
The unit has a very primitive bagging system - you'll be working with a lot of chips flying out of the bag and much dust flying around. Very very dirty chipper compared to the Earthquake machines.
Other than that, the wheels are great, the idea of removable blade is good. Too bad the rest is absolutely useless. As much as I loved the idea of buying USA made equipment, I was severely let down by the value and the lack of efficiency and and power. Do not buy unless you're looking to chip dry, straight limbs only - this is really a very expensive dry wood chipper only.
Be aware that the return shipping will be paid by YOU (the buyer) and I can't wait to spend few hundred dollars shipping it back hoping it makes it in one piece. What a waste of money and time. In the end I am sending this one back and I went with a replacement earthquake chipper which is cheaper, more powerful, has a better warranty and it has phenomenal reduction ratio. It's a shame that this is even being offered as a product -- it just doesn't cut it (put intended).
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Mme Papillon
Buy something else. This is designed to clog up
Reviewed in Canada on July 13, 2020
Mme Papillon
Reviewed in Canada on July 13, 2020
I was really looking forward to using this as I live on the edge of a forest. I had high expectations and really am let down in so many ways.
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