41130 Electric Wood Chipper and Shredder, 15-Amp, Black

First of all, I am very happy with this product and how it performs... I bought the WEN 41130 Chipper and Shredder four months ago to replace a 5-HP beast of a chipper that got to be too much for me. The WEN works really well for what I now need to maintain our property. It works entirely differently than the gas unit. The gas powered chipper didn't need to be sharp it just used brute force to knock everything to pieces. The WEN is much lower torque but high speed and requires sharp blades and is more of a finesse machine. I managed to get some small gravel in with my branches when I first got it and that was the end of my work period. The gravel immediately dulled the blades and presto, no more chipping until it got new blades. But its easy to change blades. It takes me about 20 minutes and they're reasonably priced. They last pretty long, but you don need to have them in stock as they will get dull even with clean use. So now I'm very careful about what gets in. Of course it's slower than my old beast but is so light and needs no oil or gas, and doesn't weigh a ton. It does what it says it will in terms of what it can chip. It doesn't however like really twisty or wood with big turns. They won't feed well. for me it works just right and the price is amazing given the really smart design. I have several WEN tools and I'm happy with them all.

Works extremely well when used for what it's designed for. Put in sticks that are dry and between half inch and an inch and a half and makes great wood chips for mulching. Freshly cut green wood doesn't work well and not designed for leaves and etc. Overall performance is good. Only reason I'm giving four stars instead of five is because the plastic seems flimsy.

This chipper is awesome. It was a breeze to set up, and it is a lot of fun to operate. I have a large buckthorn thicket on my property, and this machine has been chewing it up effortlessly. It's perfect for all the brambly branches. It turns everything into a nice mulch perfect for spreading on gardens.

Assembly was super easy, just flip the legs down, bolt on the wheels and it's ready. There's even a slot on the body to store the included allen wrench. Build quality is good overall, feels rugged enough to last for many seasons. The wheels make it easy to move to position, then just plug it in and flip the oversize rubber-enclosed power switch. This thing means business. It's loud when the blades are chewing through a big branch, but very comfortable to work around if you put on some hearing protection. Gives a very satisfying BRRRRRRRRRT and literally pulls the branch in, you will need to guide it and bend in smaller branches so they go into the mouth. Seems very safe, the blade is deep inside enough that you literally can't reach it if you're dumb enough to stick your fingers in, and they include a paddle to help push stuff in for that purpose. I first tried it out on a bunch of limbs from an old maple tree, everything from little sticks up to around 1.5"-1.75" branches. It ate all of it, no problem. If the branch fits inside the opening, it will chip. Never got stuck, didn't bog down, just chewed through everything with that satisfying BRRRRRRRRRRRT. The power and effectiveness made it fun to use. My wife and I had to take turns because we both wanted to feed the branches in. How often do you have fun doing yard chores? After we finished the branch pile I walked around looking for more stuff to chip. I'm VERY happy with my decision to spend the extra $30 for the one with the bin. It has a latching mechanism that keeps the bin in place and shuts off the power when you de-latch it. No messing with bags, just unlatch the bin, dump, lock it back in, and ready to proceed. I chipped a pile of branches (maybe 150lb?) in about 20-30 minutes emptying the bin about 6 times. Amazing how little space those branches take after you chip them. The warranty says it's covered for 2y or 500h of runtime. Based on how fast we went through those branches, 2y will almost certainly come before we manage to run this for 500h. The hopper has a single knob that you unscrew in order to flip the top open and access the inside of the hopper and the blades. The blades are both removable and look easy to sharpen. They're just blocks of tempered steel with a wedge on one side. After my one day of use I don't notice any change in the sharpness. I'm looking forward now to going around with my saw and finding more trees and branches to chip. I am going to take good care of this tool, it is very nice. After use I opened the hopper, brushed away all this chips and junk and wiped the metal hopper and blades with WD40 and stored it in my basement.

Works great! Please make sure you use a mask and eye protection, lots of air Bourne particles when operating