I have a very nice gas powered wood chipper/leaf shredder that can chip limbs as large as 2 inches. Bought it years ago from Home Depot for $675. I used it maybe 5 times and it has been just sitting in my shed for years. After all that sitting it will probably need a tune up. I am in Northern Virginia and would like to trade it for anything useful. I am interested in material to make a water feature, landscape blocks, edible plants, light fictures for my seed starting shelves, bee hive or will consider any trade offer. I don't want to ship it so you need to be within driving distance, i.e. virginia, maryland, DC, west virginia. If you are ever in the area and can pick it up, we might make a deal.

I am seriously considering the purchase of chipper/shredder also. I have a 3/4 acre lot with large trees all around the perimeter of the back half. My wife is slowly getting the yard landscaped with roses, azaleas, camellias, and other assorted flowering bushes and plants.

It seems to me that with the debris coming down from the trees, plant, and bush, etc, that a Chipper/Shredder would be a good addition to the yard tools arsenal.

Yet, I see many ads for people getting rid of the Chipper/shredder because they are not using it.

Am I missing something that would make me overestimate the usage of the chipper/shredder?

Will the debris decrease as the landscapping matures?

What are other peoples experiences?

Actually, I would still be using mine, but my lot is not as large as yours and I have taken out all of my large trees, except two, and planted fruit trees. When I had a lot of very tall trees, I had a significant amount or debri to chip up and shred. My compost pile was about four feet high. It is very useful, but probably not worth the $675 that I paid for mine.

FWIW, whenever I'm considering purchase of a "wonderful thing," I first see if I can rent it and see if it will do what I expect. That allows me to see if my expectations are realistic and gives me some experience with the type of critter. I've discovered that renting a gas powered pressure washer once or twice a year is much better than having one sit around, particuarly when you consider the cost of a decent one.

Good luck,

Ev

Exmar's advice about renting if you can is good.

I used one brand of chipper/shredder (a older Troy-bilt) for a year and thought it was a very poor design indeed. Then I ran a Craftsman for a while and kinda found myself liking the first one by comparison!

Electric types are not very powerful. But a decent gas powered model is expensive, can be tempermental, and each has its good and bad points. Make a point of using only new gas with Stabil added.

Before we moved to our current house I handle the debris by storing it in a pile and rent a large chipper shredder every couple of years.

I thought the chipper shredder would do a way with the large pile of brush on the property. When we trim the roses pull the chipper shredder to the roses and take care of the thorny branches/

Thanks for the ideas

I have a big one and it gets used at least two times a year, but I have an active acre. However, you could compromise with leaves and smaller branches and just lay them in a low pile and run over them with a lawn mower or a riding mower if you have one. I used to save the bigger branches for fire wood anyway, but now I chip almost anything I can get into the chipper.