We have a lot of leaves and not all are where they can be mowed over with my mulching mower. In trying to make compost for the garden we wanted to try one of these leaf mulchers to see if they were up to the job. We bought one of the refurbished ones and got some extra cutting cords. The unit looks new and works well, even on tough mulberry leaves. Be warned that these units are very noisy and can create quite a cloud of particles, so wearing hearing protection and protective eyewear is a good idea. We put a plastic garbage can under the unit and were pleased with the results. The degree of pulverizing leaves can be adjusted and we will play with the settings as we get into different types of leaves as the fall progresses. This is large to store, but we can remove the legs and hang it up somewhere in the garage once the leaves are gone. As Mike McGrath says, leaves are the best material for making mulch, but they need to be ground up to speed decomposition. This is a good way to do it.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Overheats on dry oak leaves in about 10 minutes, then it is an hour wait until it resets. It shoots debris sideways out the control slot at high speed. It could be bad if a pebble or stick got in there and a kid or someone bending down to pick up leaves were nearby. If you want stuff shredded properly, the cord lasts around 5 minutes. The Sun Joe is designed so that once the cord has lost about 20% of its length, leaves go right by the cord untouched; in fact it tends to push all the leaves out and away from the spinning cord so it is not just an occasional leaf that escapes. This is not like a weed whacker in that the cord auto feeds to the proper length. I ended up with the bottom third of the bag properly mulched and the rest needed a second run-through after replacing the cords. The upper chute came out of the box bent oblong, though it is supposed to mate to a circular middle section. It took two of us pushing it into a round shape to get it to fit. There is a poorly designed bungy thing to hold a trashbag underneath - much of the trash bag's rim cannot be secured and so dust blows upward at you while you are trying to toss leaves down. The chute's bottom is too flat, leaves sometimes just pile up and won't slide down into the maw under gravity - I had to keep prodding them in. I can see how this might work OK on fresh, tender leaves. But on dry ones, or dried clover, it is just terrible. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I thought that a mulcher that used trimmer line for the cutting wouldn't do a good job. I was surprised right away as I threw in a handful of wet leaves and made confetti of them. I bought a reconditioned unit and the only part that looked used was one leg. I wish that they had made the unit waterproof as it would be easier to clean after mulching wet leaves. I relay like the wide top as I can put quite a load of leaves in. Lastly, with a 40 gallon bag attached under it, it makes removing the mulched stuff easy. I would highly recommend this unit to anyone wanting to decrease the pile of leaves to just a few heavy bags.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Refurbished
It is amazing and took minutes to put together. I bought this to go with my gas chipper that gets clogged when leaves go in the shredder hopper. This thing just loves big DRY leaf piles. The wet leaves it will do but takes longer, and clogs more often. It's avery portable, and clogs. It comes with spring loaded buttons on the legs (haven't had any problems with the legs falling out). Good or bad part is it takes weed whacker line, but is limited to a certain diameter. I would suggest using fingernail clippers for the actual shortening to length of line. The little knife inside the shredder is supposed to cut to length the weed whacker line but it actually shreds part of the end fraying the line. This causes a short life span for the whacker line. A clean tip expands overall life. Also bend the line up once installed or it will skim the bottom of the leaf exit ports and start to wear them faster. The whacker line length and life is crucial to how this operates overall. If whacker line is short you will notice leaf debris will get clogged and shreds in bag will be much clumpier and less finely shredded. This machine works fantastic overall, and is a bit loud so keep in mind it will be noisy. I've been using tall kitchen bags for debris catching. They are a very tight squeeze, larger trash bags would be better to catch leaf debris.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Refurbished
Works great,if you use 39 gal plastic trash bag attached around the base using the yellow rubber ban around the bottom and leaving about 6 inch undone to allow the air to escape it will cut down on the amount of dust blowing all over as compared to just putting an open container under the chute. Keep an old paint brush handy to brush off the dirt around the black mesh filter on the side to keep the motor from overheating and turning off. I brush it off ever time I turn it off to replace the string lines or replace the bag. I change the bag when it is about 1/3 full otherwise it will be too heavy to move. Safety glasses and hearing protection are a must. Take your time and don't overfeed it. You can hear the motor sound slow down if you are cramming too much down it. Remember it's not a high power chipper it's an upside down weed eater with a funnel on top and works very well if you use it correctly.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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