Don’t know what to do with all the twigs and branches you have pruned? Thinking of bagging and sending them to your local landfill? Think again! You can turn your yard waste into rich organic compost with the use of a wood chipper shredder.
To help you out, I have decided to find the best wood chippers there are. Wood chippers are, in my opinion, one of the best gardening tools to have.
One wood chipper I tested stands out in particular. The Sun Joe CJ602E can chip branches up to 1.57 inches in diameter into a fine mulch that you can use in your landscaping projects. It has a powerful 15 amp motor that doesn’t disappoint.
But that is not all! Keep on reading! You can find all my reviews and much more below.
Contents
- 1 In A Rush? Here Are My Top Picks
- 2 The 7 Best Wood Chippers
- 2.1 Snow Joe CJ601E 14-Amp Electric Chipper/Shredder – Best For Light Jobs
- 2.2 GreatCircleUSA 3 in 1 Wood Chipper Shredder – Best Heavy Duty Wood Chipper
- 2.3 Sun Joe CJ602E 15-Amp Electric Wood Chipper Shredder – Best Overall
- 2.4 Patriot Products CSV-2515 Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder – Most Awarded Shredder
- 2.5 Earthwise GS70015 15-Amp Electric Chipper Shredder – Best Extra Features
- 2.6 Landworks Mini Wood Chipper Shredder – Easiest To Store
- 2.7 Detail K2 6-inch 14HP Commercial Chipper – Best Cutting Volume
- 3 Buyer’s Guide For Best Wood Chipper Shredder
- 4 FAQs
- 5 And The Best Wood Chipper Shredder Is…
- 6 About The Author
In A Rush? Here Are My Top Picks
Are you in a rush? Check out my comparison table to see the products I will talk about here and my favorites.
The 7 Best Wood Chippers
Snow Joe CJ601E 14-Amp Electric Chipper/Shredder – Best For Light Jobs
- Questions, Text 563563 to chat directly with a Sun Joe expert
- POWERFUL: 14 amp motor effectively chips and shreds branches up to 1. 5-inches thick. No load speed is 4300 rpm
- MULCHING: Ideal for turning branches and twigs into nutrient-rich garden mulch, reducing your yard waste up to 1/16th...
- Best everyday shredder for light jobs.
- Powerful 14 electric amp motor.
- Shreds branches up to 1.5 inches thick.
- Safety stop.
Looking for the best chipper shredder for easy jobs around the house? The Snow Joe CJ601E is the right product for you. It was made with ease and convenience in mind.
The Snow Joe CJ601E can shred sticks and tree limbs up to 1.5 inches in diameterinto fine mulch. I personally use this mulch to cover up the mud in my backyard. With this wood chipper, I’ve reduced my yard waste by about 16 times.
Its shredding ability can be attributed to its powerful 14 amp motor that generates a speed of up to 4,300 revolutions per minute.
The motor works on electricity. You simply plug your wood chipper in the nearest outlet, and you can start shredding away, so you won’t have to deal with smelly and sticky gasoline.
Most importantly, the Snow Joe CJ601E electric wood chipper features a safety locking knob that immediately stops the motor when the shredder hopper is opened. Nothing beats that, in my opinion!
Pros:
- Easy to operate
- Shreds 1.5 inch branches
- Strong 14 amp electric motor
- Safety hopper
- 6-inch wheels
- Lightweight and portable
- Full 2-year warranty
Cons:
- Can clog occasionally
- It may not last long
My Rating: 9.8/10
GreatCircleUSA 3 in 1 Wood Chipper Shredder – Best Heavy Duty Wood Chipper
- MULTI-FUNCTION CAPABILITY - This 3-in-1 Wood Chipper Shredder Mulcher design has a Reduction Ratio of 15:1 when using...
- POWERFUL - This Chippers powerful recoil starting 7HP Horizontal 4-stroke Single Cylinder OHV Gas Powered Engine,...
- EFFICIENT DESIGN - Hookup your favorite: ATV, lawn mower or small tractor, for easy transportation with a Tow Bar Kit...
- Made for heavy-duty tasks.
- Powerful 7HP 212cc gas engine.
- Shreds branches up to 3 inches thick.
- Made with strong heat-treated steel.
- Compatible with a leaf vacuum kit.
Only a few wood chippers are made for heavy-duty jobs, and the GreatCircleUSA 3 in 1 Wood Chipper Shredder is one of them! I tested this wood chipper out when I needed to shred one of my fallen trees after some heavy winds.
The GreatCircleUSA 3 in 1 Shredder has the strength and power to shred 3-inch thick tree limbs. It is equipped with a powerful recoil-starting 7HP 212cc 4-stroke OHV engine. The engine works on gasoline, which you can pour into the 0.7-gallon capacity tank.
Another feature that makes this chipper shredder “heavy-duty ready” is its robust construction. It is made of durable heat-treated steel that has been powder-coated, so it will last you for years on end. Even though I don’t use it as often, it still looks and works like new after a couple of years!
You can tell that a lot of thought went into the design of this wood chipper. It has two intake openings. The side chute is meant for 3-inch thick logs, while the top hopper can handle a maximum ½ inch diameter. With the use of both, you can reduce your yard waste by 15 times.
The GreatCircleUSA 3 in 1 can be upgraded with the Vacuum Kit and Tow Bar Kit sold separately.
Pros:
- Handles heavy work
- Robust steel construction
- Powerful 7HP 212cc engine
- Intake thickness of up to 3 inches
- Quick safety shut off
- Attachments available
- 3-year limited warranty
Cons:
- The recoil cord may have trouble retracting
- Can jam
- Poor assembly instructions
My Rating: 9.7/10
Sun Joe CJ602E 15-Amp Electric Wood Chipper Shredder – Best Overall
- Ideal for turning branches and twigs into nutrient-rich garden mulch
- Powerful 15 amp motor effectively chips and shreds branches up to 1.5-Inches thick.No Load Speed (rpm):4100 rpm
- Compact design with 6-inch wheels for easy portability; Sound power level: 113 dB
- Best overall features.
- Powerful 15 amp electric motor.
- Shreds branches up to 1.57 inches thick.
- Instant start switch.
- Safety stop and locking knob.
If the previously reviewed Snow Joe CJ601E didn’t meet your needs, you have to meet its bigger brother. The CJ602E electric wood chipper is bigger and stronger! While I didn’t need such a powerful wood chipper, I still tested this one ou. It didn’t disappoint!
The Snow Joe CJ602E features a more powerful 15 amp electric motor that generates up to 4,300 rotations per minute. From my experience, a chipper shredder with such vigor demolishes branches, twigs, brush, light greens, and leaves into rich mulch.
Since the CJ602E is equipped with a stronger motor, it can also take in thicker branches measuring up to 1.57 inches in diameter. You can expect to downsize your yard waste at a 17:1 ratio.
And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to start up this wood chipper. You simply plug it into a power source, and you are one flip of a switch away from chipping and shredding. The safety hopper and locking knob will keep you safe while you do the work.
Pros:
- Best features for the price
- Instant start
- Strong 15 amp electric motor
- Shreds 1.57 inch thick branches
- 6-inch wheels for portability
- Requires little to no maintenance
- Full 2-year warranty
Cons:
- Blades get dull with use
- Replacement blades not available
My Rating: 10/10
Patriot Products CSV-2515 Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder – Most Awarded Shredder
- Purchase Patriot's RED & WHITE STRIPED Electric Cord now and EXTEND YOUR CHIPPER’S WARRANTY 1 YEAR.
- The quiet, smooth, maintenance free electric motor starts with just the flip of a switch.
- Easily shred mountains of leaves by sliding them into the large hopper on the top of the unit.
- Award-winning.
- Strong 14 amp electric motor.
- Shreds branches up to 2.5 inches thick.
- Large wheels for easy transportation.
- Instant start switch.
Less than 3 percent of products tested by the “Best Buy” commission are awarded the medal. But the Patriot Products CSV-2515 Wood Chipper Shredder is one of the rare wood chippers that has received this honor not only once but four times!
The Patriot Products CSV-2515 shreds branches up to 2.5 inches in diameter. This wood chipper gets its power from a strong 14 amp electric motor that requires little to no maintenance, so no gasoline or oil change is needed.
This electric wood chipper is one of the easiest ones to use among those I tested. All I have to do is plug it into a 110-volt outlet with the use of an extension cord and flip the start switch. Best of all, buying the Patriot 100 Ft Extension Cord along with the wood chipper will prolong its warranty by one more year.
If you think this is a good deal, there’s more. The Patriot Products CSV-2515 Leaf Shredder comes complete with a collection bag and safety goggles.
Pros:
- Tested and awarded
- Easy to operate
- Strong 14 amp electric motor
- Shreds up to 2.5-inch thick branches
- Easy switch start
- Large wheels for mobility
- 2-year warranty
Cons:
- Can jam or stall occasionally
- Could use more motor power
- Expensive
My Rating: 9.3/10
Earthwise GS70015 15-Amp Electric Chipper Shredder – Best Extra Features
- Powerful 15-amp motor shreds branches and sticks up to 1. 75" inch thick
- Chute and tamper tool to keep your hands free and safe from the corded electric chipper/shredder
- Easy clean-up with the 1.2 Bushel collection bin
- Equipped with additional features.
- Powerful 15 amp electric motor.
- Shreds branches up to 1.75 inches thick.
- Slim, lightweight design.
Meet The Earthwise GS70015 – one of the best-equipped wood chippersthat I tested. It even offers features you didn’t think you needed. Let’s take a look.
The Earthwise GS70015 electric wood chipper has a slim, lightweight design complete with a built-in 40-liter collection bin located right under the durable steel blades to catch the freshly shredded yard waste. You will save on garbage bags and help the environment as a result.
This wood chipper also comes with a tamper tool. Don’t think you need one? Think again! A tamper tool keeps your hands free and safe from the sharp blades when you push the leaves down into the feeder.
You can safely chip branches up to 1.75 inches thick with this electric wood chipper. The powerful 15 amp motor, making up to 4,500 rounds per minute, will do the work for you. The thing I liked the most while testing this wood chipper out was that I could take it any place that needed a clean-up since the two rear wheels and lightweight construction allow for easy transportation.
Pros:
- Extra features
- Strong 15 amp electric motor
- Shreds branches up to 1.75 inches thick
- 40-liter collection bin
- Tamper tool included
- Lightweight and portable
- 2-year manufacturer warranty
Cons:
- Narrow feeding slot gets jammed occasionally
- Has trouble shredding curved branches
My Rating: 9.2/10
Landworks Mini Wood Chipper Shredder – Easiest To Store
- EFFFICIENT PERFORMANCE; This Mini Wood Chipper Shredder Mulcher design has a Reduction Ratio of 15:1, capable of high...
- UNIQUE DESIGN; Built to be compact and lighter than other steel chippers, this design has a highly desirable Vertical...
- POWERFUL; This Chippers powerful recoil starting 7HP Horizontal 4-stroke Single Cylinder OHV Gas Powered Engine, handles...
- Compact design for easy storage.
- Powerful gas 7HP 212cc engine.
- Shreds branches up to 3 inches thick.
- Adjustable discharge guide.
- 10-inch all-terrain wheels.
Has your limited storage space kept you from buying a wood chipper shredder? No worries! I’ve tested this wood chipper just for you.
The Landworks Mini Wood Chipper Shredder has a name that is pretty telling. It has a light and compact “mini” design that ensures easy storage and even easier transportation from one leaf pile to another.
What this wood chipper lacks in size, it makes up for in performance. It can chip branches and limbs up to 3 inches in diameter, reducing the volume of your yard waste up to 15 times.
The Landworks Chipper Shredder has a powerful recoil-starting 7HP 212cc 4-stroke OHV gas engine. I’ve used it to shred sticks up to 3 inches in diameter with ease.
Once the yard waste is mulched, it is discharged through the handy vertical extended chute. Most wood chippers have a down-facing chute, but this one doesn’t. Instead, it has an adjustable discharge guide with an angle range of 90-145° degrees.
Pros:
- Easy to store
- Light and compact
- Powerful 7HP 212cc gas engine
- Shreds branches up to 3 inches thick
- Adjustable discharge angle
- 10-inch all-terrain wheels
- 3-year warranty
Cons:
- Can’t shred seasoned wood well
- Chute is rather narrow
My Rating: 9.1/10
Detail K2 6-inch 14HP Commercial Chipper – Best Cutting Volume
- Kohler 14 HP CH440 Commercial 3 YR warranty
- Dual belt drive drum transmission 13 inch dual edge reversable cutting blades
- Auto Adjust cutters for brush upto 6.25 diameter trees. Auto blade branch feeding.
- High-quality commercial wood chipper.
- Powerful Kohler 429 cc CH440 engine.
- Shreds up to 6.25 diameter trees.
- Road-ready.
- Extended axle and trailer tow hitch.
Looking for a commercial-grade wood chipper that will shred about anything that gets in its way? Look no further! The Detail K2 6-inch chipper is here to make a lasting impression. It certainly did so during my testing!
This Detail K2 can shred trees up to 6.2 inches in diameter, thanks to the two extremely sharp 13-inch blades. The blades are double-edged, and the powerful Kohler 429 cc CH440 engine is the main source of assistance.
Best of all, you can take this puppy on the road, like I did when I tested it out. It is approved for legal road towing since it has DOT 17.5 x 5.2-inch tires and a 36-inch extended axle. Even the loading chute and discharge chute are road-ready. They are also at pickup truck height for the convenience of loading branches and collecting the wood chips afterward.
You also get a bunch of accessories with this wood chipper, including a set of lockout keys, safety glasses, ear protection, work gloves, an oil bottle, and assembly tools.
Pros:
- Fit for commercial work
- Heavy-duty
- Powerful 429 cc Kohler engine
- Handles limbs up to 6.2 inches thick
- Two sharp 13-inch blades
- Can be towed on the road
- 180-degree rotating discharge pipe
- 3-year Kohler warranty
Cons:
- Hard to get replacement parts
- Heavy and bulky
My Rating: 9/10
Buyer’s Guide For Best Wood Chipper Shredder
Electric Or Gas? Which Is Better?
If you are tired of using your lawnmower as a shredder, you have an option to buy either electric or gas wood chippers. Which one you buy ultimately falls on your preference, and the volume of yard waste you deal with regularly. I personally prefer using an electric wood chipper because it’s more environmentally friendly and doesn’t have the horrendous gasoline smell.
Gas-powered wood chippers are more powerful machines and can process larger branches without burning out the engine.
Gas-powered machines are ideal for maintaining large estates because they can handle a bigger workload, and they can be taken anywhere on the job site, as they are not restricted by an electric cord. They are, however, loud and may be annoying to your neighbors.
Consider buying the best electric wood chipper if you have a standard-sized backyard or a garden that requires upkeep. An electric chipper shredder, like the Snow Joe CJ601E , can turn smaller branches, twigs, and leaves into fine mulch with ease. They don’t emit a lot of noise and are very easy to use.
Watch this video to see if electric wood chippers are any good:
Consider The Drive Type
There are two types of drive systems you can look for in your chipper shredder:
Direct Drive
Wood chippers with a direct drive motor start shredding as soon as the machine is turned on. Direct drive gas wood chippers keep running, even when there are no branches in the shredder. A chipper shredder with direct drive doesn’t experience any loss of performance over time, but it does get jammed more often. I like using these every once in a while, but having your wood chipper jam after less than an hour of use gets frustrating.
See how well an electric-powered wood chipper with direct drive operates:
Clutch Drive
Clutch drive chipper shredders allow you to engage the blades with a lever or a switch. The clutch drive system turns on the blades when the branches are loaded into the machine. Clutch drive units can handle heavier loads and experience fewer jams. The main drawback is that they’re more expensive. Still, I’d opt for a clutch drive wood chipper over a direct drive most of the time
Think About Shredding Capacity
The capacity of a wood chipper shredder lets you know the diameter of the branches it supports. Gas-powered chippers are known to handle bigger branches than electric models and the majority shred wood up to 3 inches thick, including the Landworks Mini Wood Chipper Shredder . The photo above is courtesy of Garden tourist.
Electric wood chippers, on average, handle 1.5-inch thick material and there are a few examples. For instance, the Patriot Products CSV-2515 handles a volume of up to 2.5 inches in diameter and the Sun Joe CJ602E has an upper limit of 1.57 inches.
After testing many different wood chippers, I want to mention that most manufacturers tend to overestimate a machine’s shredding capacity. So it’s a good idea to stay below the given limit.
What Is Reduction Rate?
You can determine how well a wood chipper does its job by looking at its reduction ratio. This tells you how well it reduces the volume of yard debris.
Luckily most of the wood chippers on the market today, have at least a 10:1 reduction ratio. This means that a shredder reduces 10 bags of leaves down to the volume of one bag, according to Troy-Bilt, a well-known residential mower manufacturer.
In other words, the debris you process with the wood chipper will be reduced to 1/10th of its original size.
The general belief is that the higher the reduction ratio, the more powerful the shredder is. Based on this, I would recommend that you buy a product that falls within a reduction ratio of 10:1 and 20:1. The Snow Joe CJ602E wood chipper has a good reduction ratio of 17:1.
FAQs
Who Makes The Best Chipper Shredder?
It is hard to determine who makes the best chipper shredder. However, these are the brands that people trust and are the most popular:
Is A Wood Chipper A Good Investment?
A wood chipper is a good investment for people with yards or gardens with leaves, twigs, and branches that need to be dealt with. Buying a wood chipper is a good long-term investment since the cost of sending yard waste to a local landfill adds up with years.
What's The Difference Between A Chipper And A Shredder?
The difference between a chipper and a shredder is in the performance and strength. A wood chipper can handle large, whole branches and break them into chips. A wood shredder is used for breaking down leaves, brush, vines, and other soft materials into mulch.
Are Electric Wood Chippers Any Good?
Electric wood chippers pulverize most of the yard debris found in a standard yard or garden. Most of them can shred branches up to 1.5 inches thick, some even more, depending on the model. They are lightweight and very easy to use and transport.
Do Small Wood Chippers Work?
Small wood chippers work when used according to the instructions provided by the manufacturer. Chipping branches that are too big for the machine will burn out the motor or cause a jam. It is always best to stay a little below the recommended wood intake volume to ensure good performance.
And The Best Wood Chipper Shredder Is…
If we have learned one thing, it’s that there are plenty of wood chipper shredders on the market you can choose from and they all have a unique set of features they proudly show off.
Still, I have to announce the winner of my best wood chippers review list.
The clear winner of the review roundup is the Sun Joe CJ602E . This wood chipper is inexpensive, and it will make your landscaping a breeze. It has the best reduction ratio out of all of the products I tested. It is very easy to use and even easier to transport, thanks to the compact and lightweight design with 6-inch wheels.
The runner-ups worth mentioning are the GreatCircleUSA Wood Chipper and Landworks Mini Wood Chipper . Both wood chipper shredders are made to last and can handle branches up to 3 inches in diameter.
About The Author
Last update on 2024-04-25 at 05:49 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API