The Best Impact Garden Shredders 2021

In the early days of this site we always had a ‘Best 5 Impact Garden Shredders’ page.  The number might vary – but we always tried to provide a comparison.

For a while we stopped updating this page.  It seemed that the machines offered by most manufacturers were just not good enough.  Instead, we just provided a review of the Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid – nothing else really compared.

So, it is really good news that there is now some strong competition in this niche.  So much so that the Bosch could be about to get knocked off its perch as the best impact garden shredder you can buy.

Shredders in this Review

Image	Product	Comment
	Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid	Brilliant shredder but edged out of the top spot by the Einhell Electric Shredder GC-KS 2540
	The Handy Impact Shredder	Highly commended
	Einhell Electric Shredder GC-KS 2540	Best budget impact shredder For 2021, this impact shredder receives our vote for best in class
	Draper 35900	Worth a look but falling behind other shredders in this review
	Dirty Pro Tools™ Garden Shredder 40mm Cutting Width Electric 2500W	Highly commended
	Sun Joe UK-CJ601E 14-Amp Electric Wood Chipper/Shredder	Currently unavailable.

Is an impact garden shredder right for you?

If you know you need an impact shredder you can safely skip this section.

The Types of Electric Garden Shredder Available

There are 3 primary types of Electric Garden Shredder on sale in the UK:

• Impact shredders – often called rapid or rotary shredders
• Quiet shredders – sometimes called ‘silent’ shredders.
• Turbine Cut Shredders

We provide much more information on how each type of shredder works in the articles in the links above.  Read this article for a summary and comparison of the different types of shredders and their usages.

Purpose of Impact Shredders

Impact shredders are great for relatively low quantities of mixed garden waste.  They cope well, if slowly, with woody waste and won’t jam on softer, green clippings.

In general, they are going to suit people with smaller gardens or who only want to shred small amounts of clippings.

Is an Impact Shredder Right For My Garden?

As we point out elsewhere – every garden is unique.  They all have different shapes, sizes and planting. We provide a lot of information on analysing your garden in our free guide.  Alternatively, we include most of the same information in this dedicated post.

Ultimately, the type of shredder you need is dependent on the amount of garden clippings and waste you produce, and the mix of woody to softer, green waste.

What to look for when buying an Impact shredder

The most import thing to consider before buying an impact shredder is, “Will it do the job I need?”.  Ignore all the marketing glitz.  You need to know if the shredder can cope with your garden waste.  Is it easy to use?  Can you use it for extended periods?  Will it stand the test of time?

You won’t get that feel from the manufacturers.  They are going to try to dazzle you with the highest power, highest rpm and diamond cut blades.  That’s all marketing rubbish if the shredder doesn’t perform. 

How to Check if a Shredder is Right For You

The are 3 ways you can get to know if a shredder is right for you:

• Try it for yourself.  If you have a friend who has a shredder, talk to them.  Ask if you can try it yourself.  Most people are going to be pretty happy for a volunteer to help them clear some of their garden waste
• Get a personal recommendation.  Do you know anyone who uses the type of shredder you are interested in?  Would they recommend it?  What do they think are the pros and cons?
• Read reviews.  Amazon is a great place for review for more popular machines.  Just search the internet – you can probably find plenty of reviews online for most products

In our view, all electric garden shredders are worth buying. Take a look at the article in the link, you should be easily able to save the cost of your garden shredder wtihin the first year of owning it.

Basis of this Review

For most of us, the third option is the only way we can get real-world, in-use knowledge of what a shredder is like to use.  In many cases that’s how we write our reviews.  We scour the internet for reviews.  We discount the obviously fake (and there are far too many of those online) and petty.  From the reviews that remain we look for trends and themes – both good and bad – and build our reviews on that information.

In effect, we do the online research so that you don’t have to.

Here’s what we look for

Can it do the job?

Will it shred what it supposed to?  For impact shredders, they are expected to be able to shred fairly small quantities of both woody and green, soft cuttings and waste.

Does it work for extended periods without stopping or jamming?  Stopping is not good as it tends to point to overheat or overload issues.  If it jams, is it easily cleared.

If you do use if for longer periods, does it retain its shredding efficiency?  If shredding seems to slow down it may be because the blades have become blunt.  Blades staying sharp is key to efficient shredding.

What is its throughput?

Throughput is measured in kg/hr.  In theory the higher the better.  You can’t put too much faith in manufacturers figures as, like car fuel consumption figures, they are measured in ideal circumstances.  Nevertheless, a shredder with a higher quoted throughput should be expected to cope with waste more quickly.

Throughput is not just a feature of the shredding mechanism.  There is a lot of safety built in to a shredder to stop little fingers getting to places where they are not meant to go.  When feeding the machine, you are going to be passing your garden waste through a slot the size of a small letterbox.  Manufacturer’s spend quite a bit of effort in designing the feed hopper for safety and for feed efficiency.

Ease of use

Is it easy to feed?  Does the hopper help or hinder?  Is there a supplied plunger.

Is it easy to manoeuvre?  How long is the cable?

How easy is it to clear blockages or jams?  Can you gain access without tools?

All impact shredders rely on sharp blades. How easy are blades to flip or replace?  How much to blades cost?

Does it need periodic adjustment?  If so, is it easy to do?

Does it shred cleanly?

Impact shredders cut clippings and waste by chopping it.  Ideally we want softer waste and smaller clippings cleanly cut into strips one or 2 cm long.  For larger branches we should get cleanly cut chips produced.

Some shredders don’t cut cleanly.  In some cases this is not too bad.  The shreddings will still be suited for composting or bagging up for the tip.  If you want to use the shreddings as mulch, poorly cut shreddings can look unsightly.

Waste collection

While it’s not a showstopper, built in collection boxes can be useful.  Equally, the ability to use collection bags can be more versatile.  There are clearly pros and cons.

Simple, heavy duty garden refuse bags work great with garden shredders.

On balance we like collection boxes.  One thing we do look for concerns the safety mechanisms on collection boxes.  Usually a shredder won’t work without its box securely in place. There are numerous reports that the safety mechanisms are not perfect and can make positioning the shredder and the box a bit fiddly.

Customer Support

Reliability is a key factor in the long-term usability of a shredder.  If anything goes wrong, it is good to know there is solid customer support when you need it.  We therefore assess

• Warranty duration
• Speed of response
• Helpfulness of support staff
• Customer satisfaction with the support they received

Technical features

Only after we have looked for evidence of the usefulness and usability factors above do we consider the manufacturer’s technical features such as:

• Power rating
• RPM
• Noise level

The contenders

If you are still reading this article, I am going to assume that you are definitively interested in buying and impact garden shredder.

Bosch AXT Rapid 2200

Performance

While the heading says technical stuff, we are always more interested in the performance of a shredder.

Shredding Performance	Tech	Review comments
Does it do its job?		Excellent
Throughput	90kg/hr	Most users are delighted with the performance.  Some claim it doesn’t work as well as expected
Max Branch Size	40mm
Ease of use		Very easy to use.  Provided plunger helps feed softer waste through the hopper
Collection Box	N/A	Output chute is a bit close to the ground.  It can be difficult to get a bin or bag out when full of shreddings.
User satisfaction	High	There are a few more negative reviews appearing for the Bosch range.  Overall, user satisfaction remains very high.

Technical Features

Feature	Data	Additional
Blades	Reversible,	£13-15 to replace
Power	2200W Bosch PowerDrive
RPM	3,650
Noise level	105dB	Pretty noisy
Cable length	5m
Weight	12kg
Wheels	Yes	Large wheels – easy manoeuvrability
Warranty	2 yrs	Can be extended to 3yrs when registering the product.

The Bosch AXT 2200 has been around for many years.  Way back in 2007 it was a which Best-Buy and for me, it has stayed at the top of the pile ever since. 

People like the way in which this shredder simply gets on and does the job.  It is very easy and quick to assemble so you are up and running very quickly. 

It is lightweight and has large wheels making it is easy to manoeuvre to where you want it.  When working well, there are very few reports of blockages.  Where blockages occur they are easily cleared.

As for all impact shredders, keeping a good edge on the blade is essential for good performance.  Bosch blades perform well but quite a few users report that blades become blunt too quickly.

Bosch blades are reversible.  When they get blunt you can take them off and flip them over.  This effectively doubles the life of the blades.  Sadly, Bosch says the blades must not be re-sharpened (though we know many users that do).  At £13 – £15 per blade this can get expensive if you are going to do a lot of shredding.

On paper, this is the least powerful of the machines in this review.  This is deceptive.  The Bosch Powerdrive system absorbs the impacts from the blades without it slowing the blades.  Keeping the blades spinning well means they continue to deliver good performance at lower power.

What Users Like

Majority of users report very good shredding performance over a range of garden materials.  These machines have stood the test of time with many machines still working well over 10 years after purchase.

The Bosch Powertrain seems to be able to achieve more at lower power than other shredders.  While pretty noisy – at 105dB the AXT 2200 is much quieter that most of its competitors.

Bosch provide excellent customer service.  We know of numerous incidences where users have contacted Bosch with problems, even after the initial warranty period has expired, and had their problems resolved.

What Users Don’t Like

There are an increasing number of users complaining of build quality and machines breaking or stopping working.  While Bosch’s customer service is good, that does not replace the need for good manufacture.

It’s more expensive than much of the emerging competition.

Our rating

Still the best buy impact garden shredder in 2021 but the competition is now fierce.

The Handy Impact Shredder with Collection Box

[Amazon box=”B01MECPZVG”]

Performance

Shredding Performance	Tech	Review comments
Does it do its job?		Excellent
Throughput	Not stated	Most users are delighted with the performance.  Shredder has a self-feed mechanism which helps throughput.
Max Branch Size	45mm
Ease of use		Very easy to use.  Provided plunger helps feed softer waste.  There is a detachable hopper to improve feeding
Collection Box	N/A	Output chute is a bit close to the ground.  It can be difficult to get a bin or bag out when full of shreddings.
User satisfaction	High	Overall user satisfaction is very high

Technical Features

Feature	Data	Additional
Blades	Reversible,	Blades may be sharpened but it is recommended this is done by a professional  to ensure blades remain balanced.
Power	2500
RPM	4,500
Noise level	106dB
Cable length	3m
Weight	14.5kg
Wheels	Yes	Large wheels – easy manoeuvrability
Warranty	2yrs	Parts and labour

What users like

Users report easy assembly, but it can still take up to 20minutes as it can be a bit fiddly.

Shredding performance and reliability were highly rated though many people note that shredding branches of the claimed maximum (45mm) is not practical.  Best performance was achieved by keeping below 30mm cuttings.

Chippings are well defined and small.  They are well suited for use in compost or as decorative mulch.  The collection box is large and works well though the catches could be fiddly.

What users don’t like

Most users seemed to understand the limitations of impact shredders.  Most were aware that feeding large branches would stop the machine.  Pretty much all reviewers commented that 45mm cut was not achievable in practice.

The occasional blockage is almost inevitable with impact shredders.  The Handy is no different.  Users mentioned that clearing blockages was easy but could take a while to fix because the hopper retention nut attachment screw has a very long thread.

Getting the collection box properly attached could be tricky.  The shredder is designed not to work without the box in place so getting this right slows down shredding.

Our rating

Definitely worth a look.  This is a contender for best Impact Garden Shredder

Einhell GH-KS 2440

Performance

Shredding Performance	Tech	Review comments
Does it do its job?		Good – when working
Throughput	Not stated	Most users are delighted with the performance.  Shredder has a self-feed mechanism which helps throughput.
Max Branch Size	40mm
Ease of use		Very easy to use.  Provided plunger helps feed softer waste.  There is a liftable hopper
Collection Box	No	A garden rubbish bag is provided.  There are hooks on the shredder body to which the bag handles can be attached.
User satisfaction	Good	Overall user satisfaction is good but there are too many reports of problems and jamming

Technical Features

Feature	Data	Additional
Blades	2-blades – Special Steel?	Turnable Not found supplier for spare blades
Power	2400W
RPM	4,500
Noise level	112dB
Cable length	Not stated
Weight	11.2kg
Wheels	Yes	Large wheels – easy manoeuvrability
Warranty	Standard	Assume 1-year parts and labour

What users like

Users report easy assembly – you can be unpacked and in use within minutes.  It’s the lightest of the shredders in this roundup which, with the large wheels, makes it very manoeuvrable.

When the shredder is working shredding performance and reliability were highly rated.  As with most impact shredders, it doesn’t cope well with larger woody waste.

The shredder has been designed with maintenance in mind.  Access to the blades for clearing jams is quick and easy to achieve.

What users don’t like

In use there are just a few too many reports of the machine jamming or stopping.  Users also comment that it can be difficult to align and feed branches.  This can make the effort of using a shredder so much more demanding.

This is a noisy machine.  .

Our rating

Worth considering if on a tight budget.  Noise levels are excessive

Draper 35900 230-Volt 2,400-Watt Garden Shredder

Performance

Shredding Performance	Tech	Review comments
Does it do its job?		Mixed reviews.  Too many negative
Throughput	Not stated	Copes well with small branches.  Not as good on soft, green waste
Max Branch Size	40mm
Ease of use		Very easy to use.  Provided plunger helps feed softer waste.  Quick release housing interlock for removal of blockages.
Collection Box	No	A garden rubbish bag is provided.  There are hooks on the shredder body to which the bag handles can be attached.
User satisfaction	Good	Overall user satisfaction is good but there are too many reports of problems and jamming

Technical Features

Feature	Data	Additional
Blades	Twin blades	Reversible Blades may be sharpened
Power	2400W
RPM	3940
Noise level	104.7dB
Cable length	3m
Weight	12kg
Wheels	Yes	Large wheels – easy manoeuvrability
Warranty	Standard	Assume 1 year parts and labour

What users like

Does what it says on the tin – almost.  Users report that it shreds smaller branches pretty well – upto about 15mm.  Green, soft wood cutting cuttings up to 30mm are ok too.

Draper have designed it to be easy to clear blockages. 

What Users Don’t Like

Users report dissatisfaction with reliability of the machines.  Many comment that it doesn’t cope with any sort of cutting well.  Larger branches are just not possible.

There are a couple of comments that the machine is noisy (very) which suggests it gets well above its rated sound levels.

Our rating

There are better options available for less money.

Sun Joe UK-CJ601E 14-Amp Electric Wood Chipper/Shredder

Unavailable as of 1 Feb 2021. That is a great shame. This Sun Joe Shredder showed lots of promise. At the original price point we thought this might give the Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid and the Einhell 2450 a good challenge.

The Sun Joe UK-CJ601E is pretty new in the UK.  You can see its American roots from the 14Amp rating.  14Amp just doesn’t exist on a UK socket ring main.  Based on 110V – 14Amp is around 1600Watts.  Sun Joe claim it is a 2400W machine

Look beneath the surface and you find an American Garden Shredder/Chipper with a lot of history on Amazon.com.

Reviews are mixed – as with every other shredder we have reviewed here.  However, the Sun Joe is at the cheaper end of the scale.  It may very well be worth considering.

Here’s an extract of a review from Amazon.com.  This is advice we could all follow.

“Sun Joe and I are a team. We have a common enemy: The Unrelenting Jungle. We also have an understanding. It is as follows:

– Branches bigger than 1.5″ are called firewood, not mulch.
– Branches will be made as straight as reasonably possible prior to mulching
– Green, sappy, gunky, viny or otherwise chewy items are followed up with dry, tasty, seasoned wood prior to the day’s end
– The human operator will wear safety glasses, gloves, and earplugs
– Sun Joe will chip the Unrelenting Jungle into manageable mulch”

Technical Stuff

Shredding Performance	Tech	Review comments
Does it do its job?		Mixed reviews.
Throughput	Not stated	Copes well with small branches.  Not as good on soft, green waste
Max Branch Size	1.5in – 38mm
Ease of use		Very easy to use.  Provided plunger helps feed softer waste.  Quick release hopper for removal of blockages.
Collection Box	No	A garden rubbish bag is provided.  There are hooks on the shredder body to which the bag handles can be attached.
User satisfaction	Good	Overall user satisfaction is good but there are too many reports of problems and jamming

Technical Features

Feature	Data	Additional
Blades	Twin blades	Reversible
Power	1600W
RPM	3940
Noise level	113dB	Noisy but cheap
Cable length	3m
Weight	12kg
Wheels	Yes	Extra-large wheels – easy manoeuvrability
Warranty	2 year

Our rating

Worth a look if budget is a high priority.

Conclusion

None of the shredders reviewed here get universal approval.  When they are working well, most users express satisfaction with the shredding performance on smaller branches.  There is almost universal agreement that no impact shredder effectively shreds branches at the max quoted branch diameter.

Customer reviews are often quite polarised.  Many users are very happy with their machines.  Unfortunately, reviews talking of regular jamming, unreliability and shredders not working at all are too common.

The Bosch remains our top pick though it too gets some mixed reviews.  We place it ahead of other shredders because of the length of time on the market, Bosch’s customer support (and that 3 year warranty), and the sheer number of positive reviews it has received.

What to do if an impact garden shredder is not up to the demands of your garden?

Impact shredders are designed to cope with a wide range of garden waste from soft, green stems, on up to chipping branches up to about 45mm in diameter. In general, they work better on the smaller, softer waste. if you are going to shred a branch, you had better be prepared to be pretty patient.

If you need to shred mostly woody waste, you are going to need to move on up to one of:

• A Quiet Garden Shredder
• Bosch’s outstanding AXT25 TC
• A petrol shredder chipper

No matter what you garden requirements, there is a garden shredder that will meet you needs.

Last update on 2024-11-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API