Michael the drywaller
July 23, 2025
Looking at this item's construction, so simple and light, it's hard to believe how well it does its job.Does it clog up with wet leaves? Yes, every 5 or 10 minutes. Is that a flaw or problem? I don't think so...overfeeding makes it worse, of course but the sheer volume it can shred makes slow and steady feeding worthwhile.My dry maple leaves just flew through...the damp or wet ones still made good time and produced mulch fine enough to replace peat moss as a component of my compost pile.The shredded leaves are an excellent soul building mulch....happy!
Customer
July 20, 2025
The overall performance of the unit is better than expected. As usual with new products, I put it through an extra heavy trial, running large volumes of wet leaves with the unit set to fine chopping. The unit performed well, chopping up all I tossed at it with no slow down of the motor. I did find that the unit clogged up with wet mulch on a regular basis, but it is easy to clear by stopping the motor and using a stick to scrape the wet mass off the sides and down into the catch bag. Yes it does take some effort to operate but the rapid output of well ground leaf mulch makes the work worthwhile.In response to other comments about issues with it, I have noticed the followingThe legs are a bit under designed and one has to be a bit careful with set upBecause I live in an area where crisp dry fall leaves are a myth, but I can see how that would be an issue as in my case I noticed water mist coming out when it was working on wet leavesThe string trimmer lines seem to last ok- about half an hour of chopping per set. I also skipped buying the expensive Sun Joe replacement lines and found. 095 trimmer line from Home Depot is a cheaper and durable replacement. The unit has a string cutter built in so it doesn't matter if you are 100% accurate when cutting replacement strings off the rollI first agreed that it would be nice to have the unit set up to discharge into standard paper yard waste bags but in reality that would require the unit to get quite tall and make feeding leaves difficult. Plus a full bag of damp, mulched leaves would be too heavy to move. I find using a contractor grade trash bag works fine and so far my original bag has stood up to around 20 refills with no issuesDespite the warnings, the unit does handle small twigs ok and after accidentally putting a larger stick into the hopper, I found that there was no real problem, just a lot of noise and sudden wear on the trimmer linesI particularly like the ease of cleaning the machine at the end of the job and the way it easily breaks down for compact storageSo, bottom line, this is a useful addition to my yard tools and is of decent quality for the price. On the downside, it is a bit flimsy when it comes to the leg design and the unit is loud and kind of messy to use, but processes leaves way faster than a leaf blower- vacuum unit. I reduced over 5 cubic yards of wet leaves to a compact mulch in about 3 hours.
Rick Smith
June 6, 2025
Very easy to assemble. Works great. At first my wife thought i was just buying a yard toy, but after one run she realized this makes fall leaf cleanup easy and will pay for itself. No more buying paper yard waste bags, or at least instead of buying 10 packages of bags, we may only need to buy one, this season. That's a $40-50 savings right there.On the finest setting, it threw up a lot more dust than I expected but it also mulched an entire yard waste bag of leaves down to a small amount in the garbage can i had under it. The mulch will go into the garden and spread around the lawn and will easily be dissolved by summer next year. Free fertilizer. Much better than going to the curb instead.
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
May 27, 2025
Arrived damaged, the funnel that takes the leaves was cracked, which isn't surprising considering it is made from cheap thin plastic. Indeed, the entire unit is cheap plastic, especially the brackets that hold the legs. If one of those brackets cracks, you now have an expensive doorstop. Amazon sells a similar item from WORX. I have one, and it's a much better unit, so if you're considering one of these shredders, check out the WORX. I am returning this Sun Joe unit.
Nic B.
May 11, 2025
Using to mulch up leaves from last season to put onto my garden beds as a mulch. Hearing and eye protection is a must.
Debo
May 8, 2025
Does the job. Easy to assemble and use. Shreds the leaves up nice and small. Have to use a stick to push the leaves down enough to catch in the shredder but other than that I am very happy with the purchase.
Gilles Gervais
May 7, 2025
This product is easy to assemble and use. I was worried that it would not mulch quickly but it is not the case. This is a great time saver when you normally have 120-130 large bags of leaves to fill.
Ron Adkin
April 17, 2025
Arrived as promised, easy to assemble, motor runs.............. It's a bit early in the year to try it on leaves.
Enrique FA
April 12, 2025
Muy buen producto. Tritura excelente las hojas. Aunque dura poco el alambre que se utiliza para triturar.
Bleistein, Mike
March 19, 2025
Endlich mal eine ArbeitserleichterungWir haben in unserem Garten einen sehr großen WalnussbaumJedes Jahr kommen ca 20-25 Säcke Laub zusammenAuch das zerkleinern mit dem Rasenmäher war keine ErleichtungDieses Gerät schafft es aber in binnen kurzer Zeit das Laub zu feinem Mulch zu verarbeitenTop Volumenreduktion und super ZeitersparnisWir sind begeistert
The Engineer
March 9, 2025
Seller must tell clearly its 110Volt AC, USA supply style, but total Product is Made in China ! Moreover, the Voltage converter provided for 220V AC to 110V AC, is only 100W rating where as if you see 110V x 13 A current, 60Hz, the power drawn is very high. The Converter provided Burnt in 5 min of use.
Peter M
January 15, 2025
I've just received this shredder but it comes with a Canadian plug and is rated 110V, which means it is useless in the UK. No mention of any of this in the description. Baffled why this is even listed on Amazon.co.uk, it is just pointless.I'm obviously returning it and now have to go through the hassle of packing it up and bringing it to a drop-off point. Annoyed.
JimWorm
November 9, 2024
I had a whole bunch of weeds come up after the rains in the areas that were mulched. With intermittent rain, I could not get to them till last week, by which time they were all about 1½ feet tall! After pulling them out by the roots, I decided to use my Patriot Shredder to grind up this stuff. I have had the Patriot for several years, and it has been great for chipping and shredding broken branches and after pruning the hedges. It gets through dry and wet branches with ease, as long as I don't "choke" the machine with too much stuff at one go.Well, I put the fresh, long weeds through the top hopper, and it just would not suck the stuff down. I then used the chipper opening, and there was nothing coming out of the discharge chute. The machine bogged down and stopped. I found the entire flywheel, hammers, and chipper blade coated with wet green "mush". The machine just could not handle this stuff. It took me about an hour just to clean out the Patriot.I was looking for an alternative, so read some reviews, and decided to go with the SunJoe Shredder. Most reviews were negative regarding "wet" stuff, but I was willing to give it a try, especially with the price being less than $100.00.I used the cloth bag from my Patriot Chipper and it was a perfect fit! I would strongly recommend you use some sort of "cloth" bag. Plastic bags tend to get ripped if there are stems or twigs. Paper bags tend to rip when you are trying to secure them, and it is hard to get the right size. The elastic cord is very tight, and in the process of pulling the bags to fit around the bottom flange you will end up ripping the bag.The Patriot bag is a heavy gauge synthetic material and is "breathable" so as the bag fills up, air can be pushed out. The bag can also be reused for many years. The bag is expensive, about ½ the price of the shredder, but I think it would be worth the price if you are planning on doing a lot of shredding. It is available here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Products-888000100-Shredder-Collection/dp/B004W5YKBE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1437233760&sr=8-3&keywords=Patriot+Shredder.The bag has a cord which cinches the opening of the bag. The bag is an almost an exact fit for the bottom of this shredder. I hook one edge under the bungee cord, and then work my way around the bottom rim with the bag. Then I just cinch up the bag with the built in tie. The bag works well with dry or wet material. I already had the bag, so it wasn't an issue. This bag has held up for several years, chipping branches so should hold up with shredding leaves. If cost is an issue, I would suggest you look for other re-useable "cloth" bags. It makes it a lot easier to use this machine.Back to the review of this machine: I was apprehensive about how this would perform, but with care, and slow feeding, it ground up all the fresh weeds and stems without an issue. It does get clogged up after about 10 minutes. It is easy enough to stop the machine, and reach in from the top and scrape off the accumulated "mush" and push it down through the opening into the bag. It never tripped the circuit breaker, but I was careful about how much I put in. I filled up 4 bags of this mushy green ground up weeds, and all of it went straight into my composter!I changed the "string" on one side because it was becoming short. I wish they had put the blade that cuts the string our further, so that the string could reach a little wider in the hopper. As it is, there is about a ¾ inch gap between the end of the string and the sides of the hopper, and this is where stuff builds up. Not a big deal, but an annoyance.I am very pleased with the way this made short work of grinding up this wet stuff. As a bonus, it was ready for the compost! If you work within it's limitations, it is a great machine. I cannot vouch for it's longevity, but it has already been worth it. My only advise is to get a cloth bag, unless you really need to put stuff in paper bags for disposal. If you have a composter, you would not need to worry about disposal either.Guide to images (for some reason the order of the images changed after it was posted and I can't change the order, so follow the numbers to the right image):5. Weeds growing in front of hedging - looks like tall grass3. Sun Joe Shredder with Patriot cloth bag attached1. Shredder, cart with weeds to be shredded. Please note the gloves, goggles, and ear protection - makes quite a bit of noise2. String and internal blade that cuts string to length. The gap between the outside of the blade and the hopper is where stuff builds up4. Size of shredded material. Note: one or two long stems get through unscathed6. Composter with material from three cart loads of weeds (please refer to picture #3 for "one" cart load). Nice reduction in volume.