New gardening toy

So there I was facing a large pile of branches having recently decided to clear the jungle like growth at the end of my garden, pear tree and all.

The pile of wood and plants dwarfing my poor meager incinerator...oh the horror of all that work breaking it down into small bundles to burn.

Branwave !!! I'll go buy a Garden Shredder.

So off to the DiY stores I go, PDA in hand to garner reviews of the powerful machinery I am looking at. I looked round several stores, but baulked at the £150 plus price tags of the shredders that would have the power (2000W and over) and the feed capacity (thick branches) that I needed.

Eventually I entered The Wickes Store in Weston-super-Mare. Bank Holiday sale in fll swing, I still easily found a member of staff who was able to help me out, and pointed me to this piece of machinery, the Wickes 2500W Garden Impact Shredder.

I was struck by the price £67.99, less than have the price of com[arable models from other manufacturers, so of course I was wary of the build quality. The shop assistant assured me that the model was as robust as those more expensive models, and the price was a reflection of the fact Wickes still considers itself a supplier to tradesmen rather than the public.

Well it had all the features I was after:

40 mm cutting capacity (branch diameter)
2500W Motor (nice and powerful)
Wheels for easy moving
Safety Cut-out on Electricity supply
Safety interlocks on hopper lid

It was a little Heavy at 19Kg but on wheels not to much of a problem, and this actually reassured me as to it's robustness.

So I get it home and assemble it, 2 screws, 2 bolts and a couple of plastic widgets later it's built and ready to go.

I notice the clear warning signs in the manual and on the unit of the sound level it produces...103DbA, so it's in with the earplugs before using it, as well as Rigger gloves and safety glasses.

103DbA is about as loud as a very loud Nightclub btw.

I immediately set to work and test the unit with a branch that should be on the limit of what it can shred...a 40mm Pear tree branch. I feed the branch throught he top of the hopper (a window limits the size of branches that can be inserted). The 4 foot length of brach is pulled through with a very loud grrrrrrrrrrrr, and exits into the included collection bag as thousands of 5mm chips....bloody good.

and so after a couple of hours I have reduced a very large pile of branches and undergrowth to a bag of chips, which is duly put in my compost bin.

Guess I'd better go cut the grass next....