Electric Wood Chipper?

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Nov 30, 2020
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Anyone ever used or have firsthand experience with electric wood chippers? We started to clear up some brush/shrubs to build a fence for the yard and stumbled across a smaller electric one for like $130 from harbor. I know a gas chipper is or should be more powerful, but the wife and I are getting things removed sections at a time rather than all at once. The whole backyard is surrounded by this shrubbery. Renting a gas chipper is $100 a day or $400 a week around our area. We are keeping the larger limbs and trunks to burn.

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I had a patriot brand electric for a while. It worked pretty good, but branches needed to be fairly straight or narrow to get pulled into the chute.

I ended up selling mine last summer because I only used it once or maybe twice a year and with my location it’s pretty easy to just burn it in a barrel or the garden or if I have too much a run to the dump is pretty cheap also.
 

Rich M

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I got the $100 one from Harbor Freight and have mulched mulberry and maple limbs bigger around than yer thumb. If it can fit in the hole it will chip it. Was surprised at how resilient it is. I also like the electric chain saw and pole saw - tough stuff.

I have some much larger limbs wife wants chipped at it is about $300-$500 for a daily rental around here. Have 2 more trees to drop and then need to get the vines kilt then can rent a chipper and make a mound of chips to spread in the back. If I coulda done a $100 rental, would have been all over that.
 
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RSather528
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Nov 30, 2020
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I got the $100 one from Harbor Freight and have mulched mulberry and maple limbs bigger around than yer thumb. If it can fit in the hole it will chip it. Was surprised at how resilient it is. I also like the electric chain saw and pole saw - tough stuff.

I have some much larger limbs wife wants chipped at it is about $300-$500 for a daily rental around here. Have 2 more trees to drop and then need to get the vines kilt then can rent a chipper and make a mound of chips to spread in the back. If I coulda done a $100 rental, would have been all over that.
Sounded perfect for what I’ll need to get rid of most it. Got back from the store and tested a few limbs, chips it up surprisingly well. Picked up a Dewalt chainsaw the other day, also surprisingly powerful for a 20v battery.

I wish we could remove it all in one go and rent a big gas chipper.
 

Rich M

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Sounded perfect for what I’ll need to get rid of most it. Got back from the store and tested a few limbs, chips it up surprisingly well. Picked up a Dewalt chainsaw the other day, also surprisingly powerful for a 20v battery.

I wish we could remove it all in one go and rent a big gas chipper.
I have a ruobi 18 inch battery chain saw and it is great for small to middlin stuff. I did a sizeable maple tree with it and once i got into thicker stuff the battery went quickly. Anything under say 10-12 inches was pretty easy and saw handled it well.

I picked up an 18 inch corded electric saw for the rest. Amazing.

Like them mainly due to the noise factor. Nice n quiet.

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RSather528
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I have a ruobi 18 inch battery chain saw and it is great for small to middlin stuff. I did a sizeable maple tree with it and once i got into thicker stuff the battery went quickly. Anything under say 10-12 inches was pretty easy and saw handled it well.

I picked up an 18 inch corded electric saw for the rest. Amazing.

Like them mainly due to the noise factor. Nice n quiet.

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The battery items are great within their limitations. I borrowed a small corded tiller last year from my dad and was surprised at how well it worked the ground. For your battery items do you have higher amp batteries? If so are they worth the cost for their runtime?
 
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Call a landscape company that does chipping. for $75-100 they'll chip it up in place or haul it away. Most Chippers are fairly chitty if they can't chip at least a 12" limb/log
 

Rich M

WKR
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The battery items are great within their limitations. I borrowed a small corded tiller last year from my dad and was surprised at how well it worked the ground. For your battery items do you have higher amp batteries? If so are they worth the cost for their runtime?
I also have the small corded tiller - tried to make a cemented soil foundation for my boat - it didn't work out so well - probably needed more concrete - that's a story for another day... Works okay in loose sandy soil without a lot of roots.

The batteries aren't bad if you don't torque the equipment. The battery that came with the Ryobi will last between 10 minutes and an hour or so depending on the task at hand.

We bought a larger 6 ah battery off Amazon for about $80 and it stopped working within 6 months of infrequent use - never gave the same return of the smaller 5ah Ryobi battery. It cost about 1/3 of the Ryobi replacement battery. Trying to decide if I want to risk it with another off-brand battery.

I have a Sun Joe pole saw/hedge trimmer/blower and it has a small battery but that thing rarely gives out before I do. The hedge trimmer turns at a 90 degree angle and works great as a light brush & forb trimmer where I don't mow.

My addiction to electric stuff comes from not using them regularly and the gas counterparts would gum up and then you spend 1/2 hr trying to get it running. Where you pull out the 200 ft cord or the portable genny and 100 ft cord and are done before the gas powered thing would run.

I do have a gas lawn mower and wish I had a 10 hp walk behind - we need to mow like 2x a week down here in the summer and if you skip a week or two, it is knee high. Brutal and the newer lawn mowers measured in CCs are very wussy compared to the older ones measured in HP.

blah, blah...
 
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RSather528
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Nov 30, 2020
Messages
343
Call a landscape company that does chipping. for $75-100 they'll chip it up in place or haul it away. Most Chippers are fairly chitty if they can't chip at least a 12" limb/log
If I was clearing it all and piling it up in one go I think I’d for sure hire it out. We are taking it down in smaller sections over a period of time. Not ruling out getting someone else to do it just yet if that’s the going rate.
 

Dejhavu

FNG
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Oct 8, 2021
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Last year I bought a Titan BX 42 pto mounted chipper. It is great. It is also around 1500.00. In my experience, smaller units don't do serious enough work. I have a 5 hp chipper that is useless.
 
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