Side by Side Comparison of: Flowtron vs GardenMate vs Rugg

I love this thing! Paired with the ReLeaf Leaf Scoops (or any big hand leaf scoop thingies), I was able to shred about 160 cubic feet of giant leaves from 2 massive sycamore trees in an hour. I raked the leaves into a giant pile, used the leaf scoops to drop leaves into the mulcher. Because the mitts are large, you can use them to mix stuff up in the bin if things appear stuck, without risking your hands. I used the finest grinding setting and the shredded leaves filled about half of a 32 gallon bag. AMAZING! So much easier and faster than putting them into brown bags. And the shredded leaves work as a great mulch. People have complained about the strings breaking, but I did all my fall shredding (was careful to take out any sticks) without any damage to them, or having to change the strings. I love the little drawer that stores extra strings on board. I'm very happy with this purchase.

Used mine today for the first time. It takes a minute getting used to it, but if you don't overload it, you shouldn't have any issues. Due to large and sustained rainfall the last few weeks and more rain predicted, today was the day and still the leaves were a bit wet. Despite that challenge, an enormous amount of leaves were shredded in almost 3 hours of continuous usage without problems. Set on the "coarse" setting, I have plenty of great mulch! It can be assembled out of the box by one person, but 2 people make the task easier. This was a good purchase.

Just got my Flowtron Mulcher today. Had it set up within 30 minutes and was mulching that afternoon. I needed a mulcher that could handle dried sea grass as well as small twigs and dead mangrove leaves that had washed onto my bayside lawn during a recent storm in Florida. I had read that seaweed mulch is good for weed prevention and allows recycling of this waste material. I dried out the seaweed grass and put it through the mulcher set on fine . The unit did a great job of reducing the seaweed to a fine mulch consistency in no time with no requirement to install any new cutting nylon strips after mulching 3 barrels full of seaweed . I chose this unit over others available because of the ability to adjust the cut size of the mulch. Another feature I liked was that I could place the unit directly on top of a 33 gallon barrel and mulch into the barrel without removing the legs. The unit performed this task perfectly .

Really cool tool. Basically a weed eater lying on its back. I have about thirty trees on my property and every fall they all give up at once. Historically, it was a multi week job to rake them into piles, bag them and schlep them up to the street. Now I just make mini piles, run each pile through the mulcher and then re-spread them as mulch across my flower beds and bushes. the plants love it, my back loves it and the trash men love it.

Actually, this is the second unit I have bought. The first one lasted over ten years and then the motor lay down and died.

I bought this shredder, after I spent a lot of time reading reviews from others on this and the other Leaf shredders in the sub $150 price range. None of the reviews sound all positive each machine as negative comments, but this shredder did better than other products, and I really couldn't spend anymore than the $150 I set aside.

When the shredder arrived, it took a bit of work to put together, I made the mistake of only reading the 1 page instruction sheet, which was awful to follow. After assembly I opened the user manual and found more comprehensive assembly instructions (doh!).

Before I went crazy shredding all my leaves I remembered the comments I had read about the machines limitations, so I decided I wouldn't go mad, I would take my time and let the machine work at its own pace. Especially as I had several big piles of leaves and I knew the ones at the bottom were very wet.

I got started and the shredder was awesome, it worked very well. I started with small handfuls which it cleared very quickly, so I started to up the pace. It handled everything very well. I still wasn't working a blistering rate, but it was a lot faster than I expected. When I got to the very wet stuff, it handled that well too. I had to stop several times to clear the bucket of mud like residue, but this was not a problem to me, and gave the electric motor time to rest.

I did the whole front garden in a few hours, which included more raking and shredding everything twice, and what would have filled 20-30 bags only half filled my compost barrel. So I am very happy with the machine, but not so happy about the cutting strings, as I had to change them twice on my first day of use, but I will look at getting thicker, stronger strings to use.

To summarize, and I am coping what others have said, the shredder is very good as long as you remember its limitations. It is not a $500+ gas powered shredding machine. It is a bargain, budget shredding machine capable of doing a lot, just at its own pace.

Wow, I accidentally ordered the 72...and the 72 can hold A LOT. I originally planned to use these for grass clippings, but since I ordered it in the wrong size, I'm planning on using these to hold aluminium cans. I think they're great for storing/holding things. They seem sturdy, like they'll hold for a long time.One thing though, is that inserting the plastic piece into the rim to keep it open is tedious. You only have two holes next to each other, the beginning and the end. And then you also have to work around the handles and the crinkles in the bag which is hard to press through. I think it took me like 15 minutes just to get one in to standing.Overall, yes I would order it again, hopefully in the right size!

5 stars for GardenMate's service.They first sent me a confirmation email that my order was shipped. Then when I needed more of the black strips that get fed through the top that keeps the opening firm, they compensated me with a complete new order. LADIES.. you should order these 16 gallon bags, they aren't just for men! You will find them helpful for so many things. Like wet beach towels or sandy toys from a day at the beach; or keeping purchases contained in your trunk; like groceries that may produce condensation. Or place one right in your grocery cart. They have, as the picture shows, great handles and even side handles on the bottom. There are 3 sturdy green waxy coated bags that stand on their own. And they come in several sizes, and they are folded nicely and packaged in a nice gift giving "display" type bag for all those guys too on Father's day. In case you are wondering what size to get, I'd suggest the 16 gallon like I purchased(5'2"). Nice wide opening and won't be too heavy when full. My family are boaters and RV'ers....so they will be put to good use this summer.

These bags are deceptively huge, which is great for all the yard waste I have. They stand up and open on their own. I can sit on the ground and weed and they're just short enough to allow me to toss the waste in from sitting. The opening is really wide so that helps in my poor aim sometimes.I do drag full bags on my gravel driveway, and they've survived for now, but I shouldn't make a habit of that since they're not hard bottomed. I've been leaving them out in the elements and haven't noticed any degradation, though I've just been using these for maybe 2 months now in a Vermont summer.They are difficult to transport when full if you have a small hatchback, as a bag is about the height of the cabin. With my passenger seat down and rear seats removed I might be able to cram all 3 bags full in my Nissan Versa. Last time I brought one to the dump I found a tree frog stuck to the outside as I was dumping it out. The froggy then jumped off there so I hope he's OK in his new environment.I'm a cheapskate so I was hesitant to buy 3 bags for $20, but I'm glad I was a baller. Though I do see other sellers selling the exact same bags, and just one of them, for more than the cost of this 3 pack.Photo is for size comparison. I don't know how many gallons the red plastic barrel on the left is but I think a lot of people know it's a jumbo one that could fit an adult inside, and on the right is a big HD yard debris paper bag. I feel like the green bag wins though in how much it actually holds. I love that it's easily reusable, I can wash it out if it gets muddy, and the handles are super strong. They're also placed in really great places, as there's one near the bottom which makes it so much easier to empty.I plan on getting more for garbage and recyclables, and actually laundry would be helpful since I'm way backlogged with that. It's nice they can be all compacted down when not in use, just should take out the flexible plastic insert at the top.

What a relief that I now can handle my recycling containers when I need them. I have gotten rid of all of the tuff rubber containers and only open up my new reuseable containers one at a time. When I have emptied the recycling I refold the containers restoring the area to a nice looking space. Easy to use, sturdy, and well made. I am limited to lifting five pounds or less which is no problem for the heavy weight green containers which are far less than five pounds each. I also saved big bucks with these green containers. I gave away the expensive heavy grey tiff containers to those that felt the need to have the bulky garbage containers that crack in cold weather and often get over stuffed. Try the green --you won't be sorry.

Great leaf bags. Makes the job of getting rid of leaves easier. My wife pointed out they would be good for storing attic stuff in since they are easily written on to label the contents. Sturdy bag appears to be durable. The ring that holds the bag open is inserted in the top and you need to look closely to find the openings to insert the ring in. Well worth the money which is reasonable.

These bags are wonderful! They were easy to assemble and arrived quickly. The material is thick and durable. It is strong enough to drag around the yard and hold a significant amount of yard waste, but light enough to not be too heavy to carry. I anticipate that they will last me a long time. They stand nicely with the plastic piece in the top, making tossing waste inside easy.

This item arrived ahead of the planned date, was assembled ready for the test of claim. It didn't seem like the plastic would hold up as it was pretty thin for the expected work they advertised but to my amazement it did very well. It uses weed-eater twine of which they supply 30 complete changes (takes less than 2 minutes to change), and you have a lot of options for replacements after that. I had about 300 pounds of small leaves to make mulch out of so it was really going to make or break their advertising. Since the leaves were damp to wet it took me two days to do them to allow for some additional drying. Had to change the twine three times for maximum efficiency but this critter ate them up and made mush out of them to the point they could be used in a planter out of the hopper. I used a metal wash tub to catch the output and allow for max cooling of the motor. It made mud out of the damp leaves so had to clean the hopper often. Only four stars as it does make a lot of dust and throws some out the top. Perhaps a larger lip around the top of the hopper would help as it does catch most of the swirling mulch but a lot also escapes. Wear eye protection and a dust respirator for sure.

This Flowtron works as advertised. Uses typical weed whacker string and mulches even wet leaves. I place it on top of a 33gallon trashcan lined with a 40gallon yard bag. Mulches into very small pieces, makes getting rid of leaves a breeze. Only negative is the way the bucket connects to the metal arms. Kind of flimsy and can come apart unless you handle it like a baby when picking up. Other than that, the mulching works great. I use the heavy duty trimmer string which lasts a long time before needing to change out.

I have a mature magnolia tree and a 6000 square foot lot. The leaves come down steadily and it finally occurred to me that by dumping them in the green bin to be hauled away, I was sending away nutrients and then importing compost by the truckload to replace those nutrients (probably mostly nitrogen). After watching a TED talk on making compost solely from leaves, I decided I had to shred my constant supply of magnolia leaves to make compost in a timely fashion. I wanted a hand powered shredder, but they don't seem to exist, so I found the Ultimate Mulcher and it's been wonderful in accomplishing my goal of making piles of shredded leaves to compost. It is dusty and noisy and you go through a lot of weed-whacker line, but it gets the job done. Suit up with safety gear and make if project. I have decided that once every 4-6 weeks I will need to do a two hour session to keep my leaves processed. the other reviews are right, you need to let the leaves flow throw the barrel uncompressed or the machine bogs up. I am gathering my leaves in a big garbage can for my monthly session. I toss the seed pods out (you can grind them, but you go through too much weed whacker line). Yard looks great and its a good carbon usage over all...I am using electric power to grind, but not trucking things around each week.

I deducted one star for the poorly designed funnel that didn't snap down properly. The instruction manual's description of where the reset button is located is terrible. The corrected illustration was not much better. They should have said that its on the underside of the unit. Bolting the two leg pieces together required lifting the hole pieces out of the way so the bolt could go through the leg.

I use a large 19" diameter basket that is 13" high to collect the shredded leaves. A 20" wide X 17H basket is about the largest size that will fit under the shredder. It's easier to slide the basket out than lifting the unit off of a trash can each time you have to empty the basket. Its also easier to see when the basket is full, than a trash can where you have to look from the top of the shredder to check if the trash can is full.

I had considered the Worx Trivac, but decided that vacuuming the leaves would take too long - I live on a wooded lot. If you watch the Worx video of them vacuuming the leaves out of the back of the pickup truck, you'll notice they speed up the video after a couple of seconds. I have used the vacuum function of a leaf blower before and the Flowtron is by far much faster. You can't help picking up small branches, but they only frayed the line a little after about 30 minutes of use.

I use leaf scoops to collect the leaves. These collect too many leaves for the funnel, so after you drop your leaves in the hopper, you have to scoop up and drop the leaves in the funnel to allow them to flow properly. If loaded properly, the Flowtron will shred the leaves in a heart beat.

After 1/2 hour use of this shredder, I wish I had bought it sooner. I have already hauled 9 commercial sized canvas bags to my subdivisions mulch area. Each bag probably weighed 35-40 lbs. Shredding will be much easier on my back.

I live in a rural area where it's required to clear "fuel" 100 feet around our home for fire safety. Our lot has both Black Oaks and Jeffrey Pines and we get a thick carpet of leaves and pine needles. Previously we had a local area where we could dump them, but it's become too full and is no longer available. And we can't burn. So our options were to either haul multiple truck loads to a dump site 40 miles away or mulch.

There have been a wide range of ratings of this product and I expected some problems. First the negatives:
1. Assembling the black plastic cone at the top - there are two halves that must be assembled together and then the cone is pressed into place on top of the red section. The two halves are NOT made to easily fit together. There are tabs that must overlap and whoever designed it must have been having a really bad day! Expect to need an extra hand to hold the halves in place and to have an very imperfect fit once you're done.
2. Assembling the stand - the black metal stand comes in two sections which join together at the middle of the curved area. Two half round plates are screwed together to clamp the sections together. The holes were not the proper size and needed to be drilled out. The screws were extremely cheap and vise grips had to be used to turn them to tighten.
3. Attaching a plastic lawn/leaf bag - the bungee cord supplied is very weak and even if it were stronger, attaching the bag doesn't work too well. Unless using small bags the bag will sag on the ground and need to be constantly adjusted - if it doesn't completely come off the shredder.
4. As expected it's noisy and can be very dusty - eye and ear protection and a dust mask should be used.

Function:
There are several settings depending on what you intend to mulch. I've found that I only use the finest setting. I can dump large handfuls of leaves and needles into it and if I do so while being careful to not overload it and not let it bog down, it works fine. If too much is fed into it at once, it tends to clear out a hole around the cutting line so that the rest of the material needs to be stirred up so it will feed. Don't use your hands - a short stick will do fine.

Instead of using a lawn/leaf bag I found it can work well on top of a plastic trash can - if you need to haul the mulch somewhere. Otherwise I just rake up a large pile, feed it into the mulcher and let it pile up on the ground.

As others have suggested, buy a reel of plastic line and cut your own lengths instead of paying significantly more for pre-cut line. You'll go through a lot, which is a pain, but I think there could be a big safety difference if you modified it to use steel rods instead of the plastic line.

Overall - once assembled, it does what I need done.

UPDATE:
Four 1/4 Years later - it's still running strong. Each year we need to clear alot of oak leaves and pine needles from the yard. I've found that the best way to do this is to put a large trash bag (I use 40 gallon + sized bags) in a trash can and then place the mulcher on top of the can. It swivels enough, as you can see in the product image, that you can adjust it to balance well. The lower portion of the mulcher extends down into the trash can. I cut my own lengths of .080 trimmer line using the original lengths of line that came with it as a template. Because the pile of leaves and pine needles often have twigs in the line may need to be changed before a trash can is full. While the old line can be pulled out by hand, I've found it easier to carry a small pair of needle nose pliers with me to grab it if the ends get too short. Finally I keep a 2-3 foot long stick with me to stir the leaves and needles if they get stuck when I dump too many in. And be sure to wear eye and ear protection when using it as well as nose and mouth protection from the dust. Overall - it was a good purchase and continues to do the job.

I have these bags in about three different sizes. You could haul a couple of bodies into the woods in these. They are HUGE. I am moving and I have found these to be handy for all kinds of stuff. When I actually start hauling stuff between houses, these will be great for stuffing things like pillows and bedding into to transport.Funny thing... They work great for yard work, too. I do like the smaller ones for yard work, though, since it is too easy for me to overfill these and make them too heavy for me to maneuver around and into my truck.These are great bags. Really glad I bought them. Lots of ways to use them.

These bags are bigger than I expected and hold an amazing amount of yard waste. I volunteer doing beach and road side cleanups so I added a shoulder strap to one of these bags and it worked great. Much easier than using a 5 gallon bucket and a lot longer before I had to empty it. Only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is I am not sure how durable to the bottom will be but I am very hopeful. If it holds up well, I will come back and give fit upgrade my rating. Great quality, great value - I recommend these.

Bought these at the end of the summer last year for fall lawn clean-up. They are light-weight, work pretty well. I have used them quite a bit without much wear. But the nicest surprise I had was being able to put one over a half-barrel that I am using as my patio herb and veggie garden during a recent late freeze. It fit perfectly and my tender edibles were safe and intact.The only reason I took away a star is because sometimes when I begin using the bag, it doesn't stand up very well...makes work more challenging when it collapses just as I am about to place debris inside. Once it is about 1/3 full, it stands easily on its own. Overall, I am very pleased and would purchase them again, especially to use during a brief late freeze or frost.

These bags hold a lot. I emptied a large, outdoor, plastic trash bag full of leaves into it and was only about half full. I purchased these to replace my old green, recycling bag. With any bag like this, I think I will have to be a bit careful not to overfill it or punch a stick through. But they are sturdier than I expected (especially for the price.) The only thing I am not thrilled with is that they come with a black plastic piece that you need to thread through holes at the top. It holds the bags open at the top and is reasonably easy to thread . But I haven't figured out a good way to store the bags with the large hoops in them. And it would be annoying to take out the hoops all of the time. You could also leave the hoops off if you need to store them smaller. It would just make them a little more difficult to load. But still easier than a trash bag.

These bags are perfect for my needs but not really heavy duty as advertised. If Gardenmate would remove the words Heavy Duty from the description I would give this five stars. As others have pointed out the fabric is too flimsy to support the claim they are heavy duty. That said I was aware of this before I purchased and as I am using them for storage instead of lifting I felt comfortable buying them. If you use them to lift dry leaves and small branches you will be okay. Wet leaves may cause them to tear or at least wear out quickly.I had an issue with only receiving two bags instead of three. I reached out to Gardenmate and they promptly responded offering a 1/3rd cost refund. I am using this to buy another pack of bags.

I ordered the 3 pack of 16 gal. bags. Arrived yesterday, in use today. They are adequate--I am using them for weeding and leaves. Would not want to risk a rip by loading up completely with really heavy soil, rocks, etc., but some heavy materials should be OK. I like the way the top stays open. Handles made of sturdy webbing and are reinforced/stitched to bags. Will have to use them more to see if they hold up. They are OK, and I knew they were "lightweight" when I ordered them; they seem OK for my intended use, and better made than I expected..

Does a good job of mulching leaves, but nothing stronger. Twigs chew up the string-trimmer nylons in no time and replacing them is somewhat awkward. It also is a rather large item to store if you don't have an outside shed.

The mechanism works as expected, quite well actually for it's size. But two things hinder this mulcher: size and build quality. It really needs to be 30 to 50 percent wider in diameter to tackle a job of any real size. Also, the design is all plastic except for the stand. The heavy reliance on plastic for the barrel, mounting supports, and especially the flimsy intake hopper really do this machine a disservice.

It will probably do your job, but I'd pay more for a sturdier machine that will be more durable.

Having more mulberry trees than any sane man would allow, I needed a leaf shredder. And this one does a pretty good job. It is basically a small electric weed eater in a plastic funnel. And I will be willing to bet that it works for years.

There were, however a few cautionary points. First, the price for this varies wildly. On the Sears online site, it was listed multiple times anywhere from $225 to $360. Amazon, by far, had the best price. It cost $135 and since I use Amazon Prime, it was shipped for free. I'm impressed.

The manufacturer did not stay up nights and spend long weekends designing this. The plastic is relative cheap, and the end product uses for too much space in storage. Even in the $135 range, it could have been designed and made better.

In operation, it mulched pine needles and leaves. But it does nothing to small twigs--I'll repeat myself--it's a small electric weed eater. I've found that it works best with a collapsible leaf barrel under it. And it does indeed turn several (7-10?) bags of leaves into a single bag of mulch. I'm toying around with the idea of designing better legs with 3/4" PVC.

It does reduce volume of leaves but assembly is very difficult. The manufacturer apparently does not have quality control or final inspection based on my experience. The semi-circular tubular stand has punched holes which are supposed accommodate screws. The screws would not go into the holes because the metal was simply folded back instead of being removed. I ruined one screw trying to make it fit, cut my hands and had to re-manufacture the holes before I could get this product together. It does not save much time since you must rake leaves and feed them into the hopper. I wish someone would design a product similar to a shop vac with a built-in leaf shredder and a long hose so you can vacuum your yard thus eliminating raking and handling of leaves. The only product I could find was a very expensive lawn vacuum ($617) designed like a power lawn mower.

This is a great product. I live in a wooded area and use it to mulch all my leaves and pine needles which I use for ground cover. It is good for the enviroment and saves on the labor of bagging leaves. It does have one drawback. It is designed for dry leaves and very small twigs only. It is next to impossible to sort the raked debris to eliminate larger twigs. When overloaded with large twigs, wet leaves or too big a load a protective circuit breaker shuts the unit off. This becomes an annoyance because you have to wait for the unit to cool down before you can reset the circuit breaker. Eventually the circuit breaker does not do the trick and the unit will fail. My original unit, identical but sold under a different name failed under warranty and was replaced. This purchase replaces a failure out of warranty. My neighbor had a similar experience but we both repurchased replacement units because it is still a great product.

In the picture they look like they are free standing, but they are not.

This is a great size for a reusable bag, but the material seems cheap. About 4 times of use with occasionally dragging them around I now have several holes. They are nice but I would not buy them again

Great bags that come with plastic wire loop to hold them open (I didn't read that in the ad). Unfortunately, upon first pull of lower handle, it ripped right off one of them. I didn't pull on the other two. They served my purpose very well. The three filled with mulch equals one cubic yard of mulch.

Excellent product. Light weight, sturdy, good price. Works great as a yard maintenance bag. Handle at bottom helps dump it.This is an update to my prior review above. The bottom of these bags needs to be reinforced. Multiple holes appeared after about 12 months of limited use. Had to throw away. reduced rating from 5 to 3 stars because of this.

Bought 6 of them. Pros: easy to carry and light Cons: It does not last long, averaging 1 per month due to tear at 1/4 way from the top. It would be better if stronger material is used and the bag is 5 inches shorter.

Update 10/9/2016: Unfortunately, I have to downgrade this product due to some quality issues. I purchased the 3-pack in July and used them once a week for about a month, then took a break. I picked up where I left off yesterday and noticed that the bag seemed to have some shredding towards the top. I figured I'd keep an eye on it but the situation quickly deteriorated. The bag developed an approximately 4 inch gash while I was using it. I see the same markings on another bag. While initially the product worked well, quality control seems to be an issue. The product should certainly last more than a couple of months. Disappointing...My backyard had been overrun with weeds and other living things that tend to take over when you're not paying attention. Using lawn & garden bags was an effort in futility so I decided to look for something much more useful.The GardenMate 3 pack Reusable Garden Leaf Waste bags are exactly what I needed! I knew I had a lot of yard waste but wasn't sure that I would actually need 3, 72 gallon bags. The price convinced me to take a chance. I'm so glad that I did!I have filled up each of the 3 bags that I have and could use even more. The wide opening has made the job so much faster and easier. Since I'm only using them to hold lightweight yard waste such as leaves and weeds, even when full, they have not been too heavy for me to carry. My backyard includes a small hill and I've been able to carry them downhill without a problem. They seem very well made, although I wouldn't test the limits by putting sharp objects such as nails in them.

Does not shred grass enough that it could be put back on the grass as fertilizer. We purchased so that we could mulch our grass clippings and put them back on the lawn. Could not get it to shred fine enough to do that. Wound up with a big pile of fermenting stinking grass.

Shredder is probably fine just not for what we wanted to do with it. We returned it.

I purchased this to help mulch the large amount of pine needles I get in my yard each year. It did a great job mulching. And I loved using the pine needle mulch in my flower beds. It got used only 2-3 times in the summer, but for extended time periods (takes about a half day to clear up all the pine needles). I think I was pretty reasonable about not overloading, and pine needles are very light, but the motor burned out after only a year and half (after warranty had expired). That really is not a good return for what the product cost.

I bought my mulcher three years ago. The first year it worked fine. The second year, I did not use it, but this year which is the third, I had just began using it, and the top bearing in the motor came apart releasing its ball bearings, making a racket and eventually jamming the motor and tripping the circuit breaker. I thought it was materials in the motor but once to took it apart I saw the problem. I have only been used it on leaves; so, I must conclude that it is poorly designed. Otherwise, it worked fine when it worked.

Pros:
*Can go where the leaves are (ie, in a flower bed where you can mulch and spread right in place)
*Makes a fine textured mulch which looks nice in beds and quickly decomposes in compost piles.

BIG CON:
*Not for a yard with lots of leaves (we have 12 large hardwoods and smaller trees like dogwoods, too). Though we mulch and bag most of the leaves on the grass with a bagger/mower, this unit did not last well even w/ just the leaves in the flower beds. It just stopped running, period.

For lots of leaves, either get a heavy, large, and expensive unit, or just keep raking, mowing, bagging, and moving the leaves as you mulch them....and get good exercise, too!

The whole thing is lightweight plastic of fair to poor construction. Another reviewer complained about the assembly time, I found it fairly quick and easy to assemble. It is flimsy overall none the less and the two piece metal stand is "coupled" with a plastic clamp that can, will, and does over time allow the metal tube halves to pull out. The clamps on either side of the unit which the metal tube stand fits in also tend to come loose very often and you will need to tighten these regularly. On a positive note at least these are meant to be tightened by hand while the "plastic coupler" is held together with screws requiring a trip into the shed to get a screwdriver when it comes apart. The motor in the one I have, which is the "BIG" motor, trips the overload on the motor every few minutes while in use unless there are virtually no leaves in it. That is right there are two sizes of motors are available, at least get the big one if you think you need this shredder. Anyway, through a lot of trial and error if you feed it very slow it will shred leaves. When it works they do take up much less space saving you bags. Not worth the $ though. I have not used up all the spare plastic blades (very heavy gauge weed eater type string cut into pieces about 12" long) yet but I am dreading trying to find an acceptable replacement at my local hardware store.

After 3 months of use, one completely tore apart upon trying to empty it at our transfer station. A second one is beginning to tear.Apparently, they only last 3-3months.

Handles tear too easy!! 😩

Great idea fabric to thin. Holes in bottom after one use. Save money and buy thicker fabric one from AM Leonard.

When I first started using these bags I thought they were great, but after a month of using them to store leaves, they are now starting to fall apart at the seems. If you happen to mix in some small twigs in there, expect small holes all over. I would not buy this product again, spend a few extra dollars and get something more heavy duty.

they stand up and hold a lot...problem: seem to rip vertically way too easy and keep ripping. So, good idea but too fragile

The bags are heavy duty and strong. The problem is that the material doesn't hold up to the sun. My plan was to leave a bag in the garden so I could collect trimmings for the mulch pile. Initially I was very happy with my purchase. However after only two months, the bag is falling apart from sun exposure. I was hoping to have something that would last longer and be more attractive than the big black bags I used to use. It is stronger and more attractive, but I think it falls apart even faster in the sun than the cheap plastic bags.

The unit broke on the first day of use. No need to elaborate. I am currently trying to find a replacement part or have the seller send a replacement.

hood broke almost immediately. Doesn't chop leaves and small twigs as reviews state.

I ordered this LE-900. IT came in on time but the product has engineering flaws. The holes in the legs are not drilled out properly to
allow the machine screws to fit without drilling. I happen to be very good with my hands. Im a carpenter and I know how to put stuff together! I drilled the holes out myself to fit the screws but the last straw for me was when I went to screw on the wing nuts that hold the leg assembly together the threads in the machine screw would not align with the treads in the wing nut. I was careful not to cross thread them to !When I called up customer support they were quite willing to send replacement parts. I don't like having my time wasted by manufacturers who find the cheapest guy in China to make their stuff and don't over see the quality control of the product.
Unless you like screwing around all day trying to put together things and having to go to Home depot to get parts that will work so you can put your $120.00 brand new mulcher together, I'd buy another one.

It made it into the second year motor started sounding funny I changed the trimmer line noticed the motor shaft was very hot turned it on without the cutting line on the shaft was wobbling back and forth like the top bearing was shot 136.00 for a season and a half you decide if that is a good deal.

Assembly was easy and instructions were easy to follow. Following the instructions in the book I coarse shredded the leaves and then fine shredded them. Worked great for about 20 minutes and then stopped running. There was a lot of leaf dust everywhere so I got out the compressor and cleaned the dust out of the filter, motor, and anywhere else I found it. It starts but will only run for 5 to 10 seconds before tripping the reset. I've had much better luck with equipment I buy from a discount chain (can I say HF's name here?)--I pay half as much and they are more durable. If you are willing to spend this much save your pennies a little longer and buy a real leaf/lawn vacuum. Besides chopping up the leaves it will save you from most of the raking.

To be fair, the manufacturer repaired the shredder and it has worked better since the repair. I would raise the rating to three stars at this point.

2 out of the 3 bags ripped at the seams during my first use. It was filled with lightweight loose hay. Not heavy at all. I would not recommend this product.

Not happy with this product. After just opening today and the plastic rings practically break in my hands. :-( used for this Summer and the bags ripped. Ugh.

Large enough but not at all like pictured. IT DOES NOT STAND ALONE AT ALL AND IS NO EASIER THAN PUTTING LEAVES DIRECTLY IN A LAWN & LEAF BAG. It comes with a flimsy plastic strap that you have to thread around the pocket on the inside of the top of the bag. There isn't anything provided to clamp the plastic strap so it will recede into the pocket after every use. You might as well just use the plastic leaf bags.

Actually I have been very disappointed with them. I have used them twice to pick up leaves and twigs that blew up onto my patio over the winter. They both have holes in the bottoms. I was expecting them to last a lot longer than this.

Unfortunately after only one use of collecting twigs in my yard the bag had holes in the bottom. It would have been great if made of stronger material. If you only put grass clippings or leaves it may have held up. Too bad as I now will return them.

After one use holding freshly clipped small twigs and branches, both bags I used had holes in the bottom. If I can figure out some way to reinforce the bottoms I may get adequate use from them.