Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States Reviews
www.sears.com
Rating Summary
“Powerful, hungry beast!”
- always outside, a grill master
- Pros
- Good power, Eats leaves and twigs instantly, Chips larger sticks into fine mulch
- Cons
- Oil maintenance design could be improved
Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States —
I bought the 305cc Drop-Down Chipper Shredder from Sears (online in store pick-up to save $25). Put it together in about 45 minutes and fired it up the next day after putting oil and gas into it. I've read that the oil is difficult to put in, and I agree. I ended up getting a very long funnel from an auto parts store and that made the chore easier, but I also ended up overfilling the oil by a few ounces which kept my first pulls from starting the machine. I opened the filler plug and the excess oil flowed onto some rags that I had put in place to catch it. After that the engine fired and ran beautifully first pull. I've also read that the pulling is difficult (and the resistance of the compression is strong), but it didn't seem to need the fastest pull to get ignition. It has started first pull every time since my overfilling incident.
The performance of the chipper/shredder is fantastic as far as I'm concerned. I have shredded dozens of bushels of leaves and left the twigs and small sticks in the piles and put them straight into the leaf hopper. ZOOM in they go to the bag and come out of it a nice fine textured mulch. I also pruned a pine tree and ran the branches (with the side branches still attached) into the chipper port and the resulting chips were nearly powder with needles and wood beautifully blended (perfect for my rhododendrons). I have a very hilly back yard and my garage (where the machine is stored is almost two stories below the yard where I work. The wheels roll over turf and some obstacles very easily and I found it no problem to get the chipper/shredder wherever I needed to use it. I would recommend this machine to anyone who wants to keep from putting leaves into landfills and instead use them as mulch and compost at home. I will take care of this thing faithfully to keep it running a long, long time.
Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States
