Latest reviews about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

HaroldSheets says "Very Disappointed " about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

HaroldSheets — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:13:35 GMT

I will admit that this product does everything advertised. It starts easily and will handle 3" branches. However, I cannot imagine that Craftsman ever tested this product and found it acceptable.

The bolts for assembly are placed in difficult areas to reach as-well-as being of 3 different sizes.

You cannot fill the oil reservoir with out a funnel unless you remove the hopper.

The hopper becomes easily jammed and removal takes about 15-30 minutes if you have all the right tools next to you when it happens. This is the part that concerns me. The main reason you would purchase a chipper/shredder is to mulch lawn debris yourself and not have to hire professionals. This model jams about every 10 minutes, forcing me to shut down the machine and remove a branch that the tamper should have forced into the shredder. I cannot see this product being beneficial if you have more then 4-5 branches to chip at a time.

I would not recommend this product to anyone, and would not purchase it again had I to...

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wseidle says "The 305cc Briggs and Stratton chipper is powerful!" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

wseidle — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:53:06 GMT

After doing a lot of online research on chippers, I am happy that I selected the Craftsman 1450 series model. Granted the Craftsman name associated with quality lured me in and influenced my decision making over brands I never heard of. With that said, the unit did not disappoint. With a 14.5 hp engine, the unit easily handles both softwood and hardwoods. The the shipping box is very heavy so be sure to have some help! The assembly process was very straight forward and would have been a breeze if I hadn't dropped a washer inside the unit which required a complete disassembly. Nevertheless, no problem bolting everything back together. I did have some problem aligning the holes on the chute which seemed to be off by about 1/2 inch. During operation the unit is hard to pull start, but did started immediately. I put a variety of limbs ranging from 1/2 inch to 3 inches into the chute. No problems with the little branches, but 3 inch is definitely the max! In fact, I elected...

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JanVida says "AWESOME MACHINE!" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

JanVida — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:06:29 GMT

We have an acre of land that is not flat and is full of trees. We have tons of branches and leaves from the trees that we try to get under control, but seems to get out of control every year! We first purchased the Craftsman 190cc* 4-in-1 Yard Vacuum System, which we took back the next day. That machine is ok if you have a flat yard and maybe one or two trees. We then purhcased this OHV drop down chipper/shredder and boy oh boy what an awesome machine! It did everything we expected it to. With living on a hill and our yard being rugged, of course we had to blow all the leaves and twigs down to the bottom of the yard with our leaf blower, but once we had a pile, it was a matter of minutes before we had it all shredded and the mulch in our garden! Easy to start, don't know why the other reviews said it was hard to start. As long as you don't over feed it, you don't have to worry about it clogging. My 14 year old thought it was amazing. He had fun shredding all the leaves. ...

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ChipperBill says "Read this comment before assembly!" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

ChipperBill — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:07:49 GMT

Chipper runs fine and generally performs as described. My complaint and comments are: Oil fill tube is in the worst location and needs to be relocated or an extension tube with drain needs to be installed. If the chipper jams, and it will, there are far to many bolts to take off to clear the jam, you are esentially unassembling it as though you just purchased it. Not fun in the woods. Lastly, when you assemble this for the first time DO NOT put the washer and bolt into the chipper chute to attach it to the brace...disconnect the brace and attach it first to the chute then attach the chute to the drum. If you drop the bolt or the washer it will go down the chute into the drum and you will need to disassemble it anyway. Save yourself the time and headache....

txase says "GREAT CHIPPER FOR THE MONEY" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

txase — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:17:43 GMT

Just put this chipper to work for the first time today..although these come with a advanced starting mechanism it was still somewhat hard to pull. but then again i only weigh a 150 lbs..had to put some muscle behind it but it started on the first pull and ran flawlessly..although the chutes are made of plastic they are heavy duty and if you think about it, rust won't be an issue..this chipper is perfect for 2" to 3" diameter limbs..i ran it from 8 o'clock a.m. till 4 p.m. with no issues..no bolts coming loose from vibration like you'd expect..i am clearing a thick bank of willows and so far this has been a perfect match for the job..i would recommend that you wear a heavy set of gloves when pushing the limbs in to the chute..and i would definately recommend this to anyone who has a large job to do..pretty good on gas and fairly easy to move around...The pluses of this machine far outweigh the minuses..for the money, i am very pleased to say the least.

day two: ran this chipper from...

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Averageyardworker says "DO NOT BUY the Craftsman 305cc OHV Drop Down Chute/Shredder " about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

Averageyardworker — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:52:24 GMT

I had the old style Craftman chipper/shredder without the drop down chute that I purchased in 1993. This machine worked fine. When leaves or brush are placed in the hopper they would be sucked into the blade and the material ground up. It lasted almost 18 years. The Craftman 305CC OHV Down Down Chipper/Shredder is basically the same design and I was looking forward to the drop down chute. The chute is of poor design constantly jambing up with leaves and/or brush. There is no drawing or sucking action as the old machine.The only way you can unclog the shredder chute is to stop it and pull out the material packed at the entrance to the shredder blade. I would take the machine back, but because of time restrants I was not able to return the machine within the first 30 days. DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!...

KenGizinski says "Chipper" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

KenGizinski — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:47:37 GMT

This chipper started easy on the first pull out of the box but stalled after a minute of running. Took several pulls to get it going again. Not sure why, but is running okay now. The bolts on the feed housing rattled loose and fell off. I found them on the ground. They should have used the ones with the nylon insert like on the leaf chute feed. Not sure why they are different. I will have to get some nylons ones. When I fed a larer branch in that was about 3 inches, the machine bogged down and cut off. I was dissappointed with that. It seems to only do larger branches if you feed them very slowly and don't let the machine such them into it. I was expecting a little more out of this machine but overall it is okay for the money. I have only used it one day and have more to do. I will update this if anything changes.

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tporter21 says "Met my expectations, powerful." about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

tporter21 — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 01:49:33 GMT

I was really glad I read the other comments and have found most all true for me too. One thing I didn't find as true was that it wasn't that much harder to pull than my lawn mower. It does take a good tug, but mine has started first time each time. (I'm a 55 year old lady, not in great shape.) I totally agree that you want to be sure all the small twigs are out and the hopper empty before turning it off or it binds up the cranking and it has to be taken apart, which is a pain. I found it helpful to have a stick to stir the debris in the hopper or it can clog easily. The oil design is a pain as all have said. Plan on ear protection. But it is very powerful and really chops up everything. I'm pleased with it.

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karupoeg says "craftsman chipper/shredder" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

karupoeg — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:18:02 GMT

This machine is expensive and very poorly designed. It is difficult to direct a branch down the long chipper chute so it feeds into the blades. It is impossible to ascertain if all material has been processed through the chipper chute before you shut down the machine. If any woody material remains in the chute as the machine is shut down, it falls down and jams the blade making it impossible to restart the machine. It is impossible to clear the jam without getting out a wrench set, dropping to your knees and dismanteling the machine so it is close to the condition it arrived in when delivered to your house ie, assembly required before it can be put back into use. Also, there is no guarantee that it won't jam the very next time it is used. What a waste of time! I despise this machine!

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kleeks says "Craftsmen 1450 Chipper/Shredder gets the job done." about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

kleeks — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:01:24 GMT

Works well, easy to use, chips all kinds of sticks, including dried bamboo. Starts easily. I am a small woman and am strong enough to pull the cord and get it started. Stays still during use.

It is a loud engine, earplugs recommended. It is heavy to cart around the yard--takes two of us to push it. Takes a lot of storage space. Assembly not so easy--bolts are in hard-to-reach places. Oil refill is difficult to reach.

Biggest problem is that on its third use, I had my first clog of sticks jammed in the impeller, which stopped the engine. To our dismay, in order to reach the impeller, my husband had to disassemble the chipper chute by means of wrenches to remove the bolts. There is no easy method of opening it to clear the jam.

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TractorManDan says "The Craftsman 1450 Chipper/Shredder is a monster!" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

TractorManDan — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:51:28 GMT

Picked up my new Chipper Shredder Friday evening and took it home for assembly. I noticed immediately that the other reveiwers who said it took some effort were indeed correct. It took me about 90 minutes to put the whole thing together. Some of the nuts and bolts take a little effort to get to, but once it's all done you end up with a very solid machine. NOTE!-there was a wire hanging down from below the carburator on my unit that looked like it was supposed to attach to something. I never found anything for it to attach to, and the unit runs like a champ, so don't be alarmed if you find the same thing on yours. I had to drill a hole in the chipping chute for one of the support brackets, as the one from the factory would not line up at all no matter what I tried. It was off by about a half of an inch, so I drilled a 1/4" hole through the plastic chute and everything was fine after that. Filled up the fuel tank, and added oil (You need to add oil before doing ANYTHING else), pulled the...

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jkeyser14 says "This is a must have for anyone in a wooded area" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

jkeyser14 — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:13:09 GMT

I was scared to buy this at first since most of the reviews I read on sub $1000 chipper shredders were pretty bad. I paid about $700 for this on sale. It took a little getting used to at first figuring out what size branch it can accept and how to keep things from getting jammed in the chute, but after about an hour with it you can quickly identify twists or offshoots on branches that are going to cause problems.

The good: Assembly was super easy, it's about 6 bolts total. The floowing weekend my neighbor and I took down 4 very large trees that were threatening to fall on my outbuildings. Between that and cleanup after this winter (half wooded yard) I've put about 20 hours of runtime on this chipper and I haven't had any problems. It's amazing how much of a reduction in volume the chipper achieves. I've now got about 10-15 yards of mulch. I have to disagree with others on the hard to start part. You are pulling on a large flywheel so you wind up pulling the cord much slower than...

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rwjamiso says "Use of Questionable Fasteners" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

rwjamiso — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:51:35 GMT

I purchsed the 305 model in summer of 2009 and it has been great at shredding leaves, twigs and branches on my heavily shaded 1/4 acre lot. While I recommend this shredder for anyone that needs to chip branches as well as leaves, last week when I took the thing apart to sharpen the blades I was disturbed by the hex cap bolts that were used to secure the device together. Particularly, there are 6x 5/16-18 x 1 flat head socket cap screws, 2 each for the 2 chipper blades and 2 for the single shredder blade. All of the 5/16 bolts appear to be manufactured by the Ningbo Qunli Fastener Company, China as they bare the 'UH' marking on their heads signfying that (see http://www.uspto.gov/***********/tac/fqa/active.pdf for fastner marking decode list).

So the problem was removing the shredder blade bolts. Instead of taking the entire hopper cover off (which has ~10 bolts) I figured I would remove the 2 aforementioned bolts from the exposed are of the hopper (I had already removed the brush...

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Redfox007 says "So far it has been quite good." about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

Redfox007 — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:48:50 GMT

I like the chipper shredder I pusrchased, but it does not accomplish what I thought it could. I was hoping it would also chip dry wood, such as old boards, two by fours, etc. But, it more or less shaves off teh ends in a planing fashion. It chips the green stuff quite well, and very speedily, so I am not dissapointed. I am trying to make some compost, to help my garden and my redworms for the redworm bed. With the chippings from the geen stuff this will work good, but with chppings from dry wpood, it would be even better.

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SanDay5 says "Craftsman chipper/shredder great for shredding." about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

SanDay5 — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:30:03 GMT

I have several large trees and they drop loads of leaves in the fall. If I bagged them, I would easily go through 100+ trash bags. So I got this Craftsman leaf shredder. Once shredded, the leaves are reduced to about 1/8 the volume. Instead of bagging them, I use them as compost. So why not 4 stars? I tried the chipper chute and it doesn't work so well. It can handle small branches okay but larger ones are a struggle.

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fish650 says "The 305cc chipper/shredder gets the job done." about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

fish650 — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:16:51 GMT

I bought this chipper/shredder a few months ago. I have used it 3-4 times and it has always started easily. It does take a little effort to pull the rope but it normally starts on the first or second try. There is a choke lever and a separate speed/shut-off lever. The speed lever will shut the unit down when placed all the way towards the "slow" position. I saw one post about removing the spark plug wire to shut down the unit, but this is not necessary.

Assembly was similar to other postings. I redrilled one hole in the plastic feed chute, but the rest of the assembly was uneventful.

I have fed many 2-3 inch diameter limbs through this thing without a problem. I was suprised at how quick it "chipped" the limbs. The mulch is fairly fine, similar to chips from a chain saw.

The unit I purchased has a oil check location on each side of the engine block. The one under the feed chute would be difficult to reach after assembly. The one on the other side of the engine can be...

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RKnecht says "Craftsman 305cc Chipper/shredder" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

RKnecht — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:16:22 GMT

After reading countless reviews on all of the "homeowner level" chippers, I decided on this unit. It was not the cheapest, or most expensive, but I feel that I made the right decision. I assembled it in 30 minutes, added the included oil, filled the gas tank and it started right up with one pull. I was chipping right away. The engine has plenty of power and you really have to try hard to bog it down. I don't think it's too loud for what it does.

I wish there was a dipstick, as others have mentioned, but a simple long funnel makes filling it with oil a breeze. The drop down hopper is a big bonus when it comes to small twigs, pine cones and needles, and leaves. Just rake the stuff right in and it does the rest. The chipper chute is fine, but you can clog it with smaller twigs. The tamper isn't long enough in most cases, so I just used a long branch instead. Worked like a charm. I'd also like a chute extension to better "aim" the mulch where I want it, as the bag fills up pretty fast and isn't...

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upnorthdragonfly says "Just purchased - hope if is as good as other reviews" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

upnorthdragonfly — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:32:04 GMT

Great Chipper - worked out of the box - wish it had an electric starter, althouugh it started on one HARD pull

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tbader01 says "I Wish I Had Broken Down And Gotten It Sooner!!!" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

tbader01 — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:58:23 GMT

I got my chipper about a month ago now, and I regret having put off getting it for so many years! I've had my eye on this thing for a while, but didn't want to spend the money for it. It finally got to the point where the tree branches were groing so out of control that they were blocking the sunlight and not allowing the grass to grow.

I want to address some of the complaints that others have mentioned. First off, the difficulty in the pull to get it started. For one, if you try to pull the chord really fast and hard, it is difficult to pull, and will try to tip over. The trick is to pull the chord slow and steady. It will start to barely sputter, at which point you move the choke from turtle to rabbit, and it will miraculously just take off! It it a bit difficult to grasp that from just those weak sputters that the engine will rev up just by moving the choke, but it works. Of course, you do need to keep your foot on the tire when pulling, just to keep it stable while pulling on the chord....

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Rjordan01 says "The chipper performs as advertised, nice unit!" about Craftsman LEAFWACKER 3-Way Chipper Shredder 49 States

Rjordan01 — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:33:58 GMT

The unit starts easily and really does a number on limbs, branches and leaves. The assembly instructions were very confusing however because it included three very different versions of the same engine. Took me quite a while to determine there was no oil dipstick. After a bit of cussing however the unit was up and running.

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