Wood chipper/shredder. Are they worth it?

I find myself wanting a wood chipper. I have a fair sized lot, loaded with trees and shrubs, and a chipper seems useful. I've been studying them online for awhile now. But I don't know though... I have my doubts about the homeowner models holding up, and doing a good job. And the commercial models I can't afford or justify.

So the questions to you guys who have owned a homeowner chipper for a few years:
Are they worth it?
Do you use it, or is it easier to just light a fire and burn the brush pile every fall? (Like I'm doing now.)
Does it hold up to regular use?
Do you recommend any brand or feature?

GA native said:

I find myself wanting a wood chipper. I have a fair sized lot, loaded with trees and shrubs, and a chipper seems useful. I've been studying them online for awhile now. But I don't know though... I have my doubts about the homeowner models holding up, and doing a good job. And the commercial models I can't afford or justify.

So the questions to you guys who have owned a homeowner chipper for a few years:
Are they worth it?
Do you use it, or is it easier to just light a fire and burn the brush pile every fall? (Like I'm doing now.)
Does it hold up to regular use?
Do you recommend any brand or feature?

Click to expand...

If you go the chipper route have a plan for how and where you will use the chips.

It is not a heirloom. It's not for passing down to your children. It's not an investment. Get one the size you need and plan on using it up and replacing as needed.

I had a Troy Bilt that did ok. It was a belt drive design. I would NOT buy one that had the chipper wheel mounted directly on the crankshaft. I sold mine and now burn. Less work I think.

In my opinion, I think you would be better lighting up 100$ bills and watching them go up in flames. The homeowner rigs are junk. Burning is the way to go.

If you need the chips,buy them,if you need to get rid of limbs,burn them

Define good sized lot. I have 10 ac and I have a little 37 hp Brush Bandit 65. I bought it for $4k and could sell it anyway for more. Check the used market in winter. Vermeer had a small gas powered model as well. The Bandit will eat larger stuff. Burning is a pain

As little as you would ever truly use it, I'd rent one before I bought one.

One was given to me and I gave it away after about two usages. I definitely wouldn't buy a new one. Rayjay has the right idea.

I bought one of the home owner chipper shredders for cheap. My general thoughts are that is like the garbage disposal in your sink, it works for smaller soft stuff, but I wouldn't run anything serious through it. It works pretty good for shredding leaves, finger diameter limbs and green straight sticks about 1" in diameter or smaller. It is terrible for stuff that isn't straight, of any size or that is hard. It will also work you to death because you have to trim up the stuff going into it and manually feed all the sticks into it.

In the end, I decided that the amount of work required to use and feed it was not worth the effort and therefore sold it to someone else who wanted to try the chipper/shredder experiment. Now, I just stack all my brush up and burn it and buy truck loads of mulch when I need it. I think this is cheaper overall, especially when labor is included.

If you have a big enough lot where you want to actually chip the brush, then rent one or buy a smaller one used. Automatic feed and a drum chipper are a must.

My thought process was that a chipper would pay for itself, versus renting. But so far, y'all have confirmed what I suspected about the little homeowner models.

https://www.chippersdirect.com/YardBeast-2090-Chipper-Shredder/p69950.html It would seem that I need to think bigger, if I follow through with the chipper. The less than $1k chippers sound like more of a nuisance than a tool.

I have a homeowner model MTD 5HP that I bought used at a pawn shop that looked like it was very lightly used. I bought it as an experiment to chip decayed pine bark and mix in potting soil (like 100+ yards of bark). I ran it hard and frequent for 3 months and now it will not crank. I would go rent a professional one before buying a homeowner model again.

From my research, you're basically buying junk until you get into commercial chippers, at which point your up in the 10k range, even used. I'd say craigslist is probably your best option.

I bought a lightly used 10HP Troy-Bilt belt driven chipper, mostly for a single project where I cut down 4 BIG Leyland Cypress trees. The limbs are mostly straight, and it's soft wood, and the Troy-Bilt chewed right through everything under 2".

But it is a lot of work, and your shoulders will get tired and sore from all the vibration. Plus, if the limb is crooked you can forget about fitting it in the chute. It never jammed but due to the sheer volume I had to constantly clear the wood chips out of the way.

I wish I had a place for a burn pile...IMO that's the easiest way to go...short of hiring someone else to do it for you.

tree cutter 08 said:

In my opinion, I think you would be better lighting up 100$ bills and watching them go up in flames. The homeowner rigs are junk. Burning is the way to go.

Click to expand...

This!
I own one of the 10hp belt drive things and it's wasn't even worth pulling out. I guess folks use them for shrub trimmings at best. I bought mine at a yard sale for 50 bucks like new. Gave it to a painter that was doing some work for me.