Powerhorse 420cc Gas Chipper/Shredder - 4in. Chipping Capacity, Blue, Gasoline, Cast Iron, Chipper/Shredder, Lawn + Garden

The product works great! The problem we had was getting one here in one piece. After he first 3 being tore up when it came in the 4th one came in ok. Great product but customers service in the company is not real good.

Lots of loose nutts and bolts in the packaging on arrival but it was all there. Assembly took about 1.5 hours. Instructions were basic. Figured it all out eventually through the diagrama. Filled with oil and gas and fired on 2nd try after setting the choke. The brush feeder opening was a little small. Boy it sucks it in though so be careful. The 4 inch limb chipper devoured whatever I put into it. Honestly I feel like this was a great bargain buy with a price point <1000 for 15 hp chipper.

Had a few little challenges putting it together. Received the machine with a few bolts lose inside the cardboard box and few missing ones, no biggie there just needed to find some matching sizes from my box of bolts. The unit did come with a battery, but the ground terminal screw was overtightened so it took some plier work to get it installed. Also the recoil start was smashed so I could not turn the engine manually before using the electric start. The replacement recoil starters are on backorder at Northern Tool and not currently listed on Amazon. A dent on the gas tank suggests that the the package was probably dropped by the freight company, from outside the package was in a good shape. They also left the pallet 2 miles down the road from my property so I had really no choice than to put it together there and lug it up. As a precaution before running the machine I losened the belt guard screws and repositioned it to avoid the problem reported by other folks that the tabs of the belt guard break off.The engine needed a little squirt of gas engine starter fluid to wake it up, but once I got it running subsequent starts have been easy. The machine rattles and makes a lot of noise when being fed material in some angles it seams to feed better than others. Some times it makes a little smoke when a branch gets stuck inside the side chute. But the engine does not seem to strain no matter what you stick into the side chute aslong as you keep the output side clean of blockage. I have not used the top hopper yet.The machine passes some sticks through and the output varies from dust to fairly fine depending what went in. But what comes out is takes a lot less space than what goes in, so the machine does what it's supposed to.One of the reasons I picked this machine was the tow bar. But I can't really tow it with my ATV right now since the hopper bangs on the back racks. I'll have to shim or modify the bar to keep the hopper angled up.Overall I think it's a solid machine.

We brought our purchase up to our mountain property about 3 hours from our home to find several bolts missing, the side shoot did not "just fit" onto the side and my husband had to modify the holes so it would fit on securely. Then we finally started using the unit but realized we didn't have an "altitude kit" since we are at 4000 ft. Anyway, it worked fine for about 2 hours and then we took a break and came back a half hour later and it wouldn't start. Not sure if the starter fuse burned out or if the altitude had something to do with it. We will try to order the altitude kit and return to it in October to try again. If we have to spend more money to repair the darn thing we will be very sore about this purchase.

I ordered this unit based on the positive reviews I read and obviously the attractive price point. Unfortunately I received the unit with several missing bolts that were found scattered throughout the box. After I reattached everything it was time for oil, gas and it was go time. I turned it on and the next 10 seconds was crazy! It seems some blades had broken in transit and now the other blades were trying to shred them, not good! I shut her down & surveyed the damage. I contacted Amazon who approved me to return it. Later the same day I received an email from Northern Tool explaining they wouldn't take it back because I had added gas & oil. They first offered to send me parts that I could install myself. Later that day they emailed saying the parts were on back order for at least a month. They then offered to send a new unit, (not to exchange) so that I could take the parts I needed as replacements for the broken unit. What? I'm not a mechanic & this is not what I paid for. I will update this review should things get resolved.

I am so glad we decided to spend a little more money and go with a chipper that chips larger branches and has a little extra oopmh. This is a no-joke chipper for people with lots of wood to break down. This chipper processes many of our larger limbs in the yard, although large hardwood branches take a little more effort. I would say that a couple hours of chipping wood results in several bags-worth of mulch.I will say that if you need a chipper this strength, the collector bag is probably not going to be too helpful. I think it would probably fill too quickly. We don't use ours. Instead we lay out a tarp under the shredder to catch all the mulch and periodically move the mulch out the way for more chipped mulch.Also, this piece of equipment should be treated like heavy machinery. It is very important to wear safety goggles, heavy duty work gloves, and ear protection while operating this equipment. Stray wood chips can fly out, and if you don't wear gloves while handling the branches, at some point you could cut your hands as a branch gets fed through the system.