Garden chopper what to choose

Any owner of a garden plot or a private house necessarily faced, to one extent or another, with the problem of recycling vegetable waste. Especially this issue is exacerbated with the beginning of spring works and at the end of the season, in the fall. We have to devise all sorts of ways to get rid of the accumulated cut branches, dry grass and leaves, from dead shrubs and the remaining leaves, etc.

To help solve this set of problems, and even get a tangible benefit from this, a special type of garden equipment will help, namely a garden chopper. Not so long ago about such a useful unit few people heard, and today it becomes, often, an indispensable assistant gardener-gardener. True, a technique of this type is a novelty for most, and many do not even know what opportunities it has and from which side to approach it when choosing it. We will help our readers - the article about garden shredder what to choose, what to pay special attention to, what are the basic rules to adhere to during operation.

What is the garden shredder

In any farm that has a garden or a garden, a lot of different vegetable waste inevitably accumulates. Beginning with early spring, with the cleaning of the territory, pruning of trees, shrubs or grapevine, the yard or the useful area of ​​the plot begins to be cluttered with heaps, which sometimes becomes a very difficult task to get rid of. In the summer, weeding will be added during the period of mass growth of weed, cutting of bushes, removal of parasitic shoots, collection of fruit fallen from trees, etc. In the autumn - it is not easier at all, because care of trees and bushes, cleaning of the tops from vegetable beds and fallen leaves, and much more is on the agenda again.

Typically, such heaps of waste vegetation are extremely noncompact, take up a lot of space, very difficult to load and transport, and their appearance spoil the cozy site. What to do with them?

Large branches can still be sawed for firewood. To some extent part of the problem is solved by the presence of a compost pit, but it is extremely disadvantageous to lay large fragments in it, as the pit will quickly overflow, and dense branches will decompose very long.

It is quite expensive to export such garbage mountains, as renting vehicles, loading waste, and exporting all costs a lot of money.

It would seem, the simplest way out is to burn. But here is not all so clear:

• First, this is not quite a simple event in terms of fire safety.
• Secondly, in many regions, especially in the city, legislation prohibits categorical prohibitions on burning plant waste, and you can run into big trouble.
• And in the third - this is absolutely meaningless, unjustified event. Any plant feeds on "vital juices" from the earth, taking from it substances necessary for growth and development. It turns out that the burning of plant waste is the purposeful destruction of the most valuable biological product, and ultimately the nemerous depletion of fertile soil on the site. Is it better, instead of buying some fertilizers on the side, to use available reserves?

All this "baggage" of problems is solved by purchasing one garden plant - chopper( often there are foreign synonyms - garden shredder or chipper).This unit is able to quickly grind out the overall plant waste into a shallow mass, with the disposal of which no special problems will arise.

• Such shredded waste will no longer clutter the compost pits, and the process of their biological decay will be much faster.
• Crushed wood becomes an excellent mulching material and good fertilizer.
• It's even easier to take waste from your territory in a shredded form. They can be tamped into bags and loaded into the trunk of your own car.
• Wood chips can even be used in the form of fuel - in particular, it is processed into pellets.

Convenient kind of heating oil - pellets

This granular fuel is produced from plant waste of various types. Under certain conditions, it is possible to manufacture equipment and master home-made pellet production with their own hands - about this in a special publication of our portal.

Thus, the advantages of such an aggregate - a great many, and it is increasingly possible to see in the "arsenal" of diligent owners.

How the garden shredder

is designed. Schematic diagram of the device of the garden shredder

Despite the wide variety of models of garden shredders, differing in size and operational capabilities, they are all assembled in approximately one basic scheme, somewhat reminiscent of the device of a food processor.

• It is a rugged case made of metal, polymer or a combination thereof. The body can be mounted on a frame, which is often equipped with a wheel drive - for easy transportation of the unit through the site.
• Operation of the shredder is provided by the operation of the power drive - it can be an electric motor or an internal combustion engine.
• The drive through power transmission is connected to a cutting( grinding) mechanism of one type or another.
• At the top of the chopper, there is always a loading hopper, usually with a funnel-like extension for easy planting of waste for milling.
• The milled mass can enter the receiving hopper, into a soft container( sack), or be dropped onto the ground. Some powerful models are equipped with spreaders with the ability to adjust the height and direction of distribution of crushed waste.

Power plant

Garden shredders can be equipped with either an electric drive or an internal combustion engine. Each of the options has its own "pros and cons".

• The electric drive is more typical of small household units of small and medium power, up to 2.6 kW.Such shredders are quite capable of coping with the moderate amounts of waste from an ordinary garden plot.

They usually do not differ in size and weight, so they easily move to the place of work. Their maintenance is minimized, training in operation, start-up and management does not require any special skills.

At the same time, their "attachment" to the power grid can be an inconvenience. For example, in a countryside area of ​​a large area, a long cable will be required, which is not always convenient, and sometimes simply impossible, because of the banal lack of a connection point. There are certain limitations in the work and the weather criterion - just for reasons of electrical safety.

• Units with a gasoline drive attract their own autonomy - they can be used in any "field" conditions.

As a rule, they are equipped with a two-stroke gasoline engine. Such shredders can already perform more extensive work, recycle large enough plant waste, down to the trunks of small trees.

The operation of the gasoline engine will already require the owners of certain handling skills. So, for refueling it is necessary to prepare a fuel mixture, it is necessary to regularly check the state of the candles, gasoline and air filters, and carry out preventive works. However, the technology of this class does not put too complicated ICE, and all this can be quickly learned.

• Diesel engines are usually put on a professional purpose vehicle. Such drives are able to work for a long time without pauses, well keep a small speed, do not require a complex ignition system.

But in the domestic conditions, such shredders are practically not found, simply because of their high cost, large size and complexity with self-transportation throughout the site.

However, the type of drive is not always the determining factor in the question of the "professionality" of the chopper. So, you can buy a compact household model with a petrol two-stroke engine, and at the same time there are stationary or mobile installations of the pro class, equipped with a powerful three-phase electric motor.

Shredding mechanism of the garden shredder

The torque from the power drive is transmitted to the working tool - the cutting or grinding mechanism of the shredder. And it, in turn, can be arranged differently. So, three main types are divided:

• The blade mechanism is usually a disk with radially positioned knives made of tool steel. Rapid rotation of the blade with blades provides cutting of the plant waste to small fragments.

Advantages of this scheme - its simplicity, low price, ease of maintenance. Well-honed knives can process foliage, grass, stems of bushes and annual plants, usually up to 20-25 mm thick. The mechanism of this type perfectly copes with freshly cut branches and branches, but when processing hard, dried up vegetable waste, blades can become blunted( even a large fruit seed, for example, from a plum or peach) can cause a problem. In some grinders, knives of a special configuration having several blades, located at an angle. The upper knife cuts the fed branches into smaller fragments, and the lower one already provides the final grinding.

For the knife-type mechanism, forced feeding of material for processing is required - it will not "tighten" the branches into itself. For this, special pushers are used.

In service such shredders are the simplest, that is, removing the knife for sharpening or replacing with a new one is usually a very simple procedure. Most household appliances have such a mechanism.

• For the processing of solid, dried branches of trunks it is better to use a chopper, which is equipped with a milling mechanism. On the working shaft there is a milling cutter - pinion made of high-strength alloy, with a certain configuration of teeth and their corresponding sharpening. Big turns such a milling cutter are not needed, hence, a gear reduction gear is envisaged.

The teeth of the rotating cutter are able to "crack" sober wood of dry branches and trunks, turning them into small chips. But with freshly cut branches and shoots, this mechanism does not always manage - the fibrous structure is "chewed", but it can not completely mellow.

The cutter does not need to be in the singular - on one shaft there can be several, with a certain angular "takeoff" position of the teeth. And on the powerful installations of the professional class, there is often a two-rotor grinding mechanism, where two rows of mills rotate in the opposite direction, ensuring crushing even the hardest wood waste.

The convenience of the milling mechanism of grinding is also in the fact that it is enough for him to grab a long branch or trunk - then the gear simply drags it inside while splitting it into small pieces.

• The advantages of both of the above cutting mechanisms combine a universal-type chopper. In fact - this is also a milling cutter, but of a turbine type - instead of teeth it is equipped with carbide blade blades located at an angle to the longitudinal axis.

This structure of the cutting mechanism makes it possible to successfully grind both freshly cut and old, dried waste. True, garden shredders of this type are already much more expensive.

• Some models of medium and high power are equipped with auger, screw shredder.

Rotating screw with sharp spiral turns perfectly copes with any type of plant waste - it all depends on the power of the plant itself.

Criteria for choosing a garden shredder

Unit power and recycling capabilities

These two concepts, rendered in a sub-title, have a direct connection. From the power drive power in the first place will depend on the functionality of the chopper as a whole.

There is no clear gradation of all the diversity of such technology, but there is a conditional division into three groups - the household, middle, semi-professional, and, finally, professional purpose devices.

To better understand the criteria of such a subdivision, it is better to present them in the form of a table:

Category of shredders	Power and type of drive	Limiting diameter of grindable branches	"Weight category"	Application areas and features
Household	up to 1.5 kW, electric drive	up to 25 mm	Up to 20 kg	Small suburban or adjacent areas, mainly with young trees. Short cycle of continuous operation. As a rule - knife mechanism.
Mid-range, semi-professional	up to 3 kW, electric drive or two-stroke ICE	up to 40 mm	up to 40-50 kg	Average households or suburban areas with orchard, bushes, old trees requiring regular pruning. Cope with any type of "green" and dried waste in the specified size range. Are capable of a long enough non-stop operation
Professional	from 5 to 9 kW, gasoline or diesel drive, three-phase electric motor	60-80 mm	up to 100 kg and above	Disposal of waste in forest park facilities, industrial plants, large farms,in public services, etc. Designed for long cycles of work during work shifts.

Naturally, as the capacity and productivity of the garden shredder increases, so does its price. Therefore, before the purchase of equipment, it is necessary to carefully weigh the planned volume of forthcoming works, the characteristics of the waste to be recycled, the frequency of using the shredder and other parameters. It will be insulting if the purchased shredder either does not cope with the load imposed on it, or its capacity, for which a lot of money is paid, will remain simply unclaimed.

In addition, the more powerful and productive the chopper, the larger and heavier it is. From this point of view, an adequate assessment is also needed - how much will it be possible to move around the site, especially on the ground.

Additional selection criteria for

shredder There are a number of important details that require attention when choosing a suitable model:

• Convenience of the receiving hopper. It can be placed vertically or at a certain angle. In some models, it is possible to change the position of the receiving funnel. For the knife shredder, the pusher must be included in the kit: pushing branches or foliage with hands is extremely dangerous. Receiving hopper hopper with a pusher. The guiding ribs of the