Sun Joe SDJ616 Electric Leaf Mulcher/Shredder 13-Amp 16:1 Reduction Ratio, 8,000-RPM, Mulch up to 55-Gallons per Minute, Adjustable Control Dial, Green

I had a whole bunch of weeds come up after the rains in the areas that were mulched. With intermittent rain, I could not get to them till last week, by which time they were all about 1½ feet tall! After pulling them out by the roots, I decided to use my Patriot Shredder to grind up this stuff. I have had the Patriot for several years, and it has been great for chipping and shredding broken branches and after pruning the hedges. It gets through dry and wet branches with ease, as long as I don't "choke" the machine with too much stuff at one go.Well, I put the fresh, long weeds through the top hopper, and it just would not suck the stuff down. I then used the chipper opening, and there was nothing coming out of the discharge chute. The machine bogged down and stopped. I found the entire flywheel, hammers, and chipper blade coated with wet green "mush". The machine just could not handle this stuff. It took me about an hour just to clean out the Patriot.I was looking for an alternative, so read some reviews, and decided to go with the SunJoe Shredder. Most reviews were negative regarding "wet" stuff, but I was willing to give it a try, especially with the price being less than $100.00.I used the cloth bag from my Patriot Chipper and it was a perfect fit! I would strongly recommend you use some sort of "cloth" bag. Plastic bags tend to get ripped if there are stems or twigs. Paper bags tend to rip when you are trying to secure them, and it is hard to get the right size. The elastic cord is very tight, and in the process of pulling the bags to fit around the bottom flange you will end up ripping the bag.The Patriot bag is a heavy gauge synthetic material and is "breathable" so as the bag fills up, air can be pushed out. The bag can also be reused for many years. The bag is expensive, about ½ the price of the shredder, but I think it would be worth the price if you are planning on doing a lot of shredding. It is available here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Products-888000100-Shredder-Collection/dp/B004W5YKBE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1437233760&sr=8-3&keywords=Patriot+Shredder.The bag has a cord which cinches the opening of the bag. The bag is an almost an exact fit for the bottom of this shredder. I hook one edge under the bungee cord, and then work my way around the bottom rim with the bag. Then I just cinch up the bag with the built in tie. The bag works well with dry or wet material. I already had the bag, so it wasn't an issue. This bag has held up for several years, chipping branches so should hold up with shredding leaves. If cost is an issue, I would suggest you look for other re-useable "cloth" bags. It makes it a lot easier to use this machine.Back to the review of this machine: I was apprehensive about how this would perform, but with care, and slow feeding, it ground up all the fresh weeds and stems without an issue. It does get clogged up after about 10 minutes. It is easy enough to stop the machine, and reach in from the top and scrape off the accumulated "mush" and push it down through the opening into the bag. It never tripped the circuit breaker, but I was careful about how much I put in. I filled up 4 bags of this mushy green ground up weeds, and all of it went straight into my composter!I changed the "string" on one side because it was becoming short. I wish they had put the blade that cuts the string our further, so that the string could reach a little wider in the hopper. As it is, there is about a ¾ inch gap between the end of the string and the sides of the hopper, and this is where stuff builds up. Not a big deal, but an annoyance.I am very pleased with the way this made short work of grinding up this wet stuff. As a bonus, it was ready for the compost! If you work within it's limitations, it is a great machine. I cannot vouch for it's longevity, but it has already been worth it. My only advise is to get a cloth bag, unless you really need to put stuff in paper bags for disposal. If you have a composter, you would not need to worry about disposal either.Guide to images (for some reason the order of the images changed after it was posted and I can't change the order, so follow the numbers to the right image):5. Weeds growing in front of hedging - looks like tall grass3. Sun Joe Shredder with Patriot cloth bag attached1. Shredder, cart with weeds to be shredded. Please note the gloves, goggles, and ear protection - makes quite a bit of noise2. String and internal blade that cuts string to length. The gap between the outside of the blade and the hopper is where stuff builds up4. Size of shredded material. Note: one or two long stems get through unscathed6. Composter with material from three cart loads of weeds (please refer to picture #3 for "one" cart load). Nice reduction in volume.

Bought this product because of another review I read from a lady in New Mexico who used it to chop hay for an old Horse. I am in the same situation with our old Arab. He is 37 and has worn out his teeth, can no longer chew hay and everything I can buy over the counter is too course, so I thought I would give this a try. Worked great, very dusty but the finished product was what i was after. took about fifteen minutes to grind up a bale of alfalfa hay, used a set of strings, but not complaining because I moistened this fine hay slightly and my old man tore into it like a teenager. Seeing him eating hay and not water logged hay pellets alone was worth the price of this piece of equipment. Note to people looking, this is not a chipper, it is a shredder. It will not handle wood because it is not designed for wood, it does however do a fantastic job of shredding. It is dusty, so if you are afraid of getting dirty you might want to look elsewhere. Otherwise put on a dust mask long sleeve shirt, gloves and safety glasses and get the job done. Great machine for what it is designed for. Easy to assemble and easy to operate. Five stars.

I was torn over whether to order this mulcher/shredder after reading previous reviews. I am happy to say that any reservations were quickly dispelled after using it the first time.PROS-- Easy to set-up and use- Effectively and efficiently chopped dry leaves to a small size. Will be great for mulch in gardens or compacting large leaf piles into easily disposable size.CONS -- Fairly loud- Creates a lot of very fine dust with dry leaves. Strongly suggest wearing a mask. I looked like I had cinnamon coating all over me after an hour of use.- Need to replace cutting strings after 2 hours of useThis fall I had a huge pile of leaves collected in the backyard from my raking efforts. In pained me to see all this great organic material and think that it could be carted off to a landfill. Meanwhile the rock hard soil in our vegetable garden was screaming for some nice mulch. The Sun Joe SDJ616 was the perfect answer. I found the best bet was to move the unit into the vegetable garden and just let the mulch fall to the ground for raking out and then tilling into the dirt. I am convinced that it will be a great start for spring planting as well as give us the satisfaction of a “green” approach to gardening.