Disposing of your yard waste doesn’t sound like an exciting task, not to mention it can take a lot of your time and effort. However, with the best electric wood chipper, you can accomplish it without breaking a sweat.
Compared to gas wood chippers, electric wood chippers are simpler to use, require no engine maintenance, and generate no pollutants, making them ideal for small farms or home gardeners. So, in this review, we will recommend you the best 7 electric wood chipper shredders.
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Top 7 Best Electric Wood Chipper Shredder 2022
Product Image | Product Name | Features | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Sun Joe CJ603E 15-Amp Silent | Best Overall | See latest Price | |
Earthwise Gs70015 15-amp | Best Electric Garden Wood Chipper | See latest Price | |
Snow Joe CJ601E 14-Amp | Best Price | See latest Price | |
WEN 41121 15-Amp Rolling | Best Wood Chipper For Home Use | See latest Price | |
Martha Stewart MTS-EWC15 15-Amp | Best Self-Feeding Electric Wood Chipper | See latest Price | |
Patriot CSV-2515 14-Amp | Best Electric Start Wood Chipper | See latest Price | |
TECHTONGDA 5.5KW | Good Industrial Electric Wood Chipper | See latest Price |
In-depth 7 Top Rated Electric Wood Chipper Reviews
#1 Sun Joe CJ603E 15-Amp Silent – Best Overall
Sun Joe’s innovative silent electric wood chipper shreds yard debris down to a fraction of the original size. Since the CJ603E has 21:1 as its reduction ratio, it is ideal for transforming branches, leaves, twigs, and brushes into mulch rich in nutrients.
The chipper’s powerful 15-amp motor can chip and shred branches of 1.73 inches in thickness at the maximum capacity. Despite its power, the CJ603E manufacturer also pays attention to your safety. When the safety hopper and the locking knob are open, the motor will not run.
Another strength of the Sun Joe wood chipper is its portability. Thanks to its compact design as well as 7-inch wheels, you can operate it almost anywhere as long as there is a power source.
Lastly, the manufacturer will provide you with a two-year warranty on new, powered chippers from your date of purchase. The warranty process is also made simple because there will be no questions asked.
For these reasons, the Sun Joe’s chipper is among the top candidates for the best electric chipper shredder.
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#2 Earthwise Gs70015 15-amp – Best Electric Garden Wood Chipper
The Earthwise’s GS70015 has a powerful 15-amp, which allows it to chip branches of up to 1.75 inches thick and reach the maxim spin of 4,500 RPM. This electric motor has long-lasting steel blades for hassle-free mulching.
To ensure the freedom and safety of your hands, the manufacturer has equipped the GS70015 with a chute and a tamper tool. In addition, it also comes with a huge 1.2-bushel collection bin that makes it simple, fast, and effortless to handle and bag varied yard detritus.
The rear wheels allow the Earthwise chipper to move close to your yard debris for processing and bagging.
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#3 Snow Joe CJ601E 14-Amp – Best Price
The CJ601E’s powerful 14-amp motor allows it has a 1.5-inch cutting diameter and a no-load speed of 4300 RPM. With a reduction ratio of 16:1, the wood shredder is ideal for converting branches and twigs into garden mulch rich in nutrients.
Similar to its cousin, the Sun Joe’s CJ603E chipper, the Snow Joe’s CJ601E also has a safety hopper. Particularly, when the locking knob is open, the motor will not run.
Moreover, the chipper’s built-in wheels (6 inches) are slightly smaller than the Sun Joe’s CJ603E, which makes it easy to move about.
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#4 WEN 41121 15-Amp Rolling – Best Wood Chipper For Home Use
WEN 41121’s 14-amp motor allows it to cut 8,000 times per minute or more than 130 times per second and to achieve a reduction ratio of 17:1.
This guarantees that your lawn waste like clippings twigs and foliage will be turned into high-quality nutrient-rich mulch. Like the Snow Joe’s CJ601E, the WEN chipper also has a 1.5-inch cutting diameter
Your safety is also guaranteed with the internal safety system that prevents the machine from starting if its hopper is open. In addition, the equipped push sticks facilitating you in getting the jammed yard debris into the shredder without endangering yourself.
In addition, it comes with a collection bag, which saves you the cleanup effort afterward since you only need to ‘feed’ the mulch in the bag to your plants. Lastly, you don’t have to worry about any machine error because the manufacturer offers a 2-year warranty for their products.
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#5 Martha Stewart MTS-EWC15 15-Amp – Best Self-Feeding Electric Wood Chipper
Another great option to turn your yard debris into garden mulch is Martha Steward’s MTS-EWC15. Its 15-amp motor will help you chip and shred branches with a maximum diameter of 1.5 inches.
Like other chippers on the list, when the locking knob of the safety knob is open, the motor will not run.
If you are looking for small electric wood chippers, you should consider this Martha Steward chipper since it has a compact design. Its 6-inch wheels allow the chipper to freely move around in your yard or garden.
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#6 Patriot CSV-2515 14-Amp – Best Electric Start Wood Chipper
The most popular Patriot chipper shredder has a 14-amp motor and a 2.5-inch cutting diameter. With this powerful motor, the machine can cut branches into coin-sized chips. After being processed, the materials will exit the machine through the side and into a standard collecting bag.
Despite its power, this Patriot electric wood chipper is quiet, smooth and maintenance-free. This not only saves your time and effort on cleaning your yard/garden but also prevents noise pollution that can annoy both your neighbors and you.
What is more awesome is that you can operate the machine by flipping a switch.
In addition, the electric wood chipper is under 100 pounds and has wide wheels for great portability around your house and yard. Also, the CSV-2515 comes with a large hopper that can shred piles of leaves quickly, which makes the cleaning task during fall seem easy.
A two-year warranty, safety goggles, and a standard collection bag are included with this unit. However, if you purchase a Patriot 100-foot extension cord along with their new wood chipper, a further year will be added to your warranty period.
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#7 TECHTONGDA 5.5KW – Good Industrial Electric Wood Chipper
The TECHTONGDA machine is the best heavy-duty electric wood chipper. The electric chipper has a large flywheel and belt wheel, and its motor can reach 1,440 RPM.
It performs stably, not only shredding wood but also excellently crushing a wide range of plastics, grain, and herbs. This makes it among the most powerful electric wood chippers. If you want to use this shredder for industrial use, it will suffice to connect it to a 3-phase 208V with 2 live wires.
The TECHTONGDA chipper has an excellent design. Its hopper, filter screen, and main body can all be dismantled for easy cleaning and maintenance. Its blade may also be disassembled and polished when it becomes dull.
The shredder’s crushing room is composed of reinforced double-layer plates and sound insulation, making it both powerful and quiet.
Moreover, overload protection and a device to protect the power chain are built into the machine motor, protecting both the motor and the user.
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How to Choose the Best Electric Wood Chipper?
Storage Container’s Capacity
Every wood chipper will come with either a bin or a bag to handle all of the refuse that the chipper spat out. The larger the refuse container, the longer the chipper can work before you have to empty it. As a result, pay attention to the storage container’s capacity, especially if you’re looking to buy a wood chipper to handle large-scale projects.
However, the trade-off to capacity is weight. A large bin or bag filled with wood chippers can become very heavy. If this is a problem for you, then look for models with smaller and lighter storage containers. It’s not worth it hurting your back just to save a few minutes of time.
Power
Like every other power tool, an electric wood chipper relies on a strong electric motor to cut and grind wood. The motor supplies torque to the cutting blades, allowing them to tear through the wood quickly and efficiently.
Torque refers to the rotational force of the blades. A chipper with higher torque can cut through wood at a much higher rate. Usually, torque is measured with a unit called foot-pounds (ft-lbs).
Residential-grade wood chippers will have a torque rating between 7 to 15 ft-lbs.
Reduction Ratio
By reading the reduction ratio, you can learn how small the object would be after it’s been shredded by the wood chipper. Let’s say that a wood chipper has a 20:1 reduction ratio. That means when you feed a plank of wood through it, the plank will be cut down to a twentieth of the plank’s original size.
You can also learn the power of the chipper through this ratio, as well. It takes a lot of power for a chipper to cut something into tiny bits. So, a wood chipper with a 20:1 reduction ratio is vastly more powerful than a chipper with a 12:1 ratio, and so on.
Of course, such powerful chippers are also going to be more expensive. If you don’t need to cut up the wood to such small pieces, don’t go all in on these high-performance chippers. Instead, save some money by investing in a chipper with a more modest reduction ratio (8:1 or 12:1 will be fine).
Shredding Chute
A shredding chute handles materials that are softer than wood, such as weeds, leaves, twigs, and similar types of yard wastes. Basically, it does the same job as a leaf shredder.
If the wood chipper model that you’re gunning for has a shredding chute, it’s going to save you a lot of money and troubles in the long term. So, despite the price being higher, we recommend that you splurge in this section (especially if you’re buying a wood chipper for yard work).
Hopper Size
The size of the hopper will determine how big of a twig or a plank you can feed into the wood chipper.
Larger hopper means you can fit larger branches. But beware that just because you can fit the branch into the chipper that it would be able to shred it. That will depend on how powerful the motor and cutting blades inside of the chipper are.
If you put something that’s too big or too stiff into the hopper, the chipper will clog. Clogs are annoying and are very difficult to remove. As such, you’ll want to be very careful with the things that you put into the chipper. A model with a smaller hopper can help with this.
On the other hand, if you mostly just mulch small branches and leaves, check out models with larger hoppers. You can pile on all the twigs and leaves and keep the chipper running without pause.
Mobility
Mobility is an oft-overlooked aspect of a wood chipper. Instead, most people just focus on the cutting power, features, or size.
In reality, mobility is just as important as power. If a chipper is too heavy and inconvenient to move around, it’s going to reduce your productivity and efficiency.
Find a model that comes with solid stands and big wheels that can traverse difficult terrains.
Additionally, find those that are as light as possible. The heavier the wood chipper is, the more difficult it’s going to be to move around. You will notice that immediately when you have to push or pull the chipper up steep inclines or across uneven terrains.
If your property is small and you don’t have many trees and such to take care of, pick a lightweight wood chipper. Not only is it going to be a lot more convenient to use, but it will also reduce fatigue and save you from a lot of discomfort.
Blades
The cutting blades are, arguably, the most important component inside a wood chipper. They are the things responsible for grinding and cutting the materials that you feed it. Electric wood chippers typically have sharp blades that can cut up branches up to 2 inches in diameter.
For industrial applications, you may need wood chippers that run on more energetic power sources such as gas.
Cutting blades are all made from hardened steel. They work in two or more sets that continuously rotate to grind every object that passes through the machine into bits. Most electric wood chippers are going to allow you to reverse the blades. You can even sharpen them up manually when you notice them dulling.
If your wood chipper has a shredding chute, it also comes with small, rotating blades of its own. It doesn’t need to have sharp edges like the primary blades, but it still has to be highly durable to withstand the strong forces of the grinding motion.
What Can You Do With an Electric Wood Chipper?
A wood chipper may sound like a one-trick-pony, but it actually can be used for many different purposes!
- Garden mulch
If you have a garden at home, combining wood chips, tree barks, leaves, and twigs together will result in a highly nutritious mulch. It can serve as an organic fertilizer to help your plants grow.
- Compost
Wood chips can be used as compost, too. Put finely-cut wood chips into a compost pile. In a few days, you will have a nutrient-dense fertilizer that you can place all over your garden. Similar to garden mulch, they will strongly accelerate the speed of your plants’ growth as well as health.
- Décor
Wood chips are great décor for the garden. Throw a few bits into your planting pots or put a couple of bits around the house. There are even many DIY projects that you can do with wood chips!
- Playground flooring
If you have a small playground for your kids at home, use the wood chips to create a safety flooring. Wood chips can absorb impact very well. A 9-inch layer of wood chip can protect your child from being injured after falling at a height of up to 10 feet.
- Soil erosion control
Soil erosion can happen when the ground in your yard or garden is exposed to strong weather, moisture, and winds. You can cover the areas that are affected by erosion by covering them up with wood chips. They can hold in the moisture and fill up the tracks created by the erosive water flow.
Do note that this is only a temporary solution. Use this method while you gather the tools and material for more permanent and effective soil erosion control.
FAQs
1. Are electric wood chippers worth it?
Definitely. Electric wood chippers are worth it if you have a small yard and don’t require a lot of cutting power. Despite the lower performance, they run more quietly and are generally a lot more affordable than gas or PTO (Power Take Off) chippers.
2. What is the difference between a wood chipper and a shredder?
Though they sound as if they’re the same thing, a wood chipper and a wood shredder have very different functions. The former handles mostly large wood pieces and branches. When wood is fed into the machine, it will be grounded into smaller bits by sharp blades.
On the other hand, the latter utilizes blunt blades to crush the wood. Shredders are commonly used to prepare wood bits for adding into compost piles.
3. Can you put leaves in a wood chipper?
This will depend on the design of your wood chipper. If it comes equipped with a shredding chute, it can handle leaves just fine.
However, if it doesn’t come with one, we don’t recommend you to try and grind leaves with it. When you feed leaves into such wood chippers, the blades will try to chop instead of shredding the leaves. This will cause the chipper to clog and jam.
4. Can you put lumber in a wood chipper?
That will depend on the size and type. If you’ve chopped it down to a small enough size that it can fit the hopper, then it’s fair game. If you put raw lumber that’s too big into the chipper, it’s going to jam.
Additionally, do not put pressure-treated lumber into the chipper. These are loaded with chemicals that can be released when they’re chopped. The ensuing fumes are toxic if you breathe them in.
5. Is It Better to Chip Wood Wet or Dry?
Most wood chippers will struggle with cutting up wet wood. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The chipper will just be less efficient at the job.
Whenever you can, you should only chip dry wood.
My Top Pick on The Best Wood Shredder
I hope that my review has provided you with useful information to help you choose the best electric wood chipper.
However, if you haven’t made up your mind yet, I believe Sun Joe’s CJ603E would be the best choice overall, based on its design, high reduction ratio, powerful motor, and generous warranty policy.