Bosch Quiet Garden Shredder AXT 25 D

Bosch garden shredder, fast delivery, this machine is a monster, it shreds quite large branches easily. As others have said it doesn’t shred fine, but quite chunky, but it works great, I’ve shredded branches from a conifer for the last couple of weekends and it has coped really well, if it Jams, stopping putting it into reverse and then forward again soon resolves the issue. Highly recommend. Arrived quickly thanks.

I am lucky to have a very large garden approaching one acre in size. I'm no gardener but I do like my trees and bushes and have a good cut back and clear up once, maybe twice, a year which results in a very large pile of branches etc. Until now I have either had to move the pile some distance to burn due to overhead electricity lines or load them on to a truck and take to a friendly farmer. The pile has grown over the last couple of years due to various reasons so I decided a shredder/chipper maybe the way forward. I didn't want a petrol version, too much maintenance with infrequent use so started to research electric versions looking for a model that would cope with the large pile but then be big enough to deal with the annual clear up. I settled on this model mainly due to a large service network, availabilty of spare parts and a brushless motor. I did find that spares are not available for many of the cheaper makes so if the cutting blades need replacing due to wear and tear or damage, end of machine. The product was delivered a day early with clear instructions and very easy to assemble. Manoeurabilty once assembled is poor. The wheel base is very narrow and while it is pulled or pushed on pavement this is fine. However as soon as an uneven surface such as the lawn is encountered it is very difficult to keep the machine upright. Due to the location of the motor the machine has a very high centre of gravity and the slightest dip causes it to tip. Weighing over 30kg it is very easy to injure your wrists trying to keep it upright. I found the factory settings of the cuttingblade to be exact and the machine ready to use. General performance is very good, however the idea of chipping branches up to 40mm diameter is overly optimistic. You might be able to force a piece of 40mm smooth dowl purchased from the local DIY through the safety guard but with branches there is no chance. I found about 25mm to be the upper limit. I have chipped a wide range of materials including hard and soft wood, fresh and dried, and provided it will go into the machine there is plenty of power and it has coped well with any type. Overall I am very pleased witjh the machine and cleared about half of my huge pile in one session once I had figured out the limitations. I'm not the best person to judge noise levels being partially deaf but it seemed fine to me.

Good machine works great

The shredder does an "adequate" job. However, it blocks regularly, especially if there are leaves (which there are if you're shredding most things). There are many times when I had to stop the machine and clear blockages. Tried all of the settings, and no better on any particular setting. Very heavy to move around and the wheel base is to narrow and causes it to tip often whilst getting it to where it needs to be. Disappointing for a Bosch product TBH!

Very pleased with purchase

Very useful for shredding hedge trimmings to fit into green waste bin. Some pieces left fairly large so not good for mulching. Reasonably easy to wheel from storage to position for use. Quiet enough for prolonged use without feeling neighbours are disturbed. Took one star off as caddy needs fairly frequent emptying.

This shredder is supposed to accept twigs up to 40 mm wide, but it jammed solid in the first 3 minutes of use. I inserted a 35 mm wide branch of privet (Ligustrum) and it instantly jammed. I pressed reverse, but nothing happened. I then spent an hour and a half trying with increasing desperation to free the blockage. I turned the unit on its side and, using a wood chisel and hammer, I chipped away at the trapped wood poking out the bottom of the drum. This didn't work. Then I used an electric drill with a 4mm wood bit and spent 15 minutes drilling multiple holes into the trapped wood, followed by chiselling to remove the debris. Then I re-righted the unit, plugged it in and pressed reverse. It finally worked. What a relief! Then I carefully fed thin twigs through the shredder to test it. Then I fed a 30 mm twig, and immediately it blocked again. That took me another 20 minutes to drill out. I am really experienced with shredders, and every time I got a blockage, I pressed reverse, and it reversed and spat out the blockage. But not this Bosch shredder! Why, oh why, don't the manufacturers advise us how to free a blockage when the reverse button does not work? I paid twice as much for this shredder as the last one (Hyundai), but this one is of lower quality. I went for Bosch because of the brand reputation, but I am disappointed with the low build quality. One of the wheels fell off while I was trying to pull out the stuck twig. I eventually found the flimsy plastic peg used to secure the wheel on the axle - very flimsy.

I was expecting a lot more as this garden shredder was not cheap and from a very reputable manufacturer in Bosch - I already own a number of other Bosch tools. I had a specific project to clear some tall but narrow trees at the back of my garden, but figured that with a large garden there would always be use for a shredder so better to buy than hire. I liked the idea of this model from the description, as it seemed reasonably heavy-duty but compact for storage. However: 1. The 40mm max width seems very optimistic, and frequent choked on branches much narrower just because it met a knot or an off-shoot. 2. The motor seems to have a torque sensor that cuts the motor out if it 'thinks' it is working to hard, and this seems over sensitive. It will cut out, you'll have to remove the blockage but can then continue to put the same branch in that you just took out. 3. The reverse button does nothing. It only works if there is nothing in the blades which makes it useless for removing jammed branches. 4. As a resuly of 3, to remove any blockage you have to disconnect from the mains, remove the top hopper, losen the block-plate that presses the branches into the blade, manually remove the branch, and then re-assemble. You can then use the reverse button to remove any loose debris, although not sure it is completely necessary. In conclusion, compact and easy to use, but only good for reliably mulching twigs up to 20-25mm in diameter at most. Would have only cost me a couple of hundred quid more to buy a petrol mulcher.