1.5 hp Electric Chipper, INTERNATIONAL (240 volt, 1 phase, 50 HERTZ)

Chipper Reviews

Click here to review ALL of Patriot’s customer reviews and testimonials

PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR CSV-2515 AND CSV-2515I MODELS ARE IDENTICAL EXCEPT THAT THE CSV-2515 IS WIRED FOR A 120v/60hz/1ph POWER SUPPLY AND THE CSV-2515I IS WIRED FOR A 240v/50hz/1ph POWER SUPPLY. THEREFORE, WE HAVE INCLUDED CSV-2515 REVIEWS BELOW FOR YOUR REVIEW.

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/19/23

Good product for my needs

By Andrew, Highland Park, IL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/17/23

Has done a great job on chipping branches and mulching leaves. Replaced a gas chipper/shredder produced by another company. The Patriot electric chipper/shredder out performs the other companies gas version. Has more power than I expected. If this one wears out I will purchase another one.

By Richard, Martin, TN

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/16/23

The electric shredder chipper is adequate. I previously had a different brand gas powered unit so that is obviously more powerful and what I was use too. It works great if I feed it slowly with dry material. Lately for leaves, I find it easier and quicker to pile them and shred with several passes of mulching mower. I not totally disappointed in the electric machine and its great for small tree limbs. It was an expensive machine for the return usage. I’m glad it is American made.

For a small property it would be excellent. Unfortunately, I border a state park and a ton of leaves blow down onto my property so clean up is constant during fall, winter and early spring.

By Thomas, Piermont, NY

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/16/23

It shreds branches (fig, redwood, peach, apple, liquid amber, & flowering pistachio) just as advertised. I amazed, even after 22 years of using it 3-5 times/yr. and never yet having sharpened the cutting blades! (I’m not at all mechanically inclined; so I haven’t yet sharpened, or had someone sharpen, the blades (which most likely need resharpening), and it still works very well.)

Drawbacks:

1) I had one of the 2 bolts that connects the Shredder Hopper break. They should be stronger.

2) Sometimes small branchlets (part of the bigger branch that I put in together) don’t shred completely and come out in 6-inch lengths. Sometimes I re-shred the, but most times I just use them as part of the mulch around the trees I shred

I wish I could get other American-made garden electric tools as good as yours! (Cultivator, etc.)

By Neville, Stockton, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/15/23

I have had 2 electric patriot chipper shredders. I work the heck out of them and I am really happy with them. The first one was in fine shape after 15 years but I gave it to a grateful neighbor when I moved across country about 8 years ago, and bought a new one. I have to be sure to use an extra duty power cord and run it off a 20 amp outlet/circuit. I have solar panels so the electricity is pretty much free, and I get free material for compost, mulch and floor bedding for the chicken run.

By William, West Chester, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/14/23

I love having an electric chipper/shredder. (I previously had a gas one of another brand.) I’m convinced the Patriot design is optimal, or very close, for an electric unit that can run on a 20A circuit. Complaints I’ve seen in reviews all seem to stem from unrealistic expectations for that amount of current or poor operating procedure. Like most tools it has a learning curve for efficient use. Ear and eye protection are a must.

Depending on circumstances, face, nose and/or hand protection (for feeding hard woot into chipper) may be needed as well. I made the mistake (against directions) of using an old broom stick to stir leaves, which bent the rotor. The factory was very helpful in fixing it and showing me how to do similar future repairs. (The main bearing is very tight, as it needs to be.) Of course the shredder is much more practical w/o the safety shield that all similar shredders have to keep fools safer.

By Christopher, Bloomington, IN

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/11/23

This is a good consumer level product. The electric motor is reliable and trouble-free. It is not so heavy that it can’t be easily moved to the location you need. I have had a problem with overlubricating the bearing because the required amount of grease is very small and it is hard to calibrate the grease gun for so small a charge. I have been lucky, though, and have not ruined the bearing.

By John, Colorado Springs, CO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/11/23

I like that it reduces leaves 10 to one. Can get clogged if leaves are too green or wet. Makes short work of tree branches. Anything too big to chip is firewood anyway. Love that it is electric and no maintenance on a gas engine. Had to change the rotor and struggled getting old one off until I sprayed shaft with penetrating lube and waited overnight. Otherwise, replacement directions were helpful.

By Larry, Spokane, WA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/11/23

Looked at many different products before purchasing the patriot csv-2515. Considered the power of gas and the easier maintained electric motor. We have several lawn mowers, wood splitters and other gas powered products. Decided to purchase the electric one.

Quickly noticed that it needed a designated 20 amp circuit which was a problem when I tried using it at other homes. Realizing that it was electric with less power it has been fantastic. By taking the time to only use smaller branches which is mainly what I have with trimming shrubs. The larger branches are used in our wood burning stove. The shredded material is dumped by our tractor into our compost pile. Works out great every year! Made in USA very important.

By Herman, Gordonsville, VA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

I had high hopes for the chipper shredder considering the money I spent on it. In truth, it’s not as powerful as I need it to be. Also, even though I had an outdoor electrical outlet installed by a licensed electrician, the shredder trips the breaker too often and I need to wait for the machine to cool down before using it again. Overall, it’s not capable of handing the piles of branches that I have in my yard that need to be processed. I’ve resorted instead to moving branches to the woods.

By Evan, Fitchburg, MA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

This chipper works well for my needs. It is a little picky with the material it will process. Too dry (hard and brittle) or too wet (soggy or gummy) can overwhelm it and cause me to go very slowly. I run a variety of plant material: sage brush, pine needles and branches, ornamental maple brush/bushes, Russian olive tree branches, elm tree branches, and aspen/birch branches. The chipper is good for incidental yard maintenance but not all day clearing. I would like a 240v/60hz version.

By Andrew, Reno, NV

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

As a woman in my sixties, I consider this unit to be a safe, efficient, sturdy and vital garden tool. Has been easy for me to maintain and operate over the years. I love having my own mulch for garden

By Gretchen, Santa Barbara, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

I generally love my chipper. It works great at chipping the materials I accumulate from my property. I do find it a bit cumbersome to move due to the weight but the wheels and learning to balance correctly help. I sometimes struggle with keeping the machine clear but have found calling for help and reading the instructions over again get me through. I also wish it took bigger branches. I also wish the shredder hopper took materials fedI would buy it again and hope to have it for many years.

By Patricia, Steilacoom, WA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

This chipper works great for twigs and branches dry leafs, the only problem is with wet leafs as they can gum up the machine.
Sometimes small sticks make it into the collection bag but that is cured buy a second trip through.
All in all I do not know what I would do without this machine.

By Geoff, Medford, OR

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

It took a while to figure out the best way to feed various materials in so they would not bind up. Obviously rigid material feeds easier. The softer things were the problem, and it slowed the process down a lot, even when I was very careful to only feed reasonable amounts. If I could change something, it would be to make the soft things feed easier.

By Rex, Arlington, WA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

I live on 3 wooded acres. After every winter there’s enough fallen branches to run the chipper for about three days. (Professionals with truck-mounted chippers could run though the pile in a couple hours.) I like having the option to chip the branches myself. Sharpening the blade is an art I still have yet to master but I’m getting better at it.

By Robert, Placerville, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/10/23

Great machine, makes short work of branches up to about 2 inches diameter. Having used other inferior electric chippers, I was impressed by the power of this thing. Having used smelly gas chippers, I was pleased with how this one is electric.

I appreciate that Patriot sells replacement parts and includes a comprehensive service manual. I loaned the chipper to a friend and he overtightened and cracked one of the threaded posts on the fan housing, and I was able to order a replacement and install it and get back up and running quickly.

By Tim, Portland, OR

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/06/23

Great for what it is: a small, reliable chipper/shredder. Easy to pull out and use for small jobs, no hassle as with gas tools. Takes some practice to avoid overloading or stalling, which can trip a breaker. Overall quite happy with the purchase.

By John, Soquel, CA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/03/23

This product has three major flaws that could be easily fixed. Although the unit has an electric motor rated at 14.2 A, it regularly trips a 20 A circuit breaker. Since the unit is operated outdoors, often far from the home electrical panel, this requires a long walk to reset the circuit breaker. The unit could be improved by having a 20 A breaker built into the unit. The second problem is that the unit often clogs with debris. When the bag is attached, it partially blocks the exhaust of chipped material. This results in debris build-up that shuts the unit down to a current draw greater than 20 A. The third problem is the vent cover for the motor is easily dented if the chipper is placed on its side for removing a clog. I was not able to undent the cover sufficiently to allow the motor to spin without the “fan” hitting the cover. Therefore, I need to operate the unit without the cover. This is dangerous. To fix this problem, they need to have more clearance for the fan!

By James, Tucson, AZ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/31/23

I have a hard time with gas engines, keeping them tuned, starting them, etc. The electric chipper starts every time I flip the switch. I have to keep the material path cleared, sharpen the blades, etc. All of these steps are also true of gas versions. The big deal about the Patriot chipper over other electric chippers is the hp of the electric motor. It requires a 15amp circuit and a special heavy duty/higher current capability extension cable. It is well worth it.>>>I had a lower hp electric before the Patriot. It would often get jammed or just not chip a larger branch.

By William, Fort Collins, CO

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/20/23

Have had chipper for several years now and am still happy with it. I knew going in that it would be under-powered compared to gas models but not having another gas engine to take care of definitely makes it worthwhile. It is important to prepare your material prior to chipping- strip the branches of any side shoots which are strong enough to hang up in the chute and make sure leaves are dry. Wet leaves are my biggest problem here in the NW but, if they are dry, the chipper works well to create mulch from them. The small wheels make it a bit difficult to get around on uneven ground but I can see no way they could have avoided that in the design. Well-engineered and well-built, this machine will do the job and last a long time if you accept its limitations.

By Stephen, Port Orford, OR

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/19/23

I had a gas patriot shredder but a bad neck made it hard to manage the pull start, so i converted to the electric version. It does not do as well with twigs/branches, but it does a great job with the garden debris. I shred raw materials and then reshred before spreading and it achieves a lovely texture to enhance the soil in our gardens. It is also pretty easy to unclog if wet materials cause a problem.>>>The power is consistent with the recommended electric power cord

By Kendall, Bar Harbor, ME

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/18/23

Very happy with this new shredder my wife purchased for us. It should last me my lifetime.

By Bill, Castle Rock, CO

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/17/23

My Patriot electric chipper-shredder has more than met expectations. I’m using it mainly to chip hardwood branches and saplings (up to ~2.5′ dia), adjusting the feedrate for diameter and wood species (lots of oak!). It’s has good power when fed from a 20 A circuit, and has been completely reliable for chipping. I’m less impressed with the shredding function (seems to clog when only moderate batches of leaves). The manual is super detailed and clear, which I greatly appreciate.

By Ross, Grants Pass, OR

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/17/23

I like that it’s been very reliable, for a long time; but branches don’t have to be very big (way smaller than the throat of the chipper) before they take forever to chip, if the branches have dried out. Also, the cone loosened, but I was unable to tighten the bolts holding it on because the small end of the cone opening is too small to hold a tool to do the tightening.

By Christopher, Port Hadlock, WA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/17/23

The electric chipper does a good job of chipping up downed branches and other debris from our 5 acre heavily wooded lot. By having two blades I’m able to stay ahead of my chipping work, since the blades seem to dull fairly quickly. I had the blades shaped at the local Ace hardware store. My main reason for not giving the chipper 5 stars is that it’s VERY easy to trip 20 amp circuit breakers, which quickly gets very annoying since it’s a long walk to reset the circuit breaker, from the yard.>>>My main work around circuit breaker tripping is to feed only small amounts of tree branches into the chute at a time (which, of course, slows my rate of work). Having the reserve blade also helps prevent breaker trips, since the chipper doesn’t bog down as much with a fresh blade.

By Kevin, Grant, MN

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/17/23

My chipper-shredder has been an amazing, durable workhorse. Contrary to popular belief, the electric version of the chipper-shredder is quite powerful and does what I need. I have an organic vegetable and herb garden and fruit orchard, and I make my own compost. I bought the chipper-shredder years ago to process yard waste for my compost, because I hated giving it up to my municipal waste collector.>>>Before I got the chipper-shredder, I used to chase my municipal tree-trimming trucks that came around periodically to get barrels full of wood chips. I am glad to be able to make my own, and my garden is happy too!

By Samantha, Newbury Park, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

Since I have the electric version, I can’t change the blades. Why would you ship me extra blades, if the electric version can’t have the blades changed.

By Jim, Allen, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

I needed an electric chipper with enough power to chip up to 2″ diameter branches (ramial wood), and the Patriot is the best one I could find. I like the quieter volume, no gas smell and low maintenance. I had to learn how fast to feed branches, but once I figured that out it’s been a breeze.

By Kyle, Steinbach, MB

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

My Patriot Electric Chipper has functioned very well over many years of use. I only have two issues—one operator error and another a needed improvement. (1) If I get too ambitious with material feeding, the chipper will occasionally bind up and I will have to do a manual cleanout. If I am careful about feeding rate—that’s not a problem. (2) The sheathing on the short electrical cord coming out of the motor has pulled out, exposing the individual wires–better design/strain relief needed.

By Rick, East Wenatchee, WA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

It almost makes the chips too small. It is a great addition to my garden tools.

By Vivian, Fort Collins, CO

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

I have always been in love with the idea, but the electric bogs down and doesn’t seem to do a very thorough job.
Its also very hard if any of the product is damp or wet. I will not buy a newer gas model because Ive liked the idea
of electric. I will keep using and adapting to make MY use helpful.

By Christine, Minneapolis, MN

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

Only real limitation is power, with a 20 amp breaker I can only be about 50 feet from my outdoor outlets. I have nearly an acre lot so I have to bring everything to the shredder. Normal spring cleanup is a breeze. I previously used a gas model, CSV-3100B, but got complaints from my HOA.

By Michael, Snohomish, WA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/23

The leaf shredding function did not work at all, the leaves just jam up. I do not care about that cause I use my lawn mower to pick up and shred leaves anyway.The branch chipping is great. Disadvantages: 1. I go through blades quickly and they cost $50 + and are not easy to install. 2. When I am chipping in spring, I think it’s ash branches that do not shred but form long strips that wrap around the rotating part and jam it. Big pain to clear that that out.>>>Also, when I first got it, the casing around the cooling fan must have gotten bent in during shipping, because a fan blade was impinging on it. I did not catch this but my sister did, she noticed the noise. We bent the casing out and everything was fine. >>>Otherwise the chipper has been wonderful.

By Jane, New Albany, IN

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/11/23

I’ve used the electric chipper through the fall and early spring primarily for leaves and small (<2 in) branches from tree trimmings. I use the leaves and chips for compost and around garden beds. It works great for this purpose. My first time with Patriot, and the customer service is exceptional. Would buy from Patriot again. By Benjamin, Columbia, MO

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/03/23

This has been a great product for us. I wish it had more power, but the 20A circuit is a limit. We really didn’t want to deal with gasoline. It can reliably chip branches to about 1 1/2″, and we can do thicker stuff, up to 2 1/2″ in a pinch. Very dry wood is more difficult to chip.
You do need to be careful not to jam the chipper, as it can be difficult to clean out. If you have any sense that it is slowing down, pause to make sure the chipper clears itself before proceeding.

By Ken, Beaverton, OR

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/02/23

This thing works great for my city garden- it chips branches easily and bushes/plants to make it easy to compost in my home compost pile. I haven’t had to sharpen the chipper blades after using it 5 times a year over the last 5 years!

Good: Quick and easy most of the time.

Maybe slight improvements: wetter leaves tend to get stuck in the output chute, but can be freed by adding water, but that’s messy.

I store this outside with the optional cover on top, but I had to make a plywood “lid” so rainwater wouldn’t just collect in the hopper.

By Scott, San Francisco, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/02/23

I purchased my electric shredder pre-assembled in September 1997 at Home Depot (for $399) and it has been a really useful tool for turning yard waste into much-needed mulch. Through the past 25 years it has given me excellent service, though I have had to replace several components, such as the motor, rotor and chipper blade. When the motor burned out in 2009 it appeared to be due to a manufacturing defect so Keith sold me a replacement at his cost. Customer service is outstanding.The reliability of electric power outweighs the power limitations compared to gas. This product is highly recommended.

By Leroy, Conyers, GA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/02/23

My chipper has done exactly what I purchased it for, chip hay into smaller lengths to diminish waste.

Very durable product that I have had no problems with.

By Thomas, Clifton, TX

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/02/23

I am happy with my shredder. The only negative comment is when I shred moist leaves, it gets stuck and stops working which requieres me to manually unclog it. In my opinion, it is a well built machine and is easy to maintain.

By Ricardo, Caguas, PR

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/02/23

I have owned a number of chipper/shredders before the Patriot and this is the best! I plug it into a 20amp dedicated circuit, take the blade to a machine shop when it stops self feeding branches, empty the bag before it complains, it never lets me down!

If I had any suggestion for improvement it would be to supply sheet that defines when a blade can not longer be sharpened as the manual says the minimum distance between the mounting hole and the base of the knife is 1/4″ however that is more or less saying that the knife is at the end of its life when you get one. If the design was to move the knife through its life (again using some supplied template) there would be more service life to the blade. Otherwise, perfect machine!

By Edward, Oakland, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/26/23

I did a lot of research… At first, the price of the Patriot seemed a bit much…When I saw the features…take larger branch size…Heavy duty Electric motor… small chips… The Patriot is in a class of its own, It’s a good deal, compared to the cheap plastic, no horsepower, small branch competitors..One time I overdid it and jammed the machinery… it was pretty hard to unjam it… despite its industrial quality… It has its limitations.. Knowing the limitations, I never had the problem again.

By Janine, Santa Fe, NM

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/25/23

I love chipping with this machine. It’s quiet and will easily chip anything that fits in the hopper. The patriot 100′ cord allows me to move to where I debris piles are and it never resets the breaker. I use it spring and fall to clean up limbs on our 2 acre property. Highly recommend.

By John, Surf City, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/23/23

The Patriot electric shredder is an essential partner in my urban orchard. I have 30 fruit trees, and a 100′ border hedge provides all the chips and mulch I need to keep the ground covered. Other leaves and trimmings contribute to garden mulch (I have 100+ square feet of organic vegetable garden). I previously had a Yardmachine gas chipper, well worn out, and this electric replacement is easier on my shoulders, quieter, etc. Highly recommended.

By Mark, Pasadena, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/23/23

I have the electric version and bought it to chip up branches. I do use it with the Patriot extension cord. I have found that when plugged into a 15 amp circuit that it very frequently trips the breaker. Using an outlet on a 20 amp circuit works well. The chipper works very well for our purposes. The chipper has jammed a few times, usually because I fed it something vine like (long, thin, green branches from shrubbery).>>>I had previous experience with a gas engine chipper and don’t remember any issues with it jamming. The electric chipper instructions are pretty clear on how to use it properly and following them to the letter helps. I really do like this chipper and would buy it again as it is able to do the tasks I bought it for and further allows me to move away from gasoline powered yard equipment.

By Robert, Bainbridge Island, WA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/23/23

When I ordered my wood chipper I had a pile of limbs and pine cones the size of a large pickup. The chipper took care of the pile very well. The dry wood was a little tough on it but it handled it great. Real amazed at how well it takes care of Pine cones. Simple and easy just plug it in. Flip the the switch and mulch. Have used old home model mulches for year this is the best for the money.

By George, Victorville, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

This is far better than a gas model for me. I’m 73 and don’t need all that noise. As long as you use a dedicated 15amp. circuit —no problem. Just wish sharpening the blade was easier.

By Michael, Fairhaven, MA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

I use the chipper/shredder mainly for brush and smaller branches. I seldom use the large hoppers/input; the chute for branches seems best for what I do. I did clog the intake on the large hopper when first using the unit for leaves and clearing it was a time consuming task, but the instructions were clear and I was able to get back to shredding soon.

By Richard, Kalamazoo, MI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

The Patriot chipper is awesome. I have had it since June 2015 with no problems. I have a lot of oak trees in my yard and I use the chipper to make mulch. The oak leaf mulch is better for the plants than store bought mulch and it costs nothing. Before I bought the chipper, I was buying eleven yards of mulch.

By Claire, East Falmouth, MA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

Wish I had purchased gas model. Two inch branches can trip circuit breaker if not going very slow. Does a good job on smaller branches.

By Arthur, North Andover, MA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

My electric chipper has saved me hundreds of dollars a year since I bought it 4 or 5 years ago. We have large (3~4 hundred year old) fir trees on our property which shed branches, twigs and pine cones year round. An arborist used to cost me $500 a visit to come and clean it up, but now I saw up the larger bits for the wood stove and the rest goes through the chipper and onto my compost pile which has resulted in about 5 or 6 yard bags of fantastic soil/mulch for our garden. A win, win scenario.

By Ivan, Bowen Island, BC

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

I love my electric chipper as it saves me hours each month. I use it to run two inch strips of cardboard through which in turn spots out amazing cardboard fluff for my worms bedding. Cardboard fluff now makes up nearly 40% of their diet. I burned through a $200 fancy paper shredder before ending up on this electric chipper.

By Andrew, Bedford, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

I bought this machine as an upgrade to the electric Simplicity/Baker made by Ardisam which I bought before. I still have the S/B because it has two chipper blades rather than one. I wanted to upgrade because the S/B jams too often. Your machine does not have that problem, but two chipper blades in my view are better than one so I don’t know why you didn’t put two chipper blades in your design. Other than that, I use the machine all during fall and periodically after to keep up with the leaves.

This year I had to make a repair to your motor (and I replaced the bearing as well) due to flooding from a hurricane but now your machine works perfectly again. Note you say in your online information that the bearing must be replaced with the same design as came with the unit which for my model was the bearing with metal plates rather than a flange. In fact, a 3 bolt flange bearing fits perfectly.

By Elliot, Scarsdale, NY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

I only wish they offer with more powerful 220v motor. Shredding would be much .faster

By Ara, Northridge, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

Annual trimming of a flowering crabapple tree, a lilac bush, and a long cotoneaster hedge produces cuttings of very hard wood. Small pieces of wood are rarely put through the hopper. Chipping speed is excellent, and produces a nice mulch for an indoor-outddor pet cat. Replacement and re-sharpening of the knives is easy, thanks to fast shipping, excellent instructions, and attentive employees answering the telephone. The units is heavy, but well-balanced on big wheels.

By David, Winnipeg, MB

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

Beautiful running electric chipper. I use a 10 gauge extension cord, and have had no problems.

By David, Cody, WY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/23

Like it a lot.
Make loud noise, we need to protect our ears.
I would appreciate a larger bag, or tube for extra large job.
Thank you Patriot.

By Mireille, Gabrielle-Vallee, QC

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/20/23

I received one of these units for free, the original owner had it stored for about 6 years. When I heard electric I almost said no I did not want it, but when I showed up and saw it was a patriot I thought OK now I can see what all the hype is about. I have used electric chipper/shredders in the past and I have always stopped using them grabbed my 193T saw and just cut up the wood and piled up the brush, this unit after cleaning, regreasing and sharpening the blade and going through a quick learninig curve of what it likes, I was completely satisfied. the hopper for brush is a little moody but works well the 3″ cone portion for chipping branches was great, long branches you tend to self feed so you dont trip the breaker but it was stil fast and once you know what it will and wont do it works very very well and there is no 2nd place close to what this chipper did. I took 2 piles of debris and about 15 minutes to go through them and spread the results over the yard. I didnt think much of electric actually never thought I would even entertain using one again after my initial experience. This chipper is now part of the various pieces of machinery that I keep to get jobs done and it isnt easy making that list!

By D.H.

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/10/23

Great machine for limbs or fallen leaves that are dry. Fresh cut green limbs will clog up shredder, but for basic wood chipping I love it! Lot of power for plug in!

By Eric, Henderson, NV

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/17/22

Go very slow if leaves are wet

By Ken123

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/24/22

This chipper does what the manufacturer says it will do. The newer cut branches just ripped through like a champ. Equal size older (dried out) branches took a little more care at feeding through the hopper and in some cases when getting to the end would kick pieces back out. I was still able to grind all of the old stuff. The instructions have a lot of detail addressing safety and operating. Make sure nothing else is plugged in or running on a minimum15-amp circuit especially when cutting older dried out branches. It took me 20 minutes to reset the circuit breaker and find and unplug everything else. No problem afterwards.

By Tank Man

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/02/22

I’ve used this shredder/chipper for about 10yrs and learned it’s strong and weak points. Here are useful things to know about it. There are grease fittings on the bearings which should be regreased now and then. If you leave it outdoors and it rains, the body quickly fill with water and stays full till you empty it. The leaf hopper clogs easily so keep a stick handy to push thru. Screws that allow access to the chipper blade become frozen and makes resharpening an ordeal. Use a strong electrical circuit (20A + heavy duty cord) to avoid motor overload and overheat.

By EG

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/30/22

Weather is not cooperating so haven’t used it yet but it’s all assembled and waiting . I was impressed with the instruction manual and when I called to ask the company a question I was very satisfied.

By Teresa, Flushing, MI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/11/22

I had bought another leaf shredder on Amazon last spring to shred waste from our garden to make compost. It cost $200+. It didn’t last a year before 2 of the cutting blades broke and the plastic shell shattered around the bolt holes probably from the blades being out of balance after they broke. Replacement blades for it were out of stock, both from the company itself and on Amazon. I was done with that one anyway so that made it easier to move on.

Looking to replace it and not wanting to make the same mistake again. I wanted to stay with Electric since it was needed to close to where there is 110V power and it isn’t used all that often so taking keeping a gas engine running out the mix was desired. I did some research and saw great reviews for the Patriot shredder, someone commented that it is the only electric shredder that can keep up with gas.

When I found out that it was a lot more expensive than the cheap options, I was a bit hesitant but decided I didn’t like the cheaper options so I order it.

When it arrived , it came in 2 boxes, upper bin and lower motor. I was very impressed with the packaging of the motor unit. In a cardboard box, with a wooden floor, formed Styrofoam padding, with metal strapping holding the unit in place. Box was marked that it weighed 112 lbs!

The motor unit is very solidly built and is so different in construction and quality over the cheaper “alternatives”. The instruction manual is very thorough and well written. Everything about this shredder is quality / top notch. All the parts were there (plus spares) and it went together pretty quickly.

Once together, this unit made it through the pile of garden debris that we’d built up that we had accumulated in about an hour after we’d struggled to complete it with the previous shredder before it broke.

By Douglas, Mountain Home, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/16/22

Electric, no pull start, no filling with fuel. No winter storage issues. Chips great. Not to heavy to move around. Excellent value.

By D.C.

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/22/21

More than happy; The quality and workmanship is excellent. First things first. I read the instructions and chuckled when it said i would clog it up. I Shredded a pile of corn stocks and sun hemp in 5 minutes. It worked like a charm. Spent the next half hour clearing the the jam after the bag overfilled and the rotor was stuffed with materiel.

My two cents worth of recommendations;

1) add a viewing window to monitor the rotor chamber

2) Add a second exhaust chute to the flail chamber that can be opened when wet materiel is shredded.

3) Add a drain hole or removable plate to the bottom for cleaning with a water hose. to prevent corrosion and clearing clogs.

Add an accessory ramp and winding wheel so I can load it into my SUV. Or, I need to save up for a second one. At 75 I still have muscle memory. I can remember when I had some ;o)

I love my new Patriot Shredder. Good work and thanks for your service.

The G-Man

By Gman

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/22/21

Not my first rodeo with chippers – I’ve been taking care of 1+ acre with tons of trees in a residential setting for a while now. I truly regret getting this chipper — by far the most overpriced, underperforming equipment I’ve ever owned. My last chipper was earthquake and it was light years above this one. It was a costly mistake as the returns are paid by the buyer so get ready to lose few hundred more after you realize how bad this thing is.

This chipper is very underpowered with a dinky 1.5 hp motor. While it will take care of straight, dry branches, it’s completely inadequate as a mulcher due to very poor reduction ration. The media generated by the hopper/mulcher is equivalent in size to the chips generated by the chipper so you will not get further reduction of your chips when you decide to run it via the hopper. And if you do run it via the hopper, you’ll be standing for 10-15 minutes slowly dumping the bag to avoid overwhelming the motor. Should you be unfortunate to stall the motor — good luck as it’s a nightmare to unclog. Because it uses a electric motor you’ll end up overheating it tripping the heat circuit breaker having to wait while the motor cools down. What’s worse, if you get any moist media, you can call it day cause it will take you hours to unclog it. The Q&A suggestions say to run water through it — yeah, ok, do that on an electric chipper not only risk electrocution but you’ll be rusting and dulling your blades in no time. Literally, out of 6 hours of work time, I spent 4 hours unclogging the unit from a stall due to moist leaves (and they were not very wet either). After wasting better part of the day trying to make this electric chipper work, I finally threw in the towel and asked for a refund. I could not accomplish the task in 6 hours when the same job would take me 2 hours with a gas powered chipping.

The unit has a very primitive bagging system – you’ll be working with a lot of chips flying out of the bag and much dust flying around. Very very dirty chipper compared to the Earthquake machines.

Other than that, the wheels are great, the idea of removable blade is good. Too bad the rest is absolutely useless. As much as I loved the idea of buying USA made equipment, I was severely let down by the value and the lack of efficiency and and power. Do not buy unless you’re looking to chip dry, straight limbs only – this is really a very expensive dry wood chipper only.

Be aware that the return shipping will be paid by YOU (the buyer) and I can’t wait to spend few hundred dollars shipping it back hoping it makes it in one piece. What a waste of money and time. In the end I am sending this one back and I went with a replacement earthquake chipper which is cheaper, more powerful, has a better warranty and it has phenomenal reduction ratio. It’s a shame that this is even being offered as a product — it just doesn’t cut it (put intended).

By Piotr, Spring, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/13/21

I wanted an electric one. So many times it’s a couple of branches down. So you wheel this baby out and you have chips. No old gas issues. I went off the reviews so I knew that it’s good but 2 1/2” is asking too much. That said when you get use to its pretty good for 2” and under. It’s a bit pricey and I haven’t sharpened the chipper blades yet. Hope that’s easy.

By HR Snipe

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/25/21

We are suburban homeowners who also love to garden. We have 11 fruit trees that must be pruned every year. In the past, we have taken the branches to the dump, but now that we have the Patriot electric chipper/shredder, we turn the pruned branches into compost and mulch for our garden. The chipper makes short work of those branches, which can be up to around 2 inches in diameter. The instructions said to feed the branches in slowly, but the chipper kept up to our pace easily. The assembly instructions were clear and easily followed. The product is sturdy and I foresee many useful years of service.

By Kindle Customer

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/14/21

Not easy to use. It clogged continuously in our rainy northwest. Not returning fue to difficulty to pack back and weight.

By Cicchiello

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/13/21

From the quality of the packaging, to the detailed instructions, to the quality of the parts and pieces, to the mobility, to the power, this machine is simply the best!! With 2+ acres to maintain, this machine has turned our annual clean up nightmare into an adventure. We actually look forward to getting out under the trees and cleaning up. Way better than hauling stuff to the fire pit and burning, and the chips are great for land fill. Yup, simply the best!

By DAM

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/11/21

It’s very easy to handle and safe to use. I compared with other machines, this price is average. It’s a right choice.

By Amy

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/18/21

If the chipper needs repair, good luck!! The local repair shop listed on the web site is non-existent. Calling the 800 number is no help. “Customer service” is arrogant and dismissive. Repair parts are shipped out with written instructions, when followed, are impossible to install. A call to the company results in being informed that you did something wrong even though you did everything written. Other simple questions are ignored. BTW, before I retired, I was a mechanic in a factory and maintained equipment more complex than this machine.

By Ed, Austin, TX

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/18/21

The unit is heavy duty and pretty well made. Assembly was easy. If I was to give it a thorough critiquing, there are some design features I would tweak a bit, but overall it works as expected. The only reason I can’t give it the 5 stars, is that the motor rotation was wired backwards straight out of the box. So when I fire it up and load it, it doesn’t want to chip anything. Didn’t take too much sleuthing to realize the cutter head was turning the wrong direction. Having some electrical knowledge, it was easy to go into the motor housing and switch the wiring, but for someone without that expertise, it might be a little intimidating. Once working properly, hold onto your hat, it will chew up some stuff!

By Carl, Stuart, FL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/30/20

We have a mixture of brush, fresh cut pruning of both evergreen and deciduous, and also old dry windfall of these. I even had some old logs too rotted to even burn. I split them up and fed the splits thru my grinder. It worked great. Once I did feed in a lot of leaves, too much to damp, too fast, and feared I would have to dismantle the grinding chamber; no, just followed the directions about flushing with water and manually working it backwards and it cleared itself out. Feeding in damp leaves I found that the tamping tool provided did not help as much as I had hoped. I used a long stick at the very edge taking care not to go in so far as to touch the blades. Sliding up and down encouraged the leaves to move through in small clusters. Do keep the diameter limits in mind. I would strongly recommend it. I did not comment on because have no idea what “stretch” and “sheerness” point to.

By North Shore

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/18/20

Couldn’t handle 2 inch thick branches. Broke. if you’re in UK or EU, I recommend FM4DDE electric chipper; cost less than half price of this chipper.

By Mike

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/14/20

The instructions were great. Easy unit to use &Transport.

By Lynda, Oregon City, OR

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/07/20

The Patriot Electric is a solid machine. If you work with it awhile, you will learn how to flow things into it without jamming. I have used it only for leaves, as I like to burn stuff. For example, after about 20 years of burning through paper shredding machines, I decided to just burn my clinical files in an outdoor fire, for which I need small branches. Autumn leaves, I spread them around the garden. And the Patriot is less frustrating to use than hand-held yard vac/shredders. The plastic straps or fingers that are positioned at the top of the bin and cover most of it work perfectly to feed the leaves gradually. Put a rakeful of leaves on the fingers, and the vibration of the machine will ease them into the hopper at a digestible rate. On occasion the machine jams — often when I’m ready to take a break from bending over to pick up leaves — and unjamming is easily accomplished by swishing a stick around in the bin. When I first used the machine, it blew a fuse in the basement every time I turned it off. After reading a few articles in Home Electrician magazine, I was about ready to go to a local store to buy a higher-amp fuse. But after noticing the Obituary column in Home Electrician, I decided to call a professional. He pointed out that on a previous visit, he had installed a 20-amp circuit for my irrigation system. So we switched the Patriot from the 15-amp circuit I had been using to the 20-amp, and it’s been running fine, no more blown fuses. It’s a solid, thoughtfully-designed, well-made tool that suits the hobbyist leaf mulcher.

By Frank, Beulah, MI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/22/20

Not too long to fit the pieces with a few tools. I was lucky that I had the drive sizes for my ratchet set to assemble. Found operating it was easy to use on branches. The inlet tube necks down so wide branches had to be trimmed to feed properly. Did a great job turning the branches into a fine residue that was used as a much. I did buy the optional tool to push the branches into the tube. Numerous uses and no problems with it.

By Carl, Mechanicsburg, PA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/11/20

The machine does a nice job on brush and on branches of about 1″ or less. Anything else has to be fed in with care and great patience. You have to learn how quickly to feed materials, sensing when the motor is being taxed and backing away so as not to have the thermal overload trip. Once it does, you need to wait 5 minutes or so before it can be reset. Yes, this is with a short, heavy gauge extension cord. So using the machine for big jobs takes a lot of patience and developing a feel for how to use it. Many materials chip to dime-sized pieces as claimed, but know that lots of 3-5″ lengths of smaller diameter branches will sneak through. Also be aware that the company notes that just-cut material will go more easily than wood that’s had time to dry. But be aware that 1 1/2″ material from branches that have fallen over the winter or from pruning the same day will both challenge the machine.

My bigger warning: After maybe 100 hours of use over several years, our abruptly failed. The large steel disc holding the knife (which I kept sharpened) is welded to the shaft in just two places and those welds cracked, bringing the machine to a sudden stop. On top of that, the disassembly instructions in the printed manual that came with the machine were wrong. In any event, I have been unable to disassemble using either the printed instructions or those provided separately by customer support. The shaft appears to be frozen to the main bearing even though the machine has been stored in a closed garage at all times and there is no rust.

Customer support says that this is my fault for not sharpening the blade (I did). They say I can try to get the part welded somewhere, or pay them $277 for a new rotor, IF I can get the unit apart. If I can’t get it apart, it would be far more money for a new rotor, housing half, and bearing.

By Catherwood

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/08/20

I used a 10 horsepower Patriot sjredder for about 14 years so I’m completely familiar with their operation. I chose the electric one for the convenience of not having to mess around with a gasoline engine. While the electric version isn’t as powerful as the gas model, iIt works just fine for our use which is turning everything into mulch. Flip on the switch, throw in the cuttings, out blows the mulch. I don’t even bother with the bag, and run it with no flap on the exit so it never gets clogged. I simply rake up the mulch and put it to use. I really like Patriot shredders because they get the job done. Everything else is just kid’s toys so don’t even bother with them.

By whoisjohngalt

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/17/20

light weight shredding….doesnt do dry stuff (like manure) very well

By Amazon Customer

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/01/20

My property after one month looks so amazing with all the dead material mulched and chipped. Well made machine. Good purchase.

By Upson Downs

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/07/20

I purchased this chipper from Amazon because it was made in USA and I wouldn’t have to deal with gas engine hassles.

Bottom line up front: not worth the time, effort and money.

I read the instruction manual carefully and completely, and followed the instructions on assembly and operation. The shredder hopper was tedious to assemble. Easy to drop bolts or nuts into rotary cutter housing, which would require disassembly of chipper to retrieve.

Shredder hammers worked adequately with leaves at my mountain house.

I bought the Patriot electric cable to prevent tripping a circuit breaker. It worked well at one house, but not at another. Breakers tripped constantly at one home.

Chipper jammed frequently with small twigs and branches less than 1 inch. Hard jam required 2-hour disassembly and reassembly of chipper. Sharpened knife, chipper still jammed. Spent most of my time clearing jams and maintaining unit.

When it did run, after 2 hours, I ended up with 1 wheel barrow load of poorly-chipped mulch. I could have purchased 1 bag of mulch for much less than the price of this chipper. I ended up loading my truck with lawn debris and taking it to the county vegetative waste mulching station, which was much faster and cheaper.

Your time is worth money. I wasted time, effort and money when I bought this product. I’m going to look on Amazon for a leaf shredder with a good customer rating and just take the branches to the county vegetative waste mulching station in the future.

If you are going to buy a wood chipper, get a gas model with adequate power and just deal with the gas engine maintenance hassles.

By Kindle Customer

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/07/20

Most of the negative comments are because you want this machine to do something it can’t do. We bought the chipper to get rid of the branches when our goats finish eating the leaves on our Goat Farm. It works perfectly for this… The manual is quite accurate on what it can and can not do. Be sure before you buy this chipper you talk to the company, measure the branches that you want to chip and see if this machine can do the job. Every branch needs to be chipped. Leaves can be shredded.

Assembly is easy but you do need to identify each part and get a good idea on where they go before you start. It took about an 90 minutes.

This is a good machine for the price.

By David

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/23/19

This looks like a serious chipper-shredder, but it’s not. It’s light duty and jams constantly. Honestly, I end up spending more time trying to get the darned thing unjammed than I can spend actually using it. If all you’ve got are some loose dry leaves and a few small freshly cut branches, you’ll be okay. But it jams on just about anything else. And it’s not easy to get it working again. I’ve wasted hours that could have been better spent.

By Eric, La Jolla, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/23/19

The Patriot CSV-2515 is a great chipper shredder for yard clean up and leaf shredding. We bought this machine to clean up our Florida beach property and shred both palm fronds and sea grape branches. It did a great job with those materials and totally destroys leaves well too. The secret to any shredder chipper is learning how to feed material correctly. We own a 40hp diesel chipper for 25+ years so I’d say we have a bit of experience with chippers. The a Patriot is no different in that regard. We learned you could shred palm stems with the knife chute and then destroy the palm leaves leftovers with the shredder hopper. Leaves are decimated in the shredder hopper but again you need to feed them slowly and gradually. It works best with fresh cut material as the manual says. Dry branches put much more of a strain on the machine. It’s important to cut everything straight going into the machine. We always say “I’s not “Y’s”. An important lesson is running it with the heavy extension cord on a 20 amp breaker. Additionally, let the machine cool down every hour or so. It’s a great portable chipper, easy to assemble and operate. Wear eye protection and ear protection. It’ll create mulch you can use for landscaping and clean up your yard nicely. Don’t bother with anything smaller. This machine is the best electric sold on Amazon.

By SureShopsAlot

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/07/19

$1000 when I purchased Stalls out and short circuits constantly. Get a gas one.

By Kevin

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/30/19

This product does run quietly, and it makes beautiful fine chips…if you use tiny twigs with no leaves! this chipper regularly jams, and makes chipping jobs take FOREVER because it gets gummed up with plant material so easily. I loved it at first, now i loathe having to work with this machine.

By Jessie

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/21/19

As advertised

By Chris

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/11/19

Gets jammed if forced to fast

By Ramona, Scott, LA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/24/19

I’ve been very happy with this product. Particularly because the size of the output is exactly as advertised, which allows me to mix the many oak leaves back into my lawn and plant and tree beds.

I’ve used this critter for about 6 hours (non consecutively), mulching leaves and shredding branches and it has performed as advertised. Per the manual, I’m probably going to have to sharpen the blades soon, so we’ll see how that goes.

When mulching leaves, you have to slowly feed them so as not to get the hopper throat clogged. Also, any dampness in the leaves will cause the same issue. I used a 1/2 inch width, 24+ inch long branch to poke it down (this is the max size that the shredder size will take, so when your stick pokes into the blades, you aren’t harming the machine, just the stick end gets shredded).

If you over feed the hopper, you can wedge the cutting wheel and you will have to clear it to proceed. The two methods I’ve found are to flip it upside down and give it a shake (the unit weighs 125 lbs, so get help if you need it) or remove the cone hopper so you can spin the wheel and clear the blockage. Also, use the aforementioned stick to clear the exit hopper. UNPLUG THE DEVICE BEFORE DOING ANY SORT OF MAINTENANCE! It has a power feed and an on/off switch and it takes at least thirty seconds from OFF to full stop You also need to keep an eye on the motor, because if there is a jam, it may trip the electrical breaker on whichever socket you are using.

To reiterate, I’m very pleased with this product and can highly recommend it if used within the proscribed parameters.

By Fletcher

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/01/19

This chipper shredder would work fantastically with a 10hp motor. The electric motor is very anemic and requires careful feeding and slowing down to allow it to catch up every time. The catch bag is OK, but as it starts to fill it can back up and seriously jam this unit, if you don’t pay careful attention you have to disassemble the entire unit to clean it out. The top hopper seems like a good idea but doesn’t work well, requiring feeding material in a special way to allow it to self-feed. The branch grinder works better – I end up using that 85% of the time ( yet another frustrating thing)

I don’t know if they don’t pack them all well from the factory or it was just mine. The box arrived with a number of punctures and the unit came undone from the fasteners and proceeded to destroy the box from the inside. The unit is made out of a reasonably thick steel so little damage was done.

Moist material can gunk up this unit to the point it must be disassembled. This takes about an hour to take out the numerous bolts and clean out. This chipper shredder was NOT designed for maintenance. There are flats on the shaft that you can try to rotate the unit manually but these are not adequate. In my case that was not adequate to clear the unit. Taking out the dozen or so bolts, reaching into the hopper to remove the two hard to reach cap head screws and removing the bolts for the catch back, then lifting the separated unit out and cleaning the gummed up bits are what is required.

I really wanted to support getting a high quality electric chipper shredder, really trying to avoid getting a gasoline unit…

All in all – this is just barely ok and is 4-5 times the cost of the competition. I would say overall I am very disappointed with the performance, this looks like their small gas unit with an electric motor – and does not act like it was designed around a lower horsepower electric motor. Unless you have a strong green initiative if you really want to grind up your yard waste – get a gas unit.

By JoeVolcano

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/19/18

I have only owned this product for just a couple months and have used it several times and wow what an awesome machine this is. It completely did the job that I had hoped it to do chewing up small limbs with no problems what so ever. It did clog up on me once and that is 100% my fault because I chose to mulch wet leaves and rose bush trimming all while shoving too much in the shredder container… (just testing the product, I said to my wife) A quick garden hose wash out and I was back up and running in minutes. This machine is awesome and I highly recommend this product. Please follow instructions that are provided and you will absolutely love this machine.

By David, Dallas, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/06/18

I’ve had this unit for two years now. Due to drought and subsequent beetle infestations, I’ve lost quite a few trees on a steep 0.4 acre lot in Marin County, CA. It munches 2-1/2″ pine and oak limbs without much grief. The shredder feature is excellent, and I’m amazed that I haven’t had to change the shredder forks, given that I’ve regularly put 3/4″ branches down that chute. It easily takes care of the the oak leaves and pine needles. There is a single chipper blade that requires sharpening every 30 +/- hours, but it’s easy to change (they give you an extra blade) and it’s $10 for professional sharpening. The gas powered model is surely much more powerful, but I have to haul the unit up and down a steep lot, so it was just too heavy and not practical.

By James

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/14/18

This works great for shredding leaves and small twigs in my Colorado yard. Easy to use.

By Jroz

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/27/18

I like doing my own yard work. I have forsythia, mulberry and other shrubs that get pruned yearly, creating piles of small branches. For years I have been shredding leaves for compost, and I have been irked that I can’t compost these branches. I didn’t want to have to deal with a gasoline powered chipper.

This chipper went together easily with the step by step instructions. I advise reading the instructions. Works great with the size branches I’m generating.

By Kelly’s Creek

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/11/18

This may be a 5 or 3 star product . . . I really have no experience with chippers to compare it to, but I have 6 to 8 hours using it, mostly in 10-20 minute stretches over two weeks getting rid of a mix of branches collected over the past many years as well as a couple of leftover Christmas trees and bunch of pruning from bushes. It was a mix of hard and soft woods, recent and old. I did manage to stall it three or four times. Once on a rock and two or three times feeding some pine branches with the needles attached. The first time I called the tech number, a man answered immediately and talked me through the simple process of clearing the obstruction. It seem to work well with both hard and soft woods, though, occasionally the shape of the wood will keep it from being chipped even if it gets to the blades. Since this only chips up to 2.5 inches (I think) most people are going to need a plan B for some things anyway. The machine seems well built and sturdy.

By John, Emira, NY

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/19/18

It doesnt work well .It’s expensive junk. I do not recommend this product. stay away.

By Amazon Customer

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/10/18

WOW – after 2 winter storms and lots of yard debris and one burned out chipper I finally decided to ‘invest’ in a real (heavy) one. Delivered last night (thank you UPS specialist for your great service!), assembled this morning and then, I just wanted to try it out quickly; nope – I couldn’t stop until everything was gone in record time. Patriot Products says you can return it within 90 days – NO WAY, not gonna happen…

By AlexanderTea

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/28/18

It’s a workhorse and we’ve chipped a lot of cedar branches into wonderful mulch. It doesn’t handle branches as large as advertised so I will still be burning some but not nearly as much as when I didn’t have the ability to make mulch! My trees are happier to have new revetements and cedar mulch!

By Shelley, Alpine, TX

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/12/18

Thinking about buying this piece of garbage? It looks like a really powerful unit.

…but once you get it home, it is just a paperweight.

This is one of the biggest swindles I have seen on the Internet. It is a product that was not well-engineered for its task of chipping and shredding. A small handful of leaves can jam it. It jams and trips your circuit breaker. Double bonus! For $1,000 plus you would expect a lot more functional chipping and shredding. I got through a handful of twigs and an armload of leaves before it jammed. Oh and the manufacturer will suggest you read the manual, which you get after you buy the product. Duh doi! You can only put a little itty bitty amount of leaves and a tiny fragile twig at a time into it or YOU are the cause of the jam. Typical snakeoil salesman tactic of blaming the customer for your piece of crap product.

This machine is a wimp masquerading as a chipper/shredder. Don’t waste your hard earned money on it. IF you them to make good on the return policy good luck. You’ll have to send it back in mint condition and in the original box or no return.

By J.

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/27/17

This is a really fine chipper shredder. Any other brands you see on the internet pale in comparison to the performance this machine delivers. There is some assembly required (not difficult and very good instructions) when you receive it. The time spent on assembly will give you some appreciation on just how heavy duty the parts are — like the shredding “hammers” and the slicing blade. The motor is a heavy duty, totally-enclosed-fan-cooled motor (keeps ALL the dust out) from one of America’s premier motor manufacturers. I think for most home owners, this electric unit has plenty of power to deal with the leaves and branches most folks encounter combined with the convenience of just wheeling it out, plugging it in and flipping the switch. They even supply safety googles — wear them! A dust mask is a good idea, too. The only other thing you need is a slender “push stick” (like a dowel rod or thin bamboo) to help the leaves once in a while down the chute – no fingers please!! You’ll probably be amazed at how a big pile of leaves reduces to a small dense pile of finely shredded mulch. It’s great. Buy it once and enjoy it for life.

By Marl, NC

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/26/17

It works fine as long as you have thin straight branches to chew. Does not work for entangled branches like live oak.

By AboveClouds

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/13/17

I used it this weekend for the first time

Chipped Bamboo like a dream.

Need to be feed slowly to prevent clogs.

Overall very happy with the chipper.

By Sal

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/16/17

good

By peter-p

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/27/17

Quiet, it is not. You will need to wear hearing protection. It does work very well and we really think we made a good choice in purchasing this product. But, the reason for 4 stars: 1. It seems to clog up easily it you try to grind up green leaves and you usually have to physically dig the debris out the the discharge shoot. 2. Branches get wedged in-between the flywheel/cutting blade and the housing such that you have to take a vise-grip wrench to clamp onto the shaft and forcibly turn the flywheel to dislodge the offending branch.

By Birch-Creek Seattle

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/05/17

It runs much quieter than gas powered chipper. No problem with power. It ate up a 2″ limb of a fig tree in a few minutes.

By Amazon Customer

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/28/17

I have now had my Patriot for 11 years (Purchased on August 14th 2006) I have used it every year since and have not had any problems except with my learning curve. I have not been very nice to it on many occasions and have been rewarded with a clog that quickly teaches you to not force it and to mix wet with dry when shredding. I have learned to mainly use the chute for branches and the hopper only for leafs and very small branches. I recently ordered a new bearing which is fairly easy to replace, (reading the manual would have made it easier) but this is where the learning curve kicks in again. Over all i am very satisfied with my Patriot, and after 11 years and spending only $32.00 on maintenance that’s spectacular ! Customer service was very friendly and courteous and my new part was sent out immediately. 4.5 Stars

By Nozama Emirp

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/07/17

Great product. Lasted for about five years. Couldn’t get it repaired. Gave it away. It does not shred pine straw. Leaves and small limbs yes….pine straw no. Pine straw wraps around the blades and clogs the mechanism. Electric model was convenient for starting. Be sure not to scoop up any small pebbles in the leaves or pine straw. It will jam the machine. You will have to take it apart to get it free from the jamming. Decided to bag all debris and haul it off. Not worth the trouble of raking leaves, lifting and putting in shredder. Solid product if this is how you would like to shred small limbs and leaves….not pine straw.

By Jcolb

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/30/17

Works as advertised. Jammed it the first time I used it. Operator error: needs to be fed slowly. Not nearly as noisy as the gas version.

By jcm5683

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/03/17

Makes short work of brush & branches. I get a lot of droppings from Giant Sequoia & Coast Redwood trees all year long. I call my Patriot ‘The Beast’ because it is loud, beefy, & processes everything, leaving beautiful mulch that I use all over my 1/3rd acre. How nice NOT to have to pay for mulch or wood chips. Thanks so much for such a great chipper/shredder!

By Sandbar

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/03/17

It took a bit for me figure out how to put this one together. The instructions with pictures are not that great. It helps if you have a natural ability to put things together.

I love that this does so much and runs on electricity. No smelly gas fumes and running it out of fuel when I am done. Just do some minor cleaning and roll it into its storage spot. It took me a couple uses to figure out the proper feed rate. I haven’t used it long enough yet to need to sharpen the blades but the instructions are very clear so I don’t foresee an issue there.

By Diane

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/05/17

Would give it six stars if I could!

I’ve used a few electric shredders and they were not in the same league as this one. It’s still possible to overload it but it operates much better than anything but a good sized gas powered unit.

I’ve mulched all my tree beds from the fall leaves we get in CT and have shredded hundreds of feet of branches from an 80 foot tree that feel in the back yard.

The company is also great – the instructions have a bit of a sense of humor and it’s incredibly well made.

By J.M.

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/22/16

had to return, not suitable for leaf mulching which was my reason for buying

By Fenton, Cleveland, TN

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/28/16

Seems well built. Will update review after the chipper has been in use for a while.

By Patrick

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/31/16

Great product. Easy to assemble and well packed to ship. When I turned it on the unit blew out packaging foam an the seized up. I call customer service and he was a bit arrogant and condescending as I explained the issue. I get these calls all the time he stated. Great then you have a problem. He gave me a few suggestions on what to do and it worked. However what fell out was a plastic packaging corner. Very strange. Company did not seem too interested. again great product sub standard customer service.

By Raymond, Chadds Ford, PA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/04/16

Years ago, I had mixed experience with a gasoline-powered Troy Bilt ChipperVac. I bought that way back when Troy Bilt machines were actually being built in Troy, NY instead of China. It was effective at what it did, but what a job to manage that giant machine and keep it in repair. They don’t build them like that anymore and it’s a good thing that they don’t!

This electric unit is much better suited for what my senior citizen body is doing these days. It’s easy to roll around, has no gas engine issues and pretty effectively chips branches up to a couple of inches in diameter. I’ve also been using it to grind pine needles and cones. The volume reduction is impressive and makes disposal or recycling much easier.

The same caveat applies here as applies to any chipper: One can’t feed it material faster than it wants to be fed. What little time one might save by shoving in wood or other material faster can be lost when the chipper becomes overloaded, gummed up, overheated, or whatever. That said, the electric motor on this chipper is very tough and thermally protected, making a shutdown/unplug/clean-out/restart cycle quick, safe and easy. Well, easier than a gas engine, anyway.

I expect that a machine like this will be needing parts over time. Patriot Products at least appears to be a stable domestic source. I’ll update this review, and perhaps add or subtract a rating star, when repair time comes.

By CPDay

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/29/16

The only complaint is that the upper shoot clogs too easily if you put a fairly small amount of leaves in it, causing them not to reach the blades. It takes a little getting used to. Other than that, it’s quite impressive what it can chip. It’s going to take care of at least 95% of my yard waste.

By Robert, Erie, PA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/06/16

This is a very good shredder/chipper with a powerful electric motor. It is relatively easy to use. You have to be careful not to feed material too quickly as it has a tendency to jam if there is too much stuff in the top hopper. The chipper works well for branches up to 1.5 inches. You need to use the bag for output; otherwise it flies all over the place. The bag is a little tricky to attach, but works well once you have it correctly in place.

By Stephen, Woodside, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/22/16

I still haven’t used it yet, so I may update later, but surprisingly easy to put together after actually getting it out of the box. Getting it out of the box was rather difficult, but well worth the effort. The great packaging that made it difficult to get it out of the box also protected the machine beautifully during shipping.

By Amazon Customer

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 05/17/16

“I really love the chipper when it works, especially for long 1-1/2″” diameter branches or less.
But often I’ll have problems when I trip the electric breaker, like when green material gets gunked up and bogs down the machine, hard branches bog down the machine and dance around in the cone sometimes shooting back out, or wood gets stuck in the blade of the chipper and spins around making noise.

I wish I had more uses for the shredder top bin but most things seem to just clog up the shredder.

I may have been better off with a more powerful gas chipper. (But didn’t want the maintenance)

Other than that, it works great! Still worth the cost and seems like it’s in good shape.”

By Ty, Pomona, CA

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/14/16

Pretty weak. Branches and leaves must be very dry or it chokes. I’m pretty disappointed with it.

By D

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 05/11/16

I like how easy the start is compared to a gas engine. I have plenty of power for my needs. My chipper helps keep my yard and large garden neat and productive by processing wood chips, leaves for mulch, and compost. Shredding ingredients speeds up composting, and gets the nutrients back to the garden quickly. I have had gardening friends come look at the shredder to see if it would help them with their garden.

By Starr, Haverford, PA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 05/04/16

“I’ve used the chipper shredder for a variety of home & garden waste along with 3 evergreens & maple trees that were more than 20 feet tall. Shredded branches up to 2 inches in diameter. I used this mulch and chips around several of the displays in the front and back yard. Only had to purchase a new
replacement knife blade #8100-901-2 from C&J Equipment in Wilmington, MA.”

By Leroy, Hadley, MA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 05/01/16

It does a pretty good job as long as you do not overload the hopper with too many leaves. You really have to meter the amount going into the hopper so that it does not get jammed. Additionally, the chipper function works pretty well on branches two inches in diameter and less. It does have a tendency to bog down a little bit when chipping hardwoods like oak, but this is to be expected since mine is the electric version.

By John, Southlake, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/30/16

“The electric model was a very good tool before I installed solar panels and an inverter. Now I feel as though the chipper/shredder use gives me all the benefits with even less carbon footprint. Outstanding.

I am, however, daunted by sharpening the knives. It is well past time to sharpen them, so I can give a better review after I attempt that task. I have found that the chipper has a hard time with honeysuckle that is far less diameter than the chipper can handle on other woods. That complaint is less on my mind now though because the municipal composting facility will accept it. It is too bad that I have to transport honeysuckle though because that increases my carbon footprint again.”

By Lou, Logansport, IN

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/29/16

“I absolutely LOVE my Patriot Chipper/shredder. I garden in a larger yard, and every year cut down all of the growth, plus the leaves from a large mulberry tree, and needles from Ponderosa Pine, and shred them to use for mulch, garden paths, and to use the leaves to create compost.

My husband bought my chipper/shredder for me, and teases me by telling others that most wives would like diamond rings or jewelry, but Mary wanted a chipper/shredder!!”

By Mary, Albuquerque, NM

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/29/16

I have had my electric Patriot Chipper for eight years. Although the electric is not as powerful as the gas version, I preferred the electric for its lower maintenance and quieter operation. It handles everything fed to it except when I get too eager and attempt to chip branches a bit too large. I have learned to use better judgement with experience. The machine is well designed, built sturdily, and reliable.

By John, Palos Verdes Estates, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/29/16

I think I’ve had this chipper for at least a dozen years. I have replaced blades and flails which is to be expected. After we were flooded by hurricane Sandy ( Chipper lives outside in the yard and was completely under water in the event) I had to replace the motor. While this machine is not in constant use, it has lasted far longer than I expected and continues to perform as it did when it was new. I live in an urban area with a small growing space and make the most of it with decorative plants and vegetables. This shredder has allowed me to keep almost all the plant waste from my garden area in the garden after I shred it and compost. The benefit from that is a lush and vibrant garden on a continuous basis.

By Mark, Jersey City, NJ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/29/16

“Things I love: bulletproof engineering, made in USA, patriot products customer service
Things I would add or change:
– add a storage hook for safety glasses, hearing protection and extension cables — I need to hunt these things down every time I use the shredder
– find a way to make changing knives easier
– provide a mail-in service to get my knives sharpened (obviously for a fee)
– an option for bigger wheels – I have to lug my shredder up two sets of stairs to get to the back garden and he wheels are just a little too small. Bigger wheels would prevent the engine cowling from banging on the concrete stairs.

Thanks for a tremendous product. I love using it. I make great mulch and compost with it and that makes my garden happy”

By Jonathen, Yonkers, NY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/29/16

“I use the chipper/shredder on shrub and tree trimmings to turn into mulch for composting,

The good:
The shredder generally does a good job chipping branches and shredding smaller branches and leaves.

I wish it were better at shredding. It doesn’t get things small enough and that results in fairly large stringy pieces in the bag. And these large stringy pieces tend to clog the discharge port, which means I have to stop the operation and unclog the port. When I first began using the machine, I would have to dismantle the whole front of the chipper section to unclog it. Now that I am more familiar with the machine and its operation, I can tell when it is clogged and can free the clog at the discharge port without dismantling. Part of my solution is to feed most branches of any size through the chipper and just put the small ends that are left slowly through the shredder hopper.”

By John, Northridge, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/28/16

“This is the best garden tool I have. Living in and around a mixed evergreen and redwood forest in California, it is super important to keep the ground and lower limbs clear. This is a constant job each summer/fall, after the rains, to reduce fire risk. The large branches and dead trees are harvested for firewood and all the small branches and leaves go into the chipper and come out as trail beds, mulch for compost bin, and providing an organic base for micro organisms and bugs to thrive and transform the forest floor into nutrients. The cycle of live continues. All this is facilitated by the chipper.

It has never failed or needed repair.

The blades are simple and easy to replace.

It handles like a tank in terms of its design: strong, functional, and indestructible.

One of the top 5 purchases ever.”

By James, Watsonville, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/28/16

I’ve owned my electric chipper for over 12 years. I use it infrequently to chip a collection of pruned branches, including a discarded Christmas tree and other vegetative materials. I use the chips as mulch material in my landscape. Overall it does an excellent job. Occasionally I find that harder material may cause it throws a circuit breaker, and I have learned to feed it slowly. What I love best about it is that I don’t need to change oil, and mix oil, or even worry about old gas fouling the engine because I haven’t run it in awhile.

By Edward, Hesperia, MI

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/28/16

I’ve owned the 2515 Electric Chipper for two years now and have been mostly happy with its performance. I tend to work the chipper pretty hard and only run dry leaves through the shredder. I’ve learned that getting the most out the machine takes some practice, but nothing a little common sense can’t cure. I’ve sharpened the blade once so far, which definitely helped with keeping things running smoothly. Two things I’ve noticed that I feel need mentioning is: 1) The shredder hopper seems a bit too tight at times for some jobs, even leaves. Yes, I know you’re supposed to feed it slowly, but the rate of speed needed in order to completely have it work seamlessly is just too slow at times. This seems tied to the size of the hopper, since clumps of leaves tend to fall out of bags naturally and that isn’t conducive to the machine getting any work done. You are forced to feed the machine one handful at a time. This is just too slow for most shredding sessions. Secondly, some of the hardware on the machine are not stainless steel. I hate that. I can’t stand rust on my tools and it wouldn’t be a huge additional cost to make everything stainless. I store my chipper indoors all winter long, so no extreme cold or snow is getting near the machine. All in all though, it’s performed pretty well. I would recommend it to others with similar size yards to mine, which translates into .25 acres or less.

By Philip, West Reading, PA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/28/16

The chipper/shredder clogs easily and also frequently trips the circuit breaker. Clogging necessitates taking it apart. Resetting the circuit breaker requires a trip to the basement, (changing shoes, and unlocking doors to get there). I find these two items to be time-consuming and therefore I not use the machine as much as I would like to. I do not have time to stop in the middle of a gardening session to deal with these problems, as my time in the garden is limited to evenings and weekends. When either happens I just stop using the machine and put the cover back on it and wait until my husband is available to deal with this, since he has a lot of time on his hands (he is retired but does not live with me), but he curses the thing out when he has to take it apart to get rid of a clog. I do not like to use gas-powered devices, which is why I purchased the electric version. I suspect that the gas versions that have greater HP would not have the clogging problem. When this is working, the chips/shreds produced are very nice and we find this a satisfying way to recycle pruned shrub/tree material onto the property. We typically use the shredded/chipped material on paths in our woods.

By Claire, Ellcott City, MD

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/28/16

The powerful shredder helps cleaning up trimmings effectively. The shredded stuff is good for mulch and compost. The best investment for our garden.

By Louisa, Chico, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/16

Our Patriot electric chipper is extremely reliable and user friendly. We garden in Phoenix and our desert soil is super hard. We chip tree branches, leaves, shrubs, anything that’s green and fits in the hopper to create the perfect soil amendment. Our garden yields vegetables year round because of our Patriot.

By Gary, Phoenix, AZ

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/08/16

I like the electric chipper/shredder because I don’t have to deal with gas and oil. It is, however, a little underpowered for the work I do. I had to learn how thick tree branches could be before the breaker would kick out. I have mostly desert trees, paloverde, acacia, Texas ebony and desert willows. If the wood is still green, I can chip branches up to about an inch thick. If they are dry and hard, 3/4 of an inch is about it. Branches from the Texas ebony are quite difficult to get down the chute because they zig zag and are very thorny. The others trees are fairly easy but do require the side branches to be trimmed off. Dried leaves from broad leafed plants go through the shedder just great but if they are green, the shredded material tends to gunk up at the exit chute and plug it up. I use a long thin bamboo stick to scrape the gunk off the exit chute area while the shredder is running. I know this isn’t quite kosher, but if I do it after stopping the shedder, the gunk goes to the bottom and prevents the flywheel from moving and the breaker kicks out. Most everything I put in the shedder gets shredded well except the long thin branches from my paloverde tree. These branches are usually a foot or two long and about an eighth inch thick. When green they are very willowy and take two or three trips through the shedder to be cut down to an inch or so. So through practice I have figured out how to make the machine work for me and overall I’m happy with it. The chipped and shredded material is great for my compost pile.

By Jack, Tucson, AZ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/08/16

Great machine. The motor on the electric does the job shredding leaves and small branches. Let me say…I am a fan.

By Keith, Waynesville, NC

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/04/16

Great product for properties with a lot of trees and bushes. Last spring we trimmed down a 40 ft. long hedgerow from 20 ft. high to 4 ft. All of the green trimmings (up to 1-1/2″ diameter) went through this powerful trimmer without problem. This has been my wife’s favorite yard tool for the last year and she mulches her various gardens with the clippings. This product is well designed and simple to use.

By John, Jerome, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/01/16

although my community now has a yard-waste recycling program, I still use my patriot several times a year. I get some good dirt out of the compost pile, and often just spread the chipped stuff on the various beds around the house

By Glenn, Wyomissing, PA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/28/16

“In general it works great, but only if I properly prepare the branches for smooth feeding and nothing over 1 1/2″” thick. I have to feed carefully so not to slow it up, but that is probably the correct way. Otherwise, it will stall or trip the interrupt.

I have no problem sharpening the knife which I do before each session if needed.

I would really like if Patriot could find a service provider in Santa Clara County. The nearest now is Fremont and they don’t like to work on electrics for some reason. I think it is time for a good cleaning.

Many thanks,”

By Howard, Cupertino, CA

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/28/16

The chipper jammed with leaves in the first week of use. To fix I need to take it apart, but have never done so, so it sits in my shed reminding me of a poor choice I made.

By Ralph, Portland, OR

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/27/16

I’ve had this electric chipper for about 9 years now. It will reduce a large pile of tree limbs (1.5″ or less diameter) in no time to a small mound of mulch. For my 2 acre property with a dozen trees it’s the perfect size. If you need to use a chipper more than a few times a year I’d probably go with one of the gas engine models, though. Plugging in to a 15 or even 20 amp breaker you have to be careful not to go too fast to keep from blowing a breaker. After a few trips to the breaker box, though, you quickly learn to recognize the motor’s limit.

By Kenneth, Lucas, TX

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/25/16

“My 1 acre size yard has a combination of pine needles,leaves and small twigs along with larger branches. Nearly every time I used it, the chute gets clogged, I have to take it apart, clear the clogged leaves, put it back together again to have it get clogged again. Can only put a very little amount in the top maybe a hand full at a time,therefore a VERY slow process. I have to separate the pine cones from needles and leaves in order to chip them–very tedious. I have often given up and just raked the stuff into a pile and burned them in the outside fireplace.

I have considered selling it. I would not recommend this machine to anyone. Machine seems very noisy, need to wear protection.”

By Marie, Iron River, WI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/25/16

I enjoy the chipper for fairly small jobs taking an hour or so. Great for getting rid of fallen limbs in the Spring, and for branches when I take down a tree maybe once or twice a year. Everything that’s too small for firewood gets chipped. I use the electric, no gas smell or storage, no real maintenance (except for sharpening blades). Just plug it in and an easy start. I can use it for just a few minutes or for hours.

By Ronald, Tobyhanna, PA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/25/16

this is a very handy portable unit, makes yard clean-up a lot easier and you get mulch chips as a bonus. good unit.

By Joseph, Murfreesboro, TN

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/25/16

The chipper works fine most of the time. It does jam on pine branches or any green material if fed too quickly. Would a more powerful engine do the trick and make it jam up less often. When it does jam it takes a while to clear. I often wish that I had purchased the more powerful gasoline model but I am satisfied with this one and will continue to ue it and be careful not to let it jam.

By Kenneth, Provincetown, MA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/25/16

This is a powerful, well-built machine that does it’s job better than any that we have tried before. It is extremely reliable and heavy duty. My only criticism regards the difficulty in changing the knives and inner hardware at where’s (appropriately) overtime. Unable to do it myself, I brought it to a professional machine shop who were also unable to remove the necessary bolts to get to be able to replace the parts. I was told I had to bring it to an authorized dealer at this point for this job to be done successfully.

By Jonathan, Upper Montclair, NJ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/24/16

I have a small lot but I have many trees including evergreens, ash, cottonwoods, ornamental fruit and fruit trees. I also have a large garden on the south side of the home and two flower gardens. I could not keep up the maintenance on the property without the Patriot. The electric motor is still cranking after almost 5 years and I typically sharpen the blade 2-3 times a year. I love the electric option as I don’t like things that I have to put gasoline in. I have a moderate amount of leaves that I shred for compost in the shredder as well as garden waste and tough compost. I never have to buy mulch or commercial compost. The Patriot has saved me probably $200-$300 a year at least on mulch and compost. I love the mobility of the Patriot, I can move from the front yard to the back yard to the garden and set it up anywhere on the property. It was a breeze to setup and get started chipping. The Patriot is also really easy to clean with a garden hose after chipping.

By Cory, Golden, CO

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/24/16

“It has helped with limb disposal which the city charges for. It gives me a good supply of mulch.
I wish that it would branches of a slightly larger diameter. Sometimes leaves and branches don’t feed in easily through the top, that is, they don’t drop all the way down and get clipped.”

By Joseph, Suffolk, VA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/24/16

“Live in a gated community and with the electric chipper we haven’t received any noise complaints.

Chips small oak tree twigs and leaves very well. We burn small branches in fireplace.”

By Roland, Roseville, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/24/16

This is a great little chipper. It does so well, that you have to remind yourself to take it easy on feeding it too fast or too large an object. The one thing that stands out is the safety features. I do not have the ‘Ram’ that was offered, but do not worry when feeding because the passageways are small and hard to accidentally put your hand into. I have never feared being ‘pulled’ into the unit, however, I do watch my gloves…just in case. Another thing to be careful of is not dropping a tool into the hopper. Like I said, this little beast just chips away and you forget it has limitations. The only down side are the wheels. Since it is only used once or twice a year, they tend to freeze up. Luckily, the unit is small enough to drag across the yard, if you run out of WD-40. Definitely, one of my better decisions on buying this. Thanks!

By Ted, Wichita, KS

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/19/16

“The shredder has never worked well for me. It trakes hours the shreed leaves and small branches. I need to turn it off often to clean out stuck leaves. It often blows a fuse in the house and I can only put a small amout of leaves in at a time. I don’t use it often because it is a pain to use. I have never been happy
with it!”

By Barney, Newton, MA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/19/16

The electric model is sufficient for my needs, and once you figure out how it likes to work, it works like a champ. Especially with larger limbs, you have to control the feed rate and using the sound of the motor can keep the machine from overloading as it works. It easily handles limbs up to 1 3/4″. It’s rated to take larger limbs but I think it’s better to come in under the maximum limit. I would recommend this chipper to anyone looking to purchase one, particularly homeowners with larger holdings or anyone who is really serious about gardening. Only one criticism, the wheels are made out of a cheap material and don’t hold up to even normal wear.

By Kendall, Asheboro, NC

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/18/16

“The unit works well for small branches–I have many of those–and leaves–too many of those. I will shred and store the leaves in the winter and then shred them again late winter for adding to my garden. Often the leaves, did I mention too many, are simply scattered back into the landscape. There have been a few times when I would have preferred a larger, more powerful unit, but with a bit of patience this unit has served me well.

Although I tend to put things together backwards, in this case assembly was a accomplished by simply following the clear instructions provided.

Keeping it clean is easy, too. My collection bag is holding up well, but two repairable holes appeared this winter.

This was a good purchase for me.”

By Joseph, Lithia Springs, GA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/17/16

“My chipper has served me well now for years, turning prunings, leaves and weeds into mulch and compost. Experience has taught me not to shred material that is too wet, and alternate green and dry material to prevent clogging. I don’t shred long fibrous material like ornamental grasses because they tend to twist together & clog the machine.
The chipper is easy to maintain and changing blades is easy too. The blades are sturdy and can be resharpened 3 or 4 times before they must be discarded. If the chipper does clog it isn’t difficult to clear it.
It is best to run the chipper on a firm unpaved surface, as it can ‘ walk’ on concrete.”

By Catherine, Portland, OR

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/17/16

“The unit easily gets plugged up, spend as much time cleaning it out as I spend using it. Have to very carefully and slowly feed it. We use a very heavy duty extension cord (10awg) and plug in to an outlet near the breakerbox, but still have trouble with the motor overheating.
Can not remove the blades to sharpen them as they came so tight from the factory that the screws stripped out trying to remove them.
Overall,I want to love the unit, but have so much problems using it I just can’t say that I like it.”

By Jeff, Kansas City, MO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/16/16

Don’t use as much as I used to, which was 4-5 times a year in the gardening season, but the few times I still use it, it works very well. I like the fact that I do not have to use gas. It works every time I need it. I have used it mostly to chip small trees into mulch and shred the old vegetable garden. Does an excellent job. I have made great compost with the shredded material. Without the shredder it would have taken a very long time to compost this material

By Rick, Palo Alto, CA

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/30/16

gets stuck on anything of any girth. Pain in the rear to unclog. ughhhh
Not powerful enough. If you just want to pulverize small plants and tiny branches it’s ok, but even those created a
need to unclog the entry.

By Ace

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/20/15

Not impressed … very underpowered and that makes for a long day of slow shredding. Mine lasted a couple uses and then stopped working, completely dead. Waste of money in my opinion … aND at $1,000 these aren’t cheap. Would have been far better off renting or buying a gas chipper.

By Brooksided

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/12/15

This electric wood chipper was a terrific purchase. I just finished cutting down a 27-year old, 140-foot long, 20-foot wide, 12′ high, Double File Viburnum hedge (see photo of first 40 feet removed). This chipper efficiently dispatched all branches 2″ in diameter or less, and I ended up with approximately 7 yards of chips to be used as garden mulch. Here are some thoughts:

1) Follow the user manual!

2) Use 20-amp circuit

3) If you feed large limbs too quickly, it will blow your fuse.

4) I live in a residential area, and my neighbors love the machine, because it is quiet.

5) The bagger that comes with the machine works great.

6) Its extremely convenient to use and exceptionally well built

3/31/2020 update: this is my fifth year and it still is going strong! I have no complaints. So why does it work so well with only an 1 HP electric motor. The answer is it has a very heavy flywheel (approx 50 lbs.) and it has only one cutter blade attached to its circumference; the design is pure genius. When handling heavier limbs 1 to 2 inches in diameter, don’t feed it in fast. Go “feed one second —pause one second, feed one second, pause one second,… until it is through. Believe me, I have at lease 40 hours on this machine (and perhaps more)—if you don’t rush feeding larger limbs, it will not struggle and the work will get done quicker than you would think. Another thing: I bag my chips to use these as mulch around the garden. Don’t wait until the bag gets too full! If you allow the bag to become completely full, the chips will back up discharge shoot and clogo the machine, and believe me, you don’t want that. You’ll have to clear out the blockage. After clogging the machine several times when first using it, I learned my lesson, and have not clogged up the machine in several years.

By Rich, CT

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/18/15

Arrived with rust covered parts inside the chopping chamber. Directions for assembly have missing instructions for which screws to use to attach the leaf hopper etc., ended up with lots of spare screws without any idea what they’re for. Used it once, it worked okay, but it spit out some 2-inch diameter branches like a two year child that doesn’t like dinner! Cannot recommend.

By David, St Louis, MO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/03/15

I inadvertently dropped a root ball down the leaf hopper and predictably damaged the shredder. My bad. There was only one bent part I had to replace, so I called Patriot. Keith, the owner, answered the phone. Rather than sell me an entire replacement shredder assembly, he found a spare part in the back room and mailed it to me, FREE…even though the machine was out of warranty. Spectacular customer service.

To fix the shredder, I had to take the cutting assembly apart, which gave me a chance to see the innards of the machine. It is a very well built machine, well-designed, and clearly meant to last for years of heavy use.

Highly recommended.

By Brent, Austin, TX

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/30/15

We moved to La Paz Mexico and use this to keep our yard tree cutting cleared up work good if you feed the tree cutting’s in, one to two at a time

By William, La Paz, Mexico

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/06/15

Bought the shredder earlier this year and finally got a chance to assemble and use it. Works well for brush and yard waste. Follow instructions as to what to put in and you will do fine. Looking forward to mulching my fall gardens with the chipped brush.

By Kathryn, San Antonio, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/15

I have had this for three years now and it’s still going strong. I clear brush and trim trees on our 2 acres and this will mulch most everything I give it. (I probably max it out with 2 inch diameter branches.) What I love most is that I just plug it in, wheel it out of the garage and it’s ready to go! I did remove the safety plate where the mulch is ejected, though. It just seemed to cause clogs more often which would tempt one to do exactly what it’s there to prevent. So now I fasten the bag on and then wrap the drawstring around the cone to help hold it on. I wear ear protection when I mulch, but it is not nearly as noisy as a gas powered machine would be. The mulch is not as pretty as the kind you buy at Lowes, but it is valuable stuff here in the Texas summers. And this is the best way to dispose of yard waste and keep it out of the landfill.

By LtMom

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/28/15

This is a powerful chipper and I would have given it a 5 star except that it is very finicky in terms of chipping. You can’t load woody parts in the large hopper because it will stop the motor. The feeder for the woody parts is very narrow so that if you have something that isn’t straight you have to cut it down so that it is. I regularly have to stop and clear the blues from material that has built up. It does give nice small chunks for the most part and makes creating mulch easy. The bag attachment also means that I can chip in the driveway without the output flying all over the place, though it does add another thing that stops the grinding process. I have chipped branches that are about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and they go through easily.

Easy to put together, though I did lose a washer in the blade housing which took a little ingenuity to get out.

By Spizaklw

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/11/15

Surprisingly powerful chipper considering that it is electric. Not too noisy. Easily chips up to about 1 and 1/4″ branches. Bogs down a little at 1 and 1/2″. Recovers well once you slow down on the feed. I would definitely buy this one again.

By WindJeep

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/02/15

How unfortunate that some try to mulch wet debris with this fine piece of equipment. Does your lawnmower get clogged, when you mow a wet lawn? Same principal! Of course; something with a 10HP gas engine will better handle that kind of mess. This chipper/shredder works absolutely FINE, when used according to it’s intended purpose. LOVE MINE!

By Rodman

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/11/15

As many have mentioned it is easy to be hesitant about an electric chipper/shredder because there are so many underpowered chippers out there that are inexpensive and pretend to have what you are looking for to cleanup your yard, however this is not one of those underpowered wastes of money! This chipper gets the job done, sure it draws a good amount of power but that is also because it has enough power to chew right through branches and make a nice spreadable chip for your landscaping needs. I have found that buying an extra bag or two makes it easy to run everything through the chipper side and then run it back through the shredder side to make a nice consistent chip size. I have also been using the chips produced by this product from my apple and cherry trees around my property for smoking and have made some fantastic smoked cheeses and meats (dry the chips out by laying them out flat on a metal pan until they are dry to the touch for smoking). Overall I would say that this is the electric gardening tool that everyone should have. It is substantially quieter than its gas powered counterparts and has more than enough power for even large jobs. Don’t hesitate, buy this chipper to not deal with small gas engine maintenance and just know that when you plug it in, it will work and help you keep your yard in excellent shape!

By Bryan

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 06/01/15

When you feed the chipper properly it works very well indeed. I have two Magnolias in my front and back yard as well as two gum trees and their balls. I mulch them twice and return them to the flowerbeds as mulch. Certainly beats sending the debris to a landfill. I depend on the chipper to manage this waste, otherwise I would have probably taken down these stately old trees, much to my chagrin.

By Curtis, Norfolk, VA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/25/15

Well built. Uses every bit of a 20amp circuit. Doesn’t like wet stuff. Will grind up the big branches but don’t force them. Turns dry leaves to powder for great mulch. Remember to wash out after use.

By Amazon Customer

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/14/15

I have just less than 1/4 acre and I use mt chipper/shredder mainly for tree-trimmed branches (plum, apple, fig, redwood, lemon, cherry) but also for anything else that can be shredded into mulch (trimmed bushes, grape vines, & leaves), and it does a great job for being only electric. I was initially impressed that it easily handled the diameter it claimed. And I still am impressed. So far, I haven’t had to sharpen it, though I believe it’s almost ready for it. If I had a bigger yard I’d get a gas-powered one. But these machines really work!

By Neville, Stockton, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/14/15

“The chute that feeds the shredder is very narrow and restricts the feeding leaves.

Experience frequent clogging of the shredder; should have purchased a gasoline powered unit.

Learned to feed leaves at a slower rate to reduce clogging.

The technical service is excellent at Patriot.

Nice purchasing something that is made in the USA.”

By Leonard, Chapel Hill, NC

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/14/15

Wouldn’t buy from Patriot if they were the last company that sold the product….

By T

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/11/15

“I use this chipper to chip branches from trees that I trim or cut down on my land. I also use it to shred branches and trimmings from landscape bushes. I use the shredded/chipped material for mulching my zero-scape yard.

The machine has worked well for me for branches from arbor-vitea, pine, fir, oak, willow, sweet gum, etc.

Points I learned.
1) Limit how fast a branch feeds into the shredder. It will feed it self too fast and the clog up.
2) Don’t let the output bag get too full. If you don’t watch it you risk having it get completely full and causing the machine to clog up.

To clear the clogged machine, you have to open the housing around the knives. A bit of a pain.”

By James, Beaverton, OR

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/15

Love the easy start. Would have liked better instructions on sharpening the blade. When replacing blade x1 instructions didn’t work plate came off as center column had expanded mechanic said probably d/t excessive heat. I have been able to make my own mulch using what I have and saving money buying some. Great for cleaning up after storms.

By Debra, Versailles, KY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/15

“I bought the chipper shredder primarily to shred leaves but find it takes a very long time to shred any significant amount as it has to be fed very slowly or it jams. Unclogging with a slender branch works but takes time to do as the leaves have to be pulled back a bit so they will fall into the chute properly. (A narrower chute might help prevent this overfeed problem) The leaves I have are a large white oak and it might work better on smaller leaves.
However the chipper is great and works well if you remember to feed it only straight branches with no big forks. I break off or cut off any forks or bends that won’t fit the feed.
Haven’t yet had to replace parts so I don’t know how difficult that will be. Be advised it is a heavy (read sturdy and well built) beast so getting it out of the shipping box and set up does require a bit of muscle.”

By Patricia, Dahlonega, GA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/15

This is probably the best electric product in its class. The one drawback is that it quickly jams and trips circuit breakers whenever the material to be shredded is damp or its moisture content is a bit high, even when the feed is slow and light. An easy to access clean-out port would be helpful whenever jams occur. Overall, this is an excellent shredder for smaller jobs and backyards; and, its one I would recommend.

By Louis, San Francisco, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/15

“As with any shredder, you have to learn how best to feed it. My major complaint with the results is that too many leaves get through unshredded. Also it’s noisy — user needs ear protection and the neighbors are unhappy.
Reversing/replacing the flails is a major operation. The first time I had to take off the outer cover, I needed wedges and a sledge! Since then it has been easier. Scroll pins are tricky to insert. I don’t like having to buy new spacers along with new flails. The spacers don’t need replacing.
I use the machine regularly, and it works well.Electric motor provides adequate power and is much easier to use and maintain.”

By C, Wynnewood, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/15

“I really love my shredder BUT there is a learning curve re damp leaves, how much material can be put in the hopper without clogging, and vines. My biggest frustration is how difficult it is to clear material that has clogged. The prongs on the electrical plug were so thin that they wore down and the plug now needs to be replaced. The one time I did bring it to a repair shop it was such a unsatisfactory experience that I contacted Patriot and was thrilled that they stepped in to resolve the situation.
Over all I would recommend this shredder for home use. I particularly liked how fine the material was shredded when the blades were sharp. Not sure how to sharpen them myself. Having more repair shop option would be helpful too.”

By Katy, Edgartown, MA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/09/15

It works great, makes a pile of leaves into a teeny pile I can throw back into my garden beds. Its a quality product, not a cheap plastic one with a string. I like it very much.

By Donna, Libertyville, IL

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/07/15

This works great and seems very sturdy. The only issue is you have to not over feed and watch the chute where the mulched items exit. If the bag get full and you don’t notice it gets clogged big time. Happened to me twice the first day and I spent 20-30 minutes getting it cleared. As long as that doesn’t happen it works fine. My mother in law has a Sears gas model and it works better but it’s very noisey, hard to start and extremely heavy. Over all the electric works well for my smaller yard needs.

By Brad, Murray, UT

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 04/04/15

“I like the chipper/shredder for shredding raked leaves in the fall to add to my compost pile for quick composting. I also chip most branches that I have pruned from my many ornamental shrubs.

However, the machine is very finicky with other materials. Dry ornamental grasses seem to shred OK, but parts of them fall into the bottom of the shredding blade compartment, and clog it. Other garden plants, if they are too wet, or if they are added too quickly, also clog the chamber and overburden the motor, blowing the fuse. It has a limited use.

I’m glad I have it, but it would be nice if it worked with a wider range of materials!”

By Robin, Westboro, MA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/30/15

I have been using several different devices to help in cutting up leaves and branches. I found your company on the internet. I was delighted that you sold one that was electric, since I am trying to refrain from gas engines, leaving as I do close to a city. I showed my wife and she surprised me with it for a Birthday present. It has great power and much better than the other two electric machines that I have.

By Jameson, Prairie Village, KS

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/29/15

I purchased the Patriot Electric Chipper in 2013 and have been very satisfied with its performance. We have a half acre wooded lot, and we frequently are chipping branches and other small saplings. This is a perfect product for home owners with significant need for chipping and shredding. The chipping makes excellent mulch for our garden and outdoor beds.

By John, Belmont, NC

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/27/15

I very much like the chipper, especially the quality and engineering, and I very much like the electric version but I could wish for more power (HP). I recognize there are problems supplying power if the motor HP goes up but some of us are capable of supplying it and it would be nice to have the option. For example, for my purposes 2 or 3 HP would make my electric chipper just about perfect for my needs.

By William, Trumbull, CT

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/26/15

I love my electric chipper – being a woman of 86 years old, I am not able to pull the starting cords anymore. With this one – just plug it in and flip the switch and away we go. It does all of the chores without any trouble. I am quite happy that I bought it after my husband passed away One has to learn quickly how to do-it-yourself.

By Mary, Cromwell, CT

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/26/15

I am very happy with my electric shredder/chipper. I can plug it in whenever I want to clean up my yard using it to shred material that has dropped from my trees or pruned branches from my shrubs. I like not having to fill a gas tank or deal with starting the engine. During leaf season I use a long heavy duty extension cord and position it in the yard to shred leaves. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that it occasionally gets overwhelmed with large volumes of material. Once you know the limits you can feed materials in at a steady rate. There is one plastic part (the impeller???) that I wish was metal

By Liz, Chapel Hill, NC

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/20/15

The electric shredder works well and doesn’t require the maintenance of a gas-powered model. Our branches are small – if we had larger branches we might require a gas powered model. We did need to purchase a long extra-large extension cord to power the device. Overall we can definitely recommend the chipper/shredder.

By Frank, Twin Falls, ID

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/20/15

Perfectly sized for cleaning up the flower beds … makes quick work of getting everything down to size for the compost pile.

By M

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/19/15

“Ooh, an opportunity to provide an HONEST review… I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Patriot Electric Chipper so much that I stalk my neighbors for their leaves and twigs. Unfortunately for my neighbors, my chipper is NOT available for loan. Admittedly, I am very protective of it, though I haven’t gone as far as to give it a name… hmmm, I ponder. I have recommended this product to many, many folks and will continue to do so.
Thank you for a great product! ~L”

By Lori, Centreville, VA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 03/19/15

I don’t usually post reviews on Amazon as I am very busy But this chipper is great! It’s electric so theres no fumes,quiet enough that my neighbors don’t mind and I’m really close.It is powerful enough for me, I have shredded branches up to Two inches no problem and bags of leaves you need to take your time though ! don’t just stuff them in or you will jam it! It make a really fine mulch for compost! The customer service is amazing,I had a question when I was assembling it and the owner of the company stayed on the phone for over twenty minutes talking me through it! try that with a chinese manufacturer1

By Thomas, East Elmhurst, NY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/15/15

The chipper is adequate for taking care of my back yard tree debris and cut branches. The cutting action goes much slower with thick (1″-2″) dried hardwood branches. Since I use the mulch for our flower garden, I’ve had to rechip a 2nd time to get the wood chips small enough so the chips don’t penetrate thin soled footwear when stepping through the garden. The chipper is rugged and sturdy and has held up very well in the nine years of use.

By Joseph, Hatfield, PA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/13/15

A perfect chipper/shredder for home use, although not as powerful as gas powered ones it is much easier to start and to maintain. Works pretty well for small branches and dry leaves. It does not take long to figure out how much leaves to put into the hopper so that it won’t clog. Y shaped branches won’t go into the chipper’s funnel shaped feed tube and have to be cut into more or less straight pieces first.

I have had this machine for less than a year so I have not had to change any part yet. I have a pretty big yard with many oak, maple, and pine trees, the machine makes Fall cleanup much easier and produces nice mulch for the garden and material for the compost. Overall a well built machine for home use. I would recommend it.

By Dennis, Westford, MA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/07/15

We get our money’s worth! Don’t have to bag yard waste, and now have years of excellent compost.

By Ursula, Glen Elyn, IL

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/05/15

I have had my electric shredder/chipper for 5 years. I use it every spring and fall for cleanup. It works great on branches. I use it on both Pine and Oak and never had a problem. I have had it clog when shredding leaves however.

By John, Nashua, NH

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/05/15

Since I don’t seem to have the knack for keeping gas engines running, I sought a suitable electric chipper. I read all the reviews and comparisons I could find and took the plunge with the electric Pateiot chipper. It came in two packages as indicated, was quite heavy, but I managed to assemble it inside the front door and then rolled it out the back, and off the deck onto the yard. I did order the 100 ft heavy gauge power cord as suggested and found an old hose feel to corral it as it is quite cumbersome as well.

I composte all my yard waste…grapevines, tall castor bean plants, 6 ft. Cannas, rose canes, dropped branches from several mature trees, weeds and fall. Gee table garden remnants. Many items were taking way too long to break down, so I needed the chipper to accelerate he composting.
Only once, so far, have I jammed it. The jam took a lot of grabbing with various tools and my small hands…until finally, I removed had to remove the cone feeder chute to get everything cleared. I will be very cautious to not repeat my haste.

By Gay, Shawnee, KS

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 03/05/15

I use my Electric Chipper to chip/shred when I trim trees. Learned early how to keep the shredder from clogging by using a small branch to work the buildup from the damp leaves loose. I probably do extra work by trimming small branches from the large, down to a size that drops into the shredder, then feed the straight branches in the chipper end. Some times the thinner pieces do not shred very well and have to be run thru a second time.

By David, Hialeah, FL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/26/15

This unit does a good and efficient job of shredding all of my yard waste. I no longer need to use the municipal collection service and have the shredded material for mulch and bedding. The machine sometimes gets plugged but is easy enough to get unplugged and working again. This mostly happens due to my own enthusiasm to do this work before the material is sufficiently dry. I really like that the machine has two intake ports for chipping or chopping depending on the material I have and that both tasks can be done simultaneously.

This is a high quality machine that I expect will last me for many more years.

By Donna, Toronto, ON Canada

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/24/15

A perfect chipper/shredder for home use, although not as powerful as gas powered ones it is much easier to start and to maintain. Works pretty well for small branches and dry leaves. It does not take long to figure out how much leaves to put into the hopper so that it won’t clog. Y shaped branches won’t go into the chipper’s funnel shaped feed tube and have to be cut into more or less straight pieces first.

I have had this machine for less than a year so I have not had to change any part yet. I have a pretty big yard with many oak, maple, and pine trees, the machine makes Fall cleanup much easier and produces nice mulch for the garden and material for the compost. Overall a well built machine for home use. I would recommend it.

By Dennis, MA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/22/15

Reliable. Almost never jams.

By Scott, St Louis, MO

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/21/15

This is a good little friend, processing leaves (slow and steady wins the race) and small branches (zoom!) that compost beautifully.

The chip size works well for me. At first, I was a bit surprised by its size–it seemed so small compared to commercial mulch–but it’s a dream to work with.

I wish I could pull it out more often, but I don’t have a safe place to store it; pulling it in and out is tricky for me and feels cumbersome when I have just a few branches to process.

There are two things I would like to see available in future models. First, I would like the top hopper to be made out of metal–it can undergo a lot of stress and metal would make me feel more secure about its ability to last. Secondly, I would like a model with some sort of chute so that I wouldn’t need the bag. I wonder if that’s possible? I generally use the machine by myself and would love to just roll it along and use it wherever without having to stop and dump the bag out every so often.

By Joyce, Houston, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/21/15

I use my electric CVS2515 often. I live in a close community on Guam and my neighbors appreciate the low-level noise pollution that my non-gas motor generates. I have about 30 hours of total use. With a little experience I feel confident in how to properly operate my CVS 2515. The palm frons are the most difficult item I shred. My trees are so high that they fall down dry and very hard. I can shred the ends but not the base (attached to the tree). I have greased by motor once with only one squirt per cert. I wish there were a timer to keep track of the hours for me. The Home Depot sells gas chippers occasionally for about the same price but they are much larger and gas. I may have the only electric shredder on Guam. So far so good but it hasn’t been long enough to determine if it was a wise purchase. I couldn’t do my huge garden project without a chipper/shredder.

By John, Yigo, AP Guam

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/20/15

Easy to use chipper for small branches and shredder for leaves and garden waste. I rake leaves in different areas of the yard and move the chipper-shredder to the leaves. I save some fall leaves for mulch around the garden plants. Used the chipper-shredder once or twice a year over 5 years. No problems.

By Robert, Greene, IA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/20/15

Actually, it is everything I had hoped it would be and more. It just keeps running. Only occasionally do I have to unjam a branch and that is usually because I have let the cutter blade get a little dull. It is easy to re-sharpen.

It is one of those rare pieces of equipment that I never have to wonder whether it is going to do the job or not. It always does.

By Roger, Sonoma, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Patriot Customer Review – Posted 02/20/15

I like the electric chipper because I’ve found gasoline engines unreliable in the past. I don’t like storing gasoline in my garage either. I found the Patriot machine easy to use, easy to roll round, and store.

By Charles, La Mesa, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/25/15

We purchased this Patriot electric chipper-shredder just over 6 years ago. It has worked very well and very reliably over the years. Our primary intended purpose was for shredding oak leaves in the fall. We make mulch for lawn and gardening projects. It handles 99% of the organic material that falls onto the lawn. 1% of the limbs that fall are too big. 99% of the branches, limbs, leaves, and acorns that fall from our New England trees get mulched and spread around various plantings resulting in a very satisfying circular recycling of nature’s resources.

There is a learning curve to it. Definitely works best when the material is dry or mostly dry. I find adding the leaves into the hopper requires some finesse – you have to add the leaves slowly or it will jam. This unit does require patience, but once proper hopper feeding was learned, I found I could work through an afternoon’s raking in an hour or two. Funny thing is, the better I am at feeding it without clogging the hopper, the faster the bag fills which means I have to stop more often to dump the bag. This last fall, we used the extra large bag to reduce the frequency of bag dumping.

Using this machine is efficient and effective. As a homeowner with a modest sized lawn that is heavily treed, it is the right size for our mulching and chipping needs. A bigger, more powerful machine may shred and chip bigger loads but would also take up more space in the garage and require more maintenance (and gas on hand). It is expensive, but it does the job and has proven itself to be very reliable.

By CookieCutter64

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/20/15

Easy to use and a good quality chipper for leaves and small twigs and branches. If you are looking at chipping anything larger than smaller branches, I would recommend going with something larger, so you don’t have to prune in order to use the chipper. However, this is a very sturdy and well built chipper, so I would most likely end up buying one of Patriot’s larger chippers as well.

By Tom, Fort Worth, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/18/15

I purchased the electric Patriot because of my age. I wanted something I could handle and it did a great job. I was very pleased how quite it was and how powerful. This coming spring I intend to really give it a work out.

By Barbara, Houston, DE

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/17/15

I love my Patriot. It is very well-built, solidly constructed and comfortable to use. Although it has a heavy motor, as a small woman I can easily move it on its wheels around my garden. It is, of course, essential to read the manual/operating instructions and learn to feed the hopper properly. That done, this chipper/shredder will efficiently handle large amounts of leaves, garden cuttings and small branches, without jamming. As an avid gardener and composter, I am delighted to return all shredded organic material to my garden. No more paper bags, town pickups or waste! This year I’m treating myself to the vacuum attachment to make fall clean up even faster. I recommend this product without reservations.

By Ennaoj

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/17/15

Great and easy to use. We use it to grind leaves to make compost for our garden and mulch for our flower beds. Since we have five huge oak trees, we have lots of leaves to grind in the Fall. Love that it does not require gas! My teenage kids and wife can operate it easily. The only thing we have had to learn to do is to have a long “stir stick” on hand to lift and “fluff” the leaves as they are put into the chute. If you don’t keep “fluffing” up the leaves they can clog in the chute. Also, the leaves have to be dry.

The shredder came with one bag and we really need a second one, so that one worker can keep grinding while another worker carries the shredded load to the compost bin. Also, we highly recommend wearing ear plugs, protective goggles, and a mask with a filter, so you don’t breath in too much leaf dust. Overall it is a strong machine that gets the job done!

By Jack

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/16/15

Does a great job on tree limbs and leaves. Even if you are not using the chipped limbs for mulch the reduction in volume is amazing. Well built and designed to be user maintainable. Has only clogged when I let the bag get full or tried to feed shrubbery that was still wet – user error.

By Maxine, Bradenton, FL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/09/15

I have watied to write this reveiw until I used my chipper through the summer and fall months. I LOVE it!! It has worked very good for me. It has saved me tons of work as I don’t have to bag all my branches, leaves, etc. This would take up so many bags…I have a huge backyard with too many trees to count. Between the branches from my trees and the leaves in the fall, I have made lots of compost that I put back into the ground. It seems to run smooth enough. We also had a tree that fell during a storm.

We cut the tree up (large trunk for firewood) composted the small branches and leaves together and put back into the ground. My husand and I have really enjoyed using this machine. And, remember this one does not take large trunks…just small branches.

By Gayla, Sun Valley, NV

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/08/15

So far I am very pleased with this unit. There was very little to assemble, mainly just attaching the plastic feed chutes. I plugged it in and flipped the power switch. Very quiet until you feed some material into it. then it gets louder as you might imagine. I feed it some very well seasoned mesquite and got the dime sized chunks the description describes. came with a catch bag as well. I must have missed that in the description.

No gas to worry about.

No oil to worry about.

No pulling to start a cold engine.

Handles everything I need to chip, anything bigger I save for the BBQ anyways.

I will probably update this review later as I get more time with it, and see how long blades last. Seasoned wood is never recommended in a chipper, but that’s what you get when you have piles that have sat here for years waiting for the drought to end so they can be burnt. Now, I got mulch fixins instead. so much better for the environment.

By LostintheWoods

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/08/14

Very important to have it on a high-capacity circuit, because it draws every bit as much as they say. But I’ve had two strenuous sessions with it, and it crunches everything as advertised. If the neighbors are close, use in moderation – it sounds like a Cessna taking off.

By RossDave

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/01/14

I’ve made hundreds of bags of mulch with this machine over the past 5 years. It’s electric, and portable, making it really convenient for my rental properties. You can chip and shred all day long if the blade is sharp, the branches are green, and you take your time. This makes great use of the weed trees that I now harvest every year for garden mulch. I’m actually thinking about growing something in my yard specifically to harvest for mulch. If you are using 2″, or less, green branches and take your time, the Patriot does an amazing job and is very easy to use. This machine would work very well on a small farm for shredding straw and many other handy things. You’ll want to have an extra blade on hand as the machine works best when the blade is sharp. I would not buy a cheaper electric chipper, the quality is extremely important with an electric tool like this one, and it pays back quickly when used for the right purpose.

By buggabugga

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/29/14

This is a beautifully made machine, quality start to finish, made in Wisconsin and it shows. I’ve used ICE shredders for years and got tired of wrestling with cold engines and ear shattering, spewing C02 and smog and breathing obnoxious fumes. I searched extensively for an electric and this is the only one that seemed up for the job of clearing leaves from a large lot.

Couldn’t be happier. The machine churns through leaves as long as it’s fed properly. It’s not like gas engines don’t clog. I would have wished for a vacuum but electrics are not quite powerful enough for that, and this works fine feeding through the chute. I got it stuck on a large piece of wood accidentally dropped in the hopper and Keith the president of the company got right back to me with a simple fix that worked no problem. Just applied a wrench to the rotor shaft and toggled it free.

The mulch is very fine, just beautiful. Nothing like the half chopped leaves of the club cadet and similar machines. The machine comes beautifully packed and is very heavy but easy to put together. All steel and just a fine piece of equipment the likes of which we don’t see anymore with everything made in China. It’s quieter than a gas engine which is a relief for me and the neighbors. And wow, flipping a switch to stop and start is a joy.

I’m happy to pay more for this machine. It’s going to last me a very long time. I love that it’s made by U.S. workers, the quality is superb and who can beat personal attention from the owners? This is the first product review I’ve ever written, which says something.

By Carolyn, Washington, DC

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/24/14

Had a gas powered model which was difficult to start at times. This machine works well. Had one clog and it was relatively easy to remedy with a little disassembly and a hose. Plenty of power for my needs.

By Ken

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/23/14

We bought the Patriot Electric Chipper/Shredder 3 years ago, and are very happy with it. Like other reviews point out, there is a skill to how fast you feed leaves or branches into it — slower is definitely better. And if you’re shredding leaves, be sure they are dry. Our first use of the machine was with leaves that had sat all winter, and it clogged repeatedly. Keep an eye on the bag, because if you let it get too full the machine can clog.

The machine is relatively quiet and powerful; way better than a gas model in terms of the neighbors and the environment. We took Patriot’s advice and bought the heavy-duty extension cord (100 ft.) for it, and have never tripped the circuit breaker: a good investment. It’s very easy to use, and as long as we remember to carefully meter the materials into the hopper, and not cram it full, we can process a big pile of leaves (10′ x 15′ x 3′) in a couple of hours.

We do rely on a home-made stirring stick — a branch with a knob on the end so it won’t slip into the shedder. When processing leaves, it really helps to stir them as they feed thru the hopper. The “buddy” that Patriot sells would work just fine. Shredding leaves goes quickest when there are two people working: one to stir the hopper, and another to feed the leaves. Chipping can be efficient as a one-person job.

We use the shredded leaves to make mulch for the garden, and we use the chipped branches for paths in the wooded areas of our lot. We grease the machine after each use, as the manual recommends, and it’s been trouble-free shredding and chipping since we got the hang of it.

We highly recommend this machine. The manual is one of the best we’ve read — clear, and actually amusing, and obviously written by an American. You just need to follow the instructions carefully: that really makes a difference.

By Fran, Amherst, MA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/16/14

This chipper/shredder is well made, heavy duty construction (made in USA is a plus). I have a large 1 acre lot with many trees and leaves falling during the fall season. After 20+ years and trying several different types of leaf vacs and small chipper/shredder the Patriot electric works the best for me. It handles leaves and small twigs/branches in the shredder hopper without jamming; just feed it slow and move them from right to left with a small stick if they back up in the hopper. The chipper cone handles the larger branches with vigor. This machine is also the quietest of any I have had and you don’t have to worry about gas, oil, spark plugs, etc. Read the manual and follow the instructions and all should go well.

By old guy71 Ltown

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/17/14

I purchased this in the Spring of 2011. We replaced most of our front lawn and garden with prairie grass, which needs cutting back once a year in March. I collect it then over a month or two gradually work through shredding it and recycling it as compost. On most of the grasses it works well, though it has particular troubles with deschampsia.

As others have noted it clogs relatively easily, so feeding it efficiently is a skill at which one gradually improves. Gas was out of the question for us, and I didn’t find any alternative electric units as powerful as this, so have accepted that this is a slow task, and that the limitations come from using home electricity rather than gas or industrial strength electricity.

From my experience the machine is solidly built and sensibly engineered, but not touched by a product designer skilled in user experience or user interface design. It therefore looks and feels like an appliance from the 1930s.

Also, their service network is not extensive. I think I should be taking it in for maintenance, and don’t know how I’ll do it. Don’t think it will fit into my Mini Cooper and the service centers are quite far from Chicago: a big enough city that you’d think you wouldn’t need to go to Indiana or most of the way to Rockford for service.

By rtloon

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/29/14

This is a great chipper. It took a couple of chipping sessions to figure out how to use it so that it doesn’t clog or stop. I like the electric one, as no need for gas or hand pulling. I find that if I chip things that are moist, like old leaves or branches are not bone dry, and between putting the leaves in you chip a few twigs, it will not clog at all. This is chipper is so amazing, it was making dirt. Seriously. I also used the chipper to chip my neighbors bamboo into mulch. I run the mulch. through the chipper twice. it is great stuff. I have had no need to buy any dirt for my garden a I can make my own. I recommend this chipper to anyone that ever thought about getting one. I never thought I’d say this, but I love my chipper and have recommended it whole heartedly to others.

By Karen

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/20/14

I love the fine quality of mulch this machine produces, it makes the hassle of unclogging it and all the work of chipping worthwhile. I have an acre of redwoods that shed year-round, and I’ve owned this chipper for 3 1/2 years. It processes a lot of material, makes short work of the skinny but abundant redwood branches, and it’s easy for me to operate and unclog by myself with one tool. I wish it didn’t get clogged so easily, that’s what makes it 4 stars rather than 5. And maybe shorter and lighter weight, as I’m not all that tall or burly myself. After a few months of using it, I got the hang of how much to put in at a time, and how to break it up, and sort of make the material rain into the hopper to avoid clumping. A little bit of finesse that way and emptying the bag frequently helps to prevent clogs.

The fine quality of the resulting mulch is excellent for dressing beds, composting, pathways, etc, I use it everywhere. Much better than the splintery mess that comes from larger machines the tree guys use. In fact, the giant chips and shreds can be reprocessed in this machine to make them more useful in the garden. I’m a landscape designer and Master Gardener, so I’ve seen a lot of mulch.

This chipper was a big purchase for me, but it has paid for itself many times over by turning mountains of redwood duff and branches into better mulch than I could purchase (not to mention removal/delivery fees.) And I don’t have to stand next to a stinky gas machine!

By Kelly, La Honda, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/17/14

I’ve been very happy with this chipper. I have about 3/4 of an acre with lots of older overgrowth that I’m trimming and removing. I love that I own a chipper so I can do whatever I have time and energy for that day and not worry about renting and returning. I also love that I can just plug it in and go for it…no gas or oil maintenance (I already had a 20 amp circuit by my air conditioner in my backyard). If you follow the instructions and have your expectations set appropriately (this isn’t for huge or heavy-duty applications) you should be very happy.

By Kevin, Colorado Springs, CO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/09/14

Have had mine for about 5months. Had the usual issues with overloading 15amp circuit, but got around that with extension cord to garage 20amp plug, then routed a new outdoor line; and with clogging, but none since I’ve started feeding stuff in more slowly rather than just piling it in. So-new outlet, slower feed, and it’s perfect. I chose this over one of the lighter duty string shredders, and am glad I did. Leaves and pinestraw come out great for composting. It easily handles 2 inch limbs, and chips are great for mulching.

By chomey

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/08/14

Great chipper with green, fresh wood. Very powerful. Must be mindful to make sure chips are going into the bag to preclude clogging of the discharge chute. Great for cleaning up bushes and small tree branches.

By Ron, Skillman, NJ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/07/14

I purchased this chipper for my wife who recently took on serious gardening. She did the reviews of all the chippers online and settled on this product. She wanted a chipper which would handle small branches and mulch up our yard clippings. I preferred an electric chipper vs the more powerful gas chipper due to the fact that it would probably be used occasionally and that I did not want to deal with long term storage of gas based tools. I already had a power washer that got all gucked up with old fuel that turned into kerosene. She feels confident in using this chipper alone. Some advantages to this chipper: It was a powerful for an electric chipper. However, you need to make sure that you have a 20 amp or higher circuit you plug into, that the extension cords are rated at least 15 amps or higher. Otherwise you will be tripping the circuit breaker. You can gauge how much the chipper can handle by the sound of the blades. Best to wear eye and also ear protection because the chipper has a loud hum. Feeding the chipper too fast will cause the hum to lower in pitch. We learned to to avoid clogging the chipper by the sound of the hum. The videos online for the product were very informative. Bottom line: we love the chipper and use it at least once or twice a month. If you are into composting, you must have one of these.

By Roldan, Colton, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/04/14

Perfect for home use. Feed slowly and quickly turn off if motor is overloaded to prevent triggering the circuit breaker.

By Jack, San Diego, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/03/14

I have a very large oak and has lots of fall leaves and I hated the idea that they were all going into the garbage/yard waste since I live in the city and no real room to get them composed or burned. I did some research on shredders for this and found the Patriot Chipper/Shredder. I choose the electric since I knew I would be using it a lot during the fall and did not want to bug the neighbors with gas power (fumes an noise pollution). It is great to take a large pile of leaves and convert them into a nice mulch. My first year (1/2014) I used almost all of my mulched leaves out on the lawn/garden and near as I can tell it lasted almost 3 months before being absorbed by the earth. It was quite cool to witness.

Probably the best advice I can give is read the instructions, they are the best in getting this thing setup and dialed in. A 15amp circuit is just not enough to drive it, so get a 20Amp circuit installed and a nice thick extension cord. When doing leaves, make sure they are good and dry, that really helps. If not expect some clogging. Pouring it in nice and slow also wins the race.

I have not used the chipper part, but I would say if you follow the directions, you should be good.

If you do order one I would add the chipper buddy to your order. I thought I would get away with a dead branch from the oak (nice and dead something you can safely put through the hopper without nicking the hammers), but it didn’t quite work the way I thought and I caught myself with my hands down in the hopper part clearing stuff. Not that bright I know, so this year I am going to get that before the leaves start to fall.

By Chad

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/02/14

Ideal for small to moderate properties. Great for cleaning up my willow trees, but not so good with pine tree debris; sap tends to clog the blades.

By Kevin, West Bloomfield, MI

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/01/14

Works great at chipping small to medium sized limbs. It does get clogged or throws a breaker every once in a while, but usually due to operator error. Don’t expect it to be a gas powered chipper, and you will love this. BY that I mean while it may not have the power of gasoline, it is frustration free and great for the once every few months user.

By Boomer, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/30/14

After researching and reviewing all of the available electric and gas-powered chipper/ leaf shredders on the market, I purchased one of these Patriot electric chipper/leaf shredders approximately three years ago and it has worked great ever since. Yes, as other reviewers have noted, you have to use a heavier duty extension cord and a 110 volt circuit that can handle the heavier electrical load that the motor draws, but once you have it set up properly, this piece of equipment does exactly what it is advertised to do. Although I’ve used the chipper feature numerous times to chop up branches, I primarily use this chipper/shredder for shredding the large quantities of leaves that the trees in our yard produce every fall. The resulting leaf mulch is exactly the consistency that my wife, the master gardener, wants in her flower beds. She can never get enough mulch and this leaf shredder is up to the task. Although we previously had to haul countless bags of leaves out to the curb for pickup, I now save up the bags and shred those leaves in batches of 5-10 bags at a time. The large wheels make it easy to roll around and the relatively large chute makes the job of feeding the shredder easy. I’m proud to own this U.S.-made product that was designed and built so well.

By Jeffrey, Norfolk, VA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/29/14

I agree with others on this site that the unit is very good — as long as you remember that it is electric.

I chose an electric unit for the convenience of not having to maintain a gas motor and because it is quieter. The cons are, however, that it is less powerful and WILL clog if you try and go to quickly or if the material is too wet. I have become very adept at removing the funnel and always keep an adjustable wrench handy for this purpose.

Overall, I am very happy with the unit, since I am in an urban environment and don’t have huge amounts of materials to chip/shred. If you have large amounts to shred, or don’t the option of a 20amp outlet nearby, then I would recommend going with a gas powered model instead.

By John, Omaha, NE

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/29/14

Purchased ours in May 2009. Use several times each year. We have a little less than an acre, with many, many older trees. Lots of small stuff falling all the time — this makes it easy to keep the property tidier. Easy to operate. Instructions on assembly and use easy to understand. No issues even after all this time.

By Julia, Pittsburgh, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/26/14

I agree with the commentary in most of the reviews on both sides which should be helpful in setting your expectations. I am wavering between 3 and 4 stars but at the end of the day I do like it and believe the problems described are part of the price for going electric instead of gas. I will outline all of the issues as I see them:

I can only run this on concrete due to my yard layout. The manual says to only run it on grass due to the vibrations. The workaround is a stack of cardboard or any absorbant padding. Really not an issue from there.

You’re supposed to keep the packing materials in case you need to return it, but it is extremely heavy and the wheels are set in a styrofoam mold. You need a couple of people and/or a “game plan” for getting it out to assemble it.

READ THE MANUAL FIRST. After reading Amazon reviews I did this before the unit arrived. Patriot goes to great lengths to emphasize this. There is no small/quick job with this to justify not wearing goggles, ear protection, long sleeves and long pants. Do not have kids or pets anywhere in the yard when this is running. Stuff flies out. Cleaning is necessary and you need to know where the blade is before you attempt to clean it.

You will probably pop a breaker and have to clear jams in the unit. Cleaning does take some doing. It is risky business when you remove the cone – be very aware of the blade and the direction in which it faces. I am really curious about the reviewer who used water with it running to clear it out rather than opening everything up, as well as the description of a special tool to open up the whole thing which would make cleaning go a lot faster.

Any material that is naturally “wet” (say, melon rinds or squash vines) should be composted as is and not run through the shredder. Also, look carefully at the hopper and how it narrows into the shredding area. The hole inside is smaller than that. Most/all “Y” branches going into either hole will need to be cut and indeed there can be a lot of prep work to get shredding.

When chipping thick, drying branches, stay clear of the cone as it will hurl the branch out when it gets down to a foot or so. This is not a complaint, but it is part of the nature of the machine. You can put those pieces back in next to a thinner branch and everything should be pulled in. Finally, when it does “pull” from either entrance this happens very fast (as with any chipper), so keep hands clear and use the pusher.

At this price I’d prefer the equipment requires less time cleaning and more time chipping and takes on all yard waste. If there’s another method to clean it more quickly I will be much happier. When it is properly chipping at the correct widths and you are gradually feeding one branch at a time, power is not an issue.

By David, Los Angeles, CA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/25/14

I like the electric motor – no gas engine to deal with. Has enough power for my needs. The mulch size was just what I was looking for. The end of the feed tube is too narrow, though. The machine will take thick branches, but not thin branches with side “Y” branches. That turned it into a 2-man job to use efficiently – 1 person to trim the brush, and the other to feed the machine. The machine would have handled the branches, you just can’t get them through the narrow neck. I was also hopeful the leaf mulch attachment would shred cardboard for mulch, but it doesn’t. They didn’t say it would, so no false advertising – just wishful thinking on my part.

By Amazon Customer

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/23/14

I looked a long time before finally deciding to buy this shredder chipper. Once I received it I was glad that I waited. This shredder chipper is perfect for my use. I especially like how quiet it is and also the fact that I do not have one more gasoline engine to take care of and maintain. Because the chipper is electric, it took me and my husband several tries to become good operators. If you hurry the process or try to shove too much in too quickly, the machine will jam. Once we became better at gauging how to work the device, we go virtually jam free for most of our sessions. If we make an operator error and put something in that causes a jam, freeing the device of the jam is a fairly easy and quick process. We’ve successfully shredded and chipped leaves, straw, limbs, corn stalks, gardening waste and sticks. My gardening friends and outdoor enthusiasts are quite impressed with this chipper as I am. It’s been the best investment we’ve made for our home and garden in many years. Moving the machine around is quite easy too and we’ve noticed no power drain using a 12 gauge extension cord. This is so much better than other models our friends have tried or we have seen in the stores. We’d recommend this to anyone.

By Jacalyn, Fenton, MI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/21/14

I bought this to replace an ancient, noisy, gas-powered chipper-shredder that was more than I needed. I really like this Patriot electric unit. I jammed it a few times until I learned how to feed it properly, but now it’s easy to use. I’ve shredded many bags of leaves into perfect mulch material. I’d buy it again.

By King

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/19/14

Arrived in good order and have been very pleased in using it. Not made for big pieces of wood but works very well for small branches and vines —I have a lot of both. Much quieter than I expected. Seems very well built and designed to take tough jobs.

By Robert, Alexandria, VA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/19/14

No problems since 2009. I purchased this machine after being frustrated by smaller, nylon line leaf chippers. It sounded expensive at the time but given the trouble-free usage these past 5 years it is worth the investment. As with all chippers, the drier the material the easier it flows through the chipper. If you are working with wet or damp leaves it helps to have an assistant; one to load the hopper and the other to mix it around with a large stick to ensure that it flows easily through the grinder. Sharpening the blades seemed intimidating at first for someone who is known to put a blunt edge on a sharp knife but is actually quite easy. It is easy to clean. Nice to buy a quality product made in the USA.

By David, Greenville, SC

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/19/14

Perfect for my laurel and photinia pruning. If was doing bigger stuff I would have ordered the gas unit which has more power, but the electric unit is fine for my purpose. Since I use mine only a couple times a year, I don’t have to worry about old gas in a machine that has been setting for a long period.

By James, Seattle, WA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/19/14

I bought my Patriot more than 5 years ago and love it. You can chip a 2″ diameter X 10′ green branch in a matter of about 15 seconds and it shreds 5 bags of leaves into one in a matter of a few minutes. I really don’t have any complaints other than I wish they would make a way of holding accessories that it requires to operate it (both bags, allen wrenches, safety glasses, etc.) that would keep them with the chipper. With this and my new Makita cordless chainsaw, I can clean my yard up in a matter of a few hours. If you’re hesitating on buying one, don’t. If you’re comparing this to the average one at your local hardware, this will win hands down.

By Higmeister

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/19/14

We’ve used it 5 years now and it still works well. We generally only need to use it one or two days a year but our son-in-law borrowed it once to chop up tree limbs and had no problems with it. The machine does a great job chipping and shredding yard waste to produce compost material and it’s nice not to have to deal with gasoline, oil, and engine maintenance. It does tend to pop the house electric breaker occasionally but only if we run something else simultaneously on the same line – and that could be due to a weak breaker. If you want a quiet, efficient chipper/shredder then this one is a good buy.

By Frank, Twin Falls, ID

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/17/14

Bought this as a gift for my husband, went electric as we did not want to deal with the hassles associated with gas engines. Unit has worked great, reducing giant piles of lawn and tree debris into manageable and useable piles of mulch. As long as you don’t overload it, it does not clog up. Great for somebody that occasionally needs to mulch, as you can just put it away and it does not require regular maintenance as a gas engine version would and is lightweight enough for older people to handle.

By Monika, Manson, WA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/12/14

I have a small vineyard in my yard and I purchased the Patriot Electric Wood Chipper back in March of 2011. Assembly was easy although, the motor cover over the fan was dented which prevented the fan from operating freely. Patriot shipped me out a new cover immediately and customer service was very helpful and friendly. I did find that a couple of tac-welds broke free durring assembly but this was an easy fix on my part. The unit is very powerful and made quick work of my clippings. One caution I can share is that you should NOT turn off the chipper with wood in the unit as it is very hard to clear out if the unit becomes jammed. I had to unassemble the chipper to clear my jam. Overall I am very happy with my chipper and I would recommend this product to anyone.

By James, Poway, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/11/14

I bought this chipper a few months ago to help clean up branches that I needed to get rid of so I can mow. I’ve used it several times and it has performed just great. The first time I tried to use it at my house and it tripped the breaker in my garage, so I’ve moved it out to the barn where it has a dedicated circuit and it goes through everything I have stuffed into it. I find that it works best when the branches are no more than 7 feet long, which is about as long as I can handle with gloves, and no more than 2 inches thick at the base. Once this chipper gets going, the branch practically chips itself. I am so glad not to have one more gasoline engine to take care of too. I would recommend this chipper to anyone who needs a solid, durable chipper and doesn’t want the hassle and ongoing costs of filling up a gas engine.

By Michelle

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/11/14

Would be nice if the manufacturer replaced the nuts, for the chipper chute, with wing nuts. Due to space limitations, I have to remove the chute with each use.

By Jeffrey, Pottstown, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/11/14

I’ve been using my Patriot chipper/shredder for about 3 years now and am very impressed with the quality. It’s nice to see good old American Made products made with high-quality standards. This equipment is not intended to compete with the $150 stamped sheet metal Harbor Freight shredders. This is heavy cast steel body, thick plastic feeder and cone (of about the same thickness and durability as a 55 gallon plastic rain barrel), and a powerful electric motor protected by a high quality over-temperature shut-off switch. It’s beefy. A petite woman may have some difficulty wheeling it up a hill, but generally, the large wheels make it easy to navigate despite its weight. I’m 150lb and can maneuver it without difficulty, even up moderately sloped hills.

Let me address several of the concerns mentioned in other reviews:

1) WET LEAVES: The worst reviews are from people who tried to shred wet leaves. This will be a problem for just about any shredder, so if you need to shred wet leaves, do extensive research and you’ll almost certainly have to eliminate any electric shredders. I live in Seattle (frequently have wet leaves in the fall), and I’ve learned how to wait until the leaves have had a couple days of “air time” to dry out before shredding. Don’t rake them into a pile if you’re not going to shred them immediately. Once the pile gets wet, your leaves will be very hard to shred since the middle of the pile stays wet and starts to get slimy as it decomposes.

2) GREEN STUFF: This shredder absolutely CAN shred certain green yard debris. Green branches are no problem. Green laurel leaves are no problem (I shredded trimmings from about 100′ of 8-foot laurels). It could be that some green leaves turn “pulpy” and build up, which does occur on occasion.

3) CLOGGING: When buildup does occur, I have ALWAYS been able to clear the buildup with a bent wire (about the gauge of a coat hanger) without disassembling everything. First turn off the shredder and unplug it. Unscrew just the front cone (requires loosening one bolt and removing one other). Feed the wire into the output port where the bag attaches and pull out any clogs. Then, feed the wire into the front port where the cone attaches, along the bottom of the fly wheel and pull out any clogs built up along that bottom. Done.

4) FEEDING: I always have a 2 or 3 foot stick (1/2″ to 3/4″ thick) handy to help fluff the leaves in the top hopper and help them feed into the shredder. This is not a big hassle that some have described. Be careful not to push that stick too far down into the blades, though.

5) CHIPPING: This chipper AMAZED me when I got ambitious and chipped a 20′ branch that I think was about 2.5″ diameter at the thickest. Whatever diameter it was, it just barely fit through the bottom of the cone. It did require me to carefully control the feed rate and hold the branch tightly (with gloves). But after it got down below 1.5″ thickness, I pretty much let gravity feed it and loosened my grip. It took me about 15-20 minutes to chip the entire branch, and I got a large bag of beautiful, fairly uniform wood-chip mulch for the flower beds from it.

6) SHUTOFF: There is a thermal shutoff that does a great job of protecting the motor. It has tripped a few times while I was feeding damp leaves and the motor bogged down. If you listen to the motor, you can adjust your feed rate to minimize the motor dragging.

Overall, I highly recommend this chipper / shredder for fairly heavy home use.

By SpaceFuzz, Seattle, WA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/11/14

I’m glad I bought this wood chipper. It was important to me to get one with an electric motor because I thought I’d use it infrequently and thought the electric motor would be easier to maintain.

So far, the only maintenance I’ve done has been to sharpen the blade. I used my Dremel to do the sharpening. One nice touch from Patriot is that they provide the Allen wrench necessary to remove the blade.

One improvement I suggest to Patriot is that they make it easier to clean out clogs. This is the only reason I’m rating at 4 stars instead of 5. It takes me over 15 minutes to unclog. I think all the clogs have been my fault. Most frequently clogs occurred because I didn’t empty the collection bag early enough. Also, I’ve clogged the chipper if I put too many green leaves in the leaf hopper. I also clogged the chipper once by putting in cactus.

Wood chips from the chipper are about the size of a dime. I like to use these on the paths of my garden. Dried leaves in the hopper come out pulverized and are great for compost. Very small sticks of about ¼ inch or less come out broken but don’t pulverize like the leaves or chip.

I was worried about having problems with my circuit breaker but am very happy with how things are going. If the wood chipper is clogged, the circuit breaker will pop. If I push in a large branch I can make the breaker pop. But if I put in a large branch I can hear the flywheel start to slow down and pull out the branch a bit, let it speed up and everything works great. I’ve been using an outlet on a 20 amp circuit breaker. The directions said to use a 12 gauge extension cord but I bought a beefier one.

This wood chipper is small and you need to feed in items to be shredded slowly. For example, you would not be able to dump in a large bag of leaves. You would need to feed them in a handful or 2 at a time. I don’t have the vacuum kit and don’t know how that works. The manual says you can chip sticks of up to 2.5″ in diameter and I guess you can but I think that is pushing the limits.

Assembly was really easy and the packaging was very good. The User’s Manual and documentation is also really good.

Thanks Patriot.
By Andrew, Sylmar, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/05/14

I am very pleased with my Patriot Electric Chipper. Here in Arizona the mesquite and palo verde trees grow year round, making up for the desert conditions. They produce volumes of new shoots every season. The Patriot electric chipper works great on these. I use the chips for mulching my fruit trees, which is needed to hold in moisture in the desert here.

The Patriot electric chipper does not work quite so well with dry stuff for shredding or dry sticks from the mesquite and palo verde trees, but it says that in the instructions, it works best on fresh green woody stuff. Also, it really helps to sharpen the blade from time to time. The first time it was a little touchy for me to open it up and remove the blade due to unfamiliarity, but now it is pretty easy. Just a little resharpening makes a big difference after having used it for a while. I think it would be good for me to order a second blade so I can always have a sharp one ready to reinstall, then sharpen the removed one at my leisure, but I have not done that yet. I am not saying that you have to resharpen the blade all of the time, as I haven’t done it very much at all. But if the chipper starts to seem lethargic on chipping, sharpen the blade.

My biggest complaint is that the Patriot Electric Chipper needs a 20 amp circuit. I have outdoor sockets all around my home but the only 20 amp circuits are in the kitchen. If I use the outdoor sockets for power, the breaker is thrown soon after starting the Patriot Chipper. So, I have to string a power cord out of my kitchen out to the yard for the chipper. Of course, this is a fault of my house, not the chipper. I believe the chipper instructions say you need to use a 20 amp circuit, and that is certainly my experience.

I cannot do big limbs with the Patriot Electric Chipper (which the instructions say you cannot), but it works well on green ones up to about half an inch or slightly more. I do not recommend doing this to dried wood though, especially mesquite, which is very hard. Mesquites do not have much of a leaf to worry about shredding, and palo verdes have no leaves at all. So, I do not have much experience using the Patriot Electric Chipper to shred leaves or anything else. But these trees can grow new shoots a quarter inch or more in diameter and four to six feet long in a season. The Patriot Chipper turns them to mincemeat mulch material.

By Azcpa

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/05/14

We have 2 1/4 acres, hundreds of trees that need trimming or that “self” trim. Before we got this trimmer, we would build a pile of debris big enough to warrant paying for haul away. No more. This machine is amazing. As long as you respect its size limitations and power needs, you will have no problem with it. We have easily saved the purchase price and would not be without it!

By Annee2012

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/04/14

I have owned this for 3 years. It works like a charm. Love the electric motor: no hassle start, no oil change, just plug it in and turn it on. I have recommended it to friends.

By Thomas, Lyme, CT

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/03/14

I am a 70 year old woman and I assembled the chipper with the help of my daughter and I operate the chipper myself. The assembly directions could be more detailed for someone who doesn’t assemble machinery, but we got it done in about an hour. The hardest thing was getting it out of the box. It rolls easily up and down hills and uneven ground. I wish the chipper would take larger size limbs, but I wanted an electric machine and that is what it takes. I was concerned about removing the blade, but it’s not a big deal. I ordered a second blade because I couldn’t find a place to get the first one sharpened. It would be nice if two blades were included in the initial shipment because the blades do need to be changed and the postage for the individual blade seems too high. The only real problem I have had is when metal flap over the discharge tube wouldn’t stay up under the weight of the bag which caused the machine to clog. The machine was not hard to unclog, but that is something you have to watch out for. All in all I’m glad I bought the chipper because I bought a house with a large lot that had been neglected, It has helped clear away most of the shrubs and small limbs. I have only a lawn mower with which to compare the operation of the chipper and I think in terms of difficulty of operation, weight, etc. I think it’s about the same level–not very difficult.

By Carol, Sarasota, FL

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/03/14

I have used this product every couple of months for over 2 years. The chipper works as advertised. Be sure to use an appropriately rated extension cord or you will be tripping your AC supply breaker. The assembly instructions could have been better but typical from my experience.

By Bill, Hartsville, SC

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/03/14

I love my Electric Patriot Chipper/Leaf Shredder. It is quite powerful – there are no stinky gas fumes. I have used it a lot over about a year and I really don’t have a complaint. It uses every bit of the 14 amps as it chips through limbs. I use up to about 2″ limbs. It likes hard wood versus soft, spongy wood like live willow branches, but that is true for all chippers that I have used. I would definitely recommend this chipper as part of your gardening supplies.

By Marilyn, Olathe, KS

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/02/14

I bought this chipper for my husband for Christmas. He’s an electrical engineer and very fussy about the quality of his tools, so I was slightly concerned about buying him something like this without his input. Thankfully, he was extremely pleased with its quality and performance and was like a giddy child when he got to use it after Christmas. It’s provided all the mulch for our landscape, too, so there’s something in it for everyone!

By Mrs. Hat

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/02/14

I purchased the Patriot CSV-2515 14 Amp chipper shredder in FEB 2014. It is now AUG 2014 and I have used it six times. I am not happy with the quality of the chipping – it creates as many long slivers (2-4 inches) as it does chips. Yes, you can run these back through it, but it still doesn’t do a good job on them. The percentage of slivers keeps decreasing each pass through the chipper, but it is tedious and tiring. My evaluation of the chipping is VERY POOR. It also tends to overheat during mid-90deg temperatures. I am generally doing small limbs (1.50″ maximum, mostly much smaller), but it definitely struggles with anything over 3/4″. It also draws a lot of current at startup – blows a 20A fuse on utility pole every time, so I have to run it on my shop’s 30A feed. I use it with a short 12/3 AWG extension cord.

By James

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/02/14

I got this chipper for the convenience of electric chipper. It is the only electric chipper shredder powerful enough to to a decent job. THis chipper is fine for handling city lot gardens , but if you have a large lot I recommend a larger, powerful gasoline model, just to speed up the job. Handles branches from pruning fruit trees and bushes as fast as you can feed them in. Fresh cut garden waste and plants need more care to feed them slowly as moisture in plants sticks inside and prevents shredder from blowing them out quickly. I try to let any plant trimmings from the garden to dry out for a week or 2 before I start shredding them, this lets the shredder process them quicker. The shredder bag is handy for things like leaves that get ground fine and are dusty, but for most shredding I just lay down a trash barrel beside the outlet and shoot right into it, with a piece of hardware cloth to block most of the barrel opening. Clogs due to too much moist plant shredding can usually be cleared by unplugging and using a hose an lots of water to flush the material out of the guts without taking apart the shredder. I use it at least monthly the year round for all my yard cleanup and compost the results combined with kitchen vegetable waste, in several tumbles compose units

By Robert, Mountain View, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/01/14

I had a 10 HP gas engine chipper/shredder before this, but got tired of the hassles of stale fuel, hard starting and temperamental operation.

For an electric chipper/shredder, the Patriot is surprisingly powerful. I’ve owned other chippers over the years that did not come close to handling the size of branches they claimed to handle. The Patriot is the first one that is actually living up to it’s claim, however, at least for me.

Another thing I like about this particular machine is that it’s built like a tank. After years of owning my share of flimsy junk in general either because I couldn’t find anything decent to buy or I was trying to save money, it’s a pleasure to use something that at least looks like it will last a long time. I’m old enough to remember when the majority of merchandise in the US used to be more like this product.

Obviously it’s not inexpensive, but you usually do get what you pay for. This machine looks like it will be worth the money. Good job.

By Ron

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/01/14

I got this last Summer, and used it a lot-maybe 60 or 70 full baqs. It will get more workout this Fall. Like some other reviewers, I find that the chipper tube works great if you are reasonable about the size of pieces you feed it. Fresh cut branches work better than old dead and dry stuff. The shredder requires fairly slow and careful feeding to avoid jams and clogs. You can’t just dump a basket of leaves into the hopper. If you don’t push it too hard it works fine. Both chipper and shredder chop things up very nicely into excellent size for mulch. The machine is solid and well made, and should last a long time.

By William

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/01/14

We have had this electric chlipper for over a year now and my husband uses it almost every week. We have had several large trees fall and instead of burning brush he has made wonderful piles of mulch that we use around the plants that has been a god send since we are in a drought. He doesn’t run it contstantly and said he wished it had a bit larger engine has gottne arouond this problem by althernating between cutting branches and getting them ready and then running a nice pile through. Occassionally it will overheat and shut down but this just gives him time to restock the brush and start again. We had a gas yardman before this one and opted for the electric and glad we did. It starts easy and runs like a charm. If we wear this one out I am sure we will be back for another.

By Lokiblosom, IL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/01/14

A great chipper and shredder. I can’t compare it to any gas engine models, but this chipper does the job for me. Solidly built, no pollution, lower decibels, nothing to complain about at all. Recommended highly! I also recommend purchasing hearing and eye protection and the push stick.

By SCOOPER, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/31/14

Patriot does the job intended for it. Only problems are due to operator failure, i.e. overloading. When the unit is jammed it can be freed up in time. Follow instructions and the unit does what they it will do. I’m a happy chipper.

By Glenn, Saint Augustine, FL

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/31/14

We’ve owned this chipper now for over a year, and on the whole it is a stellar product. Very durably built, easy to understand and use, pleasant to operate, effective at its task. What a relief to not have to choke on gas and exhaust fumes and still get the job done, not to mention all the time and money saved by not buying gas or hassling with an internal combustion engine!

The only things that are keeping me from 5-starring this is that it can be a little finicky about what you put in it, such that I’ve had to take the chute off to unclog it (not an easy task) probably 8 times now. If I’m chipping anything over an inch in diameter, it takes a light and careful touch to keep it from bogging down, then clogging if I don’t take the hint immediately. Also wet or leafy stuff clogs it pretty fast, and totally dried-out branches dull the blade. So it’s really best for winter-cut branches chipped promptly. As far as output, I imagine it works about like your average smallish gas chipper: dime-sized chips mixed with some unchipped twigs (which I sift out for kindling). The chips, once sifted, make a very good path mulch.

By Janelle, Keezletown, VA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/31/14

Have used the chipper for 2.5 years so far and have had no problems whatsoever. It produces a bag full of chips relatively quickly. While it is loud, it is much quieter than my neighbors’ chippers. This machine is built to last.

By D.L.

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/30/14

I didn’t want a gas machine but wanted something powerful enough to deal with the smaller trees and shrubs I have on my 0.34 acre in So Cal and this seemed to fit the bill.

I’ve had this unit now for two seasons and it while it has its foibles it makes life a lot easier when you have a lot of material to process. It reduces small branches, twig, and leaf volumes down by at least 7-fold which is great when you can’t compost that much material and only have two greenery cans for weekly pick up.

I see some complain about it not handling wet vegetation, or really dry wood, or clogging. If you don’t want to read the manual or learn the limitations of the chipper, don’t buy one and hire a landscaping crew to do it for you or get your material hauled it away.

If you are willing to be patient and follow some rules it will do an outstanding job.

1. Judge whether it can handle material by feeding it slowly and listening to the chipper – too thick and the motor will slow, and if you don’t pull back, it will eventually trip your circuit. 2. Don’t put anything very fibrous in it (e.g. New Zealand flax) – it can’t cut it cleanly and the fibers wrap around inside and are difficult to remove. Palm fronds can be chipped if fed in slowly but not via the leaf hopper. 3. Don’t put succulents or very wet material in it – it will clog. 4. Don’t put too much material in the leaf hopper at once – feed it slowly to give it chance to clear through. 5. Patience works a lot better than pushing it too hard.

If you follow these basic things it rarely clogs.

When it does clog, my trick, as others have mentioned, is to switch it off, unplug it, turn it upside down, making sure it is stable on the leaf hopper, plug it back in and turn it on. The clog usually breaks free and is ejected. Be very careful if you do this as I am sure it is not recommended by the manufacturer and could cause injury if not done carefully. Also be aware of the bag being too full and chipped material backing up into the chipper and clogging it.

It is loud so you should wear ear plugs when using it.

Dry wood/dead branches vibrate in your hand hard while feeding it into the chipper and also dull your blades faster. This chipper works best with freshly-cut non succulent tree branches and shrubs.

I bought this unit when realizing I wanted something that was going to have some power and which would last. I read the reviews for the cheaper electric chippers and was unconvinced. I am very happy with my Patriot Electric Chipper. It helps me clean up my yard trimmings faster and allows me to spend that saved time doing other things.

By 80s collector, San Diego, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/14

I’ve had my Patriot Chipper 2 seasons now and I love it. I compost my yard refuse and this chipper processes my yard waste into a perfect blend for my compost piles. It is very well built and has performed well beyond my expectations. I didn’t want another gas engine to maintain but was worried the electric motor wouldn’t be up to the task. The power is more than ample for my needs and this chipper has handled everything I have put through it. I highly recommend this chipper and am happy an American built product is so well designed and manufactured. Great product!

By Sharon, Clarks Summit, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/14

Purchased in 2012. Replaced a 9 horse gas powered chipper/shredder. No trouble starting in cold weather.. No dealing with gas or fouled carburetor. Works very well creating mulch to use around a residential yard with lots of mature trees and hedges.

By Realist, Los Angeles, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/14

Patriot Products CSV-2515 14 Amp Electric Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio) A great chipper and shredder. chips branches and leafs to smaa sizes, the unit is fine for my one acre yard, I can’t compare it to any gas engine models, but this chipper does the job for me. very strong, easy to handle and relocate, no pollution, lower decibels, nothing to complain about at all. I recommended highly! I also recommend safety glasses. Only problem during overloading. When the unit is jammed it can be freed up in time, and the unit does what they it will do. I’m a happy chipper.

By Abe

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/14

The blades must be kept very sharp with a grinder to chip wood well. The thermal cutoff protects you from damaging the motor. The wood chips it makes are small with a sharp blade and are ideal for mulching.

By J

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/14

We bought this product for light clean-up for small bushes and shrubs. It works very well. Won’t handle anything that is too much like a vine but all in all in grinds up what we need and then we use the chips to mulch the beds. Would certainly recommend this for light work.

By Rosemarie, Westminster, MD

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/27/14

I find that it is so easy to use the electric chipper since I have used gas choppers before that were noisier and hard to start. I have a lake side wooded lot and have landscaping needs that are satisfied with this easy to use electric chipper. I am extremely satisfied at the ease of sharpening the chipper blade. With the death of our scotch pines I have a multitude of branches to grind up into mulch for landscaping the property. I have had years of use so far!

By Sanford, Topeka, KS

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/27/14

We bought this chipper for the scrub oak around our yard in Arizona. Opted for electric over the hassle of gas/oil, etc. The unit works as advertised on smaller branches and does a good job of reducing the many small limb trimmings to a pile of mulch. Having said that, you need to do quite bit of prep work on your trimmings before putting them in the chipper or you end up jamming it. When that happens, you’re faced with unbolting the feed mechanism and unclogging the thing. This isn’t a quick process and is the biggest negative with the weaker electric motor. If you’re careful about what you put in the Patriot, don’t rush it and empty the clippings bag before it gets full, you have a decent little chipper. It’s not a replacement for a more powerful gas-powered unit, however.

By Jim, Sedona, AZ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/27/14

Great chipper! Was a gift for my wife who wanted a small yard chipper to manage our ‘woods’ and use the chips and shreds for mulch and composting. Very user friendly and maneuverable. And nice to have a simple and well-written manual. Maintenance steps are well-outlined, and simple enough that she can actually perform them herself. The jams that we have caused (by inattention) are easy to fix. Will probably be purchasing a larger gas version in the future.

By Bill, The Woodlands, TX

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/26/14

The Patriot Electric Chipper/Shredder is high quality. For an occasional user it is much better than one with gas motor as is starts with the flip of a switch. It is more than adequate for your routine yard cleanup.

By Gary, Ridgewood, NJ

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/26/14

I have used the Patriot CSV-2515 Chipper / Leaf Shredder for over 18 months and it has proven to be a very useful tool in producing mulch for my garden. My goal is to recycle all the green waste on my property so that I never have to send it to the municipal dump. My property has a number of fruit and ornamental trees as well as many types of perennial shrubs all of which are pruned, trimmed and leaf collected at various times of the year. The Patriot reduces all these wastes to a useful size for garden mulch. One thing I have learned is to never put really green or wet waste into the hopper as it will not pass this material through very easily and will occasionally plug. I’ve learned to let things dry out a bit before processing and this works well. I also have learned that the instruction manual’s recommendations to wear hearing protection and a dust mask are worth following as the unit can be noisy when chipping wood and can produce some dust when shredding lots of dry material. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the Patriot and expect it will provide me with many years of use.

By Richard, Moraga, CA

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/26/14

The Patriot Electric Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder is solidly built and easy to assemble. The instruction manual is a clear, thorough model of what an instruction manual should be. As other reviewers have noted, the machine tends to clog unless you are feeding it bone dry vegetation, and even then you have to feed it very gradually. It is no fun to unclog the machine–even with a water hose. Once we started to use only the driest vegetation and to feed this in gradually, we were very happy with the machine. It turns out very finely shredded vegetation suitable for speeding up the composting process. We did not try using the machine as a wood chipper. We have had the Patriot for two seasons and have had no problems with it other than the ones mentioned above.

By Augustus, Washburn, WI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/20/14

This is an excellent chipper and I’m quite happy with my purchase. I wanted a chipper that could handle a variety of materials and really deliberated about gas or electric. Patriot’s website is not clear about the model differences aside from the obviously larger engine of the gas products. The larger engine models have two blades and therefore can cut much faster. This electric model has only one. That said, it still performs swimmingly particularly with wet or newly cut material. With older, harder wood it will bog down and possibly even overheat the breaker. I have yet to trip the switch on the motor even when hot, but my dedicated 20A circuit will shut down if the motor slows under heavy load. I am considering moving to a 30A breaker to mitigate this. A sharp blade is also a critical component of the equation. It is fairly easy to remove the blade so there’s no reason not to keep it sharp. Chipping old wood dulls it faster and makes this that much more important.

By Christian, Kansas City, MO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/05/14

The Patriot CSV-2515 has met and exceeded all my expectations. I recommend it highly for residential yard care use.

I have a 1.2-acre property with wetlands at both ends. Alder, holly, and other tough vegetation springs up quickly and I needed a chipper to handle up to 2″ branches. After my maintenance headaches with a gas mower and a gas chain saw, I strongly preferred an electric chipper.

My researched revealed few entries in this market, and many were poorly reviewed. Many have praised this device so I tried it.

It comes with the motor and chipper, heavy plastic feed hoppers, safety goggles, and an adequate bag to catch the chips. I do most of my chipping on the cone-shaped feed hopper on the front of the unit.

Pros:
* It works, everything up to 2.5 inches. Branches bigger than about 1.25 inches need to be fed slowly to keep the RPMs up.
* It makes short work of blackberries and other vines.
* It is electric. Maintenance consists of lubricating the bearings and sharpening/replacing the chipping blade assembly.
* It is well-engineered. The design employs a heavy steel flywheel, well-balanced, that really crunches on branches. The housing appears to be cast iron. With a little craft, you can chip anything that fits.
* It is well-built. In service, parts do NOT rattle or show others signs of poor assembly.
* It is made in the U.S. and you can get parts.
* It may be the only decent electric chipper available on earth.

Cons
* To move the unit, one grabs the embedded handle on the top of the plastic hopper, tips it back, and rolls it. Pulling the heavy steel motor/chipper with the plastic handle puts a lot of stress on the plastic parts, which may fatigue and break over time.
* All chippers are dangerous tools, and this is no exception. In use, there is great temptation to stick one’s fingers in the hoppers to clear jams. I purchased the Chipper Buddy tool but it did not help much. The heavy flywheel takes about 20 seconds to spin down before it is safe to reach in. Because of this, I dreaded stopping the motor to clear a jam.

Overall, the Pros of this unit engulf and swallow the Cons. Move the unit carefully, keep your fingers and toes out, wear the goggles, and you will love it! No spark plug to foul, no fuel line to clog, no throttle linkage to adjust. Just turn it on and start chippin’!

By Christopher, Bainbridge Island, WA

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/07/14

The build quality seems to be very good but the electric motor just is not strong enough over heats too much and have to wait for it to cool down to reset. I think this chipper would work great with a stronger motor

By Robert, Loxahatchee, FL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/14/14

I occasionally chip / shred, and did not want the maintenance associated with a gas powered unit. This has worked out well. It does have the limitation of needing to have an electrical connection, but for the amount of chipping / shredding I do, I am content with wheeling a brush pile to this unit for chipping; this is not an issue for the average sized lot, as long extension cords can stretch to the property boundaries.

By gardener, OH

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/06/14

Eats up every leaf and branch. This unit is very powerful and so far has handled anything I put in it. You need to follow the directions on how to put materials into it and, if you do, it should do the job for you. I have 32 trees in my backyard and 25 of them lose their leaves, so there is a lot of leaf shredding going on and some branch removal.

I found the assembly instructions very clear and when I did have a problem, called Patriot’s help line and they walked me through my issue. So far, a good investment. I got something stuck one time and tried to take it apart, but to no avail. Someone came over to my house and turned the unit over and everything that was clogging it fell out. So, sometimes, it takes a man with a lot of upper body strength. I would definitely recommend this machine and it is USA made. The one thing that I think is important to add is that I plug the unit into a dedicated circuit and use a really heavy duty electrical cord. This type of cord is very expensive, but it will serve your power supply very well and you will not trip your circuit breaker.

By Natasha, Pomona, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/09/13

Here is the key to great operation: I do have a 30 amp circuit and a heavy duty 30 amp extension cord, so the voltage at the motor is not compromised. failure to have enough voltage would mean slowing down and clogging risk would be higher indeed.

Did I ever have fun grinding small branches, leaves (wet and dry) and garden debris. What a beautiful machine indeed. I guess you get what you pay for. This ground stuff has help speed composting I think. I did load the machine so the wind blew the dust from dry leaves away from me–good idea for sure.

I did grind up a huge pile of wet leaves (we had over 1″ of rain which brought down a lot of maple leaves and they were matted and heavy) and it seemed to work just fine without clogging.

I am able to put small branches in the hog, but larger ones have to go into the knife end. I have been very successful at feeding long branches with leaves at the end into the cutter and they are pulled in without difficulty indeed. When feeding into the top chute for grinding, beaches with a lot of brushy-ness do not feed well; I strip off the side branches or break them so they are parallel to the main stem.

By Gene, Fitchburg, WI

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/31/13

We love this Patriot chipper. We wanted something just for leaves and small branches for my compost bin. It was easy to assemble and is very easy to operate. We feed the debris into the chipper at an even feed and have had no jamming. Also light enough to easily move from one location to another. The leaves shred to about one tenth their size which will work out great for mulch and compost. And it’s made in the USA!!! We did purchase the 100 foot cord sold by the manufacturer, and we believe that was a very good investment as well.

By Jo, Cincinnati, OH

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/13/13

I tried other small electric chippers. I wanted electric because the gas ones seem to beat themselves to death and I wanted less noise and smell and maintenance.

I am very happy with this chipper. It is naturally not as powerful as a gas one, but that is to be expected with a 120 volt power supply. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy not to trip the breaker, especially if you’re not trying to chip dry logs.

I wonder if I could upgrade to a 240 volt motor.

By Solomon, Fayetteville, AR

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/26/13

This equipment is very well built and works flawlessly. The electric motor is industrial strength! Assembly is easy following the directions. All you really need to do is fasten the hopper and the feed funnel. All of the mechanical parts are completely assembled and ready to go. Eye protection is included.
Consider getting the “Chipper Buddy” . Basically it is a ramrod designed so you cannot hit any of the cutting blades.

By aj

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/09/13

At first, I was disappointed in this product because I tried to get it to shred dry leaves, and the machine jammed, but I think it had something to do with the plug-in I used. Two electricians came out to the house and thought I had adequate amps with my existing plug-ins. Not so. I had a “handyman” with an electrician’s license put in a new 200 amp plug-in, and then we were in business. I have a lot of dogwood bushes about 20′ high that need to be trimmed every year. This machine handled a pile of them in no time flat; plus it makes excellent mulch around the garden plants. The owner of the company couldn’t be nicer, and it is clear he intends to stand behind his product.

By Patricia, Missoula, MT

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/18/13

It’s been very wet on Long Island this summer so I haven’t had too much time with good, dry conditions. The only time I used the Patriot, it worked very well and is very quiet! I recommend using the bag to catch the chips because the pieces come flying out and then require rake and shovel to collect. Assembly not too bad. Seems solid. The motor seems very capable for the job. Did not jam over a 2 hour work load and never tripped my circuit (I used a 12 gauge cord 100ft). I used gloves, safety googles and ear protection. One branch end flew out the feed tube, so protecting your hands, face, and eyes is a must.

By Ed, Huntington, NY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/08/13

As others have indicated this is a much better unit than the cheaper models. I have owned a gasoline powered chipper/shredder in the past and although this is pretty good it does require some patience. It does an excellent job on dry leaves as long as you feed it in slowly. Any material that is green and potentially fibrous will cause problems. My recommendation is to let green material dry in the open air and then use this machine. Small greens like flowers are no problem but larger vegetable plants can cause some irritation. Over all the build quality is excellent and the unit is much quieter than a gasoline powered unit but not something you want to start up at 7:00 in the morning on a Sunday if you have neighbors. Read the instructions before using and don’t think like I did that since I had used one before that I didn’t need to adhere to their advice. Overall I like this unit very much.

By Lee, Hemet, CA

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/27/13

This item does not work with fresh green clippings, leaves and plant matter from a normal home garden. We read the instructions carefully and followed all manufacturer directives to the letter on assembly, how to feed, what to feed and where to feed each kind of plant matter. However, green plant matter turns into a solid hard mass that clogs up the blade housing and stops the motor. Even when we increased the proportions of dried plant matter to green plant matter much more than 50/50 manual recommended mix, it still clogged. The Amazon item description should have noted this machine is not intended to be used for fresh green clippings, leaves and plant matter from the average garden. The product listing was misleading by omitting normal home gardener use expectations. Consequently, I am returning it for a full refund.

By Ginny’s Gems

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/18/13

I needed a small shredder for a long time. I new this brand was highly rated electric model from different sources. I did not want a gas version because they are very loud and stink from petrol. I was looking for a cleaner and quieter machine. This year I head to bit a bullet and purchased a brand new from Amazon. (there was non used available anywhere) Once I assembled the unit I tested it in the garage where the wiring is old. Sure enough at the start the fuse was blown. Connected it to an outlet where I had a 12GA wiring circuit. Machine revved up nicely. In about half a day I was able to shred all of my small branches. I usually burn the heavier stocks in my fire place, so I would say that I was shredding between 1″ to 1.5″ branches. It blew the fuse once because I stuffed in too many branches in the chute. So far I did not see any increase on my electric bill. (I try to be efficient anyway I can)
Once you get the hang of it, the machine is working as it was advertised.

I am pleased so far.

By Pedro

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/13/13

Needed a chipper for the house to get rid of the shrub piles building up around the property. Price was steep but I wanted it to be quality. I did not want another gas engine to fight to get running every spring.

Spent two days feeding it and was very impressed. Up to two inches with a tempered feed. Very Easy to get used to adjusting the feed rate from the sound of the motor.

Girlfriend not afraid of it. She wheels it out and uses it without me there all the time.

It is what it is, but it does what it said it would! Happy with the purchase.

No negatives yet.

By Ed, Candia, NH

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/20/13

This chipper delivers on all its promises.

Pros:
* Quiet
* Powerful
* Clean (no messy oil or gas)
* Plug and Play (some simple assembly initially required)
* Substantial

Cons:
* Expensive
* Doesn’t include “Chipper Buddy” material pusher

Due to the significant price gap between this chipper and a mostly plastic competitor that is also highly rated, I was hesitant to make this purchase. After an hour or so of using the machine I am certain that this chipper is worth the investment.

I spoke to the company owner directly and he gave some great tips for using the machine: if you are processing anything that is rigid, put it down the chipper chute (not the shredder hopper). The main reason for this is that the chipper blades can be sharpened. The hammers in the shredder hopper are meant for shredding, not grinding, and they can’t be sharpened once they are worn (only replaced for a much higher price than sharpening or replacing the blade). Note that, in addition to wood, the chipper chute easily accepts and processes Loblolly pine cones and sweet gum balls.

Anyone that manages to clog the chipper chute or overload the machine or circuit has ignored common sense (and the guidelines outlined in the manual). Garbage in = garbage out. Follow the directions and use your common sense and you will be rewarded with outstanding results. The only time I’ve needed to stop the motor to clear the chute is when there is a branch union too wide to finish the self feeding action at the blade. This isn’t the chipper’s fault and, if anything, it is more of a feature than a failing.

Additional words to the wise…
* Wear your safety glasses. Some of the thicker hardened branches may burp the last 8 inches or so back out the chute.
* Consider buying the (overpriced, imho) Chipper Buddy. I have been using various larger branches to coax material down the chute on occasion but I can already tell that having the Chipper Buddy would be a simpler and safer method. I feel that for the price of the unit, the Chipper Buddy (and a way to store/secure it to the machine) should be included. EDIT 9/3/2013 – After making my own version of the Chipper Buddy, I’m back to using a sturdy branch to push compacted material to the blade, as necessary.
* Buy a highly rated 12/3 100 ft extension cord and consider the Quick Winder RAP-100 Electric Cord and Fiber Optic Cable Reel to store and transport the cord

By David, Cumming, GA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/14/13

It is electric so a gasoline would probably be more powerful. I had another electric for a long time till I snapped the drive shaft and the company no longer sells this chipper. The other electric chipper had to be babied. You had to be careful how much you put in to not overload it.

I don’t think it will be easy to overload the Patriot. You want to put almost everything through the chipper, since that has blades to cut everything up. I have not yet put anything through it larger than 1″ to 1 1/4″ since this was the max for my old chipper. I can tell that the Patriot will take bigger branches.

You can overload it through the top with green or slightly green material. First let that kind of material dry out a bit before shredding. Second feed the material slowly in smaller bunches. I already shredded some garden waste that I would not even had tried through the old chipper. Some was more green than dry and the Patriot hiccuped only once. It never did clog.

This is a powerful machine, you need both safety glasses. It is possible for a small chunk of branch to be ejected with force from the hopper. You also need ear protection. It is loud. My normal choice is noise cancelling headphones with music playing. I could always hear the Patriot running in the background over the music.

The Patriot Chipper Buddy is a good idea. The chipper tends to pull in most everything. Sometimes the branch has smaller parts that cause the branch to stop feeding. You don’t want to put your hand in the chipper hopper at least not very far. If you are just a bit of a wood worker making one is easy. You need to cut a 3 1/2″ disc (approximately, add an appropriate length dowel, and a short fatter dowel for a handle. Add holes and glue it together. Took me much less than an hour, with most of my time spent looking in the shop for material.

Just had it for a couple of hours so far, but it is looking very good.

By Bill, Fort Collins, CO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/27/12

Last weekend we ripped out a boxwood hedge that was 6 feet by 4 feed by 5 feet tall. My wife wanted me to rent a chipper shredder to get rid of it. We moved recently and with all of the deciduous trees on our new lot and all of the deadfall wood we get, I decided we needed to invest in a chipper shredder. I researched and decided to order the Patriot.

I unboxed and assembled my Patriot chipper/shredder yesterday. It’s very easy to do if your read all of the directions. I fired it up today and got rid of every bit of that boxwood in about an hour and a half (half the time it took us to rip that sucker out). Virtually all of it had to go through the cone, though. It is very easy to use for large and small branches. I have yet to use the leaf shredder. you have to be careful feeding branches of 1/2″ diameter or more. The other reviewers are correct that you must feed branches through the cone at a slower speed than the chipper wants. It will try to pull them from your hands so wear good gloves and safety glasses. If you feed the machine at a controlled rate and everything is dry, the patriot should not clog or jam.

I am a mechanical designer by trade, and the Patriot is built the way I would build one. The hopper and feed cone are heavy plastic but everything in the chip/shred area is made of thick steel and it runs on steel ball bearings rather than plastic bushings. This thing is well built and with a minimum of maintenance it will last a very long time. I’ve had it two days and I already know I will get my money’s worth out of this purchase. Great product.

By Jerry, Clayton, NC

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/21/12

I love this wood chipper/shredder. It’s sturdy enough and powerful enough to handle everything I threw at it. As long as I fed materials in at a reasonably steady rate and didn’t try to force the materials in, it did a great job and never clogged or shut down – even with green materials. And when I re-fed the chipped materials through the shredder, it reduced the time necessary to turn the materials into compost. Some of the reviews made me hesitate to buy this shredder, but now that I’ve used it I can’t imagine why those reviewers had problems (except the guy who had problems feeding branches through the top hopper – they go in the side cone).

By An Old Baby Boomer, TX

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/17/12

Our needs – We have woods on three sides of our house. Each fall we get buried in leaves, twigs and sticks. The volume has been overwhelming. We also have a number of raised garden areas and plenty of flower beds.

Our answer – We purchased a Patriot electric shredder with a 100′ 20A extension cord. Great used units are also out there. Just keep looking.

Yesterday was the first time using the shredder. It did get clogged up a few times in the learning process but it took less than 5 minutes to figure out just how fast you can feed stuff into it to prevent that from happening. If you load too many leaves in at one time, they won’t get sucked down through the hopper. When that happens just take a small stick and push down in the right corner of the hopper to get things flowing again. Feeding things in slowly takes a little time but working with my wife, we can keep the shredding going non-stop. Makes piles of leaves disappear in no time. The shredded materials are nice looking and perfect for flower beds and vegetable gardens.

Best parts (short list) – It’s a neighbor-friendly kind of quiet and just fun to use. It takes about 2 minutes to set up and 2 minutes to put away. No gas, no oil, no carburetor. What overwhelmed us in the past is now the fertilizer of the future. As a match for our needs, it’s perfect!

By Diggertoo, IN

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/20/12

The top hopper pinches down to a very small opening before the leaves and any TINY branches can enter the mechanism. Just look at the picture of the top black chute. Feeding down through the top quickly causes a jamb. The directions state that branches 1/2 inch diameter and less can be feed in the top chute. Don’t try it, leaves alone cause a jamb and it quickly becomes useless. These are 1/2 inch or less diameter stickes with small leaves. I could not shred a cut up hedge! The chipper part only has one blade, so it is a slow and bumpy process. Poorly designed and vibrated from day one.

By RSL1

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/14/12

I was very pleased to locate what looked like a high quality shredder that was electric, and purchased this unit with high hopes.

It immediately became clear that, despite it’s powerful appearance, this shredder is just awful. It clogged upon each use and I spent 30 minutes of each use just dismantling it so that I could attempt to unclog it. Finally I called the owner of the company, who admitted that this unit must be fed very slowly, with just a little bit of yard debris at a time. When I indicated that I thought a shredder at this price should be more functional, he became aggressively insulting, even going so far as making a comment that I took as an ethnic slur (I could be wrong on my interpretation of his comment, but with a company name like Patriot Products, I am a bit suspicious— I have an ethnic sounding name, and he made a point of drawing a contrast between me and people in the “heartland” of America — by the way, I really liked the fact that this unit was made in the States, but you would not know it from its performance.)

By Jim

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/07/12

On first usage, the shredder clogged and stopped working. My fault for trying to shred wet leaves. Not sure how to un-clog without disassembly.

By Springfield Hokie

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/15/12

Don’t believe all the reviews that say it only takes 20 minutes to get it up and running. Getting it out of the boxes, setting out the parts, and reading the instructions can take longer than that. You’ll need a bolt cutter or other means to cut the metal strapping that secures it to the bottom. Be careful because it will snap back at you when it’s cut. The instruction sheet says to have two people remove it from the styrofoam and box but I’m a 72 yr old 5’2″ woman and was able to do it myself.

You’ll need to supply your own philips screw driver, 7/16″ and 1/2″ wrench.

Having small hands made installing bolts from inside the hopper easier I’m sure than a guy trying to work inside a small opening. You are working blind trying to thread screws with the hex wrench. I tied some twine on it and looped it on my wrist just in case it slipped out of my hand when trying to turn it – if you drop a screw or the wrench you’ll have to dismantle the shredder and turn the machine upside down to recover it. The lower chute is an easy attach.

The wheels make moving it to where you’ll be chipping a breeze even tho it is a heavy piece of equipment.

It started with a flip of the switch and had no stall outs when chipping. I had cut down about 75 feet of hedges that were 6 or 7 feet tall and some sappling trees and have chipped about half of the pile so far with no problems. For the next 100 feet tho I’ll chip them as I cut them down – the constant bending to pick them up is a killer.

I found a bottle cap that measures 2 1/4″ diameter and leave it on the ground by the chipper to make a handy quick measure on the larger branches and saplings (2.5″ is max).

Another product sold here on Amazon makes a perfect partner for the chipper: Black & Decker NLP1800 Alligator Lopper 18-Volt Cordless Chain Saw – another great ‘woman’s’ tool.

Be sure to wear the safety glasses they supply and stand to the side of the chipper chute when feeding it as it does send some pieces flying back out – expecially when the wood is dry.

I also recommend wearing leather work gloves – the chipper can grab and pull a branch right through your grip.

I haven’t tried the top hopper yet for the leaves and hopefully it will work as good as the chipper.

I highly recommend this product (so far anyway).

By fatcatdeals

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/24/11

Have used mulcher for leaves so far and it works very well. Cleaned up my yard in a few hours. Have not tried chipper for wood yet, but hope it works as well. Really like not having to start a gasoline engine.

By Bath

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/09/11

Why did I get it:
I have always had a guy come and do the fall yard cleanup. This year with the hurricane, and tropical storms, there was a lot more debris than usual. My yard guy was very busy, and so could not come for while to our house. There were a lot of branches, and battered shrubs, plus all the leaves that had been blown around. I decided I might as well get a shredder / chipper. Unfortunately, because of the size of some of the stuff I had, it could not be one of the smaller electric ones. I was loathe to get a gas powered one, because of the maintenance, need to buy and store gas, etc. It was not like I was going to use it every day. I finally stumbled upon the Patriot Electric shredder. The specifications were very close to their gas powered one, and I thought I might as well give it a try. Patriot was having a free delivery promotion, so I ordered one.

Un-boxing and assembly:
It came very well packed, with a double cardboard box, a plywood base, and Styrofoam blocks to protect all the important stuff. It was a bit difficult to get it out of the box, but can be done by one person, but I would recommend two people. The actual machine is also lashed to the plywood base with steel flat cables. These would have been difficult to cut if I did not have tin snips, but could be done with cutting pliers, I suppose. The assembly instructions are not in the user’s manual, but are on a separate set of stapled sheets of paper. They are very clear and concise, but the pictures are a bit dark, and so it is difficult to figure out quite how some of the things line up. Not a big problem, because there really are not that many things to assemble. The hopper assembly is the hardest because you have to get your hand down into the narrow part of the hopper and put some bolts in. If you follow their instructions, it is not hard. It was a bit hard to understand the deflector shield assembly, but even there, if you follow the instructions it is not difficult. Altogether, about 15 to 20 minutes of assembly.

Use:
I bought the recommended 12 gauge 100 foot power cable but also bought a 50 foot one from my local store. Plugged it in and after doing a safety check, turned on the switch. I initially thought it wasn’t working, because it was so quite when it started up! After it reached operating speed, you could hear the motor, but not much else. There were no vibrations. Best part was the absence of the starting ritual with gas powered ones. No gas, no oil, no pulling and tugging, and adjusting the choke, etc. Flick of a switch! Tried a few small branches in the chipper. Initially did not “suck them in” as I was hopping. Used another stick to push it in and then it went to work. Quite noisy when it is actually chipping / shredding, but once it is done, becomes relatively quite. There is no drone of the gas engine constantly in the background. Was a bit finicky with shrubs which had brush and branches on them, since I had to use a stick to constantly feed them in. Did not get any clogging. Did not use the shredder much, but seemed to work as well as the chipper. Caution, it does spit out pieces of wood and stuff both out the top of the hopper and the chipper “funnel”. Don’t ever stand where you can get hit. Don’t look down the chute unless the machine is off and has stopped. Always wear eye protection. The bag full of chips and shredded material was quite uniform, and of a good granular quality.

Overall:
Very good chipper, and handled what I needed done. The absence of the gasoline engine is a great advantage, and offsets any minor deficits of the electric machine. I would definitely recommend buying one with out hesitation. Made in USA too! PS: Order an extra bag or two when you get the machine so you don’t have to stop to dump the bag to get back to shredding.

By Ambrose

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/24/11

Purchased a refurbished unit from the manufacturer nearly 5 years ago and didn’t need it until recently due to revised clearance foliage guidelines around the summer house in California foothills.

One point of contention is that you really need to have ear and eye protection (gloves as well) because this is a serious piece of machinery.

The unit comes with a 2 year standard warranty and a 90 commercial warranty and it’s easy to see why once you get started with a large pile.

What I would do is feed the branches (up to 2″) large end first into the chipper and once it got down to the leaves and smaller branches (1/2″ or less) would run them through the top mount shredder.

You really have to have a dedicated power circuit and always use a 12ga powercord because it needs the room to turn over and will drag if it encounters a feed load.

Note: Because of the large task ahead (including 15′ oak trees)I purchased another knife for the chipper. It was somewhat expensive due to shipping cost; however, it made a night and day difference following an easy replacement and it’s possibly the only unit of its kind in which the blades can not only be replaced but resharpened several times.

Secondly, did have one caveat when the circuit breaker shut down and did not automatically reset as one would assume. My coworker configured a makeshift circuit breaker using a screw-in fuse (30 amp) which worked fine. However, a call to the manufacturer revealed that the breaker had to be reset according to their procedure and protocol. They were right and we will reinstall the circuit.

By the way, we’ve put about 100 hours on the unit and it has only stalled once…

By Bruce, Stockton, CA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/04/11

I just spent the last four hours cleaning up after hurricane Irene, and this chipper performed better than expected. I wasn’t sure how it would perform with only 1.5hp behind it. It munched away everything I could fit into it although it did slow down on branches near the maximum size, so I had to back off and let it catch up. I was chipping mostly pecan branches. As far as storage space, it’s about the same as a 30 gallon trash can with an extra foot or so sticking out the side if you don’t take off the chipper chute. The only modification I think I’ll make is adding a hanger for the chipper buddy push stick (not included) on the side of the top chute, so I don’t have to keep picking it up off the ground.

By Jason, Virginia Beach, VA

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/21/11

After using this shredder off an on for year now. I am not impressed with this shredder.It does have enough power and the motor is shot already.

By boiler

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 08/03/11

Bought this when my little Mantis stopped working. And I am a happy camper. Chipping is great! Shredding leaves is also great! I did overload it about an hour into my first job with it but was able to clean it out and get started again….. Tip, don’t put a bunch of leaves into the chipper part. I was probably overdoing it a bit. Bag is kinda a pain. If the bag is not laid out, it will stop the debris from coming out and it will get jammed inside the machine. But if you make sure the bag isn’t bent or folded, it should be fine. …. am actually thinking of letting the bag off and letting it pile on the ground the next time. A good solid machine.

By Karen, Gettysburg, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 06/25/11

Got this for my Dad. He doesn’t like to maintain small gas engines. I didn’t think that this chipper would have much power, but I was wrong, it does. I felt like I was looking at something built back in the 1960s! All of the components are very sturdy. The motor was very smooth. It was a bit loud due to the air flow, but I’m sure that it was quieter than a gasoline model. Even the plastic is thick and only used where it should be (the shroud, the cone and the wheels). The main cardboard box that it came in was double walled and there was no damage even though the main box weighed 120 lbs. There was some extra dense foam around the base.

I think that this unit needs to be kept out of the rain. There is so much steel that I think it would rust if left out for a long time. The gray paint seemed to be powder coated and baked on, so a little water won’t hurt, but still I think it should be garaged. I’m sure that the electric motor would like that too.

It’s somehow warmly reassuring that there are still products made in America that are built to last.

You probably never see this chipper in Home Depot or Lowes – the quality is too high. I would buy this chipper again if I had the same set of purchase criteria.

By PickyGuy, Omaha, NE

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 01/15/11

An excellent electric chipper! The best I’ve ever seen.
It has the same construction as gas models, cast iron and steel chipping parts.

The motor is very high quality (mine was Baldor) and the carriage is sturdy enough to hold it all (the whole unit is heavy).
All this said buyer be warned that it may not handle the same size limbs that you are used to with gas models and it requires an extra heavy extension cord on a dedicated circuit. Mine trips some circuit breakers in my house if there are any other loads on.

I love it though. No gas to buy or store, no oil to change, no plugs or filters to clean. I don’t have to winterize it and I can flip the switch whenever I need it.

In addition to this there is no exhaust to choke my lungs or contribute to climate change. And since I power my house with a SunPower solar system, I guess I can say that it is solar powered!

By JaFish101, VA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/31/10

I had ordered this before but the first shredder arrived damaged. Amazon arranged return as advertised at no cost. The replacement arrived yesterday and only took 20 minutes to put together (the second time). Smooth quiet power this time – made quick mulch of a large pile of leaves I had been letting lay there for the last month. The unit is solid, heavy (about 80#) and appears to be very well built. Much heavier steel than the gas units at the local big box store. Solid wheels and heavy plastic input bin. With a 10 gauge 50ft extension cord on a dedicated circuit, no flipped breakers. Is much more quiet than I expected, and no fumes. For one with 0.4 ac lot or less this will be more than adequate. And being American made gave me a little bit more pleasure using it.

By BamaDoc, AL

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 11/25/10

Two years ago, I decided that bagging and disposing of leaves was pretty silly – you pay for the bags and then the city hauls them, and come spring you buy the very mulch at the garden center that you disposed of the previous fall. So, I started on my mulching journey with an inexpensive model, the Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder. After two seasons of marginal performance that unit imploded so I had a choice between a small step up to a unit like the McCulloch MCS2001 14 amp Electric Chipper/Shredder or to go all out, and get the Patriot Products CSV2515. Even though the Patriot unit is at a much higher price point, you realize from the moment you un-box it, why it is…

The motor on the Patriot unit weighs probably twice the weight of a Flowtron 800, fully assembled. It’s huge. The chipping/shredding assembly is solid metal with welded reinforcements as necessary. The wheels are solid rubber, will never go flat. The only plastics on the unit are part of the feeding cone for the chipper and the funnel for the leaves/twigs… Assembly was fairly straightforward and faster than the Flowtron too. And unlike the Flowtron (my only comparison at this point), Patriot uses real locknuts that are less likely to go loose.

Performance-wise, the Patriot was a huge step up as well – it eats it’s way through a shredpile much more quickly than the Flowtron could. If you can loosely drop the leaf matter into the hopper from above, the suction generated by the shredder will suck it in and spit it out as mulch. The bag that patriot products encloses will hold about two 33-gallon garbage cans of loosely packed leaves/twigs before you have to empty it (Patriot Products also offers a bigger bag on their web site). The mulch produced by the Patriot unit is quite fine – it’s about 1/4 the volume of the incoming packed leaves. You can also elect to skip the bag if you have a spot where you can simply blow out the mulch. Leaf matter usually gets reduced to 1/4″ by 1/4″ squares or less.

I had a couple of clogs in the shredder chute, usually caused by odd clumps of leaf matter being just large enough not to fit through the hole. I found the Patriot Products tool I bought for clearing these clogs to be pretty useless, however. A 2′ by 1/4″ thick bamboo stick is more effective – simply swish the leaf matter a little and then the suction does the rest. Since I kept an eye on the bag, I never managed to clog the actual shredding chamber itself. I also never managed to have any issues with the chipper – but the branches that fall here are typically rotten already and hence an easy meal. The 100′ power-cord worked like a charm – I never had the circuit breaker trip.

Patriot Products encloses a pair of form-fitting safety glasses, a nice touch. Even though I was dinged more rarely by the CSV2515 than my Flowtron, I still recommend the use of gloves and the eye protection. I also recommend hearing protection even though the CSV2515 is quieter than a Flowtron when running empty. But once you start shredding wood chips and over debris in the shredder, the noise levels mount, though still not as high as the Flowtron. I credit the steel construction, almost closed chamber for that performance.

Another neat feature of this unit is its use of mass/momentum – because household electrical circuits in the USA are so limited in their power delivery, it makes sense to store up energy in the flywheel that makes up the rotating cutters/shredders. Every time a heavy clump came through the shredder chute, the unit would slow but then work itself back up to full speed again. The motor on this unit is fantastic. And, unlike the Flowtron, it is totally enclosed.

Another nice touch are the massive bearings this unit uses. Anytime you shred materials, heavy loads are imposed on the shaft that is driving the cutters/shredders. If the shaft does not feature multiple bearings close to the point of where the bending moment is applied to take that load, either the shaft or motor will break with time. From time to time a small stone did sneak into the leaf pile… it would cause sparks and then get spat out. I’m sure the blades/hammers will reflect that at the end f the season.

If there is one construction aspect I would change on the CSV2515, it would be the location of the back wheels. They are not far enough back to protect the motor when one is going up or down stairs. Thus, to avoid scratching the motor one has to lift the unit up/down stairs (a 2-person job, unless you’re Hulk Hogan). But on most grounds, the simple tripod stand that makes up the CSV2515 is more than adequate to maintain a solid stance. Additionally, it would be nice if the mulch was a bit finer to allow it to ‘soak’ more quickly into the ground.

All in all, a fantastic product. It’s way more effective at shredding leaves, twigs, etc. than my Flowtron ever was. I may have to sharpen the blades once a season but the much higher productivity of the unit makes it all worthwhile. You will go through multiples of what other electric shredders offer and if you value your time, this is reason enough to switch to the Patriot CSV2515.

By Constantin

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/20/10

The Patriot CSV-2515 1.5 HP Electric Wood Chipper is one of the best-designed, best-built pieces of equipment that I have used. I have owned two of these (the 1st left with my ex-wife on a 1 acre property; the 2nd I presently use). The shredder is received in two boxes and needs to be assembled, which is relatively straight forward. Preferably the machine should be used with a heavy duty extension cord (12 amp rated) and plugged into a circuit protected by a 20 amp breaker.

Although it’s not as powerful as a gas model and there are limits to what it can handle, with reasonable care, it can be a solid performer.

When attaching the bag catching the chips (before turning on the unit), straighten it out so as to not create a kink in the bag thus clogging the outlet and possibly causing the circuit breaker to trip off.

To use the chipper effectively, one must learn what the machine can handle. Continuous amounts of green debris in the open top shredder can indeed clog up the machine and cause shut down. The shredder part is the easiest to clog and is limited to small dry twigs and dry leaves fed slowly. However, one can feed most of the green material into the cone shaped chipper opening.

If you are patient and feed at the correct rate you should not have any problems with clogs.

Cleaning clogs is not easy and it can be very difficult to remove all of the debris collected around the blade. Some users have used water hoses and blower or even turning the heavy machine upside down. After learning to go at the correct rate & using the chipper opening, I have never had a subsequent clog.

I would recommend either purchasing the tool that allows you to push material in the chipper toward the blades (do not attempt to do this with one’s hand) or as I did, purchase a 2 ft length of 1 ¾” PVC pipe and a “T” connector as a handle. If one accidently pushes too far, the blades will chip the PVC pipe and not your hand.

Finally, I agree that buying a cheaper chipper/shredder would be a mistake.

By BlacKnight

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/19/10

This is about as good as an 110 volt electric unit can get, really chips branches to ground cover size without stalling, just make sure you feed it at a reasonable rate. One tip, it can build up a potential clog when feeding really green/wet stuff, like trimmings or leaves, so I let that stuff dry a couple of days and then it has no problem.

By holson

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 10/11/10

I bought the Patriot chipper having had several cheap and under-powered “toy” electric chippers that would jam and require constant clearing. Not so the Patriot CSV-2515. First, it’s great to have something made in the USA and, second, it’s great to have a machine that really does the job. It’s solidly made and, as long as you use a heavy duty extension cord (12 amp rated) and plug it into a circuit protected by a twenty amp breaker, it will handle everything you can reasonably throw at it. (Technical note: even though the normal load current is probably less than 12 Amps, the heavy chipper rotor takes a few seconds to accelerate. During the acceleration time and whenever the chipper “goes into combat” with a heavy branch the motor current is high enough to cause nusiance tripping of a 15 Amp breaker.)

There are limits of course. It’s not as powerful as a gas model but, recognizing the convenience of an electric chipper and using some sense of what it can reasonably handle, I’ve found it to be a solid performer with a “voracious appetite”.

By John, Yardley, PA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 09/12/10

The shredder needs to be assembled, which is relatively easy.
Only one spot can be tricky because of limited space, big hand may not fit between the parts to insert the screws.

All else is simple.
When running the unit be careful not to create a kink in the bag catching the chips, this will create a back log, clogging the outlet and the fuse will fly out.
If it happens, the in-fill chute must be removed and the sawdust and chips removed using a piece of wire.

By Karl, Ithaca NY

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/18/10

I order this item to my forwarder service in Miami, from there it was sent to me in Guatemala. Only one of two boxes arrived, so the apparatus was useless. After calling Amazon and explaining the situation a complete set of two boxes were sent and arrived, I am using the equipment and satisfied with it and the excellent response of Amazon!! Thank you,

By Raphael, Charlottesville, VA

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/17/10

I was looking for a shredder to mulch my small limbs and leaves in my backyard. This shredder is powerful and works very well.

By Charles, Concord, CA

CSV-2515 – 1 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/17/10

I wanted to try an electric motor since they’re so much easier to maintain than a gas motor, and I was fully aware the electric motor would produce far less torque. But even going into this purchase with that understanding, I’ve been terribly disappointed. It cannot handle any amount of green debris, clogs up, and shuts down within a few minutes. It doesn’t seem to matter how slowly I feed it, or even if I alternate green with brown yard debris. It cannot handle more than a couple cubic feet (loosely packed) of green debris before it clogs up.

Cleaning out the clog is not easy either. At first I couldn’t get the cover off, contacted the manufacturer, and they sent me a tool to remove the cover. Apparently the newer models are different from the directions and this tool is needed, yet they don’t supply it with the sale. The manufacturer suggested they would send this tool to me for a fee, and I let them know how ridiculous it is that I pay EVEN MORE when this tool should have been included. The tool arrived and now I’m able to remove the cover and clean out the unit, but this doesn’t solve the problem of how easily it clogs.

I can’t imagine what good a shredder is to anyone who can only do small branches. If you can’t run green yard debris through it at all, no matter how careful you are, what good is it to anyone?

Now I have to decide how to get rid of it. I can’t in good conscience sell it on Craigslist. I’m stuck.

By Kathleen, CA

CSV-2515 – 3 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/26/10

The Patriot CSV-2515 1.5 HP Electric Wood Chipper functioned reasonably well, but it doesn’t take much to blow a 20 amp circuit breaker. I did so using both of the input options. I also had the machine clog up on me and found it very difficult to remove all of the debris that had collected around the blade. I was almost ready to tear the entire machine apart but decided to attempt to wash the debris out of the machine with the hose. Surprisingly this worked, so I did not need to dismantle the entire chipper. I will try in the future to chip some green with some brown in an attempt to prevent the buildup of material around the blades. I would also recommend purchasing the tool that allows you to push material in the hopper toward the blades because one should really not attempt to do this with one’s hands.

By Dennis

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 04/13/10

Last Sunday, my wife turned on our old shredder (McCulloch MCS2001) and got to work on our 4′ x 4′ x 4′ stack of leaves from last fall while I put together our new Electric Chipper/Shredder from Patriot. A surprisingly short time later (it took less time than I thought it would, and I was deliberately going slowly), I wheeled it out to set it up next to my wife. I plugged it in and turned it on.

Now, my wife and I were sure it would take us many weeks to get through this stack of (mostly wet) leaves. A short time later, I was done. With the whole thing. And it didn’t jam once. I was shredding them faster than my wife could pitch them to me. This gave us time to clear the needed space where the leaves were to plant the roses. That made my wife very happy. When my wife is happy, I am happy. Thank you, Patriot, for providing such an excellent product that I now cannot wait to get out there and use some more. Kudos to your crew!

By Thomas, West Harrison, NY

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 02/08/10

This is one of the best-designed, best-built and solid pieces of equipment I own. I was not sure I wanted to pay the $900 for it. Now that I see the quality of this machine, I am certain that buying a cheaper one would have been a big big mistake.

Every part of the machine is very solidly built from the best material for the job, and the sturdiness and thickness of the parts surprised me. There is no thin gauge metal or cheap plastic here. Also, someone must have spent a long time researching and designing the packaging–there is not much chance this could get damaged on the way to you. It is worth saving the box, it is made so well. Also, I did not realize this thing has an onboard vacuum for leaves and such–very handy.

The instruction manuals (both assembly and operation) are short and tell you everything very clearly. IMO, they are a work of art as instruction manuals go. I am surprised they were able to make them so concise and also get so much useful info in there. The simplicity, layout and clarity of the instructions saved me a lot of time. It was a joy to open the box and put the thing together.

This is a piece of equipment that is designed to last a lifetime and pass on to the kids–as long as you keep it clean, sharpen the blades, exert minimal effort to maintain it. And I like the fact that this is an American company that I will be able to get replacement parts from, although I am unlikely to need them. I am very happy with my purchase.

Now I will be able to make my own mulch instead of wasting trips to Home Depot, and will be able to use the prunings from my lot instead of wasting them and needing to take them to the dump. Because I garden a lot, I am convinced this tool will actually save me money, and save a lot of time in the long run–while improving the quality of my garden and orchard.

Update after a week of use: The chipper is amazing. I have only stalled it once when I put in a bunch of dry hardwood (firewood) twigs that were too small to feed properly. It is actually easier to feed large branches than small ones. when clogged, it was not necessary to turn it upside down or wash with hose. Instead I just turned it off and used my leaf blower in the feed cone–that blew the clog out the chip exit. Once, I accidentally put a rock in the shredder (Granite, about 1″. It was in a bag of leaves from a neighbor). It made a lot of noise but otherwise did not seem to hurt the machine. Obviously, trying to shred rocks is a bad idea, but no harm this time. Good buy…this one.

Update – 4 years later June 2014:

Still happy with the purchase. It’s still working great and in great shape but I think the blades might need sharpened. My neighbor (who also uses it) reports that it was clogging for him. I got out the instructions and will sharpen. I think the problem, though, may have been that old dead wood was fed in. I have had it clog on very hard thick old wood. Green wood shreds great. Electric shredders are not powerful enough for thick old dead wood that is very hard. I find that electric shredders also do not work great on stuff like straw–where many stalks are fed in at once–these can clog it. I think this is the best electric shredder, but I think that shredders generally are prone to clogging and it requires some experience and careful feeding during operation to avoid this. Electric shredders do not have as much power as larger gas ones–being limited by amperage available at the outlet. So these are not strong enough to deal with too much or too thick old dry wood fed in at once. I have used this a lot and have not yet sharpened the blades–that, I am sure, is also part of the reason it jammed for my neighbor.

By Frank, Castle Rock, CO

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 12/16/09

First off, it is not a gasoline engine so it is not going to have the same power due to the limits of amperage typical households can supply. However, even with these power limits I was very impressed with the power this electric chipper has. I was able to chip wood up to 2 inches in diameter with no problem except that the chipper pulls the wood into the machine faster than the machine can handle. So when chipping thick branches it is important to grasp them firmly and pull back when the chipper starts to pull them in too quickly. Be prepared, it pulls hard! If you are patient and feed at the correct rate you should not have any problems with clogs.

If the unit does clog the engine pulls too much power and your breaker will trip, which did happen to me a few times before I learned what the machine could handle. This chipper needs its own 20 amp dedicated circuit or it will trip the breaker when it starts. I live in an older house with older wiring that is mostly 15 amp, which could not handle the current. Luckily, the circuit my refrige is on is a 20 amp circuit that is close enough to a door so the extension cord can reach, but now I have to unplug the refrige when I want to run the chipper. (i’ll fix this inconvenience by running a new 20 amp circuit to an exterior plug) So you should plan to put in a dedicated 20 amp circuit if you don’t have one before you purchase this.

This chipper is very solidly built. If it does clog the plastic leaf bin is sturdy enough so that the entire unit can be upended to clear the chips, but it is heavy so be careful flipping it. The chipper cone isn’t too hard to take off either in case wood gets stuck there. Since it is electric you just flip a switch to turn on and off, which is much more convenient than a gas engine. It is also much quieter than a gasoline engine, but you still should wear hearing protection when using it (no complaints from the neighbors so far).

The wood chips it produces are very fine, but the shredder doesn’t work that well on green stuff. In fact, the shredder part is the easiest to clog. I tried a palm frond in the shredder opening and it clogged the machine. So now I just have to pull the fronds apart and put them through the chipper. It seems the shredder isn’t much good for anything but dry twigs and leaves. But that is no biggie as it is not hard to feed most stuff into the chipper.

I bought this unit when I read the poor reviews for the cheaper electric chippers (free shipping if you order direct from their site). You get what you pay for. Patriot sells a quality machine that you can buy replacement parts for and that can be serviced. The other cheapo chippers don’t even sell replacement blades! What do you do when your blade wears out? Don’t buy a foreign-made piece of crap that you’ll just end up throwing out. No regrets with my purchase.

By Ryan, Gainesville, FL

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 05/25/09

If you have a huge job and little time, stick with an 8 hp gas machine or better. After two trips to ACE with my old gas one and it still wouldn’t start I bought this one. Took 20 minutes to assemble, If I had to do it again 7. (easy). To use it, plug it in, turn it on. With the top safety shield in place you can’t get stuff down very fast.. remove guard but use provided goggles. It turns dry leaves to powder mulch, use a stick to poke stuff down. If stuff is wet or green it will plug up and not turn. Unplug it (duh), turn it on its side and hose it out…. a few minutes and your good. You can’t get better mulch… but slow. I will keep my old one and then run the stuff through it (if it starts) and then through the electric one for top dressed mulch… better than commercial mulch.

By Gary, Grand Island, NE

CSV-2515 – 4 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/26/06

Our garden generates a lot of limbs, twigs and green growth every week. This unit is good for tidy up but the feed rate on green leaves must be slow or it clogs. The only solution is a time-consuming disassembly and reassembly. Mixing the green leaves with dry leaves or twigs helps 60:40 ratio.

It has handled iron-wood (Australian Pine) without a problem (including the needles on the twigs). As long as you don’t rush it, this machine is quite efficient and makes good mulch for the compost bin or direct spreading.

We had to get an electrician to put in a stronger breaker to run the machine, otherwise it kept stopping.

By Jenny, Sint Maarten, Caribbean

CSV-2515 – 5 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/29/04

Product Far Exceeded my expectations. It handles the jobs I need without the worry of gas and oil. I’ve been using it for years and it takes care of leaves, twigs and the sort with ease. Patriot is a great company and they will bend over backwards to help you out.

By Wiles

CSV-2515 – 2 out of 5 stars – Amazon Customer Review – Posted 07/03/04

Don’t count on this machine to save you any work, it is way underpowered, the feed chute is too small and is prone to clog.
I tried it twice after reading the manual cover to cover and tried to follow the instructions to the letter. I literally spent more time clearing jams and disassembling the unit then I did shredding.
I learned that to shred pine needles, plan on about 30 minutes to shred one garbage can of needles, the feed rate is so slow I gave up.
This unit is fine for the organic homeowner who may shred some orange peels and leaves for the compost pile, but not for any serious work. I expected so much more for $729.00.

By John, Glendale, AZ