written by buckfast01 on 04/05/2021
i just brought is for a £10 and it wont cut at all even butter .i have sharpen the blade and still wont cut.
written by Wayworth on 25/08/2020
Remove the two blades, discard the two short socket head csk screws. stick 2 M10 washers in place on each bolthole. & fasten down again with slightly longer socket head csk screws. This raises the blades & cuts well. 3 washers on each hole means that the fence will catch the blades. so remove the fence & raise with 1 washer on each bolt.
written by Jaden105 on 01/03/2017
Currently using one to dispose of 15 to 20 over sized conferrers, at first this thing would not shred anything, then after turning the chipping blades around on the rotating head (Allen key required), this thing can handle fresh and dead materials up to the size of a marker pen, so not bad when runny properly. However, the sharpness of the cutting blades did not last long, after 2 to 3 hours of work, the blades were shot, if this thing had come with decent blades, then it would have made a good budget shredder, however, the stock cutting blades have little to no durability, one cost cutting measure too far. Another thing, the gap between the braking bar and the cutting head can become too high, and needs adjusting, I found a few precision taps with a hammer cured that problem, thankfully this thing will be sold on after the job is done, but needing to spend money on new cutting blades was not something I planned for. Good for small and light work only.
written by Almam404 on 05/09/2016
Agree with all comments fairly poor to begin with, but a bit of adjustment got it to chip / shred very well. A good engineer could sort this minor problem very easily , not a big enough gap between cutting blade and mount, (only my opinion)i am not an engineer , hope this is of some use to those of you that did keep hold of your chipper. cheers my green fingered gardeners
written by 231Greenwood on 31/07/2016
I was given this so at least I didnt pay for it.. Chopped down a tree and thought it would shred most of the evidence... Umm Nope! This thing wouldnt shred tissue paper. I have no idea why this is called a chipper and shredder as it does neither. Its useless! Dont ever waste your money, I was given it nad I feel cheated!! I have to pay to get rid of it now. Piece of rubbish.
written by AliyaSparks126 on 23/03/2015
This thing is utter rubbish. It will only cut small pieces of perfectly smooth twigs. save your time and manually chips things with a pair of scissors, it will be quicker. Anything that you can't cut with scissors can't be chipped by this thing. Another problem with this is that the vibration of the motor wobbles the nuts that hold the wheels on loose and they fall off while it is running. Terrible design.
written by Duncan1946 on 21/09/2013
Bought this yesterday to help with hedge cuttings. Total waste of time and money. Does not cut even the smallest twigs, keeps jamming. Twigs go through without being cut, just stripped of leaves. The only way it damages a twig is to burn it with friction against the blade. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
written by bigdaddy.craig on 11/07/2013
I tried everything in this including blades of grass and dead flowers and nothing shreds or chips. This machine should win an award for the most useless piece of garden machinery EVER!
written by podthesod on 05/05/2013
Is this a toy? I was given one as a present - could not make it chip or shred the smallest twigs - sharpened the blades -checked all parts tried again .... absolutely useless! Would not recommend to anyone. Very badly designed and unfit for purpose in my view ... unless its purpose is as a garden ornament.
written by Ilovestaffies on 12/08/2011
I wasted £30 I bought a lightly used one from Ebay this week. I tried shredding 10mm willow branches and burned out something inside after about 3 minutes. it started belching out smoke which smelt like burning rubber. Nothing about it is any good and the one star (terrible) rating that I`ve given it is too good in my opinion.No wonder I was the only bidder!
written by on 05/09/2010
Thank God I was given this unit, if I had purchased it I don't think I could live with the shame.
I looked up the price and spec's, I mean how bad could it be it looks to be good value for money.
Oh hang on a mo, some one just gave it to me "for no money" not even a swap or could you just do small job in return I should have smelled a rat then.
ALL the other comments about it are 100% true, jams and French polish's even the smallest of twigs, do your self a huge favor take half the money you where going to spend on it and throw it out the window of a speeding car because at least you will still have some left and all without the disappointment and self loathing you "will" have if you buy this unit.
written by on 05/08/2010
I agree with the other reviews on this PWR1800SA garden shredder. I got one of these off Ebay this morning and it was the biggest waste of money I have ever spent - good job it was really cheap. The previous owner had used it for shredding hedge material and reckoned it did the job well enough. After half-an-hour struggling to get it to shred or chip anything (after all it is marketed as a Shredder & Chipper) I doubt if it would shred a jelly or chip a potato!
I fully endorse the other reviewers' comments. Do not buy this shredder - it doesn't shred, it doesn't chip - all it does is nothing at all, jam up or burn the ends of the branches.
written by on 27/01/2008
I got the Performance Power PWR1800SA from ebay so I could mulch the twigs after cutting the garden hedge. From the very start I had nowt but trouble. Constant clogging n cleaning. Even when it did work the twigs n small branches just passed through. Tried replacing the blades, but to no avail. It awful... As stated by so many other users just keep away from it and buy a good quality one from a reputable manufacturer.
written by Bedlam38 on 16/09/2007
The Performance Power has a very poor design with too much space between entry point and spinning blades, so branches slip past the blades and come out not much different to how they went in. Would be quicker to use a pair of scissors. Total waste of money.
written by cwmiforphill on 12/11/2006
I agree with the other comments. If the branches are flexible, it bends them rather than shreds, and if the branches are rigid, it jams. It has the noise levels of a bull being castrated. The supplied plunger is useless; merely bending the branches further. I spent more time trying to unclog the Performance Power PWR1800SA 1800w Electric garden shredder than actually shredding, it got so bad. I disabled the interlock, but I have now given up, and it is awaiting its destiny - the skip. It is the worst piece of junk I've bought.
written by Giallograle on 09/10/2004
Performance Power PWR1800SA 1800w Electric - After using this machine for 20 minutes I had to take it apart to unjam it, and every 15-20 minutes thereafter, so having pored over the mechanism I think I can safely say that there is very little about its design that is right.
The design is a spinning disk with two slots containing blades at right angles to the gravity-fed chute. The chute is narrow at the top, and even narrower at the bottom, so if you use the plunger to try to force material through, it will simply jam above the blade. Even quite stiff branches are often simply scraped and bent above the blade, without going through the cutting slots. Greener or more flexible material is even more prone to this. If you put this uncut material back in for a second try, it usually goes straight through the same way.
There's little room below the blade, so the first stone will spin round in the machine, unable to exit, wrecking the blades. That's when you try to remove the blades for sharpening, but find they're attached to the disk with allen bolts and a tiny nut underneath which you can't quite reach, so you need to remove the disk, but the central bolt is underneath the body which is behind the legs of the machine that you spent 20 minutes trying to fit in the first place... which is where I gave up.
On the downside, the layout of the outflow is that it narrows and funnels through four or five narrow slots. I can't quite see why except that this layout ensures the maximum likelihood of blockages.
In use it is inevitably going to jam repeatedly, the first stone will wreck the blades, you won't be able to remove the blades for sharpening, it can handle only a couple of fine branches at a time, the outflow easily jams and even quite thick branches often won't be completely cut but merely scraped past the blade. Oh and that's liable to jam the disk again...
It took me two days to shred a couple of barrowloads of ivy. On the second pass I was reduced to putting in a handful at a time, since the entry slot is so small and liable to jam. And the rose stems have completely defeated it. In an hour I think I have shredded about three. Tomorrow it's going back to B&Q for a refund.
Written on: 09/09/2005
Bought one of the Performance Power shredders on ebay for a fiver, £5 too much in my opinion. Spent 70% of my time unblocking, after 2 hours work I had broken the cheap plastic hopper in two places. Avoid unless all you have is 15mm dried straight twigs!
Written on: 09/08/2005
I was given one of these for free by a disillusioned owner who bought a Bosch instead.
<br>Even free it isn't worth the money! After cleaning and sharpening the machine I used it for 15 minutes and then took it to the tip!
<br>Avoid like the plague.
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As rated by our community of reviewers
197977_Ciaransynnott's Response to 173474_Giallograle's Review
Written on: 16/06/2005
Also purchased the above - same bad experience - do not touch this shredder!!!