If you have multiple large properties or need to regularly chip large diameter branches some of the more powerful wood chipper models -like the DR Power CSR180E- can be ideal pieces of equipment for the job.

Sometimes that much power isn’t necessary though and that’s where an entry level wood chipper like the 11.50 Premier (Model # CPR115M) from DR Power Equipment comes in.

The 11.50 Premier Rapid-Feed Wood Chipper

This is the smallest wood chipper made by DR Power and features a Briggs & Stratton engine that produces 11.5 lb-ft of torque (thus the model designation).

The designers at DR Power intentionally designed their chippers with oversized hoppers to make it easy to feed in branches without doing too much trimming work just to get them to fit in the hopper for chipping. You can see the results in the video below which compares a DR Power chipper to another -unspecified- brand of wood chipper with a small hopper opening.

Speaking of the oversized hopper the CPR115M is capable of chipping branches up to 3.5 inches in diameter. DR Power claims that you can generally allow material to self-feed through the hopper rather than finding it necessary to push branches in by hand. From the video clips the company has on YouTube -like the one above- this seems to be quite true.

If you plan to use your 11.50 Premier for residential use you are covered by a 2 year warranty but the warranty drops to a mere 90 day warranty for any commercial applications.

The CPR115M is not a cheap model and pricing comes in around $2,200 but it seems to be a quality model and DR Power likes to compare their equipment to “department store chippers” which is probably a good comparison to make for them since most equipment you will find at department stores is pretty low quality.

If you need something cheap it’s OK to get a department store special but if you want a quality piece of equipment something like what DR sells is generally the way to go.

11.50 Premier Wood Chipper Accessories

DR Power offers a few different accessories for the 11.50 Premier including:

• A replacement chipper knife kit

• A pin hitch setup for towing behind a lawn tractor

• A cover to protect your equipment when not in use

The 11.50 Premier -despite being one of the smallest models from DR Power- is actually something of a mid-sized chipper though certainly on the small end of the spectrum. If you want a really small, easy-to-use chipper then you might like an electric chipper.

Just be forewarned that they are light duty chippers when compared to most gas powered models so think about what you would like your chipper to be capable of before you buy an electric model.

For super-large chippers that can handle some of the largest branches you are likely to encounter you can look at models from Vermeer powered by CAT and Cummins diesel engines.

Lastly if what you really need is simply a small or middle sized chipper for occasional use but don’t want to spend an excessive amount of money on you can probably find a great used wood chipper for a good price and save yourself a bundle versus buying a new model.

Depending on what type of trees you have and how windy it has been the branches may be larger than a basic wood chipper can handle. If that is the case you might need to use a more powerful wood chipper than some of the electric models available and which you might have in your garage or storage shed.

Powerful Wood Chippers: The CSR180E

While an electric wood chipper can come in handy for basic chipping jobs a larger gas powered model like the CSR180E from DR Power Equipment could be more appropriate for more heavy duty chipping and shredding work. Let’s look at some of the features of this model and you can decide if it might be a good one to buy or rent for your property management projects.

Some wood chippers are hand portable units mounted on a dolly type frame.

The CSR180E isn’t quite that small and will work best if you have an ATV or lawn tractor to tow it with. The chipping unit and gasoline engine are mounted on a miniature trailer with a ball hitch and pneumatic tires for ease and mobility.

The unit is OK to tow on the road although the company indicates that you’ll need to keep your speed under 45 MPH.

Despite being fairly large for chipper -compared to hand portable models- it is still quite a small trailer and could be a bit awkward to tow especially behind large vehicles.

If you need to travel far with the unit between properties it would probably work out best to load it onto a truck or trailer and then use an ATV or tractor to move it around the work site.

Speaking of the gas engine the model features a 18 horsepower Vanguard V-Twin engine. Both the engine and chipper itself have a 2 year warranty for residential use although if you plan to use the unit in a commercial capacity you’ll find that the warranty is only good for 90 days on the chipper body. The two year engine warranty remains in effect regardless of the type of use.

CSR180E Chipping Capacities & Pricing

The CSR180E can chip branches up to 4.5 inches in size and shred material up to 1.5 inches in diameter. You can also use the unit for shredding other lighter weight waste such as twigs and dead garden plants.

If you are looking for an affordable wood chipper this is probably not the model you want since the price DR Power lists is just under $5,400. If you use a chipper a lot for your business or personal use then it could be worth it but for most people the best way to take advantage wood chipping equipment is to simply rent a wood chipper unit when one is needed.

There are other wood chippers and shredders offered by DR Power that come in at a lower price point so if you want to have a chipper around to use on a fairly regular basis you can check out their other models such as the 11.50 and 14.50 Premier models which are $1,800 to $2,000. You can see some DR Power chippers and their features in the video below.

Wood Chipper Safety

As always regardless what type of wood chipping equipment you are using remember to keep safety in mind and take necessary precautions to protect your eyes, ears, hands and feet when using this type of equipment.

If you like OEM type accessories DR Power does offer safety equipment you can purchase to go along with your new chipper or you can visit one of the safety equipment outlets near you and pick up some quality ear muffs or plugs and safety glasses.

Photo by: momboleum

Looking for information about using an electric wood chipper? As you know wood chippers can be extremely helpful pieces of equipment for maintaining your property but not everyone wants to use a gasoline powered wood chipper which is where electric models come into the picture.

Not everyone is comfortable with equipment and pieces of equipment that use a gas engine are usually a bit harder to operate compared with electric equipment. Electric tools typically mimic the easy on and off operation of household appliances like vacuum cleaners and hand mixers.

An electric wood chipper mimics this ease of use in an outdoor application and allows you to focus on getting your property cleaned up rather than messing with gas, chokes, carburetors and pull starting mechanisms.

Gas vs Electric Wood Chipper Equipment

If you have a lot of heavy duty chipping to do you may be better off with a gas engine powered chipper that can handle larger loads. There are even some diesel powered models for really tough jobs but these are the kinds you will usually see employed by tree service companies. Of course if you need one that large you can always rent a wood chipper that’s big enough for the job rather than making such a major purchase.

For smaller yard and garden jobs an electric wood chipper is entirely appropriate and you’ll get a chance to see a unit or two in action in the video clips below to get an idea what type of work electric wood chippers are meant to be used for.

Another thing to keep in mind about using an electric wood chipper is that you will need to make sure you have a long, heavy duty cord to use with it (not just one of those common orange cords either).

Many larger pieces of electric equipment like brush shredders draw a lot of power so you’ll need a quality cord and it will need to be plugged into a circuit that can handle the power requirements.

Despite the need to be tethered to an outlet by a cord -unless you use a generator that can handle the power draw- electric wood chippers can still be an attractive option. Another advantage electric chipper shredders have over their gas powered counterparts is a simpler clean up and maintenance process.

At least some of the electric chippers on the market can simply be turned on their side and the feed tract cleaned out with a water hose should it become clogged with material. Obviously you can’t tip a combustion powered chipper easily without taking care not to spill the gas and extended time in a horizontal position is likely to let oil seep into parts of the engine where it doesn’t need to be.

Electric Wood Chipper Advantages – A Quick View

Before we look at a few specific electric chipper shredder models let’s hit the advantages of electric models in contrast with gas chippers just to highlight them quickly:

• Easier operation

• Simpler maintenance

• No fumes/exhaust

• Potentially lighter weight (depends on model)

• No need to check or fill gas and oil

Electric Brush Chippers Models

You will definitely find more choices in the gas powered wood chipper market but there are some electric models out there and they aren’t hard to find. We’ll list four below starting with one of the top models.

Patriot Model CSV 2515

This chipper is produced by Patriot Products Inc. and has the highest average customer rating on Amazon and has also been given a Consumers Digest “Best Buy” rating twice according to the Patriot Products website.

The CSV 2515 features a 1.5 HP electric motor that provides the power to shred wood and leaves with the capability to handle branches up to 2.5 inches in diameter through the chipper feed opening.

You will need a heavy duty cord of under 100 feet in length since the shredder pulls 14 amps of current. Patriot offers a suitable heavy duty cord as an accessory on their website but it adds almost $100 to the $969 purchase price although they offer to extend the warranty on the chipper by one year if you do get one of their approved cords for use with the unit. You can see the CSV 2515 in operation in the video below.

Note: We’re about to look at some other wood chippers but before we do you may want to note that the prices of these models are quite a bit less than the Patriot CSV 2515 model above.

This could be because they are genuinely good deals or it could be because they are cheap, low quality products so use caution if you want to buy a unit that will last a while. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t examine the Patriot model closely as well but rather that it seems to be a bit higher in build quality.

-Lawnmaster FD1501 Yard Chipper-Shredder

The Lawnmaster FD1501 features a 15 amp electric motor and a 1.5 inch diameter branch chipping capacity as well as a reversible cutting mechanism.

Reviews on the model are somewhat mixed and owners report that depending on the branches the unit can’t handle branches of the diameter claimed by the company. Price wise it seems like an affordable model for light duty work at about $200.

-Eco-Shredder ES1600 Electric Chipper

The Eco-Shredder ES1600 is another $200 wood chipper / leaf mulcher that is powered by an electric motor (14 amp and 2.5 HP in this case). This model features a shutoff feature that switches the motor off in case of overload so that a jam doesn’t result in damage to the unit.

Accepts limbs up to 1.375 inches in diameter though reviewers report that you’ll want to keep material diameter under 1 inch to avoid clogging and jams.

-Greenworks 24052 Electric Chipper

The Greenworks model is the cheapest chipper listed here with a price of just under $175. This model states that it is not intended for leaves unlike the other chipper-shredders here.

Maximum cutting diameter is 1.375 inches and the motor is a 15 amp model similar to all the other units we’ve covered.

Other Types of Wood Chippers

If you think a electric wood chipper is for you hopefully the information above has helped you find a model that will work great for your property clean up projects (don’t forget to take safety precautions during your work).

If you need a more powerful type of chipper but don’t want to spend too much money you can either rent a unit or you might try looking for a nice used wood chipper to buy at a discount over the price of a new unit.

Image by: Patriot Products

There’s no real need to take risks with life and limb while cleaning up your property especially when a few pieces of gear will help you avoid 90% of the potential problems. Okay, I’m not sure what percentage of problems you can avoid but we’ll say it’s 90% just for fun.

Wood Chippers and Eye Safety

The first thing that comes to mind is eye safety. In the past you had to put up with weird looking goggles or glasses to protect your eyes during eye-hazardous work. Today there are a lot of decent looking safety glasses and goggles that will help you avoid loss of eyesight or just plain old eye irritation from small pieces of wood and dust flying in them.

If you already where glasses to improve your eyesight you might have to find a type of safety goggles that will fit over your normal glasses. If your glasses are the right type they may already provide enough protection but there is a good chance they are not really made to withstand the impact of thrown objects and won’t protect you from things flying towards your face at odd angles.

Getting some goggles that will fit over your normal eye wear can be an…well…an eye saver.

Wood Chippers and Footwear

This might get overlooked but when you are working with a wood chipper unit you will often be working in an environment that can be hazardous to your feet. Splintered wood can actually penetrate footwear and although it is unlikely you want to make sure it doesn’t penetrate you feet themselves by actually wearing decent footwear when using a wood chipper.

Besides stepping on wooden punji sticks there is also the risk of dropping logs, branches and other wood pieces on your feet which never feels good. Wear good foot wear when running a wood chipper unit to avoid this problem.

Wood Chippers and Head Protection

If you are working with lumber that is already on the ground then this is not really a necessary precaution but if you are going to be cutting branches from trees than a hard hat can be a real head-saver especially if it is a two person job where one or more people are on the ground and another is in the tree working away. Besides tree parts the person above can drop chainsaws and other fun stuff like that so a hard hat can be a good move if you are working below.

Hand Safety and Avoiding Kickback

There is not really any gear that can help with this but one of the biggest safety points to keep in mind in relation to wood chippers is to be careful when feeding material into the chipper. Different types of chipper shredders are set up in slightly different ways but kick back can be a problem as can simply getting your hands too close to the cutting head.

A simple way to avoid kick back injury is to not put yourself in the obvious line of kick back should it occur. If you put yourself on the other end of a branch that is going through the cutting head and it tries to kick backwards out of the cutting head you are probably going to be on the losing end of the deal. It might just be a scrape but then again it could be a nasty cut or puncture wound so be careful in that type of situation.

For a lot of folks using a wood chipper rental is a good way to actually turn all that waste material into something useful or at least make it easier to transport. It’s pretty tough to carry a load of sticks since they don’t stack well and point in different directions trying -and succeeding- to catch on clothes, other branches and so on.

If you can reduce those individual sticks down to wood chips it makes everything a lot easier and you can even make use of the material for mulch or compost. But how do you get the job done?

Well, one way we talk about here on the site is by getting a wood chipper rental unit. Renting a wood chipper can be great since most of us don’t need to buy a wood chipper because it’s really something we’d only use once in a while.

Buy a Used Wood Chipper…?

For some people though -maybe you included- there’s a more serious need to have one on hand most of the time either because of the size of your property of because of the prolific rate at which the trees tend to shed sticks and branches.

Buying a new wood chipper seems like a kind of expensive way to go about acquiring the ability to finely shred bits of wood but getting a used wood chipper can be a compelling option.

You’ll have to decide if the cost of a used wood chipper is worth it in comparison to the cost of renting a wood chipper for enough time to get the job done.

Renting can cost over $100 per day so if you use a chipper several days a year then it’s pretty likely that you will be able to buy a chipper and save money in the long run.

Probably the best way to get started shopping for a used wood chipper is to check sites like Craigslist and eBay. You can often find equipment both places for pretty good prices and Craiglist gives you the chance to go see the equipment in person to inspect it’s condition and haggle with the seller if that is your type of thing.

You might also be able to find a used wood chipper at a local dealer but there is a good chance they will want to up sell you into a new unit so if you are committed to buying used as a way of saving money be prepared for that and don’t be swayed by the sales pitch.

Sizes of Used Wood Chipper Units

You probably have in mind the size of used wood chipper you will need but if not it’s a good idea to do some research on what size is best for your needs and what type of equipment you will need to transport the unit.

Some wood chippers are pretty big and will need to be towed by a truck but chances are you are looking for one of the smaller units that can fit in the back of a pickup or minivan.

Vermeer is a popular maker of wood chippers and you can probably find other lower quality brands that retail new at places like Lowes and Home Depot. Obviously if you buy a used wood chipper that started life low on the ladder it won’t hold up as well as a quality unit but it may be priced competitively. Generally though buying for quality is the way to go.

Image by…

Engines:

• 49 HP 103 lb-ft/torque CAT 2.2L diesel
• 85 HP 224 lb-ft/torque Cummins B3.3 turbo-diesel

25 gallon fuel tank for longer operating times

Tool-less belt change system

At over 4800 pounds this probably isn’t the chipper for you if you have a small yard job however if you’ll be doing some heavy clean up work after a storm, flood or as part of your firewood project a heavy duty unit like this might be called for.