10 Best Garden Shredders of 2023 - Tested & Reviewed

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Bosch garden shredders lead the market these days. If, like me, you don’t have heavy duty requirements for a garden shredder, then chances are that you’ll lean towards Bosch’s entry-level model; the AXT Rapid 2200 Garden Shredder. It’s meant to be fast and powerful, yet easy to use.

I have to say that this Bosch garden shredder has really won me over. It’s thoughtfully designed, easy to use, and extremely robust. As soon as you open the box and assemble the shredder, you can see that it has been made with simplicity in mind. Turn it on, feed some branches in, and you’ll be even more impressed – it may be a lightweight garden shredder, but it’s powerful, works quickly, and, better still, doesn’t jam often!

What may put some people off is its 4 mm branch-diameter limit. In fact, this seems to be slightly less than 4 mm in reality, although only by a couple of millimetres.  As a result, I would say that the AXT Rapid 2200 is the best garden shredder for home use – if most of your garden waste is soft and green, with a few twigs and small branches here and there, then the AXT Rapid 2200 is perfect.

However, if bulk volumes of large and thick woody branches are what you need to shred, then perhaps the Bosch AXT 25 TC shredder would suit you better.

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The Ryobi RSH3045U 3000W Silent Impact Shredder is probably one of the most capable home shredders on the market right now. It can chew up branches and other woody garden materials up to 45 mm thick and doesn’t make a lot of noise.

It’s a serious bit of kit that uses hardened steel blades to make short work of basically any garden shredding job. The big 55 litre bin holds loads of chippings, and, thanks to the simple three-button control, it’s a piece of cake to use.

After living with the Ryobi RSH3045U for some time now, I’m honestly a bit torn. On one hand, it’s an absolute beast that will chew up tree branches like they’re matchsticks. But on the other hand, how often will I need this much power? It’s already blitzed the big stuff, but it doesn’t cope as well with everyday grass cuttings.

If it was a small handheld garden power tool, I’d just add it to the tool kit and pull it out when needed. However, seeing as this is a big heavy beast, unless you’ve got room to spare it’s not really versatile enough to justify filling up your shed with.

If you’ve got a large garden with lots of big stuff to dispose of, it’s probably the best garden shredder for heavy duty jobs at home – it’s easy to be awestruck by its power. But, if space is at a premium and you just want something to chop up your leafy and green material, I’d save the money and go for something smaller and less full on.

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The LSRL Silent Crushing Garden Shredder is great for woody matter. The shredder has a turbo cutting system that’s used instead of rotating blades, allowing it to crush tough woody materials. 

The crushing mechanism makes this shredder suitable for handling medium, dry branches, although it’s not quite as useful when it comes to fibrous green material. It’s powered by a 2500 W motor and will crush dry branches up to 45 mm in diameter.

This shredder has a 55 L collection box that neatly collects the small pieces of woody debris. In terms of noise, it runs at 92 dB which is reasonably quiet as garden shredders go, but will still require ear protection.

It can shred smaller material too, though this should be passed through at the same time as dry branches. This will help encourage the fibrous material into the shredding mechanism, preventing the shredder from blocking. 

The main downside to this shredder is its weight. At 28 kg it is not always practical to carry. However, there are large wheels which make it easier to pull in and out of storage. Also, the cable is just 3 m long, so you may need to use an extension cord. 

Assembly takes approximately one hour. 

All in all, this shredder is a good option if you’re after a unit to crushes woody material up to 45 mm in diameter. 

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Search for a heavy duty, yet quiet garden shredder that’s capable of working with both hard and soft materials and you’ll come across Bosch’s AXT 25 TC shredder. In fact, this is one of the only garden shredders on the market that claims to offer these features, which helps to justify its price tag.

I won’t deny that I was dubious. Spending 22 years landscape gardening has meant that I’ve tried a variety of shredders and chippers in my time. Most of them are more hassle than they’re worth, especially for regular use, so I was interested to see how this Bosch shredder would hold up.

Like I said, I had my doubts about this garden shredder to begin with. Things started to look up once I actually opened the box and assembled the machine – it’s strong and well made.

What I loved most about this Bosch shredder was its efficiency at chipping. However, its handling of soft green material was quite disappointing. I wouldn’t recommend it if most of your garden waste is soft and green – other shredders will tackle this much more efficiently.

That said, the Bosch AXT 25 TC is a machine that I plan on using quite regularly. In addition to shredding hedge clippings and small tree prunings on my own farm, I’ll also be taking it with me when hedge trimming for clients. It may be heavier than most models to pull around on rough ground, but it stores well with all of my other landscaping machines and garden tools. Plus, it’s a quiet shredder which helps too when doing work for clients.

For this reason, I believe it to be the best garden shredder overall. It’s a powerful unit that will pull its weight even in large gardens and offers a fuss-free way to shred harder branches.

I would also say it’s the best shredder I tested for professional use. It can quickly work its way through a mini mountain of hedge clippings, leaving you with fine shredded wood that can have a number of uses around the garden.

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If you’ve got a large property and you need a shredder that can be used at the far end of the garden, the Hyundai 2400W Electric Garden Shredder is our top recommendation. This shredder not only has a generous 10 m cable, it’s also easy to manoeuvre. 

Weighing just 10.3 kg, this shredder is lightweight and easy to pick up; it can be easily carried to the end of the garden even if you have steps to negotiate. It comes with two wheels so can be wheeled across hard surfaces and the 10 m cable gives good flexibility (even if you still need to use an extension). 

This shredder is fitted with a 2400 W Hyundai motor and runs at 4200 rpm. It’s capable of tackling branches up to 45 mm in diameter. This makes it suitable for most clearance jobs. However, bear in mind that 45 mm is its upper limit – it can block if overloaded and shouldn’t be used for thicker branches.

The shredder also comes with a detachable collection bag, so you can collect the chippings as you go. When the bag fills up, it’s easy to unclip and empty. 

There’s a flat paddle included so you can load branches into the hopper without getting your hands anywhere near the blades. 

It runs at 98.5 dB so, although it’s not the loudest on the market, ear protectors should still be worn.

All in all, this is the best garden shredder if you want a unit that’s easy to manoeuvre. Provided you’re aware of its limitations, this shredder will make a useful tool for garden clearance.

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When I got my hands on the Einhell GC-KS 2540 electric shredder, I was surprised at how light and portable it was. Compared with the heavy and cumbersome impact shredders I’d tested out before; this was a lot easier to move around.

This budget-friendly garden shredder has a lot going for it, so long as you don’t try to work it too hard. You can mulch sticks, branches and handfuls of grass directly onto your flower beds, and it comes with double sided blades for longer life.

Unfortunately, this garden tool doesn’t come without its faults. Even though it has a 2,500 Watt motor, shredding garden waste is a slow process. You need to push handfuls of waste into the infeed slot because it lacks a hopper on top.

It also doesn’t do a great job at shredding green waste – it’s best to stick to hard sticks and remove leaves before sending branches through the shredder.

Other negatives are that it’s really noisy and the power button is hidden out of sight so it doesn’t feel that easy to turn off  and on.

So, overall, I’d say it’s a good option if you’re after something lightweight and inexpensive, but you’ll need to be aware of its limitations and not push it too hard. It’s certainly a great budget option and for the money you can’t expect the best results, but even so it feels like Einhell could have done a little better here.

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If you’ve got a big pile of branches, sticks, and other chunky bits of garden waste, you’ll need the best impact shredder you can get hold of. Designed to chew through pretty much anything that you can fit inside it, the Hyundai HYCH2800ES is a capable piece of garden machinery that will get the job done.

Having already tested out the excellent Ryobi Silent shredder, I knew what to expect from a big beast of a machine like this. Boasting a powerful 2,800 Watt motor and hardened steel blades, you can mulch pieces of garden waste up to 44 mm in diameter, but it’s not best suited for soft green vegetation.

One of the drawbacks of this type of machine is that you’re forced into feeding everything into the infeed slot individually. I think it would benefit from having a hopper on top that you could load up with more than a handful of waste at a time.

Even though this is a heavy bit of kit, hauling it around is made pretty easy thanks to a pair of large diameter wheels and a solid top handle.

I’d recommend this garden shredder to anyone that has large bushes in their garden. This impact shredder will chomp through their branches, leaves and all, as long as they fit in the infeed slot.

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This Dirty Pro Tools™ Garden Shredder is a budget-friendly rotary impact garden shredder claiming to shred wood up to 40 mm and other leafy garden waste. It has 2500 W, a 4050 rpm cutting blade, a long cable, a 50-litre collection box, two wheels and a safety shut off.

On paper it ticks all the right boxes and the price is considerably lower than brand-name shredders.

But of course, written specifications only tell part of the story, so I put this electric shredder through its paces to see how it lives up to the manufacturer’s promises.

Overall, it’s a very good garden tool. If you want a reasonably priced shredder, it’s definitely worth considering.

Bear in mind, it’s noisy. It’s still worthwhile, especially if your neighbours don’t mind a bit of noise (or you don’t like your neighbours..!), but I needed ear defenders because it’s thunderously loud.

I used this machine one day, left it without any cleaning and then used it the following day. It worked well both times and chewed up the majority of materials I threw at it without jamming.

On the downside it doesn’t much like large damp leaves and can jam if there’s lots of greenery. If you can alternate damp leaves with drier sticks it helps prevent a jam. Woody prunings with leaves attached were no problem though. It was only defeated by a large rhubarb leaf.

Overall, yes, I think it’s good value for money for those on a tighter budget. It’s one of the best budget garden shredders available for small to medium sized gardens too.

Its loudness and dislike of damp greens isn’t a problem for me as I’ll be shredding mostly dry dogwood, hazel, buddleia, and laurel. However, if you’ve got lots of pure damp greenery or you live in a built-up urban area (where the noise might be a problem), you may want to look at something else.

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The Handy THISWB Garden Shredder is a lightweight, but capable, model that makes use of razor-sharp spinning blades. Whizzing round at 4,500 rpm, the blades make short work of thin branches and almost anything else you can fit in. It’s easy to move around the garden on two large wheels as well.

You can load up thicker branches on top thanks to the detachable hopper, and even see how much you’ve got inside the 40-litre collection box because of the see-through sides. It’s a powerful bit of kit, at a reasonable price, that will be a good addition to your garden arsenal if you don’t mind the loud motor.

It’s loud. You need to force branches and other garden materials down to the blades, but when it does hit them, it’s a great bit of kit. If you need to deal with everyday small stuff and the occasional branch, this is one of the best shredders on the market today.

I would rate this electric shredder higher if it wasn’t for a few niggles. The plunger accessory looks good but didn’t work for me at all. The hopper falls apart when you pull on it and is a pain to put back together. And you need to stand over the shredder to force everything through to the blades.

However, I would still recommend The Handy THISWB as being the best garden shredder for light garden waste. If you’ve got lots of thin branches and overgrown vines to deal with, this will do the job. It’s also nowhere near as expensive as some of the larger machines on this page, so you won’t waste money if you don’t need all that extra power.

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The Webb WEESS Silent Electric Garden Shredder is a great option for those wanting to compost organic matter because it shreds small branches and garden waste to 1/10th of their original size. 

It shreds to a fine mulch that’s ideal for flower beds or compost and is very easy to use. Simply press the button to start then begin to feed in twigs, branches and cuttings. It can cut branches up to 45 mm in diameter, with blades rotating an impressive 47 times per second, powered by a reliable 2800 W motor. 

There’s also a reverse button that can be used to clear any blockages if needed. 

The 50 L collection box makes it easy to collect the shredded material and it can then be transported to the compost heap or flower beds. There’s also a safety locking mechanism which means that the shredder will only work if the collection box is correctly attached, helping to prevent accidents. 

This shredder is fitted with a 10 m power cable and has large wheels making it possible to move across hard surfaces. It weighs 27 kg in total so is reasonably heavy but not completely unmanageable.

All things considered, this shredder is a great option for gardeners. Crushing and shredding loose materials into a fine mulch, it’s the best garden shredder for those making their own compost.