Einhell GC-KS 2540 Electric Shredder Review

The first thing I needed to do when this shredder turned up on my front doorstep was to put it together. Assembly took about 10 minutes and was helped along by the wealth of diagrams and step by step instructions in the manual. A good start!

It’s a pretty simple process, the legs slot into the shredder body and are screwed on tight, then you push the axle through the frame and attach the wheels. You’ll need a pair of side cutters to remove a couple of zip ties and a screwdriver to hold the axle in place when you tighten the wheels though.

The way that a knife shredder like this works is by spinning a pair of blades around at high rpm. You feed branches, leaves, or handfuls of garden waste into the slot, and the blades get to work. They mulch up whatever’s inside and deposit them in the bag underneath.

The blades are made from alloy steel and are double edged, meaning that you can swap them round when they become blunt on one side. They’re held in place with two hex head bolts that are removed quite easily. Just make sure you’re wearing gloves because they’re razor sharp when new!

My first impression was how light this tool felt compared with the beefy impact shredders I’d tested out previously. It’s a lot easier to manoeuvre around and weighing less than 10 kg means you can lift in and out of the back of your car without hurting your back.

Something that helps to make this a lightweight and more compact shredder compared with the competition is the lack of plastic collection box. Instead of a rigid plastic container for all the chippings, Einhell have included a plastic waste bag. It’s made from woven plastic a bit like a rubble sack and hangs underneath the shredder on a pair of hooks.

Even though this shredder is much lighter compared with the Hyundai and Ryobi shredders, it still takes up quite a lot of room. The footprint of this tool is 42 x 46 cm so it’s a bit smaller but not by much. It’s 92 cm high as well so it’s not going to fit under a workbench.

One of the problems that these types of garden shredders have is getting jammed on green branches. Clearing blockages isn’t difficult, but it’s a bit of a pain. To remove the top part of the shredder you need to undo an enormous screw that’s placed underneath the handle. It’s awkward to get at and isn’t ideal for people with big hands.

It’s not a huge thing, but I really like the “prodder” holder that Einhell have included. None of the other shredders I’ve used have had dedicated storage for theirs. You end up hanging it off the carry handle or chucking it on the ground most of the time. Even though it’s just a simple piece of plastic, it shows that Einhell have thought a bit more about user comfort. Not bad for a budget model!

The “prodder” as Einhell call it is one of the better ones I’ve tested out. It’s only made from thing polypropylene, but it’s wider than the competition and seems to push waste through the intake hole effectively.

And although Einhell have used a heavy gauge and high quality power cord, there’s a couple of things that could be improved. It’s black which means it doesn’t stand out against the grass to help prevent trips or running over with a mower. And it’s only 3 m long. That’s not enough for anyone’s garden without getting out the extension cord.

At first, I was a bit disappointed by the plastic bag that collects the shredded garden waste, but I soon realised it made this tool quite versatile. The more expensive impact shredders force you to use a collection box. They’re fine, but the Einhell can shred straight into a flower or veg bed. I usually mulch all my branches and twigs straight back into the flower border, so this was a really handy feature for me.

I also found that the collection boxes on the Ryobi, Hyundai, and Handy filled unevenly. The debris heaped up underneath the blades and blocked the outfeed slot. This doesn’t happen with the Einhell because the bag is much narrower. Also, you could fill up multiple bags with garden waste with this shredder, whereas the collection boxes can only be used one at a time.

One of the first problems I encountered with this shredder is that it doesn’t have a hopper. Compared with The Handy garden shredder, you can’t load up a bunch of leaves or grass and push it through with the prodder. It’s more like the impact shredders I’ve used where you only get a small slot to push in branches.

It’s really annoying because, in my experience, these high rpm knife shredders are ideally suited to loading up with debris and pushing through. They’re not that great at chopping up large sticks or other woody material, it takes far too long, and they get jammed quite easily.

Because of the small infeed hole and the stiff plastic shrapnel guards inside of it, I was reduced to adding small handfuls of garden waste at a time, then pushing them through with the prodder. It makes for slow work unfortunately.

This garden shredder is powered by a 2,500 Watt motor. This spins the knives up to a lightning fast 4,500 rpm. This type of high rpm shredder is good for mulching up thin twigs and things like grasses and weeds, but it hasn’t got the grunt to deal with big branches.

Something that might put some users off is the 40% duty cycle rating on this machine’s motor. It essentially means that you can’t run the motor for more than a few minutes at a time without it overheating. This is only a DIY level shredder, but if you’ve got a big pile of leaves and branches in front of you, you’re going to need to take breaks.

I had a similar problem with The Handy Shredder when it came to shredding most bits of garden waste. Because of the plastic flaps inside the infeed slot, each piece of waste needed to be pushed right into the blades. Once they made contact it was fine but pushing each piece in and packing it down with the prodder got annoying rather quickly.

There’s a big label on the side of this shredder that rates the noise level at a huge 106 dB. That’s about the same as running a chainsaw in your back garden, so you’ll need to pick you moments to avoid annoying your neighbours.

It should go without saying, but always wear proper ear protection when using this piece of kit. Effective ear defenders aren’t expensive and can help you to prevent hearing loss. You won’t a lot of persuasion to keep your ear defenders on though, because this thing is loud.

Most high rpm power tools are noisy, and there’s no way round the noise of blades chopping into wood. If you want a quiet way to shred garden waste, you’ll need to do it by hand. Or, if you spend a bit more you could get an impact shredder that puts out “just” 92 dB.

One of the immediate safety concerns I had with the Einhell GC-KS 2540 Garden Shredder was the speed that it pulls the garden waste in. Once contact is made with the blades, whatever’s in your hand is ripped in at an alarming rate! You need to concentrate on what you’re doing, wear gloves, and follow all the safety instructions laid out in the manual.

The glaring safety issue I found with this shredder is the placement of the ON/OFF switch. It’s tucked away underneath the motor and isn’t a soft touch button like one on the Hyundai shredder. I found it a pain at the best of times, so I’d hate to fumble around for it in an emergency. The dust shroud around it makes it hard to use, especially with gloves on.

One of the safety features I like about shredders with plastic collection boxes underneath is that the blades are completely enclosed. This shredder doesn’t have a box like that. I was immediately concerned that the blades would be exposed underneath, but they’re hidden behind a narrow chute.

It means you can deposit the shredded garden material directly onto the ground without needing to mess around with boxes. And it’s still completely safe. You can’t get near the blades and the chippings simply fall to the ground.

Something that’s missing from this shredder is an overload protection switch. Unlike the Hyundai shredder, I don’t know if this machine is able to turn itself off if the motor is put under too much strain. The same goes for the duty cycle issue, as I don’t know if the machine stops itself if it overheats.

This is a budget-level garden shredder. It’s a lot cheaper to buy than the Ryobi or the Hyundai, but there are more than a few compromises in build quality. It doesn’t feel as well made, and I can’t see the blades lasting for long without needing replacements.

I think the real difference is the speed you can work at. If you have lots of trees and bushes that you need to process down quickly, this isn’t the right tool. It takes a bit too long to feed in branches and handfuls of leaves to be really efficient. So, if you want a speedy and powerful machine an impact shredder is more suitable.

However, if you’re just doing light work and want to shred up the odd pile of leaves and grasses and you don’t mind an uneven mulch, this shredder works fine.

I tried hard to like this Einhell GC-KS 2540 Garden Shredder. Compared with some of the big beefy ones I’ve reviewed before it was nice to get my hands on something a bit more manoeuvrable. I like that you’re not forced into using the plastic collection box, and the double sided blades are a good idea.

Unfortunately, this machine is let down by some strange design choices. The placement of the power switch is terrible and opening the machine up to clear blockages takes too long. You’ll be doing this too often as well because it’s a bit underpowered and the blades get blunt too quickly.

It’s just a little bit frustrating that this machine hasn’t been built a little bit better. A hopper on the top would have been really useful, and I doubt it will last for years without falling apart.