BoschCollection Bag/Cover Hood for All AXT Shredders

I've had this shredder for a couple of years now and it's been used far more than I had expected. It does a great job at shredding twigs, branches, brambles etc. It is good fun too and quite satisfying to see a large pile of garden waste being reduced to one or two bags.No shredder is perfect and of course you can clog it up if you put too many leaves, but overall this has coped remarkably well with everything I have throw at it.A small downside is that it is a bit of a hassle to move it, the wheels are pretty close together so it wobbles a fair bit when you pull it along.

Although a little more expensive, the Bosch quality construction is evident. Can handle reasonable size diameter branches from general garden waste. Occasional tangles with thinner sapling like branches

Bought this expecting to use it a couple of times a year, but instead I keep it set up in the garage and am often dropping prunings through it. A great machine for gobbling up anything - I haven't defeated it yet! Handy, large, collection box that can be easily shipped out and emptied onto the compost as necessary. Only downside is that it is quite tricky to manoeuvre, hence the benefit of keeping it set up in the garage and using in situ. Very happy.

Good for cutting

Great shredder.

After the old Al-ko shredder that I'd had for 10+ years died, I was in the market for a new one. I rarely purchase on impulse, preferring to to do plenty of research first. This was no different.There were one or two poor reviews for this, and I always read the negatives, as I find the glowing positive reviews are often based on a single use (or even worse, what it looks like without any use!) However, the positives far outweighed the negatives and seemed genuine, so I decided to bite the bullet.This review is based upon 3 years of fairly light use. I'd say it gets a run-out around three or four times a year. I agree it's a lot of cash for such light use, but the key is, it earns it's keep when needed. My old Al-ko wasn't really man enough to tackle branches over 20mm. I'd spend more time clearing blockages from the unit than actually shredding. (My fault for trying to do things too quickly and overloading it)Before I tell you how good the AX25 TC is, I think I should clear a small point up. In the marketing text, it states this will deal with green waste. Now please do not equate "green waste" with "weeds". Green waste refers to freshly cut branches, not bunches of stinging nettles. This unit will not do a great job on soft waste. Give it the stuff it was designed for and you'll see what it can do.I reluctantly had to take down a medium sized oak tree and after saving what I could for firewood, I was left with several very large piles of smaller branches. This would have been a mammoth task using my old shredder with a lot of the branches needing to be trimmed. The thicker ones wouldn't go through and would need to be manually cut into short pieces for disposal/composting. A job such as this would be a very good test for my new acquisition. The first branch I fed in was chewed up in seconds, as was the second. Growing in confidence, I decided to give the AX a real test and selected a particularly bushy off-cut with a base diameter of at least 40mm (sorry, I didn't measure it) with multiple branches and sub-branches coming off the main stem. I fed it into the maw of the AX and watched in awe as it munched through the complete off-cut without a hiccup. It continued performing at this level and I completed the branch disposal operation in a couple of half-day stints - far quicker than anticipated.Now I'd be lying if I said it has dealt with everything I've thrown at it. The odd item has jammed and activated the auto-stop, causing me to use the reverse button, but that's invariably been down to me attempting to force the shredder to digest a branch union that way exceeded the 40mm max sizeIt was in use again last weekend, dealing with an overgrown leylandii offcuts (true green waste!) with no complaints, which prompted me to write this review. One big plus point is it doesn't rely on having razor sharp edges to work. Rotary shredders rely on their cutting blades being sharp to work as expected. It is so easy to blunt them (when you fail to completely clean a root for example.) I haven't noticed any significant degradation in shredding performance since I've been using the AX25The only real negative I can find, is it's weight distribution. You have to be careful when wheeling it over uneven ground as it has a distinct tendency to tip. Mine has some of the external plastic broken when I was unable to save it from crunching into the ground...So, to summarise. If you want to shred weeds, lay them on the grass and run a rotary mower over them. If you need to deal with woody garden waste, The AX25 TC is simply brilliant. It's powerful, reliable and will reduce a formidable heap of woody waste to a pile of chippings with ease. I wouldn't be without it.

This is a very hardworking and effective shredder, which steadily munches up large amounts of mixed prunings with Germanic efficiency.It works fast, and pulls in the handful you've just fed it, so you can get on with selecting the next stems.Larger stems are cut and crushed into pieces about 2cm. long, and smaller bits finish up reasonably well chopped and crushed, so they're compacted and will break down when composted.It is indeed very quiet - it can hardly be heard from the length of our garden - and makes quite a companionable, low-pitched chugging noise as it works, unlike our previous shredder, which made high-pitched screaming noises hard on the ears.When in action, I couldn't ask for a better performance, and although it's not cheap, I feel sure it will go on working for me for many years. It does have a 3-year guarantee as well.So why only 4 stars?It's been designed to go under a worktop when not in use. The top comes off and is stored in the collection box, which sits under the mechanism. this is fine for those who want to store it like that, but doesn't save any floor space and it's more difficult to manoeuvre in and out with the top off, as the handle which swings the weight over the wheels is part of the top section. I don't need this modification, the top stays on in my shed.It's very heavy indeed, and difficult to move around, especially when going down even small steps. If you ease the machine down on the wheels, there comes a point where its weight takes over and it drops hard on to the lower level.The collection box has to be replaced correctly under the machine, as a safety feature, or else it won't start. Unfortunately the box doesn't hold very much, and it's hard to see how much has gone in. The machine deposits shreddings in just one area of the box, so when you see you need to pull it out, you find the box is only about half full. Take care also when pulling it out - it needs a firm jerk, and can give your shins a painful knock. Lastly, it';s not easy to transfer the shreddings from the box into a bag for temporary storage or transport. The box is rectangular and you need a very large bag or container to shake the contents into. It's difficult to fit a rubble-sack-sized bag over there end of the box, and not too easy to shake the last pieces in to it. On both our previous shredders, I greatly preferred the option of placing a storage bag or container directly over the exit chute, and then just removing it when full.The instructions are poor, and really I do feel that, when customers are spending this sort of money, Bosch could afford to produce a more attractive and informative booklet, rather than a few pages on very cheap paper, mainly concerned with all the normal common sense precautions for using electrical equipment. My machine started up OK but stopped running after about 10 minutes. Fortunately my mechanically- minded husband worked out for himself, (no help from the handbook) how to re-set the cutting mechanism so that slivers of metal were shaved off, which needs to be done ready for the initial run. Why this could not have been set top in the factory as part of its quality checks, I do not know.Finally, I've not yet been able to register the guarantee, as mine appears not to have the identity plate with the individual number of the machine, though I have looked most carefully all over it. I have e-mailed the Bosch helpline but so far, have had no reply.Am I glad I bought it? Definitely. Its a very good machine and I enjoy using it (apart from emptying the box.) I really like its quietness, its speed and power. With a 1/4acre garden with large hedges and many shrubs, it gives me a sustainable way of managing the pruning without too much strain.I think its probably the best available on the domestic non-professional market at the moment, and would certainly recommend it to anyone with a large garden and limited time to look after it.