Electric wood chipper

Does anyone have an electric wood chipper?  I want an electric wood chipper.  We have an old gas chipper. I hate it!  It's almost impossible for me to start on my own, and it shoots the chips out with such force it's hard to contain them.  I want a little chipper I can easily use on my own, for things like rose trimmings, sunflower stalks, and small branches.  My son says they are useless, and I will be unhappy with it. It seems like the reviews are very happy, or they hate them. I was wondering if anyone has one, what brand, and how you like it.  I don't want to spend more than 200, would rather be closer to 100.  Thanks

I know that there are electric shredders and they may indeed fit your budget.  The shredders are designed mostly to shred up green material.  I think I have seen electric chippers, and they are typically good for up to around 1" material.  Off hand I don't know the price--they may not fit your budget.  Either way, don't expect anything to chip up too quickly.  If this is OK with you, give it a shot.  I do have two words of advice:  keep the cutters sharp and don't overwork the motor.  I suspect that these little motors are prone to being overloaded.

Good Luck,

Eric

Jen said "it shoots the chips out with such force it's hard to contain them.

I actually feel that they are designed to just do that.

Our daughter and I were talking about just that exact thing.  You put the chipper where you want your mulch.  Let it chip away all it wants to and there on the ground is your mulch. Right, where you want it!

You can't always do that with an electric chipper because it is tied to an electrical cord.

I do have an electric chipper, it is a 'Bosch AXT 2000 HP' (in the UK) and it has been awesome. I got it second hand for about £50 and it has had much use over the last decade. I use it for sunflower stalks, raspberry canes, brambles, tree trimmings, and its helped me chop up probably 50 metres worth of conifer over the years. I have recently managed to blow up the electrics in it... and haven't discovered in it is yet salvageable this time. If not I would completely buy another though!

It is no use for anything green! For this (think privet hedge and euonymous shrub trimmings)- I put them on the grass and roll over them with a lawn mower (a cheap £38 own brand lawnmower). You have to empty the mulch bag every few minutes- but it is well worth it!

I also have one (there are a few threads here about small wood chippers) and I love it. It can do branches up to an inch diameter. I use it mostly for the vines and stalks the rabbits don't eat, pruned branches from my fruit trees, mango pits, post-pressing sugarcane stalks, and then the invasive plants I need to shred (various local pests that root unless they're shredded) -- keep in mind I don't have deciduous trees here so it is my main source of mulch. it's excellent and worth every penny I paid for it (it was not nearly as cheap as Charli's!!).
Like Eric said, you need to use it carefully to make sure it doesn't get bogged down or clogged up. But it's never been a problem for me.

Edited to add:
I just realized you asked for makes and models, surely mine is not available up in North America, it's a Tramontina, but the motor is 2hp in case that gives you any idea if you're comparing things. It cost me way more than a hundred bucks.

I have one that I got used from the habitat for humanity restore for $50. It's 2.5 horsepower and takes branches up to 1.25 inches. I'd guess it was about $130 new. The brand is Chicago Electric. Partner says this is kind of a crappy brand (it's a Harbor Freight aka Hazard Fraught store brand). Got it for chipping up the brushy bits from removing honeysuckle (we burn the bigger chunks for firewood). It is okay at this task, but gets jammed up somewhat easily due to the shapes of the honeysuckle bits. Easily fixed, but annoying. It's still pretty great, way quieter, easier to use and less scary than a big chipper. For actually dealing with the massive volume of honeysuckle we have, we'll probably have to rent a big one at some point. Considering it isn't a great brand and that we're using it for a tricky task, I'm quite pleased with it and glad we got it.
If it were just being used for stuff like you describe, it (or one similar) would be awesome and a perfect tool for the job, I think.

I've got an older version of this one

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/yardworks-15a-garden-shredder-0601744p.html#srp

It's pretty much the same.

As long as you accept its limitations it's great. We have an area of our property that power lines run through and we keep it clear so the power company doesn't send in contractors (different ones every time who do different things). I chip a lot of the branches from the saplings we cut down every few years. I find the leafy ends of the branches can bog down the machine - it's not great with leaves and small twigs. I trim the smaller branches off the main branch on some of them and keep those bare branches for running through after every few leafy ones to clear the blade. Leaf gunk builds up and bakes on to the blade and near the end of a chipping session, the small twigs aren't getting cut well and start wrapping around the blade, requiring many stops to open the thing up and clear it out. It's quick and easy to do, though. In between uses, I scrape the leaf gunk off with a razor blade. I usually do a big pile all at once and it takes me three or four hours. The last hour or so is when it starts getting annoying with clogs. Dry branches don't really have the same problem.

The feed opening is really small. It's shaped kinda like a barbell when you're looking down at it, two round holes joined with a slot. The holes are a couple inches across, just big enough for the plunger. And all the openings are covered by flaps of rubber, so you can't really put leaves or small, loose stuff through it. Someone I know has the same one and chopped the rubber flaps off and enlarged the opening so he can just chuck whatever down. He works it pretty hard, probably harder than I do mine in some ways and he's had his longer, too.

It sounds like a little electric one would probably work okay for what you've got in mind.  If you're doing lots of small branches all at once, have something else to run through occasionally to keep the blade clear.