Bosch AXT 1600 HP

I bought the almost identical 2000 watt machine over three years ago and it still cuts thick woody material efficiently.

However, green or fibrous material easily clogged the machine in the first season but went through with care if woody branches were also fed in. By season three, branches under 1cm diameter, holly, blackthorn, hawthorn or raspberry canes simply scrolled around the helix and completely blocked the unit.

I dismantled it and found chips broken out of the hardened steel helix and some wear on the stationary blade, even though no soil or hard objects had ever passed through. After carefully grinding a cutting edge back onto the helix and sharpening the blade I tried to cut leyland cyprus prunings, but to no avail.

The shredder is a well engineered item but the helix mechanism is just not up to the job of shredding typical garden waste. The industrial plastic case is durable and unlikely to be damaged. A hinged flap below the helix would help to remove material wrapped around the cutting blade.

I'm still reviewing shredders of all makes & sizes to find a cost effective replacement.

I bought the Bosch AXT1600 HP garden shredder because I was cutting down two conifers and needed some way of disposing of the waste.

Having cut down the offending conifers, the ATX1600 was used to dispose of the majority of branches.

The machine will take branches up to 33mm thick, and once started, it will automatically pull them down.

One drawback I found was that branches typically have loads of greenery at one end and none at the other. When feeding the woody end in to the machine, all is well until near the end of the branch, when all the greenery is pulled in. If there is too much greenery it can cause jamming, so it's best to trim off excess greenery beforehand.

The worm screw cutter can be reversed to free jambs, but it's often necessary to manually pull greenery out as well.

The machine will take hedge clippings, but these may have to be pushed in for them to reach the worm screw cutter.

I bought mine on Ebay as an orange grade refurb, and overall it's a good bit of kit.

Like every piece of equipment the Bosch AXT has a design point, or to put it another way, it is designed to perform a specific task. In this case it is shredding small branches from hedges, bushes and trees and it does this superbly well. It's spiral cutter is slow running and therefore quiet so it does not waken the whole neighbourhood when running unlike most of my neighnours rotary mowers! It's only failing is that it does not take kindly to branches with too many leaves, but otherwise it is a superb machine and something I would not be without.

The Bosch AXT 1600 HP takes thicker wood materal well, but not soft material like flower, leaves. They get stuck & it is then not possible to feed other material. I spoke to Bosch who said "This machine is not designed for soft material, you will be fortunate if it takes other than thin or thick branches". I wish I had known that before I bought it.

After buying and returning two other shredders, I came across the Bosch AXT 1600 HP which has a spiral blade rather than a rotating blade. This means that instead of using a high speed chopping action, it uses a low speed, quiet rotary action. The spiral blade pulls the branches down, and any soft matter such as leaves etc as well. After using rotary blade shredders, this type is awesome. The only drawback being that it cuts the branches into 1/2" to 1" chunks rather than shredding them...a small price to pay, in my opinion.