The Best Wood Chippers For Garden Waste And Mulch

The wood chipper is a must-have for anyone with a backyard, lawn, garden, or any open space that needs to stay clean. If you’re interested in learning about the best wood chippers on the market, continue reading.

The Best Wood Chippers Right Now

A wood chipper is a must-have to keep your garden clean and beautiful, so don’t jump into buying the first thing you see. Instead, consider our picks for the highest-quality wood chippers available at the moment and see what makes them so special.

Best Overall: SuperHandy Wood Chipper Ultra Duty 7 HP

If you’re looking for the best wood chipper and have no time for extensive research, look no further than this one. This chipper multitasks as a shredder and mulcher as well.

It boasts a powerful gas-powered engine that puts electric competitors to shame. It can also chip wood up to 3″ in diameter. The 3-year warranty speaks volumes about its durability.

The chipper is also convenient, thanks to its heavy-duty wheels that make it portable and the adjustable guide of the vertical discharge chute, which helps you accurately feed the wood into the machine.

Best Budget: PowerSmart PS10 15-Amp Electric Garden Chipper

If you have a small lawn and want a budget-friendly electric wood chipper to keep it clean, this one gives you a quality performance at an affordable price.

First things first, PowerSmart proves that you can provide quality without astronomical price points. It’s good enough to chip all 1 5/8″ thick handle twigs, lawn clippings, and leaves. Also, it has a safety knob that makes the experience stress-free.

This chipper is quite lightweight, weighing only 30 pounds. It’s also compact and small, and the wheels make moving it around hassle-free. It also operates quietly, which is perfect for use in urban areas.

Best Electric: Patriot Products CSV-2515 Electric Chipper Shredder

There’s nothing more convenient to use than an electric wood chipper that cleans your yard without making noise or a mess, and there’s no better option than this one.

This electric chipper looks durable because it is. Also, it can cut up to 2 ½” thick stalks, twigs, leaves, vines, and so much more. It turns the garden waste into coin-size chips, which is impressive for an electric model.

For your convenience, the chipper comes with a top-mounted hopper to feed it easily and includes a standard collection bag for hassle-free discharge. It also operates quietly for a peaceful experience.

Best Gas: Landworks Wood Chipper Shredder 7 HP

If electric chippers are too weak to impress you, a gas-powered one like the Landworks model is all you need. It doubles as a shredder and mulcher, saving you money. The gas-powered engine is powerful enough to handle wood up to 3″ in diameter.

Thanks to the adjustable guide of the vertical discharge chute, you can accurately feed the wood into the machine from above. It also weighs only 35 pounds, making it quite easy to move around.

Best High Torque: Patriot Products CSV-3100B 10 HP Wood Chipper

If you find low torque in a wood chipper too weak, consider this high-torque gem that can power through the toughest wood with ease.

It’s surprisingly easy to assemble. As a gas-powered chipper, it’s more powerful than an electric one. It uses an impressively high torque of 14.6 ft-lbs to cut through 3″ in diameter of material like it’s no big deal. Fortunately, it Includes a standard collection bag so that it can discharge wood effortlessly.

Most Portable: Landworks Wood Chipper with Hopper Attachment

If your highest priority is getting a portable wood chipper, we highly recommend this incredibly convenient one. As a light-duty chipper, it cuts up to 1.57” in diameter, which is more than enough for someone with a small garden to care for. Also, it has an overload protection switch that ensures your safety and the longevity of the machine.

It’s the most portable item on the list, thanks to having two wheels and weighing only 23 pounds. The quietness is also appreciated.

Best Heavy Duty: GreatCircleUSA Wood Chipper Shredder Mulcher

If you’re tired of light-duty chippers, you’ll love our recommendation for the best wood chipper for heavy-duty work. It acts as a shredder and mulcher as well. Also, it uses a gas-powered engine to cut through all kinds of stuff up to 3″ in diameter.

How to Choose a Wood Chipper

Whether you’re a professional wood conqueror or a beginner that’s overwhelmed with how much detail there is in this topic, there are a few features and factors to consider before you buy the next wood chipper shredder.

Here are the most important ones:

Different types

Electric

You can immediately spot an electric chipper shredder, thanks to its resemblance to a golf bag.

The electric wood chipper is the simplest one to operate, which makes it the ideal choice for a beginner. Also, this type is portable and much quieter than its heavier and louder counterparts. Its affordability is also hard to beat.

Note that it isn’t the most powerful of all types, but it gets the job done for most everyday users that have outlets nearby. So, use them for loose debris, leaves, smaller branches, sticks, twigs, and yard trimmings.

Gas

The gas chipper is the exact opposite of its electric counterpart in every way imaginable. It’s quite powerful and efficient because it finishes the job in no time.

Gas-powered wood chippers are the ideal choice for chipping thicker branches, tree limbs, and overall much larger loads. They don’t need to be close to outlets either.

However, the gas chipper is quite loud, emits a burning odor, takes up space, and needs a lot of maintenance, which means that the average user might find it challenging to keep.

PTO

A power take-off or PTO is a kind of wood chipper that’s meant for wood chipping and shredding in farms and industrial uses. The PTO chipper differs from its electric and gas counterparts in the way that it derives its power from a truck, tractor, or mower.

When powered by these vehicles, the PTO chipper has a lot of energy that overpowers any other type of chipper. It chops up large loads of thick wood in its auto-feed system at an astonishingly high rate.

Needless to say, this chipper is the most expensive of all, but it’s worth it for those who need a wood-chomping beast.

Walk-Behind Vacuum​s

If you have a messy backyard with lots of garden waste everywhere, having to carry the wood yourself to the chipper will be exhausting. Fortunately, this lawnmower-like chipper allows you to use it like a vacuum that sucks up the yard waste from the ground.

Different Designs

Disk

The most common design for wood chippers is the disk. This mechanism involves a flywheel with blades that rotates at high speed when the chipper is turned on.

Screw

Now, let’s move onto a more intense design, which is the screw. Screws in chippers work slowly but deadlier than disks, which is why you’ll find these chippers typically attached to vehicles, not in electric models.

Drum

A drum chipper involves rotating side drums with sharp metal teeth and chip breakers behind them that you feed the wood into. It’s the best option if you have a lot of wood to chip at once.

Did You Know? The oldest chipper design is the drum, which is still used today since 1884.

Flail

Finally, we have flail chippers. They differ from the others by having drums with metal chains or blades that rotate quickly. 

If you’re looking for lightweight and affordable chippers that can handle light use, such as chipping leaves, soft food, smaller branches, debris, and other light yard waste, flail chippers are a no-brainer to have. However, don’t get them if you have large loads of wood to chip.

Bag Capacity

As you can probably imagine, all that chipping may generate waste that needs to be collected and discarded. Some, but not all, chippers have a bag that’s just for collecting chipper discharge. If you get a model with a bag, you should consider its capacity and how it measures up to your needs.

If you tend to chip large loads of wood at once, then you need a bag with a large capacity. Bear in mind that large capacities come at a cost, which is the heaviness that may be inconvenient when you try to empty the bag.

On the other hand, smaller bags are easier to carry but require emptying more frequently.

Cutting Blades

Anyone buying a wood chipper should prioritize the blades since they do all the essential work. Every blade has a cutting capacity. Some electric chippers do light work, cutting a maximum material diameter of 2 inches. Others, such as gas and PTO chippers, cut a maximum material diameter of 4 to 7 inches.

The first capacity is for chippers that will only clean up leaves, twigs, and small branches, so they’re perfect for the average residential use. However, industrial use requires a larger cutting capacity, which you’ll find in the second group.

Power (Durability and Will It Last?)

It’s important to consider the power of a machine that uses its energy to cut up and shred a solid material. This energy-consuming action may take a toll on weaker chippers, while powerful ones prove their durability over the years.

So, look for chippers with high-quality materials and heavier components if you want a chipper that would last through years of chipping and shredding.

Shredding Chute

Not all the work that a wood chipper has to do is heavy. Most of the time, you’ll just want to shred soft yard waste, such as grass, twigs, leaves, and weeds. One feature that’ll help make this process hassle-free is a shredding chute, which is a separate chute that comes integrated into high-quality chippers.

That being said, the wood chipper shredder is more expensive than the average chipper.

Reduction Ratio

It’s important to understand before you chip branches and leaves how small the end result that comes out of the chipper would be. The reduction ratio that the manufacturer tells you is more or less a rough guide of the volume reduction that the machine is capable of.

You’ll find reduction ratios anywhere from 10:1 to 20:1, which means that the chipper manages to reduce the size of the wood to this ratio of its original size. If you chip a lot of wood, a high reduction ratio would be nice.

Easy to Maintain

The whole point of wood chipping is to clean up garden debris. However, in many ways, it’s the wood chipper itself that needs clean-up. 

If you want a clean operation with no need for maintenance on your end, an electric wood chipper is a no-brainer to have. It emits no fumes or odors, and it’s great for the environment. 

Gas-powered and PTO chippers are definitely more powerful, yet their power comes at a cost, which is the need for clean-up.

Features You Should Consider

Noise Level

Nobody wants a machine so loud that it wakes up the dead. However, gas chippers are loud enough to do that. If you hate noise, you’ll be pleased with how quiet electric chippers are.

Quick Pro Tip: Try to avoid any wood chipper that’s louder than 90 dB to avoid hearing damage.

Top-Mounted Hopper

If you hate manual labor, a chipper with a top-mounted hopper will make wood chipping a labor-free experience. Just drop the yard debris or waste you want to chip in to the machine from above, and the machine will do the rest.

Side-Mounted Branch Chute

If you’d like to chip a lot of thicker branches, then you need a side-mounted branch chute that enables you to insert the large load from the side right into the blades.

Wheels

Nobody dislikes portability. Wood chippers are quite essential to anyone with a considerably-sized backyard. However, moving them around when they’re large and wheel-less is horrendous. So, look for models with wheels if they’re too large for you to carry.

Weight

Just like wheels, the weight of a chipper directly affects your comfort as a user. Lightweight models make it easy to carry them or push them around on wheels.

Feed Capacity

Feed capacity refers to the load size that a chipper can take. It differs from one chipper to another, and some models have multiple chutes to have a larger feed capacity.

Number of Blades (Flails)

The number of blades in a chipper directly affects how often you’ll need to sharpen or replace them. A large number of blades work less, so they last longer and vice versa.

Convenience

If you want a convenient chipper, look for ones that are new and feature-packed. Helpful features in chippers include self-sharpening blades, tow bars, tiltable hoppers, and electric starters.

Warranty

It comes as no surprise that longer warranties are proof that the manufacturer has faith in the longevity of their product. So, look for chippers that are backed with longer warranties for high-quality materials.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most important questions people have right now.

Final Thoughts

• Electric chippers are clean and easy to use, so they’re ideal for almost everyone.
• Gas and PTO chippers are powerful, loud, and good for avid gardeners.
• Look for chippers that match your needs in bag and feed capacity, portability, and extra features.
• A high number of blades means less sharpening and replacing.