Yard Force YF8000LS Electric Leaf Mulcher/Shredder with Bonus Accessory Kit, One Size, Black/Orange

As usual there were some negative reviews when I researched this leave mulcher. As usual it worked as designed if used properly. Do not jam the leaves down the chute. A light push will avoid over loading the machine. I used a 30 gallon barrel, instead of bags, to collect the mulch. It fitted great under the machine, with about a 2" gap from the bottom of the machine. The amount that escapes through the gap is insignificant compared to the amount of mulch in the barrel. This saves money and time. I use the mulch. The air filter is easy to clean. It is easy to take off and put on, but I do not even do that. After each full barrel I just do a quick swipe across the exposed filter. When I first used the machine I did not think about the filter until after I produced 5 barrels of mulch and the machine still worked fine. I have thus far produced about 50 barrels of mulch and have not done a major cleaning of the filter. I mulch leaves and pine needles with some small trigs and an occasional pine cone. The trigs and pine cone do not hurt the machine, but they do wear the trimmer line down faster. Due to the trigs I had to replace the trimmer line after producing 5 barrels of mulch. You use 2 trimmer lines to operate and the machine came with 10 extra lines. I bought an extra package of thinner trimmer lines with the mulcher. The thinner lines are real easy to replace, but they last only 2 full barrels worth. The thicker lines require the patience of threading a needle. You can extend the life of the trimmer line by occasionally shaking the mulcher. Not sure if this is a good thing to do. I got the mulcher so as to be able to produce a massive amount of mulch. The mulcher meets my need. Just do not try to jam anything down the chute. The machine is simple and should last a long time.

This unit works great even on wet leaves. I had to stop and clear out the drum more than you would with dry leaves but it worked fine. The string change is easy and quick. I changed to a square line and it chops better than round. The unit comes with safety glasses and leaf scoops which is a nice for safety and utility right outta the box. If you don’t have glasses, don’t operate this or any such unit without them. And gloves. It is fast and reduced several large piles of leaves to a couple barrels of fine mulch. It handled twigs no problem. Pick out the larger sticks to save your string. It passed small pine cones through no problem with out clogging, unlike my leaf blower-vac. This is the most economical unit on the market and with the glasses and scoops a good value. Well see how long it lasts. So far it has saved me about $30 in leaf disposal pickup by the garbage man. 3 more sessions and it’s oaid for. And I get useful soil amendment for the garden. The bag arrangement is not great. They attach with bungee cords. The legs are adjustable. I modified a round 30g trash can to make room for the legs and the unit sits on it perfectly. Problem solved.

Using this to mulch (mostly) dried leaves. If you take your time and have the patience to remove sticks and twigs, this does the job well. The best ratio I am getting is about 4 to 1. I have used this for about 5 hours of mulching over the last 2 weeks. The Good: Does a nice job of mulching (dry) Small footprint The Bad: Legs are starting to show signs of poor engineering (one button will not stay locked now) Legs are becoming very difficult to adjust the height Not fast String needs replacement after about 1 hour I would buy this again, even with the negatives

Our area just doubled the cost of the pick up of bags of leaves. We got the shredder and it was easy to assemble, and gets easier each time you do it. The bag holder is a bungee cord and is very strong at first but loosens up after use, which just makes it easier to put the bag on. The leaves shred up and there are 3 settings for how small you want it. The cutting is done by the same line you use on a trimmer. Very easy to replace and has to be done when you change the bag. We have a weight limit on the bags so we can only fill them 1/2 full. This makes a normal 5-7 bags turn into 1/2 bag. There is a considerable amount of dust that comes out of the top, so you need to be sure to set it up where the wind blows the dust away from you. Clean up is easy, we just use a leaf blower to blow the dust off. We are quite happy with it and it will pay for itself in one year of reduced bags to have picked up.

Legs are poorly made and don't fit into stands. Plastic broke after first use. But the mulching worked flawlessly so i give it three stars, I loved the fine leaf mulch but the legs in which it stands poorly designed. You may want to buy another brand.

Needs a 110v supply as it's an American item.

I thought the price differential between this version of the product being sold in the US and this 'international' version was for fitting an EU motor and plug.... but no, it arrived with a US plug and motor. Apparently that's what 'international' means.... it won't work in the market you live in! It definitely wasn't clear within the product description that this was the case. Obviously you can buy a voltage transformer, but that's a large additional expense and typically results in a far shorter lifespan for the product.