Flowtron Electric Leaf Mulcher & Shredder | Portable Garden Grinder & Chipper for Wet/Dry Leaves, Grass & Pine Needles | Freestanding, Upto 30:1 Mulch Ratio, Adjustable Coarseness

We have a large red maple in the front yard and poplars in the back that generate a lot of leaf material. I've experimented with various methods, from leaf blow and manual bagging, to leaf blowing and sucking/mulching with the blower unit, to mowing with a Toro Lawn mower, to full manual bagging. I bought the Flowtron with the thought that this might be "it" in terms of putting quick work to a time-consuming annual task.Am I happy with the Flowtron? Not completely. The unit really requires a more powerful eletric motor, perhaps maybe 30-50% more HP. A redesign of the internal mulching chamber would also be a really good idea. If you dump too many leaves in at one time, they have a tendency to swirl around and collect in the mulching chamber instead of dropping all the way through the unit after mulching. Overloading and motor shut-down result. I personally feel that a unit of this design SHOULD be able to take an armful of leaves I pick up by hand and mulch them down without overloading. However with the ports inside the unit set to wide open, the unit still manages to shut down if you dump an armful load of leaves in all at once. So one must be concious of the "feed rate" when using this unit, and that clearly is going to slow down the task at hand.If the motor shuts down, it's restarted by resetting the circuit breaker switch. A big note of caution - be certain to switch the unit off before you reach down inside the unit and reset the switch, because the unit will restart with your hand inside the unit. OUCH!Wet leaves are another challenge, which significantly decreases the ability of the unit to shred leaves without shutting down. If you have wet leaves, you can expect frequent shut-downs and restarts using this unit. If I intend to Flowtron, I actually wait a couple days for the leaves to dry out as it's a losing proposition trying to run them through the unit if they're wet or moist. Again, a more powerful motor and better funnel design would probably solve this problem easily.Note that it is not necessary to purchase the Flowtron shreding line. Any standard .095 diameter trimmer line cut to the proper length will work just fine.If the Flowtron had a more powerful motor, a vortex-shaped mulching chamber that would readily drop the mulched leaves through the unit before overloading, and a safety switch to avoid restart of the unit if your hand is inside (or a reset switch on the outside of the unit - doesn't that make more sense anyway?), I would be much happier.The bottom line is this. The Flowtron is the only exclusively-leaf mulcher out there right now. The concept it sound, but the design execution is not yet 100%. Can you set up the Flowtron, go out in your front yard, dump an armful of leaves into the unit and have it "perform its mission"? Yes, IF the leaves are dry. Yes, IF it's not too big an armful and the leaves are not all newly fallen. Yes, IF you don't mind lots of leaf dust when leaves are dry. Yes, IF you don't mind resetting the circuit breaker switch if sticks larger than twigs are fed into the unit. Yes, IF you're careful not to lose the small plastic nut and o-ring that hold the string head on the motor. Yes, IF you're somewhat patient in your bagging task.Will I still mow and manual bag if leaf cover is light? You bet. It's still the quickest method if leaf cover isn't significant. Will I still use the Flowtron? Yes, when conditions require it - and with frustration at the design shortfalls and limitations. I DO hope they make some improvements, because I'd really like to rave about this unit. The concept is sound, but the design is still lacking. Buy it with an understanding of its limitations and the conditions under which it can best best used, and you'll find it an interesting addition to your yard tool armada.

I live in a rural area where it's required to clear "fuel" 100 feet around our home for fire safety. Our lot has both Black Oaks and Jeffrey Pines and we get a thick carpet of leaves and pine needles. Previously we had a local area where we could dump them, but it's become too full and is no longer available. And we can't burn. So our options were to either haul multiple truck loads to a dump site 40 miles away or mulch.There have been a wide range of ratings of this product and I expected some problems. First the negatives:1. Assembling the black plastic cone at the top - there are two halves that must be assembled together and then the cone is pressed into place on top of the red section. The two halves are NOT made to easily fit together. There are tabs that must overlap and whoever designed it must have been having a really bad day! Expect to need an extra hand to hold the halves in place and to have an very imperfect fit once you're done.2. Assembling the stand - the black metal stand comes in two sections which join together at the middle of the curved area. Two half round plates are screwed together to clamp the sections together. The holes were not the proper size and needed to be drilled out. The screws were extremely cheap and vise grips had to be used to turn them to tighten.3. Attaching a plastic lawn/leaf bag - the bungee cord supplied is very weak and even if it were stronger, attaching the bag doesn't work too well. Unless using small bags the bag will sag on the ground and need to be constantly adjusted - if it doesn't completely come off the shredder.4. As expected it's noisy and can be very dusty - eye and ear protection and a dust mask should be used.Function:There are several settings depending on what you intend to mulch. I've found that I only use the finest setting. I can dump large handfuls of leaves and needles into it and if I do so while being careful to not overload it and not let it bog down, it works fine. If too much is fed into it at once, it tends to clear out a hole around the cutting line so that the rest of the material needs to be stirred up so it will feed. Don't use your hands - a short stick will do fine.Instead of using a lawn/leaf bag I found it can work well on top of a plastic trash can - if you need to haul the mulch somewhere. Otherwise I just rake up a large pile, feed it into the mulcher and let it pile up on the ground.As others have suggested, buy a reel of plastic line and cut your own lengths instead of paying significantly more for pre-cut line. You'll go through a lot, which is a pain, but I think there could be a big safety difference if you modified it to use steel rods instead of the plastic line.Overall - once assembled, it does what I need done.UPDATE:Four 1/4 Years later - it's still running strong. Each year we need to clear a lot of oak leaves and pine needles from the yard. I've found that the best way to do this is to put a large trash bag (I use 40 gallon + sized bags) in a trash can and then place the mulcher on top of the can. It swivels enough, as you can see in the product image, that you can adjust it to balance well. The lower portion of the mulcher extends down into the trash can. I cut my own lengths of .080 trimmer line using the original lengths of line that came with it as a template. Because the pile of leaves and pine needles often have twigs in the line may need to be changed before a trash can is full. While the old line can be pulled out by hand, I've found it easier to carry a small pair of needle nose pliers with me to grab it if the ends get too short. Finally I keep a 2-3 foot long stick with me to stir the leaves and needles if they get stuck when I dump too many in. And be sure to wear eye and ear protection when using it as well as nose and mouth protection from the dust. Overall - it was a good purchase and continues to do the job.UPDATE - 7 YEARS LATERMy comments above are still valid. Finally something broke this year (Spring 2019). The large barrel of the mulcher attaches to the metal legs/frame with a plastic piece that clamps onto the frame and has a large knob that is used to tighten the barrel to the desired angle or to loosen it enough to rotate the barrel upside down to fit between the frame for storage. This year one of those pieces that clamps to the frame broke. While I was able to tape it in place with Gorilla tape, I'll need to figure out how to repair it OR need to look for a replacement part (which I haven't done yet). Would I buy it again? Yes - while the fit of some parts is poor as I mentioned earlier, after nearly 100 full 40-45 gallon bags of mulched leaves and pine needles the motor continues to run strongly and it still does what I need.