3 in 1 Wood Chipper Shredder Mulcher MF30, 7HP 212cc Heavy Duty Gas Powered, Max 3" Diameter Capacity for Wood, Limb, Leaves with Two Hoppers,4 Y-Hammers, Included Debris Bag

Tested at 5120 feet altitude.Chipper was extremely well packed. I had the UPS driver help me unload it onto a moving dolly since it was so heavy. Simple to move into the garage on the dolly.One person unpack was difficult since the chipper was so heavy but using simple physics it can be done. Place a blanket on the garage floor to ensure you do not mar or bend any of the pieces while putting together.Before assembly, make sure all packing material is removed. There is heavy cardboard between the engine and chipper body which I initially missed and can only be removed with the hopper off.Assembly by a single person was simple. Six steps and six well marked[1-6] packets of parts. Each packet contained only the parts required for that stage of assembly. All bolts are metric and are either 13 mm or 10 mm.Two manuals came with the chipper, one instruction manual and one gasoline engine owner's manual.Manual recommends SAE 15W-40 oil for general use but since I was using the chipper in the 60-90 degree fahrenheit range I used Briggs & Stratton 30W which I purchased at Lowe's. The manual has a chart of oil viscosity and outside temperature.There are two oil filler caps on the engine and oil can be filled using either of them. Only one of the orange filler caps is a dipstick. You must have a funnel with a very long tube in order to fill the oil. The oil fillers are difficult to reach and you will make a mess so have plenty of rags underneath when filling.Gasoline is another issue. One manual indicates you can use "gasahol" with no more than 10% ethanol and 87 octane or better. The other manual indicates absolutely NO ethanol in the gasoline OR use an ethanol stabilizer if using gasoline with ethanol. Confusing.I searched for quite a while for unleaded gasoline with no ethanol. Mostly I got a blank stare when asked if they dispensed no ethanol gasoline. Some station attendants indicated they did but the pump label always said dispensed with ethanol. I finally found a place that sold gasoline with no ethanol and it clearly stated that on the pump. I bought 90 octane, unleaded gasoline, no ethanol.After fueling and putting oil into the crankcase, the engine started on the first quarter pull. I was Impressed. I let the engine run for about 15 minutes and shut it down. Engine ran smoothly with this gasoline at this altitude.The next day I began chipping. After about 15 minutes of chipping lightweight branches, the engine stopped and the recoil starter would not move. I removed the circular plate on the back and looked inside. there is a depression in the chipper containment "drum", on the bottom, where chips and debris accumulate and the material packs in. I had to take a small crowbar to move the chipper drum back and forth and clean this area out by hand.A word to the wise, the area I was chipping was some distance to the garage so bring all of your tools with you such as a small crowbar, large screwdriver, pliers, socket set, flashlight. It will save multiple trips back and forth. Too bad there is not a clean out plate on the very bottom to allow access to this depression where chips really back-up.After cleaning this area out, I was able to restart the engine and chip again but the same thing happened after about 15 minutes. I cleaned out the same area but then noticed the discharge chute was clogged. The discharge chute has a floating grill inside it and when it clogs up I discovered the engine will stall. I cleaned both areas and restarted. All was fine.As I got used to using this beast these are my impressions:1) Wear safety goggles and stand to one side when chipping. Large diameter branches could come back out of the input chute and really hurt you.2) The engine is extremely powerful. It took me about two hours to chip a huge pile of brush down to nothing. However, you must keep an eye on the discharge chute because if that clogs up and is not spitting chips out, the bottom of the rotating drum area will clog up fast and stop the engine. I feel that the discharge chute size and the grill inside are design flaws. The discharge chute size is not matched to the size of this powerful engine. If you keep the discharge chute clean, this chipper works great. I have no idea why it has a slotted hanging grill inside. That seems to collect bark and backup the engine but the grill is easily removed. I haven't tried that.3) Branches must be somewhat straight. I chipped all the way up to 3 inches with no problem but large branches must be fed slowly.4) The throttle and choke are crowded around the exhaust manifold which gets extremely hot. It is very easy to burn an arm while restarting an engine and adjusting the choke and throttle.So far I am impressed considering this chipper was not the most expensive. VERY heavy construction and once you get used to a few of the quirks, it seems to do a great job. I did not give it 5 stars on ease of use since you must monitor the output chute and clean it out when it quits ejecting material and this must be done quickly or the engine will stall.

As many have said it's overall a good machine. I bought it because I did some fairly heavy trimming of 7 dogwood bushes & the local rental company wanted almost $300 for a days rental of a 3" chipper.....As many have said it does seem to jam up up with chips & won't run until clogged chips are removed.....I believe that that problem is caused by for lack of a better word the flapper valve in the chipper discharge vent....it's a fairly heavy metal flapper & I believe that if a few bigger chips block this valve that there isn't enough force to keep it opened....I removed the flapper after cleaning out the machine 3 times in an hour period, has worked fine since.....On cleaning out the clogged chips if necessary, I found that by taking off the WHOLE BACK PLATE of the chipper, which includes the mulch hopper (there is a bolt inside below where the hopper attaches that has to be removed for the plate to come off) it gives more access & it allowed me to use a SMALL SHOP VAC with a narrow hose to clean out the clog, a powerful leaf blower might do the same.As someone else mentioned since the machine will probably be used all over the yard I put the tools I need to remove the back plate--- 2 13mm wrench's, 1 13mm short & 1 13mm deep well socket & a 3" 3/8drive extension with a 3/8" drive ratchet & a magnetic bolt tray in a tool bag I'll attach to the handle so I'll have tools if needed....you could get by with just 2 13mm wrench's...there are 7 or 8 nuts & 6 nuts/bolts to remove to remove the hopper & back plate, suggest you put the nuts back on the hopper nuts/bolts as those 4 are bit longer than the other 2 nut/bolts units.....you don't need to remove the inspection plate.While I haven't used the mulcher part much yet, it does appear that the thickness of the rubber flappers there might be stiff enough to prevent even a large amount of dry leaves from being sucked into the blades without some type of extra pressure/pushingIt would be nice if the companies that make these machines had/have(???) made a ""plunger tool"" that would stop 1-2"" above the blades that would allow the user to push the smaller limbs that don't get caught by the blades in the chipper & to apply pressure to over come the mulcher's heavier rubber flappers to allow leaves into the mulcher....

The chipper could not perform as advertised. Gets jammed very easily.

Got it delivered today, just 3 days from ordering it! Unpacked and assembled in less than an hour, and it looks to be a beast. Temps were in the low 30's so I haven't had a chance to shred anything, but judging by the quality of the packaging and assembly, I'll wager it will handle my needs with ease. It has now been a few days and the 10 inches of snow we had is almost gone. After finally getting to use it, I want to rate its performance. I finally found the specific oil it recommends at Auto Zone. It is a Shell diesel product. Filled with oil with a handy little funnel with a plastic extension that could reach the hard to get to oil filler ports. Get the funnel, it will save a lot of frustration and makes it easy. It started first pull. I attached the collection bag and ran a wheelbarrow full of leaves and sticks through it. Super-fast and made a fine mulch. Then I ran some 2" limbs through the side port and they shredded quickly to a fine mulch. Be sure to close the top hopper shut off so that it doesn't expel the sheadings through there instead of bag. The only problem I encountered was the way the collection bag seals. There were some debris bypassing the bag because if the seal. Not a big deal, in the future I will use it in my garden and anything that bypasses the bag will be between my raised beds. I always put a deep layer of mulch between my raised beds for weed control, and the next year when I am preparing the soil in the beds I scoop it up (by now it has composted) and add to the beds. That way I have a continuing supply of compost each year. I would rate this shredder a 10 if I could. It is perfect for what I needed it for.