Sun Joe CJ603E Electric Silent Wood Chipper/Shredder

We used this for a big project. We cut some big bushes and we had a huge pile. I ordered this. Put it together and went to work on the pile.
It’s definitely loud but that really doesn’t bother me. You may want to use ear plugs.
One complaint is it does get stopped up if you have branches with leaves. We were doing bushes so you get my drift. It was easy to deal with. Turn it off. Make sure it is stopped. Then either bang on the outside or put your hand in to pull the stuff out.
It got stuck a few times when putting branches in. It was no problem pushing the button to reverse. Hardly even lost time.
We spent over an hour and got 3/4 of the pile done. We had to stop because we got tired. This machine could keep going.
Definitely worth the money. We have trees all around us.
If we didn’t get this we would have to go over 4 weeks to get rid of that pile! And we’d be adding to it. You see in the pictures we modified how we used it. One of us held the bin at first and the other one put the branches in. Worked real well.
The bin was empty. That’s 3/4 of our pile.

THIS UNIT YOU SOLD ME IS RUBBISH ITS FOR USE IN USA AS IS, NOT AUSTRAILIA WITHOUT KNOWING THIS I CHANGED THE PLUG ON THE 20th MARCH STARTED THE MACHINE PUT A COUPLE OF SMALL BRANCHES IN WENT WELL THEN STARTED TO SMOKE BY TIME I SWICHED OFF LET IT COOL BUT IT WOULD NOT START AGAIN THEN I READ THE FIRST REVIEW IT IS NOT BEEN PASSED TO BE SOLD IN THIS COUNTRY AS IS ITS FOR USA USE AS IT NEEDS A TRANSFORMER TO WORK HERE PLEASE RETURN MY MONEY D KELLY So if its set up for use in USA why sell in AUSTRALIA looks like il not buy Amazon again ????OVER YEARS 42 ARTICALS

After spending $600 to have a brush pile hauled away, last year, one of my new years resolutions, was to get a wood chipper, and never have to spend that money again.

Last year, we decided to clean up our backyard, for the first time in a decade or so. Due to the fact that we live on the edge of woods, we had an extremely large number of small saplings growing in the yard. After cutting them all down, and adding them to our ever re-growing brush pile, I decided to start looking at some wood chippers.

Now due to the crazy prices on gas, right now, I knew up front, that I wanted an electric powered one. The bonus of not going deaf while using it, would be a major plus, too. Sure, I wouldn’t be able to fit 1ft wide chunks of wood, but most of the wood we’re disposing of, were 1-2″ or less in diameter. I saw this one, out here, and regardless of all of the glowing reviews, just couldn’t bring myself to buy it online.

So, I decided to check the various stores around us, and wound up settling on another brand.

I brought it home, and started to assemble it, only to find out I had missing pieces. So… back to the store it went.

The store replaced it, and I brought it home, and assembled it… only to find a bolt missing… ok.. fine.. this time I just called the store, and they said they’d give me a bolt. So I took another trip (did I fail to mention the physical store is roughly 30 mins away?) retrieved the bolt, and came home and finished the assembly.

Great!! The product is assembled.. and I take it outside to start working on the brush pile. The first thing I notice, is that some of the branches won’t fit. The manufacturer claims 1.5″, but the slot to insert the branches is only 1.2″… ooookay then.

So, I feed a few branches through.. and the unit gets jammed due to some evergreen fronds. They’re not big, they just apparently got stuck in the feeder, after the chipper mechanism. So, I have to take the unit apart, to clean those out. Fine.

I continue to chip a few branches, and the unit stops, indicating it’s overheated…. for maybe 10 branches, in the pile of several hundred. I wait for the unit to cool down, feed another 4 branches through, and it overheats again. This time… no matter what I do, the unit will not turn back on, even though it indicates it should be.

Frustrated, returned the unit.. came home, and ordered this one.

.. and what a purchase it is 🙂

It chops up branches with no issues, and while it doesn’t exactly produce full on ‘mulch’ like some people want, it DOES make spreading out the branches, into gardens and compost piles, VERY easy.

I went through the entire brunch pile, today, and then went out of my way to give my trees and bushes a trim… just so I could chop up the branches… It’s fantastic. How much was the entire brush pile? Approximately 22 of the little canvas totes the unit came with, full. Not bad at all. Finished it up, wiped it down with a damp cloth.. and it’s ready for the next time 🙂

Now, there are a few complaints, too, but nothing that glaring.

1.) if you are feeding small length twigs into the unit… say, 6-10 inches long.. the unit will occasionally flip them back out. Not a big deal, just gotta remember to wear gloves, and eye protection.. and keep your hand over the opening while feeding small items in, so they don’t bounce back out.

2.) The wheels on the unit are definitely the cheap style plastic things. They are serviceable, but maneuvering the chipper over the yard, via the wheels, is somewhat counter productive. I just found it easier to carry it, as it’s not very heavy.

So… if you’re that person, like me, who is sitting on the fence, trying to decide if you really want to purchase this thing online. Do so. It’ll potentially save you some frustration, and make your yard nicer in the process 🙂

Glad I bought this model rather then the smaller one! I have a small forest behind my house and I had a lot of cedar, spruce and birch branches to dispose of. While still loud, it is 14 decibels quieter than the smaller model, likely due to the different chipper mechanism. The chipper action in this model is different, as the motor spins at 60 rpm rather than 4,300 rpm. While I haven’t tested the maximum size, I regularly chipped branched up to 1.25”, and it handled them well, never overheating or throwing a breaker, even on a 100’ heavy duty outdoor cord. As others have noted, it doesn’t like any wet material and won’t shred fine 1/8” branches, leaves or needles. There is minimal prep work for the branches: straight ones with small side branches and leaves can be fed directly, while longer ones or those with sharp angles need to be cut with loppers to aid feeding. While it makes quick work of branches, the hopper underneath can quickly get jammed if you are not careful. I periodically shut off the machine and use a curved branch to clear the jam, and you are back in business. The included bag can be be suspended from the chipper, but I found it got filled quickly so did not use it after the first batch. Overall, very pleased with how efficiently it reduces a pile of branches to mulch.