Reviews

The high rope saw can be difficult to use. It doesn't always stay cutting edge down so you have to throw the saw back up to change which side is down(Only one side of the blade cuts). It binds frequently and sometimes gets stuck. Make sure you read the directons and udercut the branch or the bark will tear. It is difficult to use by yourself if the branch is more than 3 inches in diamater. It bent and had to be thrown our after using it on about 15 branches.

We bought this saw to cut off a large dead branch over our yard. First of all, it was HARD to toss the weight over the high branch. It took a lot of attempts. There's got to be a better way to get it up there - like attaching the end of the string to a remote control toy helicopter? Why not? :) But maybe it's just us. Once the saw was in place, the rest was relatively easy - just pull it back and forth. A piece of advice - once you get it going - don't stop to catch a breath or readjust untill the branch is cut off completely. We stopped, and the saw immediately got stuck. And it's really hard to get it moving again. Overall, we got the job done just fine. Maybe the next time we have to use the saw it will be easier.

Like most everyone else I have found it to work great once you get it on the branch and have a buddy working the other end of the rope at 45 degrees. Cuts much faster then I thought it would, nice clean cut. I wish they used a better quality of rope mine is fraying already. If the rope was better than I would give it 5 stars..

This worked pretty well. I would also encourage buying the 48" blade as opposed to the shorter one; the additional teeth come in handy. Beanbag is poorly attached; throw away the clip and use a caribiner or a heavy key ring. Have another rope handy if the blade binds (it did twice for me). Unhook the beanbag from the blade rope and hook it to another rope and use that to lasso the branch further away from the tree. You can then manhandle the branch from the lasso rope if the blade binds.

Over all this product works very well. My only complaint is that the clip that attaches the throw bag is far too flimsy and should be immediately replaced with a small carabiner or something similar. Excellent product.

Reviews

The reviews for this product seem to be divided into two categories; About two-thirds of the reviewers say the chipper works great, the other third say it jams constantly, doesn't have enough power, etc. After buying one of these, reading the instruction manual, and using it for a while, I think I may know what's causing some of the problems. Page 4 of the instruction manual has a table that's supposed to tell you what size extension cord to use. The table is confusing, but the bottom line is you have to use either a 14 gauge extension cord that's 25 feet or shorter, or a 12 gauge extension cord that's 50 feet or shorter (the smaller the gauge, the bigger the wires in the cord; a 12 gauge cord can carry more current than a 14 gauge cord.) This is important, because the chipper draws 14 amps, which is about all the current you can get out of a 120 volt outlet. If you use too small an extension cord, the motor will be way down on power and the chipper's going to jam. If you use too small an extension cord for too long, the motor's eventually going to burn out. If you're buying a new extension cord, it should have the wire gauge on the package. It should say, for example "12 Gauge" or "12 AWG" (I believe AWG stands for American Wire Gauge.) If you're using an existing extension cord, if you look closely at the cord the gauge should be stamped into the plastic exterior in small letters. It will say something like 12/3 AWG. The first number is the wire gauge. Don't go by the appearance of your extension cord, there are companies that make big, industrial-looking orange extension cords that actually have small copper wires inside. If you're chipping stuff that's more than 50 feet from an electrical outlet, don't plug in another extension cord, move the stuff to the chipper. I hope this is helpful, and happy chipping.

This chipper performs reasonably well once you learn what to do and what not to do. Thin branches with leaves should be inserted from the top. Thicker brnaches from the side. Do not turn off the device until you are confident all material you inserted has been expelled or you may not be able to start it again. Regadless, expect to need to release jams even with the best handling.

Since you only assemble an item once (and assembly is not that hard) why someone rates an item low because they had a little trouble with assembly is beyond me. Aren't most of us interested in performance? I am and I was not disappointed. I understood thanks to the other reveiwers not to expect this to handle limbs over 1" in diameter and the shoot opening on the machine helps keep you honest since the oval opening is only wide enough for 1" branches. Yes you need to hang on so the limb does not feed in to fast, but it does a wonderful job. The breaker tripped one time out of several hours of chipping and that was when I first started before I got the hang of how fast to feed the stock. I use a cardboard box that fits under the exit shoot and between the legs to catch the chips and shredded materials,which I then just dump on the compost pile. Limbs larger than 1 inch have to be dealt with differently. I cut mine up into 3-4 ft lengths (usually with my Black & Decker LP1000 Alligator Lopper 4.5 amp Electric Chain Saw) and put them out for the waste management to pick up. They then mulch them for all citizens. If you have mainly large limbs this is not the machine for you, but if your needs are primarily small branches and leaves and you train yourself to use it properly you will not be disappointed. This is a great machine at a great price that does a great job.

Took it out and put it together and it didn't work. Found that the safety switch had become disconnected during shipping. Put it back together and it works fine.

Finally, and it works. After two false starts -- an electronic chipper and an electronic shredder -- I finally received the chipper and shredder in one machine. It does the job! At last a product that meets my desire to shred the leaves and small branches that I am ready to mulch from my 6th story balcony garden.

Reviews

I bought this saw about a year ago. I've bought it for cutting up some trees to be used in our firepit. Since I've had it, I've cut up about 7 trees. Most of them being about 16 inches in diameter. It has been touchy from the start. My first issue with the saw was that after I started to cut the trees into smaller sections, as soon as I would take my hand off of the throttle, the saw would stall. I did a little reading and came up with....let the saw idial for about 30 seconds after starting it up. So, I did that and it appeared to work. Well, about a month ago, I took my saw to my dad's house to fell a tree of his. What a pain in the arse. Whenever I put the saw on its side to attempt to cut a wedge, the saw sputters to a stall. I tried to use the saw again the other day....whenever I put a load on this saw, it wants to stall now. I tried to buy a medium duty saw for the homeowner and do it cheaply. Well, you get what you pay for. Now I am looking into buying a Echo or Husqvarna......that is what I should have done from the start. I guess every once in awhile you have to throw away $100 to remind you "buy quality and you will only have to do it once". Stay away from this saw.

Only buy this chain saw if you have little use for one. It is lite duty all the way.I bought this saw to cut up some large branches from a tree. It is barely good enough for this job. The saw is very hard to start. As reported by several others the chain falls off regularly. For some reason my chain needs to be replaced and I am not yet done with this small job. I have no idea why this would be but it does not cut hardly at all and smokes the wood rather than cut it.I just hope that a new chain will work long enough to finish the job. All that being said I must in fairness say that I bought this saw as "re-conditioned into like new condition".Perhaps what I really got was re-conditioned into used condition. This may be why the chain wore out so fast.

Received this saw very quickly, and is exactly what I had hoped it would be. No problems, or surprises. Saw has been preforming very well in cleaning up downed trees on my property, after another destructive winter. Anyone who can follow instructions should get plenty of use with this saw.

The product was advertised as new, but when I received it the box was marked "Recon" all over it. Maybe their sly way of trying to downplay the fact that the chainsaw is not a new one, but rather a "reconditioned" one? The chainsaw has nicks, scratches, and wear marks all over it. They couldn't even spring for a new chain inside the box----even it says "Factory Service Center Recon Chain". What a ripoff! I'll keep the chainsaw and try it out. But if it doesn't perform as advertised, this case is going straight to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) as I've seen this complaint of "paying for new, but receiving used" from other reviewers on this product.

I bought this saw in 2005 for felling three small trees (18" diameter) I would start the saw every 6 month and used fuel stabilizer when storing for long periods, in short this saw was babied. After major storm in 2010 the saw worked okay initially, but eventually became very difficult to start. It turned out that the engine had not enough compression to start. This saw just about broke me mentally and physically, exerting huge energy trying to start it. My advise is stay away from this saw, spend the extra $ for something you can rely on. If you gave me a new one for free I would not take it. You can not put a price on aggravation and frustration.