About 20 hours of use now over the last month. I did not know this kind of thing existed until recently. I wish I had bought something like this over a decade ago. There is a good review going over some use advice and I'll give some more. I chose this chipper over the competing chippers because the design seemed better although I frankly am not entirely clear what the operating mechanism is on some of the other competitors (most clearly are doing essentially the same thing). What seemed most different was the use of the integrated box to collect the mulched material. The other products did not have as good a way to collect the mulched material. After using it... I still think this was the better product although like other reviewers, I have not use a competing machine. Also some others reviewed had pictures of the mulched material which did not look chopped up like I wanted it and the picture on this one looked better processed. Although I really think this is a great machine.... it is not a magic machine and has to be fed properly to operate. The negative reviews seemed to just not want to understand that If you are doing leaves... that could be impossible with this device without clogging. The feed material can only have so much moisture laden leaves go through without them turning into a clog. Even heavily leafed branches can be a problem and the best solution is to alternate dead old branches with a leafier one as stated in the directions. The box for the mulch can be a problem in that it can back up and clog up the machine. You need to check the box frequently, initially pushing the mulch towards the back as the material enters the box at the front part. Don't try to get too much in the collection box or you will get the machine backed up. I have experienced what I will call clog up jams and a jam into the cutting blades. Both cleared easily enough once you unscrew the knob to open access to the cutting blade and the area which empties into the hopper.As noted so helpfully in another review.... you will quickly experience when clearing clogs that a sensor gets some junk in it which prevents the machine from operating... so take a look when you experience this problem and clear out the stuff that has gone into this small rectangular area.... unfortunately it is easy to get material in this area when clearing out a clog. With experience in operation you will learn to prepare feed material better to keep the device operating better without problems. So I would suspect any of these small chippers require quite a bit of care to operate successfully. What you gain is a huge reduction in volume and you are producing some nice mulch you can use.... Not big chips like purchased mulch or as produced by big chippers.... but material closer to wood shavings used for pet rodents.Safety... don't kid yourself.... what this is doing can cause injury. Although the design keeps your fingers from getting into the cutting parts effectively and keeps the cutting effectively shielded, you will want to wear gloves, ear protection and eye protection. Versus safety glasses... a full face shield might be nice. When stuff can fly about with things like this and wood cutting tools, I personally use a helmet type PAPR which provides excellent protection. There is much less material kicked into the air from this than from a chainsaw, jig saw or circular saw but some does pop out. Also in feeding branches in they can seriously jerk about at times which can sting a bit. Any chipper will do this I would think. The key to feeding is figuring about what can be fed and then learning to rotate the larger feed material about while pushing it in.With all the work clearing bushes, trimming trees over the years.... this would have been so great to have then ... but I am enjoying using it and highly recommend.I saw this chipper on a youtube video and thought "Gee, I sure could use that". Isn't that always the case? Assembly was so simple a child could do it. So there I am, all set to start chipping away all my prunings, and in goes one branch. Good. In goes another. Good. In goes #3. Sounds funny. In goes #4, Houstin, we have a situation. It would not feed in. And the whole thing was making a kind of "hum" sound. So I opened it up using the front access knob and sure enough, it was clogged. So I unclog it, and resume. Nope, clogged again. On closer inspection this machine cannot process/shred thicker green leaves that are still malliable. All they do is clog up the exit shute. KRIKE! ALL my prunings are covered with leaves. So genius strikes and I (I am an engineer) made a modification that removes the "guide fins" and axel from the exit shute (Warranty absolutely and completely voided!). Bingo, no more clogs. But I had to make another mod on the bottom since those fins were there to stop airflow from blowing the chips around in the bin below.As far as the chipper part is concerned, no complaints. I put in branches up to 1.5" and it works like a charm. My neighbor even wants to borrow it. (NO!) That bin at the bottom fills quickly so you have to stay on top of it. Lots (too many for me) safety features. Ex, it is impossible to shove yours, or someone elses (Fargo), fingers into the chipper the way it's made.For $150 (July 2022) it is impossible to go wrong with this machine.For the price, I was worried that it wouldn't work as well as expected.I was worried more when the order came but was missing parts.BUT.The company quickly replaced the item, and the second time the experience was perfect.It was SUPER easy to assemble.We were so excited we used it right away.And it definitely exceeded our expectations.The safety features made me feel really comfortable using it. Once I got the hang of using it, we were off!We did over 3 bins worth before we had to take a break...we were tired, but not the machine, lol!Some things to note based on our experience.Use gloves.Keep hands away from sticks once the blades grab it.Pay attention to the bin filling up.Jams DO happen, don't panic. The machine is easy to open and clean out.Use DRY wood/leaves to minimize jamming.And have fun...it's addictive seeing all the dead wood turn into beautiful mulch for your yard.Purchased this last year and have gotten a significant amount of use out of it. It chews through branches easily and only have issues with hardwood that is close to the max diameter.Be careful if you run it with a full bin as this will cause it to jam up and not clear. If this happens, its simple enough to reach under (with the power off) and clear the discard chute of the blockage. This also happens when you run pine branches through as well.Overall, this has been a great purchase and has allowed me to create my own mulch for the garden and reduced the need for throwing away or burning all that yard waste. Good to know that when the blades get dull, the shredded material will look longer and its as simple as turning around the blades as they are reversible. Don't bother if you want to use this for leaves though, way too much of a hassle.We bought this shredder in July to finish some pretty well rotted compost and chip some small dry branches from winter pruning. It jammed all the time, was difficult to clear the jammed material, wouldn't chip the branches at, just smoked and threatened to catch fire. A rather useless piece of machinery at $385. To top it all off, our local Home Hardware just had them on sale for $179. I think they realized they were junk too. Totally unsatisfied with this machine.Well made unit for an electric chipper shredder. Got the power for the recommended throughput of leaves and branches. The only knock I have to not give it 5 stars is the output chute to the bin. A design shortcoming. There is a guard that prevents certain material from exiting the chipping area into the bin. Certain materials such as greener leaves or in my case cedar boughs get backed up here and clogged up the chipping area. The result is you having to frequently open up the unit and clearing this area. If this would have been a mechanism with a drive to move materials down into the bin this machine would have been perfect. This aside branches within the recommended size are taken care of with no problems and the finished material is perfect for garden mulch. Check out the many helpful YouTube videos on this product.If you let the machine do the work without trying to jam pieces through it fast as I seen some people do on You Tube, it works just fine. If you put in branches with lots of green leaves, it has a tendency to plug up over time but it is easy to clear up. Demo video show lady putting leaves through the top but it is way too time consuming I consider it useless for shredding leaves. I am quite happy how it chipped the branches and twigs. It is far less noisy than gas operated chippers. Collection bin is a definite plus. As noted, the reason I did not give it five stars is it should not be advertised as leaf shredder (misleading) and it's tendency to plug up with branches with lots of green leaves.The feed opening is very small. Only very straight branches with hardly any twigs will fit in. To be fair, it chips them quite nicely if you can get them in there.The hopper for leaf mulch seemed like a good idea, but trying to feed some raked wet leaves into the opening soon plugged it up.I did not find it useable enough to keep it.