Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've run the machine for about 5 hours over the last 2 weekends. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Here's what I've learned: - Works well with small (under 3/4 inch) dry branches. - Very small branches (under 1/8 inch) pretty much pass straight through without getting chopped very much. - Leaves and pine needles on branches pretty much go straight through. - Go slow! Don't try to jam a lot of material into it. - Cut branches to 3 feet or less before you feed them into the machine. - Listen to it. Learn what it sounds like when there are no problems. Then if it ever starts to sound different (e.g. like running a little slower than normal), open it up and see if you can find out why. So far it's been pretty obvious. - No problems with branches from ash or pine trees, or from bushes (red-twigged dogwood, not sure what the others are). - The bark on Linden trees is very fibrous and it will tend to get caught in the housing and will start to slow-down the motor. Take a look at the picture I uploaded. If you don't catch it quick enough you'll need pliers to pull the pieces out. - I found no way to switch from chipping to shredding to mulching to composting. Nothing in the manual and no obvious adjustment on the machine.