Webb WEESS Vs. The Handy Electric Impact Shredder - Electric Garden Shredder Review

The fantastic team at Handy sent us two shredders to check out this year: The Webb WEESS silent electric garden shredder and The Handy electric impact shredder. We pit them against each other to see which ones does the better job of processing branches .
Watch our review to see which electric shredder comes out tops and which one we recommend.
Webb WEESS silent electric garden shredder: webbgardenpower.co.uk/product...
The Handy electric impact shredder: thehandy.co.uk/product/electr...
Weekly Country Living Vlog: bit.ly/3IyIf86
Website: www.myhomefarm.co.uk
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[@sammylpt9076]

Great video and lots of good information to digest there. I’m in the process of using a compost heap to heat my home (or at least add heat to the home) using a Jean Pain technique. I’m hoping if I go for the Handy that the shredded material won’t break down too quickly as I don’t want a heap I’ll need to aerate. I understand that higher carbon:nitrogen ratios tend to break slower and don’t need turning. Currently I have a heap that’s using leaf and brassica waste and it’s comfortably hitting 65°C even with -2°C night frosts. Turning is a bit of an issue if you have heating pipes coiled within it. So I’ll chance the Handy I guess. I do have a Timberwolf for bigger stuff so I could mix and match. The timberwolf is nice but it’s PTO driven which makes it hard inconvenient for most day to day shredding. How does this handle with leaves?

[@sammylpt9076]

Firstly let me wish you both all the best and the content is really good. Really enjoyed the video :) So I bought the Handy Impact Shredder based on your review. While I’ve only had the product for less than 24 hours and I haven’t had a full on go with it with various materials, I’d say it’s pretty sub optimal. I guess the price is a good selling point. Frankly I had a bit of an issue with the assembly of it. I’d say the manual is basic at best and while it’s not rocket science I found the screw fiddly and not aligning that easily. This is a minor issue however. The main issue I have is the feeder where you put sticks. Sticks need to be relatively branch free, as I spent a lot of time jamming the green paddle in to push the small branches through and the rest of the time wrestling with the branches to pull them out. The biggest problem is the rubber flaps; I presume they are a safety feature but they allow stuff in, but then it jams and it’s a rigmarole to get them out. I have found in the past couple of hours you sort of have to be quite firm with it. Don’t think the branches will just self-feed as they often won’t. I guess I got off to a bad start because I wanted to check the bin after I had shredded a couple of branches to see how fine it was, and the box was stuck. The release mechanism was released but the box wouldn’t budge. I still don’t know how to properly take the box out. I ended up having to give it a slap from the other side to dislodge the box. It’s also annoying that the box can’t be left off or left partially on as the machine won’t work. I mean I get the safety aspect but it’s still annoying. Aside from all of that, customer service are brilliant. The mulch, as stated in this review is also brilliant for what I want it for. I’m not sure how it’ll handle leaves. As for the noise I think it’s acceptable. I guess it’s worth the £160 RRP just a shame with the feed option. Still, a good review. Everyone is different and I guess I’ll grow fonder of it the more I use it.

[@davidcaple5547]

Hi, thanks for the video, it's a great help. I'm specifically looking for a shredder to chop stalky hay and am attracted to the Handy because of it's little hopper which most others don't have. How do you think it might fair?

[@MyHomeFarm]

Will the hay be dry (I assume it will be)? If it’s still wet it may tangle in the blades. The blades on most of the shredders we’ve tried like texture to grind and shred.

[@davidcaple5547]

@MyHomeFarm Yes, very dry ... it's the hay the horses have dropped from their nets or is swept up from the floor of the feed store. The problem for composting is it's 'stalky' so does not compost as fast as the softer material. I'm wanting to shred it to aid composting but also retain a workable texture to the compost rather than long stalks.

[@paulhollingsworth8729]

I ended up getting both types of shredder from Homebase. Sovereign impact shredder with the spinning blade (exact same design as Handy) cannot handle dry wood - only freshly cut branches or tree roots. If you give it dry wood it just sits there and starts smoking as it rubs against the wood (which flexes) instead of cutting into it. By contrast, the "Powerbase" (same design as the Webb) works even with thick dry pieces of wood and the "snake" problem you mention is fixed by adjusting the cutting blade. Both were only good with long branches - too many side shoots and you couldn't fit it into either....

[@martinrichardson6039]

Hi, Currently looking to purchase my first garden shredder, mainly for vines and over hanging branches. How are you getting on with the Handy (as I don’t see many reviews on line for this shredder) and would you still recommend it?

[@MyHomeFarm]

For vines and thinner branches, the Handy should be a good choice. Ours came out of storage this week, and yes, still doing very well, and would still recommend it.

[@vozzerr]

Sorry guys. I absolutely adore your content and constantly wonder why you don’t have millions more views… BUT, I have to disagree with you about the Handy shredder. We have owned every type of garden shredder device over the years and our go-to one, whilst not a Webb brand, is exactly the same mechanism as the Webb and it’s SO much better than anything else. Who wants a shredder that produces “chainsaw dust” that has virtually zero effective usefulness in the garden? I really feel like you didn’t play with the size adjustment knob on the Webb shredder properly. If you take some time setting it up right, you won’t get any “snakes” and I think the Webb shredder will - like our similar device - give you 20+ years of faithful, useful, near silent service. Just my opinion and to each his/her own I suppose! (I’m not a Handy or Webb affiliate either!) 😄 Keep up the great content though! You guys are AMAZING!!

[@MyHomeFarm]

Thanks for the comment, your support and for watching our content. We're hoping that the KZbin algorithm shows us some love soon and helps us increase our views. 😀 As we mentioned in our review it is a matter of what you want your shredded materials to be. We prefer the finer shredded material because it's ideal for our pathways and it breaks down faster when put it on a compost heap. Having said that, I completely understand why people would prefer the chunkier shredded branches. It's handy that there are two different products on the market for consumers to choose from. We did play around with the tightening mechanism, and the issue we experienced was that it was great for one branch, then we put in a thinner one and it "snaked" out. Thanks again for watching.