Craftsman  LEAFWACKER™ 3-Way Chipper Shredder 50 States

I've had one of these for three years now. It works well but is poorly designed for maintenance. My suggestions: 1.) If you are done for the day it shut off the fuel valve and let the carburetor run dry - it makes it a lot easier to start the next time around. 2.) If you are chipping fresh cut branches or vines what usually happens is the bark gets wrapped around the impellor in long strips and wedges between the impellor and the casing. This causes the machine to stall out. It also makes it next to impossible to restart and is the cause of all the complaints about the heavy pull to start it. If the pull is heavy I pull the chute off and remove the debris between the impellor and the housing with a pair of 12 inch needle nose pliers with a curved tip - This allows clearing the debris without actually having to take the housing apart. Also clear it from the blades or chip size decreases.

Purchased this product last Friday in order to clear my yard of tree limbs that had been cut down several weeks earlier, it did a great job. Assembly was simple with just a few bolts for the hopper and shute to be attached, add the supplied bottle of engine oil, some gas and away you go. Only one negative is the lack of dip-stick for the engine oil, I'm not sure how you are meant to tell when it needs topping up. Out of the box the engine started with just one pull of the cord and was very easy to turn over. The hopper handles smaller twigs, greenery and weeds without difficulty, it just sucks everything into the cutting blades. The limb shute takes the larger branches with ease although you do have to hold onto the longer ones until they are well into the opening to prevent them from whipping around. The collection bag is great quality and large enough for each chipping session so that it isn't too heavy to empty once full. All in all I am very happy with this product.

had only used it once will not start its wothless if i put gas on the air filter it fires right up runs for a few sec and dies i took carb apart and cleaned it 4 time still will not run on its own cannot get it to even try without a prim

Took it out of the box. a few bolts to put it together. Added the oil. added Gas. Pull starter 3 or 4 times started and worked great. Great unit

when u put debris in the chute it just sits there .you have to find a pretty heavy stick and just keep stirring it . its really a pain in the ****; you spend more time trying to get the debri through the tub it just wears you out. it is a deffinate flaw that make the job so much harder, we have used it 3 times in a year and a half, if it were still in waranty i would take it back. make sur you look at differnt models and brands, im not at all satisified with this chipper.....Jeff alsoone of theblades are bent and we dont put any thing real big down. as much as it cost i thought it eould be a pretty good machine, just make sure you really look at angles and that darn bowl. not happy in north carolina

I would have rated this item a 5 star but it did not come with a dip stick to check the oil, that was an option that I was not told about. I finally ordered one from Sears Parts Direct. The woman on the phone worked very hard to find the right part. She finally found it and it is on it's way here. Also one of the tires was flat when it arrived here. I fond out later that the valve stem core was not tight. The engine has lots of power to grind up good sized limbs.

I bought this chipper today and had to buy the floor model because it has been out of stock for almost two weeks. Chipped about 10 bags of mulch today. It should be noted that while the hoppers are plastic they have very sharp edges and will cut your hands so wear gloves. it has a 14 horse motor and is pretty powerful. starts on the first pull, but once hot and you shut it off to clean out a jam it is difficult to re-start 3 to 4 pulls and it does not pull like a lawn mower, you have to spin over the cutting blades so it is a tough pull. also there was a black wire hanging down loose and it is not shown in the manual, not sure what that is about, but it works just fine. the hopper funnels down pretty small making it difficult to sometimes get the branches to get sucked in, but man the large branch side easily chews up big branches and turns them into small chips. I think that I will take it in and have it looked at for the hard starting when hot. Overall happy with the purchase.

UPDATE - I wasn't able to edit my last post so creating a new one. I have owned & used this unit extensively for nearly two years now. Nothing has broken or been replaced. What amazes me how easy & quick it starts up even after a few weeks of not being used. I always turn off the fuel & run the carb dry when done & use a gas stabilizer. I agree with one reviewer that the choke lever is made of breakable plastic & I also agree you have to feed fairly straight branches through it. With use I learned to cut the branches in such a way that I don't run into this problem very often. My biggest issue is the smaller bushy & branchy material that gets bottle necked in the chute. I just throw it into the leaf chute. MTD makes this chipper for Craftsman & offers a Tow Bar Kit (Model # 290-010-000) so you can tow this unit behind your garden tractor. Expen$ive but it has made things faster and easier for me. Sears needs to include this with the chipper. Still very happy with this unit.

Bought this machine two weeks ago. First day had to take apart because the motor jammed! Was able to fixed the problem, hence no need to call for service. Today, for second time I pull the rope of the starter/recoil and it failed. Broken parts inside and had to call for warranty service. They told me I need to wait for two weeks for my service appointment. I'm thinking I will be returning this machine to the store and ask for my money back for the machine and warranty service (extended warranty in-house). That's what happen when is made in China.

I had this unit delivered on June 11th, 2012 and put it to work on June 16th in which it worked really well. The assembly was pretty easy and the starting of the unit is a cinch. It turns these pine branches in the mountains into powder and is safe to use. The only two bad things that I could mention is that the choke to run lever is made of a cheap plastic and could easily break and the other complaint is it works best with perfectly straight limbs which is not always the case. The way to work around this to more closely cut them up when you cut down a tree. The motor is pretty powerful, but don't go much over the 3 inch diameter or it will choke out. Finally, I would recommend getting the extended warranty because there are to many things that can break and they will come out and service the machine for free including sharpening the blades.