Flowtron The Ultimate Mulcher 8 Amp Electric Leaf Shredder #LE-900
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend The Ultimate Mulcher quickly recycles yard and garden waste into nutrient rich mulch, solving the disposal problem. It can reduce leaves, pine neddles, grass clippings and even paper, wet or dry, from 11 bags into only 1. The mulcher is constructed of steel and rugged high-density polythylene for long life and easy maintenance, has a powerful 8.0 amp thermally protected universal motor with overload protection, and runs… Product details and pricing info |
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179 Customer Reviews Posted
- Flowtron Leaf-eater produces gorgeous leaf meal for the garden but not without some some headaches
- This is my second year using the Flowtron Ultimate mulcher and as many of the other reviews maintain, it is a great machine if you recognize its limitations. Keep in mind that this unit is a lot cheaper than other, better built units on the market!
The main problem I encountered is that the unit easily overheats. The spinner which holds the string "blades" melted on me TWICE in a year (from Spring & Fall usage) but the upside is that Flowtron mailed me replacement parts free of charge which were received about 4 days later. This machine has its flaws but the customer service is OUTSTANDING!!
The second spinner I received was a harder plastic than the original but still melted after being "overworked". This is a serious flaw and one I DO NOT feel has been adequately remedied but I still love the ease with which I can produce finely shredded mulch. Grinding DRY leaves is essential, otherwise the unit clogs.
As another reviewer pointed out, the unit can be gently shaken to help the material reach the string blades for grinding. This "gentle" motion caused the leg clamps on my unit to break--nothing that a little duct tape couldn't fix though. LOL Again, Flowtron sent replacement parts but I just kept the duct tape on and it works fine and even allows the unit to move more easily when being shaken.
I recommend allowing the unit to cool down for at least 20 minutes after about 45 minutes of use. Also, beware of sticks, rocks, and sturdier stems (such as from coneflowers, etc) which which simply break the string blades. Changing the strings, however, is easily done and replacement ones can be purchased at most any hardware store or at your local home improvement center. You will know that the string need to be changed when the leaves are being ground as a reduced rate.
The mulch produced by the Leaf-Eater is a beautiful finishing touch to flowerbeds and I have noticed an increased worm population since I began dressing my beds with the leaf meal/mulch 2 years ago.
Despite having had 2 meltdowns, I still LOVE my Leaf-Eater. It is an invaluable tool and well worth the money! After the 2nd spinner meltdown, my hubby investigated other sturdier units but those were priced between $600-$1200!! So respect the machine, wear eye protection & go green and save green with the Flowtron Leaf-Eater!!
- 2008-11-21, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- It Takes Patience
- When you open the box and see the few pieces to put together you tend to say, as I did, "This is a snap!" Well, plan on at least two hours, no matter how skilled you think you are. They need someone to redesign the thing with the aim of making it simple to put together. Putting a screw through a hole to connect two pieces that don't readily fit and doing it sight unseen and no access to fingers to help--well, come on now!
- 2008-11-20, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Better than mowing
- Although this product is a bit delicate, it does a job on leaves, shredding them down to a fine mulch. This "weed-wacker" in a drum reduced all the leaves in my compost pile to useable mulch for my beds this fall and I'll use it to reduce this year's leaves into more manageable particles for composting this year. Just put it over a garbage can and you can easily transport mulch to any part of your yard. It does put a lot into the air, so protect your eyes.
- 2008-11-18, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- It Works!
- I just received my Flowtrom LE-900 this week. Today I used the ubit to much leaves dropped by two oaks, two lindens and one tulip tree. The unit performed better that expected. It handles the large leaves from the oaks and tulip tree with no problem. The Flowtron did clog at times when stems and sticks accumulated, but this was more of a nuisance than a deficiency of the unit. After all, this is "weed wacker" type of device, not a machine with blades. It was great to be able to set the Flowtron on top of a standard garbage can without having to remove the stand. I mulched the leaves a second time to reduce the leaves further and I used this to mulch the garden area. Thumbs up on this unit! I figure that it would have taken 50 or more (at 50 cents each) of those large paper recycle bags to contain what I accomplished with 4 garbage cans. So I have a $25 return on investment with its first usage. I actually enjoyed raking the leaves today. That's a first!
- 2008-11-15, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Good Performer But Compaction Claims Are Exaggerated
- We've had a good experience with the Flowtron LE-900. The unit took about 25 minutes to assemble, not too long compared to other build-it-yourself products.
The unit works well as a light-duty shredder as long as you keep the sticks out, which we were able to do. Only two complaints: first, the unit burns through the plastic cutting strips pretty quickly. We had to replace the strips about every 4 bags of leaves. If you don't replace them, you have to shake the unit to make the leaves fall right into the ever-shrinking cutting zone. Second, we've only been able to achieve a 2-1 reduction in the volume of leaves after shredding - nowhere near the 11-1 reduction claimed in Amazon's ad or the 30-1 reduction claimed on the shipping box itself.
Otherwise, we like the unit and will continue to use it. - 2008-11-02, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
