Flowtron Electric Leaf Shredder Mulcher, 120V, Wheeled

This could very well be the most poorly designed machine ever.

This works really good

Missing ALL screws and spacer, Funnel will not "snap' into place, leg connector brackets are not as shown and require 4 each screws of approximately 1/2 inch vs the Hardware Bag Contents table calling for 2 #10 screws 1 & 1/2 inch long with 2 wing nuts (all missing). How does it work? Who knows? As I need to make a second trip to the hardware store, I'm just returning the Piece of junk! Inventory, ALL PARTS in detail of the LE 900 prior to even starting to assembly. Mine looks like they mixed parts from 2 different models, stuffed it into the box and called it a day. If it was to work as it assembled, you would be better off using a pair of garden shears and cutting each leaf individually!

I have used this Flowtron LeafEater on two weekends for the equivalent of approx. 80-90 bags of un-shredded leaves (e.g. used about ½ of the cutting lines supplied). Here are my comments: 1) On assembling legs #17 & 18, the wing nuts #43 were 8-32. I had to re-tap them to 10-32 to match the screws #42. 2) I also had to enlarge the holes in legs #17 & 18 to .203” dia for the screws #42 to pass through. 3) When attaching the funnel #1 to the main housing, one of the funnel halves developed a crack. 4) After some shredding, I removed the air filter #34 and noticed quite a bit of dirt that had collected at the bottom of that cavity. 5) After removing that dirt with my shop vac, I saw daylight. 6) That means, dirt can get into the air supply duct to the motor directly from INSIDE of the housing, rendering the filter virtually useless. 7) I've closed these openings as good as I could with duct tape and after finishing all the rest of the remaining leaves, that area still looked pretty clean. However, this is not a solution and those gaps should never have existed in the first place!!! 8) Toward the end of my shredding, I noticed the spinner wobbling more and more and the rumbling sound of it getting louder. It looks like the upper bearing of the motor is badly worn and needs to be replaced. That is also the reason for returning this “Leaf Eater”, as I don't think it would last another season and by that time it would be off the warranty. 9) When, after finishing the job, I wanted to remove the funnel from the main housing for cleaning and applied some pressure with my thumb, the funnel cracked at that spot. This material is just too brittle and not flexible enough! See also comment #3) above. Summary: The idea itself is good, but not well thought out. It is a flimsy design and needs some improvements. One can not feed the leaves by large handfulls, I had to hold them over the funnel and slowly “sprinkle” them in. That way there was a constant supply of leaves to the cutting lines and the motor never had to labour. It is slow going and I could live with that, but not with worn bearings!!! With other words, yes it is a flimsy design, not a “heavy duty” machine, but one can manage as long as one does not overload or rough-handle it. I would gladly buy another one, as long as all of the problems mentioned above have been rectified.

When we bought this house 16 years ago, it was a new development with no trees, so I sold my old leaf eater. Now the trees have grown and I've been raking over Thanksgiving, putting 15-17 bags on the street for pick up. Also, I hurt my back this year and constant bending over kills me. Using this Flowtron, I mulched it all up into 4 bags of compost and put it in my garden......And best of all - instead of bending over to pick up andpack all those bags, I used this over a garbage can (w/bag) and "shoveled" the leaves in with my rake - my back doesn't hurt !!! YAY !!!