Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description
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 An easy-to-read, sliding control lever lets you pick the right setting for each task. View larger. |
 The Leaf-Eater quickly and easily reduces wet or dry yard waste into nutrient-rich mulch that you can use. View larger. |
Just Shred and Spread For a Beautiful Yard
Transform your yard into a showplace, without all the sweat and strain. With the help of its extra-large, 21-inch-diameter funnel, the Leaf-Eater effortlessly reduces wet or dry yard waste–including leaves and grass clippings–into nutrient-rich mulch or compost that you can reuse right in your flowerbeds or vegetable garden. With this efficient tool, creating a great yard is as simple as shredding and spreading!
Two-Step Process Shreds and Mulches
This system utilizes a two-step process that shreds and then mulches for fast cleanup and maximum waste reduction. Just feed double handfuls of material into the hopper and watch the Leaf-Eater do all the work.
Patented Design and Powerful Motor Shred Leaves Fast
Thanks to its patented design, double heavy-duty cutting lines, and powerful universal motor with circuit breaker and reset button for overload protection, the Leaf-Shredder shreds wet or dry leaves, grass clippings, pine needles, and even paper as fast as you can load them.
Range of Shredding Adjustments for Flexibility
This flexible shredder offers the convenience of a range of shredding adjustments from coarse to fine–up to 30:1 particle size-reduction. It also includes a sliding control lever that’s easy to read, so you can choose the right setting for the job.
Lightweight Design for Easy Portability
Lightweight at just 16 pounds, the Leaf-Eater features a rugged, high-density polyethylene funnel and housing, as well as steel legs for long life and easy maintenance. Its lightweight design also means you can mount it atop a trash container that has a leaf bag inside for quick and convenient disposal.
Quick and Easy Assembly Right Out of the Box
Out of the box, the Leaf-Eater is a snap to put together in minutes; you’ll only need a 3/8-inch nut driver and Phillips-head screwdriver. Maintenance is equally effortless thanks to the removable motor intake filter–just remove and clean periodically.
Dimensions and Warranty Information
The LE-800 Leaf-Eater comes with 36 heavy-duty cutting lines, legs, and a limited one-year warranty.
About Flowtron
Family-owned since its start in 1920, Armatron International began operations as a manufacturer of automobile radios. After more than 50 years in that field, Armatron became recognized through its Flowtron division as a worldwide leader in outdoor products. Today, Flowtron designs, develops, manufactures, and sells a select line of lawn and garden products that are distributed to major retailers in the US and Canada, as well as to foreign markets all over the world. The company is proud that all of its products are made in the US: in Malden, Massachusetts, and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
What’s in the Box
One funnel, one upper hopper, one lower housing assembly, three legs, 36 cutting lines, one hardware package, and owner’s manual.
From the Manufacturer
Flowtron Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder #LE-800
Saturday, November 26th 2011 at 10:25 am |
3.0 out of 5 stars Only for very light jobs, November 20, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
Given the price of this unit I guess it’s not too bad if you use it for its intended purpose of leaves only. It has a tough time with oak leaves and clogs constantly. The legs are pretty unstable and it’s hard to keep a paper leaf bag underneath, while it’s pretty unsteady on top of a garbage can. The best way to work it is to stand it over a tarp, but then you have to move the shredded leaves off of the tarp and into the paper bags for town pick up – at least in my town.
It clogs if you pack large handfuls of leaves in. It clogs if one tiny stick gets in. It clogs on pinecones. So you have to keep stopping it to unclog before you can move on. The string trimmer needs to be changed after every single bag of leaves.
For a piece of property like mine, with several large oak trees, this doesn’t have the power to do the job. But if you want to just shred an occassional bag of leaves or soft weeds to speed up your composting, this could manage that. I’ll try to use this for composting next year. But I will likely have to hire a lawn service to cart away the bulk of my leaves next fall. Spending 4 full days running this machine (and stopping to unclog every 5 minutes) is just too much.
4.0 out of 5 stars Success with Offbeat Use, October 21, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
Before buying the Flowtron LE-800, I researched it carefully and found that it worked well if one followed instructions. We wanted an electric shredder in order to avoid the pollution of a small gas engine. I shredded wet and dry rockweed (seaweed) in coastal New England with mixed success. The tough, dry seaweed broke the plastic line quickly. Wet seaweed shredded well, one handful at a time, but the lines broke when small sticks or pebbles went through. Following the instructions of another reviewer, my husband replaced the head and attached heavier plastic line. It worked much better. The wet rockweed stuck to the sides of the container so I had to manually clean it out every 10-20 min., but it shredded it well for garden mulch. I used eye and hearing protectors, as the machine is somewhat noisy and sometimes ejects small hard objects. I have not used it for shredding leaves yet, but expect it to work well as rockweed is much tougher than leaves. I am pleased with this product and recommend it as long as the user understands and follows the instructions. I would definitely buy this product again. Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder
1.0 out of 5 stars POOR PERFORMANCE, August 2, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
PRODUCT USES 4 STRANDS OF.080 LINE – COMBINATION OF GAP BETWEEN ENDS OF LINE & HOUSING AND LARGE OPENINGS BELOW LINES CAUSES LEAVES TO JUST SPIN AROUND. GET BETTER RESULTS USING WEEDEATER WITH .065 LINE IN PLASTIC TUB WITH HOLE CUT IN LID.
4.0 out of 5 stars Works as expected, May 14, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
I had a Leaf-Eater years ago but sold it when I didn’t need it anymore. I was happy with the product back then and am happy with it now. I am careful to sort out obvious twigs as I load it, but some slip by with no problem. It does seem to only shred at one setting. I did not notice a change in particle size when I slid the lever. No problem since the size that it does shred is perfect for my garden mulch. I’m very happy with this product. We have 6 maple trees and a couple of oak trees in our yard, so this item is very needed.
5.0 out of 5 stars Flowtron LE-800, May 13, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
Very impressed with this unit. We have many oak trees on or near our property and we are now using the shredded leaves as mulch for our gardens
4.0 out of 5 stars Works as expected, which is good, April 21, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
Does all I expected; what more can you ask for? It’s for leaves, not twigs. Also, I don’t understand people complaining about how loud it is. Really? If you’re not wearing ear protection (and eye protection) when using power tools, well … then Darwin’s calling you.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Modified, this thing ROCKS, March 1, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
My dad gave us his Flowtron leaf-shredder, and it would get clogged up with every little twig, and we had to replace the string trimmer line really frequently. So we bought the trimmer line on a spool but the way the spinning head works, the line was tearing up the plastic plate at the bottom of the unit, since there was a slight downward curve to the trimmer line once it’s installed on the spinner head. So we followed the advice from the other reviews, and we found a universal “Brush trimmer” head, with three spinning metal blades. MAN, is this thing noisy, but little twigs don’t stop it as often now! Larger sticks will still get stuck against the side of the Flowtron, creating a log jam, so you still have to stop the motor, unplug it and clear the jam fairly regularly, but the blades make quick work of leaves and thin twigs, and more importantly, I’m not destroying the base-plate of the unit while running it! The Universal String Trimmer head was $15 at a hardware store and took 5 minutes maybe to install. My husband and I aren’t even mechanically inclined, it’s just that easy to replace the trimmer head. GO FOR IT!
3.0 out of 5 stars leaf mulcher review, January 22, 2011
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
Semi-OK. Does not work well at all if leaves are even somewhat wet, in my opinion. Delivery etc. were fine
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Cannot recommend it: Flimsy, Easy to Clog, and Marginal Performance, November 16, 2010
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
I have had this unit for about two seasons on a 1/4-acre lot with a number of mature trees – tulip, oak, elm, and Norway maple. On average, we probably have 50 bags worth of leaves per year here. My motivation for mulching our leaf matter is that it’s pretty silly to be buying fertilizer and mulch in the spring, when the garden is making it in the fall for you. I have found that fine-ground mulch is an excellent ground cover for the winter and that it breaks down almost completely by spring.
While the Flowtron 800 has sort of worked, I never was completely happy with the unit because of its numerous shortcomings. The Flowtron consists of a cone inside a cone that feeds leaves to a trimmer head below. On the side of the unit, a handle allows you to adjust the size of the openings on the bottom of the Flowtron, which in turn adjusts the size of the mulch coming out. The Flowtron 800 is a very lightweight unit, which makes carrying it quite easy. However, the bendy legs are short and not very stable.
On the one hand, the low height of the unit makes loading more leaf matter easy, on the other hand it also means that you have to keep moving the unit around as you shred leaf matter so that the mounds of mulch do not come close to the electric motor (housed inside the black cylinder hanging from the bottom of the unit). Otherwise, you’ll impair the ability of the motor to cool itself. This fall, my Flowtron finally failed completely after leaf debris bypassed the installed filters and clogged the electric motor, causing it to seize. While the unit has one external filter (easy to clean, on the side by the power switch) there is also an inaccessible internal filter (for a different set of air intake holes on the underside of the unit) which can shift from its installed spot and hence allow unfiltered air into the motor (which is how my motor failed). That the makers of the Flowtron did not restrain this filter in any way is a design defect, IMO.
Unfortunately, even when the Flowtron is working, its performance can only be described as marginal. Only if you use the driest and fluffiest of leaves and drop them in quasi-individually will it produce a fine mulch that does not clog the machine within 5-10 minutes. Any twig thicker than 1/8″ and longer than 3″ will typically clog inside the machine, preventing the rotating plastic trimmer lines from reaching all plant matter behind them. Thus, get used to turning off the machine periodically to clear any twigs you may have accidentally dropped into the unit. I found it helpful to use the time between dropping new leaf matter in (while the previous set was getting mulched) to search the next leaf batch for twigs. But the rate of progress is slow.
Frequently shutting the machine off to check for over-sized debris is especially important if you value the longevity of the trimmer line that Flowtron encloses – the OEM lines wear very quickly. I had much better luck using non-OEM trimmer line like the 0.095″/2.5mm RinoTech stuff at Home Despot. Cut it to the right length using one of the existing cords as a template, then enjoy 5x longer performance than with the OEM trimmer line. But even the Rino trimmer line was no match for twigs. Replacing the trimmer strings often is key to maximizing performance, whether you use OEM string or not. I even considered going with a bladed trimmer replacement head, but then the early demise of the motor cut that project short.
Also check the underside of the machine to see if something has clogged the exit chutes – it happens quite often – and if so, shut the machine off and clear from below. Watch out for stringy plant matter like Hostas – before the trimmer line can chop them up, their stems will wrap themselves tightly about the trimmer line axle. One upside of the open design of the Flowtron is that clearing blockages is quite easy (i.e. no tools required). Like most shredders, the Flowtron is not a great match for leaves that are wet. But the Flowtron is perhaps more sensitive than the competition, as moist mulch will quickly clog the machine.
I presume that the funnel-in-funnel design of the Flowtron is supposed to prevent the machine from ejecting plant matter from inside trimmer area, but it doesn’t stop all of them… so wear good protection around the machine: Kevlar-lined gloves to prevent cuts, safety glasses with a foam face seal, and hearing protection. And tighten the “lock-nut” fasteners on this unit periodically as they come loose with time.
In conclusion, if you own a small yard with no twigs and lots of crispy-dry leaves, this unit may perform as intended. However, between the slow rate of processing leaf matter, frequent cleanings, the poor filtration of motor air, and other design choices, I have been disappointed with this purchase. I have purchased a Patriot Products CSV-2515 1.5 HP Electric Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder as a replacement for the Flowtron.
5.0 out of 5 stars Can’t beat it for the money!, November 13, 2010
This review is from: Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder (Lawn & Patio)
After struggling with leaves all last fall I finally broke down and bought this, was I glad I did!
Despite what other reviewers are saying, a little common sense goes along way when using this. Know that when you buy it, you are intending to use it for leaves and garden vegetation.
It obviously can’t handle big sticks, so don’t even try it, but again that’s common sense, its a LEAF shredder.
Made very short work of our leaf problem this year. Not only do we get alot from our own trees, but we live in a very windy area and needless to say I get everyone else’s leaves too.
Putting it together was not difficult, just follow the directions. Another reviewer said the trimmer strings were a PITA to change, not true, I wore the first set out and changed them out in a matter of seconds.
Again, USE COMMON SENSE, don’t overload the hopper and jam the leaves in. Let it do its own thing.
I also shredded dying daylily plants, hosta’s etc… with no problem at all, even the mums went through it halfway decent. It didn’t shred up all of the stems but I didn’t expect it would, I just tossed those off to the side in the garden.
I ended up with enough winter mulch for all of my flower beds and as we are in zone 5, that helps protect the perennials over the winter.
One tip on the leaves, if they are very dry, shred them on the coarse setting, the fine & medium makes way too much dust.