I received the chipper and out it together. The contents were well packed. However, the pieces for the upper feed hopper were dented. There was one dent that looks like it almost made it through the metal of the hopper and the lips where the bolt holes are were also bent / dented. By the way things were packed, I believe the damage happened to the pieces before they were packaged for shipping, but they wrapped them and threw them in a box anyway. I was able to bolt it together and the damage did not affect the performance. Its just very displeasing to buy a brand new item and its already damaged when you open the box, before even being used; typical Chinese stuff, poor quality control and bottom dollar.
Once I had it together, the chipper itself did well. It went through most everything I fed it except for the larger stuff. Some branches were 3" or slightly over and some had slight curves or knots to them. If a branch was pushing the 3" and it was slightly curved or over, it would not feed. The stuff that was under 3" (2.5"-3") that was straight did well. If you are pushing the 3" you need to keep the piece short or pull it back for a moment when the engine bogs down. If I get close to the 3", seems like 24"-30" is the max length to run through, I just pull the piece back for a moment for the engine to recover.
The other reason I purchased this model is for shredding leaves during the fall. Time will tell how the chipper holds up and how it does with the laves, so so many leaves.
