Landworks 3-in-1 Gas Chipper Shredder Review | What Can This 7HP Chipper Do?
“Choosing a wood chipper is not easy.”
To start with, the market is overloaded with options, many of them seemingly identical. To make matters worse, the reviews of all these products are invariably mixed. For every chipper, you’ll find hordes of reviewers singing its praises, and nearly as many who insist that you’re about to buy a piece of junk.
That brings us to the Landworks 3-in-1 Wood Chipper, which is the chipper (also shredder and mulcher) that I ultimately chose to buy after reading what feels like a thousand different reviews.
Did I make a good choice? Let’s find out.
First Impressions
One of the recurring themes in almost every negative review I’ve read of the Landworks 3-in-1 is that it arrived with damaged parts. That’s something, for the record, that I don’t necessarily think should be held against the machine itself.
For what it’s worth, mine arrived intact, and with no damaged or bent pieces. I’ll also note that the Amazon guy was not gentle as he hauled this thing out of the truck and into my driveway, so I consider its lack of damage to be a minor miracle.
There are a few reasons I ended up buying this specific wood chipper—and I’ll address some of those further into this review—but one of the most significant is that the Landworks 3-in-1 has two chutes. It has the larger top hopper, which is mainly for leaves, fronds, pine needles, small sticks and other soft and/or loose debris; and the smaller side chute, which is for somewhat larger branches and limbs.
This design just seems to work better, as opposed to chippers that only have one big chute. The consensus seems to be that chippers with two chutes work better, get jammed and clogged up less, and just generally have fewer problems.
Measurements & Specs
A lot of the smaller wood chippers that are intended for use by average homeowners have pretty similar specs. The Landworks 3-in-1 has a 7 horsepower, 4-stroke single cylinder OHV gas-powered engine, which is fairly standard for these types of chippers.
It runs on 87+ unleaded gasoline, and the gas tank has a max capacity of 0.7 gallons. Based on my (admittedly unscientific) observations, a tank of gas seems to give you about 45 minutes of continuous runtime.
The “3-in-1” in the name refers to the fact that this is a chipper that also works as a shredder and mulcher. The top hopper has a 15:1 reduction ratio for 1 x 2 inch max volume chipping or shredding. A vacuum attachment and discharge bag attachment are sold separately, and can come in handy if you want to collect your mulch rather than simply letting the chips fly.
The side chute is designed to handle branches and limbs up to 3 inches in diameter. That’s a measurement that you’ll want to take with a grain of salt, as not all types of wood are created equal.
Assembly
The promise of easy assembly was another reason I chose the Landworks 3-in-1 Wood Chipper over so many other models. Thankfully, that turned out to be the case. You will have to assemble your machine, but the process is simple and shouldn’t give you any major headaches.
Once I unboxed the chipper and laid out all the parts on my garage floor, the actual assembly process only took about 15 minutes. All you really need is a wrench and a ratchet or socket wrench in sizes ranging from 10mm to 13mm.
The instructions that come with the Landworks 3-in-1 Chipper are accurate and straightforward, making the process pretty easy. There was only one small step in the instructions that I found unclear: installing the brace on the air filter, which had a bolt that needed to be removed before putting a new bolt and nut in place.
Using the Landworks 3-in-1 Wood Chipper
I’m definitely impressed by how effective the Landworks 3-in-1 is as a chipper. I’ve spent hours feeding various-sized branches into the side chute, and it reduces them all into fine chips with no issue at all.
We should talk a bit about the sizes of branches you can chip with this thing. The “3 inch” measurement is all over the marketing materials for the Landworks chipper, and for the most part, I think that’s a fair size to expect to be able to work with. Having said that, we have a lot of different kinds of trees here in South Carolina where I live, and some of the harder woods take a little more effort to chip.
The Landworks 3-in-1 Chipper makes short work of a 3-inch thick branch of freshly cut pine. But a similar-sized piece of oak or another hardwood is a very different story. When working through harder woods, it’s best to err on the side of common sense and not feed the chipper more than it can handle.
The top hopper has been less useful for me than the side chute. It had some clogging issues, and I initially wrote it off as totally useless, but after honing my technique and finding the right speed at which to feed in materials, I find it to be decent at shredding stuff like palm fronds, pine cones and leaves. You may need a stick to help push materials through.
Still, the side chute is by far what I’m most impressed by. The machine starts readily every time (usually takes one to three pulls to get going) and continues to run reliably. It also has large tires, so moving it around the yard is easy.
Final Thoughts
Like I said upfront, opinions on wood chippers like this one are all over the map. Almost every model has just as many negative reviews as positive ones, and the Landworks 3-in-1 Wood Chipper is no exception.
A lot of those reviews are simply a matter of someone not really knowing how to use their machine, or having the wrong expectation of what they’ll be able to do with it. After putting in some solid hours using the Landworks chipper, I can only say that…
It handles the types of jobs that it’s supposed to handle very well.
It absolutely crushes small branches and limbs. It does not grind up giant logs or whole trees, nor should it be expected to. I think a lot of people buy something like this believing that they can spend a few hundred dollars on a wood chipper that will do the same job a professional tree removal company would charge thousands for, and that’s just not reality.
Bottom line: go in with realistic expectations, and you won’t be disappointed. The Landworks 3-in-1 Wood Chipper / Shredder / Mulcher is perfect for homeowners who have lawn and garden waste that they need reduced to wood chips and mulch. Simple as that.
In my experience, the side chute is much more effective and has a better design than the top chute/hopper. But that’s a minor quibble for me, and not one that I would let dissuade me from buying this chipper. It’s a solid value in the $700 range. A quick note, the price has gone up since I purchased this last summer. Based on my real world use and talking to a few folks who bought some other brands, the Landworks is still the one to get.
Blair Witkowski is an avid watch nut, loves pocket knives and flashlights, and when he is not trying to be a good dad to his nine kids, you will find him running or posting pics on Instagram. Besides writing articles for Tech Writer EDC he is also the founder of Lowcountry Style & Living. In addition to writing, he is focused on improving his client’s websites for his other passion, Search Engine Optimization. His wife Jennifer and he live in coastal South Carolina.