Benefits of Using Wood Chippers and Should You Buy or Rent One?

Wood chippers are a great way to make use of useless branches and bushes that you would have otherwise had to reluctantly drive to the landfill. The knife set built into these industrial tree eaters shreds just about anything you throw and spits up mulch, sawdust, or cube-shaped wood chips.

The mulch it produces can be used in your garden as a ground cover to spread around your plants and enrich the soil. It also locks in moisture under the mulch and improves plant growth by slowly releasing nitrogen back into the soil. As the wood chips begin to break down, they release heat that regulates the temperature of the soil under the chips and keeps it warm. This protects the floor from scorching heat during the day and also keeps it warm at night. These wood chips produced by wood chippers also absorb water that is released very slowly in the plants.

Wood chippers are very simple and easy to use and the average homeowner will have no trouble operating one of them. This also saves you from having to drive up and down to the garbage can when cleaning your backyard and also gives you an endless supply of mulch and wood chips to complete your plans.

So now that you know how valuable it can be to have a wood eating machine like this in your arsenal, the next question would be: is it better to buy or rent one? Most people do not have the amount of money to spend on a 1 million rand machine that they will not use more than one a month and that should not be said. But there are also smaller commercial machines that you can buy costing between R60,000 and R80,000, which would be perfect for cutting backyard dirt debris.

Renting a machine is always a great way to test the waters first, and once you see it’s worth it, you can take the plunge and buy one. However, the benefit of renting a wood chipper is that you don’t have to store a monster machine like that in your backyard and you don’t need insurance either. Wood chipper maintenance can also be like having a second car. Maintenance can be quite expensive and if you need to replace broken parts it might be difficult to get it if it is an imported machine.

So yes, while using a wood chipper has myriad benefits, there are pros and cons to buying and renting one. The questions to ask yourself are how often you will use it, what you will use it for, and if it is worth it to you.