Hansa C4 Chipper

Honda heavy duty motor is no more – Bought one of these on the recommendation of my neighbour who has one and been using it regularly for several years. His has a red Honda commercial heavy duty GX engine. But I was bitterly disappointed when mine came with a Chinese white GP Honda engine and is only light duty. The shop said this is the only option and Hansa stopped using the… Read more

better Red engines on these chippers to compete with Chinese imports. Ironically some Chinese imports are now coming with the Honda GX motors.

Another issue is the narrow chute design. My neighbour’s works well because most of the stuff he puts through it is straight. Mine is a a bit more bushy and has to be tediously be broken down into small bits and pushed with a stick. It takes for ever.

Before you buy these chippers, take the above into account. Especially the light duty motor.

Great for home users – Andyfarm is very accurate review and what Im about to say will mirror his comments. Steves review is also comparable. We were luck enough to get the C4 from the RedShed 2nd hand with warranty. It saved us $500 from new price. We chose the Hansa because we needed to shred palm fonds, which it does very well by the way. Most of the other chippers… Read more

couldnt handle the fonds, as they have the rotating feeder rather than the rotating blade in the Hansa i.e. they can get clogged up.

As there is no feeding mechanism (good for fonds) its actually not they great for leafy matter. You have to push the leafy stuff down with a stick. This was quite annoying in the beginning.

So we ended up moving to a new house about an acre. Some palms only now, but lots of twigs, gums, bark, larger sticks. I consider this machine now awesome despite the feeding difficulties. You need to trim leafy branches to feed into the shoot, but thats probably only its only short coming. The mulched output is great. Motor is great, starts every time. Machine is somewhat heavy representing build quality. I really recommend it.

Very pleased with the C4 – I have owned an electric Shredder (AL-KO TCS2500) for about 20 years and while it is quite powerful (for an electric model); I wanted something that would not clog so easily, had a larger capacity, and with a bit more oomph. I did a lot of research and finally settled on Hansa as my chosen manufacturer. Unfortunately my garden size does not… Read more ·  1

justify a C7 (and it would have hurt my bank balance too much) so I opted for the C4, and boy am I glad that I did.

It has plenty of power for the amount of chipping that I need. I recently spent a few hours processing a large pile of conifer branches. The C4 was pulling them in and spitting them out faster than I could load them. Yes, the loading chute is quite narrow which means that knarly / bushy branches need a little fettling before loading. I only had clogging issues at the beginning when I was trying to load too many / too wide branches. I soon found out what works best and with minimal trimming, I was in the zone and having loads of fun. It is so good that my teenage son was itching to have a go and he and I were racing each other to get the "best branches" to load in.

Top tip: I used a cordless circular saw for fettling the knarly / bushy branches and it worked a treat.

In summary, the C4 is very well made / sturdy, has plenty of power and is easy to use. Also, the Honda engine is easy to start and just runs without any problems.

If you are in the market for a chipper, don't waste your money on cheap knockoffs / Chinese substandard crap. Spend the extra money, get a Hansa, you will not regret it.

Very well built but some reservations on performance – Firstly this is a chipper, not a mulcher or shredder so consider really what you need as the methodology between these are different and also consider what material you are going to process and how much. The C4 is aimed at the smaller property owner for home and occasional use and any gardening contractor or those who would use it more than once a… Read more ·  2

month would be advised to consider a bigger machine. Personally I would have preferred the larger C7 but for the amount of use this additional cost could not be justified.

Built quality. This is excellent. The C4 is very strongly built and will last a very long time. The commercial Honda GX 160 is in my view the best small engine available for quality and reliability and will always start first pull. I think the later models of the Hansa C4 are using the cheaper domestic version Honda 160, however for the homeowner who the C4 is aimed at this will also provide solid reliability and ease of use. Although quite heavy, the C4 is well balanced and can be easily moved around on level ground with its solid tryes. The chipper is belt driven which is a good point as this reduces any shock from jamming the chipper to the engine. The belt is easy to access and judging from the instructions easy to replace. I have not yet had to remove and sharpen the chipper blade and whilst instructions are provided cannot comment on the ease of this.

The C4 being a chipper is naturally quite noisy in operation and may not be suitable in some residential areas. Obviously ear, eye and face protection are essential as it does sometimes spit small length twigs back up the hopper. Also a suitable wooden stick is essential for prodding material in the hopper and keeping hands away.

Performance. This is what matters and I do have mixed views on this. Firstly the maximum size of about 40mm is really for green waste and for dry wood best reduce this to 25mm as it does struggle above this. Now the hopper is gravity feed and this is where how you use it does make a difference. In general I find that most waste will not feed without prodding and pushing with a wooden stick and not to overload the hopper. Some material requires a fair bit of prodding and can become quite tiresome.

I have managed to put through Hydrangea prunings and heads (a lot of prodding); fruit tree prunings (some prodding for less than straight lengths); Green Agapanthas stalks (fed through easily but will clog up unless some dry waste fed in as well); Petosterum prunings, (fait bit of prodding especially when hopper overloaded); Leaves and small stuff (small amounts at a time go through easy and will reduce in volume by about a half); Bottle brush prunings (a lot of prodding especially for twisted bits); dry bark and twigs (most will go through without any prodding).

Output. The output despite what is fed into the hopper does make very good mulch, especially when a variety of green and dry stuff is mixed up. Small prunings are not so much chipped but shredded but still very useable mulch. Generally the output is too coarse for compost but my mulch requirements are high and this will save about $100 a year instead of buying it and also although I can burn off on my property it will save burning or going to the green waste depot.

Overall I am quite happy with the C4 for the sort of material and amount of use it gets but most material will require some prodding and pushing with a stick and it has taken me a little while to work out the best way of handling various material. Whilst the build quality and engine are excellent the ease of use and overall performance has not quite lived up to expectations so overall I would rate this as good (for my type of use). It would be interesting to see a comparison of various mulchers, shreddders and chippers with a wide variety of materials and this would be valuable for any prospective buyers.

Update: The knife was blunt which was after about 25 hours of use which had significantly downgraded performance (possibly due to dry sticks which I often chip). The instructions provided are well written for knife removal/replacement and general servicing. You do need a good ring spanner to remove and reattach the knife. With a bit of fiddling this is relatively easy. With the knife sharpened the prunings from a couple of fruit trees were chipped with good self feeding quicker than I could feed them into the chute. Still happy with the C4 for my requirements and again the way this machine is constructed it will last a very long time.

My recommendations are after about 20 - 25 hours of use get the knife professionally sharpened and at the same time grease the two bearings and check the belt tension.

Quality Product – Spent alot of time looking deciding which wood chipper to buy, live on 1 acre and always have green waste Has honda motor so you know will start easy and be reliable and doesnt disappoint. Mulched large trailer load over the weekend without a problem , very easy to feed with shute height and angle. Palms and long stringy plants not a problem just… Read more ·  1

dont try to maney at once. Branches chipped well but dont try and go to big. If I had a larger budget would have gone to the c7 but still very happy with money spent

Very Happy – Being on a rural property with a large garden means we almost always have items that need chipping. When we lived in the Brisbane suburbs i had one those electric chippers that basically chews very slowly through everything. Armed with that experience and knowing that a small machine like that simply wouldn't handle what we now needed to do I… Read more

trundled off on a tour of the mower type shops in the area... Long story short found the Hansa. This machine is built solidly, and has a quality Honda engine perched on the top. Starts every time. The only thing that stops it from getting 5 stars is the fact that leaves (from gums) or longish type grasses will sometimes make their way through the mulcher with barely a scratch, although it has done a few hours now and could probably do with a blade sharpening/alignment. A quality machine all round but by god they're loud. Don't forget the earplugs. ****TOP TIP**** When trying to mulch things like really dry old/dead palm fronds, soak them with water or better still wait until after rain.... They go through so much easier.

Big performer – Having wasted time and money on slow performing electric I moved onto the gruntier petrol machines. I have a need for regular shredding of bush and hedges around the property and the C4 does get rid of cabbage tree leaves when they are mixed up with other branches - previously led to a jam and then untangling the mess. Would give the machine 5… Read more

stars, but is early days - used 4 times and grunty as - gets the chopped material out fast and glad I purchased the bag as well as the ejected stuff is spread! I want to dump it in places I cannot get the C4 into, so it is great to have it contained.

June 6th 2017 Update: A year later - going like it just came out of the box! Still chopping up green and dried material and cabbage tree leaves not an issue any more!!

Well a year later and the C4 is working like it did on day one and I have churned through a wide range of green materials - chops and shreds without any effort at all. Only thing to watch is the gate the materials go through to the blade = just a little narrow and hedge material with a lot of angled branches needs a prune before it goes down. Gets rid of flax, bamboo, cabbage tree leaves as well as good size branches.

Said I would reserve my stars verdict till time with the machine - would give it ***** 5 stars no problem.

Absolutely Stunning Piece of Machinery – I needed a chipper/mulcher to aid me in clearing a very over run coastal section. In particular I had A LOT of flax to chew through. My uneducated budget was $1000. After extensive research on available chippers and mulchers I discovered that very few boasted the capability of shredding tough fibrous material like flax. The Hansa C4 was one of the… Read more

few that could but was precisely twice my budget. Not wanting to do multiple 2hour round trips to the tip I bit the bullet and I'm so glad I did. I've since chewed about 100 cubic meters of foliage and flax and my section looks amazing. Though sometimes hard to start the Hansa C4 has otherwise never missed a beat and chewed through anything in its path. So thanks team at Hansa and go Kiwi. Versatility by way of shredding both fibrous flax, foliage and chopping wood and branches. Also great so support locally made products that are built to last. Sometimes hard to start. Neither my partner or another lady helping out on the section could start it.