Stihl GHE 135 L

No problems so far – Bought a barely used 2nd hand one today. So far I've found it easy to manoeuvre and start, it's quiet and it did a great job. I had a huge pile of garden waste that normally would be taken to the tip. It all went through one after the other, until the tub was pretty much full. No issues and it was a mix of varying sized drying palm fronds and newly snipped greenery from other trees and bushes. So far I'm thrilled with my purchase! Show details

GHE 135 L - Just bad all round – I've owned the GHE 135 L for 8 weeks now. We're keen gardeners and with spring here it is time to clean up. We purchased the GHE 135 L after having borrowed the similar Ryobi RSH2445S from a friend, of which we really put through its paces over probably 8 weeks. The typical content from our yard is small to medium sized branches, lots of leafy… Read more

material, combinations of harder and softer material. None larger than the 35mm specified.

Having considered Stihl a good brand and being attracted to the clover design feeder we thought it would suit our needs better than the Ryobi. Its chute entry is smaller and found it hard to get branches with leaves to feed through. We have been terribly disappointed and really should have purchased the Ryobi.

They're several aspects of this machine that are troublesome or just do not work.

The Cons --

The Flap: Within the first hour of use we had to remove the rubber flap on the underside of the mulching chute. According to the manual this is there to prevent clogging. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. No matter how small material went in, it would just clog up and no longer feed. After removing this flap, the machine performed somewhat better.

The Chute & entry: The chute itself isn't bad, the cloverleaf design however really proves difficult for oddly shaped material. Think branches with dog legs in them. Often you find you can get 5cm of the stick in before it gets caught up like a garden game of Tetris trying to get it through the clover.

Similarly for branches with leaves on them i.e., pittosporum branches. Will get bunched up and fail to be pulled through. Usually, the machine will chop off the stem and leave the tops wedged in the opening. Once you pull them out, you're left with bunches of fiddly little branches that must be fed through one or two at a time.

The Catcher: The tub that is the catcher is of such poor quality and lacks any rigidity that it cannot even support its own weight hanging off the underside of r the machine. The sides will bow in and then the back will fall off the rails making it difficult to insert the first time every time. Equally when carrying it whilst loaded the tub will distort and deform making it rather awkward to carry. The tub should be rigid and able to be carried whilst full.

The chute material plunger: There is none, why, probably something to do with that clover design.

The blade sharpener: Works fine, but why is it a hex key, put a handle on it. Hate to refer to the Ryobi again, but...

The Pros -- Noise level is pretty good. The safety switch on the catcher tub has a satisfactory feel. Auto reverse works well if it comes across a joint in a branch or something that it’s unhappy about. I somewhat prefer the plug connection design on this over other lead types, the socket seems like a good idea.

The bottom line -- It didn't get one star because technically it can mulch and shred. You just have to be very very particular about how you feed it, what you feed it, and don't have expectations of high quality plastics. I'd probably return it and buy the Ryobi which is cheaper...but the chap at the Stihl shop pre-loaded us before we had even left the shop that once its used, unless its DOA/Warranty, there are no returns.