Try to get one with a barrel cutting unit - better than cutting knives. The Zipper ZI-GHAS2800 has one and is much more quiet.

I've got one of the Masport 6 HP units that @mattwnz and @1101 have discussed.  

It's quite capable both as shredder and as chipper but there are some downsides.

Pros:

• It shreds anything up to ~15 mm diameter, except for unshreddable things like flax (which no machine I know of will deal to).
• It chips anything up to ~35 mm diameter.
• It's a 4 stroke.
• It's reasonably fuel-efficient.
• It doesn't often jam.

Cons:

• We are not entirely confident in the Briggs & Stratton engine (first one was replaced, after much whinging by the dealer, because of a world-wide recall, and it can get very hard to start).  (Perhaps the Honda would be better.)
• My wife, who is a near-six-footer and reasonably fit, can barely pull the recoil starter.
• The discharge is straight down, so either you spend a lot of time reaching under the machine to clear the mulch away (and H&S will love you for that, NOT) or you devise a platform so the mulch can descend into a bin or wheelbarrow.
• These machines are not cheap.  A side-discharge machine would be even dearer.  Have you considered hiring a few different machines to see what would suit your needs?

kiwigander:

 

• The discharge is straight down, so either you spend a lot of time reaching under the machine to clear the mulch away (and H&S will love you for that, NOT) or you devise a platform so the mulch can descend into a bin or wheelbarrow.

I put a plastic container under mine. When that container is full I dump it into a large plastic bin
Makes things a lot easier, just slide out the container & dump into wheelbarrow or plastic bin.

The B&S engine on mine has had no issues. Although the pull starter takes some effort , but fires up after a few good pulls on the chord.

I inherited a ryobi (mains powered) standing chipper thing and, although it can shred up to about 20mm , it is a complete waste of time to stand there and feed sticks into it one by one. I dont use it anymore.

I have some hedge and ivy to maintain. Leafy material like that can be thrown on the ground, run over with the petrol mower, raked up and thrown into a compost pile. Breaks down in short time.

elpenguino:

 

I inherited a ryobi (mains powered) standing chipper thing and, although it can shred up to about 20mm , it is a complete waste of time to stand there and feed sticks into it one by one. I dont use it anymore.

 

I have some hedge and ivy to maintain. Leafy material like that can be thrown on the ground, run over with the petrol mower, raked up and thrown into a compost pile. Breaks down in short time.

 

That was my experience too. Worked great, if you want to strip all the twigs. 

tdgeek:

elpenguino:

I have some hedge and ivy to maintain. Leafy material like that can be thrown on the ground, run over with the petrol mower, raked up and thrown into a compost pile. Breaks down in short time.

That was my experience too. Worked great, if you want to strip all the twigs. 

Bung:

tdgeek:

 

elpenguino:

 

I have some hedge and ivy to maintain. Leafy material like that can be thrown on the ground, run over with the petrol mower, raked up and thrown into a compost pile. Breaks down in short time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was my experience too. Worked great, if you want to strip all the twigs. 

 

If you're saying that by the time you get round to trimming the hedge the prunings are too big to mow, I think you'd be better off getting a better hedge trimmer. I think you are leaving it too long.

My trimmer is fine, Still HS45. The shredder I had was at our last place, no hedges, these were pruning. The shredder was a blade trimmer, so no self feed. It shredded great, but as its not self feed and a small hole you need to strip the branches to a stick. 

At our new place, many hedges. If I kept up with them, (which I generally haven't this last year), the trimmings would be shortish, say generally 6 to 8 inches, plus a few longer bits. No good for a small hole blade trimmer, and the silent grinder ones aren't great. What Id like is a blade trimmer that has a good sized shute so I can throw handfuls of 6 inch twigs into it and push it through the blades to have an even mulch. But the blade trimmers are for sticks, the silent grinders can do that but they dont work well unless you have a more consistent load

We mow everything, except smaller tree branches which go into the chipper attachment on the mower. God I love that chipper.

Bung:

tdgeek:

 

elpenguino:

 

I have some hedge and ivy to maintain. Leafy material like that can be thrown on the ground, run over with the petrol mower, raked up and thrown into a compost pile. Breaks down in short time.

 

 

That was my experience too. Worked great, if you want to strip all the twigs. 

 

If you're saying that by the time you get round to trimming the hedge the prunings are too big to mow, I think you'd be better off getting a better hedge trimmer. I think you are leaving it too long.

Nah, i was trying to chip this other stuff - a fast growing creeper thing  - it wasn't even very hard, it didnt have lateral branches and grew to about 20mm diameter so it should be a prime candidate to shred with the stand up chipper but it was still a slow PITA to shred it. One by one and with a relatively slow chewing capability.