RickAbout ten days ago I bought a new garden shredder to replace the thoroughly worn out one I bought some time in the mid nineties. I will be taking the new one back to the shop some time in the next few days. Electrically, there are four levels of over-current protection, a trip-switch, an internal cut-out, a fuse in its plug, and (of course) the circuit breaker on the house switchboard.
The easiest item to reset would be the trip switch. The circuit breaker is easy enough to reset, but requires a visit to the board. The fuse in the plug can be popped out and replaced (but of course costs a new fuse each time). The internal cut-out can only be reset by cutting the power and waiting several minutes. So far today, I've had to deal with the circuit breaker four or five times, and the cut-out at least four times. Note that the trip switch has tripped a very round number of times.
The plug fuse hasn't blown today, but needed replacing the first time I used the shredder. I'll be taking said shredder back to the shop sometime in the next day or three. For one, I'd guess the trip switch is faulty. It ought to be the first thing to go if something's amiss, and the others should generally never need to do so. For two, no way should a new piece of equipment be hitting the point where it trips the house circuit breaker even once a day. The culprit, a Mac Allister MQS2800-3.