Country Home Products (also dba DR Chipper and DR Field and Brush Mower)

Lawn and Garden Equipment

P.O. Box 25
Vergennes, Vermont 05491 (United States)
1-800-687-6575
1-802-877-1213

Reviews:

positives
neutrals
negatives

Displaying the 18 most recent reviews

RatingContent
Negative
On Jan 14, 2021, ashbyb (1 reviews) from Omaha, NE

I purchased a DR Chipper attachment that attaches to my DR Field and Brush mower. It arrived and I was excited to put it together, I worked for an hour getting it setup. The final part to attach was the discharge shoot, they welded a sleeve to the frame to run the bolts through to attach the shoot. The sleeve was not properly aligned with the holes on the frame so it was impossible to attache the discharge shoot. Very poor quality control! When I bought my brush mower the first one they sent was bad and they replaced it with an upgraded model. The second brush mower has been great, but this shows their quality control is not good.

Negative
On Aug 3, 2020, bunter1 (1 reviews) from Duluth, MN

Absolutely terrible customer service, with the trite "Have a nice day" at the end. The problem is with the product and seller, not Dave's Garden. I bought DR Premier 26 brusher directly from Country Home Products. It arrived non-functional, no propulsion/drive. I had local authorized service dealer repair the problem. Used the machine 3 times and it was terrific. On the fourth use, the propulsion/drive went out again, completely. Same problem as when first delivered. Waited 45 minutes on phone, to have customer support inform me warranty would not be applied. Manager confirmed the same. Essentially the message was, "Too bad ... but it's your problem not ours" ... even on this new, undamaged, $1600 piece of equipment. Let this company go out of business.

Negative
On Aug 17, 2019, singingfalls (1 reviews) from TILLER, OR

Another all day banjo story. For context here is my situation. I've just had my property evaluated for fire resilience and forest health. We have 43 out of the 77 acres to be treated for thinning and fuels management. No commercial timber being extracted. There's a lot of small trees and brush out there. The prescription calls for good spacing between the conifers and plenty of room for the oaks which I plan to favor. I'm going to have tons of fire wood. I use plenty for heat, cooking and the sauna. They're all wood fired in the winter. I also want to produce a lot of biochar for the orchard, vineyard, herb garden and vegetable garden. I'd like to produce enough for the forest itself also. I planned on having tons of wood chips for my food production areas and around trees etc. Asked around about chippers. Two gents who I think are committed farmers recommended a DR chipper that they use on their tractors. I don't have a tractor so I did some on line searches and decided on the DR CP5 16.5 PRO with the extended chipper. That's when the nightmare began. Seems like I waited forever for the chipper to arrive. With hindsight my guess is that they had run out of engines for their chippers. After over a month the extended shoot arrived. Still no chipper. Six weeks goes by and my chipper had been sent to a round about trucking outfit that had it circling the country. DR didn't even deliver the thing to the ranch. I had to drive 1 ½ hours one way to pick it up at the truck terminal in town. The crate looked like it had been through h**l when it arrived. I got it home and began to assemble the extended shoot. No sooner than that and I get a call on my answering machine from DR that I had been sent a chipper whose B&S engine did not have an cut off switch. I was not pleased. My wife had purchased a DR trimmer that was sent to us without all of its parts just a couple a months earlier. I thought it was an anomaly. Man was I wrong on that. It is now three full months since my chipper order. Still no kill switch kit after multiple calls and many hours of listening to that nasty freaking banjo music. I feel sorry for the poor suckers that have to answer the phones. I generally try to be civil and discrete when talking to the front line because I know they don't have a lot of sway in the situation. I repeatedly ask for their supervisor but never get one and have yet to receive a call back from any of them. No doubt I could rig something up for a kill switch but hey, after dishing out well over 3K for the chipper, getting an extended warranty AND paying for shipping I think they owe me. I will never recommend purchasing a DR product to anyone. I'm freaking out that once I do get the chipper going that it will have been poorly assembled or some other unforeseen BS. I am angry and feel taken advantage of. I'm an old koot and feel like I should have known better. What can I say? I did a fair amount of due diligence and realize now that DR spends a lot of money on their PR. I go to get my mail and there's another piece of slick DR junk mail promoting their junk equipment. It infuriates me every time I see it. About the same amount of distaste as I have for their sickening banjo music. I'm still waiting DR. How about making it right?

Negative
On Apr 4, 2019, LinEvans (1 reviews) from Berthoud, CO

Bought the DR 11.5 manual start chipper/shredder. Main bearing failed in less than 5 hours moderate use. Replaced under warranty. Factory recall for "safety reason" caused an easy to start unit to be literally useless. The change meant that the heavy flywheel has to be included when turning over the engine with the start cord. It's so hard to pull that the entire 200 pound unit lifts off the ground. I paid for a five year warranty and DR will do NOTHING to make this once easy to start unit useful. They suggested selling it and buying an electric start model from them. No thanks!!! Both their engineering and customer service are terrible in my opinion. After spending thousands with them I will never buy or recommend another DR product.

Negative
On Oct 2, 2018, MarkHigh (1 reviews) from Wallowa, OR

Started my brand new DR 11.5 chipper-shredder, and it worked beautifully for about 20 minutes. Then it began making a terrible scraping noise. I stopped it, disassembled the screen area to see inside, and found a retaining ring and a washer on the floor of the discharge area. The shaft had slipped to the right so the blades were scraping the wall of the chipper. Wrote to DR, and a tech responded right away. He told me how to fix it. He was wrong. He also pointed me to the wrong schematic in the owner’s manual. Spent probably 6-8 hours trying to do the repair myself, but the deeper I went, the more problems I found, such as a loose bolt on the belt pulley as well as a protruding key. And I still can't figure out where the stray, disconnected nut goes. Went to their support page and contacted a tech via Live Chat. When I explained the problem, he said I had to call the tech department, even though I was already talking to the tech department. Repeated attempts to reach the tech department by phone resulted in an interminable marathon of banjo music. Back to Live Chat with a plea for help that didn’t involve banjo music. Haven’t heard back from him. Must have hurt his feelings. Maybe he was the banjo player. Now I’m taking the chipper to a local repair shop. So it was 1,000 bucks for the chipper, probably 200 more for the repair. But at least I no longer have to listen to telephonic banjo music.

Negative
On Jul 17, 2018, rjc8575 (1 reviews) from Andover, MA

If you want to buy a $700 lawn ornament then the dr chipper is for you! What a disaster. I ordered my chipper after a big storm in early spring knocked down a bunch of trees and branches. Unfortunately the chipper never arrived to help me clean up the mess. About a month after ordering the chipper I received my first piece. Basically the engine and one of the input chutes. The manuals, nuts, bolts, stabilizing foot, etc. were no where to be found. After calling up and waiting on hold for nearly an hour the tech. send me the url for the docs and shipped out the parts to me. A week passes The new shipment arrives! Unfortunately with the wrong parts and without the nuts and bolts. Another hour on hold - another promise - another week passes - more wrong parts. This process repeated a few times and finally I had all the parts and pieces. The chipper was assembled, gassed up, fresh oil, all set to go! I started it up, it was purring along for about 5 minutes as I let it "warm up" ..... I fetched a 3 foot long branch about the diameter of a pencil - I fed it into the hopper and wow it shredded 1/3 of the branch before puttering to a stop. Engine completely dead. One more hour on hold as I call DR. This time they are at a loss for an answer .... they say "we will have to have briggs & stratton give me a call" to diagnose what happened. I should expect a call in 24 to 48 hours ..... that was last week. Still no call. Still no working chipper ..... I give up! I'll stick some flowers in the chutes and perhaps get it to pass for a planter ....

Negative
On Jun 15, 2018, zhafahzha (1 reviews) from Bristol, VT

I live in Vermont and WORKED for this company (DR Power Equip). I was hired as a "seasonal" technical support specialist in March of 2016 and wasn't needed any more by late september of the same year, when the incoming calls slowed down. This company hires up to 20 seasonal tech support people every year, gives them mediocre training at best (I actually heard one ask "what's the difference between a gasket and a washer?") and "throws them in the pit" fielding technical questions from customers, most of which are not having a pleasant experience with DR products. Only a select few tech support staff are knowledgable and are kept on year round. It was very frustrating for me having to hear all the problems people have with DR equipment and not being able to help. Part of the reason is this; keeping a tech support job (even seasonal) is contingent on the time it takes you to answer a call (must be less than 5 min), the time your phone is idle (5 min), time spent TALKING to the customer (5 min), upselling them parts they didn't call about in the first place, and the big one; selling extended warranties. To wrap it up, what my experience at DR taught me is that this company's equipment is built with design flaws, low quality materials, overpriced and poorly assembled with a strong need for stricter quality control and better trained technical staff. Chuck - Bristol, Vt.

Positive
On Mar 21, 2015, Spriggin (19 reviews) from Selma, OR

Posted on March 7, 2008, updated March 21, 2015 For years I've struggled with wimpy chippers that were killers to start then I bought a USED dr chipper. It is my favorite toy. It is fast and efficient and a dream to start. I find myself hunting around the property for more branches. The mulch that is created has loosened the packed garden soil and dried up a soggy chicken yard. The state even gave me a tax credit as I no longer have to burn all my brush and limbs. Yippeeee!


On March 21st, 2015, Spriggin added the following: Still going strong with just routine maintenance. Thank you.

Negative
On Sep 30, 2011, RussellOH (1 reviews) from Bentleyville, OH

Posted on September 12, 2011, updated September 30, 2011 Posted on August 31, 2011, updated September 12, 2011 Posted on August 19, 2011, updated August 31, 2011 Bought D R Power Premier woodchipper with 3 year warranty. Followed manual to add oil and gas and started up. Briggs & Stratton engine ran literally two minutes then slowed and stopped when chipping half inch branch. Called tech support. Immediately was accused of not adding oil. Apparently 3 year warranty is just a scam. Easier to blame customer for defective machine. Friend has aleady cancelled plans to buy brush hog machine from D. R. Power. Company unwilling to stand behind its products and honor warranty is useless; worse unscrupulous. Tech support should immediately have arranged replacement, not accused me of doing something wrong. Very disappointed and angry that U.S. company, allegedly high quality, is acting this way.


On August 31st, 2011, RussellOH added the following: D R Power finally got back to me to promise a replacement wood chipper through a nearby dealer. However, chipper was not sent ASAP as promised and has yet to arrive. Called D R Power and was told standard delivery takes two weeks, even though original woodchipper came in two days. Don't think you can trust D R Power.
On September 12th, 2011, RussellOH added the following: A delivery service miraculously called two days after D R Power said a replacement woodchipper would take two weeks to build. The delivery service had my phone number but the address for First Quality Sales in Middlefield, Ohio, the local dealer. The chipper was then delivered to First Quality Sales and a few days later a man from First Quality Sales brought the chipper out after preparing the machine. He confirmed that enough oil was in the original chipper that the engine should not have seized up. I have used the replacement chipper a couple of times with no problem. I will purchase machinery from First Quality Sales in the future but never again buy directly from D R Power.
On September 30th, 2011, RussellOH added the following: Replacement chipper lasted 5 sessions before knife dulled and chipping worsened. After trying to sell me a replacement knife, DR Power shipped a replacement for free. However, I am paying First Quality Sales for picking up chipper for service and returning. True cost of owning DR Power chipper will include a few hundred dollars annual maintenance, making it a much more expensive proposition. Durability of knife when chipping old, dried wood is the main problem.

Positive
On Sep 21, 2009, tomtorrance (2 reviews) from Scottsville, VA

I've had a 12HP DR Chipper for five or six years, so it's been out of warranty for a long time. I use it a couple of times a year when I've collected a large pile of fallen limbs, and I'd estimate that I've put approximately 75 hours on the chipper. Recently, the pulley attached to the flywheel cracked. I called and spoke to a customer service technician, who offered to ship to me at no charge a replacement pulley, set screws and key. All those parts arrived within a few days, were easy to install, and allowed me to tackle that huge pile of limbs that I had collected to chip up. I've been impressed both with the durability of the DR Chipper and with their customer service.

Neutral
On Jul 14, 2009, colcord (1 reviews) from Bethel, ME

I've owned a DR field and brush mower for 9 years. I also purchased the 46" All-Terrain mower deck. I've used the All Terrain deck more than the single blade brush deck. I've had a few minor problems over the years but found their support good in the past. I had the same experience this month as noted in one of the other comments regarding the new cable set for the clutch and operator presence controls. I just wanted one cable but they only will sell the whole $50 setup. I spoke to tech support (after 2 "live chat" sessions, waiting a week for a response, emailing and finally calling and being on hold 10 minutes) and the tech was helpful, gave me a break on the price of the full package of controls and threw in another small part I needed. I hope the contact problems and wait time are anomalies; otherwise the service has been good. The decks and drive unit are quite well- made, but a little under-engineered. Some features look like something your neighbor, who has a bunch of steel tubing and is handy with a welder and mechanical things, might have built onto his home-made mower. A bolt threaded into a welded-on nut to hold the end of a spring, exposed parts of the operator presence safety system (which is why they replaced the system), awkward change over from one deck to the other, and some of the other somewhat primitive features have been refined a bit in later models. All the belts wear quickly (some are probably undersized), but especially the drive belt from the motor to the mower. I've replaced it almost every year. The all-terrain deck I have has been improved. Mine is made is of a plastic/nylon material that hasn't held up very well (the newer one is steel). When pushed up against trees, other obstacles, it takes bites of itself. It would be fine on a smooth lawn, but perhaps I've taken "all-terrain" too literally. The differential locks often when the lever touches the ground when lifting the deck up on rough terrain and needs to be re-engaged. The engine (12.5 hp Tecumseh) has been excellent and had no problems at all. The maneuverability of the mower is excellent. It is not for the small and meek though. I'm over 6 feet and I can handle it easily; not so my teenage daughters. I briefly owned a sears lawn tractor and found it harder to maneuver, and much harder to use in tight places around trees, the house, etc. And I like the exercise I get walking. The flaws so far have been relatively minor annoyances and I'd consider buying one again.


On July 25th, 2009, colcord added the following: 2 weeks later. One of the spindle assemblies in the mower deck crapped out, shredding the serpentine belt as it went. Not a part you would expect to go. Called tech support to find out how to take it apart. Tech couldn't really tell me, then said, "well, it actually doesn't matter, we only sell the whole unit." For about $100, including shipping. So, I'm on my own to take it apart and see if I can get bearings, which I assume are standard sized, if the spindle and housing are intact. I'll leave my rating at neutral, but it's trending down.

Positive
On May 27, 2009, mfenley (1 reviews) from Monroe, GA

I've had a DR brush cutter for about 6 or 7 years. Works great, except it tends to throw off strings a lot. Also got the beaver blade attachment which does a marvelous job of trimming 2" tree stumps right down to ground level.

Neutral
On May 11, 2009, ramaeder (1 reviews) from Bryant, AR

I purchased a DR all-terrain mower eight years ago. It handles my needs OK. Recently I needed to replace the clutch cable. I called to order one and was told there had been an upgrade to my unit and I needed to purchase a retro kit because the old clutch cables were not available any more. The kit is five times the cost of a cable. I have a problem being forced to upgrade my unit when it was performing satisfactorily before the cable broke.

Positive
On Mar 16, 2009, cholla7 (3 reviews) from Lindsay, CA

I have had a dr self-propelled, string trimmer for over four years. I wish I had bought the non-self-propelled version with taller wheels as the self-propulsion is weak and not really useful at all. Tall wheels would roll over uneven ground easier and the whole unit would be less complex. But this little monster sures cuts the weeds! Won't handle mustard or big cheeseweed or marestail type weeds even with the thickest line but everything else sure gets buzzed down. I've gone through weeds as tall as I am. The thick blue line DR sells is the best to use under all conditions. Sometimes it's hard to pry the remnants of the broken line off the mow ball but you really don't change the line that often. I've had no problem with electric or pull starting and the engine is supurb. I will say that this unit is more suited to flat and even terrain than the slight slope I'm on. It's interesting to read others comments about this company. I agree with a lot of what's written except about the quality of the machines. Just make sure you MATCH the machine to your type of job and take care of it--basic maintenence and inspection--and you'll be OK. I'm going to fire mine up in a day or two and go through about three foot high nettles, fiddleneck and wild oats like I've done in previous years.

Positive
On Aug 15, 2007, markn325e (1 reviews) from Taylors, SC

I purchased my All-Terrain Field and Brush Mower about 6 years ago and love it. The only problems I've had are regular wear items, one broken belt and a battery that no longer holds a charge. As far as the performance, I liked the video they sent, but the video is nothing compared to real life. With the standard blade on still, the mower easily cut through 1 inch saplings and thick brush without so much as a hick-up. And I have the 10.5 hp I/C motor, not the big motor. This is probably the only product that I have ever purchased that I was completely satisfied with. I honestly feel that as long as I keep up with the regular maintenance items I will enjoy my mower for many more years.

Positive
On Dec 7, 2005, vossner (118 reviews) from East Texas,
United States (Zone 8a)

We purchased an 8.0 hp chipper 4 years ago and it has worked wonderfully, no problems. Price was competitive and customer service satisfactory.

Positive
On Dec 6, 2005, dogcatsgoats (1 reviews) from Jasper, TX

We purchased a dr chipper and love that machine. In the beginning we had some slight problems--the company worked us until it was decided that they would replace the machine free of charge--it was delivered directly to our door. The replacement works great--just as advertised. We could not be more satisfied with their customer service or their product. Roman Lamberty

Negative
On Oct 10, 2004, (0 reviews)

I recently purchased the 5.5 HPmodel lawn vac, first I waited 4 weeks to get it after being told it would be 10 days, then after putting it together (which almost broke my back) I took it out into my back yard. Note the video they sent me showed no dust coming out compared to one of their competitors. when used it dust poured out all over the place thru the top, and thru every panel seam. The "stand" they give you is a piece of junk!!. I am no at all happy with this and do not recommend it to anyone, I will be returning this to them and looking elsewhere


On December 11th, 2004, DRHATER added the following: I just got a notice that the elbow for my lawn vac is defective and that I have to wait a month to wait for a new one, thank god that I did return the rake before and purchased a cyclone rake instead. it works alot better than the dr product and they stand by their product better, I was missing a part and it was shipped out to me that day and I had it in 2 days

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