Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Why I bought it followed by how it worked for me.
If you don't want to read on, here is what I have to say. I abused it on a very tough 5000 square foot St. Augustine lawn, that was somewhat damp at the time, and it did great. I was shocked at how well it did. I was expecting it to fail based on reviews of other similar de-thatchers. WHY I BOUGHT IT:
My lawn is St. Augustine and requires a special de-thatching machine/process/tools so as not to kill the lawn.
A rental ( vertical mower with tines spaced 2"-3" apart ) was not available in my area nor do landscapers have these on hand. Rentals cost [...]. Two healthy adults using modified de-thatching rakes with some tines removed could only cover 300-400 square feet in an hour and the results weren't great.
I was skeptical in this purchase, but also tired and desperate, so for [...] with free shipping I decided to take a chance.
It appears the Craftsman model is more expensive and has complaints about its motor failing. The craftsman reportedly uses a 10amp motor as does this unit. I was worried that this unit might be under powered.
My lawn was green and growing like mad for two years prior - the envy of all the neighbors. I wasn't shy using fertilizer. I had to mow every 5th day. Last summer, I couldn't find a way to keep the lawn alive. Fertilizer didn't really help. Watering as recommended didn't help. Insects invaded despite my use of pesticides that had worked in years prior. It wasn't long before large areas of dead grass formed and mushrooms popped up all over. My lawn was also very spongy to walk on. You can only cut St. Augustine so short before killing it, so I was hesitant to cut it below 2".
I finally determined that my problem was with excessive thatch - a problem I probably created by over fertilizing and not bagging the grass clippings. Thatch can stop water as well as fertilizer and pesticides from getting down where it needs to, and provides a great environment for fungus and insects.
HOW IT WORKED:
I'll be frank. When I un-boxed it and took a look at the tines on the roller, it appeared so cheap I felt I would be making a mistake if I didn't return it right away. They don't picture the bottom of the unit or the tines. Had they, I probably wouldn't have bought it. It just doesn't look like it has a chance of getting the job done. The roller resembles a large vacuum brush roller, and is driven by a cogged belt attached to the motor. The tines are thin and short. These look like super heavy duty paper clips.
When put to use, It removed a lot more thatch, more thoroughly, in less than 5 minutes, without breaking a sweat, than 2 physically fit adults with rakes spent an hour trying to de-thatch. And, the grass and thatch were damp at the time I used this unit.
Someone posted a video online of a similar de-thatcher (possibly the Craftsman) in use, with tons of thatch being left behind as the unit moves forward. That is exactly how well it worked for me.
If you don't use an adequately sized extension cord, (or plug it into an outlet than can actually deliver the 15 amps it should be rated for) you may end up overheating the motor from low voltage issues and damaging it. I used a 100 foot, 14 gauge cord plugged into a 20 amp GFCI outside outlet and had no problems. The motor never hinted at bogging down.
I started out with the thatcher in its highest setting as per the instructions, but found it did a better job for me on its lowest setting. I think the difference between high and low is less than ½ an inch. You wouldn't think it would make a difference, but it did.
I began by de-thatching 300 square foot sections at a time, stopped to rake it all up and bag it. At the end, I just ran this over the remaining 3000 square feet of lawn non stop - about 20 minutes time - and the thatcher had no issues keeping up.
The spinning tines are all that propel this forward and it takes little effort to control the pace, but if you intentionally go slow, be prepared to see it remove a lot of grass - probably more than you want. This works fast.
It isn't recommended that you pull this backwards while using it - one reason being that it is hard on the tines. I did this regularly as it just made it easier to maneuver and helped kick out any excessive thatch built up under it or around the wheels that it didn't discharge on its own. I frequently ran this over a pile of grass I already de-thatched as I maneuvered it around, and it just kept humming away.
The end result for me on my lawn: about 35 minutes of run time on the de-thatcher did a better job than two adults with rakes could have done in 14 hours. Thatching 5000 square feet of area left me with thirty, 33 gallon garbage bags full of all the crap it pulled up, the vast majority of which was dead grass and thatch and very little healthy green stuff.
I would expect this to make short work of any lawn not resembling the vine-like thickness of St. Augustine.
The pictures (if I can attach some later) show the modified hand rake used at first along with the underside of the power de-thatcher. Because St. Augustine is supposed to be de-thatched with a vertical mower with blades spaced 2"-3" apart so as to reduce the chances tearing up the vine-like structure of the grass and killing it, I removed every other set of tines on the roller to get the spacing I wanted. As the pictures show (hopefully), each set of tines is two wires sticking out from a single spring wound tine mount. Three of the sets each lost a single tine wire and I wouldn't be surprised if it was from my abuse. Since I removed some of them before I started, I have spares.
This saved so much manual labor, had it died on me after one round of de-thatching, I'd still buy another one when the time comes. And most importantly, the thatched areas have new grass popping up all over. This did the trick for me.
My only con, maybe the tines could be a thicker gauge.
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