Sun Joe TJ600E Tiller Joe 14-Inch 6.5 Amp Electric Tiller/Cultivator

Pros:Lightweight, you can just pick it up and pack it around instead of dragging itPOWERFUL! I wasn't expecting it at all and had a very relaxed grip when I first turned it on, it almost zoomed out of my hands.Easy Assembly, 2 screws and two bolts with wingnuts, then you just "press in" the cord a couple places where required.about double the tine span the mantis tillers have, at less than half the price.Cons:Maybe a little too light weight, it didn't till very deep while walking a steady slow pace.As for the fact that it doesn't till very deep, I believe just re-tilling the area would do the job, which I would have done today but was in a hurry to get my strawberry plants in the ground before they died. I tilled a 10x10 patch of packed down soil, in under 10 minutes with no signs of overheating, so really, it's not a bad machine for people with small to medium gardens (like me!) but I wouldn't recommend it for a large garden.I was actually going to buy a Mantis tiller too, had the order form filled out and the check ready to go in the mail when I found this Sun Joe tiller, and was nervous to try it, because of the fact that there were no user reviews on any of the sites I researched them on, but decided to take the chance and save a lot of money. No regrets. Keep in mind too, this tiller only costs about as much as it would to rent one for 3 days, not a bad investment.EDIT: Day Two of tiller use and I like it even more, I started tilling my future vegie patch this morning and worked out the machine's quirks, first off, hold it back, and follow it very slowly, second, definitely retill the soil after the first tilling, it really digs in and tills well the second time, The only thing that stopped me today was when a bunch of synthetic twine that was buried in our back yard completely wrapped up the tines and had to be cut out, the machine stopped itself. After removing the twine I started it up and there had been no damage.EDIT2: Used the tiller again, and have upgraded my rating from 4 stars to 5. While tilling, a massive chunk of buried concrete about 8x8 inches, by 2.5 inches thick became jammed in between the tines and the motor, and I do mean jammed, the tines had literally dug into the concrete about half an inch. The motor stopped itself, and after 20 minutes of pounding on the concrete from different angles with a mallet it finally wrenched free, I assumed it would be destroyed but the tines hadn't even been bent, I plugged it in and started up without a hitch, used it for another half an hour. SO impressed!

I've had this for a few months now and have tilled my entire back yard in prep for reseeding for a new lawn.First, let's be honest about the kind of tiller you rent from a garden supply store, a gas powered tiller, and an electric tiller-cultivator. The first kind will not only pull out sprinkler systems but destroy them. It will also eat right through hard, dry dirt and turn everything into soft powder. But it's also $60 just to rent where I am.The smaller gas powered ones - either 2 stroke or 4 stroke - are pretty strong, too, from what I understand. But you get the whole gas thing and not everyone is into that. I am not (I have all kinds of electric garden tools).The electric ones like this one are usually tiller/cultivators, as they are not designed to go much more than 3-4" deep and often are to just mix in some amendments. As electric motors, they do not have the sheer power to run for hours and hours into dry dirt. I killed a Troy-Bilt unit working too long on dry dirt.Having said all of that...provided I've given the lawn a good sprinkling (10 minutes?) overnight, I can churn that 3-4 (if not up to 6" down without much trouble. Half of my yard isn't that big - maybe 30x30 or so. But I can get through all of that in a single pass with this guy, especially with it being fairly wide. I have more than enough depth to be able to create a very smooth grade for the entire yard, and seeding the yard has been very easy. I can also work easily around sprinkler lines (mine are very shallow for some reason) - just stop immediately when I see the white of the PVC. I can also dig in deep so I can run new lines. I am redoing a rather illogical setup in that part of the lawn and this guy is doing a great job.After I do the initial tilling and pull up all of the sprinkler lines, I throw down some soil amendments so the grass will grow faster, cultivate that in, then dig out and put back in the sprinkler lines, then just rake the dirt around and I'm pretty set. It's a lot more tiller than one would think.The only hard part is that to keep one's finger on the "trigger" the tiller is held at a somewhat-odd angle. Feels a bit off. The lack of wheels isn't a problem, but my finger slips off the trigger now and then. Cord management is very nice.