Sun Joe TJ599E Aardvark 2.5-Amp Electric Garden Cultivator

The rototiller, thankfully, came in the color black. A nice sturdy looking color as opposed to lime green. It handles the ground beautifully. I did have a sun Joe full size rototiller, and that actually landscaped a large part of my yard. So I know that the brand is sturdy, and this little beast proved it today. It does not seem to clog up with weeds, but it does catch stones so you'll have to look to see if you caught a stone, if it is not turning. Dislodge the stone, and this thing keeps going. I'm really happy with it, and I seem to have gotten it at half price, $110 Canadian. This rototiller helps me get rid of weeds in the middle of rows that a full scale rototiller could not delicately do. My garden now looks attended to, instead of abandoned. In addition to gardening, I also bought it for a trench digger, laying internet cables in the lawn for surveillance cameras. It is wide enough for laying internet cables, or power lines, such as an outdoor outlet. Although you will need to go at a depth that is safe, it will handle digging trenches and gardening weeds. I'm really really glad that I bought this. And after 3 years of having their rototiller, and passing it off to a family member, I know that this will last. I couldn't be happier knowing that I can go out in my garden, and weed without getting my hands green and dirty. In addition, between the rows of potatoes, it will actually hill your potatoes if you toss up freshly dug dirt. It will aerate the soil, and take the surface part of the weeds out. You don't necessarily have to go too deep near the plants, but it does do a fantastic job of weeding.

I bought the Sun Joe because I wanted a light tiller I could use on three raised beds used for vegetable gardening with a total area of 100 square feet. Each bed is surrounded by a 3 foot rabbit fence so double digging with a shovel would have been difficult. The tiller arrived mostly assembled, all I had to do was position the handle and tighten it, and then telescope the handle to the right length. The tiller is quite light, feeling lighter than it's advertised 10 pounds. I have three 4 x 8 raised beds. Each one I had added composted manure that I needed to till in. One bed had just straight dirt, the second one had some spring wheat growing in it, a couple of inches tall. The third had last year's crab grass thickly matted (and dead) and I knew that one would be tough. The tiller handled the first bed with just dirt and manure easily. I found it was easy to drag the tiller slowly backwards and it would dig in anywhere from 4 to six inches, depending on how much you wanted to work it. The second bed, with some spring wheat growing in it, was a little tougher because the 5-7 inch roots would get mulched and stuck around the tines. I stopped tilling twice, unplugging the unit to clear the roots and mud clinging to the tines. The third bed was an even tougher job, and I had to move along much more slowly, again having to turn the tiller off and unplug it to clear the tines of roots and matted crabgrass material getting stuck and wound around the tines. All told, however, the unit worked very well. I was able to till three beds in about 10-15 minutes. If I had to double dig those beds, it would have been 1.5 hours of tough shoveling. I think this unit is fairly reliable. I put my hand on the motor and it was only slightly warm after five minutes of tilling without stopping. It's generally heat that kills off a motor but if you use this motor in the coolest part of the day and take a break here and there every 5-10 minutes, the motor should last a long time. The power of this unit is just adequate for the job. Any more powerful, and a lot of dirt would have been knocked out of the beds. This one knocks a little dirt of the beds but not bad because tilling tends to throw soil around. I probably would not use this tiller if I was planning to create a 1,000 square foot garden by breaking up lawn sod. Definitely look for a a unit that's 8-10 amps or gas powered for that sort of job. However for tilling small beds of soil that haven't been heavily compressed this unit does the job. It's fairly good for raised bed gardens.

I received mine a few days ago. Was heavier than expected but that seems to be due to the ruggedness of the lower end including the motor. Need to fully loosen the knob holding the lower handle in place before trying to rotate it as it has ratchet type bumps that hold it in place, not just friction fit. Tried it on my recently planted vegetable garden. Easy to use & control & quite fast. I really liked the job it did of quickly fine tilling the ground near the plants to let water soak in. Also tilled general garden ares to get rid of the many small weeds that had become to sprout. Very happy with it. Time will tell if it last but my bet is that it will be good for a few years.

The tiller was very useful for smaller areas that I needed to work the soil to spread some grass seed. It worked very well and was easy to use. Unfortunately, on the first use I was adjusting the slide for height adjustment and it popped out. No big deal, I was able to easily put it back together. However, when I was using it again it popped out again and a small piece that helps keep it locked in place fell out and was lost. I had registered it on the website and submit a warranty request to which they responded immediately. They sent a shipping label and I dropped it off at the UPS store a couple of days later. The next day I was notified that a replacement had already been shipped and it arrived promptly. Excellent customer service! So much so that I went ahead and bought a lawnmower from them I had my eye on because I had such a good experience with their product support.

It's a lightweight item, but it fulfills its mandate. Works well. Jams a bit too easily but easy to clear as long as you are careful.