Sun JoeElectric Garden Tiller and Cultivator, Steel Tines, 13.5 Amp, 16 Inch, Black - Heavy Duty Gardening Machine and Equipment for Lawn, Yard, and Grass

This tiller is great – lightweight and easy to maneuver – I'm very happy with the purchase. The first time I started it up, I was shocked at how easily it dug straight into the dirt, and how easy it was to use. And if you're worried about the cord, it never really bothered me. You're moving slow enough when you're tilling that keeping the cord out of the way is not really a challenge. It's not unlike vacuuming, only slower going. That said, if you're thinking about buying it, and you've used a gas tiller before, you need to have realistic expectations.A couple quick notes. It's absurdly easy to assemble. Contrary to a couple comments I read, I found the wheel adjustment to be very easy to use; you just pull the wheels toward you and put them in the notch you want.We have a small garden, maybe 10 x 30. I used it yesterday for the first time for two or three hours, re-tilling some leaves into the existing garden, and breaking new ground to expand our plot. Last year, I broke ground with a front tine gas tiller I borrowed from a friend, basically a larger gas version of this tiller, so here's my comparison.It was wet yesterday, and there's some clay content in our soil, and the electric bogged down two or three times. It just stopped turning, and there was a little smoke whisping off the motor, which made we nervous. But I simply stopped, cleaned the tines out, and let it spin free a little to clear the dirt, and it kept working just fine. That said, with the gas tiller, I never had this problem. Although the electric was surprisingly strong, the gas was definitely more powerful. My guess is that I'll end up having to do more passes with this tiller than with the gas. That said, a gas tiller is two to three times as expensive, and requires a lot more maintenance. For me, the trade off is worth it.As for maneuverability, this lightweight tiller won hands down. Keep in mind, weight can be helpful for the tiller to sink into and break up deep soil. But, whereas I was absolutely exhausted after using the gas tiller last year, using this tiller really isn't that much harder than mowing the grass. As long as this tiller can get the job done, I would much rather use it.There's a few reasons I gave this tiller four starts instead of five. In wet soil with clay content, the design makes it very easy for soil to collect between the tines, the top protective shield and the wheels, which ultimately leads to the tiller bogging down. I constantly had a big, clogged mass of soil and clay bunched between the protective shield and the wheel bracket. And, although I had no problems yesterday, I'd feel more confident about this tiller's life span if the wheels were more heavy duty. And, more importantly, I'd have liked it if they put heavier gauge handles on it. At times, when you're wresting with the tiller, the handle torques a bit, which makes me a little nervous about how long it will last. My guess is, I'll get several years out of this tiller, but not a couple decades, like you might from a gas tiller.That said, I don't think the makers of this tiller are misrepresenting this it in any way. It's a great, easy to use, lightweight tiller, and it will probably meet our needs for years. While it's not suited for serious, heavy duty tilling, for the average home owner who's just gonna use it a couple times a year, it's a great solution.UPDATEChanged my original review from 4 to 5 stars. I've used it twice more on our garden plot, which we expanded to about 15 x 40. Second time, used it when the ground was fairly wet, and, because we have a bit of clay in our soil, it still struggled some, but ultimately managed to get through everything just fine. The third time, I added some soil amendments when we'd had a few dry days, and it worked perfectly. Really couldn't be happier. It's lightweight, easy to use, and more than powerful enough for our needs.

I own a SunJoe lawn dethatcher/scarifier, an extension pole saw that you can remove the pole and have about a 13 amp 8" chain saw (it's awesome and then some). So, I decided this was a perfect tool to add for minor landscaping. Like the other two items, this had ample power to do the job without a hint of stress on the electric motor. It was easy enough to control, although I should have taken down the lattice first. I was going to try and just till down about 2 inches, but this thing was so easy to use it was difficult not to go down 6-8 inches or more. I'd allow the tiller to go forward a bit, then pull backwards and it dug into the soil with ease. I went back and forth a few times to really loosen the soil in our front flowerbed. Then I stood back and leveled the soil the best I could, and then used a 4x4 to pack the soil back in case it rained. Just like the dethatcher and pole saw, this worked very well. I cannot stress enough how important it is to use the correct size extension cord. Take the dethatcher for example. I follow a guy on YouTube that does professional landscaping and he wanted to make a video about this SunJoe dethatcher and aside from the very undersized catch bag, he loved this. He used it on several lawns in a professional manner, than started loaning it out to anybody and everybody in the area that wanted to use it. It worked flawlessly until #15. He left the dethatcher out on the driveway with the correctly rated extension cord. When he got home, the person took the dethatcher and left the extension cord, and the tool came back with a burnt out motor. I have a degree in electronics and I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that the person used an extension cord that was not rated for the 13.5 amps and burned the motor out. The extension pole saw...equally amazing. We had a hardwood tree in our back yard that was dying, and parts of the limbs were dead on the ends, and hanging over places like the shed, fence, and neighbor's shed and swing, so I had to remove the limbs carefully. My neighbor came over to give me a hand and with ropes and cuts and pulling, we were able to bring down the limbs without damage to anything besides dents in the lawn. He said he'd come back the following day with a gas chain saw to help cut the rest of the tree up. He went to borrow his dads chain saw, but it wasn't running at the time so he went and bought at 45cc Craftsman gas powered chainsaw. This 45cc gas chainsaw bogged down repeatedly, so once he had to leave, I pulled the SunJoe saw back out and went to work. The SJ saw never showed any stress with the cuts, even when I was using the 8" bar to cut through 14" hardwood making long cuts. Judging by the number of times I've refilled the bar oil lube container, I've probably used the saw for 5-6 hours of non-stop cutting time. That saw is a little beast. If the motor on this tiller is equal to those other two, this tiller will be powerful enough to do any job you need. It's not as big or heavy as a gas powered unit, but it's so much easier to use. Throw in the hassle of renting one at a big box store, the wait, the paperwork, loading, driving home, cleaning up, returning, waiting, unloading, etc. This little tiller is a great investment. If you're going to use this for tilling anything of decent size, be sure to do so after a rain or after watering the ground. Trying to till compacted and dry soil is tough. I tilled my 5,000 sq. ft. front yard with a big box rental tiller and made the mistake of doing it compact and dry soil, and the tines just skipped over the surface kicking up dust. It was a big learning lesson...

Pos: Rips well into the dirt. Fairly easy to angle for forward movement, or going deeper in the same place. Considering you're tearing up the earth and plowing through it, it's actually really easy to move. As the blades are spinning forward it wants to move forward on its own, so surprisingly you're holding back to plow forward. It took me about an hour to fully till my backyard, which was about 200 sq. ft. That includes going a couple feet down and having to stop every few feet to grab a big brick or other random giant metal/stone object that had made its way into the ground over the years. In that regard I really like this because it helped me find all of those items and pull them out to just have a nice bed of soil.Neg: Being connected to an outlet does limit it, and it becomes a little annoying on the return plows where you have to work to make sure the power cord isn't in the way. Also you need a higher power rated extension cord (that's for outdoors), which adds a bit to the cost. While it does most of the work for you, it's still work. It takes some muscle to control it and move it, etc.