Features:

  • Ideal for small to mid-sized gardens and flowerbeds
  • Powerful 6.5-amp motor cultivates up to 14" wide x 7" deep
  • 4 steel tilling blades for maximum durability and performance
  • No gas, oil or tune-ups make it effortless to start and maintain
  • ETL approved; Full 2-year warranty
I am in love with my tiller

Oh, my!! I am in love with my tiller. I won't let my husband use it! I have a lot of really crappy Johnson grass, etc., in my yard. Dug them up with ease. I am a little over 5'. But, I had no trouble getting and keeping control of this tiller. I did a 20' by 20' square in a very short time and, as you know if you have Johnson grass, etc., -- they have long, tough roots.

This is an amazing product. I'm almost 80

This is an amazing product. I'm almost 80, and I bought it because it is getting tougher for me to do heavy cultivating by hand. The Sun Joe Cultivator does a wonderful job in existing gardens. I used it in beds where we have had established annuals, and it cuts through them like a hot knife through butter. A couple of weeks ago, we decided to convert a patch of lawn about 12' x 12' into a wildflower garden. I started with the Sun Joe, but when I dug down about three inches, I hit a layer of compacted clay and stone. The Sun Joe was having trouble penetrating it, so I used a pick to break the layer up into big chunks. I put about 6 inches of leaf mold over the whole area, then I went to work with the Sun Joe. It ate through the stony clay and thoroughly mixed the leaf mold. It only took about 20 minutes to make the plot ready for planting, and even though it jammed on a couple of rocks, the Sun Joe didn't even overheat. I think this is going to be one of the best garden investments I have ever made.

After a cool down, it was good to go again

I can't speak for longevity, I've only used it one season- however I can attest they're fairly tough- I used it on some very rocky ground, and occasionally brought up rocks and broken brick as large as my fist- several times I managed to jam it, and simply whacked the offending rock out of the tines with a hammer, and kept on trucking. Only once did I manage to kick the thermal safety- YES, it has a thermal safety that will protect it from overheating. After a cool down, it was good to go again. And you have to run it awfully hard to kick the thermal. In short, for the one season I've used it, I shamelessly abused the daylights out of it, and it kept on running. I'm satisfied. The handle assembly was a bit chintzy, the fit and finish of the middle braces could be a little better, but only a minor inconvenience. Overall I'd recommend it- I used it above and beyond its intended level of duty, with no breakdown. Keep in mind this is really meant for casual tilling, and it's not a very heavy unit, so on hard or rocky ground, it does quite a bit of dancing around, and you have to go over hard ground more than once. But it can be done, and for only the occasional tilling job, it was a good value for me. The motor and gear box are plenty powerful for its size, and it takes a respectable amount of abuse.

I love this little tiller--and I had a Mantis before it!

I purchased this several years ago--I'm horrible at always leaving reviews. But--I can say now after 4 years of use that this little tiller has held up just fine for me! Unlike gas motors that need a supply of gas, need to be choked, cleaned out, winterized and often just plain old don't start--this little electric tiller will work as long as you have power! The downside is of course that you have a cord attached, but I have a 50' outdoor extension cord so it goes anywhere I need it to. Never tried it on a generator. I bought a used Mantis from our local lawn and garden sales and it was back to them more than I had it for 3 months, and then I just insisted they take it back. It rarely started easily, but this one does! This small tiller is not intended for breaking fresh sod into a garden planting ready state. It works great for fluffing up an existing garden bed in the spring, tilling between rows, and I especially use it for turning shredded leaves and compost into my vegetable deep beds. It's not real light weight, but I'm a retired lady and can easily move it in and out of the beds and storage. I've been VERY happy with it. Nothing has broken or cracked on it and it just runs like a champ. It would be nice to have a speed control on it as it turns pretty fast, but for what I do it works great. My soil is heavily amended sandy soil with some rocks, but it would work equally well on already cultivated loam. Heavy clay soil probably would not be as easy with it, but I'm not saying it wouldn't work in it at all. Large rocks would be a problem, but then they stop my large rototiller too. The only issue I've ever had with it from day one--and it's only because I have very short fingers, small hands and a lot of arthritis in them--is that the safety button that has to be pushed in and held while pushing the lever to make it turn is hard for me. I've been using equipment for years and have no children around so I just taped the safety button down and only have to work the start lever, but that's just my personal choice. I don't think anyone else with larger hands would have an issue.

This works GREAT

I had heart trouble and for two years I left it in the shed. this is my first year using this machine and it accomplished everything I expected it to do. I have a 40 x 80 city lot with a house and only needed it in two places this year. I finished both places in a day. The only trouble I had was with "creeping charley" ("wandering jenny" in the south) the vine got caught in blades a few times. If I took my time over the "jenny" the blades would chew it up. -So - plan your job and take your time and you will be very satisfied.

Great motor, one drawback

Removed a 25x25 playground area, had to chew up the super-compact dirt full of roots and hard clay that was left behind, so I could reseed with grass. This beast made pretty efficient work of the entire area, never got bogged down enough to shut off. The biggest drawback for me is that this is a pain to clear roots from when they get tangled in there. I would have really liked the mechanism to be able to rotate freely/backwards when powered off. Not enough of an issue for me to knock off a full star, considering what this beast did to my yard for only double the price it would've cost me to rent something similar at the big home improvement stores.

The little machine that does big work

I read reviews from here and another dot com retail chain and both had excellent reviews. I didn't have the funds to make a major purchase and this is my first attempt at gardening, so I needed something affordable that could get the job done. I just came in from tilling up a garden spot approximately 15x10 feet. It had never before been tilled. I set the timer on my phone and the first pass through I made it in 8 minutes 15 seconds. I decided to make a second pass to make sure the soil was good and turned up and it took me 5 minutes the second time. What a tough little machine! It even hung up on a long tree root and stopped. I unplugged and unwrapped the tree root and finished the job (I subtracted the time it took me to unwrap the root). I am thoroughly impressed! It's easy to handle and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. I'm thrilled with my purchase! EDIT: Tilled up a new flower bed area consumed by weeds and grass and it cut right through it! I'm loving this thing! It takes no time!

Not bad

Pros: Lightweight, you can just pick it up and pack it around instead of dragging it POWERFUL! 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!

Very Impressed

I was a bit skeptical about buying something I new nothing about online. I am certainly glad I bought this tiller. It has performed well beyond my expectations. I had to till about 550 SQ ft. of my front lawn to replace grass killed by hurricane Irma and this electric tiller did a remarkable job and saved me about 2 days of manual labor as I am handicapped and have to take breaks often. It is very poweful for an electric device.

Electric Tiller

I purchased the Sun Joe from Amazon last week and I chose the free shipping. The Tiller was delivered three days later by Fed Ex which was a wonderful surprise! The minor assembly was easy, just take your time with the plastic handle piece that mounts under the hand grips. A small screw is inserted into each side into a pre-drilled hole. A clamp is snapped on the right handle to hold the cord out of the way. A belt clip is also included to better manage the electric cord and reduce the chance of pulling the plug from the extension cord. I cultivated an area in my back yard that was used as a garden in years past and was now covered in weeds and grass. In about a half an hour my small garden was ready to plant. We plant about 20 items, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. The Sun Joe operates very predictably and is just the right weight. I ran into at least a dozen chunks of cement in the yard. I mention this because the larger gas cultivators that I used to rent did not go as deep as this little electric wonder. I got the best results by going forward and then pulling it back over the tilled ground which allowed it to go deeper. Weeds and grass wound around the tines and I unplugged it to clean it once or twice but nothing slowed it down. The motor was only mildly warm after the job was done. I expected the motor to be hot. I hate paying $60.00 to rent a tiller for four hours and dealing with the mess of hauling it back and forth to the hardware store. Clean-up was easy and the heavy duty tines still look like new. I applied a little oil to the steel parts to prevent rust. Other cultivators may include wheels, but wheels are not needed. The Sun Joe is very well made and is guaranteed for two years. I hope this review adds to the other reviews on this excellent product and I highly recommend it.

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