Sun Joe Electric Corded Garden Tiller & Cultivator, Steel Tines, 13.5 Amp, 16 Inch, Black - Heavy Duty Gardening Machine Equipment for Lawn, Yard, & Grass, TJ604E

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.

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.