Mantis Aerator/Dethatcher Combo

The tiller is easy to attach just requiring you to slide it onto the axle and inserting a pin to hold it in place. I wasn't sure how good this would be at removing thatch but was really surprised at how effective it was. The previous season I had rented one from H Depot so thought there wouldn't be that much thatch to rake up. Man was I surprised. This tough little thatcher worked like a charm and pulled up nearly three barrels of thatch in about a 3000 square foot area. It was easy to handle, despite walking backwards. Cleanup was fairly easy. I had to pull some thatch off from between the tines but that's expected. The one slight negative is that surface rust will show up after use but, as the manual suggests, spraying with WD40 helps control it. Overall I am so glad I made the purchase and look forward to not having to rent and lug home one of the big box store ones. Like the tiller, the aerator worked well. It cut slits into the ground as opposed to pulling plugs like the professional aerators. I wasn't sure if that would be as good as pulling plugs but I have to say that because of the close distance of the blades to each other thus allowing for many lines of cuts, and the depth of the cut it makes, I am confident that this method will be effective. I can say the area I used it on drained water well whereas before the water would run off. That's a good sign. So overall I bought the kit mainly for the dethatcher and hoped the aerator would do a good job. Both exceeding my expections and I would, for the price, recommend the kit to anyone.

This worked amazing on my lawn. It picked up so much thatch. I did the following to my lawn: Dethatched Aerated Overseeded Watered 4 times a day for 2 weeks with Kentucky Blue Grass. The dethatching was nice and easy. I was getting a little tired by the end. In spots where the grass was wet/soft and wasn't rooted really well, it did scoop up some larger pieces of grass. I also noticed that one of the tines bent a little, so I bent it back. This might have been from hitting the driveway. This was so much better than the pull behind dethatcher I had for my riding lawn mower. That pull behind dethatcher totally ripped huge chunk after huge chunk out of my lawn. Aerating took a little more effort, and about 3 times as long as the dethatching because of the size. I think it did quite well and was pleased with the results. I also have a pull behind core aerator. That is also good, but this slit aerator I think makes more sense what overseeding because the cores go so deep that and seeds that fall into them have not germinated for me in the past. It took about 7 days before I could see any of the overseeded grass start to come in. My lawn is the greenest in the neiborhood right now. A word of advice would be to mouse your grass short before overseeding, because you don't want to mow for at least 2 weeks. EDIT: I did want to add one annoying this. Even after adding the two shield plates provided, onto the tiller, there is a gap in the center part where debris still kick up at you. It makes me wounder if I am missing a piece to shield there.

Great product, great attachments. Aerator: Gets guncked up with mud and turf and eventually doesnt go as deep into the ground. But does loosen up turf, but it is some effort to pull it back to do a yard. Such a small path took me 2 hours to do my front lawn alone 1 pass. But nice convenience tool instead of spending 60 on a 6 hour rental. Dethacher: works well with some effort pulling it back the entire time. I did 2 passes diagonal of each other and I pulled up a lot of dead grass was pretty impressed. Based on my first experience, my lawn was moist from decent days of rain maybe it made things a little difficult not sure but maybe Its easier when dry?? I will find out with time. Good quality built attachments. Would recommend for those who already have a mantis.

The product works very well. I run it in the spring and fall and am always amazed by the amount of thatch it plucks form the yard. The only issue is that the shields do not fit my tiller. I called Mantis and the nice person told me I needed to purchase the updated fender which is clearly larger. I just used a self tapping screw and secured the shields in place. Do not operate without. I did it for a bit and the thatch was sucked into the flywheel and the little mantis over heated. I had to take apart and blow the grass out of the cooling fins.

Easy to use and greatly facilitated my fall lawn plating. Dethatched and removed debris. Aerated, seeded and again used the dethatcher to help set the lawn seed. Within two weeks the seed had germinated and at six weeks I have a beautiful lawn. A little work but well worth it and these products really simplified the effort. Would recommend to family and friends.

I have the kickstand down in the video, just wanted to do a quick demo. Dethatcher works great! Aerator tines work great also, in the garden, they're not meant to be used on the lawn.

Easy to install. Just have to take a second which one goes on the right as they should turn in one direction to dethatch.

Works awesome!

Dethatcher works fine but the aerator is basically a straight tine tiller that tears the **** out of your lawn. First pick is the healthy before, the others are the after. You can see how much grass has been torn out of the lawn. Couple days later lawn just looked destroyed. Last pick - no joke - same grass two days later and after a rain - basically took out 30% of my grass - do not use "scraper" aerator like the mantis to aerator your lawn unless you're looking to destroy it. Compare the first and last picture for reference.