THHTA - Hollow Tine Aerator

Wasn't sure about this as some of the reviews posted were negative. Anyway, ordered on Monday and it arrived postage free by Thursday. Have spent about an hour aerating the whole of my 8m x 6m pocket size lawn and have been really impressed about the ease of use and the difference it has made. The aerator worked consistently making 50mm holes up and down my lawn and I had none of the issues other reviewers had. My top tips are: 1. Make sure the lawn is very wet not just watered - this makes a huge difference. 2. When you do a row of holes walk back to your start point to do your next row and dont just turn round and work back down the run or you will walk over the holes you made! 3. How much you weigh isn't the key issue, it's about how much power you can generate and sustain in your leg. 4. Finally, I realised that if you kept your leg on the bar of the aerator as it came out and then drove down to make the next set of holes it was twice as quick, less effort and your foot doesn't slip. The springs work really well and I made holes about every 3 inches. I live in Hertfordshire on soggy clay soil but found it easy to use. Tried to get my 18 year old son to do it for me but as it was before 1pm there was no chance.

Two of the springs snapped off on the first push into the ground which wasnt good but doesn't effect it working, ground is so ideal at the moment and its effectively helped the lawn, I'm only a 8.7 stone lady and have found it very hard to push into the floor with the foot and as others have said the screws on the inside frame catch your legs and it hurts and you cannot put the screw in the other way so the fly nuts on the outside as they have made it sit in a sq inset. But overall it did the job

Strongly built and good value it works well on my lawn which is very compacted in areas that are walked on during the winter months. However the soil here is sandy and well drained, and I am overweight: it takes my weight to make the tines penetrate. If you are lighter you can reduce the number of tines from the full complement of five. I could work it quite quickly and the soil extruded up into the trough. ( I put the soil with my lawn edge trimmings up a far corner of the garden to rot down and eventually be blended with compost and returned to borders) A tool is provided to remove tines and to poke out remaining soil when you have finished the session. A very useful tool at a good price.

The unit does NOT hollow out plugs but just compresses the soil underneath and around it's tines. Therefore it's about as useful as a garden fork. In fact, no quite as useful as a garden fork. Rent an aerator.

This is the second aerator I bought, trying to aerate my clay soil. Unfortunately, as many pointed out, the soil tends to get stuck in it, making it useless - in fact the holes it makes are compacting the soil even more. I have to say I am not sure there is a fault with the product: the dies are chamfered the correct way and I feel that aerating a clay soil may just be an impossible task. Maybe it needs to be done when the moisture is at a specific level - I did after it stopped raining for a few days. I have to say that it would work at times after being cleaned - but it would always get clogged afterwards. That said, the spring mechanism is nice and the fact that the dies are not in a single line makes it much more stable the the one I used to have.

This tool is very well built and put together. Aerating a lawn regardless is one of the most draining and physical gardening jobs I've ever found. It is like a mixture of brute strength and technique... perhaps its like being a prop in Rugby. I have a small lawn but it we badly in need of aeration so instead of renting a mechanical aerator for the day at more cost than this was to buy I took the plunge. On a side note, unless you have a sadistic streak for putting yourself through manual labor, are physically robust and weigh around 20stone, then rent a mechanical aerator. I initially tried the tool out of the box to limited success as the lawn was dry, I ran the sprinkler on the lawn for a few hrs and this did indeed help. Clearing the hollow tubes is tricky, some kind of long metal stick works best. I found angling the tines in and digging in at about a 30 degree angle worked best as you only engaged 2 or 3 not all 5 at the same time. With the momentum you can build up it becomes easier to use. Regardless of wearing heavy boots, the technique and watering you will still need to stop at times an clear the tines. It is just a dirty, physical job that you will be aching after. I'm happy I bought it and I feel it will be an investment for the future. I like the way it is manufactured as it leads to easy repair. From my research, this seems to be the best aerator out there.

Many conflicting reviews on this. Basically its a simple mechanical thing - set of hollow tubes on springs. Shove it in, step on it, withdraw. Repeat. If your soil happens to be ideally moist and of ideal structure, that works. If it is not it will not work. Obvious I would have thought. For me, it does not remove cores. Tines jam instantly. So you are basically banging big holes in the lawn, making a space but compressing the sides. Will that help aeration? I think its better than nothing and it is a damn sight easier than doing same with a fork. So yes, its okay. Not ideal for everyone. Nothing fancy. Simple design improvements: 1. When you get it do reverse the wing nuts on the handle, as many have suggested. Otherwise it hurts. 2. They give you a tool like a butter knife to remove tines (easier with 3 than 5 unless you are massive) which bends and causes you to find proper spanner. Sort it out. 3. Similarly, the instructions suggest you can clean out clogged tines with the handle of said supplied tool. Nice idea - but make it same diameter of tines. Cant unblock a pipe with a pin. Overll, I would buy it, but don't expect plugs of soil magically appearing in your hopper. I got 5. Woo hoo !