Mantis

[JDGREEN4ME]

Bought a Mantis tiller this year and I must say I am impressed with the performance. For our small garden and flower beds it works great!

[kensnelling]

For what they are, those tillers do a remarkably good job. When my wife bought one several years ago I laughed at her and it, but after I used it I quit laughing. Couldn't believe the work that thing did.

Ken

[kensnelling]

Sorry, for whatever reason I had a double post.

Ken

[deerseeker001]

i agree i had one for about 10 years.i use it flower garden.i had dug a garden pond 8x 12 loosened the dirt up then shoveled the dirt out.i love mine.

[Bird]

June will be 5 years that I've had mine. I bought it primarily for their dethatcher, but I have the kickstand, dethatcher, tiller blade, aerator blade, and edger. I don't use it a lot, but it sure is a time and labor saver when I do. Incidentally, when I bought mine, I called the company and ordered a re-conditioned or refurbished one at a discount. They didn't have one at the time so I had to wait a bit, but when it came, it sure did look like it was brand new.

[tcreeley]

Got the news today- my Mantis is dead. It wasn't running well at the end of May and I fiddled with the carb. -Couldn't keep it running. I figured it was a dirty carb and rather than rebuild it and its diaphragms- I bought a new carb, along with gas lines and fuel + air filter. Put it together and almost got it going holding the throttle wide open with blisters through my gloves from pulling the cord so often. I gave up and my wife persuaded me to take it to a shop. I did. The verdict- scored cylinder wall- all rough. I think I know why- 10% ethanol and old gas. I used some of that- dumping in extra oil for lube- but it wasn't enough......shame- it was a nice tiller. This past weekend I saw a 100 off on a cub cadet tiller at tractor supply and bought it to replace my old Troybilt econohorse 6 hp with its blown engine (had some kerosene I dumped in thinking it was gas). I had been harrowing the garden with my tractor and getting by with the mantis.
I thought I'd have the cub cadet and the mantis for the tight spots. Guess not!

[troutsqueezer]

I had a Mantis that lasted only a couple of years, It died for some reason and I could never get it to run again. Trashed it and bought a Ryobi tiller, same type, been running fine now for 8 or 9 years. I never cared for the throttle control on that Mantis anyway, my pinky would get tired.

[Rio_Grande]

Mine is in the shop as it is at the beginning of every year. dosent matter if I drain the fuel run it out at the end of the year or let it sit full, just wont start the next year. Even tried to start it in january just to run it a bit no dice.

[Bird]

I used to be in the habit of running all the gas out of my 2 cycle engines before putting them away, but I quit that several years ago. After the first year, my Mantis didn't want to start. The fuel filter had hardened and wasn't letting fuel through. Once I got it wet with fuel, then blew it out backwards with compressed air, all was good. So now, I leave fuel in it all the time, only use it rarely, but don't have a problem anymore. Mine was "reconditioned" or "refurbished" when I bought it 5 years ago and it's running just fine (or at least it was Friday evening).