Mantis Rototiller

[rancar]

Does anyone have one of these little things. My wife keeps on receiving the promotional material in the mail and she keeps on talking how this will help her with turning her flower beds. When I look at the promotional material, I see fragile tines that'll snap in a heartbeat when it hits the first large stone. Anyone, any thoughts on this????

 

[bgott]

Buy it anyway, then she can't gripe when you want toys for the tractor.

 

[rancar]

You're right on that Brad. She keeps on reminding me of this. I get to buy my tractor and lawn toys but she can't get her Mantis. But, I like your line of thinking. It's just those pencil thin tines that gets me concerned. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[DK35vince]

I have had the mantis tiller for about a year.i use it mostly for weeding between rows in the garden.it should do OK in the flower bed where the soil isn't to hard.
It gets to bouncing up and down in the hard stuff..

If i remember right the tines were garenteed for life against breakage.

 

[JTD]

I had one for several years. Never broke a tine. Limited usefulness. Mostly in tight spaces in good soil. Wouldn't buy another unless space was tight.

 

[tsh3]

rancar,
My wife has had a Mantis for about 8 years now. She uses it for her flower beds
and garden. We still have the original tines and the machine has had some pretty
hard use. Sometimes rocks jam in the tines and stop the machine but never had
any damage.
The two best things about it are that it is light enough and starts easy
enough that the wife can use it without my help. If this one ever dies,
we will buy another one.

 

[Boondox]

My wife has one she uses in the raised beds, and it works very well in that loamy stuff. She also uses it to weed between the beds, but says she can only do so when the weeds are short. The long stuff just wraps around the shaft and chokes the tiller to death. If the ground is hard it bucks around like some sort of little bronco. She likes it for weeding around edges and corners especially, as it's light enough for her to handle. But as far as reliability goes, I personally have tried to kill the thing for two years in a row and it's still screaming for more! Bombproof and apparently indestructable.

Pete

 

[Kent]

Gardener\'s Supply mini-Tiller experience

My wife bought one of these cute little 2-cycle tillers from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.gardeners.com>http://www.gardeners.com</A> on her own, and has regretted it ever since. When it is running, it can really dig deep and is an amazing little machine. For the past 5 years or so we have managed to keep a 40x40 veg garden tilled 2x per year. But the problem is the "starting" part. Way too many pulls and just out of the blue it will dead stop (I believe it is seizing up). I finally played with the oil mixture and found that if I double the amount of recommended oil per gallon(believe this or not) that it runs more reliably and doesn't stop. Yes, a little smokey, but it runs, darn it. Hmmm. Unlike my chainsaw that starts and runs w/o problem (after 7 years), the tiller's two cycle just doesn't do well. So we go from shouting "that tiller is a piece of crap" to "that tiller is amazing"...once I get it started, that is.

Yes, it is small, but I end up having to cart/carry it around for my wife, and it will surprisingly wear you out pronto because it is forward rotation and you have to hold it back rotate it around to get it to go forward after you get deep enough. So I end up having to finish after the first row.

Two years ago, I loaned it to a neighbor and it came back with a burned out clutch and the gears to the tines inside the transmission were all broken up. I was able to find parts (special order, costly) and rebuild it. But I know that any minute the whole thing will self-destruct again the next time the tines come to a dead stop due to a pebble lodging against the housing (yes, a pebble is all it takes to make these things come to a screetching hault). The gears are about the same robustness as the ones in my pencil sharpener. If it breaks again, I will not rebuild it.

My advice? Buy a real tiller (if you have a big garden), or better yet, hire someone to come in for a couple of hours every year to do it with a big machine.

(Side note. I have a new model DR Brush which allows you to swap out a brush mower for a finish mower. I am hoping that they come out with a tiller attachment!)

 

[pdxman]

We have one. Works pretty good for the smaller chores it's designed for. Seems reliable. Tines can bend in hard stuff but they can be bent back. If your wife wants one for her to use...buy it. If you want to end up doing all the tilling (even the small projects) buy a bigger one. We have one for the tractor and the wife won't have anything to do with it.

 

[Scott_F]

We have one and it's pretty nice for raised beds and flower beds. I've not had any engine or starting problems in three years, although a friend who had one did have some engine problems - couldn't get full revs out of it and finally got the dealer to replace it. The earlier post about long stuff getting wrapped up around the tines is absolutely correct. If you do use it to clear taller weeds, just make sure to stop often and clean it out. I have the dethatcher attachment and got into some bermuda grass with it one time - it got wrapped up so tight that it pushed the attachments out away from the gear box and I couldn't get the cotter keys out to remove them. Spent about two hours with a knife trying to cut the grass away from it (I hate bermuda grass).

Bottom line is I like it and would recommend it.

Scott

 

[rancar]

Thanks Scott and everyone for your thoughts. I'm printing this thread, will give it to my wife to read, and it'll be her decision to make. We will at least likely go to a dealer and take a look at this little puppy. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[rmorgan]

Robert--

I have a Mantis which I use several times a year, even though I also have a rear-tine tiller. I use the Mantis for the following things:

-- Mixing new topsoil into garden beds.

-- Settling dirt into new areas. For example, I am in the process of laying a stone wall, and when I have spoil from another location I dump it behind the wall and use the Mantis to break it up and spread it around.

-- digging holes for trees and shrubs. The Mantis works very well at pulverizing our hard clay, and I can either spray it out the circumference of the hole to be pulled back in or shovel it out of the hole with less effort.

As to starting, I had another Mantis several years ago which was a real pain to start. I got a new one two years ago and have been very impressed with its starting. The Mantis does jump around, but that's not been a problem. I would, however, look at the Honda before I made a decision.

 

[rancar]

Thanks Rick. We'll also look at the Honda units.

 

[skent]

We've had one for 8 or 9 years now. Fantastic machine and always starts easy - even after winter storage. Tines are lifetime guarantee and I've NEVER bent one!

Never a regret!