Sun Joe 16-Inch 13.5 AMP Electric Tiller/Cultivator

Used this little monster to break up an 11′ diameter circle of very healthy lawn as the Vice-President of Life ordered a flower bed to be emplaced. This little tool (and it’s so small, it’s bordering “cute”) worked like a hot damn – but there are limitations.

The advantage of this being a very small, very light tiller is a disadvantage when breaking well-grown grass and/or areas with thicker roots. When doing the breaking, it bounces all over the place and really isn’t all that effective if you let it move it’s natural forward direction. What I found however, is that if you hold it in spot for a bit to do some digging/initial breaking, then PULL BACKWARDS AGAINST THE ROTATION, it will cut up against the sod and it works pretty well. It’s still pretty light though and any substantial roots will have it bouncing. Just ease it off and come at it again. If the root is getting to the 1/2″ size, stop and take it out with an axe or spade instead.

With it bouncing around like that, it’s hard to keep the trigger all the way depressed – but that’s a safety feature I wouldn’t remove, just would have preferred a palm switch over a trigger finger one to make it easier.

After “backing up” over the whole area (and yes, there’s a heck of a bicep workout there) and the core sod broken (and raked clear), I set it a incrementally deeper and let it go forward – holding back in areas that needed more attention. The unit is so light that it’ll happily “walk over” areas of strong resistance (and more roots.) When encountering those, I just pulled back over top of them (just like “vacuuming the bed”) and the reverse-cutting motion did the job.

If I had a full-size, gas-powered rototiller, the job would have been quicker and with less arm work. Having said that, I don’t want or need that kind of beast and now that this areas is broken up, I can use it at leisure next spring.

The thing is zero-maintenance and so light it’s quite easy to store. Just needs a little manual effort to convince it (really hold it back) in the tough areas.

I haven’t looked at seeing if I can selectively take tines out for ultra-thin tilling – maybe next year. It’s only 16″ as it is though, so likely not necessary.

Having to manage the electrical cord was a bit of a minor pain – but still far less than gas, oil, and seasonal maintenance.

Definitely a recommended buy for smaller gardens, flower beds and places where you just can’t justify getting the heavy duty equipment.

As a starter, I am not one of those people who frequently comments or rates things that I buy on Amazon.

We received our Sun Joe today (lovingly named Josephine), and tried it out on our raised beds. Like a lot of other reviews state, this thing is a beast! If you are looking for a smaller tiller, this is your choice! A few things I love about her:

1. It’s light. I can easily pick this up and set it into my raised beds, and move it between beds. It’s got great handles on it to grab it with (nothing that digs into your fingers, bonus!), and isn’t awkward to carry.
2. For being a tiller, it’s fairly quiet. Has that electric motor sound to it… think Shop Vac, but a little quieter.
3. It really chews up the dirt. Our first bed, we thought would be easy. Previously an onion bed, with little ‘garbage’ left from last year. No issue. Finished with our last bed, which didn’t work out last year, and had a summer’s worth of hard grass mat and clumps of old beets. Boom. Done. Another bed had last year’s big tomato stems and root balls in it, and Josephine easily tore through it.
4. Although a little rough at the start (legit, this thing is powerful, like powerful), once you figure out how to use it, it’s really easy to use. Watch it around the wooden borders of a raised bed (nothing major will happen, but it will bounce off the wood and surprise you), but it gets really close to the edges, meaning less weeding! It moves through soil like butter. I recommend doing a couple passes if you are looking to break down/incorporate new soil, but that won’t take long!

I will be using this in my in-ground bed for weeding between rows as the summer passes, but require the depth of my bigger Honda to work in some new manure and dig the clay of Northern Ontario. That said, this tiller would be great for any gardener looking for an easier option to work the ground.

Use it for tilling the flower beds. Works great. However stalls if some rock gets in the blades. Still running strong

Me gustó su potencia, es ms fácil dar tierra cuando riegas unos 2 días antes de usarlo más fácil para el equipo y menos cansado para el operador …. Muele las hojas de los árboles no al 100 pero ayuda a iniciar el proceso de compostaje generalmente en de 15 a 30 min me llevo darle tierra a cada árbol… Yo lo ame me ha servido mucho

Pos: Rips well into the dirt. Fairly easy to angle for forward movement, or going deeper in the same place. Considering you’re tearing up the earth and plowing through it, it’s actually really easy to move. As the blades are spinning forward it wants to move forward on its own, so surprisingly you’re holding back to plow forward. It took me about an hour to fully till my backyard, which was about 200 sq. ft. That includes going a couple feet down and having to stop every few feet to grab a big brick or other random giant metal/stone object that had made its way into the ground over the years. In that regard I really like this because it helped me find all of those items and pull them out to just have a nice bed of soil.

Neg: Being connected to an outlet does limit it, and it becomes a little annoying on the return plows where you have to work to make sure the power cord isn’t in the way. Also you need a higher power rated extension cord (that’s for outdoors), which adds a bit to the cost. While it does most of the work for you, it’s still work. It takes some muscle to control it and move it, etc.

I started high in my first garden and dug down about 5 inches and it worked great. My yard is sandy with a lot of rocks. Sounded like it was getting the stuff beat out of it but just jerked and shot a rock or two on the grass. Rocks were 2 inches or smaller and only made it a foot or so. I was surprised at the power and will use it more hopefully.