Sun Joe Electric Dethatcher & Scarifier, Corded, with 8-Gal Bag, AJ801E

So, I purchased this item after my boss told me about it. He showed me pics of his usage, and I figured, why not? It was relatively inexpensive, costing about the same as a one-time rental of a dethatcher from the local rental place. I figured if I get 2 uses out of it and destroy it, I'm ahead of the game. Plus, I could use it at my convenience and not have to worry about returning it. We take pretty good care of our lawn/yard (it's not perfect, especially in the area that used to have an above ground pool, but we try). It's a larger lot (about 1/4 acre) in our neighborhood, and we mow every week with a push mower. We alternate weeks of mulching and bagging, so we really didn't think there would be very much thatch coming up. Boy were we wrong. We started off with my husband cutting and bagging the grass in one direction, and, as he moved to a different section of the yard, I started with the Sun Joe going in the opposite direction, using the dethatching attachment. I followed him around the entire yard doing this. Because we didn't use the bag on the Sun Joe (see "cons" below), he then went OVER the thatched material with the lawnmower to bag it up - first in one direction, and then he did the entire yard AGAIN in the other direction to ensure that it was all picked up. We were going to use our Billy Goat blower, but figured that would make an absolute mess, so we opted for the mowing route. Total time for about 9000sf - 4 hours. And well worth every minute. I should have taken photos, but rest assured that I was completely and utterly dumbfounded at the amount of dead grass and compost-like material that we raised, and it takes quite a bit for me to be impressed by a yard machine. Pros: - easy to assemble - only tool needed was a Philips head screwdriver (also, make sure you push the angled handle portions of the metal tubes ALL THE WAY into the body of the machine - many review complain about this, but I can see where the issue is not pushing in all the way). The rest of the handle is assembled using large, easy to turn plastic thumbscrews. Very convenient. - the height/depth settings are easy to change. Simply push the green t-handle in and move it to the setting you choose. I tried the "0" setting first so as not to damage any grass, and found that moving it to the "-5" setting worked even better and caused no damage. On the areas where we had moss, I moved it to the "-10" setting. Moss no more. - works exactly as described and as needed - they're not inflating the value of this machine, I can safely say. Cons: - the bag. As most other reviews stated, the bag is a joke. True, but we just left it off. See above for how we picked it up without breaking our backs raking. Notes: seriously - make sure you're using the right size extension cord. I used a 12 gauge cord at 100 feet and had ZERO problems. Machine didn't shut off, overheat, or otherwise explode. Also, you can use a tiny bungee cord to wrap around the handle to keep it powered as you move through your yard. The angle of the power switch can get a little uncomfortable over time. Overall - 5 out of 5. I wouldn't change a thing - even the bag. It would take a REALLY big bag for it to be convenient, and the only other option would be a giant vacuum, so I can't count that against them.

It works. I bought a house with a neglected yard. The thatch was so deep that the grass was yellow before mid-June. I rented a huge heavy power rake two different times and I still didn’t get all of the thatch. Then someone in a gardening group suggested this one. I was apprehensive because it was so inexpensive but tried it anyway. When I unboxed it It seemed too lightweight to do the job but the first time I used it I was super shocked. It actually removed way more thatch than the power rake. It does kinda stink that you have to drag a power cord around but on the bright side it makes this lighter weight, you don’t need gas and oil or to winterize it. I can also easily hang it from a hook inside my shed. My neighbor who is always bragging about his grass actually asked to borrow it when he saw how well it worked. I’m not sure if the blade goes dull as others have said (mine did not after one heavy use) but it seems like it would be easy enough to replace it. Now my grass is the greenest on the block because the roots can finally get water and fertilizer.

First off, hat's off the the people who came up with this product idea. Regardless of longevity, it's nice to see an affordable homeowner de-thatcher. That said, there are some issues people should know about, or at least my experience and suggestions. 1. The instructions mention NOT to use this product on moist/wet ground. Also, not to spray it off with water to clean it. These warnings should be taken very seriously. Not so much for fear of electrocution, but because the unit's electronics are definitely not well sealed. Yards to be de-thatched or scarified should be very dry in regard to both the grass itself AND the soil. Most homeowner's are going to expect to be able to just use their lawn equipment as they have time to do so. I would recommend being very careful with it comes to moisture with this product. 2. Because it's not all that well sealed inside, it's not all that unlikely that you won't have a buildup of material inside from de-thatching etc.. Because it tends to build up between the framework and the electrical motor there is a potential for both overheating and possibly fire. I have found that after summer use, I need to remove the body screws and do a thorough cleaning using an air hose to remove all the buildup. Also, as stated above, if you even suspect you may have gotten moisture inside I would suggest removing the cover and taking the time to ensure there's no water inside before using this thing. 3. Disassembly. I'm sure they would prefer you don't remove the plastic cover, but given the issues noted above, I think it's fairly likely that you will need to occasionally. I had to return my initial Sun Joe because of electronic failure. It worked until I went in for lunch, and when I came out it didn't. Sun Joe customer service is great, but their solution seems to be to just replace the unit (within 1 year). Not sure how they respond after warranty, so my advice is periodically do some under the cover cleaning and never use when there's any moisture on the ground. As for cover disassembly itself, it's not difficult but obviously make sure to unplug the unit first. The screws can be problematic because the channels fill up with muck so you will need to dig that out to get to them. The manufacturer definitely should have put plugs over the screw holes to avoid that problem. Also, the last screw is hidden under the stick on label. 4. Use.... Everything else considered, I have found that for lawn de-thatching (or in my case moss buildup removal), it doesn't work all that well with the wire drum unless you use it on a negative setting, which they do not recommend. Since I mainly purchased the machine for this purpose I was disappointed with the result, but then decided to just go negative and see what happened. What happened was pretty much lawn removal and wear out of the wire on the drum. But, if that's the result you need before reseeding and you don't mind springing for a replacement drum for around $30, then there you go. That said, I found the metal scarafier drum to be just the ticket. It's designed to be used at a negative setting and it works very well for moss removal at the -10 setting. Doesn't maim the grass too much and does the job. Might need to cross hatch the lawn to get it all but it's a good result. So in my opinion, set the wire drum aside and just go with the heavy drum for the whole show. So in summary, good product but could be better designed on the inside to avoid malfunction of electronics and buildup of dried material under the cover. Plugs over the screw holes would be great but probably won't happen anytime soon so just sub small pieces of electrical tape or whatever to keep the screw channels clear of debris. Definitely store inside a dry area and do not even plug it in if you see signs of moisture on the product. It isn't sealed all that well.

This review has two parts: 1. Product Review 2. Snow Joe Customer Service Product Review ----------------------- Let's start with the challenge I had to solve for. I have an lawn that spans 2000 sq. ft. that has never been dethached in the last 7 years. The lawn health has been steadily decreasing and no amount of chemical fertilizers or weed control have been able to restore the lawn to its early glory. After giving up on the chemical treatment path, I tried aeration. Presumably it helped, but I saw no real improvement in the health of my lawn. Finally, I hit upon dethaching. My lawn has become a patchwork of living and dead grass. I picked up the Sun Joe AJ801E for three reasons: 1. It had the highest powered motor (amp consumption) on Amazon for dethaching 2. It had a scraper / scarifier, which presumably will allow me to more easily reseed targeted areas of my lawn. 3. My "Mow, Blow, & Go" gardener claimed that all the dethacthers for a lawn my size were rented out to golf courses. Assembly is super easy, but I had some issues with one of the metal arms not fitting correctly into the main dethatcher. More on that later.... Product performance: I ran the Sun Joe at 0" across a small section of my lawn. In one pass across 10ft of lawn, the catch bag was full of thatch! I was shocked. Looking at the lawn, I could barely tell that the Sun Joe had actually lifted anything out, but the full bag told me otherwise. I ended up covering 200 sq. ft of my lawn, having to run multiple passes to get all the thatch. This little machine is super efficient, but I found the catch bag filling up way faster than expected. I've got another 1600 sq ft of lawn to cover, but will have to attack it one week at a time. Just covering 200 sq ft filled my yard waste bin. Pros: - Easy to assemble. - Efficient in picking up thatch. May need multiple passes if your lawn has been neglected. - Safety switch makes it impossible for my young children to accidentally turn this on. - Dethacther and Scarifier rollers are easy to swap Cons: - Small catch bag - Safety switch is a bit of a bear when you need to stop and empty the catch bag often. - Assembly requires some force to get the bent metal arm into the main dethatcher or the screw holes will not line up. - Changing the Dethatcher roller for the Scarifier requires a 10mm wrench. Not a big deal if you have a crescent wrench or socket set. It just took me by surprise since I thought they would use sizes a little more common for the American do-it-yourselfer that has minimal tools. Time will tell if this holds up over the 2-year warranty, but so far I am really happy with the performance. Customer Support --------------------------- All too often we hear about poor customer support. I am here to tell you that Sun Joe has top-notch customer support. When assembling the Sun Joe, you must insert the metal poles / arms into the main unit. If you look at the product picture, I'm referring to the black metal arms that support the power switch and push point. The portion that connects to the actual unit is bent at approximately 135 degrees. You must use a bit of force to get the arms into the main unit or the screw holes will not line up. On the unit I purchased, I was not able to push in the metal rod far enough to line up the screw holes, even after putting my weight into it. I was reluctant to use a rubber mallet for fear of bending the actual metal rod. When I called Sun Joe, the gentleman listened to my concern. He immediately said they would ship a new one out. Here is what totally blew me away.... Sun Joe support never questioned my ability to follow instructions, troubleshoot, or even verify that I followed the instructions correctly. I was preparing myself to verbally defend myself, which is exactly what you need to do when calling for support from nearly any other manufacturer. Nope. Not here. Sun Joe sent a brand new unit and provided a pre-paid slip to send the old one back. They didn't even ask for any credit card information to secure a deposit! Sure, I could have gone through Amazon to do the return process, but I wanted to give the manufacturer a chance to own the problem. No question about it, Sun Joe actually made it easier than Amazon.

Had it for 5 years. It worked great! Definitely worth it even if used just once a year. I used to rent one but that weighed over 200lbs. $50 to rent for a few hours and a pain to pickup and dropoff. This one I can carry with one hand and honestly, it works just as well and removes as much thatch as the heavy one. I got my money's worth for sure. I even lent it out a few times. Yesterday I grazed a paver with the scarifier and the gear that connects the motor to the drive belt shattered into pieces. Belt was still like new. Would have preferred the belt to break but I guess it's not designed that way. It's made of die cast aluminum and it's not a replaceable item. If not for this, I figure I would have gotten a few more years out of it. I'm definitely buying another.

Grass is a passion of mine. If you are in the need of a dethatcher/scarifier, just buy it. Its absolutely amazing and does exactly what its supposed to do!

I wish I could give this 6 stars! When I put this together yesterday I was apprehensive. The handle felt cheap. It went together cheap. I know I can fix the handle if need be, but I don't much care for thinking about it when I'm putting together brand new things. Once everything was together, however, it felt ok. It came with the scarifier installed, so I had to switch that out. It would have saved me an extra trip to the tool room if I'd known it was a 10mm bolt. If it says so anywhere, I missed it. So keep a 10mm socket or wrench handy. Switching it out for the dethatcher was simple and easy. Now, my lawn isn't pretty. In fact, I've been fighting with it off and on for about a year now. It finally occurred to me it needs dethatching, so here we are. If it has ever been dethatched, it was a long, long time ago. Due to the current heat wave I had about 1 1/2 hours between melting and darkness to take care of business. After mowing the lawn I brought out the dethatcher. It's not self propelled, exactly, but it does tend to pull itself forward just by the way it operates. If my lawn were flat I would have had no trouble at all moving it around, however medium-ish dips and bumps would block its progress. I had to twist it a bit to get it to continue. Not really a big deal, and certainly not a problem with the design. Sure, you could maybe trim some of the plastic off the front to minimize this problem, but that would leave exposed quickly rotating pointy sharp things, which is a bad idea. Next time I'll carry a bucket of dirt with me and use this as an opportunity to even out the lawn somewhat. The instructions say to walk this forward and go over the lawn in an orderly, once-over type fashion. That's probably the best way to do it. For most folks. I, however, didn't have much time for such things, nor is my lawn orderly, either by condition or shape or anything. So at times I used this more like a vacuum cleaner. I also didn't use the bag. I followed the advice of other reviewers here and used my mower to clean up. A wise move. Mowing my front lawn typically fills my bin half way. After using this, and going over the lawn again with the mower, I nearly filled two bins. Maybe you won't have that problem. Maybe your lawn has been cared for properly. Mine hasn't. It's something to be aware of. Aside from the thought of emptying the dethatcher bag every 30 seconds, I've filled my green and trash bins, and that was with just my front yard. My back yard is over twice as big, so any more work of this nature is going to require trash bags or my neighbor's bins. If you have limited means of disposing or storing cut grass, you want to plan your lawn care schedule accordingly. Despite the instructions warning against going bagless, it worked fine. I didn't feel anything get thrown at me, but then I was wearing shoes and jeans. If you're doing your yard work in a Borat Mankini your mileage will vary...just please don't be my neighbor. One of the reasons I bought this over the other brands is the switch. The safety switch on the competition looked very awkward, and the reviews confirmed that. I'm not interested in awkward, and when it's too much of a hassle to operate the switch folks tend to leave the gear running rather than fight to turn it on again, which makes things LESS safe. It's like requiring a password that's so 'secure' and complex you pretty much have to write it down to remember it, making it less secure than requiring something simpler. This switch isn't terrible. In fact, I got used to it quickly, so I didn't have any problems. One huge pet peeve of mine is equipment that doesn't work for tall folks. I'm 6'4", and I can't tell you how many times I've had to stoop and slouch just to work with stuff designed for 'normal' people only. I was a little concerned about this. I didn't have to worry. No slouching or crouching was required. This makes me VERY happy! The height adjustment on this works wonderfully. It's simple, easy, and solid. Highly Recommend!

For a mere $159 one would think that you can hardly go wrong with the purchase of this Sun Joe Electric Lawn Dethatcher & Scarifier, when a gas powered lawn dethatcher starts at $3,000. How could you go wrong? I will answer that for you. Assembly I won’t spend much time on assembly, as a six year old could assemble it from inspection. Although I did read the manual and assembly instructions before I used it. I will say, the assembly instructions were poor. The illustrations were not particularly clear where they would need to be and I thought it was foolish to ship with the scarifier drum in situ rather than the dethatcher. Moving on. Preparation I installed a 20 amp, GFCI, outdoor rated outlet to power the Sun Joe. I used a 100 foot, 15 amp rated extension cord to connect the unit to power. I cut the lawn the day before I began to use the Sun Joe. My backyard lot width is 100 feet. I used the accompanying collection bag. The collection bag. Fitting the collection bag in place was like enduring a bad joke being told over and over again by someone who expects if you tell it enough times, it will eventually be funny. As you know, it doesn’t; you politely excuse yourself and talk to someone else. The bag has a metal frame with extensions on each side to form pins that are intended to slide into oddly designed v-shaped slots. The catch is, they don’t seem to want to engage at the same time. Meanwhile, the spring loaded cover wants to fight you for privilege of articulating the pins into place. This wouldn’t be so bad if you only had to do it a few times…. The problem is you will have to reinstall the bag so many times it is utterly worthless. You see, the bag fills long before 100 feet is reached. In fact, after about 20 feet, it is full and starts dropping thatch anyway. So, if you plan to have a containment point for collecting the bag contents at any place in the yard, you will be disappointed. This is one of the points the YouTube “lawn experts” fail to demonstrate when recommending this device. You will be walking back and forth with your collection bag or yard waste container regardless. I noted about 60% of the time, the Sun Joe belches the contents of the bag onto the yard anyway. Since you can’t go farther than a few feet without filling, you have to rake anyway, making the bag really pointless. So, unless you have a yard the size of a postage stamp, this is a bag of burden. Being plugged in I wonder if the product development people at Sun Joe thought, since it is electric, no one will complain about this “feature.” When I was in product development, “feature” was the phrase we would use to describe a serious issue, so that in the event our intercompany emails were subpoenaed, we would not have made an admission against interest. For those who are interested in the topic, see the parol evidence rule. If you are wondering whether being plugged into an outlet will hinder your progress, you would be correct in thinking so. It absolutely does. I have quite a bit of experience with roping from my days working horses, and I will tell you it pays off when using this machine: you will spend a good amount of your time wrangling the cord out of the way – specifically every row. You will hate it by the time you are done. Operating the machine Before operation, as I said above, I read the manual. I set the depth according to the directions. You depress a button on the side of the handle before you can engage the drum. It should be common sense, but you need to move forward at this point. If you stand there, you will give your dog a great start to a future project. That being said, I lost count the number of times the machine stopped running, presumably due to overload, where I had to stop for about 3-5 seconds before the drum would begin turning again. It never tripped the circuit breaker. Which leads me to the next point. This machine gets stuck, a lot. Yes, my yard should be perfectly flat, and there should not be potholes in a road, either. But the reality is, that isn’t reality. The fact is, it is too small to do what it is really intended to do. Not only from a ground clearance standpoint, but also, width. It feels like a toy when a tool is actually required. When I was 6, I loved my tool kit. It was an awesome blue. I couldn’t wait to use it. But it would take forever to get any kind of job done. So does this. The time it took to dethatch my backyard. This would be the first thing I would read in any review. After all, the point of a machine is to save human time. If you are using something just because it is electric, you are an idiot. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Vitamix blender. I can add frozen berries to water and have a great, healthy beverage. However, I am left with the impression that although the Sun Joe claims to be heavy duty, it simply isn’t. As I said above, it feels more like a toy. The working width is just over a foot. By the time I was a ¼ of the way through dethatching the back yard, the Sun Joe had earned itself a very unkind nickname. After I actually finished the back yard I came in for water and to check the time and was shocked to learn it took me 2.75 hours to do the back: it felt like 4 hours. Notwithstanding, I would cut my entire lawn more than two times over in that time with a walk behind mower. Conclusion As I dethatched the front with the collection bag well out of sight, I wondered to myself, what is the value proposition here? Would I pay $159 knowing what I know now? Absolutely not. Would I take one for free? If I had not used it before, I would arrive at the same conclusion. Otherwise, I would put it on Craigslist seeking a good home for someone without a yard, because I am not so cruel that I would knowingly give to someone who would use it for its intended purpose. I look at it this way, having someone use the Sun Joe to dethatch their lawn is like having Gordon Ramsay cook Thanksgiving dinner using only an E-Z Bake oven. If anyone can do it, he can. But why? The reality is you can rent a top notch gas powered lawn aerator for half of what this will cost and you will be done in a fraction of the time, and you won’t have to keep it in the garage. Also keep in mind, how many times do you really need to dethatch your lawn? Once with a good machine or…I don’t know how many times with the Sun Joe. My previously green lawn now looks like it has hosted chemical warfare training, so I won’t know until spring whether it really did something beneficial. I do know it took a lot longer than I wanted, was aggravating to use, and I could have done it by hand faster. Steve Lukather could probably make a Teisco Del Rey semi-hollow sound better than anyone, but there is a reason he used his ’59 Les Paul on so many albums. The reality is, I don’t know why someone would really need to buy one of these. If you need to dethatch your lawn, just rent the right machine and be done with it, rather than going through all of the above and then realizing you need to add it to a landfill or hand it off to someone else after you are done. Please, beware of YouTube advice. With very few exceptions, you are not getting advice from experts.

Assembling the handle is all that is required to get you up and running. I was skeptical till I first used this machine, it is incredible how much thatch it removed even after I had manually raked my lawn prior to me purchasing this machine. Switching from dethatcher to scarifier is simple, flip over machine, removed fastener bolts and switch implements. The removeable collection bag is a joke WAY TOO SMALL, fills up in less then a minute, tried using it once and only once. I rigged up the discharge door so it is partially open to deflect and to discharge the thatch down and behind the machine, if you leave it closed the thatch will bung up under the machine. If you leave the discharge door fully open your legs will be pelted with thatch and debris discharged by the machine at high speeds-and it hurts. I use heavy duty 10 gauge extension cord and have not had any issues, I have read reports of people using light duty extension cords and the motors overheating and burning out. Storage is easy, handle folds similar to a lawnmower, because of its light weight I just hang mine on the wall of my shed in the back yard. This past summer my lawn was the greenest and fullest it has ever been and people complimented me on that. Spring will be here soon, time for dethatching-second summer, so far I highly recommend this product.

Funcional máquina para principiantes, muy buen costo beneficio! Gracias por su atención.

I done a lot of research and there were two or three products that kept coming up. I settled on the Sunjoe finally based on the reviews, YouTube videos and price and that it comes with a scarifier. It wasn't a huge out of pocket expense so if it didn't pan out I'd chalk it up to another one of life's lessons. The product came in a good box and was well packaged. Assembly was simple and instructions were clear. The product is amazingly life weight and all plastic construction except for the handle bars. At first I thought it was cheaply made but boy was I wrong! Using the Sunjoe worked better than I could imagine. I used it on my front lawn which hadn't been dethatched in years. I used the mid setting and as you can see it pulled up loads of dead moss and grass. I ran the machine in one direction and then used my lawnmower with a rear bagger to collect all the debris. I then used the Sunjoe again at right angles to the first and it pulled just as much as before. Using the machine is easy as it's almost self propelled due to the rotary action of the roller. The important thing is to go slow and let it do it's job. Sometimes you have to hold back on the machine as it has a tendency to pull forward when it hits a large clump of moss but it has no problem going through anything. The machine sounds like a angry vacuum cleaner when you use it but it's not loud. I highly recommend this product and am very pleased with the results. Don't know what else to say but I give it 10 out of 10.

Now, this is a product that requires a review to highlight how great this product is. I am the type that tends to believe bigger is better and with this product I didn't go wrong. I was initially hesitant to get the 15amp model in fear that it would occasionally trigger/blow the 15amp breaker, but it did not. We have a 1.3 acres lot and although it is not all grass, we have lots of grassy area that needed thatching. In a nutshell, this Sun Joe unit works like a charm without any issues. I highly recommend this product. I had seen it positively shown on a YouTube video and it truly was right.

me gusto su fácil manejo y el resultado que logras con esta operación, se de verdad quieres tu césped no dejes de hacer esta labor para lograr un césped sano, bonito y disfrutable