Heavy Duty Hollow Tine Lawn Aerator

I chose this product because it looked far sturdier than similar lawn aerators available on Amazon, which have bad reviews for being flimsy. This one has the tines welded on both sides, instead of just the one, making it stronger if your lawn is more on the "solid" side, like mine is.Some reviewers have complained about this thing being "blunt" or not penetrating the ground - I didn't find that at all. My lawn is heavy clay. Yes, you may find wetting the lawn first will help, but I found you didn't need that much water really. It's actually all about technique.What you do: put your left foot on the thing and apply your weight (NB I'm just under 11 stone). It should sink into the ground, if it doesn't you need to wiggle left and right with the handle until it bites and begins to sink into the soil. Then do the exact same thing on the right side. Then put both your feet on and wiggle the thing left and right by the handle and it will sink into the ground. Keep wiggling the thing with your full weight on it until it's in all the way. Then pull it out. If it still isn't working for you, then get the hosepipe out and saturate the area.You can then keep going, making more holes, but after a while the soil will build up in the hollow tines and begin to pop out the top. At that point, you can take a bamboo cane and shove it in each tine, smack the end of the cane on a hard surface, and tap out the soil buildup. If you don't mind the "old" soil you've removed ending up back on the surface of the lawn, you can probably just continue without clearing the tines, it will come out itself (but I didn't try that, I like to clear it out from time to time).The plastic coating on the tines will come off eventually. It sort of splits and folds up the more you use it. Just pull it off, I think it works better to penetrate the ground without it if I'm honest.Previously I've used a garden fork to do this job, but I've always wanted a proper aerator to do the job properly. This one does the job!

I bought it last year to aerate my small front lawn. What I like about this one is that the tines are welded on both sides unlike in case of all the other ones available on Amazon. The drawback for some people might be that there is no collection for the soil coming out of the tines. But hey, I prefer to leave it on my lawn, it quickly breaks down and it serves as a fertilizer, nothing added, nothing removed from the soil.In other reviews, I have seen complaints about the plastic coating on the prongs causing problems. I haven't experienced anything like but if I had similar issues I'd just remove the plastic coating altogether. The force required to push it down into heavy clay soil is going to wear it over time so I find the plastic neither protective nor necessary.As I mentioned my lawn is on heavy clay soil so it had to be soaked either by rain or by the hosepipe water prior to aeration. Most complaints I have seen in reviews were either about the tines clogging or not being able to punch the ground. I found out the lawn had to have a decent amount of moisture, not too much not too little. My lawn is partially in the shade and partially exposed to the sun so the moisture varies across the surface. As a result, one side was very easy to aerate but sometimes the tines were clogging because the soil was simply too wet. Other part became a very hard labour as the soil was too dry and very compacted. Next time I will try to balance it with water a day prior to aeration so it will be easier to work with.To sum up:- it is a heavy duty tool which will last years- plastic coating will wear out over time and this will help- the soil (i.e. heavy clay) needs to have the right amount of moisture- if you want to do manual hollow tine aeration expect hard labour.I'd give it 4.5 stars for the plastic coating which is in my view only minor nuisance which will wear anyway.

I purchased this because of the sturdy design as another one I bought fell to pieces after a couple of hours. The sturdiness didn't disappoint but unfortunately it does not do the job it was purchased for. The tines are too thick and blunt and just compress the soil without removing a plug. I have sharpened the tines and it now works better but is still not as good as the cheap one at removing a plug. A shame its let down by this.

Works well in my heavy clay. (Used early March after a very wet winter). The tool leaves neat holes in the turf. Cores of clay are forced up through the tines. These cores can be left on top of the turf or chucked onto the border. I have filled the holes with sharp sand hopefully to improve the drainage. The aerater appears to be well made, to a robust design, the welds look strong. I expect that the plastic coating will soon be shed from the tool but I don't think that will be a problem.

I have only just got around to using this device delayed due to illness. The device is very strong but does not work. As suggested by others I tried it after rain but to no avail. The problem is the tines are not thin or sharp enough to penetrate the soil.I tried a hammer to drive it into the soil but the earth clogged up inside. I am off to the local garden centre to buy one with thin and sharp tines. I have seen one for the same price.I should have returned it long ago.One start is one star too many.