The Mantis Tiller: Great Tiller for Small Gardens
Written: May 09 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lightweight at 20 pounds; tines are really strong; easy to use
Cons: Tricky to pull start
The Bottom Line: The Mantis Tiller is a great mini-tiller for small garden plots. Lightweight enough to carry with one hand.
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| hvarmit's Full Review: Mantis Tiller |
I used a Mantis Tiller for a number of years before I expanded the garden and it became too small to handle the rows. But, it was an exceptional mini-tiller for smaller patches of ground, or getting in where the tractors couldn’t go.
The Mantis Tiller is a very popular mini-tiller for flower or small-plot veggie gardeners around the U.S., according to their sales numbers. It costs a fair amount of money, but the 5 year warranty and lifetime guarantee on the blades really helped make the sale for me. Ours came direct from the manufacturer, thanks to the enticing little brochures they always filled my mailbox with come spring.
The Mantis Tiller we bought had a 21.2 cc, 2 cycle engine, and is easy enough to start up once you have your gas mixture in and it’s ready to roll. To get it going you pump the priming bulb a few times to put fuel in, set the choke, and then yank on the pull cord a few times until it starts. Since it’s lightweight, it can move a lot while trying to start it (by pulling the cord), so I usually just push the tiller away from me as I pull the cord and that works fine for me. There is a kill switch that’s easily accessible should you need to turn it off in a hurry.
The Mantis Tiller uses a gas & oil mix ratio of 50-1 so I’ve had to buy a separate gas can (I mix directly in it) for it, although it seems every tool I have uses a different mix ratio. Anyhow, this is super easy to do (the included manual tells you practically everything).
The Mantis Tiller only weighs about 20 pounds. It has a convenient carry handle built on the handle bars so carrying it from Point A to Point B is fairly easy (even with one hand). My grandmother owns one and she has no problems taking hers down to her garden either. It just sure beats hauling a bulky tiller (or worse, pushing one) from one area of the property to another.
The tines on the tiller are pretty unique, and I haven’t seen any others that fully resemble them. They measure around 8 ½” across, and are a bit serpentine; curving and twisting in an odd way that results in maximum breaking through soil. They are also removable and reversible and can be removed by pulling out the carter pin that holds them. There are 4 of them in all, and if you have the tiller at full throttle, they’ll rotate up to 240 RPM.
I’ve used this in several types of soil. In dark rich soil, I was able to just walk the tiller (but pull it in a back and forth motion) along pushing forward. It moved effortlessly and would till the soil into a fine mixture. In harder soil (but still rich), I could only get it to till properly if I walked backwards with it. This would make a lot of dirt mounds, but it didn’t leave a lot of big clumps. So, it was nice workable soil. In soil that has a fair amount of clay (especially if packed hard) it seemed to take forever to get the Mantis to till the soil fine enough. But, it did cut through the ground, which I suppose is the important thing (since they claim it will cut through clay earth). The tines are surprisingly tough as well. I’ve hit many rocks which would cause the tiller to bounce, but it did not break a tine. An annoying thing about this, or any tiller, is getting wrapped up in little roots. I’ve been so wrapped up (and so fast) that the tines literally stopped turning. Kicking off the kill switch then removing the tines and uncoiling the roots takes care of the problem though.
I’ve used the Mantis around flowers since it is easily maneuverable, and between bushes (hedge and rose). It’s been great for every small patch of earth I’ve put it in, but it really isn’t that great for large gardens (unless you want to spend an awfully long time out there). It’s built really well though, and I never had to work on mine. I did eventually buy another brand (bigger model) eventually to replace this one because I no longer had any real use for it anymore (no longer have small garden patches). But, it worked well when we had it. I have no reservations at recommending this tiller; I liked mine enough and my grandparents really like theirs.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hvarmit
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 in Home and Garden |
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Member: April
Location: the South
Reviews written: 345
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Howdy...and thanks for reading!
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