Customer Reviews

Ames True Temper 1914000 Adjustable Thatching Rake with 54-Inch Wood Handle

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading a few reviews at other sites, I went out immediately to get one at my local hardware store. Despite not dethatching my grass for four years, it works quite well. I imagine with less thatch, that one could zoom through their yard. The thatching side works great and it does seem to work best when you use short and quick strokes. The otherside is meant for raking the thatch away, this works very smoothly. All in all, I'd say it's a good design and well worth the money and effort if you enjoy your yardwork.

I am trying to bring my lawn back to a pristine state after many years of gardeners who just do the basics, cut the grass and leave. So I'm educating myself as to how to maintain the lawn, besides fertilizer and watering correctly. I was having more run off of the water than I liked rather then penetrating the soil and roots. A friend looked over my lawn and showed me how much dead matter that won't decompose actually is sitting on top of the soil, but hidden by the grass. He then explained the need for thatching. There are alternatives other than this rake, but they are very heavy and expensive equipment. The first pass I made on a small 3'x5' patch of lawn brought up a large mound of dead brown dead grass and weeds, I was amazed. The first time you use this rake it is a bit on the hard work side, but afterwords on follow ups like prior to fertilizing it is much easier since the years of accumulation are gone. Use this rake right after cutting the lawn and you will find you aren't tangling up and pulling out some of the good grass too often. My run off problem disappeared and the lawn is much healthier. This rake is very sturdy, made well and works as described.

I've had this for about a year. Talk about thatch! I've lived here six years and it's only when I got this rake that I started getting serious about dethatching. A lawn rake doesn't cut it. It was tough at first because I have so much thatch and lumpy grass. But the more I use it the easier it gets. I've adjusted it so it goes deep. It's great for tilling soil.I just took out some hedges and tilled and planted grass seed. I have hard soil but it cut through it like butter. Grass is starting to come back up because water can actually go down and be absorbed by grass, not thatch and old leaves. Every time I mow I dethatch more buid up and groom. Having lumpy grass that's starting to fill up once bare patches that's when the blisters come, but on already semi dethatched grass, it goes through very well and I don't have to yank so hard. I've discovered it's best to do it after mowing.Grass that's not deeply rooted it does yank it up. This is a great product. Next to my pruning shears, this product is my second favorite gardening tool.

I wasn't familiar with 'thatch' until I saw an episode of "This Old House" recently so I bought this rake to remove thatch my front yard (around 1000 square feet). The rake works great and I was able to use the to loosen the soil in some bare patches of my yard to for re-seeding areas where my lawn had thinned after the winter. I was amazed at how much thatch I was able to remove from my yard, particularly from around the large oak tree in my front yard. I highly recommend investing in some quality, durable gardening gloves to save your hands as it takes quite a bit of time and effort to thoroughly de-thatch a relatively large area. If you enjoy your yard work and take pride in your yard, this rake is a must.
I would haven give the rake 5 stars, but I found the ~1/4" bolts that attach the rake head to the handle were loose when the rake arrived and were not sturdy enough even when tightened. If you do get this rake, I recommend replacing the bolts that come with the rake with 3/8" stainless steel or galvanized timber bolts to make the rake feel more sturdy.

Like any other tool, a lot depends on the user. I've long held the believe leaving your shaving on the lawn is good for the grass, it's the green thing to do because the nutrients are recycled. I don't believe that's entirely true. You need specific conditions to turn lawn shavings into compost. Those conditions are not met by just leaving the shavings on your lawn. What happened in my case over a period of time is the shavings forming a durable blanket that just refuses to return to earth over the base of my grass. You can see water rolling off the thatch not going to the roots. Consequently it take more water and feed to get to the roots.



This is one tool that works as intended. You have to be careful not to rip and tear your grass. I think creeping grasses like bermuda are especially vulnerable to being damaged. The rake is more likely to get caught. The best way I find is to use shorter strokes. It takes some elbow grease but it works. I aerated the lawn after dethatching then spread some turf feed and watered regularly. The result was a growth explosion.

For a lot the size of mine, about 50x75 feet, manual de-thatching is not hard labor. This is one of those cases where you should let the tool do the work. Little downward pressure is required like other rakes -- a simple, repeated back-and-forth work motion will get the job done. I just did half my yard without breaking a sweat, and I'm no spring chicken!
Some tips: I do my de-thatching in the spring before green-up. I always mow the yard at the lowest setting in the fall before putting the mower away, so either do that or mow short before you start to de-thatch.
If you use a self-mulching mower like I do, de-thatching should be part of your routine.

I was unable to find a thatching rake locally. I found this rake at Amazon.com was at the best price, including shipping, over all my internet searches, which included Ebay. The rake works very well, and has an added feature of a landscape or garden rake. The rake head is adjustable, which I found useful. Overall I am very pleased and satisfied with the rake and the service at Amazon.com. Thanks again!

The thatching rake I recently purchased seems to be the thing I need to remove some stubborn weeds that have taken over my lawn and garden area. It is a little heavy for my 5'3" frame, but does a fine job dislodging the vine from my mulch.

The product was exactly as described and works well on smaller areas of the lawn. It got difficult to use it for my entire lawn, so I rented an automatic thatching machine. The item was delivered in 2-3 days from Amazon.com.

When I first used this tool, I raked a tiny space of my yard, approximately 3 feet by 5 feet. I ended up with a bucketful of thatch and general yard debris to remove and felt ashamed of of myself for not taking better care of my grass. Any tool that can shame me is probably a tool that does a good job. This rake is also very sturdy and solidly built. Yes, it'll take a while to de-thatch a large yard with nothing more than a handheld tool, but rest assured that the job will get done, and you will remove tons of debris with this rake.