Customer Reviews

Arnold 490-100-0056 21-Inch/22-Inch Universal 6-N-1 Power Rake Lawn Mower Blade

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

After trying to rent a power raker for the day with no luck we decided to try this. For the cost of renting a PR for and hour we turned our lawn mower into one. I did not think it would work. I thought the orange plastic fingers would break off. After mowing our fairly large lawn it was only missing one. I hit a few sticks that I missed too and still only lost one. Our lawn has never looked better. We bagged 8 full garbage bags full of dead grass. Well worth the price!

I purchased the Arnold lawn mower power rake the first time I saw it in the store without researching the product. Normally, I would take the time to research and read reviews to make sure something like this was worth my time and money. I am happy I did not in this case; based on the reviews posted here I would not have purchased this product.

I was sick of dethatching my lawn by hand and did not feel like going to the home center to rent a power rake. The concept of the product seemed logical and figured for the cost that I did not have much to lose. The product leaves much to be desired as far as documentation with very little details on how to install and use. The lack of documentation prevents me from giving this product a higher rating. If I was not patient using this product, I would have thrown it away or returned it to the store. Proper instructions on how to use this product will make all of the difference.

For best results, cut your lawn first. You want to minimize as much resistance for the tines as possible. Remember that your lawn mower is optimized for the blade that came with it. This is a totally different application for your mower and the more work you create for it the more likely you will force the parts of the mower outside of the tolerances that it was designed for. Also, I have not seen it posted anywhere but only use this blade when you need to use it. I reinstalled my original blade after using as I would not plan on needing the extra function until the fall. I assume that you could simply remove the tines and use the blade normally, but not reading anything specific in the documentation, I rather just take the 5 minutes to reinstall my old blade and save myself any surprises down the road. Look at it this way; it will take you less time to replace your mower blade than it would to rent a power rake from your local home center.

The blade itself needed a little coaxing with a hammer to fit flushly on my 21" Craftsman walk behind however, once in place the adapter worked very well. I used the attachment as a power rake to dethatch my poorly neglected lawn. At first, I found the blade ineffective but persisted on using it to complete the entire lawn. Half way through, I changed my technique from simply mowing the lawn to more of how you would utilize a conventional power rake which made all of the difference. To use this product effectively, you have to rake along your grass strip by strip, no faster than a crawling pace. Once you cover a length of grass, reverse over the same length at the same slow pace. The mower picked up a significant amount of material, leaving my lawn ready for fertilizing and seeding.

I found the results very satisfying considering that this is a reusable product purchased for less than what I would have paid to rent a conventional power rake. The task was more efficient than a power rake since you did not have go over the lawn to rake up the loose materials and simply required bagging the materials as you would if you were mowing your lawn. This product has changed my outlook on prepping my lawn for the spring and subsequently for the winter. I am looking forward to trying this product in the fall to pick up leaves.

This product is worth every penny.

Yes Work Smarter...Not Harder with the Arnold Power Rake. I purchased the Arnold Power Rake from my local Lowe's store. I read the instructions about how to set it up for "Power Raking." I did not want to set it just above contacting my drive way as the guide said. I tried notch #2 on my Cub Cadet mower, that was just TOO low, so I adjusted it to #3 notch...perfect. My fescue lawn was to tall to go from #5 notch to number #3 notch. So I decided to "cut & bag" first, then come back with the Arnold Power Rake & bag. I could actually see where I had power raked, no hand raking or hand bagging needed.

Sure I made it a two step process, but you could "cut & bag" on 1 day, then come back the following day to "Power Rake.". I think this will be great for "mulching & bagging" leaves this fall.

It worked great to remove a great amount of the dead Bermuda grass that had invaded my yard. I had sprayed it 2 applications, a week apart.

Every negative thing ive read about these blades is kind of dumb, either people bought it for their crappy hippie mowers its not designed to work with, people who didnt expect that a metal rotating blade would also cut their yard, or people who saw 21/22 inches and thought it would work on a 19 inch mower. It doesnt scalp your yard, it does a decent job of dethatching, and its a heck of a lot better than hand raking it and getting blisters.

This product doesn't fit the toro 21" mulching mower. Even though there are inserts for the blade they don't fit the crankshaft. Frustratingly, I never got to use it and returned it without problems

I own a Sears 21" mower, this item is too long to fit under the deck. If it was an inch shorter it would have fit. This item is not "Universal" as advertised. Would have given one star if I could.

I have used the spring type in the past with pretty good results, but they are hard on sprinklers and the engine. I decided try the power rake this time. Overall I was pleased with the results. It did a pretty good job and the results looked clean and nice. I had to drill/file out the bolt holes a bit because it didn't fit my Honda mower.

There is a group of parts to help it work with any blade. It seems like it could have some balance issues if not installed just right. I didn't experience any balance problems, it was just an observation.

The plastic tines were pretty much gone by the time I finished my lawn. I would recommend buying a pack of replacement tines as well and/or cut the lawn very low first with your regular mower blade.

All in all I was very satisfied, but I gave it 4 stars because it isn't perfect...

Bought this to dethatch before putting in winter grass. Set it so that it just touched the ground on level surface and it worked great. I didn't have any problems but I only have 800 sqft of grass area. It didn't damage my sprinklers, which was a concern.

I purchased this attachment to install on my Toro Recyler mower. Although the box says it works on Toro mowers, there is an alert printed in another location on the box that says it won't work on Toro Recycler mowers with "Atomic" blades. The curved blade holder on the Toro prevents the Arnold attachment from being securely attached and none of the adapter washers fit the shaft. "Universal" is a bit of an exaggeration.

I purchased this attachment to power rake new grass seed into a dead lawn. After I installed it on the bottom of my Craftsman mower, I thought that it would be too tall to do the job, but it did alright. After I used it, I realized that the manufacturer never intended it as a plow, but as something to graze the top of the soil -which it did.

I kept loosing the nylon tines the longer I mowed, starting with 12 and finishing with only four. The remaining tines were worn down with use. I had to keep tilting my lawnmower up to keep it from stalling in heavily matted grass. Despite the decreasing performance, the power rake did what I was hoping it would do just in time to finish 1500 square feet of front and side yard.

I plan on picking up a box of replacement tines, and using the blade to bag leaves with in the Fall by increasing the mower height.

Over all I give this item four stars because it did not slice into the ground like a standalone power rake, but it did okay for something I get to keep and use again.

Update---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This item is very hard on a mower's engine. The resistance from using it actually sheared off an indent on the blade shaft that is meant to keep the blade from spinning freely, so be aware of that risk.