Customer Reviews

Arnold Corp. 490-100-0012 Power Rake

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

 

 

This product is amazingly simple & works just fine w/ a few tweaks, per within.

However, a slight downside is that both of the spring tines broke after exactly 1 year & 6 uses (shucks). Found some ersatz replacements @ the local landscape supply for much less than offered here, so no heartburn overall.

Caveat: With JUST the Arnold #490-100-0012 Dethatch blade installed, I found that thatch trimmings were definitely NOT clearing-out from underneath the mower's deck. They would just build-up, spin around & actually lift the whole deck UP, until it became very difficult to push at all (at this point, every wheel was lifted slightly off the ground & the side discharge chute was clear/wide-open). Was not a great situation ....

Background: My aging 20" Murray pusher is a tired ol' beast & lacks much torque, so I had to get real creative when using this product. Believe it will benefit all users, however.

Solution, part 1: For now, just forget about the grass/clippings bag - take it off & throw it aside.

Sol'n, pt 2: Add a 2nd blade. Be sure it is a normal grass-cutting HIGH-LIFT/mulching type. Set it up in a cross-pattern (aka: "X" configuration) on TOP of the Arnold Dethatcher, if possible. If not, be sure to separate the blades w/ a large flat washer, because the Arnold Dethatch blade is concave on the bottom face!

Sol'n, pt 3: Use a low idle speed - as low possible (was kinda tough w/ the ol' Murray ..... frequent stalls, etc). Walk at a fast pace, & don't slow down or dwell on any spot.

Results: Worked like magic after using these tricks & then fooling-around w/ various wheel heights. Thatch trimmings were thus flying out the R side, landing 6-8 feet away. Never looked-back & now we're all smiles. Lawn has never looked better, either .....

Good luck & do hope 'dis helps a bit !!
Regards,
Verschlussdeckel

I have a cord mower, 19", and it took a bit to adapt the dethatching blade. I ended up putting the dethatching blade below the cutting blade. At first, I tried the dethatching blade alone, but on my mower it did not work, it attached over the plastic fan part and quite quickly melted it because of friction. Then I tried it beneath the regular blade and it worked. Added benefit: the regular blade blew the clippings into the clipping bag, so I didn't have a big raking job to do. Caution: I had to experiment a bit with the height settings and do several passes to avoid overstressing the mower motor. Once I got that down, it worked fine!

In the past, I have hand raked my lawn, with regular lawn rakes and with a specially designed "de-thatching rake," with a lot of hard work for the desired results. And then what to do with all of that thatch stuff? Then I hired someone to do it for me, with mixed results for the money. Then I had my lawn service power rake my lawn (good job, for a lot of $$$$$). Finally I decided to try one of these Power Rake blades for my lawn mower. After reading one of the previous reviews, I combined this blade with the mulching blade on my mower, mounted at 90 degrees apart. The result was a fairly well thatched lawn with the thatch and clippings chopped up so fine that it was hardly noticeable, all with little more effort than just mowing the lawn. All in all, I would recommend the use of this product for a less than professional but still acceptable result for the money and effort.

Product worked great for my small lawn. Picked up tons of thatch and only went over the lawn once. Went on and off the mower really easily. Highly recommend this product for anyone with a small to medium size lawn. Now hopefully the new seed will take...

Only hiccup was when the self-appointed "lawn god" next door decided to come over and say "You know that's not how you mow, right?" (Yeah, buddy. I know that's not how you mow...) When I asked him if he knew what de-thatching was (he didn't), he simply tried to change the subject by telling me that I went over to "his" side of the lawn... I apparently should've known, since he's been mowing up to a certain spot for years (I just bought the house...).

So anyway, that's a long way of saying that thatching is an ugly process. Beware the ignorant "lawn god" next door...

My lawn probably never had been de-thatched and I was to lazy to rake de-thatch the whole thing. This blade worked well for what it is. I didn't go to low on the mower so it wouldn't destroy my lawn and it still pulled up most of the dead grass that I had. I did have to go over with a rake to get some of the tough to get stuff but if you are somewhat lazy like me and hate raking this is definately the way to go.

This blade will not work on three lawn mowers, a Honda, Lawnboy and Toro. Double check or you will lose money on the return. It would have been nice to have that footnote added by the dealer, but what to they care.

Used it on a Black and Decker Lawn Hog electric mower. I undersized it (19"mower - 16" Power Rake), and slight mounting modifications. I works great. Would recommend it in this configuration.

Was very pleased with the speed of delivery. I couldn't find this item anywhere locally. I guess no one de-thatched their lawn here in Florida. Antway, the product worked great. I ised it about 1.5 weeksago and the lawn is greening up nicely. I expect in two weeks in will be where I want it to be. Thanks for mking this product available to me......

Only problem with this is that it doesn't really fit as universally as they make it seem. Got a Ryobi 48v electric mower and it took a little imagination to make this work. In the end, it did its job, although it was time consuming. Another annoying thing was that the blade wouldn't allow the debris to make it in the bag, so everything had to be raked and gathered as best as possible leaving much grass and weed debris over the areas we were trying to get clear of so new better grass seed would take.

1st problem was attaching the springs - one wasn't coiled to the proper length, so you couldn't get it seated over the bolt enough to get the washer and nut on it. One spring fit perfectly, tried swapping sides, but one was just a dud - got it to fit by putting the bolt in and clamping the blade to the work bench, then used a hammer and punch to get the spring seated. Good thing I had the hammer and punch because the second issue was getting the center adapter seated - again, a poor fit. Maybe I got a dud, but I had a power rake on a previous mower, and didn't have these issues. Can guarantee I'll be breaking out my old steel toed work boots when I fire this thing up!