Customer Reviews

Bully Tools 92325 Lawn Bully All-Steel Lawn Aerator

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

 

 

I like to buy USA-made products. I shop my local farmers' market, try to leave my money with local businesses instead of big-box stores. So I naturally went with the "American Made" choice of hand aerator. When I pulled the aerator out of the packaging, I thought, "Ah, made by American convicts, most likely." The tines, or pluggers, or whatever they are called, are MIG-welded to the step, and mine were both pointing towards each other, instead of straight down. So obviously no rigorous quality inspection by the manufacturer. I suppose this is mostly an aesthetic concern, although I wouldn't be surprised if repeatedly pushing this thing into the ground with crooked tines might put stress on the welds. (One of my tines is bent about 10 degrees in from a 90-degree angle to the step, the other only a few degrees off.) The inside diameter of the pluggers (sorry I don't know what they're called) is a 1/4 inch smaller than those of the gas-powered aerator I rented from the tool yard; when I tried the Lawn Bully on my lawn, the pluggers merely plugged up instead of a new punch pushing out the old plug. I suspect this might be the case on most hand-held aerators. Ideally you want to pull out a plug; merely punching a hole compacts the dirt against the walls of the hole, making it less drain-able. The Lawn Bully appears sturdy enough; I will use it once a season (for 20 minutes at a time. I'd be nuts to try to do my lawns in one session) but I will annually rent a powered aerator. I just don't believe there's any hand-held substitute for running over the yard with a something driven by a motor that leaves pellets strewn all over the place.

Clogs on very first try.

Punches into the ground relatively well - no plug pushes our. The whole engineering of this thing was badly done. I can see alternatives in my mind that certainly would work better than the design of this product.

The whole point of core/plug aerating is to produce a plug.. not compound the problem by smashing holes in your lawn and compacting it more - you could just use a spike aerator for this and avoid the compacting problem. Core aeration should bring the bottom soil to the surface and not clog on the first operation. Too much work to constantly unclog it.. so you end up 'aerating' the lawn by pushing a hole... not cutting a hole.

Basically a waste of money if you want true core aeration. As mentioned previously, you are better off taking your money and going to a rental shop and renting a 'real' gas powered aerator for same amount.

This worked out great. With the hard soil in LA, I had to water the lawn the day before to soften it up. But it worked great after that. Lawn looks great as a result of aerating and fertilizer.

Bought this about two months ago and have used it four times. Very sturdy with quality construction. Works well and makes large holes for better
water absorption. Dirt plugs do get stuck in this device but it does not affect it's ability to make the holes. Would buy it again.

Purchased this to aerate my lawn. Exrtemely well built!!!! My soil is clay and very dry!!! Some areas could not be penetrated. These areas I used a Rotary hammer w/ a bull point chisel!! I think once we get rain it will work great as it actually aerated some areas and w/ the dry clay soil that's a accomplishment!!!UPDATE: We finally got rain!!! Aerator worked alot better BUT w/ the clay soil we have plugs do not come out!!! It makes holes but the dirt stays in the hollow tines!!!

this is much better than ones found at Home Depot. The smaller diameter cores are just the right size to penetrate hard compacted soil and the side vents prevent clogging.

Seemed like a good Idea, but the thing just jams with dirt. It does make the holes but I assumes the hollow "tubes" were on this to cycle soil through, all it does is get dirt jammed in it.

I have had no luck with this thing. I am going to wait until fall and use it again, maybe lawn is to dry. I have used sprinkler and made the lawn real wet and that helped. but all in all not one plug has ever come out the top holes. go to hardware store and buy a piece of re-barb and stab holes in the lawn. would be cheeper and accomplish the same thing.