Customer Reviews

Earthway 2170 Commercial 100-Pound Broadcast Push Spreader

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally a spreader that actually works. I've owned three of the more commonly available spreaders from Home Depot / Lowes. I first bought the cheapest one at about $40 - junk. Upgraded to a $60 tow model - junk that repeatedly flipped over. Upgraded again to a $70 push type - still junk. The cheap ones are very hard to push, and frequently leaked. Finally stepped up and bought one of these Earthway 2170's. What a great product. In a whole different league than the typical HD/Lowes stuff. Of course it's also triple the price - but worth it if you have a good sized yard. Spread patter was terrific, open/close lever works flawlessly, huge tires make pushing a full spreader around relatively easy. Much easier to push this one around with a full 80 lbs than it was to push the cheap ones around with 40lbs. This thing just plain works and finally makes fertilizing a vaguely fun chore. Of course it kills me that I paid $190 last week for this thing and it's listed as $163 today - arrgghhh. As far as assembly, I just don't see what was so tough about assembling it. If you can't tell a 1 3/4 inch bolt from a 2 1/4 inch bolt - just simply measure it. It is easy to mix them up. It's simply not that hard to put together. Took me a leisurely 30-40 minutes while watching TV one evening to unbox and assemble (could have done it in 15 minutes if I focused/tried). Only needed a Phillip's head screw driver and two small wrenches. A ratchet wrench of some sort would make the process a little faster, but not required.

The Earthway Broadcast Spreader #2170 was ordered on Amazon late Sunday night, and was at our door on Thursday before Christmas. This product has clear and concise assembly instructions. The materials are sturdy, top quality and I'm sure will last for many years. Living in New England are weather changes from snow to freezing rain quickly, using this spreader has saved us so much time and money. I would highly recommend this company and this product.

Great spreader. I have a little over a half acre, and struggled to consistently spread fertilizer with a cheap Scotts broadcast spreader. With large pneumatic wheels, it's pretty fool-proof. I did have to play with the control a bit to limit the amount of fertilizer being spread. I set it much lower than the setting recommended by the manufacturer to keep from spreading too much fertilizer.

I gave the unit four stars because the assembly instructions could be a bit clearer. It took me over an hour to assemble it, but once assembled, it's rock solid.

Shop around for this unit. I found it at two local hardware stores and at a local farm supply shop for 10% to 20% cheaper than Amazon is selling it for.

Best spreader I've ever owned. It's a little more expensive and worth every penny. I've owned several versions of the home store brands with the plastic wheels that stick and slide on the grass and are too short for someone 6' tall to easily push and they were all junk.

This is my 3rd season of treating our lawn (33,000 sq ft) with this unit and I can EASILY apply 100 lbs of chemical (fertilizer, fungus control, grub control, lime, etc.) in less than 30 minutes. I'm no longer fighting my spreader. It just works, and it works extremely well.

I really like this spreader. I used to buy the $29 specials along with my fertilizer. I first bought a "drop" spreader. After one year that went in the trash. Then I bought the $29 "broadcast" model. That did a much quicker job but it too lasted about a year. Then I bought the $79 version. That was better but it too went to the trash in three years. It had small and hard tires and was very difficult to push because of the bumps in my lawn.

Now I have this commercial model. It has nice big tires that handles the bumps well. It also has a big enough bin that I can actually load all 15k ft. of material at once! It is great.

The assembly was a little time consuming but I did it on a nice rainy day in the garage listening to some music and just enjoying the time. After the assembly was finished I stood back and said "Wow" ... this is a great tool.

I hope this review helps you.

Bear

I have 2 of these and they are the best spreaders I've ever owned. We use them for spreading de-icers in the winter and they hold up much better to the salt and corrosion than any other units we own. I'm thinking of purchasing a couple 2050's this year, so there's a little less weight to push on smaller areas. I'm sure they'll perform great too!

Excellent product for salt. I'm not sure how much better spreader could be for commercial use too. I don't see a need to purchase any more expensive units from other manufacturers.

I use to use push stile spreaders and have researching pull stile ones for a while. I found this one to be a excellant value.
It comes with very good instructions and went together easily.
It works great I tow it behind a John Deere garden tractor and I used the
hitch extender that comes with it and it is the perfect length to reach the controls with ease.

WTF? $150 for a spreader? That's a lot of clams to lay down, especially for a homeowner. But it's worth every fr'king penny. Why? Because it works like a charm. The pneumatic wheels make handling a breeze even with a full load. And it broadcasts like a mofo saving time and effort. Used to take me 45 minutes to treat roughly 12,000 square feet with my $50 spreader (owned for 15 years, I might add). Now it takes 30 or less and with the wide dispersion, missing areas is a thing of the past. I paid $199.00 and purchased locally at a Tru Value Hardware store. This seems to be the usual retail selling price. However, they assembled the unit at no cost. If you're even fairly handy with tools and have some time, save yourself some bucks and buy from Amazon. The instruction manual advises that using the spreader is most effective when walking at a moderate pace (approx. 3 mph) and I found this to be accurate. I learned that there is definitely a qualitative difference between spreaders. Maybe that's why many landscaping professionals use Earthway.

As previously stated by others the assembly instructions weren't written well. Knowing this from the beginning helped, I took my time and assembled it in about 2 hours. I like the large hopper, it easily holds a 50lb bag of seed. I found the plastic strainer to prevent the seeds from falling to the bottom quickly enough so I removed it and it worked great. Look forward to using it more.

I had two cheaper, smaller spreaders which turned out to be worthless because
the cables kept breaking on the spreader adjustment, and they were hard to push.
This 2170 handles well, but I give it 3 stars only since the spreader adjustment
calibration is way off. I wasted a lot of granular chemical because at the recommended
setting, it spread 3X as much product than it should have. Beware! A costly lesson! Made me
angry!