Customer Reviews

Engine Drill Auger Bit - 2 1/2" x 24"

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

 

 

I have had 1 of this size, 3" (yellow), and 1 of the 2.5" (red), size for approx 6 yrs.
I am very impressed with the ease I enjoy while drilling holes for what-ever projects I find to use these.
These are sturdy, and with the extra length of the "lead-in" point, this auger will not have the tendency to wander/skip out of control.
Being a machinist/tool-design/maker, myself, I find that the "angle", and "rate-of-twist" or "curl" per inch designed into this auger, makes it possible to drill into loose soil, clay, and dry type soils, with-out having the auger being so agressive, as to possibly "torque" the power-drill right out of your hands. (It will drill smoothly the whole depth.)
I use a 3/8's 18 volt cordless drill with good results.
Heavy wet clay does use a good bit of you drill's power, though.
Regular "loam" soil drills great.
I've been looking for to replace my 3" one, as it's getting wore out from heavy use.
This 3", and the 2.5" haven't seem to be available at most retail home-centers or gardenshops for me.
I bought one of those silver/unpainted ones that seem to be, "all over the place". The first time I went to use it, it about "broke" my wrists and was hard to control, because it "cut/drilled", or "screwed" into the soil, too much, too fast. (I wanted to "fling" that thing right into the closest garbage can!)
If your thinking of getting an auger, get this one, you won't need any other. The price of this is worth it! There isn't any other better ones out there. Don't fall for the "junk" on TV!
Hope this helps, Happy Gardening!
Dave

I bought this auger and use it in heavy clay. I won't call it 'soil' because in Portland, Oregon, it's just clay. ;-)

The one issue is the auger has no bevels for the drill to sit on, so it's just a round shaft, which tends to slip unless you can really tighten the drill onto the shaft. My electric drill (cordless drills don't work for this in heavy clay) has only a hand tightenable chuck; no chuck key, so it's difficult to tighten enough in the hard, heavy stuff I'm trying to drill through.

But sturdy enough for the job even down a couple of feet into the ground.

Our ground is hard clay and my husband put it on his electric drill, so far we have used it to plant hosta and about 6 shrubs. They are small mail order types, but we know we will be able to loosen the ground for bigger plants.

UPDATE May 11, 2010: We really use this, we have planted trees and shrubs in 12 inch pots, in fact we have used it so much we are thinking of ordering another as it is beginning to wear down from the clay ground.

I have had this bit for about 2 months now and it has performed well for me. It is made of good steal and works well with a big drill. This auger is not for a cordless drill. I really like this bit.

I bought this for less than what I had been spending to rent a tiller each year. Now I can use this for years to come and it's already paid for. I've done my planting for this year and this little gem works great. It plows right into the ground without any trouble. I have even cut directly into the sod a couple of times just to see how it would handle it. It is sturdily built. I recommend a heavy duty drill if you are going to use it much, because a lightweight drill will overheat fairly quickly (but at no fault of this product). The one drawback to this product is the shaft is round where it inserts into the drill chuck, which means you really have to torque it down to prevent slippage. If this product had a hex head at the top for a better drill bite, I would give it five stars without question.

I purchased one of these 5 years ago and found it to be excellent. I have planted several thousand bulbs with this. So I am excited to once again find this auger. Looks like I'll be planting a few more thousand bulbs now!

I planted 300 daffodil bulbs in very hard ground with this auger. Worked 100% better then using the manual long handled bulb digger. You should take 30 minute breaks in between planting because your drill will start to get hot.

If you need something to dig this size hole in the ground there aren't a lot of options. This did do the job but is flawed. The end of the rod is perfectly round and so your drill is not going to be able to grip it properly. Compounding matters, it's made of soft iron rather than hardened steel. As a result, your drill rapidly sheers off layers of the metal and the end quickly wears down, while iron filings get magnetically stuck to your drill, presenting a short circuit hazard. It seems like it's made in China, but I don't recall exactly how it was labelled. It seems like it's not been built somewhere where the workers have experience with electricity in their homes, power tools, and gardening, where they would use the products they make and quickly realize that they can't make the darn shank out of soft iron, and that it needs to be planed a bit to give a gripping point for the drill.

I really wish there were better options. Also, buyer beware, the supplier I bought this from does pricing experiments so you might pay wildly ranging prices for it depending on the time of year or phase of the moon. Right after I bought it the price went way down, which is always annoying.

First, unless your soil is already soft, you WILL need an 18 volt drill (if you're cordless) to get any use out of this. In soft, 'prepped' soil it was terrific. For anything even slightly less than perfect, it tended to skitter a lot. Also, it would really help if the curved metal started closer to the tip, because even when you've got the auger buried you end up with a shallow hole as so much of the length and the "effort" of the hole were lost to the tip. As others have noted, the round shank made the bit slip quite often especially in heavier clay. I'll continue to use this one but won't buy it again.

Very good tool. It expedited the planting process. It did the job except in compacted soil where it bogged down a little.