Customer Reviews

Sun Joe TJ601E Tiller Joe 9-Amp Electric Garden Tiller/Cultivator

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Before I bought this tiller, I went to several brick and mortar stores such as Lowe's and Home Depot to look at electric tillers. I was specifically looking for electric tillers, because I do not want the hassle of working with gasoline. Compared to the tillers in those stores, and even the tillers on Amazon, this tiller has the best bang for your buck.

PROs: 1. Very wide tilling width. I used to have a Ryobi tiller whose tilling width was 1/2 to 2/3 of the tilling width of this tiller. Width does matter! I was able to complete a tilling job over the weekend in much less time with this tiller.
2. High tine clearance means any rocks in the soil do not get stuck as easily. My Ryobi tiller had very low clearance, which meant that every few minutes a rock would get stuck in the tines, and all work would stop. Not so with this tiller. It just spits the rocks out.
3. Electric- may be a pro or con depending on how you look at it.
4. Powerful- this tiller made easy work of tilling through crabgrass. I didn't even have to remove the grass before I started tilling.

CONs:
1. Tilling depth is only 7 inches, which is not all that great, but I knew this when I bought the tiller

Summary: All in all, this is a great tiller for your money! If this thing breaks down some years from now, I would not hesitate to get it all over again!

I was skeptical that an electric tiller/cultivator would cut the soil the way this does. It is amazing. The tiller chugs through packed soil and tosses rocks away with ease. I tilled a 4-foot wide by 70-foot long area in very short order. The machine jammed only once, on a buried brick. I worked the brick out of the tines, and it was ready for more. Plenty of rocks encountered and spit out, no damage to the tiller. This is going to be one of my favorite tools for awhile.

My husband and I were looking into putting down new sod in the backyard, which meant tilling up the existing hard-packed dirt with dead grass that had been baking in the San Diego sun all summer.

He went to all the usual hardware stores and almost rented one of their tillers, but found that after paying the rental fee, gas, and then renting a truck to transport the monsters they had, it was barely more $ to buy a tiller that was delivered to our doorstep for free (LOVE Prime) and that we'd then have on-hand for any future jobs that might arise.

Based on other people's feedback, we allotted ourselves about 3 hours for him to till the backyard. It took 20 minutes! Assembly was very quick and easy, and not having to mess with gasoline was wonderful. The tiller is light enough that you can carry it wherever you need to go, but tears through hard dirt and dead grass like nobody's business.

Even if it was only for one job, I would still buy this tiller. Even better, it's now sitting in the garage ready to tackle any other patches of dirt or lawn we might decide to re-sod.

Excellent price for the performance. Had to wait for delivery but worth the wait. Very easy to assemble, very easy to operate, and just light weight enough to be useful without being too heavy. Does a particulary good job in small garden patchs, very easy to adjust without tools for deapth. Not willing to make long term use recommendations as we've only had it for one season and two plantings, but given the performance to date expect no issues.

Update and last 2/4/2012:
I LOVE doing bsiness with Amazon. The original product is being returned and the crappy refurbished replacement is being sent back to the manufacturer. I would avoid this tiller unless you are just scraping 2" off the top. I really had my hopes up for an electric, but now will be going gas.

Update 2/3/2012:
My replacement came about an hour ago. First, the replacement,for the one that ran just 30 minutes total in 10 minute spurts, was a REFURBISHED one that could have been picked up from their site for $100 less! It also has a ONE year warranty versus the original 2-year, plus the wheel cap does not stay on and the plastic motor cap was broken. I will call customer service again Monday when they open up. However, I did test it out. It lasted only 12 minutes before it shut down by itself! Tomorrow I'll try again. How deep you ask? Not more than 4 inches deep. What type of extension cord? A 25' 16 gauge, well within their specs. Am I just unfortuunate to get TWO lemons? The net for today is I paid FULL price for a new one that lasted 30 minutes only to get a refurbished one to replace it that costs $100 less and IT didn't last more than 12 minutes before shutting down. NOT Quality!

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Update 1/27/2012:
Well, today I tried again. Didn't overheat after 10 minutes. Broke instead after about 12 sq ft of tilling. The tines stopped turning while the shaft kept spinning. The manufacturer had me pull the tine/gear assemply off the main machine. The plastic gears, each slipping over a metal sprocket were fine. No problem there. When I first examine the unit, the tines had some play, about 90 degrees worth, before they caught again. After removing the tines and playing with gesrs, I got it where they were caught all the time. Reassembled. Tried out --- NOPE. Caught and spun, caught and spun, etc. Manufacturer is sending out a replacement and said the overheating could have been related - it should not have overheated in 10 minutesw. So, when it comes, I'll update this again.

--------------------------------------------- Original comments below
After reading the other comments, I thought I'd give this light weight a try considering I only want to do small patches at a time. However, my garden ground in Texas is NOT the loose, easy-to-till stuff despite growing good veggies in it for last 6 years. The tiller arrived earlier today and after a few installation glitches, e.g., they had the holes drilled in the wrong direction for securing the crossplate and basically no good instructions, I gave it a test. Temperature has been in 60's here for almost the whole week and I just finished sprinikler pipe repairs under the garden. The top 6-8 inshes was easy to dig. However, the tiller didn't like tilling 6-7 inches and overheated twice, each time after about 15 minutes, or 25-35 feet of tilling. So, you have to wait until it cools down enough before it will start again. That's about 20 minutes! Thus, I would NOT recommend this tiller for anybody who really needs a tiller and not just a cultivator. It will probably do fine for small 30-40 sq ft areas. My plan is to till the cold veggie area, then the tomato area, then the pepper area, etc. Had I known it was going to be this bad I would have applied the cost to a better gas model.I may be pessimistic, but I really don't see this tiller lasting too long considering its typical overheating problem.

I love this tiller. It is easy to use and works like a charm. Being a semi-small lady I had no problems using this, and actually enjoyed the process. My yard is on a slope and the sunjoe made it relatively easy to till. The only thing I can fuss about (not complain) is the extension cord but with practice I got a routine down and had no more problems. I love not having to use gas or having spark plugs to fool with. Especially with gas prices continuing to rise.

I live in the arid Arizona desert and do not typically write reviews for products I've purchased. However, this tiller impressed me enough to do just that. I used this tiller on very solid, dry, cracked dirt that hadn't seen any "gardening attention" in 20 or more years - the kind of ground that is hard as a rock and is hard to imagine anything ever growing from. Well, I moistened the ground the night before and took this tiller to it the following morning and tilled all the area that once appeared hopeless. This machine worked perfectly. After I tilled all the area where I intended to plant grass, I threw down some seed and then added a layer of Scott turf-builder (soil topping stuff that has starter lawn fertilizer built in and also creates a nice, dark, soft top) from Wal-Mart and in two weeks have great grass growing perfectly. This tiller was awesome for me. I didn't know when I purchased it if it could handle the less-than-desirable hard, arid and eroded ground I had to work with. But it did...very well!!! I highly recommend this product.

I bought this expecting it to be light weight and limited as to ability to really properly prepare a garden bed. I was half right. It is light weight, weighing only about 35 pounds. But it worked through a new garden plot area in no time. I have an area of my lawn that hadn't been disturbed probably since 1926 when the house was built. I forked the ground, but that left large chunks of dirt the size of volley balls that needed to be worked. I honestly bought this thinking it would be ok for spring tilling and future years, but didn't expect it to do much of anything with the dirt clumps that I had. Tiller Joe no only worked the clumps out, but left a nice smooth finely tilled dirt path in its wake. Given its light weight and electric power vs gas, I never expected it to do that, but it surprised me. I look forward to years of use in my new garden plot and am even considering replanting my lawn with Tiller Joe's help.

The only feature I wish it had, which it might if I spent time looking at it, is the ability to remove the inner or outer set of tiller tines to be able to till in narrow rows or to straddle a young vegetable plant row. Believe me, I'm very satisfied even if this can't be done.

This thing works great. I wanted a Troy bilt however it went up $30 after I put in cart which pissed me off. I hear they are made in Canada and
USA. This 601E I bought re manufactured from manufacturers web site for 129 and free shipping. It has higher power and wider cut than some other electric ones. I wish it was made elsewhere. I want to soon get a leaf blower/vacuum which sun joe is making available soon and sounds nice and a weed edger. I will be looking for domestic units if possible. These are my thoughts. The sun Joe was easy to assemble and good instructions. Just re tighten the main trans gear unit bolts. Mine were loose one visibly out a few threads. Maybe because its a reman. I would check anyways for the few seconds it takes.