Customer Reviews

Mantis 120-Volt Electric Tiller with Border Edger 7250-02-02

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Since these forums have been so valuable for my research, I wanted to add this post about my Mantis Electric Tiller.

At $300 plus shipping, and some of the concerns about bouncing, I did go back and forth on the decision, but once I finally pulled the trigger, I couldn't be happier. I am really surprised by the poor reviews on this board. At the GardenWeb forums and epinions the reviews are much better and are from many more people.

Ironically, I actually used it several times out of the box to do edging rather than tilling as it came with a free edging attachment. The edger not only works great around the lawns and walkway, but also around the garden to keep grass from creeping in, and lastly to cut sod into chunks for removal.

When I put the tiller to use, it really showed off its worth. I live in Northern Virginia with lots of touch clay and our share of rocks. Yes, when getting going, the Mantis does bounce on the top of the clay turf. That's a factor of its lightness. Once you get used to how to best work with it, though, you find that it digs in pretty good and away you go. Once through that initial starting point, it digs through the hardest clay I've thrown at it. Make sure that you use the "walk backwards" technique that people suggest - it works.

In getting ready for fall, I've dug a drainage ditch and planted seven shrubs in various areas. Without the Mantis this job would have been tough beyond belief. Clay and small to medium rocks passed through pretty easily. Bigger rocks were loosened up enough to pull out by hand. It shredded many roots after a pass or two, with some of the bigger ones needing to be cut out with shears. It was also terrific for mixing in peat moss and compost with my existing clay soil. The soil was perfect for planting when I was done!

Of course, the Mantis isn't a miracle worker, but I can't imagine any tiller is. Yes, roots and sod do get wrapped up inside the tines, but that doesn't stop you from tilling until it gets really bad. The tines pop off pretty easy to make getting the roots off pretty easy.

Using the Mantis also takes some getting used to. It can be a tiring, and a bit heavy after a long day of using it and your wrists and forearms will get a workout. If you are breaking ground, you will feel the vibration in your arms. Yes, it does bounce initially until you get it worked in. But I can't imagine any of this comparing to what it feels like after a long day with a shovel.

Will the bigger tillers work better? As a homeowner with a quarter acre lot, not necessarily. To break ground for my new garden a friend came over with his bohemeth. He needed a pickup truck to transport it and it was a bear to maneuver and left many tight spots untilled. I could never have used it for the digging I've done for shrubs and drainage tubes. Plus, it stores neatly on the wall of my garage with a couple of $1.00 hooks from Home Depot.

My only complaints: I wish it had an off switch. I was lifting it out of a ditch (incorrectly I must say), and I hit the power and the tiller ran right up my sweats. Cut the heck of of them, but never broke skin thankfully! The long bars have a metal clip on them which has nicked me pretty good a couple of times when I lifted it up to store on the wall until I got used to watching out for them. Also, after one particularly long day of repeatedly breaking new ground on hard clay, a screw popped off. I found it, reattached it pretty quickly and haven't had a problem since. Not sure how to fix that in the long term.

Lastly, I love the electric feature. You do have to watch the cord, but man is that thing quite. I would have no reservations about tilling in the early morning. It simply doesn't make any real noise. My neighbor who has a similar tiller (I don't think it is a Mantis) with a gas motor that makes a racket and smells even worse. I don't think I sacrifice any power with the electric version.

With a no-hassle return policy and lifetime guarantee on the tines, you can't go wrong.

I've used tillers for nearly 25 years for gardens up to 2500 square feet. The trouble with larger tillers is that they are typically used for the initial ground breaking, and are not worth the trouble to till small areas. Then came Mantis. I owned their gas tiller which works great but has the added inconvenience of engine maintenance, and noise from the two stroke engine. When I saw the Mantis electric come out, I immediately bought it, knowing Mantis makes really good products. I wasn't disappointed with this machine. It is unbelievably quiet, and has ample power to till wet or dry soils. Three speeds is convenient for gentle mixing of compost, or getting in there and making quick work of garden preparation. The tines quickly come off for cleaning. The trick to this tiller is to make a hole in the ground with the tiller by digging, then quickly pulling back on the tiller, causing the dirt to be displaced from the hole. Then, work the tiller forward from the hole, basically "moving" the hole aroud the garden. This method allows me to work the soil to 18" or deeper---much deeper than even the largest Troy Bilt-type tillers. The border edger works quite well and has a second use--- It works great for cutting slots in the ground for metal or plastic edging! The only negative comment for the Mantis is that the ergonomics of the handles are not optimal. I would recommend that Mantis work on this improvement by angling the hand grips back about 10-15 degrees, otherwise the tiller is outstanding and absolutely worth every penny of its price!

I read mixed reviews on Amazon. Nonetheless, I ordered the tiller. It is a solid product. I had purchased a two-cycle tiller several years ago from a big box store. It was TERRIBLY loud. I took it back. The Mantis is EXTREMELY quiet. A real pleasure to run in the yard. The Mantis came with simple assembly instructions and a video that made it pretty much fool proof. But the main thing is that it works very well. One of the positive reviewers commented that you have to learn to keep it from bouncing around. Actually, it is easier than all the fuss. I needed the tiller to go into a small bed on a slope. It worked very well. Given its light weight, it is easy to handle. It took almost no time to succeed. My only reason for not giving it five stars is the question of how long it will last. It looks solid, so I feel good about it. My advice, wear gloves and be prepared to remove the tines to clear tangles if you have vines and lots of roots. But removing the tines is simple. GOOD LUCK!

I get bugs, sometimes it's a remodel bug, sometimes it's an exercise but (most often not that one) and sometimes it's a garden bug. That's what I'm on now... so I'm tearing up major portions of the backyard to put in grow boxes for fall grown vegetables and to get ready for next spring. My father has one of these and I thought it would be easier to use this than tilling the old fashioned way... with a stick. Sure enough, it is.

I think some of the negative reviews for this product come from the fact that this is NOT a troybuilt 7 HP workhorse, and it's not a tractor mounted tiller either. Will it turn in sod and dig out big rocks and really stir up some dust? You bet... is it work to do all that? You bet.

This product would excel I think in raised beds where getting a heavy tiller in and out is a pain. Anything without big rocks and that has lots of vegetative matter in it. For turning ground for the first time... I wouldn't use this. I haven't broken any teeth yet but it's a lot of work with the thing trying to run off skipping across the hardpack.

I have raised gardening beds and needed a small, lightweight tiller to prepare my soil. I considered a Troybilt, but decided against it when Lowe's told me that they'd had 2 out of the 3 they sold, returned.

Because I'm nearly 65 and have arthritis, I was looking for something easy to use, but doubtful I could find anything. Wrong! ! ! The Mantis is awesome in every way. It does a fantastic job of tilling, tills 10 inches deep (most small tillers only do about 6-8 inches and that really isn't sufficient), it's not heavy, and it's soooooo easy to use. I'm a big fan!

Two years ago I sold- really, gave away- a 2-stroke tiller that made a lot of noise and smoke, but didn't move a lot of earth. Every year, when it came time to prepare my garden, I ended up renting a 5HP Honda tiller that was really too big for my use, but that was the smallest usable tiller I could rent.

Around that same time a friend who's a professional landscaper told me he'd just bought a Mantis gas tiller, and that he was very pleased with it. He and his crew are pretty hard on equipment, so I assumed anything that could hold up to his crew must be welkl made; most of his gear consists of heavy 3-gang mowers, 12HP tillers and the like. I thought about getting a Mantis, but the price still seemed a bit high, and I was slowly getting rid of noisy, smokey gas powered garden equipment and replacing it with manual and electric equipment.

A few weeks ago I was thinking about buying a Remington tiller on sale, but after looking at it in detail, decided to bite the bullet and order the Mantis from Amazon. It was twice the cost, but it looked to be more powerful, and the Mantis tines looked as if they'd cut a lot better than the simple bent tines on the Remington. That, the free shipping, and that fact that Amazon was running a great sale on yard equipment clinched the deal.

The Mantis arrived today, and it only took me twenty minutes toi assemble it. (Hint to buyers: Watch the video first- or at least read the manual through before you start to unpack it.) I took it out to the vegetable patch and following the instructions, set the speed to the lowest setting and pulled the trigger.

The tiller jumped in the air and felt like it wanted to take off. It also rapidly dug a hole in the packed earth, slicing through the foliage like it wasn't there. I tried the higher speeds, and found that this little tiller can churn through earth like a 5HP gas unit- and best of all, it does it with no noise or smoke.

I spent an hour out there preparing the ground, clearing some new patches, digging out weeds, and preparing some areas for new grass seed. Frankly, I can't say enough good about this little beast. It'll pay for itself through saved rental fees in six years, but more importantly, it'll be there in my garage whever I need it through the year. I expect to be using it for years to come.

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Update: Since writing my initial review, I've used my Mantis to till my girlfriend's vegetable garden and my own garden, which was overgrown with last year's plantings and herbs that had gotten out of control. I weed whacked the the existing plants, raked the surface, and then used the Mantis to dig out the roots. Another followup with the rake and I had a clean, tilled surface ready for planting.

Most impressively, I used it to dig up a thick patch of overgrown day lillies that proved almost impossible to dig out with a shovel. The Mantis just tore through the lily bed, tossing the bulbs to the surface. It encountered a dozen rocks in the 6-8" range buried in there as well, and tossed them to the surface, too. Amazing.

As for the reports from some reviewers of "bouncing": The Mantis won't bounce if you hold it firmly and let it dig its way into the ground. Once it's made a hole, pull it towards you and a moderate pace, and it'll make a beautiful tilled furrow. Rake it smooth and you're ready to plant.

I have had many tillers over the years...

from the 2-stroke IC powered original Mantis

to an 8Hp 4 stroke gasoline walk behind tiller

to a compact diesel tractor with 3pt hitch

mounted tiller... When I saw marketing presence

for the Mantis electric product several years ago about

the time I moved to my present domicile, I

made the decision that if I ever needed a light weight

tiller again that the electric Mantis is the tool I

would purchase... and so I did.

In my newly acquired Western New York (Monroe County) home,

I no longer do much gardening personally -- but I needed a

Mantis to break up small area of weeds where a garden

had at one time been in our 2003 acquired 1979 constructed

house. We wanted to prepare convert that area from weeds to

lawn.

The electric mantis, with my nice long heavy duty

extension cord, was more than enough to do the job!

I love the positive "on" / "off" action of an electric

switch as opposed to the sometimes frustrating problem of

making a much noisier internal combustion engine work!

Like all tillers, whatever the source of power, when

breaking up ground with root systems, the machine gets

clogged and the motor occasionally stops due its safety

breaker. The tines are easily removed with the hitch

pins in order to unwrap the viney roots and grass that

form such a clog...

A safety benefit is that with the electric tiller,

I have no need to worry about fuel spilling -- and have a

positive removal of power by unpugging it!

I have also changed to a 15" electric chain saw for

the same reason -- to avoid small IC engines -- when

I need to chop brush or small trees on occasion...

Carl Helmers

Both my husband and I were both skeptical as to how this tiller would work. First, it helps to have 2 people assemble the tiller. Second, the bolts could be a little longer for ease and safety. BUT, it works fabulous. The control factor is awesome. The power is enough to go through crabgrass. And it's so quiet, you could use it on Sunday mornings. The tines do get filled with grass, but it's a breeze to clear by removing a cotter pin. The carry handle is a nice touch, and it's perfectly balanced. Needless to say, We are totally impressed!

New garden tool for my wife. After 50 yrs working on gas powered small engines it is a delight to use a electric tiller. My wife and I have a small garden close to our patio so the cord is no problem. When my wife wants to till she can pick it up and go. Don't let the light weight fool you, this is one diggen tool. I was in the Lawn & Garden business for over 25 yrs. and have never found any tool for the garden as handy and useful. Good choice for us!

Don & Sue Cochran

I'm a newbie to gardening and electric tillers... All in all, for the short term, I found this machine living up to its promise. Will have to see how long it lasts and works as promised :-)

Assembly was easy, but the machine handles appear to be slightly skewed after assembly. Operating it like a vacuum cleaner sure prevents the tiller from hopping around. My back yard has a significant amount of stones/pebbles left over from a previous concrete pavement. So the tiller did stop often, when stones got stuck in the tines. But started right aways. Did appear to till to a depth of ~8". Raises a lot of fine dust but minimal noise levels. Operated it for ~3hrs first time, and the motor seems reasonably hot, nothing to worry about. To prevent the cord from getting in the way, its probably helpful to get the cord-kit (electrical extension cord). Would recommend safety glasses, dust mask, tight gloves, steel-toe shoes and strong denim/work pants, just to protect your eyes/lungs/palms/feet :-) You'll get blisters on your palm, if you operate without gloves.

One thing that was less than desirable, was the prompt customer service of both Amazon & UPS, the shipper... I took the whole day off and stayed home to receive it. Tho it did not geet delivered to me/front door, the package got marked "Delivered" at 5:00pm... No one could trace it for me, even after I called UPS by 5:30pm...

Two days later, while Amazon was still tracking the package, I just happened to go to the side yard, and there it was, about 20 feet from the side-gate, nowhere near the front-door. Moral of the story - when an item is shipped, always contact the shipping Co after shipment, and request that a signature be required. You cannot request Amazon for it.