Customer Reviews

Troy-Bilt TB154E 9-Inch 6.5-Amp Electric Garden Cultivator/Tiller

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this machine last year with the money from my government stimulus check. Technically, it is called a cultivator, not a tiller, so I didn't know what to expect out of it power-wise. I was intent on putting in a decent-sized garden, but the only place in my yard that was getting good sun was also the spot where my lawn grew the thickest. I mowed the lawn and then went to work on it with the cultivator. With the narrow width, it naturally took me a good bit of time to till up approximately 16' x 32' plot of thick lawn, but I took my time and this machine did it in a day. I gave it a second tilling at a cross angle. I did have some grass come back in the garden, but this year I don't expect any of it to still be there.

With the success I had on the garden spot, I went ahead and dug up huge stretches of my yard and built planters. These spots equaled the size of the garden spot. Then, in about three stages, I gradually tilled up my entire back yard (where grass would no longer grow due to shade) and planted it all in clover. This year I added more garden space by tilling up another chunk of lawn approximately 8' x 32'. I have tilled it twice, but will hit it one more time to make sure I've gotten all the grass killed this year. I've also-re-tilled last years garden area which I had over-wintered in clover.

One thing that had concerned me was the instructions to remove the tines after each use and clean them. This turned out to be an extremely easy task, as they are held in place with ring pins and slide right off the axle. The tines are extremely tough on this machine. I've jammed large rocks in them and also bounced it off the edge of my concrete driveway. It just keeps chugging away with a minimum of care. Troy-Bilt makes a more expensive gas model, but I looked at them in the store and the tines appear to be exactly the same. This model is quiet and you never have to mess with oil and gas. Get a heavy-duty extension cord (or two)--the heavier the gauge the better to get full power to the machine.

like other people I picked this up at Lowes for 200$ to help cleanup our yard, we have a decent size patch of our yard that that is plain old dirt. Nothing but good ole hard packed clay, were talking hard to break with a shovel type of clay. This seams to be a concern of people, how well it works on hard clay, well obviously you won't be breaking through in one go nor two possibly not three, but you will. Perhaps this is a fault of this cultivator because it's rather light but by breaking the surface with a shovel first helps immensely.

Once you get through the hard stuff, or if you don't have a hard layer of clay this little guy will dig and dig and dig all day long, literally. just yesterday I used this cultivator for 6-7 hours with breaks for raking. I've used it for hours straight with the tines completely buried in turn it slows down but still has enough power to break up the larger chunks. using this has pretty much transformed our yard from nasty hard packed clay to a much softer easier to work with dirt.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!! This Cultivator is not made by Troy Bilt, but rather MTD. 2 reasons:

1) Home depot sells the EXACT same machine, it's a yard machine by MTD, right down to the bolt patterns, plug, handles, and trigger mechanism.

2) It's also the EXACT same machine sears sells under the Craftsman brand, right down to the bolt patterns, plug, handles, and trigger mechanism, but not the wheels.

The salesman at Sears confirmed that their cultivator was made by MTD. While This might be a bad thing to some, it solved my only issue with this machine: the lack of attachments.

While Troy Bilt, nor MTD make attachments Craftsman does, and since this is the exact same machine they fit perfectly. Craftsman makes 2 attachments, a de-thatcher and an edger.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!! If you buy two or more edgers you can use just the tines and use as a lawn slit aerator!!! And both attachments work wonderful, so not only is this a cultivator but but it's also a de-thatcher, an edger and a slit aerator.

I am one happy camper, and so is my yard especially my lawn.

[...]

Slit Aerator: buy 2 or 4 edgers only install tines and no wheels.

I purchased the Troy-Bilt TB154 for several reasons, although Ryobi has a similarly priced tiller/cultivator with a motor that is about twice the size.

First, I was looking for a small electric tiller without all of the headaches of maintaining a gas-powered tiller. Second, the only real storage I have is in the garage (the smaller the better), and most importantly, Troy-Bilt is still manufactured in the United States (with some manufacturing done in Canada). I am a huge advocate for buying American made to keep jobs in this country.

I purchased the TB154 at a local Lowe's store for around $200. Seems a little overpriced for a small electric machine, but hopefully I am getting what I paid for. Anyway, after unpacking the tiller from the box and packaging, assembly was relatively simple. All that needs to be done is to attach the handle to the tiller using two bolts with large wing-nuts (no tools required). After that, you're all set.

This is a new garden so I did a lot of shoveling, to break up the dirt, and grass removal beforehand (not intending on using a tiller). Using the tiller to break up the dirt would have been much easier and I found out that the tiller does a pretty good job of this without all of the shoveling. The TB154 has plenty of power and speed. It did an excellent job with really loosening up the dirt and getting the depth that I need for gardening (about six inches or so).

I do not have a lot of hours on the tiller, but it has proven very reliable so far. Reliability is of huge importance for me so we will see after a few (8 to 10) hours of use. Smaller rocks are no problem. The tiller kicks them out of the dirt and to the top where they can be removed. There were several bigger rocks (4 to 5 inches) that I did not try this with because of not wanting to take the risk of breaking the tines, although it may have worked just fine. The tiller is very lightweight, but still digs very well, so it does not take a lot of "man handling" or intense arm and back workouts like some of the bigger gas-powered tillers. So far, overall I would rate this as a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Rating: 9 (on a scale of 1 to 10)

Pros:

* American made (possibly Canada) but not made overseas

* easy to assemble (no tools required)

* small and lightweight

* breaks up and loosens the dirt very well

* easy to remove tines for cleaning or replacement

* low maintenance

* plenty of power to get the job done

* adjustable depth

Cons:

* no variable speed (although I do not know if other electric tillers have this feature)

* seems a little pricey at $200

* store where I purchased did not have replacement tines

Unknown:

* overall reliability (excellent so far, but have only used for about two hours)

We bought this product to use for landscaping and was really amazed at the power and the way it worked the ground. Simply awesome machine !!

We had always had gas before but now just have an 1/2 acre and this is the right machine for us. Can't say enough about this machine as it really makes it easy. We had never had Troy-Bilt before and now has shown us it will get it done !!

Cost was reasonable at Lowes around $200.

Highly recommmend !

John& Joyce

Dothan, AL.

When he took it out of the box, my husband thought I'd bought a toy. It only took a few minutes in the garden to change his mind. I'm a retired lady with arthritis and a bad back who wanted to be able to till up her garden without assistance. Since I do not get along with small gas engines which have to be started by pulling on ropes, I purchased this machine after reading the reviews. Because it's electric, starting it is no problem. It is light weight and easy to control. After spending the better part of a day tilling, I was only slightly stiff and sore the next day. Because of its size, it does take longer to do the job than would a full-sized tiller. The trick is to move it slowly, allowing it to thoroughly till each spot until the soil is loose and lump free. Compared to the hand raking that one must do to level out the soil prior to planting, I found the tilling to be the easier physically of the two jobs.

The ground I tilled was a dedicated garden area which had not been used in 10 years. I'm not sure how well it would do on the hard soil we have here in Arizona if digging it for the first time, but I don't need to do that. I can also see where it will save my back from lots of bending to weed the garden when I use it to till between the rows.

Hubby really likes it, too, because I can use it without relying on him - he's in much worse shape physically than I am!

I bought one of these Troy Bilt 6.4 amp electric tillers and it works like a charm. My garden is about 40' by 20'. this tlller did a great job. It is light weight and ez to clean up. No mixing gas and pulling starter cords. I highly recommend it for a small garden or flower bed. hbuckwood@yahoo.com

I am very, very disappointed in this Troy-Bilt tiller. It absolutely will not till soil that is hard - I don't have clay, just heavy soil. It is hard to control, hard on the shoulders. If the soil is already worked up, this tiller will sink down into the soil as advertised. If my soil was already worked up, I wouldn't need a tiller. This is $100 less than a Mantis and I had faith in the Troy-Bilt brand. I felt this was a real waste of money and will sell it as soon as possible and buy a Mantis - which I had already tried out and loved.

I did a lot of research on electric cultivators. I'm a senior, a woman and I have arthritis and have a hell of a time starting up gas garden tools. I just can't do it. Still, I wanted a cultivator that I could use without having to wait for my husband to start it up for me. Thats no fun. So after reading many many reviews, I decided on this one. Found it on sale at Lowes for $189, but it simply wouldn't stay on. It would start up and the overload button would pop and the machine would stop. So I took it back. Because all they had remaining was the dud I was bringing back and a floor sample, I got the floor sample for 10% off the sale price. SUPER DEAL.

Let me tell you I put this little devil to work the next day and it performs like a trooper. Its so powerful it jumps up and down because it's lightweight, so you have to get behind it. or as someone else suggested, let it create a few starter clumps and work it downward and watch it go to town.

What I dug out: first of all around an old tree stump with rotted roots was no problem. got DOWN with that. This thing was throwing up BIG roots and it kept going. Then dry hard packed dirt with weed grass(I don't know the name of the grass, but it's a terrible weed that is thin, tough, dense and could choke up a machine). That little guy got right in there...yes the weeds were wrapped around the tynes but it still dug like mad. Stopped, cleaned off the tynes...easy job and continued.

Next I went to the backyard where we have a hardpacked dirt/weed/small rock situation. I tested it there for next year and sure enough, everything was flying around, the dirt loosening up, the rocks no problem. The only rock that stopped this thing was a serious BIG one. And all it did was get stuck in the tynes and come right out when it stopped. No bending of anything.

True, the only con I can see is it throws back a lot but I haven't seen a tiller than doesn't. This is messy work. But this little guy is up to all of it. I can't wait for next spring. I'm going to create a bunch of beds. CAN NOT WAIT. Great little machine!

I needed something for those times when weeds were trying to take over the garden and parts of the yard where there are shrubs. We do have clay soil and as such, it has been amended to help keep it loose.

Thought about buying a gas cultivator, but where I planed on using this tool, while not small, it is also not that large. Not wanting to bother with another gas engine, and after seeing the reviews on this Troy electric cultivator, thought it was worth a try.

Have used it several times now finding a choice was made in buying it. This tool has a "Can Do' type of attitude. Not sure it would if the clay had not been amended so can not answer that. But for working the soil over, doing a very good job to prepare it for planting and for weeding, this is a good tool to own. It will not replace the gas tiller for those big jobs, but it sure does a good job on those smaller ones! It does cut smaller roots with out any hesitation too.

I just got this as I have some seeds that should be sown after the first frost. Unfortunately I waited a bit too long--I think--as its supposed to be cold the rest of the week. I just got this late today and put it together; I will update as I get a chance to use it.

Update

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The good:

Easy to assemble, took about 3 minutes. Comes with two carriage bolts and two large plastic knobs for holding them where they attach the extended handle to the main.

Light, easy to get up and down stairs.

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Worked well on hard ground; but you really need to set the wheel height to get the best results

The bad:

The plastic clip that is supposed to hold the extension cord is too small for a recommended gage cord 50'or longer.

A soft plastic hood over the plug on the tiller makes it impossible to use some extension cords and unnecessarily difficult to use others.

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Can take a fair amount of effort to get it to dig into hard ground, needs to take small chunks at a time (about 1" or a bit more).

The ugly:

The wheels really need to be bigger for rough terrain and stairs.

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Its easier to just carry it over rough ground.

The box is too much of a good thing. Took me 10 minutes to get it out of the box.

While there is a hood over the plug (presumably for use in the rain) I would strongly recommend not doing that.

The manual doesn't say it but it really should be connected via a GFI.

Got to use it, the ground had thawed a bit but the underlying ground was still very hard. But it worked pretty well; excellent value for the money.