I was like most people before purchasing my Mantis Tiller... skeptical. I was doubtful that it would perform like all their ads claim. Everyone I spoke with that had any experience with a tiller, said I was wasting my money. Well guess what.. they were ALL wrong!!
I purchased my Mantis Tiller primarily for sod removal- wanting to put in large mulch beds. I figured I'd give it a try and if (when) it doesn't work I'll send it back, get my money back and call it a day. I ordered my Mantis on-line, and received the unit within days. I assembled it(a breeze) and a couple of days later on a beautiful Saturday morning in the spring I started it up and started blasting away at my heavy clay soil. My wife stood there with disbelief at how incredible it performed. It shredded the soil and sod like butter. Now again, I live in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania and it's a very rocky, with heavy clay soil. This unit was lifting rocks the size of softballs and gently placing them aside. I was almost giddy at how incredible the unit was performing. So far I put in 3 mulch beds approx. 10 x 30 each one. I was able to do each bed in a day. That's removing all grass, relocating rocks (small to medium size), laying a landscape fabric, and mulching. My next door neighbor did one mulch bed by hand, the same size as mine, and it took him an entire weekend just to remove the sod. It took him the entire following weekend to remove rocks, lay fabric and mulch. Also, he said he was extremely tired and sore for several weekends beyond that. So basically I did 3 beds in the time it took him 1 and I was sore only for a couple of hours the next day.. I'll talk more about that later.
Just yesterday I used it for the first time to plant a tree. I was digging a 48"w x 21"d hole for an approx.20 ft.balled ash tree. It took me an hour to dig that hole with my Mantis. Also, I now have a pile of (almost) rock free, finely cultivated soil to add amendments to. That hole would of taken me an entire day of absolute back braking work to dig without the results that I got from my Mantis.
I bragged about my Mantis so much that my father and brother decided to put me to the test. I ended up doing 1 mulch bed for my Father (approx. 5' x 35') and a flower bed for my brother (10 x 10) within a morning's time. I remember driving home at lunch thinking they wouldn't of even been done with the sod at this point. They were like most, skeptics, but after they saw what the unit can do they were believers.
The only complaint I have mechanically so far is the tines will turn upon start up, rather than when engaging the clutch like it's designed. I've tried a couple of their suggestions, but nothing has changed it yet. What means is I have to be very careful when I start it because the tines will turn immediately, which of course isn't the safest thing. I believe the cable to the throttle is too tight, which I have to adjust- when I get a minute!
Some people on this suggestion board have indicated a problem with the location of the start-up pull chord, and the handles were cracking or showing signs of stress. Again, I have not found these problems with my unit at all, and I can honestly say I've used my unit in extremely rough terrain over a long period of time.
My only complaint or suggestion rather would be that I was a bit sore after using the unit for the first time, because it vibrates pretty good. However, the more I use it the less sore I become. I was making a mistake the first couple of times using it. I was leaning over too much and that vibration was causing my muscles in my back and upper arms to work harder than they needed to. I basically was not letting the unit do the work. That's a big mistake- let the unit do the work for you. Again, with some time and practice now I don't have that problem.
******** UPDATE **********
I wanted to give my 1 year review to see if I still believe what I wrote a year ago. The bottom line- yes I love my Mantis even more. Here's why; I started a small vegetable garden in my backyard, so I used my Mantis to break new ground (again), and cultivate my existing soil to get ready for spring sowing. I recently planted my vegetables, they are looking great by the way, and I use the Mantis for daily weeding maintenance.
I had mentioned in my original review that I had a problem with the throttle, I did fix it myself and now the unit works better than ever.
Also, I added an addition to my tiller. I recently purchased the dethatching attachment as I have a lot of "dead" grass and weeds on the surface of my soil that I wanted to pull up. Again, I was skeptical about how the attachment would pull the dead stuff up without ruining my "good" grass. I again, was amazed at how well the dethatcher worked. It was also very easy to assembly the attachment which made it nice. I plan on having my wife purchase me the aerator attachment for father's day! So in a nutshell after one year my Mantis tiller has become my absolute favorite toy in my shed! Happy gardening everyone!
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