Mantis Tiller

Pros: A MUST HAVE FOR GARDENERS
Cons: NONE REALLY

I purchased this product for my husband's birthday. I have to say that it is the "BEST" piece of garden equipment we have. It's size may be small but the power it "TREMENDOUS". It works great in between the rows of your garden or...

Pros: My tiller is 3 years old. It worked well in small spaces.
Cons: The engine broke off from the plate it is (was) bolted to.

My 3 year old tiller worked well in small spaces. It was a lot of work to do the initial vegetable garden tilling (12x12 feet). The motor gets a lot of dirt due to the engine being so close to the tines. I still enjoyed it, though, and it weeded my...

Pros: Lightweight, small
Cons: Does not run smoothly, Cheaply built

Today I am going to tell you about the small portable Mantis Tiller. I bought a Mantis Tiller last spring to use for my small gardening needs

and flowers beds where I could not access with a larger 18 or 20 inch tiller. I have had problems...

Pros: Lightweight, tines, warranty & guarantee
Cons: Somewhat bouncy

Received my Tiller in June 2000 and have put it to the test ever since.. I have to say that I am pleased with it. I have broken in new ground with minimum problem. It's a tad bouncy but nevertheless controllable. The tines just chews through the ground...

Pros: light, various attachments available
Cons: weak handle, weak transmission

This is a revision of my previous review:

We like the Mantis tiller. It does well as advertised, and its edger attachment is very functional. However, we just broke the lower part of the handle at the elbow portion after having it for three...

Pros: Light weight, easy to handle.
Cons: Requires constant expensive repair.

I have had my Mantis for 3 years. Only the first year was it cost efficient. I have spent as much money in repairs as the little tiller cost. Now one tine is stuck and cannot be removed. I would not recommend this tiller unless you are willing to keep...

Pros: Size,versatility, and handle ability
Cons: None

Browsing through a garden catalog I found a mail in card for the Mantis Tiller. Having just moved into a new house with no landscaping I was in the market for a tiller. Advertisement stated that I had a year to try it out. I tried it out and had no...

Pros: Light, easy to start and use. Cleans in a few minutes.
Cons: Needs a bit of space to store. Neighbours want to borrow it. :-)

Let me start by saying my garden hasn't seen a spade in five years or more. The top soil is about 3 inches deep, then you get clay and then chalk. Add to that an unhealthy garnish of flint. When we moved in a couple of years ago I asked the bloke ...

Pros: Quiet, tills deep, fluffs soil
Cons: hard to remove weeds from tine base

I have a 40x60 garden plot and have walkways between the rows. Every few years I would remove supports, weed barriers and garden decorations and hire someone to till the area. I would then "re-build" the garden structure.
No longer will I have to do that since the Mantis electric tiller is so well behaved. I remember running a large tiller for my parents -- it was big and heavy and hard to move around. This tiller is light and can get just where you want it -- but it tills like the big boys. I stuck a ruler in the tilled soil and it was 10" deep of fluffed soil. Yes, fluffy soil, no large pieces at all which is amazing since I live in a clay area. The tiller is quiet in all speeds so one can till at any time. The cord was not a problem since I worked small areas at a time so just a little attention was needed.
The tiller was a great help at the end of the growing season end because I could easily till in soil amendments. I look forward to getting the garden ready for spring planting!

Pros: Does a good job tilling when it's running.
Cons: Doesn't run.

At the urging of my wife, we purchased a Mantis tiller from Veseys for our flower garden. I was able to start it with no problem but my wife was only able to start it once with considerable effort. It worked fine when it was running and did a fine job on the weeds in the garden and tilled down to about 10 inches. After storing it over the winter, it refused to start and cost me $50 to get it tuned up. However, my wife still couldn't start it. After working for two weeks, it would start but died whenever I attempted to rev it up.

Customer service requested that I have the engine shipped via UPS to Mantis for evaluation. You would think that Mantis would know that UPS refuses to ship used engines.

The Mantis now sits in the basement as a rather expensive piece of junk.

Pros: Great little machine. Good warranty on tines.
Cons: None

I have had a MANTIS TILLER for over 20 years and it is still going strong. Easy to use. Mantis replaced my tines for free after 18 years of use. I am buying another one only for the easy start feature. I would recommend it highly.

Pros: Powerful, sturdy, excellent engine, sharp tines
Cons: NONE

This is one powerful little tiller. Even though it is lightweight, it will dig like crazy. I had my Mantis tiller stolen and intend to buy another one. My tiller would get into tight places where I couldn't take my bigger Snapper tiller AND it would dig deeper as well. It comes in handy for working in flower gardens where you need to till just in one spot. Works great for digging a hole for one medium size plant. Also works great for cultivating around established plants in the flower and vegetable garden. I never had a problem with anything on this tiller....no belt's to change, no electric cord to get caught in the tines.

Pros: Light weight makes it easy to use.
Cons: Poor breaking up sod or hard soil. Hard starter. Requires constant tine clearing.

I bought one of these little tillers years ago. It took the joy out of my gardening due to its poor ability to do what is was supposed to do after I spent so much money on it. It is still sitting in my basement, unused for years.

First, the only model available then was the gas model, and it was VERY hard to start. Second, it constantly clogged up whenever it was used to break up any soil that contained vegetation. It had to be stopped every couple of minutes to pull the clogging weeds out of the tines. Of course, each time provided an opportunity to lose a cotter pin, so you better have a good supply on hand. Third, because of its light weight, it had trouble penetrating hard, dry soil.

The TV commercials like to show the Mantis churning up soil easily. Notice that the soil being worked is loose and really does not need any tilling. So, if you need a tiller that just mixes already loose soil, then buy a Mantis.

Pros: Power, light weight, zero maintenance, built quality far better than other electric tillers.
Cons: Can overheat after a couple hours of continuous use.

The Mantis electric tiller replaced a Craftsman 2-cycle mini tiller that died last fall. The Mantis is about the same weight but much quieter, and the tines are sharper and cut clods far more effectively. Dragging a power cord about isn't as much of a nuisance as I thought it might be. $240 on ebay for the tiller with edger attachment -- heck of a deal.

Pros: An unusual paperweight.
Cons: Extremely difficult to start; dies when I let off gas; not worth effort.

This thing is extremely difficult to start, and has been so since I bought the thing about three years ago. I have performed the needed maintenance, but neither I nor my son (who weighs 290 and can bench press over 500 pounds) can get more than a cough out of the thing. I borrowed my neighbors Craftsman mini-tiller, and it started on the second pull. He told me that he had not used it in a couple of years. Save your money and effort and buy a Craftsman. (No, I neither work for Sears nor do I have stock in the company.)