LawnMaster GVB1316 Electric 16” 13 Amp Dethatcher and Scarifier with 12 Gallon Collection Bag

This is a middle range consumer level product. Bad reviews either expected too much or were written by people who didn't read the manual. There is a lot of useful info included in the manual including the proper use of the machine and proper preparation before using it. You should definitely take the time to read it if you go for this Dethatcher/Scarifier. It should be suitable for most suburban lawns. Mine is 7500 SF and I did everything at least twice so 20,000SF wouldn't be a problem. I'll give my thorough review and add in some advice based on the mistakes I made. If you're like me then you haven't dethatched in a long while and you've noticed irrigating and fertilizing aren't giving the same results you expect. Thatch is a fibrous layer of plant material that builds over itself year after year. How much thatch you have depends on your soil biology and species of grass. Thatch should be broken down by microbes, worms, etc but excessive pesticide use or certain soils don't give an environment for them to thrive in so more thatch is put down each year than the biology can remove. Also certain species of grass produce significant thatch while others produce next to none. Thatch is not the dead or burnt out grass you can rake up. If you trowel out a square about 4" deep and look at it from the side, thatch will be a dark brown layer sitting right on top of the soil. It might be anywhere from nothing to 1" thick. Power raking is using a machine to rake for you. Power raking picks up a lot of dead leaves of grass and other debris to give more light and air to the soil. Dethatching is ripping up that top fibrous layer to expose the soil. This machine does both but cannot match the power of a gas powered dethatcher you might rent. For power raking purposes it's very well suited. For dethatching it will get it done with a little extra effort.This product should more be thought of as something you use to maintain your yard. It is designed around yearly or bi-yearly dethatching/power raking and not really designed to take the toughest of jobs with ease.That said, it can definitely be used to get a tough job done as it did for me. It will require more effort than you may be thinking it should however. The bag is small as many reviewers said, but after I got through the thickest thatch and was on my last pass the bag was actually perfectly sized. It is small enough so you don't overload it weight wise and easily detaches for emptying straight into a can or bag. For maintenance purposes I have no doubt the bag will be extremely useful. A few things you need to do/know first.1) Cut your lawn short to around 1-1/2" if you can do it. People complaining their healthy grass got ripped out didn't read the manual. It will scalp your lawn if the grass is too long. I'm on a hill and have uneven ground so I was probably around 2" and it ripped some up. I think even at shorter lengths you should expect some thinning but if you plan to overseed or have a spreading type species you want it thinned. 2) Understand that the height settings are not so you can dig deeper but so you can adjust the machine based on how much wear your tines or knives have. Get on the ground and look at where the tines extend down to. If they go digging into the dirt you will rip stuff out and wear them down way too fast. The dethatcher attachment works great on the highest setting right out of the box (transport mode) if you have a lot of material to clear out. The scarifier attachment should be set so the dig through the thatch layer and 1/8" into the soil to help open it up and aerate. Going deeper with either attachment will work but it will cause more damage to your existing lawn if that matters for your project.3) My first impression after opening the box was that it was going to be a cheap piece of garbage based on the feel. The plastic felt flimsy and it didn't seem to weigh enough. Gas engines are heavy, need heavy frames and wheels but this is very light. It's rugged enough and doesn't need to support a combustion engine. I'm glad I didn't return it based on first impressions.4) You need a quality extension cord. I used a 50' 14 AWG cord on a 15 amp circuit and I think I got as much power out of it as possible. They recommend a 12 AWG cord in the manual for cords 50' and up but the cord holder on the handle is too small for a 12 AWG which seems like a design flaw. I have a shorter 12 AWG cord I tried and I did not notice a difference in performance between that (25') and my 14 AWG (50'). The longer your cord the more voltage drop you have and that can drop performance but I think my 14 AWG was fine.5) The air intake vents to cool the motor are in a really poor spot right next to the height adjustment lever right over the wheels. The holes will get blocked up from material that you have to clear out often. As an electric motor it will burn out if it gets too hot. It was about 80 degrees out and I let it cool down every 30 minutes to be safe. You spend more time raking up anyway.6) The height settings are counterintuitive (to me anyway.) #1 is the tallest height while #3 is the shortest. 7) The cord will get in your way, but once you get the hang of it, it's not a big deal. Just make sure you start closest to the outlet and work your way out. The cord should always lay over the area you already worked so you don't run the risk of running it over.8) If you have sprinkler heads, tree roots, etc, mark them with flags or something else so you don't run over them.9) You have to keep moving. Slowing down or stopping with the machine running strips it bare.I started with the dethatching tines and the bag on but it filled too quickly. I took the bag off and stuck a piece of wood under the rear hatch which made it a little easier for the thatch to go out the back. I did the first pass on the transport height setting and it raked out many barrels of old material. I raked this up and then went again with it set a little lower and it still pulled out a lot. I raked that and then realized that the tines were not doing a great job of taking out my thatch layer. I switched out the dethatcher for the scarifier - super easy to do. The scarifier will kick back rocks so I took out the wood piece. It worked great on the thatch. It cut right through it to the soil in one shot. I played with the height to get it where I wanted it. The scarifier will chop up any little bumps or unevenness which is good but it destroys more of your lawn while doing that. At this stage I felt like I might've been ruining the lawn because it was looking pretty bare and weak. I overseeded so it was important to me that I actually expose the soil completely since you need soil contact to properly germinate. 3 weeks later and I can see good strong growth from my existing and the new stuff is coming in. Next spring I believe it will fill in and do great now that water and nutrients will actually hit the soil. I neglected the lawn for a while so it will take time to bounce back. But all I have to do is maintain it next year which should be easy.You can see how much wear I put on the tines and the scarifier. I did not call the company to find out how much replacements cost but I think I can get another couple seasons out of these and decide if I want to replace them then.This unit can definitely handle what you throw at it. I treated it gently in the beginning but not so much towards the end and it held up. It's tougher than it looks. A screw came out where the handles attach directly to the motor housing and I lost it somewhere. I just used a spare screw I had instead and it was fine.All in all, I would recommend this machine if you only need maintenance or if you can spare the extra days it will take to do the tougher jobs. The only drawbacks are that it could be a little more powerful and the tines and blades got more wear than I expected. For a middle range product it is good enough and for the price I got it ($95) it's a deal.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ **Excelente rendimiento, pero la bolsa de almacenamiento es un inconveniente**Compré el escarifier y realmente hace un trabajo excepcional. Desde que lo tengo, he notado una gran mejora en la eficiencia de mis tareas. Su rendimiento es impresionante y cumple con lo que promete.Sin embargo, hay un pequeño inconveniente: la bolsa de almacenamiento es muy pequeña y se llena rápidamente. Esto significa que tengo que estar vaciándola con frecuencia para poder seguir trabajando, lo que puede ser un poco molesto.A pesar de este detalle, estoy muy contento con la compra y lo recomendaría a quienes buscan una herramienta efectiva. Solo ten en cuenta que podrías necesitar hacer pausas para vaciar la bolsa mientras trabajas.

So far after 3 days, OK. It's electric and relatively cheap. It's not a beast that'll eat through anything, no. It is decent though. I've only used the power rake tines, not the "scary-fier". I've got a lawn that is thick and wiry in some places and thin in other places. This Lawn Waster handles it all ok. I don't force it or push it beyond what I think it can handle and it's ok. The only thing that is not good about this machine is the air cleaning/filtering system. It was clearly an afterthought only.Small vents on the front of the unit just above the tines and the left wheel. The vents clog up with dead grass within 5 minutes of use. That would not be a big deal except for the fact that you can't access the foam filter without removing 8 screws and the entire top housing. I cobbed up a scoop/guard with plastic from a maxwell house coffee container and 5 screws. This blocks most of the dead grass from being sucked into the vents and the inside filter. Not perfect but it was just a 15 minute cob job. Other than that it's OK. Better than $75 rental of a gas powered (but more powerful) machine from home depot and having only 3.5 hours to finish the whole lawn. With this I can take my time.Oh, and don't forget to buy or have a lot of extension cordage. Kind of a pain, but it's a trade-off.

I rarely comment on purchases but I am very happy with this one. It performs well for the money. In some ways better than a large commercial thatcher. Here are my notes.It's motor is plenty strong if you are patient. I bought it to thatch some super thick healthy grass and some areas that were patchy and dead from heat and grubs. I used the wire tines, not the metal blades. If you go slow and are patient it does both well. It also really worked well in mossy areas tearing it up and exposing the soil below. Run it as you would a rug shampoo machine. Be slow and patient. Can go back and forward over problem areas as it is nice and light. Just keep the blade spinning and don't push it so fast or hard it bogs down. It has a good depth adjustment for that.I didn't expect it but I did around 8,000 SF of lawn in about 90 minutes. Its pretty wide. And if you are patient it worksbetter in the end than a big gas tine thatcher. Think of pacing it like a slow walk with your lawnmower to get a clean cut.It is just 128$ so yes it feels cheap when you assemble but it is light and easy to move and manage. Perfect for a machine I'll use once a year. BTW the bag does work but is not strictly needed.Finally, after I was done thatching, I ran my mower with the blade low and vacuumed up all the debris. And, if your grass is long, mow it short before using this machine