Sun Joe TJ604E 16-Inch 13.5 AMP Electric Garden Tiller/Cultivator

Finally had a chance to use it early this spring in preparing a section of front yard to be seeded with new grass. Did a great job of turning the soil down to about 4 inches, could have gone deeper easily, and turned long afternoon of shovels and rakes into a 20-minute walkabout. Despite the large amount of torque it puts out it isn't hard to control, and it didn't get clogged up. Can't say about its deepest setting. So far, it's been reliable and easy to maneuver even for an 80 year old like me<G> I'll certainly get more out of it over the summer as I work in some new areas among our many trees.

Opening the package everything was jumbled around. I noticed that there was a supplied 500w 120v to 230v transformer in the box. This is not suitable as by my calculations this rotates it requires at least over 1600watts. A small inverter would not be powerful enough to run the rotavator. It's also a point of failure. I don't see it lasting very long. If you're from the UK / euro I would avoid buying this. We've started the return process. We're very disappointed as it was a long wait for delivery.

I ordered this after reading most of the reviews on it. I bought a few Sunjoe products and I've been happy with the quality and performance of all of them so far. I like that all the packaging inside is cardboard, and easy to recycle. I plugged it in taking care to use a good heavy extension cord as it recommends, of course. This machine is a beast! It chewed through some hard ground with medium sized rocks in it that hadn't ever been tilled and was nearly impossible to put a shovel into. I had a 10x20 ft plot fully tilled to a beautiful powder consistency within about 15 minutes and right to its maximum depth about 8 in"! It hit a few tree roots, the smaller ones of which it just broke up no problem, a few of the larger ones I had to stop and unwind them from the tines but that's to be expected. The handles and height are very comfortable and make it easy to control the tiller moving forward and backward. The weight of the unit compared to some other small tillers I think really helps it dig into the ground. My ground included quite a few clay sand and small rock clumps that were hard to break up with a shovel. This guy just ate them like it was no problem at all. Impressive. I 100% recommend this unit for anyone that's got a small garden area to till and wants a machine that puts maximum effort in. You won't be disappointed!

Used this little monster to break up an 11' diameter circle of very healthy lawn as the Vice-President of Life ordered a flower bed to be emplaced. This little tool (and it's so small, it's bordering "cute") worked like a hot damn - but there are limitations. The advantage of this being a very small, very light tiller is a disadvantage when breaking well-grown grass and/or areas with thicker roots. When doing the breaking, it bounces all over the place and really isn't all that effective if you let it move it's natural forward direction. What I found however, is that if you hold it in spot for a bit to do some digging/initial breaking, then PULL BACKWARDS AGAINST THE ROTATION, it will cut up against the sod and it works pretty well. It's still pretty light though and any substantial roots will have it bouncing. Just ease it off and come at it again. If the root is getting to the 1/2" size, stop and take it out with an axe or spade instead. With it bouncing around like that, it's hard to keep the trigger all the way depressed - but that's a safety feature I wouldn't remove, just would have preferred a palm switch over a trigger finger one to make it easier. After "backing up" over the whole area (and yes, there's a heck of a bicep workout there) and the core sod broken (and raked clear), I set it a incrementally deeper and let it go forward - holding back in areas that needed more attention. The unit is so light that it'll happily "walk over" areas of strong resistance (and more roots.) When encountering those, I just pulled back over top of them (just like "vacuuming the bed") and the reverse-cutting motion did the job. If I had a full-size, gas-powered rototiller, the job would have been quicker and with less arm work. Having said that, I don't want or need that kind of beast and now that this areas is broken up, I can use it at leisure next spring. The thing is zero-maintenance and so light it's quite easy to store. Just needs a little manual effort to convince it (really hold it back) in the tough areas. I haven't looked at seeing if I can selectively take tines out for ultra-thin tilling - maybe next year. It's only 16" as it is though, so likely not necessary. Having to manage the electrical cord was a bit of a minor pain - but still far less than gas, oil, and seasonal maintenance. Definitely a recommended buy for smaller gardens, flower beds and places where you just can't justify getting the heavy duty equipment.

Easy to put together and very easy to operate. Worked great going through grass to the soil. Great product and a great price.