Sun Joe Dethatcher Joe AJ800E 14-Inch 11-Amp Electric Dethatcher with AirBoost Technology

This item works much better than we expected for an electric unit! We have a fairly large yard and over the years, there has been a large amount of thatch accumulation. This machine has done wonders for our lawn. If you follow the manufacture's instructions and start out using the machine set at "one" I don't see how anyone can have a problem. I think maybe (and this is just a guess) that the reason there are some low reviews is that people may be trying to do too much with the machine too fast. Here's how we work it: first of all, we cut our grass low and use the bagger on the mower to pick up the waste. Second, we take about 6-8 swipes across our yard (which is about 100' in length) with the Sun Joe Dethatcher. Although the Dethatcher's bag picks up a large majority of the thatched grass, there is still residual loose thatch that it has dug up so we run the lawnmower over the area again to pick up the excess thatch. My stepfather and I have a system going--he does the lawnmower and I do the dethatcher, which by the way, is very easy for this woman to use. I'm a small person and even I can pick this machine up over our curve which is another plus for us.I would also like to point out the excellent customer service of this company. Our machine arrived missing a part. Amazon suggested I call them before returning the machine to Amazon. The company took care of our needs in a very timely fashion and their customer service representative was very pleasant to deal with. Additionally, you may be interested in knowing that the company sells replacement parts for this dethatcher. We've already ordered replacement tines to have on hand when they are needed. For us, being able to purchase replacement parts is another big plus as the basic concept of being able to fix anything that might wear out actually lengthens the life of the machine as a whole...Overall I'm giving this machine five stars which is based on the combination of the quality of the machine, the company's customer service team and the availability of replacement parts. However, I would like to point out to perspective buyers that this is not an "industrial" machine. If you follow the manufacturer's instructions, starting with the machine set to "one", then do one portion of your yard at a time (instead of working the machine to death) I think you'll be pleased with what an excellent job it does and what a nice little machine the Sun Joe Dethatcher Joe AJ800E is.

This is a fantastic machine for anyone looking to make de thatching a regular part of their lawn care routine. I have found that yearly de thatching and overseeing give my lawn a renewed look every spring and helps keep the weeds away.I have tried multiple options for de thatching my lawn. The first time I rented a set hatcher from my local tool rental store. It worked okay, but th eproblem for me was borrowing a trailer and taking the time to pick up the machine and then return it.After that I tried a de thatching blade for my lawn mower. That only problem...I couldn't find a blade that would fit my mower.Option 3 was a manual de thatching rake. The plus is that it was cheap, but it wasn't practical to use on my 3000 square feet of lawn. But I was stubborn and did it anyway. 4 hours later, and 6 Advil a day for the next three days and my lawn was de thatched.This year I decided to purchase the Sun Joe Dethatcher. I am so glad that I did! It worked just as well as the commercial unit I had rented, and I didn't have to deal with a rental. And, now I have it for next year again.After reading some of the reviews about the unit overheating, I did two things to prevent this from happening. First, I made sure I had an extension cord that was rated correctly for the Dethatcher. Second, I Dethatched in sections. Like other reviewers had mentioned, I didn't use the bagger, so I was going to have to go back over the lawn with my mower to bag the thatch. I did about 500 square feet at a time, and then bagged with my regular mower. I figured it would give the Dethatcher a break, and I might as well pick up the thatch as I went.However, I decided to tat it out and do a larger area of my lawn at once to see if it would overheat. I did approximately 1500 square feet at once, and it didn't overheat. It continued to work well, getting out the dead grass, pine cones, and even small twigs that were embedded in the ground.There were a few areas that I went back over a second time since I was overseeing and wanted more of the bare ground exposed. If you're over seeding, I would recommend going over your lawn twice (I had to do that with the rented machine too) to expose the soil.Overall, I would definitely recommend this machine for anyone looking to efficiently de thatch your lawn.

It was time to dethatch my lawn, but I had never done it before, so I looked at my options. The following options came up1. Dethatching rake (Looked like a lot of work, so decided to not go for it)2. Dethatching attachment to your lawn mower (I read that this puts a lot of stress on your mower, so scratched this off the list)3. Dethatcher that can be attached to your garden tractor (not applicable to me as my lawn isn't big and the fact that I don't own one)4. Liquid dethatcher (I read that it doesn't work very well, so took this off the list)5. Electric dethatcher (like the model I am reviewing)6. Rent a gas dethatcherSo it left me deciding between renting a dethatcher vs. buying the SunJoe. I like owning stuff and for the price I got it for (CAD152), I thought that I would recover the cost in a couple of years, so I went ahead and purchased it.Putting it together:It is very light, yet sturdy and very easy to put together (10-15 min at the most). The part that took me the longest was putting together the thatch collection bag. Not only is it difficult to put this bag together in the beginning, it is very difficult to attach it to the dethatcher. This was my biggest issue with the machine, especially since you had to empty the bag several times during the dethatching process.Operation:Starts up right away (obviously since it is electric) and is not too noisy. I set it at the highest setting (4 which is -3mm, so the spikes go under the soil). Since I read some reviewers saying how it heats up very quickly, I wanted to test it at the highest setting where it would have to work hard. It moved forward smoothly and started collecting thatch in the bag, until there was enough thatch that would get stuck on the tiny rear wheels. The machine did not heat up as fast I expected it to (or like some of the reviewers mentioned). Having said that, I never ran it for more than 4-5 min at a time as by that time I had to stop the machine, open the top of the collection bag and push the thatch to the back of the bag. The reason you have to do this is because the thatch doesn't go all the way to the back of the bag and if it gets heavy in the front, it detaches from the machine. Because I was stopping every 5 min, I never had the issue of overheating. I did my entire lawn (smallish at 40X30 ft or 1200sqft) without the overheating problem some reviewers mentioned. However, I had the empty the bag at least 6-8 times for this size of lawn. It collects a lot of thatch. Be prepared to fill up at least 2 regular garbage bins (121L), and have at least three large bags for my lawn's size. However, it was a real pain to reattach the collection bag each time I took it out to empty it. I also used the highest setting as I really wanted to clear up the thatch as my lawn was not getting good drainage of water. I am also planning to overseed my lawn so I didn't mind areas where it might have removed more than just thatch. Having said that there was very little growing / green grass in the collection bag, so it seems to do a pretty good job of removing just thatch. It still leaves behind some thatch as not all of it gets into the collection bag, so I did go over with a normal rake to remove any remaining thatch. Overall, it did a great job apart from the collection bag issue and the tiny rear wheels, which is a very poor design (See picture that illustrates how thatch gets caught in the rear wheel. The tiny rear wheel also makes it a lot less balanced, so not sure why they ended up putting such small wheels in the rear.Make sure you have the setting on 0 when transporting it, and as long as you don't run the machine continuously for 10-15 min I can't see it overheating like mentioned. It is really not possible to run it for 10 minutes without first emptying the collection bag anyway.To summarize, I wasn't quite sure initially how well the electric dethatcher would work, but this one works well. I would have normally given this three stars, mainly because of the issues with the collection bag attachment issues and the tiny rear wheels, but at under CAD200 there is no other option that would do a good dethatching job without breaking your back.Pros:1. Light weight, yet sturdy (I was not gentle with it and it survived fine)2. Electric, so no need to worry about Gas or fumes3. four height levels to help with how much you want to dethatch and it dethatches very well4. Easy to put together except collection bag5. Price, especially if it goes on saleCons:1. tiny rear wheels that end up collecting thatch and stops rotating (see picture)2. collection bag attachment to the machine is terrible, especially when you have to remove it several times during dethatching

Well, I read the reviews.. and thought that as long as I bought the 12 gauge extension cord, this would work for me. Did our front yard, seemed to work well.' though our front lawn isn't large. Next day started on the back yard which is around 3 times the size. I got through 1/3 of the lawn and it quit. I figured it overheated like others said,.' so I waited an hour and it still wouldn't start, .' . Waited another hour.' again it didn't start up. Tried the next weekend to see if maybe it needed longer to cool, and it still doesn't start.UpdateSince I bought the unit in March but only used it in May ...I could no longer return it to Amazon ... but I called the company and they will send me a replacement unit. They were friendly and quite willing to help. I'll update this if the new unit is better.Update:SunJoe was good, and quickly sent me a replacement unit which works ... but only tested it on small area of lawn. What is interesting is that after 6 weeks in, the 1/3 area that was dethatched in back is growing thicker than the 2/3 area of back lawn that I wasn't able to finish because the unit quit. So, if this new unit keeps working, it really does help.

Like most of you, I was concerned about the ratings of this unit, but I bought it anyways. There are lots of comments about the bag filling up fast. Well guess what this machine rips up so much dead grass, it does it fast so yes it fills up fast. I kept a yard waste bag handy and just kept dumping it out. In doing so the unit never had time to heat up and shut down. I also used my lawn mover after with its own bag to pick up the rest. As for comments that the bag is hard to fit on the machine, well if you never owned a lawn mover that had this feature I could see why people said this, or if you simply have zero mechanical skills in your body, well than your at fault and not the machine. Now don't kid yourself folks this electric unit is very powerful. I tried all the settings and on my lawn I found setting zero to be the best. On certain parts of my lawn where there is lots of moss or the grass is dead I put this to different positions. The only reason I didn't give this a five star rating is I haven't seen the result in a week after detaching my lawn. Right now my wife said I "killed" the grass and neighbors are scratching their heads. I on the other hand feel that after a week of watering that the lawn will bounce back! After dethaching a fairly small area I have five yard bags full of waste! *Note it is easier on the machine if you curt your grass first before using this new toy!

My lawn was a disaster. More moss and thatch than grass. Tried overseeding a few years ago and it didn't work because seed couldn't reach the soil. Miserable work to dethatch by hand. Have used spring tine dethatching blade on mower with poor results. Can't compare this unit to professional gas powered machines as I have not tried one.Assembly was simple but not foolproof. You do need to read the instructions. Seems reasonably well built, but mostly plastic. Height adjustment is straightforward. Electric motor is plenty powerful. No issues with overheating, but I didn't run it for long stretches continuously. Haven't even noticed it slow down as it chews through heavy moss. The collection bag is basically useless; it does fill nicely, but within minutes, and it's a bit of a nuisance to remove and replace each time. If your lawn is in better shape than mine it might not have as much to collect, so you could probably go further between emptyings. I just used it without the bag and hand raked the junk it tore up. Still a vast improvement over trying to do the whole process by hand. Wish you could purchase replacement tines instead of the whole drum... Seems like a bit of a money grab.

Came on time, and was a great value. Two concerns: firstly, the unit has a "catcher" that fills incredibly quickly and secondly the frame of the catcher required a little "love" with a mallet to narrow it down a bit.Once the catcher was removed it tore up the dead moss and thatch very well. Easier to rake or use the lawn mower to vacuum the lawn than empty the catcher every 3 or 4 metres.The frame on the thatcher was just a tad too wide, once "adjusted" it worked fine when used on the second pass.Good well built product from my experience. Used the first (highest) setting.