Your ornamental garden is a green oasis and a place of recreation. Your kitchen garden is a reliable supplier of environmentally friendly grown fruits and vegetables. Whether you have an ornamental garden or a kitchen garden, or whether ornamental and kitchen plants thrive side by side on your property, garden maintenance remains a tough job.
To make gardening easier for you, there are several mechanical and motorized tools such as spades and cultivators, scarifiers and lawn mowers, hedge trimmers and garden tillers. The garden tiller or power hoe relieves you of a particularly strenuous activity by digging up and loosening the soil.
In this guide we deal in detail with garden tillers.
Key considerations about tillers
A garden tiller also called a rotary tiller or power hoe is a motorized garden tool for digging up the soil. With the help of a garden tiller, you loosen the soil, work peat and wood chips into the soil, and weed the weeds. A power hoe replaces a spade, a cultivator, and, to some extent, a rake for the gardener. Optional accessories can turn the tiller into a plow, snow shovel, or trencher, depending on the model. You can get the tiller both in a professional version and in a more compact form for hobby gardeners.
The trade offers you garden tillers under different names. Most often you can find these garden tools in stores under the name motor hoe. Other names are soil and field tiller and cultivator.
What is the structure of a garden tiller and how it works?
With the exception of some special models, the design of tillers is always the same. The heart of a garden tiller is an engine, which is either an internal combustion engine or an electric motor, depending on the model. The engine sets in motion a maintenance-free chopping shaft in an oil bath, on which the chopping stars are located. The chipper stars, which rotate in a vertical direction, are the actual tools of a rotary hoe. The number of L-shaped knives on a chipping star is four for most commercially available power tillers, while the number of chipping stars ranges from two to eight.
The number of chopping stars determines the working width of the tiller. Quite a few models allow the working width to be adjusted by removing the chopping stars in pairs. This procedure is usually performed without tools.
The wheels are used to transport the tiller to the place of use. You can fold them up during operation, but you do not have to. If the wheels remain folded down, they assist you in guiding the power tiller.
The engine is located in a housing made of sturdy plastic or stainless steel plate. Above the chipping stars, manufacturers attach a semicircular cover, the guard plate, which protects you from stone chips and from the chipped material thrown around. The guide bar with a cable pull, starter and handles can usually be folded for space-saving storage without the use of tools. Some garden tillers give you the option of adjusting the height of the guide rails to suit your height. For the handles, you have a choice between a continuous bar and two separate biker grips.
In addition to the guard, a modern garden tiller has as important safety features, on the one hand, the engine brake and, on the other hand, the two-hand switch on electric power tillers and a safety switch on petrol garden tillers. A motor brake makes the hoeing blades stop safely within 2 seconds after the motor is turned off. The safety switches prevent the unintentional start of the garden tool.
Gas Tiller Cultivator - The Best Choice
Mantis Gas Powered Cultivator
4,9 Rating
Features:
- Powerful Honda 4-cycle.
- Tine speed up to 240 rpm.
- The entire unit weighs only 24-pounds.
It’s one of the lightest small tillers you can buy. Featuring a premium 4-cycle engine powered by Honda, this lightweight powerhouse is tough enough to till through sod and compacted dirt, but is easy to carry, easy to start, and easy to use.
Mantis 4-Cycle Tiller – Video
How to choose a gas tiller cultivator?
Buyer’s guide for the gas tiller cultivator
This review and guide provide information on the best gas tiller cultivator you can find.
There are quite a few manufacturers of a gas tiller cultivator on the market, and the prices vary greatly. From a pure price point of view, the type of gas tiller cultivator can be priced from $200 to $400.
The best gas tiller cultivator for the money
Related posts about hand tools and repairs:
All our reviews are based exclusively on expert judgments or practical experience with most of the gas tiller cultivator we have tested. We strive to make our guide as independent and as detailed as possible.
Gas tiller cultivators in comparison
SuperHandy Mini Tiller Cultivator
Advanced design
Is the perfect machine that will empower you to have ultimate control of tilling over your land. Great for Garden & Lawn applications in Digging, Soil Cultivation, Aeration, Creating Loose Seedbeds & Dirt/Weed Removal. This Tiller has sustained rigorous testing & is EPA Certified.
Earthquake Mini Tiller Cultivator
- 43cc Single-Cylinder 2-Stroke Engine.
- Height adjustable wheels.
- Allows for both forward and backward operation making.
4,9 Rating
Versatile: weeding, mixing and aerating
Tackle tough tasks easily with the powerful 43cc engine. The durable 7-inch storable wheels allow easy maneuvering while you cultivate up to 6 inches deep in any type of soil. Performance, comfort, and durability are yours with Champion’s Gas Tiller Cultivator. Tackle tough tasks easily with the powerful 43cc engine. The durable 7-inch storable wheels allow easy maneuvering while you cultivate up to 6 inches deep in any type of soil.
TAZZ Garden Cultivator
- Powerful 33cc 2-cycle engine.
- For work through all types of pre-tilled earth.
- A lightweight design.
4,8 Rating
Weed it, mix it, aerate it, mulch it
The Tazz Cultivator can weed, mix in fertilizer, and mulch or aerate the soil. It is designed to work through all types of pre-tilled earth. Its small size and lightweight not only make it easy to transport, but it also is very maneuverable around delicate plants. Our US-based support staff and 3-Year Limited Warranty ensure that you will be highly satisfied with your Tazz Cultivator, so you can confidently get out and enjoy your garden.
Types of tiller cultivators
The first way to divide the garden tillers into several groups is the size of the area to be worked on. With a smaller tiller, you will manage to successfully work a kitchen garden of several hundred square meters, but you have to expect a lot of time and effort. A more powerful tiller will be able to handle a 50-square-meter bed in a matter of minutes, but the question remains whether the high initial cost will be worth it.
For areas up to 100 square meters, tillers with a motor power of fewer than 1,000 watts and a working width of up to 300 millimeters are the right choice. For areas between 100 and 300 square meters, garden tillers with a power of 1,500 watts and a working width of up to 500 millimeters are well suited. For larger gardens, power tillers with a power of 2,000 watts and above and a working width of 500 millimeters and more are suitable.
Garden tillers for professionals and amateur gardeners
The differences between power tillers for professional use and those for home garden use are fluid. Although gardeners mainly use tillers with high power consumption, compact models are useful for some contract work in private gardens.
Tillers by application
Without accessories, the majority of garden tillers are only suitable for digging around and loosening the soil. At the same time as digging around, work fertilizer under if necessary. In trade, you can find two types of products, which are designed for other work due to their design features.
These are, firstly, trenchers with a bucket wheel or other bucket tool. These motorized garden tools are recommended only for pulling trenches. The other is tree stump grinders with a powerful chipper blade wheel. The stump or tree stump grinders are not suitable for digging around, but only for milling out tree roots above and below ground and for removing tree stumps.
Garden tillers by drive
This is what you should remember! In terms of drive type, all tillers can be divided into three groups:
- Corded electric power tillers
- Electrically powered devices with rechargeable battery
- Garden tillers with a combustion engine
Gas Tiller Cultivator Price:
Under $300
- Earthquake Mini Tiller Cultivator
- TAZZ Garden Cultivator
Under $400
- SuperHandy Mini Tiller Cultivator
- Mantis Gas Powered Cultivator
