Yard Butler Manual Lawn Coring Aerator, ID-6C - Lawn Care Tool for Aerating - Long-Handled - Power-Coated Steel Construction - Comfortable Cushioned Handles Garden Tool - Easy to Use

I purchased the Butler Manual Lawn Coring Aerator to help improve my lawn's health, and I’ve been very impressed with how well it works. The tool is sturdy, well-built, and surprisingly easy to use for a manual aerator. It pulls nice, clean plugs from the soil, which has helped loosen up compacted areas in my yard. After using it, I noticed better water absorption and healthier grass growth in just a few weeks. It’s also a great alternative to renting a powered aerator if you have a smaller yard or prefer a more hands-on approach. The dethatching effect is an added bonus too—makes it a great 2-in-1 tool. Definitely a worthwhile investment for any DIY lawn care enthusiast. Highly recommended if you’re looking to give your grass a boost without breaking the bank.

I've used it several times in the past 6 weeks. I get my entire lawn core aerated annually by a gas powered machine, but I bought this for the following uses: * The soil gets compacted at the gate from the front yard to the back yard. It's a funnel so all of the traffic goes in a narrow area, and it especially gets compacted when I have a big garden project that requires wheel barrows. I used it here when it first arrived and it did great, and then used it again after a big gardening project. * I have St Augustine grass so in the fall there are a few areas that get brown patch. This year, on those 3 spots I used the aerator and then top dressed with leaf mold compost prior to brown patch season. Should prevent the brown patch and help get some organic matter into the soil. * The darn cinch bugs killed a couple spots in lawn along the sidewalk. After killing off the cinch bugs, I used the aerator in the dead grass and top dressed with leaf mold compost. The core aeration will help get some organic matter into the soil while the St. Augustine grass fills in the compost. Positives: * It produces nice sized cores both in terms of depth and diameter. * It's very simple to use. It's mindless work and one of the few times being overweight pays off. * It's very sturdy and well constructed. Feels like something that will last many, many years. Negatives: * It's a lot of work so best for small areas. Rent a gas powered core aerator to do entire lawn or hire a contractor. * The last core stays in the tool so you need to push it out with a screwdriver at the end of the project.

Bought one a few years ago at a Lowe's or Osh that I thought was the Hound Dog branded "Turf Hound" but it looked almost identical to the "Yard Butler" instead, so I don't know if the companies are related or maybe I just had a brain fart and filed the memory incorrectly. It worked well enough that I wore that down to nubs (see photo comparing the old one to new) thanks to hard clay soil that had to be pretty moist to penetrate making the tips rust, chip,or bend into the tube, and then having to file or grind the ends back to a functional point. When this seasons plugs were all coming out stumpy, I figured I could use a replacement and wondered if there might be a tool that didn't clog as much as that had. I think that in certain clays, it's inevitable, though you can minimize it by working it only after it's been watered and oiling the tines before and after using the tool. I have tried ones with more tines, and they are much harder to push into the ground since I am only 5'2 and 130lbs, so the two tines works better for me. I also find the height of the handle appropriate on this one, and the T design is comfortable because I can switch feet easily, without knocking a knee into the sides of the handle. I'm not sure how this compares with using the Hound Dog model, except that the center handle might help with pivoting the thing from side to side more easily when necessary, or perhaps the stepping space might be easier to access on the Dog version because it's more open. But then again, I also find it helpful that the shape above the step on the Butler helps ensure I don't just step THROUGH it and miss planting it down firmly. I did try the red one with thicker tines and the step "lifting bar" (see pics for side by sides) in hopes that it would be less clog prone, but found that the shape made it noteably more difficult to push into the ground than the slightly thinner and longer tines of the Butler. It may be because they are thicker, even though they are tapered, or maybe because they are cut square instead of at an angle like the Butler, which slid much more deeply and smoothly into the ground. Though the other one DID seem to be less likely to pack up with soil IN the tines, it also was much more problematic in dirt clogging AROUND the them instead (see pics). Go figure... The step bar on the red one didn't really add anything useful to the process for me, as it wasn't really helpful to try and use my foot to pick up the tool. It actually seemed a bit more in the way when switching feet, which I did much more frequently than trying to lift it with the foot. Some may prefer the thicker grips on the red one, but my hands are pretty large and I had no issues with the thinner ones. The one clear advantage of the red one is really probably the color itself, as I did have trouble locating the green Yard Butler on the lawn if I stepped away from it. The red is totally obvious to spot immediately. Lastly, I also preferred the resulting plug length of the Butler. The thickness of the other was beaten by the depth of extracted material with Yard Butler. (Last picture shows all 3 YB cores on the left vs 3 shorter of the other tool on the right). Definitely get an extra inch or more with the YB tool. YB beats the spike sort and more complicated coring setups on manual tools. There might be some real advantage to a rolling disc type on ebay, but it costs much more. If you have a large enough yard, though, it might be worth the cost over renting something powered, especially if you don't have something that needs a riding mower in size. My mom's lawn is probably 2000 sq ft, and it can be a workout and a long day to step core the whole thing alone, but I do it a little at a time whenever I visit and it's fine because the tool is always available and quiet enough to use in the middle of the night so the summer heat isn't overwhelming. I dig it. And it really does improve the lawn significantly. If I see it's getting a bit tired looking, I know it's time to step some air into thr soil and it thickens up nicely. For the money, it's a win in my book. Id like to try the other design I saw on Amazon too, which ejects the cores on the SIDE of the tine instead of through the top, as that might be less likely to pack into a clog, but I would want to know it was really better before spending twice as much money on it. For now I am doing fine with this and maybe will try the other if it wears down so far in a few years as the last one did. ..

Works great! I hadn’t paid to have my lawn aerated in years as I have backyard chickens, trees and other plants that I didn’t want damaged. So with this hand aerator, I was able to control where I aerated (avoiding tree roots, etc) and how much I wanted. It is not hard to do but it does take time and can be a little bit of a work out. I am only 5’1” and had no problems with it other than getting a blister so wear gloves! I aerated heavily and my yard is looking good so it needed it. This is well worth the $, is built well and not heavy to work with. I did have some soil stick to it a couple of times because it’s clay and it was just a little too wet (end of February and a few days after a snow fall) so I poked the soil out and cleaned with with a long cylindrical brush. So make sure that the soil is NOT too wet not too dry when doing this. I only wish I had bought this earlier.

First off, bad packaging. Looked like someone just found an old box through in the yard butler and place a single piece of tape to close it. When i picked it up the box looked smashed and was partially open. Anyways, I got the yard butler out and it felt very solid (well made). As for the performance i would have to say that depends on your lawn. The type of soil and how dry it is limits the performance of this tool. I have clay soil and i watered my lawn a day before. Got the yard butler out to put it to the test. The first few feet it worked great, the tool was making holes and plugs were falling on the lawn. Then it got clogged with the clay soil. So i spend a few minutes unclogging it, which is hard to do. You have to drive a screw driver to clear it out and even then the soil stick to the sides. Tried spraying with water hose and even that didn't work. Did the best i could to clean it and continued making holes, but after a few succesfull holes with plugs coming out it got clogged again. Got tired of cleaning it so much so i decided to just make holes without plugs. I would have to say that given the type of soil i have, i would not buy or recommend this product to a friend. I would rather rent a gas powered aerator.

This is a great tool. I live in the desert. Our soil is rock hard, full of rocks, and very poor. It is also full of clay and highly compacted. I put a sprinkler head on the hose and let it go for ten minutes, then used the Yard Butler. After reading so many complaints, I was skeptical, but it pushed in with almost no effort. Yes, if I went outside the soaked area it was harder to use, but it should be obvious that when you want to push a steel object into your compacted lawn soil, you need to wet the ground first. If you don't, no hand tool is going to work well in hard dry soil. Just reset the sprinkler, take a break, and start again. When used properly (use your foot on the foot bar--that's what it's for) on a pre-soaked lawn, this tool is amazingly simple and easy to use. And it's fun too. Another note: I was fresh off a bad back injury (a bulged disk), but after a visit the chiropractor I decided to try the lawn butler for a couple of trial holes just to see if I could do it for a few minutes without too much pain. I proceeded to do my entire front yard in a series of 10-minute soaks, then ten minutes of aerating. Easy, simple, effective. Note too that the instructions are very clear: do not clear the holes until you are done. Just let the plugs push up through and fall out. This pulls up beneficial nutrients and microbes from root level to the surface and is like fertilizing. When you are all done, clean it thoroughly, dry, and store properly, like you should with any tool. Likewise, you do not want to torque or twist ANY tool, except maybe an Estwing. Push it straight down into your soaked lawn, using your foot, not your hands. Pull it straight back up. If you have to twist and torque, you did not wet the lawn enough, so set the sprinkler for another 5-10 minutes and repeat. Bottom line: if this can work in my hard, rocky, desert town, (and with a bad back to boot) it can work anywhere. Highly recommended! Fast shipping too.

I was skeptical at first, given the highly varying reviews on Amazon. Given the price however, I decided it was worth the risk. I have to say it was worth every penny. First off, let me address a few things: 1. This is an extremely solid piece of equipment. I weigh about 225 and have absolutely zero concern about bending or damaging this thing. It is solid metal through and through. 2. If you are serious about aerating, you absolutely need to be using a "coring" aerator. The whole point of addressing compact soil is to make it less compact. Spikes push it down and compact it further. There are plenty of odd products out there that will poke holes in your lawn, but if they don't pull a core out, forget about it. I've even see people wearing old golf shoes with spikes tromping around their yards thinking they are helping things. Ridiculous. 3. Regarding the device getting jammed and the cores not coming out, I have not seen that where I am. To give you an idea of my situation, I live in upstate NY and the soil in my yard happened to be extremely compact. I can't comment on a clay-type soil as I haven't experienced that. So that being said, what about the important part? What were my results? Well, I did a little experiment. Mostly out of laziness, but an experiment nonetheless. My front yard is divided by a driveway. I aerated the slightly smaller side of lawn on side of the driveway, and left the other alone. Then I over-seeded both. There was a honestly a remarkable difference. The aerated side thickened to a point that my mower was getting jammed. I could not have been happier. Speaking to my laziness though, I will give you a caveat: this is a time and labor intensive activity. You aerate inch by inch, walking in tiny steps through the area you are covering. I found it relaxing personally, but if you are looking for a quick fix, this is not it.

I got this to aerate areas that the lawn care folks seem to maybe have missed last fall when they aerated on their machine. This year we saw some crabgrass pop in spots and it's likely because that soil is still compacted and not letting grass get a good hold. So, I got this to do little patches around the yard. I cannot imagine trying to use this to do a large area, i don't think that's the purpose of this little guy. The coating seems pretty good on the steel. The grip is good enough but not squishy - for longer sessions i'd probably wear some padded gloves. The success you'll have of removing cores as you go will totally depend on your soil type, the moisture content of that soil, and how you prep the tool. More on that in a bit. First off, I looked at the instructions (imagine that) and grabbed a long flat headed screwdriver to pop out the cores between aeration. This worked out really well, overall. First impression: I tried just repeatedly jamming the thing into the ground to do multiple cores (thinking they'd just pop up and out of the tool). That didn't go so well, as one side got clogged up, while the other side just happily released the core when i flipped the tool and used the screwdriver lol. So, I just proceeded to get into a rhythm of jabbing it down, pulling it out, flipping the tool over and popping out the cores with the screwdriver. This mostly worked okay, like 95% of the time, but occasionally one side was still sticky with popping out the core. I think this is just because that soil was stickier/wetter than the other. I have ideas for that. Basic use: put the tool on the ground where you want, step gently but firmly down in the center, and sink the tool into the ground (gently because you do not want to jam it into a rock or root under the ground that will bend it probably). Pull the tool out, the soil cores are in the tool. Flip it around and put the grips on the ground. Use one hand on the metal step bar, and the other use a long flat headed screwdriver to push the cores out. Flip tool back over and do it again wherever you want to. Soil type/moisture: We have rich black topsoil here, and it rained about 1/2" to 1" the day before last. Yesterday was hot and humid but dry. So, the moisture soaked in, and the soil dried out. You really have to rely on trying the conditions out to see if this guy will work okay for you - if your soil is really moist and sticky, this will be a pain. If you have clay soil, it might compact in this tool and be hard to remove BUT i have an idea for that. Improvements/tips: I think I am going to clean this off and dry it well, so it's like new, and coat the inside of the core removers with some spray oil - WD40, Rem-Oil, any would do, even cooking spray lol. Any oily spray-in substance would slick up the core remover cones and those cores will pop out waaaay easier with lubricated coated steel against the soil cores. This is kind of like how candles are made in candle molds, you put some spray in to release once the wax hardens. Same idea. Reapplying the spray oil occasionally will probably be necessary as you work with the tool. Just an idea. Also, be sure you give this a go with well watered and drained soil. The conditions are going to have to be right, not concrete dry soil, and not wet soil. If it's too dry, wait for watering or rain to soak in and drain. If it's too wet, wait a day and see how the cores do. Pretty happy with this, as I just aerated random compact spots in my lawn without much effort.