Sun Joe TJ601E Tiller Joe 9-Amp Electric Garden Tiller/Cultivator

We have a small garden and have been using an old gas powered tiller for years. It recently broke down and was going to cost way to much to fix or replace so we started looking into small electric tillers. I did a lot of looking around and I liked the Sunjoe tiller for its width and depth, it was just the size we needed. Prices varied, most places wanted $249 for it plus shipping. I found one here at Amazon for $170 and free shipping. Cant beat that deal. It came yesterday and was very easy to assemble. We took it out to the garden to try it out and this little tiller does the job very well. It is lightweight, and easy to use. It broke up the hardened soil very well. The only drawbacks I can think of is that it does not till very deeply, but we knew its limitations before buying, and of course using an extension cord. I had no problem using it and keeping the cord out of the way, but when my mom tried to use it she ran over the cord and wrapped it all around the tines in less than one minute. The blades do not have a sharp edge on them and did not cut the cord, but even though it unplugged the cord and the motor cut off, it still wrapped the cord around the tines 10 to 12 times before it stopped. Overall I would recommend this tiller for ease of use and price, but it is only for light use, and is not designed for deep heavy tilling jobs on very large gardens, and you must be very careful when using drop cords.

I got this Sun Joe tiller thinking that the small garden I have, would be easy to till. I tilled half of it. Then a seal on the gearbox where the tines are broke loose and all the oil came out of the gearbox. Then the tiller didn't have any power at all. Not even if you let it walk by itself. The tines barely turned. So I called the manufacturer. They were very helpful. They sent me another tiller. It only took three weeks to get it. I noticed that the tiller they sent me was used. I didn't expect a used one. So, I tried the (new/used) tiller for ten minutes and it stopped turning. Gears jambed up inside. I could hear the motor humming. WOW, what a waste of money. So, I called to inform the manufacturer. Supprise. No one answers the phone. A message said there is no one available leave your name, phone number and email address. That was it. So, I did. That is where I am now. Hahaha I have never had so much trouble with anything as I am having with the Sun Joe Tiller!!!

We had a gas tiller that we liked a lot until it would not start anymore. I am pretty handy and tried to fix it. I took out the needle and seat and cleaned it really well. I got it back together and it still wouldn't stay running. Got tired of trying to fix it, didn't want to pay someone $100 to fix it, so I bought this bad boy. It runs like a champ. It has really good power and is heavy but not too heavy making it hard to control. The wide stance of the handle bars is nice for control and not running too close to my hard scaping. The tines are close together so it really breaks up the soil fast. The only downer is the cord as is true for all electic tools. But on the major up side; no oil, gas, it digs deep, and it isn't as loud. I will get back on if I run into any problems, but I already ran this for hours over many weeks to get all my beds ready for planting. I was even able to lift it into my smaller front planter boxes that are only about 3 feet wide and till around my bushes.

It is and does what you'd expect of it. Decent tiller with enough power for light garden work. Not fancy, but it's quiet, easy to use, light, and starts up when you need it. Assembly was very easy. Only downside was that the packaging was terrible. Small assembly parts were loose and I was missing a screw which likely worked it's way out of the box. There was no indication that this was not a new product which is why I was surprised it was packaged so poorly.

I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive in ordering an electric tiller. But so far, it has exceeded my expectations and chugging along very nicely. I have clay soil and when i first tried it, I thought I had made a horrible mistake. The tines just bounced off the packed clay and it made no progress at all. Turned out, I had just picked a particularly hard spot on my yard to start, and once I powered through that spot, the tiller worked very well. I found that spraying some water first helped as well. So far, I tilled around 2000 sq. ft. of mostly packed clay soil. My backyard was previously sodded and the blue netting keeps getting caught up in the tines but that doesn't seem to slow it down. Some tree roots and larger rocks to get stuck and I have to stop occasionally and dig those out. I don't think the tines spin fast enough to cut through the roots. It may be due to my somewhat wimpy extension cord. Better gauge one might allow the full 9 amp of power. I also found that a slight yawing movement helps cutting through the tough area. Basically, I let the tines spin up, and then lift the handle, allowing the tines to bite in, then I yaw left and right, and alternate that movement with up and down. Once in a while, I lift up the tines completely and let them spin. I think electric motor is cooled by an integrated fan/fin so if you're letting it bog down constantly, it's not spinning fast enough to cool it. So far, no heat-related shutdown at all. I'm about halfway done with my backyard project (breaking up clay on about 3000 sq. ft backyard, tilling in soil amendment and fertilizer, and laying new sod) so I'm hoping it can survive through that because I think the job might be tough enough to break a gas tiller down. For what I paid, I'm not necessarily looking for something to pass down to my kids. If it survives, then I can use it for my vegetable gardens.

This is a worthy machine! I waited to post a review until after the season was over. Assembly was fairly straight forward. I first used to it till a12x12 lawn that I wanted to re-seed, plus 12x1.5 of that taken down close to a foot in order to make a stone path. I used it to till my main and side garden, both in the spring and the fall. This unit handled it all, and kicked out stones like a caveman too! My method was basically to go forward to break the soil surface, then pull back on the unit which, when moving backwards, seemed to bite more of the soil (as I've heard from people elsewhere). I'd do this at least two times per row, more if needed. For deeper areas, such as that path mentioned earlier, I'd till back and forth until the soil began to pile up, then I'd shovel that to the side and till deeper. Rinse and repeat until you get your desired depth. My back has thanked me all year long. I have no idea why I didn't pick up a tiller decades ago. I no longer dread having to turn the soil. Having one of these makes you feel like visiting all the neighbours to ask if they have any soil to till. ;)

I use mine for cultivating small vegetable gardens, (12 X 30 and 6 X 50), one of them being heavy clay. Works beautifully. I also use it for multiple raised, rock walled flower gardens. It is easy to lift into the raised gardens and does a great job, even with most tree roots that always manage to penetrate your gardens when you live in an area surrounded by forest. Definitely a great little machine that will do an excellent job for you as long as you use it for its intended purpose. I would buy it again, having now experienced using it in some difficult terrain. TIPS FOR USERS Get a good quality extension cord. I've used a 100 foot, 14 gauge extension cord from my leaf blower and it work fairly well, but when I used a heavier gauge cord from my shop, it was more powerful. I recommend a 12 gauge extension cord for best performance.

A very nice machine. It's quite light which means it's fairly easy to carry around, but being light means that it tend to skip over harder ground. I followed someone else's tip and pulled the tiller backwards for the hard soil, which really makes it dig in. I tilled over 600 square feet of variable soil in a very short time, and it made light work of weeds and old roots. Even small stones didn't bother it. It has a cut off button on the right hand handle which needs to be pressed in before the power can be applied. When you let go, the machine stops, which is a great safety feature. It also comes with a belt clip to help stop the power cord from getting in the way. It's very powerful, and even looks quite nice :) I would highly recommend it.

This little machine is great. I have a back yard garden that I used to turn by hand with pitchfork and shovel every year because I couldn't afford a gas tiller. This machine really does the job and what would usually take me two days took about 2 hours. You can save a lot of time and your back with one of these. I would recommend it to anyone.

Not as I expected but will be able to make use of it for other purposes than I needed. It is quite fine for other purposes.