Agri-Fab 45-0365 Push Spike Aerator, 16 Inch Walk Behind Lawn Aerator with 5 Aerating Spikes and 7-Inch Spikes, Steel Weight Tray, 2-1/2 Inches Aeration Depth, for Lawn Care Maintenance

It's a great product for the price. I have a smaller lawn that this works perfect for & more importantly, what it's ment for. I lightly watered the grass 1st, so that the spikes would go in easier. I also added about 25lbs. to the top of the device. I'm in above average shape, but it was a bit tiresome to push, (even for about 10min). I have a Ryobi, 40V, self propelled lawn mower, in which I attached this product to. There were actually (2) holes already in the mower that I was able to utilize with the bolts provided. It worked great to puncture down in grass & top soil, to allow me to overseed. This is not a product your going to purchase, assemble & use if you do not have a general understanding of mechanics. This is also not for you if: 1) you have a large lawn. 2) you don't own a socket set. 3) you can't walk a standard cinder block around for about 10-15min. It works, but it is WORK. The Ryobi lawnmower made it extremely effortless & drastically reduced time.

Details on each score below: -Performance: 4 stars -Ease of assembly: 5 stars -Speed: 1.5 stars -Value for money: 2.5 stars If you have a very small yard, this can be effective and save you money. BUT, to get an effective result, you are going to work your tail off. This arrives in a MUCH smaller box than expected. It was nicely packaged, the parts were all there, and the assembly pretty straightforward with very solid instructions. The results are effective, and I believe that if I can run it through my yard both on the X and Y axis twice a season, it will be a great replacement for plug aeration. Now the not-so-great... This is spray-painted, stamped steel. I would expect to pay $30 for this quality of materials. The handle is at least 12" too short to give effective leverage and the cheap feel really comes through when you try to use it. The bar stock that they use is too small a diameter and there is no form of grip or cushion for the handle. Also, since the handle is three pieces due to the box size, it doesn't feel solid, even when it is torqued down solidly. I'm 6' tall, so not short, but not exceedingly tall. I tried using it without a weight on it, and it is too light to dig into the soil, pushing or pulling. With the cement block on it, pushing it is worse than shoveling heart attack snow. I had to sit down after pushing it less than 50 feet. In this case, pulling the unit instead of pushing it was about the same a pulling a heavy carry on bag through a carpeted airport. I am going to look into putting a longer, cushioned, one-piece side rail on it and playing with the amount of weight on the unit. That won't make the job easy, but I believe it can make it something I can complete without killing myself. If I come up with any handle/weight "hacks," I will add them to the review.

Prepare yourself for a real workout! Of course, if you are looking at this or considering it, you are probably already prepared for some real exercise. For use in my own modestly-sized lawn, I could not rationalize purchasing a more automated solution for use a couple of times per year, so I opted for this solution. It was $15-$20 over-priced for what the picture showed (but what isn't in 2023?), but knowing I would save money in the long run over renting or hiring, I made the plunge. The box it came in was surprisingly small (the arms comprise multiple pieces). I was initially surprised by the number of nuts and bolts. The instructions were sparse on words but visually comprehensive, which meant that assembly was fairly straightforward after sorting out all of the pieces and matching them to the diagrams. As far as using the device, I started with the only size concrete block I could find in Home Depot that made sense from the dimensions of the top plate. I found that pulling it was nowhere as effective as pushing it. I live in NC, so it's clay under the sod. I found pushing with my arms higher than at the waist level more comfortable and effective (I am 6' and 72 years old). My lawn isn't always level, so starting from a level spot (backing up and getting a running start) helped me get past the dips and whatnot. Needless to say, I felt the workout that evening in my upper arms and back. ;-) Overall, I am pleased with the device. A couple of runs over the lawn and I was satisfied that I had done a reasonable job aerating the lawn.

product is poorly designed (made in china), and is mislabeled because there's no way the one of the product pictures depicting a 120lbs female pushing the aerator like a self-propelled mower could work. if you can bench 300lbs and squat 500, then "pushing" the aerator is about the same as hand-plowing--without the ox. Plastic between spikes breaks immediately, the sides plow into the turf, and the handles are impossibly made for pushing unless you want to break your wrist every 3 seconds that the thing gets stuck. Also mislabled because concrete blocks are neither heavy enough nor stay on without 40 bungee cords--being solid, they also bounce around too much. The only weights that somewhat work are bags of lead shot (heavy enough, don't bounce around) or sand bags. Pushing is too hard, pulling doesn't spike deep enough. whoever designed this ought to go back and finish elementary school.

First off. If your lazy and don't like to sweat a little bit. DO NOT buy this PRODUCT!! One because I guarantee you will not like it. Period. Using the aerator make sure to pull it behind you and basically walk as if cutting your lawn. 1. The ground can be dry when using this product. Depending on the soil type but this will do the job. The correct weight is everything. The spikes are perfect for cutting through most soils. If you use this after a heavy rain it won't work!!! If the soil is to soft it will sink and will be difficult to pull. So make sure to allow the soul to drain a little and is more firm. 2. Assembly was pretty simple to. Directions need to be tweaked and a little difficult for those not mechanically inclined. I put it together with little use of use of the directions. 3. Before using place aerator in the grass then place the desired weight onto the device and then Guage the depth. You want or would like. The right weight is absolutely everything. 4. Pull Pull Pull this device! Much much easier and requires way way less elbow grease. Pulling from behind saves. Also you won't have to worry about compacting soil just aerated. Trust me. Overall good product for the money definitely! My lawn is close to half of an acre and just walking. Pulling it behind casually, listening to some music is pretty relaxing. But this product gets a thumbs up for sure.

I SO wanted to love this product. I have been using powered aerator machines for many years. But those are heavy, and can be back-breaking while repeatedly pulling up, turning around, and pushing down. And I've always felt that the spike holes in the lawn are unnecessarily large. Nevermind the hassle of renting the machine at the right time, as well as loading/unloading those heavy beasts. The Agri-Fab manual push aerator seemed like the perfect solution. It's lightweight, I can conveniently grab it from the garage at any time, and it slices numerous small narrow slits in the lawn. Sounds great so far! But it simply requires too much exhausting, muscle-straining, body-breaking work. I tried it on moist lawn, dry lawn and wet lawn. With some weight, lots of weight, and no weight. Pushing it, pulling it, and flipping it over. It did work when I pushed it with moderate weight added. But after only a few feet, I was ready to call a chiropractor. I have a very small yard, but it would likely take an entire summer to complete a single pass over the entire lawn. This product might work better if the handle was longer and designed to provide the operator with more leverage. As is, using a motorized aerator from the nearest rental store is still less hassle and I inflict less damage to myself. At this point I'm stuck with the product, since I waited too long before attempting to return it. Maybe there's a neighborhood kid I can pay to take a run at it ...

The assembly instructions are helpful to an extent, then it comes down to you. Reading the reviews for this gives you a good glimpse of what's wrong with the world today. If you are looking to shed some weight and don't like the high cost of a gym membership this is the item for you. Hell go the extra mile and do the neighbors yard too. This works very well for the price and will be beneficial to both the lawn and person dragging it. You will need to reverse the lower handle bolts and maybe bend the tray lip to fit your desired block or weight. And I found the pins weak that hold the roller in place. Zipties have worked well, not sure about the long term durability of them though. Will work on a more long term solution to replace them. Watered grass a normal amount and pulled not pushed this around the yard in the evening The next morning there was a noticed difference in the perkiness of the lawn. Worth the money if you ask me.

Kind of what I ordered but it was a little small for me. I wish it was built better because I ended up modifying the handle with wood stakes, pvc pipe, and duct tape.

Es una herramienta manual, eso significa que hay que ejecer algo de presion para lograr una mejor perforacion en la tierra, mas si la tierra esta un poco dura Cuenta con una base, donde se puede hacer presion, aunque tambien se puede uno ayudar amarrandole algo pesado, lo cual, sin duda, va a facilitar el trabajo Funciona correctamente y se logra airear la tierra. En mi caso el pasto estaba poniendose un poco amarillo y despues de utilizar esta herramienta, logre que el riego mejorara y que el agua penetrara mejor en la tierra. Ahora el pasto se ve mejor, recupero su color verde

Great quality

Works well, a bit hard to push, but it’s OK

Easy to assemble and better than my last aerator

As a person reading this review the goal is to understand if this will work for your yard. I can say for my 12k sf yard I pushed this through and it did a great job of breaking up soil, particularly I'm dead spots due to pee. Pushing requires practice to get the right downward pressure without coming to a stop, but I found it less tiring that loading 2x25L bags of soil on top, which worked much better than the cinder block. It is work vs a powered machine. Ground must be have sufficient moisture / not granular for holes to form properly.