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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 62 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 53 found the following review helpful:
 WOULD NOT STILL BE GRUBBING THE DIRT IF I DID NOT HAVE THIS CULTIVATOR Mar 22, 2009
By D. Blankenship
This is my twelfth season for using this tiller. To prepare my garden I use an ancient Troy built that has been going strong for about 18 years now (I bought it used) and it looks as if this Mantis two stroke is going to last just as long. To be honest, I am a rather lazy gardener and the job of all jobs I hate most is cultivating and weeding. This little machine has taken away almost all of the excuses I have for not having a neat, well tended garden. There are a couple of things you should know though before purchasing this little gem:
First, this is not a machine that is suitable for breaking up new ground or ground that has not been tilled for several years. It simply is not built for that.
Secondly, you should not let your mind wonder when using this cultivator. It can take out a garden plant in a flash if you loose control over it and indeed, if you are extremely inattentive, it certainly has the capability of taking off a toe or two.
Thirdly: I would strongly recommend you use gloves when using this for any extended period of time. They give you protection of course, but they also allow for a better grip, ergo, more control.
Forth: Try to avoid running in through bailing twine, wire or even vines if possible. Getting the stuff untangled is truly a odious task.
Fifth: Perform the preventive maintenance on it as recommended and then double the timing on it. Keep the tines sharp and keep them replaced as needed. (Yes, the tines are guaranteed against breakage, but I promise you that they will bend if bounced off enough rocks...hey, I live in the Ozarks, rocks I know!)
Sixth: Watch out for larger rocks. Not only can the bend tines, but they can cause the machine to go out of control.
Seventh: Watch and take great care with your gas/oil mix and at the end of the season follow the directions as to winter storage.
Now that being said, this thing is a snap to use. As a matter of fact it can easily be handled by a knowledgably and trained child with very little supervision. It can go into places a larger tiller cannot possibly go. It is light and is very easy to maneuver once you get the hang of it. Now I admit that I am a complete and absolute klutz when it comes to fixing anything mechanical (well, truth be told, non-mechanical things too), but I have had to take this into the shop only once in the years I have owned and used it. Everything else I was able to fix myself using only the manual provided, and over the past couple of years a few sites on my computer. No fancy tools are needed; only the ability to read and a smudge of common sense. Hey, trust me, if I can do it, then just about anyone can. I mean we are talking here about someone so inept that my wife use to have to put the children's Christmas toys together as I could not manage it.
I am like another reviewer here. I doubt if I would still be gardening, vegetable and flowers, if I did not have this cultivator. If and when it finally goes belly up (which will probably be long after I go first), I plan to purchase another. I do wish I could give this one more than five stars.
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
25 of 27 found the following review helpful:
Old Timer Jun 25, 2008
By Stuart Kinzler
"Stu Kinzler"
I can't even remember when I bought my Mantis, but it was at least 25 years ago. It has gotten hard use every year ever since. Mantis really stands behind their lifetime tine warranty; they replaced mine totally free of charge after at least 20 years without any questions. The new machines look almost identical to my ancient one. The amazing thing is that the price has hardly gone up at all. In todays dollars, that makes it a raging bargain. The machine is light enough for almost anyone to use it, but be prepared for some serious bouncing around if your soil is rocky. It's unbelievably powerful for such a small machine. I've seen professional landscapers use it to loosen soil for planting new shrubs in some nasty, hard-packed soil. They just use it to dig down as far as the tines will reach, remove the loosened soil, and then dig down farther until they have the hole as deep as it needs to be. In the garden, the tines can be easily turned around to use it as a shallow cultivator for weeding purposes. The best thing of all is that it can be used in tight or hard-to-reach places where no conventional tiller can go. The small size and light weight make it especially easy to store without taking up valuable floor space. For the price, the Mantis is a really practical piece of equipment that no serious gardener should be without. It won't ever totally replace the big tillers, but it can do a whole lot of things that the big ones can't. I would have given up gardening many years ago if I didn't have my Mantis. One of my gardens is inside a small (about 10'-by-20') fenced area that my big tiller is simply too big to handle. The Mantis gets right into the corners and tight to the fence with no problem. The Mantis may look like a toy, but - trust me - it's not.
19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 Mantis Tiller Has Lived up to Expectations. May 16, 2010
By kone
"kone"
I have owned my Mantis tiller for nearly 8 years now. I chose Mantis because I wanted a smaller tiller that did not require a lot of storage space. I also liked what I saw on tv commercials about the Mantis. My father had a much larger tiller of another brand that took up a lot of space and was incredibly heavy (but quite sturdy). He was going to give me his tiller when he stopped gardening, but after thinking long and hard about it, I decided to get the Mantis instead. Here is what I have learned about the Mantis in that time:
1. Mechanical: The tiller works great, starts in 2-3 pulls right out of the box. It takes mixed gas at a 50/1 ratio. Never use "old" gas or gas that is not the proper ratio. Over the years I have had some minor problems with it, mostly related to starting and idling. My recommendation is to clean or change the air filter regularly. The filter is easy to get at and oftentimes clogs with dirt and dust. Change spark plug every couple years. When putting the tiller "to sleep" for the winter, take out the spark plug and pour in a teaspoon of motor oil. Pull the start recoil and distribute the oil in the cylinder. I have not had any major problems with the tiller. I just finished an hour of tilling today and it ran great. Final tip: clean the accumulated weeds off the tiller tines when they begin to accumulate. This reduces the stress on the motor. The blades are faily easy to remove, clan, and return to place - it will prolong the life of the tiller. Since the Mantis has a smaller engine, it cannot be overstressed. To compensaate for the smaller engine size, the tiller has extremely sharp blades and they spin very fast. The engine does not have much torque however, and the engine will bog down in heavy jobs. The engine will stop if rocks lodge in the tines. If your garden space has a lot of rocks, this is probably not the tiller for you.
2. Functional: The tiller is lightweight and works best in smaller gardens, although it will work in a large garden too if the soil is lighter. I like how it can be manipulated with ease around plants and through smaller narrow rows (which a larger tiller cannot do). I am able to plant rows of vegetables closer together with the Mantis and till around them with ease. Perhaps most importantly, the Mantis tiller will not work well in heavy soils (with lots of clay). I experienced this firsthand. In heavy soils, the tiller cannot penetrate the compacted hard soil and just skims the surface. I found I had to spade up the heavy soil with a shovel and then till the clumps. A heavier tiller would have handled the clay soil, so if your soil is compacted and full of clay, this is not the tiller for those conditions. On the other hand, in lighter soils, the tiller goes through the soil just as depicted on tv. Excellent tiller for sandy loose soils. The tiller is only about 20 pounds. It stores easily in most sheds and doe not require a dedicated shed as a large tiller. Very portable!
3. Overall: Overall performance is in the 3-star range, mostly because of the limitations of use in clay/havy soils.
I do recommend this tiller for the gardener who has a smaller garden, wants to set plantings closer together, and has lighter soil. I'd recommend a larger heavier tiller for larger gardens or gardens with heavy soil. As Clint Eastwood said in "The Outlaw Josie Wales: "A man's got to know his limitations". Same case with this tiller. If you don't rry to do too much with it, and know what it can handle (and can't), I think you will be pleased with the Mantis tiller.
konedog
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Mantis Apr 26, 2011
By stevem
This is my second Mantis. I loaned my first one to a friend, and it came back needing repairs beyond value. So I traded it in - Mantis gave me a decent credit for my 10 year old non working machine, and got the new machine with the "fast start option". Now staring year 3 planting. Tiller starts, then dies, restarts then dies. Start and give it throttle and it dies. It will restart and die several times in succession but then the engine seems to flood. Or you give up. Contacted the help desk, they recommended the maintenance. But I don't have the hours maintenance recommends other than "new gas". The maintenance recommended by Mantis and referred to in an earlier review is lengthy and worthy of a working farm. This is far more than the average home gardener wants to spend on the gas power tools. Some maintenance - like removing the cover to clean the exhaust screen - required significant machine dismantling to get to two Philips head screws. Simply bad engineering. Once you have the plastic cover off, assuming you get that far, the screws are so hard to turn you risk stripping them. The space is very limited to do this work, so prepare your knuckles for damage. The already limited shops to repair the Mantis seems to disappearing too. So you are on your own. My new machine has about 20 hours on it, but I found even with my old Mantis getting it to start was an art. I managed many a blister pulling that starter cord. The sell picture of a gray haired woman smiling as she tills her garden could only be true if her son is law owns a small engine repair shop. I used to be a big fan, but I think the quality is gone - for the machine and the engineering. I am looking elsewhere, and my $300 2 year old machine is going for scrap.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Excellent quality, great warranty! May 03, 2010
By Jason R
I purchased the Mantis 2-stroke tiller after a great deal of research, reading reviews and looking at several other models in person. I had borrowed an Echo brand mini-tiller last year on a few occasions from a friend and I was very impressed with it. The mini-tiller did a great job at keeping the soil in my garden loosened up between the rows and also in tilling under the weeds that popped up.
I really liked the Echo model since I had experience with it but it's cost was about $50 more than the Mantis and the Echo was the most expensive model I'd seen. The Mantis was the 2nd most expensive at around $300 but many other brands fell close to the same price ranging from $200-$275. I quickly decided against the cheaper $200 versions that can be found in Lowe's, Home Depot, Sears etc. If you look closely there are several brands of this $200-ish tiller that are all identical other than the brand name. Bolens, Troy-Built, Craftsman, are just a few names that I saw on this cheaper tiller and all looked the same. When I looked at these tillers in person, I was not impressed with the quality at all. I determined if I was going to spend $200, I'd rather spend a little more and get something I felt would last.
I finally narrowed it down to a nice 2-stroke Craftsman model for $250 and then the mantis for $300. What finally convinced me to go with the Mantis was the fact that I'd seen nothing but good reviews and the Mantis has a 5 YEAR WARRANTY! I do not think this should go over looked. One trip to a small motor repair shop when another brand tiller won't start in 2-3 years and I could have bought the Mantis and had it fixed for free. I determined this was the best bang for the buck.
I ordered the Mantis from Amazon and had it 24 hours later with Prime Shipping. Nice! The assembly was very easy and required nothing more than a couple wrenches and 10 minutes of time. The instructions were very clear and had full color photos. I would say that anyone capable of operating a small tiller should be easily capable of putting this tiller together.
The Mantis cranks easily but does require 8-10 pulls when it's cold. No really big deal, just make sure the ON/OFF switch on the handle is switched to ON. I've forgotten about it a couple times when trying to crank it. It does an excellent job of tilling and the tines can be turned around backwards very easily so it doesn't till as deep. I've used it both ways and it does till much deeper when the tines are turned in the "digging/tilling" direction. I've seen several reviews where people complained of the noise associated with the Mantis and other 2 stroke tillers. I have to say that I think the noise is actually pretty quiet. I have an Echo 2 stroke leaf blower as well as a 2 stroke weed-eater and both of them are much louder and have a higher pitched exhaust. The noise isn't really an issue for me, but I just wanted to mention it since I'd seen complaints about it.
PROS:
Name brand quality
5 year warranty
Quality construction
Easy to assemble
Does what it advertises
CONS:
No disengage for the times (Once the engine is cranked, the tines are spinning, the only way to stop them is to kill the motor. This appears to be standard on all 2 stroke models I researched)
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