WEN DT1516 16-Inch 15-Amp 2-in-1 Electric Dethatcher and Scarifier with Collection Bag, Black

First, buy a good quality 12 gauge extension cord. My yard is pretty big and thankfully I have a 100 foot long 12 gauge extension cord. Do not use a standard outdoor extension cord since most of these are only 14 gauge. Another recommendation is to use a dedicated 20 amp outlet. If you use a 15 amp outlet, make sure that nothing else on that circuit is using electricity. I noticed a difference in the sound of the motor when I was plugged into a 20 amp outlet on its own circuit breaker verses another outlet that is on a 15 amp breaker that is shared by other outlets in the house. Now for the de-thatching. I used the scarifier blade for my front yard because it hasn't been detached in years. This machine pulled up piles of thatch while also digging a bit into the soil, which later allowed me to more efficiently seed and fertilize. I filled five large contractor bags with thatch. When I cut the grass with the grass catcher on, I barely fill half a contractor bag. As other reviewers mentioned, the catching bag is much too small; it tends to quickly fill up. I pretty much ignored the catcher and let the thatch overflow, then I followed up with a rake. I still had to stop and empty the catcher, but that really wasn't a big deal. If I had rented a de-thatcher, I would have had to rake anyway and go through the hassle of picking it up, using it and returning it. For the price, I figure I only need to use this machine three times and I will have saved money. I switched to the de-thatching attachment for my back yard. It did a decent job without digging down into the soil. I'll probably use the scarifier the next time to pull up more thatch. Another nice thing is NO EXHAUST FUMES!!!! Yes, handling the extension cord was a bit of a hassle, but once you figure out how to swing it out of the way, it's not a big deal. Just be careful you don't run over the extension cord. Aside from destroying the (expensive) cord, you may get a dangerous and bad electric shock. It's a good machine and did a much better job than the gasoline powered de-thatchers I have rented in the past. It is well worth the investment. It's relatively light weight, folds up and can be stored on a shelf, under a table or some other dry place that is out of the way.

Used this for the first time last weekend to de-thatch my lawn, which had never been de-thatched before in over 20 years. Kept the scarifier attachment on (it comes with a dedicated de-thatcher attachment as well) and put it on setting 3 (medium) as a "just in case" to see what this thing could do. At this setting alone, it "tore" up mound after mound of dead grass and organics that had been suffocating my lawn areas. I raked afterwards to pick it all up and then mowed over it again to pick up any extra straggling thatch. Have to echo many others here that the bag is almost useless as it fills up insanely fast. I took it off completely and just raked and mowed up afterwards, as above. All plastic (almost) but it did exactly what it was supposed to and then some, and I will be scarifying/de-thatching twice a year now to help improve my lawn heath. For what I paid for this machine, a lawn company was going to charge me almost exactly the same amount for just ONE de-thatching, so I am already way ahead of the game and will save mucho dollars by just doing it all myself with this great machine. Also, it is super light and can be lifted with one arm and then stored in your shed or garage with ease. Highly recommended.

You'll need to unbox and attach the less aggressive Dethatcher blade if that's what you're trying to do. How did I find this out? 1) I didn't read the manual well enough before starting. 2) I had a patch of grass on side of my driveway by alley way that I tested it on. Thing was super aggressive in removing material even on setting 1. I tried setting 2 and it practically made the ground bald. I felt like I was doing something wrong, and didn't want my front yard looking the same. So, I read the instructions carefully, and looked at the bottom of the machine to notice the scarifier blade was attached. It's attached by default to save space in the box, since scarifier attachment is bigger. So, I understand this decision by the company. I just wish they would have added a bright neon piece of paper that stuck out like a sore thumb explaining this from the start. The patch I tested it on was mostly clover, old bermuda, and weeds. It did a great job ripping a bunch of weeds out, so I could overseed bermuda. However, it didn't really scarify very well. IE: leave grooves in the dirt. Granted, I was using level 1. But, like I said, level 2 was hyper aggressive and left the ground practically bald without grooves. So, I'm taking a star off, because I feel the scarifier is lackluster in scarifying the ground like it should. But, it's an amazing "weed be gone" attachment if you want to scorched earth an area for new planting. The dethatcher attachment works like a charm. Has metal tines / wires that dig down into the grass to rip out that old thatch while leaving the pliable green grass behind. I experimented with level 1 and 2. I think I ended up going with level 2. The machine goes down to level 4. For really thick bermuda grass it might be worth it to get down to level 3 to get that really deep down that caked under the grass. I'm at a rental, so didn't want to risk the yard looking too bad. But, even level 2 woofed off enough material that I was out there raking for an hour and got several garbage bags of thatch off and into the trash. (Didn't have a compost bin ready. If you have a compost bin ready, you're gonna be set to mix this with other yard waste, food waste, etc and make some great compost.) The machine is light weight. The small wheels in the BACK make it awkward to wheel up and down into things (like over the step up into the garage). Once the machine gets going it pretty much SELF-PROPELS (emphasized, because this thing will move along quickly if you let it and you need to control it!) The bag on this thing is a bit of a joke. If you actually use it, you'll have to stop and empty it every 5 seconds. I ditched the bag, and just dethatched. Then spent an hour raking up the thatch. I don't mind that. This machine saved me the hard work of dethatching. So, I can do a bit of raking. The plastics on the machine make it feel a bit "fisher price", but it was durable and held up to my needs. It's not like a mower where you'll be using it every weekend. It's a once-maybe-twice-a-year thing. For that, it's more than enough. I only have like a 1/4 acre, and of that it's mostly house. So, this was more than enough for my needs. It actually got some neighbors coming out asking me what I was doing, because they thought I was mowing until they saw all the material coming off. That's when we all got to discussing dethatching yards. So far I'm the only one on the block that's done it. But, wish I would have gotten this for my last place. The yard was MUCH bigger, and DESPERATELY needed a dethatching on the front yard. I just threw grass seed on that front yard when I moved in, and nothing grew. Dethatching the yard helps get the seed down into the dirt for overseeding, and protects it from birds that might eat it or wind that might blow it away. Overally, I'm very satisfied adding this to my yard care arsenal.

Great dethatcher . Easy to use. I dethatched my lawn with this and it worked great. Removed a lot of thatch. The collection bag fills fast so I did not use it and just raked it up. I did not use the Scarifier but it looks like it would work to loosen top soil. I think this should last for a while considering you generally dethatch once or twice a year. It is ligtweight and easy to push.

Haven't ever dethatched my lawn or anything like that but need to do something to help it grow better. I have a pretty good sized yard and was concerned about how an electric dethatcher would work especially if I had to run really long cords to get to the areas of the lawn I needed to get to. I ordered 2 100 ft 12ga extension cords and it ran perfectly even with all that cord. I ran it for about an hour at a time with small breaks and it never slowed down. Did the first run at highest setting dethatching and couldn't believe all the stuff it got up after I had already mowed and bagged really short. I went to the 2nd setting and went a different direction on the thickest areas and it got even more stuff out! I used the scarifier on some mostly bare areas I was going to re/over seed thinking it would loosen the dirt and also maybe give me some rows for the seed to go into but my soil is "sandy" dry-ish and it just created loose dirt-probably not the machine's fault but my soil. Here again it got a ton of stuff up even though several of the areas were almost bare. I think the area I dethatched is greening up quicker than normal after only a week, we have had rain for the last several days but still I feel optimistic it was all the hard work I put in dethatching. The WEN was easy to use, powerful, and seemed to do a good job. I didn't bother with the little bag on the back because all of the other people have said it's more a pain besides it gets so much up you'd never finish if you used it. Assembly was a little tough with the instructions but I figured it out. The instructions and the graphics didn't clearly identify some of the parts and was a little confusing but I prevailed! I would recommend this and am happy with the purchase.

This machine does a great job de-thatching the moss out of our grass. The bag is small and doesn’t hold much as we have lots of moss in our yard. So I am constantly stopping to empty the bag. I end up not using the bag as it’s faster to take the moss into a wheel barrow later for disposal. For a corded electric machine it works great and I would definitely purchase it again if needed. It arrived on time and was well packaged.

Overall Ideal tool for the job. Highly recommend. Why I Bought It I wanted to remove dead grass and leaves from my small yard (1/4 acre). I removed at least 10 lawn bags of grass/leaves, which surprised me. The lawn became noticeably healthier as a result. This de-thatcher is surprisingly effective. *** Use with caution *** I’d suggest beginning with the dethatcher spindle at the shallowest setting. I didn’t, but I tested it in an area that didn’t matter and even that effortlessly tore up dry, hard soil. The other spindle turns it into a low-grade rototiller, which is ideal to level small spots. A few suggestions: (1) Use a torque wrench w/spindle bolts The receivers for the spindle bolts are plastic on mine, so I use a drill diver with a torque setting to reinstall the bolts to a specific torque setting when I change spindles. That keeps the spindle square/straight & avoids over-tightening and potentially stripping the plastic receivers. (2) Add soft washers to handle bolts The handle gets a lot of vibration, so I added a few neoprene/rubber washers to keep them from vibrating loose. Cheap and effective way to avoid having to stop what you’re doing to keep tightening them. I loaned this out to two of my friends the first weekend I got it and they’d recommend it, too.

Wasn't sure how well this would work but after reading the reviews I decided to give it a shot. I was a little concerned about the light weight of the unit and the reviews about the bag filling up too quickly. While the bag does fill up very fast, (after about 20 feet of scarifying) it's because it pulls out so much thatch and undergrowth. Very impressive for the light weight of the machine. Worked like a champ and I was able to do my entire back yard in a couple of hours. Pulled out so much undergrowth that I completely filled two 96 gallon trash containers with thatch. Instead of removing the catch bag and then having to rake the entire lawn, I just emptied the back once I noticed the thatch no longer being picked up. Saved a ton of time on raking. In the end, I only had a few piles of thatch to rake up. I ran the mower over the lawn to help pick up any remaining thatch and then watered the lawn. Seemed to be taking water better. Will post some follow up photos in a few weeks once everything begins to fill in more. The only down side is the size of the catch bag. Not sure if it could be redesigned bigger and still work but that would have made my review a 5-star review. Honestly, that is the only thing I was not impressed with. Overall, this machine is awesome and I will be using again at the end of the season to get ready for winter. Much better than having to find one to rent and going through the hassle of picking up and dropping off in a set time limit. For the price, this unit was only about $50 more than renting a unit locally and now I can use whenever I need to instead of trying to deal with the rental hassle. Definitely recommend this unit.

Best Dethatching I have ever had. I have added scarifying to my lawn maintenance thanks to this and I’m amazed how big of a difference it makes. Very powerful and disturbingly lightweight. Bag fills fast with thatch and that’s a good thing. I have been using short durations using 75 feet of 12 Ga cord and it works fine but we have strong voltage supply to start with that compensates reduce effects of cable losses.

Máquina potente y funcional de diseño bonito y moderno. Vi comentarios que la bolsa se llenaba muy rápido y que debería ser más grande pero pienso que es adecuado el tamaño; el problema es que si vas a escarificar antes debes de podar lo más corto posible el césped y con esto se evita que se llene tan rápido la bolsa. No conocía la marca y me gustó además de que el precio es muy competitivo, motivo por el cual voy a ver que otros productos tiene Wen.

El artículo llegó en tiempo y forma,aún no lo he utilizado pero se ve de buen material

It is fairly easy to put it together and the two optional blades give a variety of options. The metal will remove pretty much everything except for grass, and worked well for my backyard full of moss and weed. After the initial cleaning, I use the smaller Valdes once a year in the spring to do a cleanup before sending and fertilizing for the year. My lawn has been weed and moss free since I use it

I have a pretty big lawn with tough thatch. This equipment shreds through the thatch with ease. Say goodbye to long, aching hours of raking. Save your rotator cuff and get yourself one of these. This even hits a thin layer of sand buildup over the lawn with ease as well, but be do be cautious for rocks and larger debris. This tripled my productivity and is a massive time saver. ONLY downfall is that the mulch bag is small and it only fills to about half before needing to empty it. Overall, a must have!