Mantis Tiller - anyone got one?

Jnelhams

Well got my Mantis Electric Tiller this week, and spent the day putting it together (you get a paper manual and clear instructions on DVD), not that easy to do on your own and the bolts are a bit of a pain, but managed to do it. The cable is quite long, but black rubber and so too easy to nick or cut, and also very heavy. So fix it all up, and decided to give it a try in Tilling Setting (you set the cutters to point backwards) When you switch it on it moves forward, and you pull it back towards you. It's not that light weight 9kg feels heavier, but very well made. So tried it out on a ready dug bed, no surprise that it dug it over very quickly...but the manual says you can use it on uncultivated land, my friend said no way, so I tried on my very dry London Clay lawn, and it bounced about but with a little patience it has turned it all into a dust bowl of fine clay granules it has to be said both friend and I were amazed! If we ever get any meaningful rain in London, I think it will churn over the ground at an incredible speed. I say the only disappointment was the cable is poor quality and the connector is a silly American adaptor thingy which is much bigger than needs to be.

The one downside was the Customer Services, when I ordered this in early April, I got an email back to say the Electric version was out of stock until May and did I want the Petrol one (no, hate having to get cans of petrol) anyway emailed back to Mantis, telling them no and I want to change the order to the Garden Package Deal - No reply, also rang them and got through to the most rude and indifferent Customer service team, which is sad as the Machine actually seems very well made, and with a little patience does work well even though this is the Electric model. Worth every penny so far...

hkminca

I love my 4 stroke Mantis. I've used it on uncultivated, bramble and nettle infested ground and it worked a treat. I used a brushcutter on it first and then used the Mantis. I got a strip about 8 ft by 30 ft done in a few hours from basically a total mess to good enough to plant grass seed on. It amazes me how much abuse the mantis takes, especially with stones.
As for the veggie beds, so long as you take up the grass first it can tackle virtually anything, and it's really quiet. Yes it is heavier than it looks to use in the DVD, but the end results are so worth it. My neighbour is very jealous of how good my veggie patch is compared to his and he spends hours digging his over by hand.
We did get it serviced this year as we overfilled the oil and it wouldn't start, but it's fine now and starts almost first time.