Sun Joe AJ801E 13" Electric Scarifier and Lawn Dethatcher with 12 Amp Motor and Collection Bag

Amazon Customer: This thing did a great job. Perfect for the once a year or so use when doing end of season rehab. The two reasons it isn’t 5 stars: 1: bag is too small. Ended up ditching it and letting the thatch fall on the lawn and cleaned up with the mower. 2: the screws to hold the push bars in didnt line up. Don’t really need them to use it though.

It pulled so much garbage out of the grass that it’s 100% ready for aeration and overseeding.

United States on Sep 29, 2023

Jadd: It feels too Fisher Price like. Very cheap. Sometimes it pulls its self along and you have to hold it back then it gets hung up something and you are shoving it to not rip up one spot. This can happen in less than a foot. I just did our back yard again, it pulls up so much debris you better have a ton of bags to collect it all in. Forget about the bag it comes with, that's a joke. You'll need your lawn mower to pick it all up. It just feels like its going to break any second though.

United States on Sep 23, 2023

Amazon Customer: If you think you have thatch you probably do. this machine will pull it up and your grass will grow in much thicker and stronger. I highly recommend dethaching. The machines collection bag is useless. don't waste your time with it. while this machine does a great job of pulling up thatch, it is not for large yards. Its a little awkward to use and you need to rake up the thatch once its pulled i'm still verry happy with the results. I thought a few spots were beyond help, but one i ran this machine a month later it was the best spot in the yard. Pro's include the ease compared to raking, the efficiency and quality of the reaults. The Con's include the awkward use, the useless bagging and the inability to realistically do large yards. can do a 20ft x 20ft max!

United States on Sep 22, 2023

Jason HossackJason Hossack: Used it only as a dethatcher. Worked great. Didn't use it as a aerator yet. Easy to use. I didn't use the bag it came with as it is small and filled quickly

Canada on Sep 11, 2023

Bruce Hedlund: I bought this because I saw someone on a video online using it and they were getting an unbelievable amount of dead grass out of their lawn.

The day I did it I was amazed, because I too, was able to pull an unbelievable amount of dead grass out of the lawn. I only went from side to side one time, and I literally covered the entire lawn with dead brown grass clippings. I had to use my leaf blower to blow it into big piles and I filled five large garbage cans compacted with these clippings. That’s more than I get when I cut my grass. According to the video I watched when I do it the next time I should expect the same amount all over again. That was just using the detaching blade. I have not tried the scarifier yet, but that according to the video I watched may produce the same results again.

Once in a while, I may get stuck on a bump because the wheels are not that big so I just pull back on it and give it a harder push and off I go. I noticed when I pull back on it I ended up leaving a big pile of dead grass That I never expected so it definitely looks promising that when I do it again, I will receive the same results again.

I had looked into renting a...

United States on Sep 03, 2023

RichardRichard: I really didn't know what to expect from this machine, but I'm super impressed.

Our lawn was really in bad shape and needed to be de-thatched in a serious way. I wasn't sure this unit would handle the amount of work I put it through on our really large yard, but if performed without any issues.

We had so much thatch to remove and I was blown away with the sheer amount it pulled out. The pictures posted are just a small amount of the total amount removed.

This is a critical step and nursing your lawn back to good health. Our lawn now looks absolutely amazing, and I mean Amazing because it's not getting choked up by all the thatch.

I used this unit on its most aggressive height setting (low) and it's actually a blast watching all the dead material being pulled up.

Highly recommended!

Canada on Aug 07, 2023

AHAH: I am changing my rating from 1 to 4 stars, because once I got in touch with SnowJoe, the issue was quickly resolved to my satisfaction. While they did not have the missing parts in stock, they shipped a replacement unit free of charge. This may seem like a bit of overkill for to missing handlebar parts, but I can't complain as the issue was indeed resolved at no additional cost to me.

I am leaving the review at 4 instead of 5, as the fact that spare parts are not available does concern me.

I have bought a couple of Snow Joe / Sun Joe products in the past without any issues. This time however, it has turned out to be a disappointment so far. The box sat in my garage for a couple of weeks before I went to assemble it, and when I opened the box I found that it contained 4 lower handlebar pieces and no middle handlebar pieces instead of 2 of each.

Ok, I should be able to contact SnowJoe support to get this straightened out. Easier said than done. Their website seems overloaded, and just hangs when I try to create an account to register my product. Tried several browsers, and I am an IT professional. I know a poorly designed/underdimensioned web page/server when I...

Canada on Jun 29, 2023

ThriftyShopper: We ordered this early summer time and my husband just used it last week (end of august 2021) It worked really well just using the dethatcher attachment. My husband first mowed the lawn to a lower grass height than he normally would so as not to overstress the Sun-Joe Dethatcher. He used a properly sized extension cord so as not to burn the motor(this is amply specified in the User's Manual from Sun-Joe). After finishing working with the dethatcher from doing about 14,000 sq/feet lawn, he lihgtly rinsed the tool making sure not to spray water inside the engine cover, he stored it in our outdoor garden shed to dry (as it gets warm in there) for the next 4 days. He wanted to make a do-over on a section of the yard and the unit would just start spinning its motor for about a second and it would cut-out.He tried to re-start the Sun-Joe and the motor would still cut-out after about a second.
He then proceeded to plug his extension cord at another AC outlet in the yard, same result, he tried using one of our electric leaf blowers which is rated at running at 12Amps and it was fine, So having determined that the outlets and the AC extension cord were OK he then proceeded to dismantle...

Canada on Sep 03, 2021

Nick: It took a good long while to get here, and as other reviewers reported, it does feel somewhat "too light to be sturdy" and rather flimsy at unboxing, but let me tell you, it packs a punch!

Took all of 5 minutes to assemble; the main unit comes fully assembled with the sacrifier tool in place, you basically need to put in two Phillips screws for the handle posts, then it's just a matter of hand screwing the 4 handle bolts and voilà, ready to roll. Switching from scarifier to dethatcher is also a breeze and is done in a manner of seconds; simply flip the unit over (the "lightweight" is already coming in handy), unscrew both 10mm retaining bolts, switch "drums" and put the bolts back in, not too tight, just nice and snug.

Deck height adjustment is quick and easy, and once underway, I was amazed at how much thatch came out of the seemingly "clean" parts of the lawn. I quickly found that the "catch bag" is rather useless if you're dethatching for the first time in a long time, you'd have to empty it every few feet. The best approach I found is to leave the bag off, make one complete pass on the whole section of lawn then blow everything out on the driveway with a leaf...

Canada on Sep 02, 2020

erikerik: (no endorsements here. Just my two cents)
_My yard was getting worse. I had to research how it fix it soon.
I had thinning grass. To many worm hills. possible fugus. And other issues.
_I came across a you tube video by a guy who calls himself the "the Pest and Lawn Ginja". He was entertaining and packed with tons of knowledge. (As goes with most of his videos) One video had a review on this device and it got me interested to learn more. Looking at the reviews here, it seemed somewhat of a gamble, as many were saying how this device is not sturdy and breaks.
_ Well. I'm here to say. Mine was REALLY put to the test and won with flying colors!!! I had heavy debris and made about 6 passes in the front yard and about 4 passes in the back. I have about 1500 square feet in front and about the same for the back yard. So the use was equivalent to about a single pass on a 1/3 acre of land!!
My hopes were- if this unit just held together to the end of this project, it would have served it's main purpose. But I can happily say that this has worked far more than that!
_I had to get this project done with less work involved so that I could continue with my lawn...

United States on Nov 20, 2019