Yard Machines 121R 31cc 2-Cycle Gas Powered Cultivator/Tiller
by Yard Machines
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Our Price: $199.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Lawn & Patio See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Yard Machines 121R 31cc 2-Cycle Gas Powered Cultivator/Tiller
Customer Review: There are better choices for your money
Summary: 2 Stars
I had my #121 Cultivator for just over one year when it broke. I had only tilled our 400sqft garden with it two times before it went kaput and am very disappointed with its durability.
Pros:
- It is inexpensive. Having said that, there are several other models comparably priced.
Cons:
- As another reviewer noted, the pull is exceptionally hard. I'm a big guy, but it always required a tremendous effort to pull the starter.
- It doesn't have a very deep till depth - only 5 inches. I am going to look for a new tiller with at least 8 inches.
- It is very noisy.
- The tines tend to go along the surface of the soil vice dig in. As a result, you spend a lot of time man-handling the unit to try to get the tines to turn over the soil.
- It only lasted for two uses. This fall, something in th edrive train broke. The tines no longer spin, the pull is no longer connected to the motor, etc. While it may still be under warranty, I'm not sure that I want to go through the effort of repairing.
From the research that I have done, for the money I'd recommend that you skip this tiller and take at look at the Ryobi cultivators with the "JustAddSand" feature.
Customer Review: Light Duty and Buzzy, but Just Fine for Stated Purpose
Summary: 4 Stars
Don't expect this little guy to turn over hard crusted soil like your grandfather's John Deere tractor. (That said, as I only needed a couple of inches of break-up, I was able to dig through some rather chomped down limestone crust from an old driveway bed, which broke it up enough that I was finally able to shovel it off down to the dirt. Sweet...)
Expect to have to work around things at varying angles, and maybe pulling it backwards rather than always going forward like a lawn mower.
Expect it to go down only a few inches -- Plenty good for most flowerbeds, future lawns and typical veggie garden. No, you won't go down a foot for your tulips that need to be 6-9 inches below.
Expect to mess around with mixing oil and gasoline (it is a 2 cycle engine, unlike your lawn mower). Expect to have arms that are still buzzing for a half-hour after the project is done. (And, wear your goggles, hard shoes and gloves please!)
If you have the right expectations, you'll be happy with this.
Customer Review: Very Noisy
Summary: 3 Stars
It starts. It spins. It gets the job done. It is the cheapest model you can find. That is about it. Nothing special.
Pros:
If you have something stuck in the wheels, the clutch engages. So, it will not force the engine to stall. It is not heavy either. You can fold the handle in half to save space.
Cons:
It starts easily if you follow the instruction. But it is very difficult to pull the rope. It is not smooth at all. It feels like there is something stuck inside the pulley all the time. Every time I try hard to pull the rope, I feel like I am going to break the thing.
Another thing is that this engine is very very noisy. I can compare this with my lawn mower and string trimmer. My lawn mower is not that noisy at all. My string trimmer is kinda noisy. This cultivator is extremely noisy! You can lose your hearing with this engine. My neighbor actually came over and got mad. So, be prepare if you are going to use it all weekend.
Customer Review: A noisy workout
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm very disappointed in this thing. It is very noisy, very hard to pull start, and the gear drive gets very hot after only a few minutes use. The soil has to be already pretty loose and broke up or it will just sit there and bounce up and down. Its tempting to put one foot on it to hold it down but its got a picture of doing that on it with a big red circle and X on it.
I tried to use it on an area beside my trailer to put in a flower bed. The ground had never been broke up before but it wasn't packed down either. This thing wouldn't even scratch the surface. I had to use my shovel and do it by hand the old fashioned way first. Then this thing still didn't do a very good job of tilling the soil.
After wrestling with this thing for 30 minutes my hands were numb from the vibration and my neck was killing me. This thing is a LOT harder to handle than the full size walk behind tiller I used to have. I should have used the money that I spent on this one to get a new motor put on my old one.
Customer Review: not made to last
Summary: 2 Stars
In the beginning I liked this tiller, although it was a bit on the "light duty" and "high noise" end of the scale. After the warranty was expired, things started to break. The "engine stop" switch kept getting jammed. The pull cord started to not recoil properly. Finally, the linkage between the pull-cord and the engine broke, so that the pull-cord wouldn't turn the engine over. At this point, I gave up and threw the whole thing away.
I wish there was a good tiller out there that lasted a bit longer than these do. Seems like they last long enough to fulfill their warranty, and then they bite the dust. I won't be getting another Yard Machine. (Note - This was also sold as a Craftsman - Sears)