Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96402 in Home Improvement
• Brand: Patriot

Customer Reviews

An Achilles heel
Yes, it's all true: it starts easily, runs quietly, minimum vibration, no need to mix gas and oil, all those things are true, but it has an Achilles heel: the transmission! After not too much use, the tines stopped spinning. I took it to a repair shop. The transmission was shot. Parts alone are $130 plus labor - 50% of the original cost. What does one do? Apparently this is not an uncommon problem based on online research. There is no worthwhile alternative, however, so I either have to rent or repair. Not sure yet which I'll do.

As the old saying "Right Tool for the right Job"
As a professional landscaper, I also provide rototilling service and over the last 16 years have probably done 1500 gardens or more. About half of those 1500 have been established gardens and the other half I have created new gardens for the customers. I consider myself an expert in garden soil preperation or a "Soil Mixologist". I have come across many differant types of soil condtions, some fantastic, such as perfect clean top soil that you could turn over with a kitchen fork, as well as sandy or loam soil. Others so terrible such as clay you would need a backhoe or a bulldozer to bust it loose. A quick study tells me which one of my tillers I need too use. Having said all of this "the right tool for the right job". The other reviews never mention soil type or conditions, but I have to assume one of two reasons their Honda Tillers failed and they are as follows:

First the ground was not in the "mood". What I mean by this, is that I believe that there was no moisture in the ground at all, very arid, and dry, kind of like concrete where it has not rained for a week or so in hot weather. I have a Troy Bilt Tiller Horse model with more mileage on it than most people have on their cars, and I would not even consider tilling the soil until the ground was prepped properly. All that has to be done is the ground has to be hydrated (hose it down on and off over a few hours) You want the ground to appear slightly darkened by the water application but not soaked. The on and off spraying will allow the water to soak down a few inchs and you are good to go. Using this Honda Tiller in bad soil conditions as mention above will certainly destroy it in no time. My Troy built weighs 315lbs and I would not use it in bad conditions.

The second reason for failure in my opinion is that this small tiller was used for something it was not intended for, kind of like painting your house with an artist brush. Wrong tool wrong job.

This tiller as you can see by its size is intended for small areas and SMALL gardens. It is not designed for creating new gardens EXCEPT where soil conditions are PERFECT soil (the kitchen fork thing). I have had my Honda Harmony Tiller for about 12 years now and can't tell you how many hours I have on it but it's in the hundreds of hours. The tranny just went out on me at the end of last season. I repired it with parts bought on line that they say you can't find, or you can buy a new tranny and slap it in for about $115. In my eyes this has been a fantastic tiller especially when used correctly and knowing it's limitations. This little tiller has made me a ton of money over the years. Any of you people not happy with yours...I'll take them. This is the BEST mini tiller out there trust me. Hope I helped clear up the bad rap this Honda got. ..Tom Whit

This was a total disappointment
I had this unit for 2 seasons and the transmission went out. I took it into the dealer and they claimed they went to Honda and they said I miss used it. I am 30+ years in the nursery industry I treat all my tools with care. I use this piece of junk for only 2 gardening spring seasons in my 3 raised garden beds. Stay away from this product as Honda does not stand behind it!! I bought a Mantis 3 years ago and am very happy with it.