Yard Butler Manual Lawn Coring Aerator, ID-6C - Lawn Care Tool for Aerating - Long-Handled - Power-Coated Steel Construction - Comfortable Cushioned Handles Garden Tool - Easy to Use

Most times the simplest design is the best! Works Great! Easy to operate does a good job. No regrets, and would consider buying again, except this is built for a lifetime .

I purchased the Butler Manual Lawn Coring Aerator to help improve my lawn's health, and I’ve been very impressed with how well it works. The tool is sturdy, well-built, and surprisingly easy to use for a manual aerator. It pulls nice, clean plugs from the soil, which has helped loosen up compacted areas in my yard. After using it, I noticed better water absorption and healthier grass growth in just a few weeks. It’s also a great alternative to renting a powered aerator if you have a smaller yard or prefer a more hands-on approach. The dethatching effect is an added bonus too—makes it a great 2-in-1 tool. Definitely a worthwhile investment for any DIY lawn care enthusiast. Highly recommended if you’re looking to give your grass a boost without breaking the bank.

Bought one a few years ago at a Lowe's or Osh that I thought was the Hound Dog branded "Turf Hound" but it looked almost identical to the "Yard Butler" instead, so I don't know if the companies are related or maybe I just had a brain fart and filed the memory incorrectly. It worked well enough that I wore that down to nubs (see photo comparing the old one to new) thanks to hard clay soil that had to be pretty moist to penetrate making the tips rust, chip,or bend into the tube, and then having to file or grind the ends back to a functional point. When this seasons plugs were all coming out stumpy, I figured I could use a replacement and wondered if there might be a tool that didn't clog as much as that had. I think that in certain clays, it's inevitable, though you can minimize it by working it only after it's been watered and oiling the tines before and after using the tool. I have tried ones with more tines, and they are much harder to push into the ground since I am only 5'2 and 130lbs, so the two tines works better for me. I also find the height of the handle appropriate on this one, and the T design is comfortable because I can switch feet easily, without knocking a knee into the sides of the handle. I'm not sure how this compares with using the Hound Dog model, except that the center handle might help with pivoting the thing from side to side more easily when necessary, or perhaps the stepping space might be easier to access on the Dog version because it's more open. But then again, I also find it helpful that the shape above the step on the Butler helps ensure I don't just step THROUGH it and miss planting it down firmly. I did try the red one with thicker tines and the step "lifting bar" (see pics for side by sides) in hopes that it would be less clog prone, but found that the shape made it noteably more difficult to push into the ground than the slightly thinner and longer tines of the Butler. It may be because they are thicker, even though they are tapered, or maybe because they are cut square instead of at an angle like the Butler, which slid much more deeply and smoothly into the ground. Though the other one DID seem to be less likely to pack up with soil IN the tines, it also was much more problematic in dirt clogging AROUND the them instead (see pics). Go figure... The step bar on the red one didn't really add anything useful to the process for me, as it wasn't really helpful to try and use my foot to pick up the tool. It actually seemed a bit more in the way when switching feet, which I did much more frequently than trying to lift it with the foot. Some may prefer the thicker grips on the red one, but my hands are pretty large and I had no issues with the thinner ones. The one clear advantage of the red one is really probably the color itself, as I did have trouble locating the green Yard Butler on the lawn if I stepped away from it. The red is totally obvious to spot immediately. Lastly, I also preferred the resulting plug length of the Butler. The thickness of the other was beaten by the depth of extracted material with Yard Butler. (Last picture shows all 3 YB cores on the left vs 3 shorter of the other tool on the right). Definitely get an extra inch or more with the YB tool. YB beats the spike sort and more complicated coring setups on manual tools. There might be some real advantage to a rolling disc type on ebay, but it costs much more. If you have a large enough yard, though, it might be worth the cost over renting something powered, especially if you don't have something that needs a riding mower in size. My mom's lawn is probably 2000 sq ft, and it can be a workout and a long day to step core the whole thing alone, but I do it a little at a time whenever I visit and it's fine because the tool is always available and quiet enough to use in the middle of the night so the summer heat isn't overwhelming. I dig it. And it really does improve the lawn significantly. If I see it's getting a bit tired looking, I know it's time to step some air into thr soil and it thickens up nicely. For the money, it's a win in my book. Id like to try the other design I saw on Amazon too, which ejects the cores on the SIDE of the tine instead of through the top, as that might be less likely to pack into a clog, but I would want to know it was really better before spending twice as much money on it. For now I am doing fine with this and maybe will try the other if it wears down so far in a few years as the last one did. ..

I've used it several times in the past 6 weeks. I get my entire lawn core aerated annually by a gas powered machine, but I bought this for the following uses: * The soil gets compacted at the gate from the front yard to the back yard. It's a funnel so all of the traffic goes in a narrow area, and it especially gets compacted when I have a big garden project that requires wheel barrows. I used it here when it first arrived and it did great, and then used it again after a big gardening project. * I have St Augustine grass so in the fall there are a few areas that get brown patch. This year, on those 3 spots I used the aerator and then top dressed with leaf mold compost prior to brown patch season. Should prevent the brown patch and help get some organic matter into the soil. * The darn cinch bugs killed a couple spots in lawn along the sidewalk. After killing off the cinch bugs, I used the aerator in the dead grass and top dressed with leaf mold compost. The core aeration will help get some organic matter into the soil while the St. Augustine grass fills in the compost. Positives: * It produces nice sized cores both in terms of depth and diameter. * It's very simple to use. It's mindless work and one of the few times being overweight pays off. * It's very sturdy and well constructed. Feels like something that will last many, many years. Negatives: * It's a lot of work so best for small areas. Rent a gas powered core aerator to do entire lawn or hire a contractor. * The last core stays in the tool so you need to push it out with a screwdriver at the end of the project.

First off, bad packaging. Looked like someone just found an old box through in the yard butler and place a single piece of tape to close it. When i picked it up the box looked smashed and was partially open. Anyways, I got the yard butler out and it felt very solid (well made). As for the performance i would have to say that depends on your lawn. The type of soil and how dry it is limits the performance of this tool. I have clay soil and i watered my lawn a day before. Got the yard butler out to put it to the test. The first few feet it worked great, the tool was making holes and plugs were falling on the lawn. Then it got clogged with the clay soil. So i spend a few minutes unclogging it, which is hard to do. You have to drive a screw driver to clear it out and even then the soil stick to the sides. Tried spraying with water hose and even that didn't work. Did the best i could to clean it and continued making holes, but after a few succesfull holes with plugs coming out it got clogged again. Got tired of cleaning it so much so i decided to just make holes without plugs. I would have to say that given the type of soil i have, i would not buy or recommend this product to a friend. I would rather rent a gas powered aerator.

Works great! I hadn’t paid to have my lawn aerated in years as I have backyard chickens, trees and other plants that I didn’t want damaged. So with this hand aerator, I was able to control where I aerated (avoiding tree roots, etc) and how much I wanted. It is not hard to do but it does take time and can be a little bit of a work out. I am only 5’1” and had no problems with it other than getting a blister so wear gloves! I aerated heavily and my yard is looking good so it needed it. This is well worth the $, is built well and not heavy to work with. I did have some soil stick to it a couple of times because it’s clay and it was just a little too wet (end of February and a few days after a snow fall) so I poked the soil out and cleaned with with a long cylindrical brush. So make sure that the soil is NOT too wet not too dry when doing this. I only wish I had bought this earlier.

..its hard to get cores out.. each pass, IT PUSHES PREVIOUS CORES OUT... So worth it!..we've paid 3x as much for some jerk to do a lousy quick pass with a machine that actually further compacts lawn!.. Took me maybe 30 min to do 1/3 of our big side of lawn ( we are on 1/3 acre w landscaping etc).. I went out after rain and it was easy peasy, kihda relaxing.. would be great job for kids too..and cant lie about it bc you see the cores all over... We have hard clay and rocks everywhere .. Which makes this better too than a machine which just goes where it goes. .if i hit a rock, i take the time to move over a bit... As far as wiggling it..resist the urge bc that compacts the wiggled soil.. ( also why you never use prong type aerators) Whats also cool is that you dont hafta get too close together bc since you'll own this instead of doing every 2 or 3 yrs, youll likely do it spring and fall.. 👍👍👍👍👍👍🌜🌛

I got this to aerate areas that the lawn care folks seem to maybe have missed last fall when they aerated on their machine. This year we saw some crabgrass pop in spots and it's likely because that soil is still compacted and not letting grass get a good hold. So, I got this to do little patches around the yard. I cannot imagine trying to use this to do a large area, i don't think that's the purpose of this little guy. The coating seems pretty good on the steel. The grip is good enough but not squishy - for longer sessions i'd probably wear some padded gloves. The success you'll have of removing cores as you go will totally depend on your soil type, the moisture content of that soil, and how you prep the tool. More on that in a bit. First off, I looked at the instructions (imagine that) and grabbed a long flat headed screwdriver to pop out the cores between aeration. This worked out really well, overall. First impression: I tried just repeatedly jamming the thing into the ground to do multiple cores (thinking they'd just pop up and out of the tool). That didn't go so well, as one side got clogged up, while the other side just happily released the core when i flipped the tool and used the screwdriver lol. So, I just proceeded to get into a rhythm of jabbing it down, pulling it out, flipping the tool over and popping out the cores with the screwdriver. This mostly worked okay, like 95% of the time, but occasionally one side was still sticky with popping out the core. I think this is just because that soil was stickier/wetter than the other. I have ideas for that. Basic use: put the tool on the ground where you want, step gently but firmly down in the center, and sink the tool into the ground (gently because you do not want to jam it into a rock or root under the ground that will bend it probably). Pull the tool out, the soil cores are in the tool. Flip it around and put the grips on the ground. Use one hand on the metal step bar, and the other use a long flat headed screwdriver to push the cores out. Flip tool back over and do it again wherever you want to. Soil type/moisture: We have rich black topsoil here, and it rained about 1/2" to 1" the day before last. Yesterday was hot and humid but dry. So, the moisture soaked in, and the soil dried out. You really have to rely on trying the conditions out to see if this guy will work okay for you - if your soil is really moist and sticky, this will be a pain. If you have clay soil, it might compact in this tool and be hard to remove BUT i have an idea for that. Improvements/tips: I think I am going to clean this off and dry it well, so it's like new, and coat the inside of the core removers with some spray oil - WD40, Rem-Oil, any would do, even cooking spray lol. Any oily spray-in substance would slick up the core remover cones and those cores will pop out waaaay easier with lubricated coated steel against the soil cores. This is kind of like how candles are made in candle molds, you put some spray in to release once the wax hardens. Same idea. Reapplying the spray oil occasionally will probably be necessary as you work with the tool. Just an idea. Also, be sure you give this a go with well watered and drained soil. The conditions are going to have to be right, not concrete dry soil, and not wet soil. If it's too dry, wait for watering or rain to soak in and drain. If it's too wet, wait a day and see how the cores do. Pretty happy with this, as I just aerated random compact spots in my lawn without much effort.

After reading some negative reviews I was a little concerned in buying this tool as it was not cheap. I needn't have worried, it is a great garden tool that is simple yet effective. Firstly it is made from steel bar and not metal tubing so it is sturdy and unlikely to bend, unless subjected to serious abuse. The crossways handle and foot brace both allow for pressure to be applied easily. It is important that the soil be moist to allow for the plugs to be removed whole and to keep the shape of the resultant hole intact. Dry soil that is like solid concrete will be a struggle and overly saturated soil will just be a mud bath! I have used it on both paspalum lawn laid by sod (dense) and zoysia japonica, underlain by red Dubai desert sand. It is very satisfying to quickly extract rows of lawn/soil plugs. The tines do block from time to time and this should be expected due to variations in soil, grass, sod etc. Sometimes applying more force on the next insertion clears the blockage, or rotating 180 degrees for a slightly different angle of attack. Though the instructions indicate to use a large screwdriver or similar tool to unblock, I found that the hosepipe set onto 'jet' was far quicker and less effort, though make sure that you have your gardening clothes on (and goggles for the cautious) as initial blowback water will go in every direction! All in all, very satisfied with this purchase.

I ordered this with much scepticism thinking that it would be some flimsy rubbish that would bend the second it saw my lawn but how wrong I was. This is really well put together and feels like it is a quality product. It has a nice sturdy construction with some decent joins and welds on it. The handle is nicely padded and good to work with. My lawn is mostly like concrete as soon as things get a little drier and is full of stones and other assorted rubbish, so going at it with this thing was the start of the war to rejuvenate it. When I used it, it was the start of March and the lawn hadn't yet dried out from the winter so everything was nice and soft. This cut into the ground like butter and produced clean cores each time. I only had to un block it three times I think whilst I was doing it and I have about a 60 foot garden so was out there for around an hour doing this. I managed to get a rhythm where I could keep my foot on the top of the splines and sort of step, press, lift, step press in one akward motion and it works really well. I hit stones and bits of brick (?) at some point but this thing didn't care. It either cut trough that stuff or kind of pushed it aside. My dog also had great fun following me around sniffing all the holes in the ground and then chasing the soil cores as she is weird and loves it when you throw clumps of mud... My only criticism of this is that it is quite short and I think it could do with being a bit longer, or have different lengths on offer. I am 5"9 ish and I had to bend considerably to use this and it did cause pain in the back, just slightly longer and it would be ok. Overall if you need to use a hollow tine Aerator and want one which will get through your lawn and be useful for many uses beyond you should really consider this piece of equipment. It comes highly recommended from me.

Muy resistente. Hay que regar bien el pasto o tierra antes de poder descorazonar. Los agujeros siguen en mi jardín después de 2 semanas y el pasto ha mejorado un poco. Ahora me falta un buen fertilizante para complementar.

Tolles, robustes Werkzeug, das macht was es soll. Die Hohlspoons verstopfen nicht. Dank der schräg abgeschnittenen Spoons auch problemloses eindringen ins erdreich ohne hohen Kraftaufwand.

Manueel beluchten van het gazon met deze tool werkt uitstekend. Zit zelden verstopt. Prima apparaat.