Best Lawn Scarifiers And Aerators

Having a garden can be a bit tricky. Sometimes we think we do everything right and still the results are not as amazing as we expected. It’s probably a good idea to see if we are not missing crucial steps in taking care of our grass. So I have a question for you. Do you know how to find the best lawn scarifiers and the best lawn aerators for your garden? If your answer is “No” you might find this article helpful.

In order to have a lush lawn, your grass needs 3 things – air, water and fertilizers. We all know that and try our best to provide them. But still, sometimes the results are not satisfactory. Where do we go wrong, then? Ask yourself this: When you water your lawn, do you see a number of puddles forming across the yard? If your answer to that question is positive, keep reading.

See our suggestions for best lawn scarifiers uk.

How To Choose Between Lawn Scarifier (Raker) And Aerator ?

The reason behind the forming puddles when you water could be either compacted soil or the presence of the so-called vegetation layer. Both of them prevent water, air and fertilizers to reach the soil.  A lawn scarifier and a lawn aerator could solve both of these problems and help you in this seemingly endless battle.

These tools will help you turn the situation around and enjoy fresh green grass and a healthy-looking garden for a long time.

This all sounds great, but we know that it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming to choose the right tools. The market is flooded with different brands and solutions. It’s more than annoying when after all the research we’ve done, we end up with tools that don’t really fit our needs. It’s unpleasant and it’s a waste of time and money. All the specifications we read about don’t always make sense and we often end up more confused than when we started researching.

So, this is the reason why we’ve decided to try clear things up a bit. We’ll help you establish your needs in order to choose among the best lawn scarifiers and the best lawn aerators for your garden. Just to mention that somewhere you can meet lawn scarifiers as rakers. The people in uk use they as synonyms, so for ease we gonna do the same in this review.

What Do Lawn Scarifiers and Lawn Aerators do?

The first step towards finding the best lawn scarifier and the best lawn aerator is to find out what exactly they do and how to use them.

Basically, the purpose of the scarifier is to remove the surface vegetation layer and the purpose of the aerator is to make holes in the soil, so nutrients can reach the grass.

The surface vegetation layer, also called thatch, consists of dead moss and debris such as fallen tree leaves or grass cuttings which build-up over the soil in time. The thatch serves as a barrier and does not allow water, air and fertilizers to penetrate the soil. If you don’t remove this barrier frequently, your grass will not get its much-needed nutrients to develop. With time it will turn yellow and eventually die.

This is where the scarifier, also known as a dethatcher comes into play. It removes the thatch, freeing the soil from that barrier and allowing all the nutrients to penetrate.

Once that upper layer is removed from the soil, it’s time for the next step- aerating.

The purpose of the lawn aerator is to break up the compacted soil. As you probably know compacted soil is not a good environment for any kind of plants. If your lawn is submitted to constant traffic or if it’s been a long time since it’s been processed the soil gets compacted. This means that it does not absorb water well and what is more, it lacks air.

In order to break up the compacted soil, you’d need a lawn aerator. It makes holes in the ground, thus letting all the nutrients to the roots.

How to Choose the Best Lawn Scarifiers and Aerators for UK?

How to choose the best lawn scarifiers and aerators for uk you may ask. Well, nowadays the markets are basically flooded with options. We have such a big choice, that sometimes it gets overwhelming and confusing. The wide variety we can choose from sometimes makes finding what we need really hard. That is why it is very important to have some guidelines and a basic idea about what we are looking for.

When it comes to finding the best lawn scarifiers and aerators, the first thing we need to establish is the type of soil we have and then the size of our land. Knowing this will help us choose the type of tool we need. Once we’ve done that, we are ready to dig in the specifications of each and eventually choose the best lawn scarifiers and aerators for us.

So let’s start with establishing which would be the best lawn scarifiers for you.

Types of Lawn Scarifiers

The lawn scarifiers fall into two main categories – electric and petrol.

The main advantage of the electric lawn scarifiers is that they are not as heavy as the petrol ones. This makes them easier to handle and more convenient to work with. What is more, they need little maintenance which is probably one of the reasons why they are more preferred by the users.

Besides all the great advantages, there are some disadvantages to the electric lawn scarifiers that we feel obliged to mention. The cord. It could be very frustrating if you don’t have a power socket around your garden or if it turns out that the cable is not long enough. This is why electric lawn scarifiers are best suited for small to medium lawns. So take this into consideration when choosing a tool for your garden.

Petrol lawn scarifiers are not bound by cables and power sockets, that’s why a lot of people tend to choose them. They are great for professional gardeners as well, as they have a great performance when the work is demanding. The best lawn scarifier for large gardens would be the petrol one. They are long-lasting and reliable, but of course, they also have their disadvantages.

Electric And Petrol Lawn Scarifiers

First of all, petrol lawn scarifiers tend to be more expensive than electric ones. This makes sense though, as they can take on more workload. The other disadvantage that petrol scarifiers have is that there is more maintenance involved. While you just plug the electric ones and start working, with the petrol ones you have to deal with refilling the tank when the petrol is out. You also need to make sure you have enough fuel around, so you don’t leave your work unfinished.

All in all, both electric and petrol scarifiers will get the job done. You just have to choose which would better fit your needs. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to go on a hunting trip for the best lawn scarifier for you on the market.

We also review other useful garden tools as best petrol hedge trimmers.

Types of Lawn Aerators

When it comes to lawn aerators, there are two types you can choose from. On one hand, are the spike aerators and on the other are the core ones. In order to choose, you first need to know the type of soil you have.

If you have sandy or loamy soils in your garden, the best option for you would be the spike aerator. The spike aerators have wedge-shaped spikes, which make holes in the ground. Air and water penetrate easily into the soil through those holes and ensure that the soil would be rich and suitable for new fresh grass to grow from it. The holes that you made will close soon after as the compacted soil around them expands when you water your lawn. Since the sandy or loamy soils are lighter, there is no need for the holes to stay for long. This is why the spike aerator is the best lawn aerator for these soils.

If you have heavy clay soils in your garden, the best lawn aerator would be the core one. Clay soils are thicker and thus less water and air can penetrate them. This is why this type of aerator removes some of the soil from the ground when you make holes in it and leaves the core on the turf. This ensures that the holes will stay for longer, than those made with spike aerator that will close shortly after. This is great for clay soils, as it will ensure more oxygen and fertilizers for your grass, despite the heaviness and thickness of the soil.

So, we’ve chosen between core and spike aerators and have decided if the best lawn scarifier for us is electric or petrol. Now what?

What to look for?

It’s time to talk about what to look for when choosing the best lawn scarifiers and the best lawn aerators that will fit our needs and will get the job done.

When looking for the best lawn scarifiers, besides having in mind your lawn size, there are other criteria that you need to pay attention to.

Specifications of Lawn Scarifiers

First of all, you need to check out the blades. Basically the more blades or claws the tool has, the better. The best lawn scarifiers have an average of 14-20 blades in order to remove effectively the thatch we talked about above. The quality of the blades depends on the material they are made of. For instance, stainless steel or tempered steel are some of the best choices for the blades. They are stronger and stay sharp for longer. Also keep in mind that in some tools the blades can be individually replaced, which is a great perk and could save you money in the long run.

Working depth is also something that needs your attention. Scarifiers usually work over a few millimetres of depth. You don’t need deep penetration. Usually, you can adjust the depth. The best lawn scarifiers usually have 3 settings for the depth you could use.

If you have a large area to cover it will be a good idea to have in mind the cutting width of the scarifier you are about to buy. The wider the cutting width, the faster you’d finish the job!

It is very important that you’re comfortable while working. This is why an adjustable handlebar is a great perk. While we are shopping we often overlook our comfort, but your hands and back will thank you if you don’t. It’s important for the handlebar to suit your height and posture. Another thing we often overlook is the machine’s weight. It determines the scarifier’s manoeuvrability and the effort you put in moving it. Besides, It could be a really important factor since your comfort will dictate the number of stops you have to make while working.

Collection Bag of The Raker

Last but not least comes the collection bag. We strongly recommend you to look for a scarifier with a collection bag because it saves time and effort. If your scarifier does not have one you would have to do the collection work yourself.

So if we have to make a conclusion the best lawn scarifiers are comfortable to work with, manoeuvrable, have a lot of blades and are with a good cutting width.

Here is more information about our gardening tools and advises from experts – Best Hedge Trimmer Reviews Uk.

Specifications of Lawn Aerators

Spike and plug lawn aerators have three “subcategories” you can choose from- manual, tow-hitch and push aerators.

Manual aerators are more of an exercise than aerating. You need to do the work yourself. The most common type of manual aerator is the fork-style aerator. With it, you need to push into the ground using your foot. If you have a really small space, you can opt for this one. If your lawn is bigger, you’d better check out the other options. This will save you hours of back-breaking work.

Tow-Hitch aerators are great for large properties. You’ll have to load the aerator to give it enough pressure to force the cutting spoons, twines, or knives into the soil.

Push Aerators are the best choice for medium- size gardens. These systems come in electric and gas-powered models. You can easily apply the differences between petrol and electric scarifiers we mentioned above. They will help you make the best choice.

Our Top 3 Suggestion For Lawn Rakers / Scarifiers

VonHaus 2 in 1 Lawn Scarifier – 1500W Electric Garden Lawn Rake with 4 Working Depths & 10m Power Cable

• Easy, convenient and efficient, this powerful 1500W 2 in 1 scarifier offers a quick and simple way to maintain a healthy, tidy lawn
• Made from durable plastic with a metal frame and distinctive grey, black and orange colourways, this handy tool effortlessly removes thatch, moss, leaves and other debris from your lawn
• Two tools in one - the dual purpose drum features easily interchangeable aerating and scarifying rollers as well as a collection box, height adjustable handle and long 10m power lead
• Some simple assembly required – easy-to-follow instructions included
• Manufacturer 2 Year Warranty Included

Check price on Amazon

Einhell 118 cc 40 cm Petrol Scarifier

• 4-stroke engine (118cc)
• Central depth adjustment, 8 levels (20mm)
• Wide wheels exert less stress on the lawn
• Ball-bearing cutting unit with 18 high-grade steel blades
• Recommended for lawn areas up to 1200 m

Check price on Amazon

Bosch AVR 1100 Verti Cutter Lawn Raker

• Fast verticutting without tool blockage
• Fast and complete collection of moss and thatch
• Comes with a 50 Litre collection box, vibration emission value ah: 2.5 m/s², uncertainty K: 1.5 m/s²
• Innovative drum with stainless steel blades and airflow inlets quickly and completely removes the layer of thatch consisting of plant debris moss and weeds from the lawn

Check price on Amazon

Final Words

In conclusion, finding the best lawn scarifiers and the best lawn aerators can really be a challenge, but we hope that we helped a little in this daunting task. Remember in the uk the terms lawn rakers and scarifiers are interchangeable.

Best Lawn Scarifiers & Lawn Aerator Reviews

Happy gardening, everyone with our reviews below: