Side by Side Comparison of: Brinly vs Good Vibrations

I had trouble at first, I did not get a service manual so I reordered it and I did not get a manual the second time, so I called the company.thy were good to work with and I was able to put it to gather, I like it from the start just from its looks and I thank it will be worth the extra trouble

This sweeper does the job well. As some have pointed out, the assembly instructions were written, by all appearances, by someone who hadn't actually done the assembly, or else didn't remember what he did. Some steps are backwards, so take the instructions with a grain of salt, sea salt if you are particular. Time will tell how long the unit lasts. That's why I am not eager to review purchases immediately. If I have problems I will update. I use equipment with an eye to longevity, so it should last for some time. I don't see any inherent problems with the design of the machine. This is the first lawn sweeper I've owned, so I can't compare it to others on the market. I used it to sweep up a dozen loads of clippings from our rental house lawn. Heavy windrowing doesn't seem to bother the unit. In fact mowing to windrow the grass will reduce your sweeping time. Gardeners should be prepared to make compost out of the grass, because it heaps up quickly.

It arrived on-time with all components present and in good shape. I put it together this weekend using its easy to follow instructions. Of course the real test is how did it perform...great! It saved me from so much manual labor of raking leaves like I used to do. My first use was amazing and I look forward to a long friendship with my Brinly lawn sweeper. I would recommend this product to anyone.

I bought this about five weeks ago and used it for picking up this season's leaf fall. I have a lot of trees in my yard on a half acre lot and this device made the job easy. Assembly wasn't difficult at all since the instructions are written clearly. I used the sweeper every 3-5 days to keep the yard looking great. Also, I overseeded this fall and I wanted to give the new grass seedlings as much light as possible. I pulled the sweeper with a John Deere riding mower and found that the sweeper did a better job picking up the leaves if the blade on the mower was operating, instead of just pulling the sweeper and not in "grass cutting" mode at the same time.

As with other reviews, I give this sweeper a top rating. It is built study and does an excellent job!

Was going to bump this rating down a notch because of the instructions but the unit is solid and works great so let it 5 stars! Have large yard with oaks and pines and at first run it filled fast! But those instructions... and the tiny illustrations. Like items 11 & 12 aren't shown on the parts list but they're there and shown on the Hamper And Hamper Component View image drawing. Huh? Sliding item 66 thru item 40, must be some trick to that. And attaching the wind screen half closed on page 18. Don't you have to disassemble item 38 out of the hamper to get that as shown? Got it figured out but being a mechanical engineer might of helped a little. Great solid unit and works great, too, just could use some TLC (and proof reading) on the instructions.

Assembly took about an hour and was mostly straightforward. Using it was very easy, pulling behind my riding lawn mower. It did an OK job of pulling up the winter thatch from my yard. It didn't do as good of a job as dedicated push-behind dethatcher/power rake would have, but it worked well enough.

I just tried this out without any weight and it did great. This company has one of the best way of packaging the hardware that you need to put it together. All on a card marked with numbers and locations from start to finish putting it all together. One thing that I do plan on adding to the handle used to engage the tines is an extension that I can reach from the mower without having to stop and get off. I wanted to add something I did to help protect the top surface paint from scratches. For around $10.00 HF has a anti-fatigue mat that can be cut to fit the upper surface where you need to add concrete blocks for weight. I found that there was enough material to not only do the dethatcher I bought, but also the aerator I bought at the same time. (attached below is a picture of both)

I had previously bought a Brinly core aerator and liked its good value. So, in an effort to help my large yard come back to life I bought this Brinly Tow Behind Dethatcher. I'm liking Brinly. It was not hard to put together if you're organized and are somewhat handy with putting things together. Just put everything on your workbench or table, put on some good tunes and in no time it'll be together. I did find the height adjustment instructions a little off but once that was fixed it worked great. I put one large heavy cinder block on it and drove it horizontally the first run, then sucked the thatch into my lawn tractor yard bag. The next day I repeated going diagonally. I knew I had thatch but I had no idea how much. It looked like bales of hay. After getting up the second round of thatch I used the Brinly core aerator (ONLY use a CORE aerator otherwise you're making your soil more compact which is the opposite of what you want!) and some good organic fertilizer my yard looks better than it ever did.PS. You will need a place to store it. It's large and an odd shape with sharp tines.

There are some yard chores that I dread to do. Raking the dead grass out of the lawn every spring is one of them. I have a good size yard and this year as I started raking and my back hurting, I got thinking there must be a better way. I was going to try to fabricate something to pull behind my riding mower, but I decided to check Amazon first. I'm glad I did. I couldn't have made this for less money. This rake does the job better than I can do with a hand rake, and it does it very quickly.I was apprehensive about putting this together after some of the reviews I read, but everything came neatly packaged and labeled with clear directions for assembly. If you just take your time and follow the simple directions, you can put it all together and be using it within an hour.The only down side of this for me is storage. It does take up quite a bit of room in my garage for something I'll only use once a year.The up side is this makes my spring yard care so much easier. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

About as heavy duty as I would expect for the price. Assembly wasn't bad, especially with the parts all labeled and sealed in plastic. It's not a complex device, but it seems well engineered. Transport mode still drags a bit but there are instructions to adjust the ride height, I just chose not to bother. My thatch is really thick and clumpy, so it builds up pretty quick on the tines instead of just shedding off to the sides. I roll over to the compost pile, lift up the dethatcher and quickly remove the built up debris. It's solid but pretty light. Perfect for me! the stuff that's left I just mulch with my mower. I don't use any weights, as it works fine for me without them. I tow it behind a JD135 lawn tractor and you can't even tell it's back there. Definitely worth the money and does what it's supposed to do.

I love to assemble things, so it was no big deal to put together. My home was purchased through an auction, and the lawn had been neglected for a couple years when the house was vacant. A little over two acres of land with a slope on one side in the backyard. It did a phenomonal job releasing all the dead growth! I ran it around the yard a few times empty, and once with a cement block for weight. It loaded uppretty fast, but if I lift it up with one hand it is easy to push the collected material off the tines with the other hand and put it in a pile for disposal. Easily adjusts up and down. It does interfere with the dual grass catcher on my tractor, but is easy enough to disconnect and attach that it is no real problem, Made my backyard look great and feel good for bare feet! No problems with it at all and I really like it.

Live on an acre an I'm pretty impressed w what this sweeper picks up. Neighbor has a field of gumball trees which drops THOUSANDS of caltrop type seeds and this thing has done an INCREDIBLE job picking them up out of my lawn in addition to lawn clippings.

If you are cutting tall grass and leave behind a BUNCH of clippings it does struggle to sweep them and it will take a few repeat passes to get the trail up.

Works pretty good for it's intended purpose. It doesn't do to well on uneven ground. Reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because of the arms that attach the rear bag to the actual sweeper. The mount holes that attach these two items was miss drilled from the factory and would not align to allow me to install the clevis pin that holds the two items togeother. I had to upsize the holes quite a bit for the clevis pin to correctly. It wasn't to much of a problem for me but it might be to somebody else that doesn't have the proper tools....

Got this sturdy and tough Brinly to sweep leaves from our lawns after having tried a manual leaf sweeper which did not work well. This sweeper works quite well, and I discovered that it can also function as a grass clippings pickup system so that one does not need a tractor-mounted grass catcher. To serve as a grass catcher at least for our lawns requires another trip across the lawns at a higher tractor speed than is used for grass cutting, so that the brushes rotate quickly enough to toss the clippings into the catcher. It is very well made and even the reinforced plastic catcher is quite substantial. I did not give this five stars because I wish that it had a floating sweeper head to deal with depressions and wheel-in-trench situations. Assembly instructions were clear enough for assembly but a couple of parts for the catcher did not match the instructions and some improvisation was necessary. Very good price and service from Amazon.

The price is good for a well made piece of equipment. So far it works like a charm, picking up everything on the first pass. I wanted it for those sticky balls that fall or our trees (not sure what they are called), worked great. I have to say it was very hard to assemble, the instructions were not always clear and in some cases there were two models of sweeper being represented in the same directions, made me stop and lood for missing parts. I also put some parts together backwards and had to redo them, the guide was just not clear enough for me. In a couple places the holes did not line up, forced them together, but was not ideal. Once complete it works great. Like any sweeper it is intended for the ideal yard, which mine is not. It passes over dips and misses some areas, several times the pull rope has come off and become wrapped up in the brushes, pretty much my fault, but still. So, much better than any other sweeper I looked at, at the same or less money.

Unlike some other reviewers, it took me a bit longer than 2 hours to put it together. However, I was being extra careful. I have to say that the instructions and all the parts were labeled better than anything I have ever had to put together. All the nuts, bolts, etc. come shrink wrapped on a piece of cardboard in sections with each section marked with the matching step in the instruction manual. No need to hunt through a bag of "stuff" trying to figure out which bolt/nut to use. I was impressed!

As far as the actual function of the sweeper, it worked great. I live in Florida and my yard is full of live oak trees and there is some bamboo along one border. For those not familiar with live oaks, they are absolutely beautiful trees but they drop leaves that are roughly 2-2.5 X 1-1.5 inches long and have a waxy, tough texture. They quickly work their way down into the grass and are difficult to rake. It took a few passes but it did a good job of picking everything up. It took about 45 minutes to do vs. doing it by hand which would have taken hours.

The only reason I did not give the product a 5 is that part of the sweeper was bent upon arrival. Based upon where and how it was bent, it was not due to shipping but, obviously, had left the factor that way. It does not affect the functionality of the sweeper so I did not return it.

I can not yet speak to the long term reliability of the tool.

I have only tried it briefly on my lawn and it seems to work fine. The two best things about it so far are: (1) It's made in the USA, and (2) the assembly directions were easy to follow. In fact, they did something that I have not seen before. All the small parts (nuts, bolts, etc.) were shrink wrapped to cardboard numbered panels that corresponded to the diagrams in the instructions. All the parts were numbered and named on the panels. As opposed to the typical "jumble of pieces in a bag", what a revelation! Well done, Brinly!I like the fact that the handle is installed outside of the tray so as to not interfere with weights that may be placed there. (Pictures of some other dethatchers I looked at online appeared to have the handle protruding through the tray.)The only thing that I would wish for is that there be an extension leading forward from the handle so that the dethather could be raised and lowered from the seat of my riding mower. As it is, I will have to get off the mower to reach the handle.

had to get a replacement part but it is a great product

Assembly was fairly simple, and I really liked the "carded" hardware feature - rather than a bag full of nuts and bolts.Instructions were clear but for my old eyes, the diagrams could have been a little bigger.I had to ignore the measurements for wrench sizes as the nuts were NOT the sizes indicated in the instructions. No big deal -just use the wrench that fits the nut. Adjusting the height was more difficult than I anticipated but it is doable.Could have been additional instructions for doing this adjustment.Dethatcher works great and I give the device itself 5 stars.

Assembly easy enough. Built well and it worked good. Added a few bricks for weight. Stopped often to clean out but maybe not necessary. Doesn't take up much room in garage. Happy bought at this good price instead of renting. Should last for years.

When I received the Dethatcher I figured I had just thrown away my money - again. It didn't assemble real well as one of the long arms was bent a little, but my wife and I finally got it done and I hooked it behind the tractor and set it on 2. Not very impressive, so I set it on 3, and still not making me happy, so I put a cement block on the frame, bungee corded it down, left it on the 3 setting, and ...... now I'm happy because it really dug in. It did a fine job. If debris builds up inside of it, it is a pain to clean it out, and if you use the #2 setting it is less likely to build up, but hey, it works for me!

I purchased this product to help tame a neglected lawn over half an acre in size. The product was easy to assemble with clearly written instructions with good representative pictures. The product worked well enough for what I needed it for. There are two recommendations I would make for the product:- Bigger/Wider tires. The ones that came with it sank into the ground and collected dirt/mud/clay.- Larger clearance when the product is not engaged. Perhaps this is just for my untamed lawn, but it was slightly difficult to clean when it became clogged.

Some DISassmebly required... found a few bolts loose in the bottom of the box, had to remove a wheel to put them back, good thing, as one of the bolts under the wheel wasn't seated correctly in the square slots. At lowest setting doesnt't pick many pine needles off of driveway, works fine in grass. Any uneven ground and the wheels will slide.

It picks up leaves great! As many people have said it is a pain to put together and the directions aren't very clear. If you have a big yard like we do you will be emptying the basket a lot. I got about a row done and had to dump the leaves. Small sticks can jam the brushes and lock the wheels up. It picks up leaves really well though. Was hoping it would work on acorns, not so much.

I am usually pretty good at putting things together. But this was a nightmare. Instructions were so over kill they got really confusing. Also you get extra materials that are labeled like the others but you don't use them. Many items could have been pre assembled .

Ok, OMG! Get ready for a ride. Thank goodness I read other people's reviews before trying to assemble. You have to use your imagination when assembling and I even created a couple holes myself with drill. Make sure you try everything on before assembling each step. Read carefully and take your time. However, once I got it assembled, it works great!

I bought this sweeper on April 26, 2014. I use it to pick up grass clippings from roughly 1.5 acres of grass that I mow. I typically have to dump it into my pickup truck 7 or 8 times to make a complete sweep of my lawn. I then haul the clippings to my local "brush dump."

The carton arrived within a few days of my order and was undamaged. Assembly was about two hours, but I was in no hurry. Everything went together pretty well. I made a couple of test passes and adjusted the brush height a couple of times before I was happy with the rate of pick up.

All in all, it does a good to very good job picking up grass clippings. I'd estimate it gets 65 to 75 percent of the grass, which is acceptable. I'm inclined to give it a five-star rating, except for...

...the bad news. After a month or so of use, once or twice a week, the brush height adjusting knob fell off, never to be found again. Off to Home Depot to get a replacement. The knob and bolt I got from HD actually does a better job than the original. I now check the knob before every use and find I occasionally have to snug it up.

But wait there's more. Last week, on May 18, 2015, the sweeper abruptly stopped picking up the grass. I couldn't see any external reason - nothing tangled in the brushes, the wheels were turning. Hmmm. I took of the left wheel and found two broken teeth in the inner ring gear. Off to brinly.com to order a replacement: $28.33 for the wheel, $17.17 for shipping. It arrived about a week later; I put it on the sweeper and BAM, the brushes still did not turn. I disassembled both wheels and removed the pinion gears. The pinion gears have an interesting design. Externally they look like a simple gear, but underneath there is a spiral shaped bore and a floating pin on each end of the brush axel that, in concert, act as a sort of differential. When making a sharp turn, one wheel may not turn at all, but the outer wheel still turns keeping the brushes spinning. A clever design except for one small problem. The little step in the spiral bore that catches the floating pin wears down until eventually it never catches the pin and the brushes stop turning. After figuring this out, I ordered two replacement pinions, a left and a right (they are different.) $3.67 each for the gears and $14.88 for the shipping. Total weight: about half a pound. Once I received and installed the new pinion gears a week later, HOORAY, the brushes are spinning again!

Brinly only has a 90 day warranty on parts. The pinion gear failures (both gears were worn out) occurred at the one year mark. I expect I will be replacing the pinion gears regularly, but since I'm already invested in the sweeper, I'll probably put up with it. One last complaint: Brinly's shipping costs are outrageous, e.g. $14.88 to ship a six to eight ounce package by FedEx is abusive, in my opinion, as is $17.17 to ship one wheel that weighs 2 to 3 pounds.

I like the job the sweeper does picking up the grass; I'm disappointed in the level of material workmanship. Shipping for parts is a ripoff. Only three stars.

I haven't used this yet because it was missing parts as quite a few other reviewers experienced the same problem.

Fit for like half an acre. In reference to the product picture, the wheel is kind of small, the tines may get clogged and build up thatch and drag across the grass. The height adjustment lever does not do much. You will need cinder blocks to weigh this dethatcher down. Also tighten all bolts and nuts after assembly as product use will loosen these parts from vibration. Reasonable price, but may be better off renting a motorized dethatcher.

it`s ok, needs a lot of weight.

Does the job but was a pain to assemble

Product works reasonably well. Dethatches moderately and didn't rip out any grass. Will have to do a few times a year to keep the lawn healthy- not a once and done. Why the 3 stars? Instructions and assembly were a nightmare. There is a video online that helped a lot- but it was still extremely confusing.

It seems to be a pretty good product. One thing that I don't like is the rod that goes from the wheels to the bar that raises the wheels is to tight to the times making it catch everything. All the dead grass gets stuck there.

This seems like a fair product, but the assembly directions are terrible. Not descriptive at all. Most of the time I can put stuff together with simple directions. This was complicated directions and ver,y very confusing. Some holes did not line up properly, also. It was truly a 4 hour non-stop process to get this thing together. I ordered 2 other Brinly products and almost returned them without opening the package. Do not buy based solely on the directions!

This could be better - expected better results. First the box was damaged and one of the poles was bent - I just fixed it because it wasn't that bad - regretted this later in the assembly phase as it was tough to get it together.

On to the using phase - When leaves are spinning back they kinda bunch up at the shoot area so it doesn't maximize the storage area. The bag area is huge but I only am able to use about 1/3 of it before I have to dump the leaves because they are bunched up. Pain to put together - instructions are weak at best. Also the raising and lowering part is a pain. It picked up about 1/2 of the leaves in my yard. I went back to using a blower into a pile. If I still had the box I would send it back. Just isn't worth the money. Buy a good blower (I have a Husqvarna backpack blower) , put a tarp down and blow them onto the tarp. Oak and Maple trees in my yard. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, maybe its my tree types, maybe my yard - I don't know.

Two stars just because the parts seem solid and well built... if only it wasn't damaged - and worked as I expected it to...

After the second use the tension rods fell out of the equipment getting lost in the yard. Also the screws that keep the frame together without lock washers keep coming loose with the bouncing/agitation of use. Very disappointed and frustrated in these situations. The sweeping/brush mechanism does pick up the dry grass nicely.

Product assembly instructions were vague and unhelpful. Packaging of small pieces was a plus as they were divided into sections according to assembly step. The one I received did not have holes drilled for the stabilizer rods and drilling round metal that is already assembled was not something I wanted to do. Once assembled the product worked as expected, however when you empty the bin it would have been nice to have a way to keep the brushes from moving until you moved away from the dump site and reset the bin.

Got this recently after having had over the last 20 plus years ; 2 Agi- Fabs , and 1 Ohio Steel sweepers . Knowing these were at best OK with mediocre quality I went back to the drawing table and thought I would give this sweeper a try. Cost was comparable so why not. Well off the bat the instructions are horrible (I was actually excited when I saw the skin sheet with the hardware laid out) and even watching the you tube video assembly is still a pain. Then I find out that some of the hardware is meant for a different model! Yet it is shown in the insruction manual , and included in the skin sheet. The manual even shows the bag spring rods going in the same holes as the little plastic plugs, which incidentally are not even needed! Then when you are done you are left with 2 extra sets of nuts and bolts. After a test run the unit appears to sweep OK but to me it looks like this is going to be another sweeper that will start to break down after a season. When will someone make a sweeper for residential use with quality gear assembly's and frame and bag that will be durable? Well in my opinion this one isn't it. I for one would be willing to pay over the high $200's and up to $400 if I could get one that would last 7-8 years without having to start replacing parts or cobb jobbing the thing together during the first season.

Super disappointed with this product. Wanted to have it to use over the long weekend but product arrived damaged and all parts were dented inside. Just disheartening to spend this kind of money and receive such a cheap product.

Here is why you should avoid this sweeper:
1. Awful to assemble. The tolerances are totally unacceptable. You'll have to muscle the tubes to connect together and some pieces are so poorly drilled, that you will have no hope in getting the bolts to align without expanding the holes by re-drilling.
2. Quality is lacking: the overall feel and strength of this makes me wonder how short-lived its life cycle will be. The wheels feel like they'll soon be bending or snapping off. The brushes are weak. The hopper feels like it'll wear with holes in no time.
3. Ineffective: once built, the sweeper does a very poor job of actually sweeping. I think the brushes needed to be denser and stronger. The cheap wheels seem to slide or jam too easily.
4. The catcher is poorly designed so what few leaves do get swept, either clog or fly over the catching top.
5. I wasn't hoping for IKEA easy directions, but theirs were so poorly written, that you'll get a headache (though having to deal with the poor quality pieces and their failure to assemble, might be the main cause of your headache).

This worked well for a few months before the plastic gear on the wheels stripped. In addition, the pinion gears will have to be replaced. My previous sweeper was Agri-Fab and lasted more than 20 years so this is a real disappointment.

I have had this thing in the middle of my living room for a couple of months waiting for someone to help me figure out how to put it together. I am not a stupid person but this is ridiculous! I can not tell what bar goes where....I need help!!! I will write again if I get a chance to use it.

It took 6 hrs. with the manual And YouTube to assemble but even at the lowest level it would not pick up cut Bermuda grass. It took a lot less time to disassemble and return but there was no hassle to return it and get a refund. It is always a pleasure getting something through Amazon!

Very disappointed for the very first time with an Amazon-provided product ... I found that the basic design didn't work at all well because the tines collected mats of thatch that prevented those tines from remaining in contact with the "new" thatch, with the result that it just didn't do the job intended. I look forward to using a powered device that spits out the thatch to the rear as it moves forward. In this case, I feel that I did not get what I (thought I) paid for

I purchase the product and it was deliver, open the package and the wheels were missing along with all the hardware to assembly the unit . Very disappointed . This will set me back a couple of weeks getting my lawn ready,