Side by Side Comparison of: Snow Joe vs US Wire and Cable vs Punchau vs Miles Kimball

There's a way to use this machine that is not mentioned in the manual for, I think, good reason. First, though, I have quite a few Sun Joe tools - this one, the tiller, pole saw, chain saw and lawn mower. The only one I'm not completely happy with is the lawn mower.There are many complaints about this machine stopping and having to cool down. That's because - I think - it's being used as designed with the bag and rear cover. Understand how the machine works and you'll understand why it stops. It's rotating a row of little steel "whips" at high speed. Those whips cut into what ever they encounter to the depth set by the knob on the front. When the bag is used or the rear cover is closed, all the stuff being whipped loose, piles up either in the bag or at the rear cover. Even if the bag is not full, that stuff is flying around and hitting the little whips. Take the bag off and it's even worse - the stuff has no where to go so it piles up to be in the way of the whips.I removed the bag and opened the rear cover completely - it stays open when pulled all the way up. The problem - and why the manufacturer will never tell you to use it this way - is that everything comes flying out at a pretty good clip. So, I wear trousers. It's also a good idea to wear eye protection.Operated without the bag and with the cover open works wonderfully well as long as you don't push it like a lawn mower. When you move it too fast, it doesn't work well. And, it works best when pulled. So, I push it without the whips rotating. When it's positioned, I turn it on and pull it slowly.One big tip - do NOT use it on St Augustine grass. I did because I was clearing the lawn for new sod. But St Augustine grows with "runners" and this machine will cut them and destroy your lawn. It's not just this one - ANY power rake will do the same. But if like me you want to re-sod, this thing is invaluable. It clears down to bare earth. Then I use the tiller in two directions. It's the only way I could get rid of the dollar weed.

This was definately a great investment! This machine just made my life a whole lot easier by taking what used to use up a weekend now only uses up a few hours. I didn't find the bag all that useful so just let the mulch trail out behind me and just mowed it up when complete. I did not have any issue with it shutting down as I followed the recommendations and used an extension cord that allowed for the appropriate amperage and yes it does make a difference because I used it at my inlaws with their cord and it did shut down on me. Overall I am very pleased with this machine.

My expectations were highly exceeded. The weight is easy to use, the power of the machine was just fine to get through all of the areas I wanted to dethatch. Easy to steer and go over the grass. The grass catcher instructions were somewhat missing but I figured out how to make it work well enough. It fills up quite fast which is a limiting factor.I did some 7,000 to 8,000 square feet and felt the machine was well worth the money.Its a great machine for the money.

I ordered this product almost 6 months before its best use time, but I tested it about Aug 9th. Bermuda grass growing season has long passed in OK. so I didn't expect much. The Dethatcher worked as advertised. I had at least one spot that was almost bare after the dethatching on the 9th. That spot is now (Sept 11th) green with new growth Bermuda grass. I am hopeful and excited about the Spring time growing season when dethatching is best done.

This is a fantastic machine for anyone looking to make de thatching a regular part of their lawn care routine. I have found that yearly de thatching and overseeing give my lawn a renewed look every spring and helps keep the weeds away.I have tried multiple options for de thatching my lawn. The first time I rented a set hatcher from my local tool rental store. It worked okay, but th eproblem for me was borrowing a trailer and taking the time to pick up the machine and then return it.After that I tried a de thatching blade for my lawn mower. That only problem...I couldn't find a blade that would fit my mower.Option 3 was a manual de thatching rake. The plus is that it was cheap, but it wasn't practical to use on my 3000 square feet of lawn. But I was stubborn and did it anyway. 4 hours later, and 6 Advil a day for the next three days and my lawn was de thatched.This year I decided to purchase the Sun Joe Dethatcher. I am so glad that I did! It worked just as well as the commercial unit I had rented, and I didn't have to deal with a rental. And, now I have it for next year again.After reading some of the reviews about the unit overheating, I did two things to prevent this from happening. First, I made sure I had an extension cord that was rated correctly for the Dethatcher. Second, I Dethatched in sections. Like other reviewers had mentioned, I didn't use the bagger, so I was going to have to go back over the lawn with my mower to bag the thatch. I did about 500 square feet at a time, and then bagged with my regular mower. I figured it would give the Dethatcher a break, and I might as well pick up the thatch as I went.However, I decided to tat it out and do a larger area of my lawn at once to see if it would overheat. I did approximately 1500 square feet at once, and it didn't overheat. It continued to work well, getting out the dead grass, pine cones, and even small twigs that were embedded in the ground.There were a few areas that I went back over a second time since I was overseeing and wanted more of the bare ground exposed. If you're over seeding, I would recommend going over your lawn twice (I had to do that with the rented machine too) to expose the soil.Overall, I would definitely recommend this machine for anyone looking to efficiently de thatch your lawn.

I am a 55 year old woman with a huge yard, actually three large yards. This was so nice and easy to use! The bagger was a waste because of the size of my yard and the amount of thatch in it so I used it awhile it would shut itself down when it got over heated so I used that time to rake up the thatch, I never had a problem starting it back up and actually liked that it shut down verses overheating and burning up. I would recommend this to anyone just don't be in a hurry.

Great and necessary for high amp draw applications, like power washer, electric chain-saw, so voltage does not drop over this long distance and place motor at risk. It is too heavy to drag around yard for electric mower, but this is the exception. Very handy feature to have plug illuminated when 'live'. Worth the money to spend over ordering the 14g and quite insufficient and very limited usage 16g cords!

Needed a 12 gauge power cord for use with our generator. Avoid the 14 gauge versions if you can because they're not designed for long term heavy loads on the line, especially for tools or motors. This is definitely a high quality power cord and will be great for saws and refrigerators when running long distances without negatively impacting the motors.

I purchased this cord for my husband for our motor home and he is VERY happy that I did. It will power up our unit and never gets even warm to the touch. He has borrowed a friends cord and plugged into that one and said it would be really hot to the touch when he unplugged it, Not the case with this one. He has stated many, many times how happy he is with it.

Purchased this to use outside for my electric snow blower. Works great. I can say it doesn't remain very flexible in very cold temperatures. I was out there in -10 and it was pretty stiff right away. Not a big deal for me as I don't really need the cord to be very flexible when I'm using it to snow blow. Although when you try to put it away and it's almost completely rigid it makes it a little difficult. Very happy with purchase, recommended.

I work in a school shop. It has a series of fixed receptacles in overhead cable trays and it has hard piped dust collection tubes running to specific locations. All of this worked well 50 years ago when the shop was built, but replacements and repairs have resulted in tools that either are close to required power, or close to the dust collection drops, but not both. Connecting the tools to the dust collector results in power cords all over the shop that are 2 or 3 feet too short. Previously, this was solved by installing a whole bunch of cheap 16 ga extension cords all over the shop, and containing the excess cord by tying them to the dust collector runs with bungee cords. Ugly, probably not very safe, and certainly not "good" for the tools. So I am in the process of putting 12 ga line cords on all the stationary tools, replacing the old damaged plugs with properly installed and grounded ones and installing proper strain reliefs at each receptacle.It turns out cheaper to buy a couple of these cords than to buy a comparable length of cable only.

Pleasantly surprised at the quality of this cord considering it was $20 cheaper than the other cords of similar rating and size and made in China. I've used it pretty much every day for over a month now and it's held up well. It is a little heavy physically to work with, but it protects my power tools so I don't mind the workout.

I used this to dethatch my front and back yards. It works pretty well however note that the grass catcher did not work well for me (barely caught any of the grass), so I just went without it and raked afterwards. A second note, my unit tended to overheat if I ran it too long, so I had to run it In sections and let the motor cool off. Other than that, it worked well and I got a lot of old trimmings and grass out of my lawn.

when I read the reviews on this item was a little concern that it may not work well but to my surprise this item has done a great job I did a complete acre in one day and never had a problem with it and my lawn has come out great with very little effort it really works great better then one of the ones that I use to rent for 75.00 a day. The only thing is that the bag just doesn't work well so I recommend just getting the one without the bag.

It does overheat and cut off, but cools off and operates fine after a break. It did slow the progress down some, but it all got done.I used a heavy duty cord on a 20 amp circuit, but it still gave out (that combination should have dealt with resistance which causes electric motors to overheat). I think the air vents on the front of the unit have louvers that seem to have been cut upside down and so they catch the dust instead of allowing it to fall away... this could be the reason it overheats.I found that I could cover more ground before it overheated by not using the bag. I then raked and scooped the debris during the cooling off periods. I think the price and it's ability is worth the purchase because using a manual de-thatching rake would have still taken twice as long and would have been back breaking work.If you can't deal with the slow down in the work during the cool down periods, you can rent a gas operated power rake for $50 for 4 hours.

I had reservations about purchasing the Sun Joe Dethatcher due to the reviews I read. However after using the Joe Dethatcher to dethatch my yard which is approximately 2,000 square feet, I am completely satisfied.I used a 12/3 100 foot extension cord with NO overheating issues. If the proper sized extension cord is used there are NO overheating issues.My yard needed dethatching badly and the Sun Joe Dethatcher removed copious amounts of thatch. The catching bag is effective and useful, but small. I emptied the bag with each pass.The reason I gave only 4 stars is due to the design of the catching bag. Removing the bag is easy; however putting the bag is not without issues. The bag goes on as designed and attaches securely, but could be designed to make attaching the bag easier.Note the adjustable depth is not for varying dethatching depths, but to prolong the use of the dethatching rakes and to move the unit when not in use. There is only one recommended dethatching depth.In summary the Sun Joe Dethatcher is well worth the price. The dethatcher performs as advertised, is easy to use, and has more than enough power to efficiently dethatcher your yard.

We purchased this Dethatcher because our front lawn was seriously suffering from thatch build up. Our first attempt to use this device was unsuccessful because the grass was long and very heavy. We make a couple of passes with our lawnmower, each time lowering the cutting depth until the grass was about 1 inch long. Then this dethatcher was successful in removing tons of dead dried grass. In our case it was too much for the grass catcher to handle and it overheated the motor, which automatically shut the unit off until it cooled. At first we were concerned that we overworked it because it wouldn't restart, but after a little rest and a glass of iced tea, we came back and it worked like a charm. If we use this dethatcher once or twice a year, it will be much easier than our first experience. I like it because it is very light weight and we can store it on a high shelf out of the way, until needed.

Machine worked good for the small job I intended it for. Overheated once because I ran it way to long. did not reset for hours.I was doing one strip and raking up after and the machine had no problem. I then started decided to do the whole yard then rake up. That is when the machine overheated. I would recommend doing one or two lines, then rake up, allowing machine to cool off. It was also a very hot and suny day.I would recommend this for small jobs.

This is a HEAVY extension cord. Phew!Mine came packaged exactly as pictured on this page.Weight seems more like 20# than 13# as listed, but I didn't weigh it yet. I have mineon an orange reel advertised for 150ft extension cord, and as other reviewers have noted,it BARELY fits (but it DOES fit).If I had it to do over again, I think I'd get the 14ga. For 100ft, I think my power losseswould be minimal, and it would be lighter to carry around and fit on that spool nicer.

Nice heavy duty cord. A bit stiff, hopefully it'll relax after some use.

Cord works great. Seems to be of high quality. I will re-review if any problems arise over time.

Very nice, thick, heavy duty, long, lit to let you know it has power. Very happy with this purchase.The stupid cord reel amazon says goes good with it absolutely sucks. I suppose it would be good if you used it with a smaller gauge wire extension cord. Trying to use it with this cord, i always end up scraping my knuckles. The little clip on the inner spool DOES NOT FIT this cord, and would only fit a VERY small cord, as in what you might find on a lamp. But then why would you need a cord reel for a cord that small, or even have a long extension cord made of cord that small.

I just used this to connect my paint sprayer and painted the fence in the backyard. It was easy to pull around. I don't consider this cord too heavy to work with and was able to wrap it in my hand and put it away. To give you an idea, this felt lighter to me than my 50 ft garden hose. My only qualm is that it tends to get twisted easily. So when putting it away, it is better to get a reel and wrap it around it so it stays in it's original shape. I like that it is yellow and very visible in the grass.

I bought this to replace an old, lesser-duty extension cord that I hypothesized was to blame for my electric mower failing. I bought this as both a replacement and upgrade, figuring it would provide greater power to the mower. It turns out I was right about the cord being the weak link. While expensive, this was a far cheaper option than replacing the mower.The only con I have should probably be directed at the mower, but the cord is so dang thick that the keeper mechanism on both my mower and trimmer do not accommodate the bulk of the cord. I've resorted to a velcro strip mechanism to lash the cord to the mower's handle, but I just have to let the cord dangle from the trimmer. This has resulted in the cord being pulled out of the trimmer multiple times as it snags on something. Hopefully, this won't impact the lifespan of the cord, though it it quite annoying.

Dethatches pretty well, but overheats and stops working very quickly.

this dethatches nice but it is very hear to push in the lowest setting. I decided to pull it backwards in the low setting and push forward in a high setting to pick up the grass. The motor overheats after 10 minutes and needs to cool down. It is doing a nice job

not sure if it was wrong timing. i try to dethatch my yard early spring and it dug up lots of my yard. also the basket fill up really fast and falls off.

Works well but overheats quickly in cool weather. It has a very sensitive thermal protection circuit that trips quite frequently. I spend more time waiting for it to recover than I do raking. I wish it had a better cooling system but I could only recommend this for small yards. Very small yards. The bag is pretty small and fills up rapidly the first time you use it. I ended up not using the bag a picking up everything with my riding lawn mower and bagger.

While it does dethatch my yard very well, it over heats within 5-10 minutes. The motor has thermal cutouts which limit damage, but I would expect it not to hit this limit when the ambient temperature is less than room temperature.

I ended up buying this dethatcher because the Greenworks model was not available. I have to agree with the other reviewers in the fact that the collection bag is worthless. It is extremely difficult to get it on the dethatcher. However, the biggest problem is the overheating issue. I had a home lawn project where I was using the dethatcher all day. It was a warm day, but not extreme. The unit ended up quitting about 5 times, each of which took about 30 minutes to get the dethatcher to reset. I made sure to use a high amp rated extension cord. This problem really affected my ability to get the job done. I will say that when it was running, it did a great job at dethatching.

This cord is so heavy - and while I know it has to be, it makes it really cumbersome to carry around. I bought it for my electric snowblower and in cold temps this cord turns into a stiff, unmoving mass. I'm sure in the warmer months it will be great but I wont need it then.

Cord is not suitable for low temperatures. Some reviews indicated it will work below 30 degrees. Electrically it works fine. Flexibility is the main issue. Well built cord though.

Great length, gets tangled easily, too stiff for my use. I had a 75 footer that was very flexible even in very cold weather, this isn't a great replacement...

I use these only for occasional use when portable generators are needed to provide back-up power. I would recommend a heavier duty extension for commercial-industrial use, however.

it was a good buy but I will say, if your thinking about buying one of these, it's very heavy, weight wise. If weight is a concern for you, go with a lighter gauge.

The wire is heavy duty, but the connecting ends both male and female are cheap quality. The price on Amazon is much better then elsewhere and that offsets some of the quality issues.

Machine does a great job five to eight minutes each time. Then a thirty minute break. The bagger is 20% effective, or 80 % ineffective. I purchased a heavy duty cord and no real difference. I even tipped the machine and timed it, same result. Great idea and will watch, but now need a box to return it.

I bought this Dethatcher it was delivered on time easy to assemble. I'm pissed because it stopped working the second time i tried using it. I checked and noticed that the cable around the rotating wheel that supplies power to the machine is broken. This issue has to be rectified. I can't contact the seller this is a waste of my money.One star for prompt delivery and the second star for using it one time.

I was really hoping for better results with this Sun Joe Dethatcher, since I love my other sun joe tools.I used this yesterday after first mowing the lawn to 1.6" with my Sun Joe mower.I did the detaching by raking last season so I know what the thatch is supposed to look like (and how much work it is) so I was quite surprised yesterday after using this.What was removed with the Sun Joe was WAY MORE GREEN than just thatch. This thing removed a LOT of healthy green vibrant lawn.I decided to go through today again with rake to see what more would come up and the rake brings up brown thatch, NOT LAWN. I removed a whole other bag today, and my lawn is SMALL! see pic taken before using dethatcherI have attached photos so you can compare yesterdays bag and todays bag. I'm sad to say I will have to return.

This product worked OK except that it overheated in about 15 minutes and then had to be turned off for about 20-30 minutes before using it again.Something wrong with the design of the motor or not enough cooling for the motor. Would not recommend this product because of that. I willbe trying to get a refund.

At first I thought this thing was going to be a beast, and it most definitely is. However, it tears up EVERYTHING that you run it over including thatch, dead grass, healthy grass... did I mention healthy grass?As others have mentioned, the bag is 100% useless. Ditch it as soon as you unbox everything. If you have an area that is 100% weeds and you just want it torn down to dirt, this will do it perfectly. If you are looking to de-thatch your lawn, stick with the tried and tested dethatching rake. As you can see in the picture I've added, this machine does a nice job if mohawking the lawn (and yes, I mowed a full inch lower than I usually do before using the electric dethatcher).I added a star back in since it does remove some of the thatch, however I spend way too much time on my lawn to deal with the mohawk effect and still having to go back through with the dethatching rake to get it all. Sometimes the old fashioned way is still the best way.

I ended up having to return this product for a full refund! Amazon was great! I got this machine, took the time to assemble it (very easy) and off I went to start dethatching my lawn. I followed the recommendation to mow the lawn much shorter than usual. The grass was dry and I was using a 50 ft. heavy duty extension cord. It worked fine for maybe 10 -15 minutes and then it died. Motor overheated. The owner's manual says to wait a minute for the motor to cool off and it will restart. Not true! It took more than 20 minutes. Every time after that I would do maybe 3 or 4 - 20 foot long passes and again the motor would overheat. I normally don't take the time to write negative reviews. This time though I thought I'd save someone a bit of anguish. Sun Joe, your product needs a more robust electric motor! I then decided to give up and used a rake! Had to take the machine apart, re-package and return it.

Too thick and very heavy for my taste.

Made in China

Due to weight of cord it does not stay connected to items. I would not buy it again.

Beware of Big Deals, Inc. I don't believe they are shipping an authentic branded "US Wire & Cable" product.The actual cable was imprinted with "Ningbo Linsheng Electrical Co.".The cable did not come with the expected product packaging stating "US Wire & Cable", only the cable with shrink-wrap.The female connector was very loose, and could not be tightened, which is a sign of an inferior product.I had to buy a short extension adapter, to make the cable usable, to prevent it from continually falling out of any tool connector.(Cost of return shipping made it cost ineffective to request a refund.)I checked online that Ningbo Linsheng is a real Chinese manufacturer, and the cable did include UL labels, so I hope the cord is safe.But it appears falsely advertised and sold under the "US Wire & Cable" branded listing.Big Deals, Inc. and the listing said that some US Wire products are now made in China, but I suspect that disclaimer only gives them cover to sell any Chinese knockoff. Lack of any "US Wire" brand labeling leaves doubt.

So stiff when temperature is at only 32 degrees Fahrenheit that it is nearly impossible to handle.Plug ends are not what I would describe as heavy duty. There are easily bent.Just remember it's stiff stiff stiff in cold temperature if you consider 32F cold.

The lighted end doesn't light any longer would not recommend any cord with a lit end the cord still works effectively as an extension cordif it was possible I would return this and replace it with a cord without a lit end

Garbage. It just gathers up debris between the motor and bag. It never gets grass in the bag. The first time I used it I over heated it just trying to find the right height or adjustment to get to stop gathering between the motor and the bag. I had given up on it, then I cut my grass REALLY tight, let my mower thatch and thought maybe it would work as a neat and tidy post thatch and mow to get any little missed clippings.. Nope, it just clumped got caught between the bag and the motor. It LITERALLY HAS NEVER GOTTEN ANYTHING INTO THE BAG!As may other people have pointed out, it runs a few minutes gathers some clumps, then you can pick up the clumps by hand throw them out, then repeat until it finally over heats from the little bit of stress the clumping causes it.I as going to make a video but by the time I had decided to get my phone, like 10 minutes into adjusting and trying to set it, it over heated and I got too mad.This is probable the greatest regret I have ever had with an Amazon purchase.

I tried multiple times to make this work. It simply dug directly into the ground no matter how high I set it. It destroyed a good 4' plot of land which has not fully come back 2 years later. I just hung it up in my garage since then :( I cut my lawn really low as recommended before attempting but it did not help. It still just tore the grass out by the roots.

This actually stopped working after about 30 minutes of use. Just died. I had to send it back.

Use it for a hour thought it may have got to hot waited 20 minutes ran another 30 minutes was going to finish that evening started it ran 30 seconds that and stop waited 10 minutes did same thing

Turns off for at least an hour at a time - I had to wait 5 hours in total to do my back yard.And although the catch is helpful. it fills quickly and I bet it would perform better without it.Returning it. Hopefully the next model will be better.

Cuts Off every 10 Minutes! I wish I had payed more attention to the other reviewers. It appeared to be working fine then the Shut offs began.....Very Frustrating. I would have returned this but i unfortunately missed the return period. I do not recommend this product!

the extention cords are fine,nothing wrong with them,but I will never buy anything from this company again.

Terrible quality. DO NOT BUY

To stiff to use with electric snow blower. Found a more flexible and less expensive locally.

It catches file on my second use!I plugged in a snow thrower that uses 15A, which is the labelled as max allowed current on this cord. It was only fine in my first use, which lasted about 2 hours. However, when I used it a second time to clean up after a huge storm, only after going on for 30 mins, I noticed a white flash from the connector, then it started to burn! Feeling surreal myself (WHY WOULD AN EXTENSION CORD BE MADE OF COMBASTIBLE MATERIAL ANYWAY?!), I unplugged it, and plugged in again after cooling down. But it immediately burn again and made the whole connector roasted black. You can imagine how frustrated and exhausted I feel with the snow thrower but no extension cord and having to shovel the whole front paved walkway myself!

Cord did not work. How hard is it to check an extension cord before the factory ships it out?

This is one of the worst cords out there, I'm a rough framer and use cord daily, and this cord is extremely stiff damn near impossible to roll up and casing feels like a cheap breakable plastic.