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Step ‘N Tilt Core Lawn Aerator Review

I was asked to test a new manual lawn aerator called the Step ‘N Tilt Core Lawn Aerator. I gladly accepted because well, my lawn was in need of aerating.

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Easy to step on, easy to move

My big problem with manual lawn aerators has always been their design. I’m 6’4″ and every core aerator seemed to be designed for someone not over the mid-5’s. Most lawn aerators are basically a metal hoop with a handle at top and tines at the bottom which pull the plugs (cores) from your lawn. You stick your foot through an always-too-small hoop, push down on the aerator, and pull straight up. From a design standpoint that’s bad, because if you’re leaning in and on something, pulling it straight up puts a tremendous load on your back and shoulder muscles, regardless of what kind of shape you’re in. If you’re tall like me, you end up hunched over like Quasimodo while you’re aerating, and the next-day pain in your back is excruciating.

Also, the lawn aerators I used had only a very small loop in which to stick your foot and step down on the aerator. If your foot is large like mine and inside a work boot, you really have problems getting it in there. That action also makes for slow aerating.

 Buy On Amazon: Step ‘N Tilt Core Lawn Aerator Version 3 (with Container) 

Step N Tilt Lawn Aerator’s design innovations

I originally designed and built the Step N Tilt lawn aerator for my own use because other manual lawn aerators aggravated my lower back and shoulder pain“, says Yeow Ng, who invented the Step N Tilt in his home garage. “The Step N Tilt design which resembles a hand truck uses…leverage to reduce the force needed to pull the aerator tines from the ground through a much easier tilting action rather than a pulling action.  The [Step N Tilt]… aerates faster than other manual aerators and may be used for long periods of time without hurting or tiring the user.”

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lawn aerator

Besides the hand truck style design with a handle that loops toward you, the Step N Tilt core aerator offers a number of other nice design innovations like a large baseplate to step on and push the tines into your lawn. This makes for faster work, as you don’t have to struggle to get your foot in and out of a loop, and there’s nothing to get your boot caught on.

Heavy clay soil clogs aerators but Step ‘N Tilt has this covered

An issue I had with other lawn aerators was what to do when the inside of the tines got caked with so much clay that they became useless. Where I live in Pennsylvania, the soil is all clay and this was a real problem. When the plugs got stuck in the tines they were sometimes impossible to remove, rendering the aerator useless. I also had a nasty habit of snapping the tines off of those aerators halfway through aerating (was it me?), and since the aerators were essentially all one piece, the whole thing had to be trashed.

So I was happy to discover two improvements in the tines with the Step ‘N Tilt. The first is a small tool included in the box for pushing stuck plugs through the tines. It worked really well – I carried it in my back pocket and pushed the plugs through whenever they got stuck. The second is replacement tines which can be ordered separately. These small innovations – so obvious in retrospect – means you won’t have to buy another core aerator for many years, as you can replace the tines when they get dull, broken, or compacted with plugs beyond all hope of removal. The replacement tines are easily bolted to the bottom of the baseplate.

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The Step N Tilt also has movable deflectors, or as I call them “wings”, on the base plate to direct the plugs into your yard. There’s also an optional collection box available, so if you don’t like the look of the pulled plugs laying in your yard for a week until they decompose, you can easily offload the collected plugs into your compost pile.

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The Step N Tilt lawn aerator is manufactured by Vibrant Yard Company, LLC, in the Wichita/Andover, Kansas area, and is currently only available online. They plan to expand into brick and mortar stores nationwide within the next couple of years.

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