Best Tillers and Cultivators

Snow Joe is a famous brand that specializes solely in creating innovative outdoor tools to keep your property looking beautiful all year long. Its products are eco-friendly, durable, and, more importantly, powerful enough to tackle any challenges your garden throws at them. And what we have here is the crème de la crème of the Snow Joe tiller lineup. The TJ604E rototiller is equipped with the most powerful 13.5-amp motor among other Snow Joe machines, which digs up like a storm, ensuring 370 RPM speed and providing maximum aeration for soil. Thanks to such impressive power and rotation speed, this tiller can grind up even hard clay soil, pulverize dirt, chew through the grass, and rip thousands of rocks out from the ground. Needless to say, it's also effective for slicing through extremely dry or wet soil. With that, it can cultivate up to 16 inches wide and up to 8 inches deep per one go.

To tame the toughest tasks with more comfort and less strain, the machine lets you adjust the rear wheels up to three different positions (High, Low, None) and maneuver it wherever needed. That is to say, the depth of digging will depend on the wheel position. The High mode means the rear wheels are fully extended and the tiller is lifted high off the ground, so the depth of digging is a bit limited and awkward. This position is best for storing or wheeling the tiller around. The Low mode means rear wheels are halfway tucked in the soil and the tiller can reach the deeper ground easily with some tilting. With that, you'll still be able to tilt the tiller toward yourself to move it to another location. The None or Neutral position means the wheels are completely tucked in. This setting allows for the maximum depth of digging. That said, when you want to move the tiller to another place, you will need to carry it so as not to drag its tines on the ground.

If you need an ultra maneuverable tiller/cultivator for getting into all the nooks and crannies, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better model than the Black & Decker LGC120. It's an incredibly small machine that is easy to maneuver around existing plants or fences. At the same time, it's efficient enough to break up clay soil and loosen up hard-packed dirt. The powerful transmission with two tines does a great job of cultivating garden beds and allowing nutrients to reach plant roots. It's also fabulous for preparing dry spots in your lawn for seeding.

The two long tines are small enough to maneuver in-between plants, whilst counter-oscillating tines prevent weeds from tangling. Unlike many other models, the blades here don't spin in circles but twist back and forth. They are able to work up 4 inches deep into soil at a time, while the tilling width makes 7 inches, meaning this model is best for those smaller jobs like planting annuals.

The machine is equipped with a 20-volt MAX lithium-ion battery that lasts a very good amount of time. It holds the charge 5x longer than 18-volt NiCad batteries and allows users to handle 325 sq. feet after one charge (the Energy Star rated charger will make it full in about 8 hours). The great news is that you can also swap the battery among other Black & Decker tools if you have them at your disposal. The only requirement is that they should be compatible with 20-volt MAX lithium-ion batteries.

With nearly a 5-star rating and numerous positive reviews, the Sun Joe TJ603E is one of the best-selling gardening tools on Amazon. What makes it so popular is surely the fact that it's much more powerful than most other tillers and cultivators available for sale. Fitted with a 12-amp motor, it can quickly pulverize soil and effortlessly slice through it, no matter how rough it is. That is to say, the extra-powerful motor along with 6 heavy-duty tines allows you to work in the ground full of rocks, weeds, and other harsh elements.

Starting the Tiller Joe is also an easy job. It needs no gas, oil, or tune-ups and can be activated at the push of a button. For the same reason, it's also fairly easy to maintain. Unlike gas-powered cultivators, you won't have to monitor the gas and oil levels, as well as do a fair amount of clean-up after tilling.

Yet, the tradeoff and the downside for that is the corded operation - this powerful machine requires a 12/3 extension cord because of its high current rating (12 amps). That means you'll need to be careful when using this device so as not to get the cord tangled or run over it. That said, it's just a minor drawback considering all the benefits this electric tiller offers.

If you need a real tank to cultivate previously-unworked soil, you should seriously consider the TACKLIFE Electric Tiller. It's the newest release from the brand that seems to cause ripples across the market soon. Even extremely hard-packed soil won't be a challenge for this mighty machine since it's equipped with a super-powerful 13.5-Amp motor. The motor is made of robust copper and boasts low loss and high conversion. That's why it is capable of generating a whopping speed up to 380 RPM.

With this great performance, you won't even need to press heavily on the cultivator - it'll do the work on its own with minimum effort required on your side. It'll easily chew through almost anything you put it into without a need to run over the same area for a few times. Even when tilling in heavy weeds and shallow tree roots, it won't get jammed - just may slow down a bit.

Another thing you may like is the fact that the working depth of this unit reaches up to 8", which is ideal for soil loosening and bed preparation in both yard and vegetable plots. Its equipped with innovative manganese steel tines of high hardness to ensure maximum durability and stability.

Despite such an impressive performance, the machine is not very noisy and heavy. It weighs just 22 lbs and has an anti-vibration system to make operation more enjoyable and fatigue-free.

The TAZZ 35351 33CC Viper Mini Cultivator is an excellent tiller for small spaces. Being extremely agile and maneuverable, it has an innovative transmission design that enables it to deliver excellent performance. That is to say, with a 29-lb weight, it's able to reach very high speeds and deliver lots of power to break up both new soil and heavily-packed soil. This performance is largely achieved owing to the 33cc engine that is easy to start, quiet in operation, and powerful enough to turn over the soil in your garden or flower bed. Actually, this mini machine chews through almost anything you put it into; though, you may face some issues when tilling in heavy weeds and shallow tree roots that might jam you up. That said, it's quite easy to remove the weeds that have got wrapped in the tines around the shaft.

As mentioned, the tiller is quite agile and can go into hard-to-reach places owing to its compact 10-inch width that can be further downgraded up to 6 inches. That's why this mini machine can easily get into tricky spaces and tight corners around your garden that larger models would struggle with. Also, this tiller does a surprisingly good job of digging into the soil. Despite the seemingly small size, the tines can till down up to 8 inches. This way, it can rip out as many roots and rocks as bulkier models, leaving you with perfect planting soils.

If you want, you can easily reverse the blades from “tilling mode” to “cultivating mode” when you need to cultivate the top 2-3 inches of soil. With the ability to do double-duty, the Mantis Tiller is a great tool you can use all season long.