I’ve been trying to grow grass in my very rocky backyard. It was a nightmare with the manual step-on foot aerator I was using. With this push aerator, I got done in one day what took me about 4 days previously. Well worth the money for me. On the down side of it, you do need to add a cement brick to it for weight so that it actually diggs into the dirt. This makes it a heavy and sometimes cumbersome tool, but 400% better than the alternative.

It works for what i need. The low price balanced the imprecise bending of the tubing which left the handle a little twisted when assembled. For compressed ground, one has to get some heavy weight on it, so like the old joke about "why you pulling that log chain up the road?", lol. It took several large patio stones beyond the description. With weight, it did open the ground. One must pull evenly because it will tilt when a sturdy rock lies just beneath the surface. I am the type of guy that dethatches with a garden rake, and so this thing worked fine for me, but is a workout for being 50 years young. If you are a hands-on person who likes to control costs, this device is worth the price. We will see if my bermuda does better this year.