Overall the 16” dethatcher works well for a $500 consumer grade product. The dethatcher bar could be designed better to provide more effective lawn dethatching, I needed to make two passes at 90 degrees between passes to get good dethatching. The dethatcher catch basket is all but useless and should be dropped from the unit and sold as an add-on option. The scarifier works very well for a consumer grade product aside from a failure of the scarifier bar.
The issues I have with are with Ducar’s customer service and the quality control. After ordering the dethatcher a delivery date was confirmed for a Friday but with only “by end of day” for the delivery window. This ment a full day away from work. The delivery never happened and there was no communication from Ducar or the delivery company about a change or issue with the delivery. Trying to get answers after 5 pm on a Friday was impossible. After the non-delivery I was unavailable for the next week to 10 days and I told both Ducar and the delivery company I would not be available to receive the delivery for an extended period and Ducar should recover the shipment from the delivery company after the non-delivery because I couldn’t take another day away from work and it would arrive too late to be useful. With no advanced notice the delivery company made a delivery attempt on the following Wednesday. This no-notice delivery interfered with my wife’s workday in order to deal with a delivery she was not aware of, nor prepared to accept. All this happened while I was out-of-town. Ducar indicated they were trying to recall the shipment but they couldn’t get any reply from the delivery company. The delivery company reached out to me on the Thursday after the non-delivery and told me they would be delivering the order on Friday (a week after the original delivery date). I was forced to abruptly change my work-related travel plans to return home and take another day away from work for the delivery. To say the communication by Ducar and the delivery company was poor would be generous.
At $500 the unit appeared to be well priced but with the added indirect costs of two days off for work and pissing my wife off, the total cost for the dethatcher is over priced for what it is. I would have been farther ahead to by a commercial unit from my local equipment retailer for what the Ducar unit ultimately cost me.
The other issue I have was with quality control on the dethatcher build. I switched the unit from a dethatcher to a scarifier shortly after receiving it. I inspected the scarifier bar prior to installing to make sure it was secure and noticed the locking screw had been set with lock-tite. Something I didn’t expect to see given the price of the and where it was made. After using the scarifier for about 30 minutes the scarifier bar detached from the unit. The blades had come loose that caused the bar to become unstable when set at its lowest level. A more detailed investigation revealed that while the locking screw had been secured with Lock-tite, it had not been fully screwed into position before the Lock-tite set. The bar coming off led to a damaged pulley wheel and bending of the metal body that left the unit unusable until it was repaired.
The unit looked like a good deal until all the other issues popped up, issues a customer shouldn’t expect to deal with. I hope my experience helps future buyers make a more informed decision. After 3+ weeks of regular use I would give the unit 4 stars as a $500 consumer unit, 1 star as a commercial unit (how I view it based on what it ultimately cost me) and Ducar’s customer service and quality control a 0 stars.
Matt
