Power Rake vs Aeration // What Is The Difference + Which Is Best

Рет қаралды 31,325

Жыл бұрын

These are the main differences between power raking and aerating a lawn including information on when and why you would power rake a lawn or aerate it.
I have power raked my lawn and manually dethatched my lawn...I've also used a mechanical core aerator on my lawn as well as manually aerated my lawn. Each option has it's place in DIY lawn care and I hope that this video and the others linked below help you get the job(s) done in your lawn this coming season.
The electric power rake I use currently is the Von Haus unit which can be purchased on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/VonHaus-Electr...
For core aeration advise renting a machine from a local equipment rental shop or hiring the job out to a local yard care company.
If you want to manually do it with a long-handled tool then the Yard Butler is what I used for the last few years in videos between 2020 through 2022 on this channel: www.amazon.com/Yard-Butler-De...
You can see the following videos for more on how to aerate or power rake as well as what to do prior to and after each task in the playlist below: • Aeration & Power Rakin...
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Пікірлер: 47

@TurfMechanic 10 ай бұрын

►►► Want to fix your lawn for the long haul but don't know where to start? I can help! Click here right now and get started today: turfmech.link/dont-know-where-to-start ◄◄◄

@greghaefs4677 Жыл бұрын

Best information I have watched. Totally in depth but not over my head

@YardBrah Жыл бұрын

I will eventually get a real core aerator in my lawn 😂 1:05 that was so much material! Another great video brother! 😊🤙🏾🔥🔥🔥

@davidgonzales-ec8bo Жыл бұрын

I'm so excited for lawn season

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Me and you both David! It's been hard for me to be patient waiting for the soil to perk up and day length to come back to really start renovating things here.

@davidgonzales-ec8bo Жыл бұрын

Great video!!!

@SamsLawn Жыл бұрын

Awesome video dude, love the comparison!

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Thanks Sam! I am so excited to be starting a new season; I know you are a few weeks behind us over here but I wish you the very best this year!

@SamsLawn Жыл бұрын

@@TurfMechanic Same to you dude, always enjoy your videos and congrats on the new house :)

@DavidHommersom 3 ай бұрын

I was under the impression that there is a substantial difference between a power rake and dethatcher. Power rake picks up loose debris and dead crass above the soil line. Dethatcher has thicker deeper blades (rather than the spring wires) to gauge the soil and scarify it? Wanting to find a good power tool in Australia with removable power rake and dethatcher attachments.

@taildragger77DK Жыл бұрын

I rented one with a Honda engine last year and it did the same thing. I added oil up to the threads of the oil filler cap and it ran great after that.

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

would have been interesting to have tried that to see if it made a difference on my efforts last week. I was just glad I was able to get the job done satisfactorily before the major rains hit Cali over the weekend. We are drenched now; I finished this up just during the early spits of rain so I didn't have much time to experiment.

@cvall1710 3 ай бұрын

These machines usually have an oil level sensor that loves to go out. especially on rental machines. Check the oil before you begin and if its full give the machine a shake from side to side, if it dies that sensor is bad. you can sometimes bypass it, specifically on the gx series Honda motors, because the leads are tied into the kill switch.

@DirtygardenCA Жыл бұрын

Got a hand aeration in last week right before the rains hit in So Cal. Want to get another pass in after things firm up. Parts of my lawn are so waterlogged, we just can't seem to get a start on typical spring weather, yet.

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

This s such a wired time of year right now! I keep watching my old home up in Klamath Oregon and weather is insane up there and all the neighbors here tell me they've never seen anything like this down here. I'm slogging along having expected a mild winter with a Spring that starts in Feb and have been met with nothing of the sort! Nice to see you got a bit of aeration in last week; I have already seen a lot of benefit from what I got done just as the rains started on Friday but man it has been nasty out there since. wind and 50 degree wet weather feels just as bad as 30 degree days up north. I'm crossing my fingers hard that we get a few warm days before the 15th so I can stay in-line with the plans I have for outside stuff.

@mm.k719 2 ай бұрын

I recommend a Ryan's airrator it's a tank( my boss has one ) not the best but gets the job done fast and efficiently.spend more time driving job to job.

@mablenay Жыл бұрын

I just bought a shirt and stickers! I like stickers!

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Hey that's awesome! I just set that up and haven't even mentioned that yet 😃 hope the stickers look good, I haven't even seen them yet! 😅

@absi1155 Жыл бұрын

Great video. Any tip on preventing sprinklers during this process?

@robertlark10 Жыл бұрын

Mark out flags or spray paint heads with bright color…

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Robert's got it! I've also sometimes stones or bricks on the sidewalks next to the spnklers as another visual indicator, those are just areas you go around and do manually later.

@BenjaminT.Minkler Жыл бұрын

I've always wanted to core aerate my lawn, as I think it would show a huge benefit from it - maybe one sign that I really need to do it is that 'naturally' the earth worms have been attempting to perform this task for me, with often I'll find where they have poked out thousands of holes(spaced even less than three inches apart) all over my compact clay soil if it is too wet and lacking any air .... last year my buddy down the way rented an aerator for the morning, and he only needed it for 45min or so, he came over to see if I'd like to use it before he had to take it back(which I would have loved to) but I wasn't home until later so missed my chance to have a free go at it oddly with my yard, I don't get any thatch at all - seems I'd want to have some? - but maybe because I always mulch in all clippings(even when I power rake and verticut, I'll mulch all that material back in as well) and all my tree leaves are directly mulched into the soil as they fall(I mow 3 ~ 4 time a week to never have leaf build up in the fall, never ever having to rake piles) but I still don't find any debris layer under the grass either: so wonder if there could be "too much microbial activity" if that can be a problem? with over feeding the lawn with any/all OG also causes it to break down any thatch development? ....besides the aggressive worm population(fed on microbes) another thing that could be a sign of too much organic breakdown is that often I feel that when over seeding, a lot of that seed will 'disappear' as if it was also consumed by soil life vs having the time to germinate.... eh, this could just be a false theory I made up in my head, but weird that with all that going into the soil when I look down between the grass blades I see only soil(no signs of any OG, just firm clay) and when I dig no thatch layer just roots going down with hardly any sideways growth 'spreading' of my KBG

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

sounds to me like you've got awesome activity in your soil. Worms and biological breakdown of all the debris that quickly is never a bad thing! Keep up whatever you are doing. If you do get a chance to aerate then go for it but it's possible the worm activity is keeping things well aerated which is helping everything break down just the way it's supposed to. Also, mulching everything back in without removing anything is an awesome way to keep active biology in the lawn.

@BenjaminT.Minkler Жыл бұрын

@@TurfMechanic the only reason I haven't been on a big push to core aerate sooner is that my silt/clay soil mix is either hard like a rock(and will crack if too dry) or super gummy and slick(if too wet) so I'm waiting until I can get a few truck loads of sand brought in(dumped in the 'sports court' / golf green area I'm building) which I'll use some of to top dress the whole yard, and then again after aerating to refill all the holes .... hopefully the sand will be just what my soil needs to round it out, but I want it more mixed in deeper than just top dressing - so the aeration should help with that the soil is good and dark now with all the organic action, but that doesn't help with the texture much .... when I started working on this lawn; there were just big bare spots under all the trees(50% of the yard it seemed), and the growing parts were mostly crab grass or clover and other weeds - horrible soil health in the hard clay, and after trying all different seed types, I finally got some cheap 'home improvement store' KBG of all things to start growing out there

@zachdailyfost4433 Жыл бұрын

What is your opinion of adding in earth worms to help kick start life if they are slightly present?

@dondiegodelevega2092 Жыл бұрын

No need to add worms, they will most likely die. Best thing to do is prepare a healthy lawn and the worms will come.

@harperexplores9349 Жыл бұрын

Those Honda motors have a tip shutoff to prevent oil starvation from the engine or tip over safety. You can remove the switch by jumping the red and white wire together so you can run on that slope. Alternatively you could run the passes going one direction on the Slope like right to left and go all the way around and do the next pass going the same direction and skipping the direction that shuts the Honda motor off. Try rolling a golf green on a riding mower when it is slopped. It’s so much fun to have to restart the motor at the end of each pass. 👎

@questapo 21 күн бұрын

isnt that a scarifier though?

@tjevo4g Жыл бұрын

Is there any advantage to using the scarifier attachment that came with my Sun Joe dethatcher? Where would I fit that in with my power rake/aeration cycle? EDIT: Zone 9b, Northern CA with primarily TTTF.

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Assuming you are referring to the hard blade attachment to the sunjoe, for you and many others that is better imo for cutting deeper into the soil (lower setting) and cutting grooves into the soil for overseeding or for cutting deeper grooves into particularly thick layers of thatch. Since you have tttf then you probably have no true thatch so I'd use the flexible attachment for power raking to thin excessive dead material out of the lawn and the deeper setting with the hard blades in fall before overseeding. Unrelated but I've also used the hard blade attachment on the deepest setting as a mini-tiller to prepare a bare dirt seedbed.

@tjevo4g Жыл бұрын

@@TurfMechanic Thank you! Excellent response as per usual. I will take your advice and stick to the power rake heading into Spring and keep the blade attachment for Fall.

@tycox8704 Жыл бұрын

I have the same power rake. It’s too light duty to serve as a dethatcher. Instead, it is ideal for combing dead grass blades loose. The core aerator actually dethatches more, but not as thoroughly as a gas powered dethatcher equipped with knives instead of tines.

@slimdude2011 Жыл бұрын

A power rake and a dethatcher are two entirely different machines and are used for different purposes. A dethatcher is specifically for deep dethatching a lawn, to remove dead grass and other embedded thatch from the lawn, which a power rake isn't made to do. An Aerator is used for aerating a lawn. Dethatching and aerating a lawn are not the same thing. They're different tasks used for lawn care.

@tycox8704 Жыл бұрын

@@slimdude2011 Aerating and detaching serve the same purpose: to enable water, air, and amendments to reach the soil better. The difference is that de-thatching is addressing an obstacle (thatch), whereas aerating addresses soil compaction. However, aerating DOES remove some thatch with the removed soil.

@slimdude2011 Жыл бұрын

@@tycox8704 The sole purpose of dethatching is removing dead grass, moss etc without the core aeration process. Aeration is more extensive! Besides, there are liquid aerator products available now, that can be purchased to spray on the lawn to loosen compacted soils, enabling the nutrients to penetrate, without the requirement use of a heavy-duty aerator. I've used the liquid aerator before, and it works! The old-fashioned aeration technique is becoming a thing of the past.

@tycox8704 Жыл бұрын

@@slimdude2011 Thatch is not the dead grass blades that accumulate from mower clippings and drought. That is what power raking removes. Thatch is made up of the parts of grass that exist below the blades like stolons and rhizomes, and roots. They can form a matted barrier near the soil surface, which requires a knife blade to slice through. I use humic products routinely to improve drainage in my lawn, but even the suppliers of those products admit the core aerating is superior for relieving compaction.

@slimdude2011 Жыл бұрын

@@tycox8704Most homeowners never aerate their lawns, and they still have thick, beautiful green grass every year. If a lawn looks good and healthy with no visual nutrient deficiencies in the soil from fertilizing regularly, don't bother it by aerating it. If it's not broke don't fix it! Is core aerating really necessarily required, or do people core aerator their lawn just out of habit, when it doesn't need it? A core aerator makes your lawn look horrible afterwards! Personally, If I wanted to aerate, I would still use the liquid formula just for that reason alone because core aeration literally tears up your lawn in the process.

@troyhenry3267 Жыл бұрын

What's difference between scarifying vs. Power raking?

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Everyone defines these things slightly differently but my definition is this: scarify is the hard "blades" that cut into the soil with each pass while power raking is the spring tension tines that scrape across the ground and slightly below grade. Set a machine to the lowest depth setting and the scarifier blades will disrupt the surface deeper because they don't flex. They will likely score thatch layers better and potentially give overseeding slots in the soil better...while power raking is more about gathering surface debris for removal.

@BigWesLawns Жыл бұрын

The Sunjoe Sacrifier/DeThatch machine is for sale at Home Depot in Belleville Ontario Canada for $189.00+tx 🇨🇦funds obviously. But! I Cant Believe It. Amazing Grace!I have never seen it anywhere up here, and delivery from Amazons Insane. The shelf price is kinda blowing me away too, because you pay $180-$190 for the same units. We usually would have about 30 buks more on a $200 item, Generalising of course. I just got the 18v ryobi lawnmower, and a fiskars reel mower. My KBG Lawn wont need the dethatcher thanks to your knowledge, I can never let that happen to my new seeds. My compost is going to be loaded, and I am going to use Korean Natural Farming to create organic fertilizers. I already made Lactic acid Bacterium, and started a bucket of fish hydrolysate, from whole sardines. I later found out sardines are amazing for it. No mercury in them, and they are saltwater fish. You really opened up a magic world to me Brian. You always let us know, we will encounter people who will feel strongly about this stuff, and that there is a debate between organic, semi-synthetic, and synthetic applications. You deserve to know this Brian. If someone finds you first like I did... Out of All the Lawn Tubers, and they really want the best, and dont realise yet they live to make worms happy basically LOL WELL, THEY ARE VERY LUCKY PEOPLE TO HAVE FOUND YOU. 🙏✌🍁🍂🌷 🇨🇦👊🏻👨🏻‍🏭⚡💖💖💖

@johngrinnell Жыл бұрын

Then what is the purpose of aeration then filling the holes with sand?

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

Fresh sand applied is not compacted and can theoretically help with drainage while simultaneously leveling out some low spots at the same time. What I've found however is that sand or sandy topsoil added to clay based soils don't mix so well even after aeration. The sand doesn't exactly improve drainage the way we all envision it to. This was one of the mistakes I made last February and March when I leveled my aerated lawn with a sandy loam. The sandy soil and my existing clay soil kind of bonded into a very hard soil. Notice I didn't mention adding sand as a top dressing option in this video. Organic matter like well broken down compost is much better than sand unless you really need an ultra flat lawn. In this video I aerated and didn't fill the holes in with anything. They will close back in on themselves in a few weeks with less compaction and more air space.

@LeeHill66 Жыл бұрын

To me that lawn looks like it needs seeding more than anything else.

@TurfMechanic Жыл бұрын

I'm assuming you are talking about my new lawn...I'm preparing to do some seeding on it this spring in different phases. I want to completely change grass types all over it eventually.

@sgwali Жыл бұрын

It’s either power raking or dethatching. Not the same thing.

@howardredder3582 Жыл бұрын

People have to know their soil. If you have a sandy, or sandy/loam soil type,...and can push a screedriver 6" into soil with ease,...theres no benifit to tearing up you your lawn with a core aerator. Your also pulling out plant roots and thinning your turf. Just saying, because aeration is pished so hard on you tube,...doesnt mean its needed for every lawn. Thanks..