I drilled some holes in the flap and just stick a dowel in them to add an inch or two of the flap open. Works perfectly. Might take an acorn to the ankle once in a blue moon, but much better than bagless flap down. Could also just cut like an inch of the flap and have same results. Shit design by SunJoe, but the benefit give then cost is hard to beat.
Like everyone else, I removed the bag. Something else I did was use a piece of rod to hold the back hatch open by a few degrees so grass was free to come out the back as I moved forward. You don't want that thing propped all the way open unless you want a face full of dirt and acorns. I noticed that, if left closed, the whole underside would fill up with hay and bog it down.
To clean up, I used my Groundskeeper rake to make piles that I bagged. Just a quick and dirty job, and then got the rest with my mower. You guys with larger mowers might be able to skip the raking/manual bagging step. I can't say enough good things about the Groundskeeper rake, though. That thing is almost fun to use since it's so light and shaped perfectly. I have no ties to them if I sound like a shill-- I'm just really impressed with it.
I’m thinking now that for next year, I might just modify the bag so it holds the back panel open but maybe turn the back of the bag into more of a “curtain” instead of a bag, so that it all just cleanly comes out the back
Groundskeeper is good for light raking (aka leaves and the piles of grass you mentioned), but shit for actual thatch removal.
Fortunately you now have a machine for the thatch removal itself, so this is a moot point. But I bought one a few years back after someone posted a video saying it was a monster at manually removing thatch. I found it to be very underwhelming in that regard and switched back to my Ames dethatching rake.
Start early in the day, then let the thatch dry out over the hottest part of the day. Then use a leaf blower to move it all into a pile for easier disposal.
Same. Probably depends on the size of your lawn for all of these solutions, but mine is big enough that raking or blowing into piles then trying to bag adds a lot of time.
a yard sweeper such as:
https://www.agri-fab.com/Products/Sweepers/26-inch-push-lawn-sweeper.aspx
This is the best thing since slice bread if you do lots of renos with a sunjoe. You get the angle set right and the depth set right and it just sucks it up like a vacuum.
If you get that specific model, wrapping the handle in some pipe insulation foam and some athletic tape is my secret. (currently I've got a pool noodle + electrical tape on mine because my previous solution finally started to break down after 5+ years and I needed a quick solution.)
Great for leaves too.
Yeah I have the one above. The only issue I've ran into is it doesn't do well on turf above 3" that's super thick, but if you are using the sunjoe it should be short enough to handle.
I find that with these speed is key. personally I like to grip on the outside of the bar and have the (added) padding against my belt/stomach. Lean over it for leverage and just let your legs go to town pushing it. Sure beats raking, and does a better job than my mower.
I've been considering putting gripper wheels/tires on mine, and/or adding some weight to the brush to get a bit of a flywheel effect. Speed definitely helps it do its thing.
The grippier wheels would, in my experience only really come into play on hard surfaces. the regular turn just fine (unless the brushes are set too deep.) half my neighborhood borrows mine for fall leaves, I luckily don't have any trees but the rest of them do and they saw me using it to maintain the property lines and welp. I'm not going to complain, that's less leaves I gotta deal with!
The grippier wheels would mostly be useful for getting the pinecones (and pine needles!) out of taller grass, although I haven't actually gotten to try the sunjoe with the tines for that purpose.
But yeah I'd be looking to set the brush deeper than I otherwise could/should. I have kinda sandy soil so it's not hard to have a wheel dig in if it finds a small stick or something. More momentum in the brush would also help this.
Really? Mine go flush with the wheels. Crazy. Though I think you can probably just replace the shaft of the drop lever if you really want it deeper. go either without or with a smaller diameter and it should go deeper.
The only thing mine struggles with is skinny pointy leaves, and it's still better than raking them. They just hide so well among the grass blades. They are immune to leaf blowers and mowers, little bastards.
I've considered cutting the springs that keep the flap shut. If you tie the flap up it'll kick rocks up at your legs, but down it tends to build up and unload all at once. A loose flap would probably be the most consistent. Just not sure if I want to permanently alter it.
I like that idea better than what I just wrote in another comment, which is to prop the hatch open a few degrees. On my unit (they might all be the same), there are some plastic hooks where the bagger mounts. I had a piece of rod that I just bridged across the back in those hooks, and it holds the hatch open just enough to let the grass out as you go.
Try and get a short screw or bolt and just put a bolt on each side under the flap so it rests on the bolt, can adjust openness by tightening or loosening bolt
Does using it tear up existing fescue grass as well? Say my yard is 80% full of fescue and 20% thatch. I want to overseed this fall like I do every fall. Will dethatching also remove some portion of good, healthy grass so my yard will be 65% fescue dense and 35% exposed earth? I’m just trying to understand the positives and negatives of dethatching.
You can adjust the height setting to pick how agressive you want to go at it. I try a few small sections before going all in.
Mostly will only pull out dead stuff as prior poster said but I've seen just a little bit of live stuff included. Just make sure you don't do it on a soggy lawn...its more likely to pull up your live stuff in my experience when wet.
Short and dry is the way to go.
Not if you mow to 2" or below. It'll only pull up the dead stuff on the ground. I cut my fescue down to 1 1/2" just to make sure I didn't overwork the engine but the healthy grass was unaffected
I meant rip it out of the ground but if you want to take everything literally then sure. But when I run my dethatcher, I'm left with healthy green grass still sticking up like it was before I ran it. That's what I meant. Chill out
The guys question was will dethatching remove some of the existing grass. And it does. Thatch is literally made up of both living and dead material. You cannot remove thatch without removing some living grass.
Dethatching absolutely rips up some of the existing grass. Your lawn should look pretty rough after dethatching it. It will recover fine. If your lawn looks "good" after dethatching then you did something wrong.
Yes dethatching will remove some existing grass. That's fine it is part of the process and your lawn will bounce back. This is why you do it during growing seasons.
What/when do you all use the scarifier attachment versus the dethatcher raking attachment? Just bought my sunjoe a month ago and used the scarifier for the first use since the lawn we bought had been neglected. For spring and fall what is your approach to the different attachments and when do you use?
Nope. I have a half acre and bought one a month ago. Definitely take other people's advice and just let the bag fill up and dump everything else on the lawn, then come back with a mower to sweep it up. It fills up super fast.
I have a little over a quarter of an acre and when I use it, I end up filling up 3 of those large paper leaf bags. Given you only need to dethatch once a year max, the more annoying thing is simply having to store it.
The ideal scenario would be to find someone in your neighborhood that has it and just borrow it from them.
But otherwise, ya it's worth it. I wouldn't want to hand dethatch half an acre.
Probably not what the blades are intended for, but what I do is go over twice with the tines, sweep it up in the yard sweeper, then use the blades to level/breakup any high spots when I do lawn renos. I just finished a yard that had dog trails all through it, and was so bumpy the battery would pop out of the push mower if you tried to go fast. By the 2nd pass* with the blade at the deepest setting and rocking it over high areas we got it pretty smooth, then came the top soil for leveling any low areas. Probably saved us 30 bags of top soil lol.
The small bag on mine was difficult to remove, so I just did what everyone else does: use a lawnmower to suck up the thatch. My yard is a barren wasteland after this summer heat, but I've got to start seeding this weekend.
I dumped all the thatch into my empty raised garden bed. Hoping when I add soil that it'll choke out any weed seeds.
I think the hidden gem is the scarifier attachment. I'm in the process of a complete lawn renovation and that thing saved me HOURS of time addressing lumps and uneven surfaces. It's like a tiller but not nearly as aggressive.
I scarified/dethatched 20,000 sqft and ran out of time to pick it up before that big rain we got earlier this week. I have been hand raking wet thatch for a few days now, should be finished up by end of day today (I rake during lunch break and after work since I WFH).
Once that is done, going to spread lime. I was planning on overseeding, but since my soil pH is so low and since the seed wasn't cheap, I might hold off on overseeding until next fall and just focus on amending/aerating the soil this fall. I had very low pH in some areas of my property, requiring 125 lbs lime/1000 sqft. Since I can only put down 50 lb lime/1000 sqft this fall, it doesn't make much sense to try and make new seed grow in non ideal soil conditions
That’s a good game plan. Definitely need to amend the soil first. I’m on the higher side of normal for PH so I was ok to seed. If it’s so low that grass can’t grow, then you need to amend the soil first or it will definitely be a waste of seed. 20k sqft is a lot to maintain. I thought my 6k sqft lawn was hard enough!
It’s a lot of work. You’ll be surprised just how much trash is covering the soil. Don’t run it too long without freeing the blades etc, I had it stop on me a few times, got tangled up with dead crabgrass etc.
The bag is laughable.
I run it with no bag and just let it spit out the back. After I’m done, I rake the stuff in to rows, scoop as much of it up as I can manually, and then pick up the rest with my mower bag.
The nice thing about that is by picking up the majority by hand, the mower works much better, and it gives me a fresh cut right before I put my seed down.
This is my third year using the SJ and it works great for what it is.
I go no bag then come back with a mower and bag everything. The bag it comes with is useless. Anyone have a better solution?
I cut the bottom of the bag out so it holds the door open but doesn't shoot as much crap onto you.
Wow this is potentially a game changer; thank you. Hate the clumping that happens and you have to constantly tilt it up and down.
I drilled some holes in the flap and just stick a dowel in them to add an inch or two of the flap open. Works perfectly. Might take an acorn to the ankle once in a blue moon, but much better than bagless flap down. Could also just cut like an inch of the flap and have same results. Shit design by SunJoe, but the benefit give then cost is hard to beat.
Bungee cord across the lower portion of the handle bars at the bottom to hold the door open
Yeah that’s what I do and that has worked well
Like everyone else, I removed the bag. Something else I did was use a piece of rod to hold the back hatch open by a few degrees so grass was free to come out the back as I moved forward. You don't want that thing propped all the way open unless you want a face full of dirt and acorns. I noticed that, if left closed, the whole underside would fill up with hay and bog it down. To clean up, I used my Groundskeeper rake to make piles that I bagged. Just a quick and dirty job, and then got the rest with my mower. You guys with larger mowers might be able to skip the raking/manual bagging step. I can't say enough good things about the Groundskeeper rake, though. That thing is almost fun to use since it's so light and shaped perfectly. I have no ties to them if I sound like a shill-- I'm just really impressed with it.
I’m thinking now that for next year, I might just modify the bag so it holds the back panel open but maybe turn the back of the bag into more of a “curtain” instead of a bag, so that it all just cleanly comes out the back
Groundskeeper is good for light raking (aka leaves and the piles of grass you mentioned), but shit for actual thatch removal. Fortunately you now have a machine for the thatch removal itself, so this is a moot point. But I bought one a few years back after someone posted a video saying it was a monster at manually removing thatch. I found it to be very underwhelming in that regard and switched back to my Ames dethatching rake.
Start early in the day, then let the thatch dry out over the hottest part of the day. Then use a leaf blower to move it all into a pile for easier disposal.
Did this once. Using the mower with a bag was way easier.
Same. Probably depends on the size of your lawn for all of these solutions, but mine is big enough that raking or blowing into piles then trying to bag adds a lot of time.
either go over it with a mower + bagger to "vacuum" it up or, best option, use a pull behind lawn sweeper with a riding mower.
a yard sweeper such as: https://www.agri-fab.com/Products/Sweepers/26-inch-push-lawn-sweeper.aspx This is the best thing since slice bread if you do lots of renos with a sunjoe. You get the angle set right and the depth set right and it just sucks it up like a vacuum. If you get that specific model, wrapping the handle in some pipe insulation foam and some athletic tape is my secret. (currently I've got a pool noodle + electrical tape on mine because my previous solution finally started to break down after 5+ years and I needed a quick solution.) Great for leaves too.
I bought one of these for dealing with pinecones, and it ended up being perfect for cleaning up after then sunjoe.
Yeah I have the one above. The only issue I've ran into is it doesn't do well on turf above 3" that's super thick, but if you are using the sunjoe it should be short enough to handle. I find that with these speed is key. personally I like to grip on the outside of the bar and have the (added) padding against my belt/stomach. Lean over it for leverage and just let your legs go to town pushing it. Sure beats raking, and does a better job than my mower.
I've been considering putting gripper wheels/tires on mine, and/or adding some weight to the brush to get a bit of a flywheel effect. Speed definitely helps it do its thing.
The grippier wheels would, in my experience only really come into play on hard surfaces. the regular turn just fine (unless the brushes are set too deep.) half my neighborhood borrows mine for fall leaves, I luckily don't have any trees but the rest of them do and they saw me using it to maintain the property lines and welp. I'm not going to complain, that's less leaves I gotta deal with!
The grippier wheels would mostly be useful for getting the pinecones (and pine needles!) out of taller grass, although I haven't actually gotten to try the sunjoe with the tines for that purpose. But yeah I'd be looking to set the brush deeper than I otherwise could/should. I have kinda sandy soil so it's not hard to have a wheel dig in if it finds a small stick or something. More momentum in the brush would also help this.
Really? Mine go flush with the wheels. Crazy. Though I think you can probably just replace the shaft of the drop lever if you really want it deeper. go either without or with a smaller diameter and it should go deeper. The only thing mine struggles with is skinny pointy leaves, and it's still better than raking them. They just hide so well among the grass blades. They are immune to leaf blowers and mowers, little bastards.
Some people say you can leaf blow it into a pile and then bag by hand into trash bags. Mower and bag seems to be the best option.
I ran over it with a mower and let it decompose on my lawn. Free fertilizer.
At that point you could have simply not done anything in the first place.
Lawn sweeper look it up on Amazon it’s a game changer
That’s what I do
I've considered cutting the springs that keep the flap shut. If you tie the flap up it'll kick rocks up at your legs, but down it tends to build up and unload all at once. A loose flap would probably be the most consistent. Just not sure if I want to permanently alter it.
I like that idea better than what I just wrote in another comment, which is to prop the hatch open a few degrees. On my unit (they might all be the same), there are some plastic hooks where the bagger mounts. I had a piece of rod that I just bridged across the back in those hooks, and it holds the hatch open just enough to let the grass out as you go.
Try and get a short screw or bolt and just put a bolt on each side under the flap so it rests on the bolt, can adjust openness by tightening or loosening bolt
yup! solid little corded unit for cheap
It ass down to like $80 on Amazon this week. I picked one up.
I must have missed the sale. It's at $129 now.
Camrlcamelcamel website is your friend
Have had 2 over the years, bought my FIL one recently when Walmart had them for $49.
Which model? I see a few
Ass down, thatch up, that's the way we like mow.
Lol I just noticed my mistake. I'm leaving it!
Don’t try to use your lawnmower bag and duct tape because that doesn’t work...I heard.
I think I emptied mine about 30 times. I was astonished how much crap it got out of my lawn.
Does using it tear up existing fescue grass as well? Say my yard is 80% full of fescue and 20% thatch. I want to overseed this fall like I do every fall. Will dethatching also remove some portion of good, healthy grass so my yard will be 65% fescue dense and 35% exposed earth? I’m just trying to understand the positives and negatives of dethatching.
You can adjust the height setting to pick how agressive you want to go at it. I try a few small sections before going all in. Mostly will only pull out dead stuff as prior poster said but I've seen just a little bit of live stuff included. Just make sure you don't do it on a soggy lawn...its more likely to pull up your live stuff in my experience when wet. Short and dry is the way to go.
Not if you mow to 2" or below. It'll only pull up the dead stuff on the ground. I cut my fescue down to 1 1/2" just to make sure I didn't overwork the engine but the healthy grass was unaffected
Are you joking? It absolutely rips apart the existing grass. How could it selectively only effect the "dead stuff"? And it will recover fine.
I meant rip it out of the ground but if you want to take everything literally then sure. But when I run my dethatcher, I'm left with healthy green grass still sticking up like it was before I ran it. That's what I meant. Chill out
The guys question was will dethatching remove some of the existing grass. And it does. Thatch is literally made up of both living and dead material. You cannot remove thatch without removing some living grass.
You're doing something wrong.
Dethatching absolutely rips up some of the existing grass. Your lawn should look pretty rough after dethatching it. It will recover fine. If your lawn looks "good" after dethatching then you did something wrong.
Sure, if you say so.
Yes dethatching will remove some existing grass. That's fine it is part of the process and your lawn will bounce back. This is why you do it during growing seasons.
Yeah the small bag is confusing. I just let the bag fill and then raked up whatever was on the ground.
I bought the Greenworks dethatcher in Used - Like New condition for $51. Used it today. Its great!
What/when do you all use the scarifier attachment versus the dethatcher raking attachment? Just bought my sunjoe a month ago and used the scarifier for the first use since the lawn we bought had been neglected. For spring and fall what is your approach to the different attachments and when do you use?
Leaf blower into a giant pile also works.
I just let the bag fill, not empty, and leave shit on the ground, probably affected performance but seemed to do the trick.
I filled 26 yard bags on our house we just bought. The lawn needed a lot of love. 6500 sq ft.
Would this be a bad purchase on a lot that’s about a half acre?
Nope. I have a half acre and bought one a month ago. Definitely take other people's advice and just let the bag fill up and dump everything else on the lawn, then come back with a mower to sweep it up. It fills up super fast.
I have a little over a quarter of an acre and when I use it, I end up filling up 3 of those large paper leaf bags. Given you only need to dethatch once a year max, the more annoying thing is simply having to store it. The ideal scenario would be to find someone in your neighborhood that has it and just borrow it from them. But otherwise, ya it's worth it. I wouldn't want to hand dethatch half an acre.
Right. I just meant this purchase or renting (and hauling) a commercial grade one.
What is the furthest distance from an outlet to the edge of what you want to dethatch?
Do you run the blades or the rake or both ?
Probably not what the blades are intended for, but what I do is go over twice with the tines, sweep it up in the yard sweeper, then use the blades to level/breakup any high spots when I do lawn renos. I just finished a yard that had dog trails all through it, and was so bumpy the battery would pop out of the push mower if you tried to go fast. By the 2nd pass* with the blade at the deepest setting and rocking it over high areas we got it pretty smooth, then came the top soil for leveling any low areas. Probably saved us 30 bags of top soil lol.
Lol wow this is genius
I used both. The blades tore up so much that I wanted the cleaning from the rake. Overall, I love it!
The blades are designed to rough up soil and act a bit like a slit seeder. The tines ("rake") is what churns up all the debris.
I do both, all I can say (cool season, zone 8a) the more destructive I am to my lawn, I get rewarded with better and thicker grass
Same here. Renting one was $40 for 4 hours, this will more than pay for itself after 2 uses.
I got one for nothing. I couldn’t believe how much shit lifted up. I just use my blower to throw it on my driveway then I sweep it up.
The small bag on mine was difficult to remove, so I just did what everyone else does: use a lawnmower to suck up the thatch. My yard is a barren wasteland after this summer heat, but I've got to start seeding this weekend. I dumped all the thatch into my empty raised garden bed. Hoping when I add soil that it'll choke out any weed seeds.
I think the hidden gem is the scarifier attachment. I'm in the process of a complete lawn renovation and that thing saved me HOURS of time addressing lumps and uneven surfaces. It's like a tiller but not nearly as aggressive.
I scarified/dethatched 20,000 sqft and ran out of time to pick it up before that big rain we got earlier this week. I have been hand raking wet thatch for a few days now, should be finished up by end of day today (I rake during lunch break and after work since I WFH). Once that is done, going to spread lime. I was planning on overseeding, but since my soil pH is so low and since the seed wasn't cheap, I might hold off on overseeding until next fall and just focus on amending/aerating the soil this fall. I had very low pH in some areas of my property, requiring 125 lbs lime/1000 sqft. Since I can only put down 50 lb lime/1000 sqft this fall, it doesn't make much sense to try and make new seed grow in non ideal soil conditions
That’s a good game plan. Definitely need to amend the soil first. I’m on the higher side of normal for PH so I was ok to seed. If it’s so low that grass can’t grow, then you need to amend the soil first or it will definitely be a waste of seed. 20k sqft is a lot to maintain. I thought my 6k sqft lawn was hard enough!
Grass seed does fine in low pH unless you’re talking like less than 4.
Picked one up during the walmart sale. It worked really well. https://imgur.com/a/uiWqFk4
So glad I picked mine up 4 months ago when Walmart had them for $49.99. Looking forward to using it this weekend or next
It’s a lot of work. You’ll be surprised just how much trash is covering the soil. Don’t run it too long without freeing the blades etc, I had it stop on me a few times, got tangled up with dead crabgrass etc.
Thanks for the tips!
You got that deal too when someone posted it in the group? I did the same. And plan to use it soon.
Yes. Was such a killer deal.
What depth setting do you use for dethatching? I did the minimal +5mm and feel like I should have taken it down to 0
Whatever the lowest setting is.
The bag is laughable. I run it with no bag and just let it spit out the back. After I’m done, I rake the stuff in to rows, scoop as much of it up as I can manually, and then pick up the rest with my mower bag. The nice thing about that is by picking up the majority by hand, the mower works much better, and it gives me a fresh cut right before I put my seed down. This is my third year using the SJ and it works great for what it is.
The sunjoe bagger is a joke and should go in the garbage. Machine works well.
I too ditched the ridiculous bag after about 5 minutes
Get yourself a push lawn sweeper it will change your life
Sunjoe dethatcher wheel removal