# Swardman Verticutter/Dethatcher



## sanders4617 (Jul 9, 2018)

I know we have threads on Swardman and the Electra. I'm just curious and would like to see everybody's opinion on their attachments, specifically the dethatcher and verticutter.

As many of you probably are, I'm trying to decide on if Swardman is right for me, and a big part of the draw to them is their attachments (cartridges).

How do they both work? Dethatcher work as suppose to? Does the verticutter do its job correctly?


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## DuncanMcDonuts (May 5, 2019)

I met with @Austinite the other day and he has the verticutter cartridge. His opinion was he didn't like it because the blades are pretty dull and pull the stolons out of the ground instead of cutting them causing the cartridge to bind. He has a dethatcher on order so he might have an opinion on that soon.


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## Austinite (Oct 4, 2018)

I'm waiting on the dethacther, but I can tell just from watching videos that it will be a great tool to have. From what I've seen it does a phenomenal job and I'm quite eager to review it.

I am not a fan of the Verticutter. Below is a video I did on the Swardman Verticutter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGQIGM46dgU

As for the Swardman machine itself, it is by far my favorite machine. I've owned a McLane, California Trimmer and a Toro Greensmaster. The Swardman wins in ALL categories for a home owner. Emphasis on Home Owner. The ease of adjusting the height of cut compared to other greens mowers is win in my book. Easily interchangeable cartridges. Super efficient on gas... the thing seems to never run out of gas, it's crazy. Maneuverability is a breeze when compared to other mowers. Having a local dealer is awesome. They send me a box, I put my cartridge in it and they send it back sharpened and adjusted to the bed-knife. I never cared for messing with back-lapping. While it's not free, it's convenient and really doesn't need it that often, and I cut daily. The list goes on, but here is a video of a review I did on my Edwin and Elecrta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI5MyvT6tfk


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

I used the verticutter this weekend on my bermuda and didn't experience any issue with it pulling up stolons out of the ground. I think the trick is making sure the depth of cut is right, and with the electra making sure you are running in the regen mode. I've also got the dethatch and it works great. I wish the verticut had more blades in a tighter spacing but multiple passes in different directions does the trick. I've got my lawn at just about .25" so thatch isn't a big issue. I've used it to clip the runners. It will just depend on your turf type and if its been dethatched and verticut before.


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## Hawgwild69 (May 1, 2018)

I have the scarifying cartridge and LOVE it! I used it this spring and was amazed at how much it pulled out of my bermuda.


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## sanders4617 (Jul 9, 2018)

Interesting! Yeah I don't want to just pull runners up with the verticutter. So far we've got 1 that loves it and 1 that doesn't.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

I haven't used the gas version Edwin, only the Electra model. So I don't know if the gas version increases the spin-speed of the v-cutter and dethatcher, or how much faster they might be geared. @Austinite has both models and can comment on the effectiveness of the Edwin v-cutter vs. the Electra.

The Electra can use what Swardman calls "Rejuvejate" mode. The first time this mode is enable, you'll understand why I call it "Beast Mode". Yikes! I didn't know about Beast Mode when I first installed the v-cutter cartridge. The standard spin-speed for normal mowing is relatively slow. That speed simply doesn't work with the v-cutter or dethatcher. Spinning slowly, the v-cutter behaves like a tiller and mostly wrapped up the long bermuda stolons around the shaft instead of slicing them.

So after a few minutes doing it wrong, I went to the manual and read about the Electra's Beast Mode keypad combo: _Down, down, up, up, left, right, left, right._ Holy cow! The spin-speed becomes super-fast and makes both the v-cutter and dethatcher work right. In fact, it was kind of scary. That electric motor simply does not bog down. Frankly, I wouldn't want to use a more aggressive tool.

I also agree with @HungrySoutherner that two 90° passes are required for best results. I suspect that's true for any v-cutter. As for the v-cutter spacing, I'll worry about a 1/4" tighter spacing once my lawn gets so perfect that it looks like a putting green. Until then, I'm still trying to kill weeds and have much bigger headaches to deal with.

The job is very dusty and messy when the yard is dry. But you DON'T want to do it after a rain or it's muddy and messy. And watch where you're pointing the v-cutter because the thatch and dirt fountain out the front. I didn't used the grass catcher with the v-cutter. This left behind the loose dirt and thatch on the scalped ground. I then followed with the dethatcher and grass catcher. Scalping, v-cutting, and dethatching were easy, but bagging really wore me out. It was a two-day job for my small 2K front lawn.


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## smurg (May 30, 2018)

I spent some time researching verticutters and ended up buying the Sun Joe "scarifier" for now due to price. From what I could tell though was that all other verticutters I've seen are different than the Swardman cartridge and that the Swardman mimics the look of the Sun Joe version (albeit the blades are slightly more scalloped). I've only used my Sun Joe briefly, but the "scarifier" name instead of verticutter is apt.

The blades are thicker and not sharpened to an edge. It does cut the turf, but lifts up way more thatch/grass than a normal verticutter; basically to the level of dethatching. You would not want to use it on a green or anything delicate where you would use a normal verticutter with sharp cutting blades. I'll have to measure the blade thickness and post them here to compare to the Swardman cartridge, but they look quite similar through the eyeball check.

They could still be widely different though since I would imagine the Swardman is spinning the blades much quicker, but I think the effect on the turf is still different from a https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=152&p=2113 or https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30.


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