# amick roll aerator



## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

Hello,

Has anyone tired the amick roll aerator? https://rollaerator.com/lawn-care/stainless-steel-design/

It looks like it would be some work to use but the ability to pull cores on a regular basis would be great.

I figure after a good rain or water it should be fairly effective and not super difficult to use.


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## cwrx82 (Sep 16, 2018)

I think it'd require a lot more work than most would be willing to forth. With no weight of any kind, the ground would have to be pretty soft to get penetration and pull decent cores.

I aerated, with a Ryan from Home Depot, after a couple days of rain and it still wasn't getting full depth of the tines.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I would think that the effectiveness of that will GREATLY depend on how your soil is already. If it's clay, good luck. If it's already sandy it might work pretty good.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I was thinking the same thing it weighs 45lbs and have bermuda with a nice sand soil mix.

Thanks


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@Passat774 I think you would be greatly disappointed in the effectiveness of this aerator.


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Bought one a month or so ago.Great idea and heavy build.Said parts are replaceable through email,nice guy.tested on my sandy/loam soil and worked great.waiting to use on my Bermuda soon.Dont know how it would work on clay but assume it would work if moistened.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

ram82 said:


> Bought one a month or so ago.Great idea and heavy build.Said parts are replaceable through email,nice guy.tested on my sandy/loam soil and worked great.waiting to use on my Bermuda soon.Dont know how it would work on clay but assume it would work if moistened.


Thanks, my plan would be to use it on my Bermuda that I installed last year and put down a 3" sand mix. I also have leveled with sand a few times last year.

Please report back on your Bermuda once it warms up, I am just wondering if it's worth the $275 investment...


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Passat774 said:


> ram82 said:
> 
> 
> > Bought one a month or so ago.Great idea and heavy build.Said parts are replaceable through email,nice guy.tested on my sandy/loam soil and worked great.waiting to use on my Bermuda soon.Dont know how it would work on clay but assume it would work if moistened.
> ...


I do have the troy bilt flex aerator and by far after a brief use I prefer amick.Beefy enough that it requires no weights.No gas,no maintenance. Works for my 5000 sq ft yard,teenagers can even do it


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Ram, any chance you could share a video of you using it?


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## Buster (Apr 3, 2020)

With 35,000 sq/ft of Bermuda... it may not be for me. Might be an option for some however. I'm also wondering if it's too light to be effective.


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Gilley11 said:


> Ram, any chance you could share a video of you using it?


Sorry don't even know how to post photos,but he has several YouTube videos that aren't quite professional wich made me skeptical but it works just like the videos.it is two brake drums so it is plenty heavy.gotta love American made ingenuity wich is why I support this product.im assuming the guy does this on the side


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

RollAerator.com
Also looked up roll aerator demonstration on you tube.
Found the product trying to go to sleep at night and killing time looking for garden products. Hope this helps


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Also,handle is not the yellow one on website and when I ordered off website it came within a week but had no tracking info.if you want the tracking info I would pay the extra 10-15 bucks off Ebay.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

ram82 said:


> Also,handle is not the yellow one on website and when I ordered off website it came within a week but had no tracking info.if you want the tracking info I would pay the extra 10-15 bucks off Ebay.


Do you think it would work using Solid Tines?


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Passat774 said:


> ram82 said:
> 
> 
> > Also,handle is not the yellow one on website and when I ordered off website it came within a week but had no tracking info.if you want the tracking info I would pay the extra 10-15 bucks off Ebay.
> ...


Not sure what you mean by solid?They are not spikes but hollow


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

You want hollow not solid. For resi lawns solid goes against the whole premise of aerating.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I have mine on order I will post a review when it arrives, he is sending some sold tines along with the hollow.

I like the idea of using the solid to be less disruptive to the soil, I agree that they may not work as well but they will still loosen up the soil somewhat.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

It arrived today and worked exactly as stated on his website. We had .57 of rain today and it worked extremely easy.

It's a great tool to have and now I can quickly aerate or solid tine my yard for more effective use of fertilizer.


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Passat774 said:


> It arrived today and worked exactly as stated on his website. We had .57 of rain today and it worked extremely easy.
> 
> It's a great tool to have and now I can quickly aerate or solid tine my yard for more effective use of fertilizer.


Probably use mine this upcoming week or two.can you post the pictures if possible for others?


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Pictures and videos!


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

It really seems worth the investment even though it's just a simple basic tool .

I checked my camera footage and it took me about 20 minutes shown in the picture.

Upper left corner was core aeration the remainder was solid tine,


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Used mine past two days.Pulls 1" cores.Really liked that I can walk away and leave laying on lawn and come back.Would do a section then come back.Takes longer to use than gas but if you have to rent and drive and hurry up ,time savings may be unrealistic.More realistic for smaller lawns,mine was 2,400 k.


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## Cecil (May 23, 2020)

I just received my Amick Roller Aerator today. Michael Amick delivered it personally. Great guy. The tool is solid, heavy and easy to use. It did the same job as a gas powered machine in about the same time. With two homes, I should recoup my initial investment by the middle of next summer. I looked around at manual aerators and this is the only one I could find that is comparable in results to a gas powered machine. Glad I found this forum otherwise I would have probably purchased a cheap crappy one that would driven me insane.


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## Guest (May 23, 2020)

I'm wondering how well it would do on georgia clay soil would have to be mighty moist and wet I thinking.then again it might gunk up the metal plugs...


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I have really enjoyed being able to use the machine, looking forward once it warms up some more to do a leveling project.

It's just quick and easy and makes such nice cores.

I wonder if one day Mike will come out with a manufactured version


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## DuncanMcDonuts (May 5, 2019)

Did you guys order the single or double drum? The single drum is a taller drum, but the double is shorter and wider supposedly making it more stable to roll. The description says they are both 45 lbs. The prices are interesting, too. Single is $259 on the website but $339 on eBay. The double is $299 on the website but $275 on eBay.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

@Passat774 share some pictures and a video!


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

My plan is to do some levelling next weekend, I will soak the yard and core the entire yard!!


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I did my front yard in 45 minutes this morning.

Here are some pictures after work today.





A little clean up


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## DuncanMcDonuts (May 5, 2019)

@Passat774 Did you order the single or double disc?


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I have the double disk.


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## TulsaFan (May 1, 2017)

If you look closely, he is using brake rotors which would explain the weight.

Perhaps, it is time to convince the wife to let me buy a mig welder. This could definitely by a diy project.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Those results are better than I expected. I'd love to see how this does on clay soil.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Gilley11 said:


> Those results are better than I expected. I'd love to see how this does on clay soil.


Honestly, me too. After seeing the videos and results from this thread, I want one, but I don't think there is a snowball's chance in Hell that this would work with my soil.


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## ram82 (Dec 19, 2018)

Spammage said:


> Gilley11 said:
> 
> 
> > Those results are better than I expected. I'd love to see how this does on clay soil.
> ...


I dont have clay soil but I have before and I think this will puncture it


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

ram82 said:


> Spammage said:
> 
> 
> > Gilley11 said:
> ...


The problem I have is different. The clay has to be moist to penetrate it, but then the clay will stick in the tine and just shove a hole in the ground on the next pass, furthering the compaction.


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## Batsonbe (May 9, 2019)

I can't get good cores with my tow aerator and 160lbs of concrete on top of it in my clay soils. I water 3x a week.
I don't have this one. I just don't see it working in the clay.


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## MikeT (Jul 27, 2020)

I just tried the Roll Aerator the first time today. I think my take on things is what most should expect. The posts before mine do seem a little optomistic. I ordered from the actual website, not ebay or amazon. The website says there is a single and double disc unit although I was not able to get the dropdown to display the single disc unit. That's okay by me since I figured the double disc would be more weight and do a better job because of more weight. Took maybe a week to receive, give or take a day.

Before use, you have to assemble it. The discs come in one box and the handle came the next day in another delivery. The discs contained handwritten assembly instructions and no picture. I looked for reference pictures online but nobody had one with the pieces apart. (Now as I write this, I wish I had taken pictures to help others.) I would tend to think it would have helped speed up assembly if the instructions had an assembly picture and typed text. The seller did responded by email when I had a question, so kuddos for that!

Assembly: The discs come in a square box with the tines attached backwards probably to save on shipping using a smaller box. Loosen the bolts, flip the tines around and retighten the bolts, keeping the u-bolt notch in the u-bolt. I used the box it came in to set the tined disc upside down on to attach the 2nd disc. Manually alighted the two discs and screwed on the extension hex nut and bolt. Set the 3 inch x 5 inch plate onto the 2nd disc outside and then nut it down snug hoping to keep the discs aligned. They appear to have stayed aligned during first use. I have not noticed any slippage.

It rained yesterday and I used it today. First pic is the double disc unit after use with mud on it. It seemed to cake the mud fairly quick as some of the yard I used it in did not have grass. It did appear to continue working though.



2nd pic showing the about 10 foot width perimeter I was able to accomplish with the unit. Granted this back yard is about 3000 sq ft. It did take 30 minutes to do about a 10 foot wide strip perimeter. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it was work. I put the handle onto my waist so my legs could do the work. I was sweating after 10 minutes. I'm sure this would be much nicer to use in cooler weather. I'm in south Texas and figured it was in the 90's this morning when I used it.



A sample of some of the plugs, sorry I didn't put a frame of reference for size here. They appear to be an inch long.



I have bermuda grass and a newer home build where they cheap out on the yard. To dig holes for a couple tress, I hit many rocks that I had to break up with a pick axe. You can see from this pic, the plugs do not appear to be consistent but this grass is not scalped either right now.



Kneeling down to take a close look at the yard and you notice more plugs than in a standing overview shot.





Overall, it does work more than you would first expect it to being what it is. Is it worth the money? If you are going to use it on your own yard for the next 10 years, sure. Most consumers wouldn't want to shell out the money for the big boy equipment for one yard. I will say I believe that for 10 times the cost, the walk behind units are worth the extra cost at 10 times less work to accomplish the same thing faster. I will let you know that this is the first aerator I have ever used. I have not used the walk behinds or the cheaper manual units or shoes or pull behinds with weights on top. So take my evaluation as you will.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@MikeT thanks for your write up on this. Unfortunately, this is about what I expected based on our horrendous clay soils. I would be curious if this works better for us from DFW to Houston on dryer soil. I'm not sure if it would have the weight to punch deeper holes or not, but from attempting other aerators on this soil, they just don't work when the soil is moist/wet.


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## Sonoran Desert Lawn (Aug 22, 2020)

Anyone else have any successful info about these? Worth the $$$? I only have a 2500 sq. ft. sandy soil yard and figured this would be better than my manual aerator. Am I better off renting from Lowes or Home Depot? How about liquid Aeration as a substitute?


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## Kdaves12 (Aug 10, 2020)

Received & assembled my Amick yesterday. Took it for a test run yesterday evening.

Mr. Amick will be sending me the larger tines which make 1/2" cores. Right now, I just have the tines that produce the 3/8", but they are interchangeable. When I brought this to his attention, he immediately got the other tines in the mail, but he did recommend giving the smaller tines a chance; easier puncture & smoother ride.

A little history on Mr. Amick... a few years ago, he invented the "DoubleDisk" for the sole purpose of adding extra weight in order to drive the, at the time, one-size-only 7/8" tine as it took a lot of force to drive them in the ground. After a couple years of modifications and tine size options, less weight is needed to drive the tines in and the DoubleDisk is now obsolete. One of his early DoubleDisk customer complaints was the total weight of the DoubleDisk, which kind of defeats the purpose of purchasing this, right? So now, he only offers the 5/8"(1/2" core) and/or the 1/2"(3/8" core). He no longer offers the 7/8"(3/4" core).

I'll chime in again after I receive the larger tines, but as far as the 1st run with the 3/8" cores, it was much easier than I expected. Yes, it was a workout, but an enjoyable one.

Last thing - many great things to say about Mr. Amick and his customer service.


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## so piedmont (6 mo ago)

I bought a single larger disc model that has 1/2" tines. I had ordered the 5/8" tines but it turned out that 1/2" worked fine, so I kept them. The tool is well built, is easy to use and very effective if you have a smaller lawn. Obviously 7 tines on a brake rotor is not going to make the same number of holes as a commercial gas powered aerator and will take much longer to achieve the same effect. The Roll Aerator will provide a peaceful workout though. If you hate manual tools because of the physical exertion, you will be displeased. I love the tool. On my clay soil, it pulls small plugs. The key is waiting for a couple of days after a soaking rain when the ground is still moist but not soggy. When I first used it last year the ground was still too wet and it was punching holes but not really pulling plugs very well. Mr. Amick was helpful in recommending the correct conditions for optimal plugging. I really like that whenever I want to use it, It is ready to go, and in lawn care, timing is everything. I built a rack out of 2x treated wood material that the aerator sits in, thus protecting the tines from damage when stored.


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## TheThirstyTurtle (May 3, 2019)

This product seems really intriguing. I saw the YouTuber YardBrah use this to great effect on his lawn, as well as some other videos posted by other users.

I'm curious to know how long this typically takes to ship to the East Coast from anyone who's recently ordered. I would like to aerate in early September but am worried that if I ordered it now it wouldn't arrive in time for the fall. I've heard of 3 month ship times, which would result in getting this after the first frost arrives.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I would email him directly, a one man show but very responsive.

I have been very happy with my results, takes me 30-40 minutes to down 5k of Bermuda


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## TheThirstyTurtle (May 3, 2019)

Passat774 said:


> I would email him directly, a one man show but very responsive.
> 
> I have been very happy with my results, takes me 30-40 minutes to down 5k of Bermuda


I'll take you up on that suggestion and reach out to Mike Amick. Thanks for starting this thread and sharing your experience with it. Great to hear that it worked well for you.


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## enriqueazvz (3 mo ago)

Kdaves12 said:


> Received & assembled my Amick yesterday. Took it for a test run yesterday evening.
> 
> Mr. Amick will be sending me the larger tines which make 1/2" cores. Right now, I just have the tines that produce the 3/8", but they are interchangeable. When I brought this to his attention, he immediately got the other tines in the mail, but he did recommend giving the smaller tines a chance; easier puncture & smoother ride.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply @Kdaves12 
Would you then recommend 5/8"(1/2" core) or the 1/2"(3/8" core)?

Best


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