40V HP Brushless 18 in. Battery Powered Rear Tine Tiller and 16 in. Front Tine Tiller with Batteries and Chargers

It took about an hour of high-speed run time to till the 40’ x 40’ garden. Real world use, each battery powered the tiller on high (tilling and propulsion) for approx. 10mins I’m very pleased at the battery run time and power (torque) of this tiller. I would use it again and recommend its use to others. My wife ran it for about 20 mins and found it very easy to operate and understand. Overall, this thing worked great!

All I can say is WOW!!! This thing is a BEAST! Plenty of power and is so much quicker to start and easier to use than my Craftsman rear tine that this replaced! I was a bit skeptical of switching to battery on a piece of equipment like this, but this has definitely changed my mind. It came with 4 batteries and a dual charger, which provided me more than enough runtime for my projects and it feels like it is built to last!

I picked up this tiller yesterday at Home Depot and Thought it should wait until today to try it after I mowed the lawn. It turns out the tiller broke on the first try on the right hand side of the tiller bolt. I’m surprised it didn’t fly off. The thing didn’t last 2 minutes before it snapped. So dangerous! These bolts are cheaply made and although I have hard soil, I thought I might give it a try. Don’t be mislead. This is a cheap product and steep product. Will never buy again.

Third use tine shaft broke at shear pin hole. Ryobi support chat not functional. This does a great job but the engineering doesn't appear to be up to the motors power. I'll check with home depot if I can return assembled and used.

Being female, retired, 5’2”, reasonably fit and having owned and operated a garden services business for over 10 yrs I had occasion to use a couple different rototillers – gas operated, rear and front tine models as well as cordless cultivators in renovating/rejuvenating vegetable and flower gardens, rototilling in new garden areas and tilling in landscape areas for installation of shrubs, trees, hardscape and lawn islands/berms. All I can say is if we had this Ryobi tiller 15 years ago, our jobs would have been much easier and a breeze to load onto a trailer and move around job site. From unboxing to test, assembly took me just under 2 hrs. I took my time but struggled with what should have been a 5 minute job that took nearly a half an hour – I found attaching the dirt flap to be tedious and unnecessarily cumbersome. Each of the other assembly steps were easy – follow the user manual instructions and quick start assembly diagrams. My review is based on a landscape project – a shallow landscape berm to address surface water drainage issues and improve curb appeal. I spent the time to remove the grass with a string trimmer exposing the bare soil. I then made multiple passes in 4 strips the length of the berm with the goal of lifting the clay layer to the surface to marry with top soil to be added on top forming the raised portion of the berm. This step is important because it stabilizes the berm structure and avoids erosion causing the berm to sink and exposing the top roots of the shrubbery planted. You can’t simply dump a bunch of dirt down and expect it to stay put. Below are pics of various stages of the project. Edging, landscape cloth and gravel mulch still need to be done but already you can see the improvement to my front entry landscape. I did experience a battery popping up shutting the tiller down when I hit a patch of hard compacted soil. I just opened the battery case and push it down and off you go. It’s a safety feature should you run into hard pan soil like me or hit a root or a rock. It’s a nice safety feature – you won’t pull your arms out of joint like with some gas operated models. And if the impact is great enough to damage tines, gearbox or even the motor, a second safety feature kicks in with sheer pins designed to break. It’s an engineering safety feature, not a failure of the machine. Be happy when a sheer pin breaks, you didn’t trash your tiller. The 13-1/2in tires are rugged with deep treads for great traction. With 3 level handle adjustments lets you customize the tiller for comfort. The front ballast tank can hold sand, rocks or pieces of lead - any weight that helps to balance the tiller when lifting the handle and tines off the ground to transport and initial tilling. Typical to most rear tine tillers the depth bar allows you to choose till depth – pull the bar up and the tines dig deeper. I’ve always made it a practice to take multiple shallower swaths on deep till jobs rather than trying to get there with one pass. And removing surface vegetative growth with a string trimmer helps to get there faster. Takes more time but you get a much better till. The two pair of 2X40V 6Ah batteries provide more than enough power and with the rapid dual port charger, it’s a matter of an hour or so to fully recharge the two battery pair so you’ll have continuous battery power for any job. I found the power to be equal to gas powered units I’ve used, especially breaking new ground with thick matted grass roots. The power doesn’t back off when you hit tough ground. I really like the whole unit tines over the traditional bolo tines. You cannot switch tine rotation like some gas operated tillers allow. My test project I did manage to kick up a 7x5 inch rock – I think granite. The sheer pin didn’t break probably because the condition of the soil was easily workable. Even though it’s a powerful piece of equipment with big torque sufficient to easily chew up the ground, this machine handles well even for me a smaller woman – but it’s still a tiller – not the easiest machines to maneuver. The construction of the tiller parts are all steel – quality for a long lasting machine. Controls are straight forward and simple. T the “Transport” feature disengages the tines making it possible to drive the unit to/from your project area. Like your riding mower, after a few uses, you’ll settle in on a comfortable speeds for different jobs - using the controls will come second nature. Overall I’m really impressed with the performance of the Ryobi cordless rear tine tiller. It’s powerful, beefy yet very easy to handle - and hey, no gas, oil/filter changes, exhaust fumes – just simple batteries that quickly charge. Depending on the tilling job, the batteries will likely last through the project and even beyond. The Whisper Series adds a bonus feature of quiet operation. I’m so happy to not have to wear ear protection. If you’re accustomed to gas powered tillers, you won’t find deficiencies with this machine and if you have no experience with tillers you’ll find this machine easy to operate. Everything about this machine is quality, power and strength. Based on my landscape project and from experience with tillers, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Ryobi Rear Tine tiller and being cordless makes it a game changer.

I like the amount of power from this tiller. The battery life is more than expected. The problem is the pin that holds the blades in place. One sheared off after a couple hours use. The other is bent. Now I have to find bolts that may work instead.

Can't say enough about this rear tine tiller. All I can say is, it packs a serious punch and you will not regret it! No Gas, fumes, oil, filter, spark plug, pull cords, choke, prime, pollution, carburetor, to deal with PERIOD! ALL ELECTRIC is a game changer. Holds (4) 40 volt 6 Amp batteries, and run 2 batteries at a time, to Create 80volts of power, which should tell you this thing is POWERFUL! It will run for approx. 15 minutes & just switch the red key to use the 2nd set of batteries for a total of approx 30 minutes of tilling. Love the feature where the tines do not have to turn while in transport mode, its wayyyy quiter than a gas tiller, you dont have to use earplugs (but thats to your own discretion). If your vested in the ryobi 40 volt line up, it's a no Brainer to invest in this tiller if your in the market for it. With the dual charger, and multiple 40volt batteries, you LITERALLY, will never run out of Power (Electric power that is). Do yourself a favor, and get it! You'll thank me later.

The minute that you grab the handlebar, you know that this is not a toy, it feels like a serious machine compared to smaller electric powered Tillers. This works great tilling a new garden area by chewing up the grass sod. This will leave some large chunks, but after letting the ground rest for a couple of days and then going over it again the results are a fine soil base for planting. Because of the size and weight, I would not recommend using it on a garden plot that is less than a 4x6 area, but it worked great on the first plot that I tried it on that was 3x10.It was a bit difficult for me the first time that I used it but that was before I added about 25lbs of play sand to the front ballast tank. This made a world of difference in the balance and made it a lot easier to use and move it under power. While there is a small assembly required (Handle, brush bar, Ballast tank, side shields and depth adjustment) the require tools are supplied.

The delivery people were very amenable and worked with me for the delivery schedule. The technical support people call me in advance to give me contact information in case I had any issues with setting up or using the product. Some assembly is definitely required. There is a quick start guide to lead you through the process. I recommend opening up the box the unit comes in to facilitate assembly. The owner's manual and miscellaneous parts for assembly are located inside the battery compartment. The handle easily adjusts up or down for comfort. Assembly of the rototiller was fairly straightforward. The only part that proved to be a challenge was the installation of washers on the bull bar. Washers need to be installed between the bull bar plate and the rototiller housing. It's virtually impossible to hold them in place while at the same time installing the bull bar. I ended up super gluing the washers to the housing. I also tried to open up the bull bar a little bit to give me more clearance for the installation. This worked rather well. Total installation time was about 2 and 1/2 hours. It should be noted I did this by myself it will probably take less time with two people. The rototiller was easy to use and does a great job cultivating.

I really like this Ryobi 40V Rear Tine Tiller for the fine dirt it produces in the garden and the freedom from noise and hassles with gas and oil. The dual charger brings a pair of batteries from one bar to full in about an hour. I found I could till 600 square feet of garden on one pair of batteries going from full charge to one bar. With the four 6 Ah batteries included you could just switch the primary battery start key to the other pair and double the area, maybe more since I still had one bar. Transport mode lets you drive the tiller without the tines spinning which is great since I have about 50 yards to go out to the garden, and it has a reverse which I use often since I till in close quarters. A 165 pound tiller would be a lot to have to move around manually. Variable forward speed let me adjust to different tilling conditions. My dirt was very moist from frequent recent rains so it was really dragging the tiller down. With easier ground you might be able to till quite a bit larger area on a charge. When I was done tilling the handle could be moved to two additional upright positions to save storage space which is always in short supply. Assembly instructions were good with only a few minor differences to actual assembly, and there is a quick reference sheet with enlarged pictures to show how everything goes together. All the needed assembly tools are included as well. It does arrive as a 185 pound package so you do want to be prepared for it.