Who'd Like a Decent Hand Spreader- Listen Up Earthway

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by TLS

I emailed him as well.

Here's the abridged version.

Keep it simple.

Keep it plastic.

Keep it durable.

Keep fertilizer prills from jamming the impeller.

A few tweaks is all they need.

I haven't ever adjusted the rate settings on either model for over 10 years.

I'd rather NOT have it grease-able. Just a sticky mess waiting to happen. Sealed gears is all thats needed.

Same Here, just keep it simple and durable. I also think grease-able and stainless is too much. Just make it durable enough to last more than a 1/4 of a season.

[jbturf]

i think a sturdy plastic design is fine, as long as the mechanical parts
insides are metal or heavy duty an well built

i also like the ergonomic design of the scotts, your arm supports some
of the weight taking the strain off your wrist

the capacity of the scotts is ok the earthway holds a little bit less,
so if revamping the current earthway, it would be nice if it could hold
a little bit more

this is an invaluable tool for me as i use it mutilple times daily,
i would nt be afraid to pay a premium for a quality unit

[ted putnam]

Like a DA, I left a pound or so of fert in my solo chest spreader over the winter. I checked everything out before I started my first app this year and you guessed it....it wouldn't crank. I took the base portion apart and now I am very familiar with the inner workings of it. The gears are metal but not stainless and are lightly greased. Very sturdy and sealed as best as can be expected. It's one weakness is where the spindle comes down and joins in the gear box. The spindle is mild steel and has a grommet it spins within much like where the spindle goes through a push spreader hopper. It was rusty and would not spin within the grommet so I used some spray catalyst and was finally able to remove the spindle from the grommet. I used fine sandpaper on the spindle and slopped it up with never sieze and put it all back together. Works like a charm. It's a great spreader overall. IMO, to have something of professional quality something of similar design would have to be done and the one thing I would change about the Solo would be to have a stainless spindle and I think the same would be necessary in any quality hand spreader.

[grassman177]

excellent we have a person here to listen to us.

things i want , are same 1 or 2 lb hopper, arm rest/support, metal gears sealed and greased, oh sealed gears!!!. hand crank, trigger gate but make it smooth, the plastic ones on the scotts we use stick open despite anything we have tried.

[ted putnam]

When I buy a push spreader, I buy a quality spreader made for doing 20 lawns a day every day. I pay almost $400 dollars for this instead of buying a $40 unit at a home store and having to replace it in a couple of months. The same holds true for a hand spreader I don't use it to treat entire lawns of course but I do carry it in my hopper and it does get used daily, sometimes at multiple locations.The sky is not the limit on price but I just bought another Scotts hand spreader at Lowes for $14.(I've lost count on how many I've bought over the last 2 yrs. I think somewhere between 8-12) I would much rather purchase something for $50-100 and know that it would last me a couple of years and be rebuildable at that point than to be $14'd to death...

[EarthWayJK]

Well in 24 hours I have gotten a number of emails and it seems that the wish-lists all seem to very similar, and clearly you have the need for a hand spreader that's more "commercial" than what's currently available in the market. One of the more "typical" comments was that the hand spreader finds its "home" inside the hopper of your push or ride-on spreaders. I appreciate the time you took to send me the emails and I'll report back on my progress.
Jeff

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by EarthWayJK

Well in 24 hours I have gotten a number of emails and it seems that the wish-lists all seem to very similar, and clearly you have the need for a hand spreader that's more "commercial" than what's currently available in the market. One of the more "typical" comments was that the hand spreader finds its "home" inside the hopper of your push or ride-on spreaders. I appreciate the time you took to send me the emails and I'll report back on my progress.
Jeff

Earthway just got my support , looks like I now know what the next spreader I'm buying will be!

My only other suggestion would be to have some sort of support or hanger that you could hang the spreader off your hopper. Just a thought, might be over-kill.

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

Originally Posted by ted putnam

Yep, metal gears, sealed gear housing, stainless steel gears and spindle if possible. Hell, throw a grease zerk on there if necessary. Unfortunately the Wal Mart generation rules. Cheap products at a cheap price. There are people out there who will still pay for quality. I'm one of them. Quality=Less Headaches.

Ahh yes the walmart effect strikes again. Walmarted right down the crapper.

[EarthWayJK]

I have a quick question for the posts - how wide of a spread width do you need from a hand spreader? If I said that we could do something in the range of 2-3 feet max, still interested?
Jeff

[Puttinggreens]

I think that is too narrow. I think a minimum would be around 6 feet.