Bruce Alan here. Thanks for stopping by. Today I'm going to review the new Sun Joe
12.6 inch, 13 inches if you're rounding, 12 amp electric, dethatcher and scarifier model
aj798e. Sun Joe also recently released a new 15-inch
model if you're interested. That's model aj805e. In this video I'll talk about the features
and specifications of the 798, compare it to the previous model 801, share my top 5
likes and dislikes, explain why I invested in the tool, provide some helpful tips, and
finally show you the tool in action. As always please see the information section
below to jump to a specific point in the video. Let's get started. Oh yeah! I purchased this directly from SunJoe's website,
which is actually snowjoe.com, Sun Joe being Snow Joe's summer product line. You can also get it from the Home Depot, Amazon,
and many other retailers. While I think this model could be a step down
from the previous model, which was the 801 assuming Snow Joe is assigning model numbers
sequentially, both the 798 and 801 have the same working width of 12.6 inches, and both
are rated at roughly 12 amps. The only differences from what I can see are
that Sun Joe, Snow Joe, whoever they are, got rid of the angled handlebars on this model,
removed the highest of the height adjustments, upgraded some parts, and changed the arrangement
of the tines on the dethatching cylinder for both new models 798 and 805. I was looking at the 801 last year because
it got great reviews other than its toy light construction, but unfortunately I waited until
they were out of stock. So this year when I saw the 798 on sale I
moved quickly. The tool comes with the scarifying cylinder
installed and the cylinder with the tines is the dethatching cylinder. I'll talk more about those later. It's easy to swap them out and it requires
a 5/8 inch hex key, which is included. Here are the top five things I like about
this tool. Number one. First and most importantly the tool performed
better than I expected. I got this tool because it was late April
and the lawn was looking terrible. Man, I spent hours in the backyard weeks earlier. I was raking out moss, pine needles, dead
grass, which I do every year and abhor because it's grueling and the results are always mediocre
at best. And in the front yard there was still a layer
of dead grass from last year. New sprouts were being suffocated and that
layer of debris? It not only potentially leads to disease,
but overseeding on top of it is a waste of time and seed. That plug there? That's from aerating last fall. It's just a wad of thatch. If seed germinated on that the new grass would
have little to no drought tolerance when summer rolls around. So all that's to say the dethatching cylinder
did a great job breaking up debris on the surface of the lawn, while the scarifying
cylinder did a great job removing those root balls, aka thatch, that are just above and
below the surface. The scarifier also cuts trenches for better
seed to soil contact and pulling out all that junk provides breathing room for new growth. Number two. I like that maintenance is easy. You clean out the vents by hand or maybe with
some compressed air or brush. Dust off the motor housing. Check that the mounting device for the cylinders
is secure and that the blades and ties are sharp, and that's it. If you experience excess vibration it's likely
you need to replace the cylinder. Too many impacts on large rocks and roots
over time will throw this thing out of balance. Here are the replacement part numbers although
as of the making of this video these parts aren't available yet. Come on Sun, Snow Joe. Number three. The tool is a good value. It basically pays for itself in two years
as compared to renting the big boy tool from The Home Depot. I purchased mine directly from SnowJoe's website. Last I checked it was $129 but they were running
a promotion when i got it. So I got it for $110. Saved me $19, which I reinvested into an extended
two year warranty. So in addition to the typical two-year warranty
I added an additional two years for a modest 16 bucks. Nice! I'll take it. Four. Speaking of warranties and extended warranties,
Snow Joe takes the warranty seriously. I know this because my Snow Joe shovel broke
last winter in the middle of a storm. I was annoyed and they delivered me a new
one in three days... before the next storm. That's impressive! Just be sure to register the tool on the SnowJoe
website. And while I don't usually recommend extended
warranties on items less than a thousand bucks, um, I don't know. It just felt right in this case. It was just such a modest price to extend
the warranty for two years. Number five. And finally the instructions were clear and
the tool was easy to assemble. I appreciate that. I put in the lower handle bars. Screwed them in using a phillips head screwdriver. Attached the middle handlebars with the handle
knobs and bolts. Attached the upper handle frame with the handle
knobs and bolts. Attached the cable clips... and was done. Only took five minutes. Now for the top five things I'm not so crazy
about. Number one. If you've read the reviews on any of these
sun joe dethatchers you know the eight gallon thatch collection bag is too small. To make matters worse the manual says you're
not supposed to use the tool without it. So as a disclaimer if you're going to use
the tool without the bag like most folks you do so at your own risk. Perhaps wear shin guards in case it throws
a big stone, and while the tool does a great job bagging reducing the need to rake, blow,
or use the mower's bagger to pick up the debris, you'll be unloading the bag just as often
as you'll be trying to avoid running over the cord, which brings me to number two. Number two. In general, I just don't like electric lawn
tools. Being tethered to a cord is frustrating, nerve-wracking,
and it's not how I want to die. I almost hit the cord a few times and there's
nothing you can do about it other than investing in Sun Joe's new, and pricey, 40 volt powered
detacher, model 24v x2 dts one five. Number three. Similar to the 801 this thing feels like a
toy, albeit a dangerous toy. Kicking the plastic tires if you will, it's
pretty light. 21 pounds, and the bag fits in nice and snuggly,
and that'll add some weight as well when it fills up. There are cheap little four inch plastic wheels
in the back. Slightly wobbly eight inch plastic wheels
in the front, lots of plastic parts... it's also got the same flimsy handle as the
801. Whatever! I'm a bit sad it doesn't have the vertical
bicycle handlebars of the 801 and new 15-inch model, but not sure they make a big difference...
although because it's so lightweight I noticed the tool would occasionally bounce. It can also tug forward like an untrained
dog. It's more apparent when scarifying since the
blade digs in, but the detaching cylinder does it a bit as well. Number four. If your lawn's like ours complete with puddles
and molehills, results can vary. The tool's not great at raking and scarifying
uneven surfaces. Makes sense though, which aside from having
a small yard is one of the reasons I didn't go with the wider, 15 inch model. I figured it would straddle too many divots. Seriously? Number five. Lastly, the tool doesn't break down easily
for storage. It's kind of annoying. The bolts are too short to loosen the handle
enough to fold the handle down. If you wanted to collapse it you could by
removing the bolts and the handle knobs entirely. Yeah, that just happened. Not a deal breaker. A few more things worth pointing out: While
the 801 has five height or depth settings, the 798 has only four adjusted with this lever. Four is just fine. The fifth setting of the 801 is a very high
raking setting, which would make it easier to wheel this thing around when the scarifying
cylinder is attached, but other than that don't need it. And I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't talk
about safety. The tool's double insulated so it doesn't
require grounding; hence, the two-pronged polarized plug. You secure the plug with the pretzel maneuver
to prevent the tool from unplugging and the manual mentions something about putting a
loop through the switch box. I couldn't get it to work because my cord
was just too hefty. I know. Serious first world problem. Either way you'll want to use an extension
cord that's rated for outdoor use and that is the correct gauge. That'll prevent the motor from overheating. Once you've got the proper cord you'll only
want to plug into a GFCI outlet and obviously don't use the tool if the lawn is wet. Electricity and water make for a deadly combination. You'll notice the tool is not too loud. I'd say it's about as loud as a canister vacuum. Definitely quieter than my shop vac, but if
you're sensitive to noise you may want to wear earplugs. To share a few things that I found helpful. Tip one. Before dethatching, mow nice and short, but
don't violate the one-third rule No need to stress the lawn out even more. Cutting short will make it easier for clean
up if you don't use the bag. Tip two. Don't turn on the tool until you're sure you
have a clear path away from the cord. You want to start closest to the outlet and
work away from it. That way the cord is easier to navigate and
you're less likely to run it over. And finally, not a tip but semantics. I know, I know Sun Joe. It's pronounced scar-ifier. No! I mean scare-ifier, but to avoid being booed
every time I say scar- ifier... Nope!... I mean scare-ifier (Boo!), which gets old
pretty quickly. I'm sticking with team scar-ifier. Sounds much tougher than scare-ifier. (Boo!) All right! Here we go. Detaching, which is basically power raking. I always get tangled up. This is why I hate corded lawn tools. Forgot my safety glasses. Because there was a lot of debris on the lawn,
I went with pretty aggressive settings. I raked using the detatcher cylinder with
the depth set at zero millimeters, and then later on I scarified at minus 10 millimeters. Oh! Here, take a look. You'll notice there isn't much green in the
bag other than maybe some moss. Given I'm using the detaching cylinder, what
you're seeing is debris that was removed from the surface of the lawn. On average I think the bag needed to be emptied
between every third and fourth pass; however, while bagging makes for slow work there's
definitely less cleanup when it's used. Having used the tool with and without the
bag... and at times I didn't even bother to empty it... I got the sense that it takes just as long
to constantly stop and empty it as it does to remove it and then clean up in between
passes. Obviously if you've got a helper it's faster
and easier to use the tool without the bag, but of course you do so at your own risk. I'm definitely getting in my 10,000 steps
today. If you don't bag you should clean up in between
each pass. I used the blower. I was too lazy to get out my backpack blower,
but you can also use a rake. Rake it into piles or even use the lawnmower. If you use the mower set the deck height low
enough to pick up debris, but not low enough to do any additional cutting. Raking with the detaching cylinder, I started
vertically and here in the second pass I go horizontally. Had I needed a third pass I'd have gone diagonally,
but given how this thing tears up the lawn pretty good I'd have only done another pass
if I was planning to put in an entirely new lawn. Eventually I decided to use the tool without
the bag, which the manual says you're not supposed to do, and when I kicked up a good
sized rock it sounded like it was going to cut me off at the ankles. So be careful! By the time I got the backyard raked I got
called in for dinner. Raking the front lawn and scarifying had to
wait... and that was unfortunate because it rained for the next three days. In the words of Tammy Cochran, which was actually
a song written by Patrick Jason Matthews and Kerry Kurt Phillips, "Life Happened." That's some music trivia for you. Finally once the lawn was dry, which was three
days and a wardrobe change later, I power raked the front yard using the dethatching
cylinder. The debris was really thick. Impressively though the tool didn't bog down. I was also wondering, "What's my next electric
bill gonna look like?" Then i was like, "Who cares! The lawn's gonna look great. I hope..." The first and second pass on the front yard
removed a lot of debris so I used the mower to pick it up. Then it was time to swap in the scarifier. I started in the backyard and set the depth
to minus 10 millimeters. You can see it rips things up pretty good. I used -10 millimeters because I plan to overseed
with ryegrass and thin fescue in the shady areas under the pine trees. I think you'd want to set it at minus five
millimeters for bluegrass but don't quote me on that. I was trying to keep track of how many barrels
and bags I filled up detaching and scare-ifying (BOO!), scar-ifying, but honestly I lost count. Just know it was a lot. Here you can see what a difference the bag
makes when scarifying. Makes a big difference. I didn't really need to rake the area where
I'd bagged. For the horizontal pass for the scarifiercar,
I probably didn't need to do it but the lawn already looked so bad I figured, "I've got
nothing to lose." The scarifier blades are fierce especially
with two passes at minus 10 millimeters. You'll see in a moment what got picked up. The scarifier not only pulls up thatch, but
also a fair amount of grass. It's basically a mini rototiller and I'll
be honest that at this point I was thinking, "Ugh! What have I done?" The front yard didn't look quite as bad once
I was done scarifying. I did a vertical and horizontal pass. It's amazing how much thatch came up. While I was finishing the cleanup I realized
I had a chicken in the oven. It was my night to make dinner. I can multitask! Oh! Look at that beautiful bird!... and because
I refused to further delay completion of this project I grabbed some seed quite literally. Put it down at the rate instructed on the
bag beginning with the edges and then filling in with overlap. Lightly raked it in. Put down some fertilizer for new grass. Grabbed my "hack" irrigation system. Lightly watered and ended up missing the dinner
that I'd started. So instead of eating with the family it was
just me and Mr. Stubbs... and the cats. Alright! Let's get back to the yard. Normally I'd put down a light layer of peat
moss before watering. Helps keep the grassy moist and provides nutrients,
but given I didn't have any the day before, I had to go pick some up. Then I spread it by hand. I also added a little more seed and then lightly
raked it in. The seed won't germinate if it's buried. All right! Here it is... my beautiful new... it kind
of looks like a mud puddle. Beautiful, right? No! It's not, but as I always tell my other half,
"It's going to look worse before it gets better." Here it is a month and a half later. Look at that lush sea of green. This is the front yard after I mowed it on
the highest setting. It's a nice green carpet now. Even the bunnies are happy. Come here little guy. No? Don't eat my lawn! To wrap up, if you're a DIY-er and you want
a nice, healthy lawn without the hassle of renting heavy equipment from your local Home
Depot, I'd say this is a great tool to have. While you'll only using it maybe once or twice
a year, I still recommend making the modest investment in the extended warranty. I hope this video has been helpful. If it has please do me a favor and like it. More importantly, please subscribe as that
always helps me out. Thanks for watching! Don't eat my lawn!
