UniversalVerticut 1100 UK
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Optimal results
Achieve excellent results thanks to the powerful 1100 W motor.
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Adjustable working height
Choose from four settings. Collect leaves at a working height of +5 mm and aerate the ground at -10 mm.
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Promoting growth
The verticutter scarifies and aerates the lawn stimulating healthy growth. It also removes any thatch and moss.
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Jet Collect system
Innovative airflow management ensures lawn thatch debris is quickly and thoroughly transferred to the collection box.
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50 litre collection box
The large capacity collection box means that it does not have to be emptied as often, saving time.
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Stow away and save space
The UniversalVerticut 1100 offers great space saving thanks to the double-fold handles and stackable collection box.
UniversalVerticut 1100 Technical Details
| Power input | 1100 W |
| Nominal AC-Voltage | 230V 50Hz |
| Operating width | 32 cm |
| No. blades | 14 carbon steel blades |
| Collection box capacity | 50 l |
| Weight (net) | 10.5 kg |
| Noise | 96 dB(A) |
| Weight: | 10.5 kg |
| Dimensions: | 59.8 x 48.8 x 39.4 cm; 10.5 Kilograms |
| Model: | 060088A171 |
| Part: | 060088A171 |
| Colour: | New Design | Classic Green |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Manufacture: | Bosch |
| Colour: | New Design | Classic Green |
| Quantity: | 1 |
Bosch garden tools I have found to be well made, functionable and reliable. On use of this tool it meets my expectations.
Excellent for use on my large lawn, results were amazing, filled my compost bin with moss in no time
I bought this as my ancient B+D lawn scarifier has worn it’s tines to the drum… But even it it’s heyday it was nothing like this. This one actually picks up it’s waste!! Well until the box is full anyway. I am hoping that regular, twice a year, use will enable me to do more than 10 meters between box-empties. But even that is okay, it filled two large green bins in 30 minutes light work. Registering for Bosch 3 year warranty is nightmare however.
So I bought a Hyundai 1500 watt scruffier and that just packed up within two days use !
Then I replaced it with this Bosch version which was reduced in price to under 190.
All I can say is I wish I bought this Bosch model in the first place.
Was much easier to assemble.
Picked up over 95% of the moss debris (unlike the Hyundai which left 95% on the turf).
Was so much more efficient in operation.
Comes with a 2 year warranty.
Spend the 30-50 extra it’s worth it.
Take note in particular over 50’s year olds as you do not have to rake up the debris like the cheaper brand scarifies.
Like the German cars just as reliable.
Five seconds after switching this on, it was evident this was worth its money. Quite a bit more expensive than other options, yes, but the old adage “you get what you pay for” seems to ring true here – strong moss-lifting power and a proper collection box. The box being mounted at the back makes this easier to use than many other options. Assembly wasn’t as easy as it could have been – the box is delivered as two parts and was a bit faffy to put together, and the handles really didn’t seem to fit, but with some brute force eventually worked – fine if you’re going to leave this assembled, but would be a hassle if you expected to fold it up in to the small space advertised. For my needs, this seems to be a good product.
Used this on the highest setting not wanting to damage the lawn too much (it was a little muddy and a bit late in the year to have started). Very quick and easy to operate especially compared to the manual treatment we did 2 years ago. Did not remove all the moss (note we did not kill moss first as suggested because we compost everything). Reseeded grass looking much better. Will redo in spring possibly more aggressively
The verticutter is much better than a standard electric lawn rake or scarifier. The amount of debris it removes is amazing leaving a lawn free from anything apart from green grass. I use it every 6 weeks throughout spring and summer. Spot o
When I got home I went to assemble it and I thought it strange that there were no instructions as to how to do this – but it is quite straightforward and easy to do.
Putting it into action on the second highest (0mm) setting I was staggered at the sheer volume of material it was pulling up!
I had read that the 50 litre collection box was an advantage – but I found that it filled up within a few metres of operation – which probably speaks volumes about why I thought our lawn needed scarifying.
Eventually it picked up 2 bulk bags of waste; to put this into context, when a well known lawn maintenance franchise scarified our lawns a few years ago they generated less than half a green waste bins worth of material!
This was achieved on the second highest setting so there must still be more to go if you’re brave enough
Overall I’m very pleased with how effective the Bosch Verticutter 1100 worked and would recommend it to anyone looking to thoroughly scarify a medium sized lawn.
It’s early days yet and it’s only been used once for a larger than average lawn but worked just how it should. I started on the highest setting but found the next one down worked well for me. Still took 7 full wheelie bins worth of moss and thatch out of my lawn. My main issue will be how durable it is.
Even on the middle height setting it rips into the lawn (which is a good thing)you must keep checking the collection box because it fills in minutes ,have plenty of strong bin liners .
The air inlet for the fan tends to get blocked (see photo) and there is no easy way to clean it. You have to use a stiff bristle brush. The “compact storage” claim is misleading…
When unpacking it you need to memorise how all the parts were fitted together to get it to fit into its box. To make it compact again you have to completely disassemble it and fit the 3D jigsaw of parts back together into its “compact storage” form. It takes some time. So now I just remove the collection box and fold the handle down. I don’t want to spend half an hour reassembling it every time I want to use it.
Its tines are not as close together as my old scarifier, so the Bosch does not pick up as much moss in a single pass. But the old one did not have the fan action and its collection box had to be emptied every 5m (15ft). Doing 2-passes with the Bosch is less effort than doing 1-pass with the old machine.
Conclusion: It is a very good device apart the “compact storage” claim. Compact storage adds an hour of assembly and disassembly to each session. The fan action, which compresses the liftings into the collection box, is an excellent feature.
Firstly, it arrived well packaged and well presented, it was easy to assemble and once assembled it seemed to be reasonably sturdy considering how lightweight it is
It’s well made as you would expect from Bosch and easy to use, just simply plug it in and you’re away
It works really well and leaves a tidy job, I’m impressed with how comfortable it is to work with and how easy it is to manoeuvre
It’s very compact when folded down which makes it good for storing, it’s a piece of kit that I like albeit a little high in price but it’s such a convenient product and definitely worth a try
1st of all don’t confuse this with a lawnmower, this is not for cutting your grass.
It is a scarifier and aereator which is for lifting the moss/rubbish out your grass and putting in cuts to let moisture get further into the grass to encourage growth.
I used this as my grass is a bit patchy and had moss and other rubbish in it. This is the tool for the job and it works well.
Its light, easy to use and easy to store as it folds down like a mower usually does.
This makes a great job of removing dead grass cuttings (thatch) from your lawn. Easy to assemble and use. It’s double folding handle and grass box that splits in two makes it easy to store.
Works very well and a week after using, lawn starting to look better. As others have said it creates a lot of waste so box needs emptying very regularly. Can’t wait for autumn to give it another go
It does the job very well but the handle folding system is appalling. If you loosen them to fold the handles, you then need tools to squeeze the two parts of the handle together to get the bolts back in.
I have a small back garden, partly covered with grass, which my very lazy husband cuts on a very irregular basis… Well. It does look… bad. I’m not saying about the amount of the dead grass or thatch we have. IMHO, it would be easier just to have decking… Unfortunately, all our conversations = arguments regarding the garden’s condition ends up even worse than the garden looks. We simply stop talking… So I decided to become a gardener myself and not to wait for my hubby’s inspiration to come.
First of all, I did some research on proper soil fertilisation in order for it to become spongy and soft and not compact. The new grass should grow at about the same rate as old dies, if it grows faster, the old material (thatch) is accumulated. As we already have plenty, my task was mechanical de-thatching. What can I say about my helper, Bosch machine? It’s compact, however, it has a spacious collection box (50l) for everything removed from the soil. It doesn’t require much assembly. Basically, twin-fold handles “unfolded” and here we go. It’s quite lightweight and could be stored in the box it comes in. However, if you have a shed in the garden (waterproof), that would be a perfect solution. It comes with a cable, which is not very long, unfortunately. So bear in mind, you might need some extention. It’s moderately noisy and blades are really sharp. It does the job as a verticutter, leaving soil to breath and helping new grass to grow. Now everything depends on fertilisation and watering. Roots should grow deep accompanying with enough watering, so the soil wouldn’t be… like the one we’ve had for years, thanks to laziness… I’d say this verticutter is a really good “device” for effective scarification and aeration. Easy to use even for ladies, who have never done normal gardening before (except for BBQ…).
One more thing about this scarifyer (in addition to quite short cable)… It’s recommended to do de-thatching only once/twice a year, in late spring (we did it in May) and/or early autumn… So… You would need to use it once in many months and all other time the machine will be just taking space in a storage. Is it really worth paying over 200 for once a year help? Wouldn’t it be better just to rent something like this? I guess, it’s an individual decision to make. As for me, I would definitely prefer some kind of “combine” between scarifyer and a lawn mower to use it more frequently at home. But I’m not a professional gardener… Overall, great machine for those, who can make a proper use of it…
The first thing I realised when I received this cutter is that it was very light! Some little assembly was required but took no time at all and was very easy. The overall sturdiness of the cutter is very good and feels very well put together. When I turned on the machine and started to try it out, the machine was a breeze to use! I was very delighted to see how well it worked and glided across the lawn. The collection system works very well and there was little to absolutely no scraps left on the lawn after I was finished cutting it. The collection box is very easy to remove and empty. The cutter has 4 height settings which can be changed using the handle on the side.
The cable was just long enough to do the job however, I’d recommend using one of those reel extension cables to give you a little extra length. The cutter easily folds up and stows away and is very compact. The noise of the machine when in use is not as loud as I had thought it would be, and is bearable.
Overall, I am very impressed with this product, and the only nitpick I have is maybe that the cable could be just a little longer. Other than that, this is a very powerful machine and I totally recommend it to anyone looking for a new cutter.
I did it this way as I didn’t want to put the machine under too much pressure trying it on setting 1 straight away as my garden was full of moss and had never been scarified before
Great purchase very pleased with results and ease of use
This is an excellent cutter machine. I got this for my garden which has been neglected I have to admit and consequently had some serious lawn ‘thatch’ issues with layers of dead old grass under the new growth.
I have used this after strimming to scarify the area and it has given my garden a new lease of life. The line design it leaves on the lawn looks nice in my opinion and also helps to get water deeper into the soil.
This machine is excellent for scarifying and is easy to use and more convenient to store than a standard mower because it folds down.
All in all a powerful and great quality verticutter machine.
I hope you find this review helpful.
I used the device on the highest setting level (there are 4 settings 1 through to 4 controlling the grade of cutting), which was very efficient for removing a lot of moss from my lawn. I can however imagine that on the lowest level, which admittedly I did not try, it would probably remove most of your lawn! This might be good for those looking to completely reseed again in the autumn. It does say on the instructions that you should use a moss killer first but we did not and still managed to remove plenty of moss, but again perhaps we will if we are trying to completely remove all moss at the end of the season. But having had the lawn ruined by other scarifiers in the past we want to take it easy with this and seeing the amount removed on the first depth we are happy this will do the job we need.
The verticutter is very light weight and easy to manoeuvre. It does however have quite a cheap plastic finish which is the one negative feature about the product. Only the blades and the handles are made out of metal. The size of the hopper is really good though and unlike some lawn mowers I have had in the past, doesn’t get clogged at all whilst in use. Our lawn area is 30ft*42ft and I had to empty the hopper twice.
In terms of assembly, the product was easy to put together following the instructions included. We did have a bit of difficulty getting one of the handles to screw together which needed a bit of brute force strength in the end to complete.
Fantastic grass cutter. Left my garden grass well and evenly cut. In general it was quite smooth, easy to use and push through. It was surprising to see how it cut through deep grass. The storages kept all the weed, making the process quite tidy. Many parts ar plastic reducing the weight, which I appreciated after 10 minutes cutting grass under the sun. Would highly recommend as a standard garden mower.
It’s parts are also foldable, which helped to store in my shed taking little space.
It also has additional feature which I would recommend you check, such as the adjustable steel blades, helpful for different types of weed and to sanitise your soil. In addition to this it uses electricity, as opposite to fuel, which is less harming for the environment.
I would suggest to keep up the maintenance/cleaning to keep its smooth use. Such as brushing wheels after use, or emptying and washing storage to avoid moss and smells.
My husband was very excited after receiving this, but the excitement soon became confusion. Neither he nor I have heard about the lawn scarification or aeration. We have a rather big garden, we cut the lawn once a week-ish and maybe give some fertiliser once a year-ish. So the grass is there, but also some weeds and moss. Also, two small kids running, playing football, etc., do not improve the grass’s health.
After some online research about scarification etc., we have decided to give this machine a go. It is packed very neatly inside the box, as you would expect. Assembly is very straightforward. Attach the handle, unwind the cable (that is only about 15m long), attach the collection box and START. The sound was unexpected. Sounds more like a cross between drill and vacuum cleaner. It feels and sounds powerful.
The machine is light to push and easy to manoeuvre. Set it up to the max high setting, and of I go. It is not a lawnmower, it does not cut the grass, but somehow the collection box was soon full. Rotating drum left scars, groves on the ground, and ripped a lot of dead and not so dead grass. I have a fair bit of rocks in the ground, to once blades hit them, make a painful noise. But as the blades have some slack, it did not seem to do any harm.
As I know next to zero about the proper lawn maintenance, I will have to give some time and see if this machine did more good it my lawn or made it worse. For now, it does not look good, but I guess it will grow stronger in the end.
I later read that moss has to be killed first for the machine to remove it more effectively.
As for the machine itself – Brilliant German engineering. Solid builds, easy to use. As it will not be the thing that is used very often, this can be partly disassembled for easy storage.
First of all, I haven’t ever used a scarifying or aerator before. Setting up this Bosch was very easy, it was literally a matter of screwing the handles on and clipping the collection box together and attaching. After a little research I set the blades to the highest level, there are three levels available set by a front lever, this adjusts the front wheel height.
To start with I went up and down the lawn three times, I then checked the 50L collection box and I was surprised to see it was half full and there was quite a lot of dead material mixed in with a little moss. I think the highest setting is about right as any lower setting for my lawn, and lower would remove too much grass. There are now grooves in the soil of the lawn and this should be great for aeration.
After use the only place for the mains cable is wrapped around the handle, but the handles do fold and the Bosch can fit into a small space.
Overall, I’m really impressed with this Bosch Electric Universal Verticut 1100 and I’m sure I will see an improved in my lawn.
I hope you find my review helpful
I am absolutely thrilled with the results of this Bosch Universal Verticutter 1100 Watt power electric performance. It comes with 50 litre collection box and has a innovative “Jet Collection System” which quickly removes thatch, moss, weed and debris from the lawn without clogging. I am very impressed with Jet Collection system as it is something I haven’t come across. Mind you, have plenty of sacks ready as even though the collection box is 50L it gets filled in no time. I have a very small lawn and I thought I didn’t have much thatch etc but I filled up 5 sacks.
Working with Bosch Vertictter is a easy as mowing a lawn. I used 2nd highest settings as I didn’t want to bald my lawn. It has a 1100 watt powerful motor but it is less noisier than my lawn mower. Motor runs very smoothly without any cut outs and delivers full power torque to stubborn parts of lawn.
It has 14 carbon steel rotating blades with 4 working heights from +5mm to -10mm and is covers 32cm in width. It removes thatch, moss, dead grass, debris by aerating the soil which will enable lawn to absorb rain water , air and sunshine to provide nutrients to the lawn. I have topped my lawn up with fresh Topsoil and lawn seeds. It promotes healthy root growth of grass.
It is very easy to staw away in the shed as it has double foldable handles and stackable collection box. It is 40cm high so fits on my shelves. It weighs only 10kg so easy to pick and store.
Overall very satisfied with the product and would definitely recommend it for proud lawn owners to invest in a verticutter as I have paid 50 a treatment to my gardener.
What do you get? A combination of a relatively powerful 1100 watt motor and carbon steel blades, which in partnership enables fast and effective ‘verticutting’ without the tool stalling. It’s efficient: The “Jet-Collect System” with special airflow inlets gives fast and efficient collection of moss & thatch from the lawn. It’s practical: it comes with a large 50-litre collection box and that means less time spent emptying – always welcome. And it offers compact storage. The machine folds to just 40cm in height thanks to double folding handles and a stackable collection box.
Let me talk a bit about the heart of the machine: the power unit. The Bosch AVR 1100 comes with a powerful 1100W high-torque ‘Powerdrive’ motor which uses an innovative gear set that works together to provide extra torque when needed. When the lawn is longer or when there is thicker moss or thatch the Bosch automatically increases torque to deal with this. With other lawn rakes you can hear the motor slowing and struggling to deal with the tough lawn or patch and you find yourself having to raise the lawn rake to allow the motor to return to max speed. Does that sound familiar? The ‘Powerdrive’ motor is a great feature that is not found on most other lawn rakes in this price range. Also, the power system is completely electric so it produces zero emissions and is one of the quieter lawn rakes.
The supplied power cable is a rather modest 15 metres in length, so (like me) you might find that you need an extension cable.
But this versatile verticutter should provide excellent year-round results, delivering fast and effective ground cutting to encourage new lawn growth, along with moss and thatch removal thanks to the jet-collect system. The operating heights can be adjusted easily for ground cutting (there are 4 operating height settings), moss and thatch removal and leaf collection. The double-folding handles and stackable collection box makes storage easy, even in tight spaces.
Being just over 10kg in weight, it’s balanced and lightweight for easy manoeuvring round the garden. It’s also very quick and easy to assemble. Replacement tines can be purchased easily via Amazon – item number B07BSP7YB5. Not cheap, though!
Scarifying is a complete Michael Gove of a job which both adults in the house know needs to be done, but only one will ever get tasked with it, and he will spend all year avoiding it if possible.
For 200 Bosch will see you right. It is am impressive piece of kit in that it does the job it claims to do, and does it very well.
Go steady though and use those height adjusters at the beginning, otherwise the scarifyer will become a scalper and leave you bald on top and getting an ear-ful from the other half.
As they say on cleaning products: test on a small area first!
Its good though.
Two reasons not to buy it:
1. You have no space to store it
2. You can’t bring yourself to pay 200 to avoid doing it by hand.
Both can be solved by getting your next-door neighbour to buy one!
I received this item as part of the Amazon vine programme. We already have a similar 900W version of a similar appliance also manufactured by Bosch. Our older model is very efficient at removing thatch and dead moss after being treated with ferrous oxide or lawn fertiliser.
This machine is an entirely different beast. Firstly it is almost 20% more powerful, but actually improves still further on the time based system that already does a great job. With that machine we have always used caution, always setting it at the highest setting and either passing over twice (at a 90 degree angle) or, decrease the level slowly to the desired “cut). I cannot test this item fully now as it is the wrong time of year to strip our lawn, however, I am confident that it will work incredibly efficiently lime our exiting and still available cheaper model. We have to use a 50m extension lead with our model and whilst a petrol model would be a better option, both of the scarifiers in the Bosch range are robust and well up to tackling jobs like our lawn.
So what do you get? The main unit which requires a small amount of assembly and we were ready to go. I have only scarified 1sqm as I don’t wish to ruin our lawn for the summer. What a difference though to what our other unit achieves. Both scarifies removes huge amounts of thatch and moss, however, this model does delve further into the soil and for those undertaking scarifying for the first time they will wonder whether they have done the right thing as it removes huge amounts of thatch on a full lawn and leaves an almost bare lawn – don’t worry, the lawn will recover and come back far stronger. Forget the collection box, it is little more than useless as with the first pass, particularly on a previously undetected lawn, it will fill extremely quickly. Be prepared for disposing huge amount of vegetation, even from a small lawn.
My normal routine in the autumn is to mow the lawn in late September and leave for a few days
Either weed and feed or apply ferrous sulphate and really water the chemicals into the lawn to kill the moss and leave a few days for the moss to blacken
Mow again
Scarify
Identify areas for re-seed and re-seed.
Job done.
Thought this was a lawn mower, my bad. But once I got over that I realised that this is in fact a good tool for easily removing organic material from your lawn as well as aerating the lawn to improve its overall well being.
The scarifier came in a rather large box although not too heavy.
My partner put it together easily without the instructions but there are instructions although not too great.
He noted that the collection box although large was not as robust as it could be, but great that it collects so much without being emptied.
The cable is not over long at 15m so some may need to use an extension cable.
Handle folds over so can be stored easily which is perfect for under my stairs.
As I said never had one before but can see the benefits of using one.
After waiting an age for a clear spell in the weather I was finally able to test this machine out. The hardest part of using it was attaching the handles, it was a little fiddly as the holes for the turn key bolts are quite small and so the holes have to be perfectly aligned. The handle is big and feels somewhat flimsy but on use it holds up fine as the verticutter is light weight. I like how the collection box can be collapsed for easier storage, bringing the stored size down to around 70cm x 58cm wide by 37cm high. It lacks any sort of hand hold to pick it up, so if you can’t push it it’s a case of just picking up from underneath.
A simple notch height adjustment on the two front wheels alters the height which is easy to do. I first did a test run on each setting, the photo attached which probably isn’t easy to see shows 4 stripes. On its highest setting it didn’t make any difference to the lawn, this setting would be good for leaf collection. As the height was dropped the more it slitted the lawn up to the lowest setting which did score 10-20mm deep slits in the ground and cleared a lot more grass. It’s not aerating the lawn as deep as spikes would but the lawn slitting is supposed to be good for a healthy lawn. Just those few short passes put quite a lot of waste in the box. It’s easy enough to manoeuvre due to its weight, but better suited to flat lawns, or at least easier to use on flat lawns. If you have raised sections of lawn it will catch and rip up more lawn, especially if you have it set low.
Overall it works very well, very easy to use and has enough power for the job as long as the ground isn’t rock hard, it’s a little flimsy feeling but this means it’s light weight, and it held up fine during use.
This Verticuter is intended for threshing grass thatch and moss out of your lawn and aerating the soil, as well as preparing for reseeding. Now this last one is where I’m interested! Our lawn has taken a battering over the last year of lockdown and is more mud than grass in places…
The assembly was easy enough with no tools required and just the two parts of the handle and collection box to be put on. I was a little surprised to think that there were no assembly instructions in the manual, but it turns out they are at the very back of the booklet past all the other languages.
I would say assembly didn’t take me longer than 20 mins, along with measuring the cable, which is a little stingy at only 10m length.
The whole unit actually compacts down quite well, with the collection box coming off and folding in half and the handle breaking down into two. The storage dimensions are 68 X 55 X 38 cm which I was quite impressed with! One thing that you should also know is that the cable doesn’t have any storage pins to wrap around, so its either around the handles or it sits quite nicely where the collection bin goes, but not exactly neat and tidy…
Underneath you will find the business end of the machine with a rotating drum which has carbon steel blades which are hinged inside the drum. The centrifugal force will push them out, but then if they hit something like a rock they have some give and will not just snap off.
You have four hight settings on the front wheels, from removing leaves, through removing moss, aerating the soil, to cutting furrows for reseeding.
Im holding off giving this a proper go until we are allowed visitors inside the house again and not just in the garden (lockdown order…) so I can reseed the lawn without people trampling on it for most of the day… I will report back once the soil has dried out and I can give it a proper go, with friends inside (and the windows open) Looking forward to more grass and less mud! and this defiantly looks like it will do the job!
Assembly (minimal) is reasonably intuitive, with pictogram guidance at the back of the instruction booklet which is not brilliant, but adequate. Continuing with assembly, attaching the handles is a real pain, tricky to do single-handed, which it shouldn’t be. The first bottom section isn’t too bad, but the top was a nightmare. Firstly, the handle section (first one that the bolt pushes through) holes are a bit undersized, and you have to force through. All the time trying to keep the whole thing in position. Once put together though, it’s fine.
Unless you have a very small garden, make sure you have a good extension lead (however you use, ensure your supply is 30mA RCD / RCBO protected — for safety). The cable is only 15m in length.
I’ve not used one of these before, so don’t realistically know how good or useful they are, although anecdotally it would appear that they are. Whilst the instructions do clearly state to use on the highest cutting height to start anyway, I found that anything below, even the next setting absolutely muller’s the lawn. Even on the highest setting, there are still some bare patches left (albeit minimal), but to be fair, my lawns aren’t bowling-green flat.
Since not self-propelled, I was concerned how much hard graft it would be to use — I needn’t have been, it is light and easy to use. Not hard work at all. I tried this out the following day after cutting. I was astonished at just how quickly the box filled. Incredible.
The machine is not heavy, but an integral carry handle for when folded would be a good idea — a bit of an oversight there. Also, I find it easier to remove the collection box before carrying, and storing — a whole lot easier, but however you do it, it isn’t as compact folded with the box attached. It is without, but then you still have to store the box!
All in all, a good machine. It works well, is easy to use, and a good all-round domestic garden appliance, with just a couple of minor niggles, but still overall recommended, and being Bosch, it’s well-made.
I hope you have found this helpful.
This verticutter is fantastic for rejuvenating your lawn. If your lawn is looking tired like my grandads under some big trees at the bottom of his garden with moss and dead leaves all over. This thing has a drum with blades that spin and cuts all that moss and leaves and any dead matter. It rejuvenates the lawn and makes it better and more healthier. We did a small bit about 2 metre by metre and the box was totally full of dead matter and the good another great thing is you can use this stuff as compost. This machine is fantastic and my grandad absolutely loves it he could not believe how good it worked on the lawn. I’ve had a few Bosch products in the past some good some not so but this is the best garden product I’ve used that actually does what it’s meant to.
I first used a scarifyer years ago, it was a little old thing but did a good job. I then bought a new one for a new house that had a lot of moss in the back lawn. I used it a few times but I was not keen as it was difficult to use. So, I was really interested to try this little machine.
It is really easy out of the box to set up and was ready in no time.
It is light to push and easy to manoeuvre about. It collects a lot in the box which is important as you won’t believe how much comes up even if you do it regularly a couple of times a year. It takes up all of the moss and long weeds and the thatch that stops the water from getting to the soil underneath.
I would recommend that you don’t go mad at first but just give it a going over late spring and autumn and feed the lawn appropriately at the same time. This I have found in the past to be the best recipe.
Any larger patches that were full of weed I then scatter some grass seed. Before you know it you will have a lovely lawn.
Highly highly recommended.
However, as another reviewer has said, it will do a better job of the even more necessary scarifying – ripping out all the dead moss (you’d better kill it first, or you will simply spread it everywhere), dead grass and other constituents of what is generally known as “lawn thatch”. If you are unfortunate enough to have stoloniferous grass, it will also both cut it and pull it upwards to expose it more to the mower, and thus, yet again, encourage side-shooting, which grass does traditionally in autumn, by the way.
The instructions don’t quite correspond with what’s in the box. According to the manual it’s supposed to have a socket on the handle into which you can plug an extension. But in fact it comes with an extension permanently wired in to the switch on the handle. It’s thus hard to know what the manual means when it speaks of using it with an extension; an extension from the handle as in the manual ? Or an extension to the extension already permanently fitted ?
Nowhere, in the manual, on the box or on the website does it tell you the length of the attached cable, but at all events, it won’t enable you to get very far, it’s only about 15m long. From the outside socket on the house to my nearest bit of lawn is alone 13m.
In soft ground, it may slit adequately but perhaps not as adequately as a professional machine, due to its lack of weight. But it will scarify just about anywhere. So whether this machine is of use to you will depend on the assessment of a number of factors. I give it four stars as a useful machine for crafting your bowling green if your circumstances allow, with one star deducted for careless instructions and a short cable. But it still won’t won’t be worth buying unless you feed your lawn three or four times a year,
keep it weed-free (by spot-spraying, not blanket treatment), and keep it permanently moist throughout our increasingly dry summers.
Really impressed with this machine, when I used it (not used one before). Very strongly recommend checking out how to uses it in the manual or even tutorials online. One delivery from Amazon the outer box is a little awkward to carry/lift. Would be good to have carry holes. The machine itself it not too heavy in the way of gardening equipment but could be an issue for some people. Didn’t use it much as it was very wet from the recent downpour to rain (recommendation use after light rain only). It ‘kicked’ up lots of thatch from the grass even in a small area.
Here are some of the benefits of using a verticutter that i have found when reading up on the subject.
Verticutting is a very beneficial technique for maintaining and improving the overall health of your grass. In addition to removing thatch, It also Provides grassroots with better access to oxygen, water, and nutrients, Helps conserve water by ensuring that moisture reaches the roots efficiently, Helps prepare turf for overseeding, Helps to improve the overall health and strength of your lawn grass.
Putting it together was a tool-less breeze, I must say I am not over keen on the cable grips, the principle is okay but the reality is they just aren’t up to the job and pop out at every opportunity. I will replace them with the old standby, electrical tape.
The collection box feels a bit flimsy too, but in practice, it is substantial and well up to the job. The ‘construction’ which really is just putting the handle on, is all done in a few minutes. The rain held off, the sun drying the grass, and twenty minutes to the start of the game, I thought I would see how it worked! I checked, the top lawn was only very slightly damp. So I Plugged in the machine and did one stripe to try it out..
HOW VERY, VERY WRONG I WAS!
The lawn is about 15 meters long, two stripes filled the box with thatch! I couldn’t believe such a lightweight machine was capable of such a good job. I continued ‘trying it out’ – it is such a joy to use. I filled three normal sized wheelie bins with compressed down thatch from this single 15 meter square lawn. The result looked exactly like the photo on the ad.
It throws almost everything it scratches up, into the collection box, which takes quite a lot of debris. So, there is no tedious raking when it’s done, in any case I ran over the lawn afterwards with a mower, picking up the little that it did miss.
I am totally impressed with the performance of this machine, it is light in weight, easy to manoeuvre, shifts the thatch from the lawn as good as anything I have used before. There is a fair length of cable which, when finished, can be wrapped around the handle keeping it tidy.
This is superb, first class piece of German engineering that works like a dream. Five very easy Stars! (Oh, I missed most of the rugby!)
JC
The only thing that was not intuitive is that the height adjustment is slightly odd, so read the markings on the machine… higher is forward adjustment on one front wheel and backwards on the other!
I spent hours, days and weeks reading and researching different products on the market. I read reviews of different products and forum after forum, I then opted for this device and I am very glad I did.
My garden had new lawn laid in March 2019, by May 2020 my grass was starting to look like straw no matter how much I watered it. So, I began my journey reading on grass health and discovered aeration to which I then started to look at the market for products, cost and quality.
Bosch has a great brand and filled me with confidence when I learned they manufactured this verticutter and believe me I was confused with the lingo (verticutter, aeration etc.) and so I knew I had to remove the thatch and not destroy my grass.
I first used this back in mid summer on a hot and dry evening on a medium setting, within about 3 feet the collection area of the device was full of thatch and I could see behind me some lines in the grass where the device had done its job.
I was shocked at the amount of dead grass it pulled up and yet did not destroy my garden. However, be warned, there may be some baled patches once you go around your grass as it will pick up its fair share of dead grass (thatch) that you may not have realised would happen but this will row back.
I have only used this device 3 times since buying it (once every couple of months) and now my grass is super lush and green but please note I am now well into my journey as a DIY gardener and I also feed my grass and aerate it my hand with with a garden fork once per month to.
All in all I think this is a very good product, it is very powerful and certainly does the job but you must read the instructions, understand what you want to achieve in your garden and be patient.
I didn’t even know verticutters were a thing! I was trying to get rid of clover and that crawling black medic plant in my lawn and came across this little beauty. Having read the reviews it sounded good and I was happy to short term trash my lawn for the greater good, so the order was in!
What’s it like? Very light, in fact lighter than my Bosch electric mower. It’s easy to put together, tbh you don’t need instructions really it’s pretty obvious where things go.
I started attacking the lawn as soon as the rain subsided 3 weeks ago. It’s a very easy machine to use, and I’ve only had it on the highest setting. My advice would be only start on that setting until you see the impact.
After the Weed-assault I applied some Aftercut feed and weed stuff and the photo here is the result. Note it’s been very dry for the past 2 weeks so the lawn has only had minimal water. I have hopefully got a pic here that shows what the ‘control’ bit of lawn is like, ie. clover and the bit that I’ve verticut and fed. Please ignore how patchy the new growth is, that’s because I’ve not got a spreader! Looks like I now need to order one of those….
If weeds are doing your head in buy this item.
Assembly tip: The moss collection unit (orange and gray) are packed together as one piece – it will look like part of the unit is missing and there will be no instructions informing you this so take note.
There are 4 levels 1 (short) to 4 (higher grass). 1 removed possibly to much to mud level but it took out all the moss. 4 was a good level to leave some grass in the ground and some moss too (I reckon it will need re doing in a couple of months to tackle the remaining moss).
But then I got it started on the lawn. Despite having manually scarified our lawn last week with a WolfGarten scarifier (back-breaking work) the AVR1100 was filling its box with thatch every 20 metres I pushed it along. You can see from the photos attached how much thatch it pulled out from our c. 150m2 garden. That was the result of cross-scarifying – left and right, up and down on setting 3. I genuinely couldn’t believe that so much was coming out of the lawn and I didn’t want to set it any lower.
Obviously I’ve only used it once so if there are any problems during the warranty period I will update but I am almost prepared to say that even if I only ever got one use out of it, it would still be worth it, so much thatch it has removed. It also folds down to a very compact size for storage. Wish I’d bought one years ago!
After using it for the first time it really went to town on my lawn ripping it to shreds. Or at least it looked like that’s what it was doing, it pulled up tonnes of grass from my front and rear tiny lawns, I had it on the highest setting and by the end of it had filled a extra large sand bag. The size you get when you order a scoop of sand from a builders yard.
On 2nd pass it shockingly pulled up the same amount. My lawn was looking a sorry state so I didnt fancy going down onto a lower setting. Two days later and my lawn is already coming back to life! It no longer looks like my hair did in my younger days after my dad had finished cutting it! I can actually see the soil again!
I’m going to go over it again one more time on a deeper setting but this machine has been working fantastically for me and I couldn’t have asked for more. The grass box is a good size but if you havent touched your lawn in a long time like me then you are going to be constantly emptying it.
The wire length is decent and stretched across my small lawns easily. The machine is very light weight and was easy to carry onto and lift off my lawns. It folds down into a compact shape although I have an empty garage so this wasnt necessary for me to do.
The only thing that could have made this better is if it was cordless as setting up the extension lead always seems such a chore, or maybe I’m just lazy?
I can recommend this machine wholeheartedly so if you are thinking about buying this go ahead and take the plunge you won’t regret it, it certainly beats the process of manually raking your lawn!!
This is scarifier no3 that I’ve tried so far – the two cheaper ones I bought were hopelessly underpowered, so this was the last ditch attempt at getting the lawn back to grass.
It worked brilliantly; at its lowest setting it removed all of the moss and thatch – 19 big bin bags of thatch and moss – around 150 kilos! – without doing too much damage to the actual lawn.
This is my little success formula:
1) I mowed the lawn first.
2) I picked a day when the ground was damp but the lawn had managed to dry out.
3) I went over the lawn twice, in two directions, at 90 degrees – the lowest setting got me back to grass and bare soil. The collection system is really good but as soon as material comes out of the back (rather than in the box) empty the box – its full.
4) When I had finished, I raked the lawn. I wanted t get as much of the thatch out that I had cut but not managed to get with the collection system.
5) I mowed the lawn again, and raked again. Every bit of loose material will go back into the lawn and restart the problem you are trying to correct, so its important to get as much out as you can.
6) When I’d finished, I treated the lawn with a moss killer (no rake), Because any bits of moss I had missed would have spread spores all over the place. I then watered the lawn thoroughly. (It must have been wondering what had hit it)
7) A few days later I overseeded with a good quality grass seed – I used Miracle Gro general purpose.
8) I now have the makings of a fantastic lawn; moss – free, no springyness, all a uniform colour.
And I learnt a few things the hard way:
1) Don’t underestimate the effort involved – this machine is brilliant but you will remove a lot of material. The time actually using the machine is small compared to emptying the collection box (at one point I was emptying the machine every four paces), and removing debris that the machine did not pick up because I’d let the box get full.
2) Have a lot of bin bags (or whatever you use) handy. You will be amazed at the amount of material you will remove.
3) Put some beer in the fridge beforehand – you’ll need one when you’ve finished.
4) This is the biggy – The only reason you’re buying this machine is because you want a perfect lawn – you won’t be disappointed but the chances are, like me, you’ve already put a lot of effort into maintaining it before you thought of buying this. Be prepared for your lawn to look worse afterwards; it will keep you awake the first night but within a few days you’ll really see the difference.
This machine is highly recommended – it really does the trick. My only regret is that I wish I’d bought this first, before I wasted time end effort with cheaper ones.
This Bosch scarifier was to replace a Qualcast one that became tired. Over the years, I have used 2 Qualcast scarifiers, until each became tired. This time I tried a different brand – Bosch – and it is much better. The lawn is scarified quickly (much quicker and easier than the Qualcast machine). The collection box takes longer to fill than the Qualcast, so saves a lot of time emptying it.
One thing I am puzzled about with this Bosch scarifier is that I used the highest setting, and it did the job of moss-removal well. However, if I only wished to pick up leaves from the lawn, the setting would be too low – but I can’t set it any higher. I cannot imagine what the remaining 3 lower settings would be used for – tilling the soil, perhaps – (Joke).
Assembly is similar to most other lawn machines – no more difficult.
I like it, and it does the job well.
I thought long and hard over whether or not to buy this Verti Cutter as I have a Qualcast Scarifier cassette which drops into my petrol mower. I did some reseach and bit the bullet as this seemed to be different to the spring tine arrangement on the Qualcast. The weather forecast was good for this week and I thought it wasn’t too late in the season to scarify the lawn again – I did it last month with the Qualcast.
The Bosch arrived within a day of ordering and it took me 10 minutes or so to assemble the grass box ( which as others have said feels a bit flimsy), attach the handles (4 bolts with wingnuts) and clip the cable to the handle.
I then took it to the freshly mowed front lawn (remember already scarified less than 4 weeks ago), adjusted the depth to 3 (2nd highest) and set off. The lawn is a couple of car lengths long and slightly less than that in width. I went over it once and filled up a large pop up garden rubbish bag. I then dropped the depth to 2 , went over it again at right angles to my first passes and almost refilled the bag again.
As intended shallow grooves were left in the soil ready for reseeding.
After scarifying my back lawn I folded it and put it away until the spring. It would be easier to fold if there was a quick release mechanism on the handles rather than the wing nut arrangement and as mentioned the grass box does feel flimsy – however it is very effective at collecting the thatch. These are only minor drawbacks as it’s not a machine which is going to be used many times a year.
The scariffing drum is not a cassette (exchangeable) and uses “blades” and is not of the “spring tang” type.
The machine finished up quite dirty underneath, as I expected when it had been raking down to soil level, and it wasn’t very easy to get at the area behind the blades when cleaning it, but this is a small criticism.
This lawn raker removed extraordinary amounts. Having used a manual lawn raker in the past, this saves what is backbreaking work and is much more efficient with it. I had been using the services of a highly priced and well known national ‘lawncare’ service who turn the grass green by using moss friendly fertiliser. Their scarifying service was grossly overpriced.This is part of a scheme of replacement of those services.
Though on a theme to some other reviewers, I suggest the following:
1) Cut the grass with a lawnmower first.
2) If the first time of use for the raker in the season, put on the third setting ie. the second most severe. This is all that is required for moss.
3) You will need to cross cut the lawn on the first occasion ie. up and down the whole lawn then cross width wise again. Thus it is time-consuming, but it would not have been as bad had it been done in the autumn with proper fertilisation and moss killer at that stage.
4) Depending on the size of your lawn, if you have a moss issue, you could easily fill 6+ green bins. You will at some points be having to empty the container each line of the lawn. That is not a fault of the cutter, it is the fault of the lawn.
5) Your lawn will not look so good for a few weeks afterwards. It will be thinned out and if it was heavy on moss, may be bare in places.
6) Using some moss killer will be important. I used a few days after the first cutting. I will do a more gentle rake at the second setting in a fortnight.
7) *** Be careful before you reach the end of a length of lawn – let the motor stop as soon as you reach the end before you turn, otherwise it will cut too heavily into the turf and create an unnecessary bare path.
Enjoy!
The Verti Cutter from Bosch in in a different league – its a pleasure to scarify the lawn now. Light and easy to push and maneuver and the blades slice down into the lawn removing much (not all) of the thatch and moss but without destroying the grass. I tried the Bosch ALR900 Lawn Rake before buying the Verti Cutter but was disappointed with that too – on my lawn, even on the lowest setting, it didn’t get down into the thatch.
The only negatives are pretty universal – the Veri Cutter can remove so much thatch and moss from your lawn (if you’ve not used one on it before) that you have to stop every 10meters or so to empty the box. Also if you have any high spots expect these to get scalped.
I have only used it on setting no. 3 and it does a brilliant job, I would not like to drop it much further as I feel that it would take away too much.
If you have a moss problem I would go for this model as it really is a great buy.
* If you have a large amount of moss to clear, as I did initially, you will have to empty the container box often. I had to do this in stages due to the amount of moss extracted (garden waste bin emptied weekly by local council)
* The ‘verticutter’ channels left in the lawn by the AVR 1100 (as shown in one of the pictures in the description details) is pretty much what it looks like on setting 2, which is quite acceptable and an ideal setting for ‘over-seeding’ – the lawn quickly recovers so no permanent damage is caused. Bosch AVR 1100 Verticutter Lawnraker
* Easy to stow machine by folding away the handle if required.
* Not the cheapest thing around that’s for sure – but it has saved so much time and energy, as in the past I have done everything manually when removing thatch/moss from the lawn. Anything less powerful (in my opinion) would struggle to cope with the riggors of the task at hand.
* Have not used setting 1 so cannot comment (No need to use this setting in my opinion) Settings 4, 3 and 2 may produce a different result for you if the lawn is not reasonably level, but that goes without saying.
* I have a battery operated Bosch Rotak 37LI lawn mower, so took a little while to getting used to having an electrical lead to contend with but that really is a very minor issue.
All-in-all, an excellent addition to anyone’s garden shed.
Quick to use at walking pace, seems powerful (nothing seemed to slow it down) and the collection was effective. On a dry day, it creates a lot of dust. On the minus side, for my fairly large lawn I found the cable too short and had to keep stopping to move the extension lead up and down the lawn. I guess it would be easy enough to extend the lead if you needed to but if you have a very large lawn, you’re probably better off with a petrol driven device (my lawn mower is petrol and self-propelling).
Unlike other reviewers, I haven’t had any problems with the tines breaking off, despite my lawn being quite uneven, very thatched and with a few pebbles here and there.
All in all, I was impressed with this lawn-raker.
The positive side of the Bosch ALR 900 rake is that after reading the tales of woe of others, Bosch has heeded their words and changed the length of the screws to hold the handles together. Unfortunately, it is still a bit fiddly and it helps enormously if there are two of you: one to hold the handles in place, another to screw them together.
Though Bosch makes no reference to the fact, there is a right and wrong way the handles go together. The right way has the double set of holes on the same side as the electric cord. Other than needing to assemble the thing twice because of this, it is otherwise fairly straight forward.
Like many other users, I first set the height at the minimum — oddly numbered position 4, which is counter-intuitive, though maybe not for Germans — and then took it down through the remaining stages. Position 1, as reported, truly goes deep into the moss. It also can leave patches where the ground is not particularly level. I found that when turning the machine, which is very light and easy to handle, lifting it onto its rear wheels to turn and then starting to walk while slowing lowering the tines, reduces bald-spot production.
The suction system really works, sending moss and junk into the back of the bin collector. And yes, it is remarkable how quickly the bin gets filled. It’s easy to know when this occurs though because the machine leaves clumps of moss et al on the lawn.
I guess my one disappointment is how flimsy the whole thing feels. When putting the bin together there was a distinct dread it would break in my hands.
So all in all, though not the cheapest of kits, especially when one considers how infrequently it is used, as my wife pointed out to me, I’m nonetheless pleased because raking our sized lawn by hand is shoulder-killing, and I got tired of looking at the moss-farm.
I have a largish lawn at 900 sq metres and 90 percent of the way through the machine started to cut out. This turned out to be due to a large buildup of soil between the rotating drum and the front casing of the machine. Once cleared out, there was no further problem and I now know to check for this in the future.
Finally although a touch flimsy the collection box is very effective and actually works. This is more than can be said for the two types of electric rake I have previously used where the collection boxes were useless in terms of size and collecting capability.
A great machine that has real time saving benefits as well as being a good scarifier.