Unboxing and First-Use Review, Gardenia GD601 Electric Tiller
This year I have decided to utilize a bigger part of our backyard for planting edibles.
Unfortunately my waste has been playing tricks on me lately and I wanted to spare some pain, eventually.
Moreover, producing more vegetables myself is good for the environment.
Another huge plus, gardening is such a great cardio!
:)))
The local hardware store where I usually shop garden stuff was selling three brands of electric tillers and Gardenia was the most expensive.
So I got the smaller model (1000W), there was a 1500W as well, but the difference was just a couple of centimeters in the width and depth of plowing.
The specs sound ok to me, this was what I actually needed, given the area in question is not so big after all.
Opening the box gives that view:
So I can tell, apart from the handle and the wheels, everything else comes pre-built.
Then...
WOW
How is this even possible!
Phew... I saw this sticker on the outside of the box
It says there is no oil on the gearbox.
WTF !!!
I was using the Bulgarian version of the manual to put everything up together and there was no mention I have to fill it up with "reductor" oil.
Bulgarian version of the manual was very poorly written so I double checked the English version as well.
That version also sucks, if I have to be honest. Probably auto-translated from Chinese, I don't know.
It was obvious nobody proof-reads those!
Also, in the manual there are instruction only how to replace the existing oil.
If I have to make a comparison, imagine you buy a brand new car and when unwrapping it, there is a sticker you have to fill it up with gearbox oil.
A total nonsense if you ask me.
Also, I bet if I haven't seen that and used the tiller, the warranty would be void if no oil is to be found in the gearbox/reductor box.
Another downside - it wasn't specified how much oil is needed.
5 mm hex cap so the hole is probably 3 mm.
Good that I had a syringe.
Also good that I had some leftover oil from my car.
Bad, it was only 2 ml so I had to repeat filling and emptying it more than twenty times.
The real cap is also different than the cap shown of the schema.
Reading the manual and putting up the handle and the wheels took me about 30 minutes.
Then, bumping on the missing reductor box oil problem, I had to reread the manual, checking the other language.
I had to remove a so called "strawberry" (the knives that cut through the soil) and they have direction of rotation, something that isn't mentioned in the manual either.
Now, after a few hours of usage, the tiller doesn't look that clean already.
It saves a lot of time and efforts, and if it wasn't the crappy manual and the missing reductor oil, I would give it a five-stars review.
At the moment, I'd give it
3/5
For those reasons, I just felt the lack of respect for me as a customer.
I'd be very careful if I have to buy something from that brand again.
Ah, the tiller is quite noisy, but that is something I knew prior buying it.
93 dB, all my neighbors will know I am in the garden! :)))
LightCaptured is a proud SteemAtlasian.
Buy my stock photos at Alamy: https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/112427.html
Buy my stock photos at Adobe Stock: https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/206416265/lightcaptured
Copyright: LightCaptured
All the photographs, digital art and text in my posts, unless specified otherwise, are my own property and created by me.
Have a great day!
Here is an uncomplete list of some of my equipment I use on a regular basis:
| Cameras | |
|---|---|
| Canon EOS 5D Mark III | |
| Canon EOS M5 | |
| Canon EOS 550D | |
| Lenses | |
| Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM | |
| Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM | |
| Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM | |
| Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM | |
| Canon EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM | |
| Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM | |
| Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 | |
| 7artisans 35mm f/1.2 | |
| Strobes | Dynaphos Speedster |
| Flashes | Metz |
| Tripods and Mono-pods | Manfrotto |
| Benro |
The divider I use in my posts I have created in Adobe Express.
Upvoted! Thank you for supporting witness @jswit.
I had a grass trimmer of that brand a few years ago. Good for 2 if not a 1. Never again.
It isn't a high-end brand, so it's a total lottery.
Got an electric lawn mower in 2010 and it still works. Not so lucky with other items from the same brand though.
I once had a great one from the Praktiker (home brand) it worked fine. As it finally broke (don't asked the hard work it had to do) they said: what do you want your money back or a new one (I took the money).
Since then, the quality of nearly everything I bought is good for throwing away after one year, if lucky two, but always after the warranty ended.
Happy gardening!
You're right about the quality of.... well, every hardware lately.
With each new thing that enters our home, I am more and more sure all is now designed to last up to the warranty...
That in terms only shows we don't respect ourselves much as human beings as we allow profits to be more important than quality.
Collectively, we have the power to change that but obviously, we lack the desire to do this...
My motto is to use an object until it is impossible to be fixed. I hate the consumerism of our "modern" society.
Thank you :)
Gardening in the spring is awesome, I don't mind sweating in the garden for hours now. Summer... another story :)
I agree with you, everything should be used till it's impossible to be fix and here's another one... the modern items can hardly be fixes because the parts are not available. How can the buyer change that if he's forced to buy new even if it can be repaired? And next the big businesses start registration what their clients buy and count their CO2 whatever while at the same time producing and selling trash and of course trying to sell it.
I did my share of gardening today, it'was a bit of dark day after rain. Let's see if the sun will shine after I finished most of the hard work.
A great evening!
That is true as well.
I had to find a mechanic who makes custom parts to fix the last item that broke.
So, still a bit cheaper than the new stuff, but not if I count the time spent and the transport costs :)))
In the last years I've been fixing more and more stuff myself, this is also good for the brain, keeping it in shape as often out-of-the-box solutions are the only solutions :)))
Same with the house repairs. It's getting harder and harder to find the right persons for the job and it always costs a fortune for every repair.
Have a great evening yourself as well! :)
House repairs I do as much myself. They always try to fool me, same for the car and the job is done badly. Shitty work I can do myself.
The lack of skills will be a huge problem in the nearest future. I always tried to repair things myself. If it's broke I can only win. The first thing I repaired was my record player.😁
So true!!!
It seems there isn't big of a difference in Western and Eastern Europe, feels the same :)
I guess when AI finally overtakes the majority of the soft-skill-jobs, there will be more people who would do quality tasks with their own hands.
I think I am going into that direction, given I double the time I spend in the garden this year :D
Have a great one! :)
Hi, @lightcaptured,
Thank you for your contribution. Your post has been manually curated.
- Delegate to @ecosynthesizer and vote @symbionts as a witness to support us.
- Explore Steem using our Steem Blockchain Explorer
- Easily create accounts on Steem using JoinSteem
Much appreciated your manual curation, it means a lot!
Keep it up! :)
Hi, @lightcaptured,
Thank you for your contribution. Your post has been manually curated.
- Delegate to @ecosynthesizer and vote @symbionts as a witness to support us.
- Explore Steem using our Steem Blockchain Explorer
- Easily create accounts on Steem using JoinSteem
Perfect! :)
Thanks so much!
I wish you a great one! :)
Hi, @lightcaptured,
Thank you for your contribution. Your post has been manually curated.
- Delegate to @ecosynthesizer and vote @symbionts as a witness to support us.
- Explore Steem using our Steem Blockchain Explorer
- Easily create accounts on Steem using JoinSteem
Thanks so much and I wish you a joyful weekend! :)