- Buyers Products 3039632R Grounds Keeper All Season, Broadcast Walk Behind Push Spreader, 100lb Capacity, For Seed, Fertilizer, Winter Salt & Snow Melt, Included Grate & Cover With Enclosed Gearbox

This product has a great video, however the actual product is not up to par. I bought this spreader for winter salt use and to begin the pin inside the hopper broke. I used my hand to loosen the salt. Also the black shield flaps did not stay in place and you have to constantly readjust for directional spreading. I ended up buying a box of pins from Lowes to replace. Also the spread rate was not in the instruction booklet. You have to guess. Which brings me to my last point the adjustment lever system is the worse. It has too many linkages to be effective. I have been using spreaders for over 30 years and this was a serious investment me for me.

I purchased the Groundskeeper spreader to put fertilizer and pesticide over a 4.5 acre area. I bought this particular one as it I liked the welded frame and adjustable deflectors. The unit arrived with a hole in the side of the box. I opened up the box and found the metal grate and handle placed inside without any wrapping or method to hold them in position. The spreader was mostly assembled which was nice. However due to lack of support packaging the handle stem pierced a hole through the box side. I also noticed the grating was damaged as was the side of the plastic hopper. I then discovered that I was missing the rain cover and also the parts for the flow regulator including the adjuster handle and rods. Just to further check the spreader out, I placed the main handle in position on the stem. Looking at the unit, the overall build quality was excellent. However I did note that the deflectors interfered with the wheels and had to be bent to move them up or down. This is a sloppy design in my opinion. Then I attempted to wheel the spreader around my driveway without any fertilizer material inside. The there was a lot of resistance coming from the left wheel such that it was skidding along the driveway and was barely turning the spinner. I inspected the gear box closely assuming to find something obvious that was not right but I found nothing out of the ordinary. I am assuming there is a design flaw with the gear box either in the ratio of the turns or some type of interference causing the excess friction and wheel not to spin freely. I placed all of the components back into the box and returned the unit. I haven’t written a review in a while but felt I needed to comment on this purchase as it was so wrong in many ways. This could be a fantastic spreader but the manufacturer needs to make improvements to get it acceptable for use. I purchased a Chapin spreader as a replacement and although the build quality isn’t as nice, it is pretty robust and rolled along the ground smoothly as you would expect. I believe the Chapin spreader will give me many years of good use. Beware buying the Groundskeeper spreader; learn from my review and others with similar experiences.

Great design, simple assembly

The Good The product is awesome. It is heavy duty. Assembled without issue. Placed the spreader into service right away. Put down 200 pounds of grass seed and three bags of fertilizer. Worked without issue. The Not So Good The rod that adjusts the hopper feed arrived rusted Not that big of a deal, but what we buy is only new once. The plastic Thumb Nut Broke the moment we locked the feed setting down. Seems like this is a quality issue with the part or engineering Will order replacements from the sheet provided. Like the product hate the hassle.

Excellent

I was reluctant to spend this much money on a salt/ice melt spreader, but I am very pleased with my purchase. Winter has been brutal all over the country this year. I have lived in Chicago all of my life, and you really never get used to winter. We have had a boatload of snow this year, and so I decided to pull the trigger and buy this machine. There isn't too much to assemble, but I highly recommend watching the video because the instructions do not give you a clear picture of how the control handle and linkage assemblies are secured. It is much easier when you can get a visual. Also, you will need 2 10mm wrenches and 2 half inch wrenches (the guy in the video said 13mm which is what I used) to secure all of the lock nuts, so make sure you have those tools handy. This is a real time-saver as the alternative is to walk back and forth with tupperware containers, and you really never got a thorough and uniform spread this way. Just make sure you do a good job of clearing the snow before you use this, and you will be pleased with the results. The large wheels make it easy to move around. I went through four 25 pound backs pretty quickly, but within an hour or two, our driveway was nicely thawed. Just be careful that you do not leave the hopper open or all of your salt will spill out! You can control how much salt you want to distribute, and I set the control right in the middle. I expect to get a lot more use of the spreader this year as snow seems to come every other day. I highly recommend this product if you want to minimize the amount of maintenance in your life!!

The Instructions Are Useless And Not Very Easy To Understand Clearly. One Tire Was Flat. Multiple Scratches The Baffle Screws Turn And Don't Tighten Fully Cause They Keep Spinning, So They Won't Stay In Position To Adjust Them So You Can Adjust The Spread Of The Salt.

a good quality spreader.

With any weight in the hopper the gearing won’t allow the spreader to spin and it grinds nothing comes out unless you trickle feed it which is what’s the point in spending that kind of money for something that doesn’t work pure garbage do not recommend

Les ouvertures pour laisser passer l’a engrais sont trop grandes même au plus bas Ce n’est pas fait pour les engrais mais pour le sel l’hiver. J’ai tellement payé trop cher!!! Très déçue

Do you have to shake it to get the salt to come out