Power Planter Gallon Pot & Post Hole Auger Drill (7" x 28") with 1/2" Non-Slip Hex Drive for Planting Gallon Potted Plants & Shrubs - Easy to Use - Works on Hard Dirt, Clay, Rocky Soil & Sand

Ups production and is easy on the body

I bought the Power Planter 7" auger to dig (30) 24" deep holes for 4x4 fence posts for a deer fence. I used a corded, 7 amp, variable speed, Milwaukee right-angle drill. This is NOT the drill recommended by the Power Planter manufacturer. It does not have a clutch and so there was some preliminary risk of the auger catching and the drill torquing around and possibly hurting my wrist. But since I was able to control the speed and application of power with the variable speed switch, I was easily able to avoid any injury. I would not try this with a fixed speed Milwaukee Hole Hog. That could definitely cause a wrist injury. Anyway, my fence runs through the woods around my house and the ground I was boring into had a lot of roots in the first 6 inches of the bore. Some areas also had a lot of rocks. Some of the roots were 1" in diameter. Some of the rocks were 6" in size. The auger would get stopped by these obstacles. So, I had a pair of loppers, a heavy-duty digging bar, and a conventional manual post hole digger with me too. I would try to bore about 6" into the ground, then stop, cut and remove any obrstructing large roots with the loppers, and use the digging bar to further break up the ground. Then I'd start boring with the auger again. It would chew up the clay I broke up with the digging bar. I'd extract the auger every 4-6" or so and it would pull out most of the ground up dirt with it. If I was hitting hard ground again, I'd use the digging bar again to break it up, and the auger would bore down through it. When I had bored the full length of the auger, I'd extract it and then use my manual post hole digger to get the remaining dirt out of the hole. The auger would pulverize any dirt broken into large chunks by the digging bar, thereby making it very easy to remove the dirt. This system worked great for me and it would typically take me about 10 minutes to fully dig and and clean out a hole. Don't have unrealistic expectations of what the auger can do by itself chucked into a drill. That being said, I did have holes where once I got through the first 6" of heavily rooted soil, there were no rocks, and the Power Planter would easily bore down the full 28". But with the supplementary digging bar and post hole digger, the auger worked great for all conditions, and digging a hole was far easier than using only the digging bar and post hole digger by themselves. The Power Planter auger has held up very well with zero damage to it after 30 holes.

As previous reviews have stated, the auger bit is well built and works well, even in clay, IF (and only if) you have a high-powered drill that can provide a high amount of torque. I started boring holes for 1-gal plant pots with a heavy-duty Milwaukee hammer drill (hammer off). The drill was high-power, but low torque and nearly caught on fire, literally. So, i ponied up and bought a high-torque Rigid drill from Home Depot that is intended for mixing concrete ($140). It has a spade handle and a support handle. This drill unleashed the power of the auger and made boring dozens of holes, even in clay, possible. My only complaints are 1), its a bit (no pun intended) expensive, and 2), it doesn't bore through grass because the blade tip just spins on top of it. If you break the soil a bid, say with a pick ax, then it digs right in. Have considered cutting a couple teeth into the blade at the very bottom to see if that improves the performance in grass/vegetation.

I love this Power planter auger, it's a great size and heavy duty. The 7" size auger and height makes planting my bigger plants so easy. Very pleased with this purchase. Highly recommend, great quality!

Amazing garden tool ! First time user- wish I had this sooner!! Works great , make sure you have a good hold on your drill when using. It attached securely to a DeWalt 20 Volt cordless drill. Makes a nice hole for planting - soil has a tilled quality