Mantis 7940 4-Cycle Gas Powered Cultivator, red

The Mantis tiller with the Honda engine is just the right size for my hoop house. Honda engines are so reliable and I have several on other equipment. It is lightweight which is good because I am an 80 year old female senior. It is very powerful and compact and tills great. I only have to have it powered up a little for it to do a great job. I assembled it just fine except they had given me American nuts for 2 Metric bolts. I had a hard time putting the nuts on but soon discovered why and was able to purchase a couple Metric bolts with Metric nuts. Everything went on according to the directions. I emailed Mantis about that problem and they responded immediately telling me they would send the hardware but I had already purchased the correct hardware so didn't need it. Great customer relations.

There's no comparison when it comes to Mantis! I'm a professional landscaper and can say, without a doubt, that this is the best tiller/cultivator you will ever use. My first one lasted 7 years of constant use, unfortunately I managed to destroy it by using gas with ethanol! Do not make this mistake! Make sure you buy manufactured fuel! Don't let the size of the tiller fool you, it has more power than any of the large ones I have ever tried. With the added bonus of being easy to transport to different locations and this thing never fails to start within the first two pulls.

I bought the 2 cycle version of this tiller some 18 years ago - was the best smallest and deepest tiller on the market and was extremely pleased with it. I hadn't had much use for it since moving, so sat in the garage for 13 years unused until last year when I tried to start it again - obviously after all that time it needed some repairs and did remind me of it's particular starting method (choke, pull until it fires, choke off, 2 pulls and starts). However, after 13 years of disuse, it just wasn't working the same, so needed to replace it. Doing some more research, this is still the best option on the market for a small tiller that will till deeply. When I saw Mantis offered a 4-cycle engine (no more 50:1 oil mixing) using a Honda engine (regarded as one of the best small equipment engine manufacturers you can get), I decided to get the upgraded version of this tiller. Package showed up via UPS within a week of ordering it - faster than the expected delivery time they originally advertised. Didn't take too long to assemble it (attach handles and kickstand, really). Used it yesterday for the first time and works like my original did 18 years ago, if not even better with the 4-cycle engine. Very pleased with it. If tilling in heavy weeds, you will have to stop from time to time to clear the weeds that get wrapped around the shaft, but is relatively easy just by taking off the tines and cleaning it out. One concerning item is that it was tagged with a warning on the engine to avoid gas with ethanol, which is not an easy task since most places in Canada have now mandated 10% ethanol in gas...and many companies also use it as an octane booster. Issue with ethanol is that on some engine components (some plastics), it dissolves and picks up traces of the plastic molecule and when burnt, will gum up the carb and other systems over time. One upgrade might be a metal fuel tank as is likely the greatest exposure and don't see people draining the tank between uses. Overall though, very pleased with it...

I must say I am impressed. Researched many tiller models, some mini and some not-so-mini. Settled on this Mantis after surveying reviews here and elsewhere. What a delightful little machine. The money and time it has saved allowing me to do the project I had paid for itself a couple times over. In spite of its relatively lightweight status (24lbs I think?), it did a surprisingly good job of digging into the heavily compacted dirt and clay in my yard. Doubly so because of roots I asked it to go through, leftover from the four trees we cut down. I do have a few recommendations for getting the most out of it: (1) Make liberal use of the ability to easily reverse the blades back and forth from “cultivating mode” into “tilling mode.” The cultivator mode made a HUGE difference in being able to cut through tree and plant roots without tangling and/or jamming every few seconds. Once the roots and plants are well dealt with, a quick return to the more aggressive tiller mode churns more deeply in very short order. NOTE: this also reduces the amount of bouncing that seemed to irritate some other reviewers. And me. :-) (2) Take your time and let it do its thing. Some want to make a single quick pass and then wonder why it only takes off an inch or so of the hard compacted top layer. Remember that it is, after all, a MINI tiller. Give it a moment, pull it back and forth a few feet to remove some of the dirt pile that builds up under the tines, and it will settle in for the deeper churn right quickly. (3) Get the kickstand. It’s too convenient to skip. (4) I think the real value of this machine (for me, anyhow) lies in its ability to do double-duty. Or quadruple duty, I guess. Treat yourself to the attachments. The power rake, edger, and aerator attachments are fantastically effective additions that really round out the Mantis’s capacity and utility in the yard, turning it into a true year-around workhorse. The attachments have been utterly worth the added expense, and switching between them is an easy and quick affair. My review was not solicited. I am submitting this review only because I am so tickled with it’s performance. The only criticism I can offer so far regards the less than perfect directions for assembly. Some of the nuts did not match what was described or displayed in the directions, and the wording was not entirely intuitive in every instance. Having said that, a little looking at what I had in the box made it clear enough what was needed, and it worked out just fine. The only caution I would have for potential purchasers is the size. This isn’t a critique of the unit itself so much as a cautionary comment to make sure it is what you want. It does a fantastic job for a mini tiller. But it is a mini tiller. My house sits on just shy of 1/3-acre and it takes a long time to work my entire lawn in any mode. If I had more storage room, I’d be wanting their larger model. Especially if my plan were to till the entire yard. Having said that, it does a fantastic job. I am highly impressed that such a small unit can do so much and do it effectively. The amount of time, effort, and money this Mantis has saved me has made me a huge fan. Far better machine than some of the other tillers I have used in the past and I couldn’t be more tickled with my purchase!

Let’s get this out of the way upfront - I am an old-school Mantis fan and a 2 stroke diehard. With the advent of premixed premium 2 stroke fuel, there didn’t seem to be a reason to rock that boat. That is, until my 20 year old Mantis tiller finally refused to start. Seems to have finally lost compression, and I’ve got no complaints based on how much usage it got, it was WELL worth the money. Enter the Mantis with the Honda 4 cycle. The only thing I appreciate more than the simplicity of a 2 stroke is the reliability and durability of a Honda powered piece of lawn equipment. Why not buy the Honda tiller you ask? Because Mantis is the only name in mini tillers as far as I’m concerned, again, I had one that lasted through 20 years of abuse and never broke a handle, a gearbox, a tiller tine, nothing. Made the decision to go 4 cycle, and I’m glad I did. 5 stars all the way around. Assembly? EZ-PZ. Grab a 7/16” socket and wrench and get after it, you’ll need a 3/8” wrench for the kickstand if you got that too. Starting? Fast. Easy. 1-2 pulls, idles perfect out of the box. She’s a little noisy at full throttle, but that doesn’t bother an old gearhead like me. Light enough and has roughly the same dimensions as my previous unit, which means maneuverability is excellent. Great for gardening, installing landscaping beds, trenching for rock borders, Hell, I even used mine to dig a 3 foot deep trench for a drain-tiled downspout (till and scoop, till and scoop, keep hunching down, you’ll get there). Overall I cannot recommend this unit enough.