soil aerator
Does what it does well, but it is a labor intensive tool and other, more expensive, solutions exist.

Effective aerator and some useful tips.
My Turf Hound Aerator was purchased in Feb. 2008. I waited until after the rainy season to aerate my lawns in April and May. Very easy to use: grab the top handle and step on the bottom crossbar to punch holes in the lawn (with the two sharpened tubes on the bottom). That facilitates air, water, and fertilizer to reach the root systems for greener lawns.

Some things I've noticed (as have others):

Works best in semi-moist soil. Too dry and cutting becomes difficult; too wet and the soil plugs get stuck and don't come out the top of the tubes.

Try to step in the middle of the crossbar so the cutting tubes are perpendicular to the ground for even holes, less bending of the sharpened ends of the tubes, and less clogging.

When the sharpened ends of the tubes get bent, the soil plugs don't come out. Simple solution: don't try to pry out the stuck plugs with a screw driver, that may roughen the inside of the tubes or bend the cutting edges. Rinsing with water doesn't push out the stuck plugs either. Rather, go to a patch of lawn with slightly moist soil, step a few times and the moist plugs are pushed out. Now turn the aerator over and tap on the crossbar with a rubber mallet to get the remaining soil plugs out.

When the sharpened ends do get bent from tough soil/grass/rocks, I use an 10" old steel tubing just slightly smaller in diameter than the cutting tubes and tap it through the top with a rubber mallet. That straightens out the bent edges somewhat uniformly.

The Turf Hound Aerator does have a lifetime exchange guarantee so one can get a replacement at the cost of shipping it back to the manufacturer.

One last note: I DON'T leave the extruded soil plugs in my front lawns because they resemble dog doodoo and some thoughtless neighbors may mistake them as an invitation to use my front lawns as a pet porta-potty.

Check out my lawn in the customer submitted pics. Good Luck!

Sturdy, Works well
Very durable product, works well. I'm tall, 6'3'' and it would be great if they had the product in an extra long version. It's relaxing to use it just takes time to get the yard finished. We don't have a huge yard so it its not to bad.

turf hound
This turf hound works pretty good.The only problems i had was when using it on hard soil-the dirt and grass gets plugged up in the tubes...Keep a long screw driver handy to un-plug them.It did work really good on medium hard to soft soils.

hounddog turf aerator
I was skeptical when i bought this but, WOW, it work's! I was able to do all the areas the big machine could'nt get to and add holes to problem areas. It was a great purchase.