EarthWay2150 Commercial 50 LB Broadcast Fertilizer Spreader. Heavy-Duty Walk-Behind Push Garden Seeder with Adjustable Drop Rate and Driving Handle. Large 13 inch Pneumatic Stud Tires

With so many reviewers giving this product 5 stars, I didn't want to spoil the good run by giving less than 5 stars. However, there are some reservations that you should consider. Since these detractors may apply to many brands of fertilizer applicators, it wouldn't be fair to assign blame only to this one model.At mentioned in previous reviews, assembly requires diligence. I am very mechanically inclined and did read and note all the prior assembly tips given by other reviewers. I recommend you do the same. I very carefully read and studied the assembly papers before putting this item together. I thought that surely it would not take me 2 hours to assemble this given my experience, but it did take 2 hours 10 minutes. As careful as I was, about 10 minutes into the assembly, I discovered that I had bolted the main frame to the plastic hopper upside down. The assembly directions do have drawings but they are not nearly as good as photographs would have been. If you don't feel you are good at following detailed instructions, either have a friend help you or find another brand that has better assembly directions or is already assembled.That said, now for comments on the completed unit. In past 14 years I have purchased several models of drop spreaders and rotary spreaders in my attempt to apply fertilizer uniformly and without having to have an ambulance standing by for resuscitation due to difficulty in pushing the spreaders. I have around 1/2 acre of grass. Front yard is about 60% of that total and is on a grade of around 7%. Doesn't sound like much of a hill but when you are trying to push 40 pounds of fertilizer and spreader up hill, believe me, it is a lot. My last spreaders were Scott's best drop spreader and rotary spreader. The drop spreader theoretically could apply fertilizer more uniformly but suffers from 2 drawbacks: 1) the bottom holes and adjustable closer are plastic and subject to slight warping. With the very small holes, only a slight warping will cause fertilizer to fall faster out of some holes and slower out of others. The result is banding (or striping) in the lawn. Being careful to follow the wheel markings in the grass doesn't stop this banding since it occurs due to the adjustable closer misalignment. 2) the holes are rather close to the ground and any blade of grass that touches the undercarriage will deposit its dew onto the holes which will eventually cause the fertilizer to stick to the hole and not drop out. This essentially disables the drop spreader until it is thoroughly dried out. Applying the fertilizer in the afternoon when the dew is gone would seem like a good idea if you like heat stroke.The Scott's rotary spreader is very difficult to push uphill. I think this is likely because of the plastic wheels just do not roll smoothly. Inherent disadvantage of a rotary spreader is that it will send the fertilizer out further when you are going down hill than uphill because you are traveling slower uphill and the impeller is rotating more slowly and throwing less of the fertilizer.Now for the Earthway 2150. Once assembled, the first thing I noticed was that it had 3 holes, not just 1, in the bottom of the hopper so that fertilizer dropped into the impeller more uniformly. The impeller seemed to rotate faster for the same forward speed. This would mean that when I am going slower uphill, it is still throwing fertilizer quite a distance (compared to the Scott's). The pneumatic tires are tremendously easier to push up hill and even allowed me to travel faster than I could with the Scott's with the possible result that uniform application of the fertilizer will have improved.It has been 8 days since I have applied the Spring fertilizer with Crabgrass preventer. Usually, by 8 days in past years, I can already see the striping (with Scott's spreaders). We have had rain the day I applied the fertilizer, so, it did get activated. I am not seeing striping. I must admit, I expected to see it even with the Earthway 2150 but I am not. I'll have to wait to end of July to see if Crabgrass is present. If I didn't get the fertilizer on uniformly, I will have lots of Crabgrass. We'll have to wait for that.One comment on the adjuster used to determine how much fertilizer is going to fall to the impeller and be applied to your lawn. The setting is based upon the weight of your fertilizer package and the square footage it is supposed to cover according to the bag claim. I found that the adjuster is really more of a wild guess than anything scientific. Although I calculated the setting in accordance to the Earthway manual, the first 3 passes I made in the front lawn used 1/2 bag of 15,000 square feet of fertilizer. Obviously, this was grossly too much. I made successive reductions in the setting as I made successive passes in the lawn. I ended up with the adjuster set to its minimum. I feel confident that after a couple more times of fertilizer applications this year, I will have settled into what setting is going to work for my lawn. Since there are so many particle sizes within different brands of fertilizers, it is virtually impossible to tell ahead of time what is going to work for the adjuster setting. However, I would caution you that likely it may apply your fertilizer much more heavily than the manufacturer had recommended. Better have plenty of extra bags of fertilizer handy if you dial in the calculated adjuster setting. I may have to cut that part of my lawn where the 1/2 bag of fertilizer was applied so heavily twice a week!It isn't a perfect world for fertilizer spreaders. If your lawn is flat, this rotary spreader will likely work better than other brands once you have the application adjuster figured out for your fertilizer product and have insured that you didn't bolt the mainframe to the hopper upside down. If you have a hill as I do, this rotary spreader may be superior to other products also.

I purchased this to replace my 1.5 year old Scott's broadcast spreader and I am happy with the Earthway spreader already. The spreader is very sturdy and easy to use. The Earthway spreader weighs more than my other spreader but the Earthway spreader seems like it is built to last much longer than my other spreader. I like how you don't have to hold in a lever to spread the fertilizer and instead just flip a switch on and off when you want to, thus reducing extra stress on your hand. I also like the drive wheel with the cotter pin, which is better for driving the spreader gearbox as you push the spreader than my Scott's spreader that depends on perfect tire inflation and no longer works effectively after 1.5 years. The large 13 inch tires places the spreader much higher than other spreaders that enables wider and more even spreading of fertilizer, especially with wet grass. I spread certain fertilizer on wet grass as recommended by certain fertilizers. I like how the Earthware spreader also comes with a grate, which catches the caked up fertilizer as you pour in the fertilizer ,that other spreaders do not have. You can easily see and break up the caked up fertilizer by hand. I realize that this spreader costs more initially but if it lasts three years it will cost less than the Scott's broadcast fertilizer that needed to be replaced in 1.5 years.My only complaint and the basis for the 4 stars rather than 5 stars is that it took 2 hours to assemble the product from closed box to be able to use it. The hard copy instructions were hard to see and lacked effective figures (pictures) that resulted in me trying to figure out steps and having to undo and redo steps when I figured out things were not correct. I highly recommend you use the instructions on the internet, watch videos posted by those that have put the spreader together, and look at pictures of the completed spreader and you should be able to assemble the spreader in one hour. The one benefit of putting it together is really understanding how it works.