2050P 80lb Broadcast Spreader, Lawn Aerator, Fertilizer Spreader, 80lb Capacity, Pre-Assembled, with Rustproof Poly Hopper and Adjustable Drop Rate for Lawn Care & Seed Spreading

My old "Green" broadcast spreader broke just after 2 years of use, and I needed to find a better product which would last more than a couple years. In looking at the same spreader as a replacement, I was not at all impressed by both the initial reaction of the quality of the build, and all the negative reviews...It looked cheap in every way. In my quest to find a better product, my searches all came back to this spreader. Everyone loved them, and the price was right. When my Earthway 2050P arrived, it was boxed very well. Taking it out of the box, and assembling it was nothing more than raising the handle, and locking it in place...That was it. One thing which concerned me as the formulation to match the fertilizer being used to their correct settings on this Earthway spreader. It seemed there were several reviews of people having issues with the settings. Using the provided settings matrix was actually very easy. All you do is find the weight of the bag of fertilizer, and how many square feet that bag is advertised to cover. Matching those two things will give you a number. Take that number and on the matrix, it will show you the setting to place your Earthway spreader at. Following that, I had absolutely no trouble at all determining which setting my spreader should be at. Using the spreader was just light years above the same "popular" spreader I've been using for years. It's very well balanced, has a fantastic spreading distance, and best of all, I don't have to fight with the spreader attempting to maneuver it over ruts, or any debris. With the inflatable tires, it makes moving this fully loaded spreader around the yard an effortless process. It was actually a joy to use...Whereas with the spreader I've been using previously, would have left me in need of a break after about 3 passes with a lot of yard still to go. I absolutely love this spreader. The gearbox is heavy duty, being advertised as Estate Grade, plus, you can buy a replacement gearbox for around $20.00 direct from Earthway...Try doing that with your "green" thing! The cost of this spreader is money well spent, for sure. Well recommended, worth the cost, hands down!

So, nice spreader. This my second Earthway. I found after one use, two 40# bags of fertilizer, the hopper is showing stress around two of the four bolts holding the hopper to the frame. It appears the bolt heads are pulling into the plastic hopper. The plastic has broken through around one bolt. I have added four fender washers to each of the four bolts which will provide additional support.

We had an old spreader that I found somewhere. I made it last over 15 years. Anything I found at the "Big Box" or garden stores were either over-priced junk, or way too expensive to replace the one that worked pretty well for me. When the frame of my "economy" spreader finally rotted through, I found this one on Amazon and bought one based on the reviews. It's really nothing fancy, but I don't think you'll find a better spreader for the money. The pneumatic tires make it a delight to wheel around the yard, and the hopper is nice and big. It's only a few dollars more than the toy-like Scotts spreader that has a much smaller hopper and skinny, cheap plastic wheels. There is a chart online telling about how to set up the opening, depending on the product and the coverage you need. I think a paper copy came with the spreader, but it's easier for me to Google it than to hunt for the paper. You could even write your common settings with a Sharpie on the side of the hopper. There's a little stop for the lever that is positioned to limit the amount the shutter opens. This makes it easy to start and stop at the end of a pass. The spreader came in a big box, just a few days after it was ordered. Assembly took a few minutes. I didn't even have to put air in the tires. I have no complaints.

When I first got the spreader, I thought, wow, this thing is great. But now, I am regretting my purchase. Pros: 1) The spreader opening is nicely designed and should allow sufficient spreading. It's nice that it's multiple openings. Spreads very nicely. Cons: 1) I thought the tires would help a lot, but not really. In FL, with St Augustine grass, the rear kick stand bar still drags in the grass and makes it hard to push the spreader. 2) The mechanism for spreading is on/off with no easy brake like grip. This means you have to THINK about turning it on/off all the time or it just keeps spreading. 3) My biggest gripe - You are on your own to figure out what the correct setting is to use. I haven't found a single bag of anything that offers a recommended Earthway setting. And earthway only offers ONE table for unknown granule size, and that table is useless. So, it's really frustrating to know if I am putting down the right amount. Initially I was dropping to much stuff. So now I have to be conservative and I choose a MUCH lower setting than usual, and so I end up with left over and I need to do ANOTHER pass. I have to keep a notepad handy so that I can write down what settings I used with each bag so I finetune my settings. I NEVER had this problem with the cheaper built Scott's spreaders. And so, that is why I am frustrated. It IS a great spreader. I want to give it 5 stars. But the fact that I actually now spend more time spreading chemicals and having to be like a scientist documenting what I've done, doesn't make me happy at all and that's why I give it 1 star. I recently bought Talstar, expensive stuff. The earthway chart is so wrong. I wasted so much. Now I need to start out with a small "weighted" amount, walk a predetermined area and see if the setting is high or low. Eventually, I'll get my numbers but the process is EXTREMELY frustrating. I just don't see why Earthway can't test the most popular chemicals themselves and provide a chart. It would make things A LOT easier. If I had to do it all over again, I would just get the scott's spreader, deal with the fact that the scotts is a cheaper built spreader, but at least I'd know that I just need to read the instructions on the bag, choose the setting that the bags says, and get the job done quickly and easily. And I'd get back the very nice taken for granted convenience of a simple brake like lever to turn the spreader on/off easily while walking. Update 7/4/13 Finally, I find a bag of with an "earthway rotary" setting. I was putting down some sunniland insecticide. I thought it was unusual though as the bag indicated a setting of 2.5 which seemed very low given the settings go up to 30. So I start walking and nothing is coming out. As is typical with this spreader, I start cursing at it. When a bag finally has an earthway setting, I can't trust it? So now I'm back to having to figure out the setting for myself. I eventually settled on a setting of 12. What a waste of time. And now I also find I'm needing to "bounce" the spreader as I'm walking it as stuff clogs up. If you are in FL with thick St Augistine grass and you are not tall, do not get this spreader. It is a chore to push this spreader as the rear kick bar drags.

This review comes from a purchaser who works in agriculture and has often spread fertilizer on large acreages, but needed a small hand unit for around home. The Earthway 2050P is adequate for occasional at-home use and should last reasonably well if looked after and thoroughly cleaned afterwards. However, it's not robust enough for frequent use, as it's lightly built from only-just-adequate materials to a design that's the same. Other reviewers have commented on (1) the large pneumatic tyres - they're good, but to save cost are mounted on plastic and lack axle bearings; and (2) on the handle which is not height adjustable - surprising, when so many people have written adversely on this, that the manufacturers have ignored the clear customer demand, which could be easily met at low cost with minimal re-design and engineering. The instructions re spreading rates provided with the unit (on the outside of the packing carton and in a printed insert) are OK if one has fertilizer spreading experience and can handle a little arithmetic, but aren't well written or sufficiently comprehensive for others. Again, this has been a common customer complaint - why don't people at Earthway listen and take action? A competent technical writer who understood fertilizers could do the job easily. The shipping carton is made of very light weight cardboard and is wholly non-protective and unsuited to purpose. My carton arrived with several holes punctured in it by the spreader handle, the worst of which were right in the middle of the spreading instructions on the carton, causing me to have to recover and piece together the pieces of fragmented cardboard in an attempt to obtain readability. If Earthway insist on using such a light weight carton, their packers could at least put the spreader in the carton such that the sharp end of the folded handle destroys something other than the instructions. More positively, the spreading coverage was quite good - a long throw, accurate enough as to rate per square yard and even. I checked this by setting out a few containers at measured intervals to collect the fertilizer, then weighed them. This was serious over-kill for our lawn, but gave me a check on both spreading rate (versus what I'd calculated) and spreading evenness. These, of course, are dependent on operator skills, e,.g. how best to traverse ground slope - and hard to get right if if one doesn't have the advantage of large-acreage GPS to automate the detail. On balance I'd buy the unit again based on its performance so far, but would cheerfully pay a little extra for non-plastic wheels, a height adjustable handle and a carton fit for purpose. I'd also expect instructions of much greater utility for most purchasers. Nothing new there - Earthway if they look at Amazon must have heard it all before, year after year. June 2017 Two years later the spreader has done good spring and fall work on our and other family lawns. No breakages. No problems. I would buy again. Spreading accuracy improves with practise. Granule size is an important factor and it pays to monitor real versus calculated application rate for the first 1-2 minutes and adjust the setting if necessary. Small sand-sized granules, e.g. for weed control, are harder to get right than larger granules, e.g. fertilizer.

I read reviews and watched Youtube reviews of walk behind spreaders, including the Earthway 2050 P. The Earthway 2050P is a little more expensive, but well worth the price. I was a little surprised to read the dispensing rate for fertilizer was based on walking at 7mph. When I told my gardener, he took off like a rabbit. He saved a little fertilizer, but I will have him walk a bit slower on the next sections we do. A week later the lawn looks really healthy and very green*. My gardener and I love the Spreader. Finally I bought a really great spreader. *note: I used Scotts Turf Builder WinterGuard Fall Weed and Feed(5).

Where do I begin, really thought stepping up to earthway would be a bit nicer than scotts junk I've been using all these years. Well, for $90 more than the edgeguard dlx, i saw zero difference. I'm physically fit, and have been taking care of this property for 16 yrs. It was equally difficult to push with a 50lbs bag of product in it, forget 80, not only does 80lbs not actually fit, but pushing it across anything other than ashpalt was next to impossible without spilling product over the edge (if filled with 80lbs). The balance of this spreader is absolut trash too. Who the heck designed the handle bar length/height? I roll over the slightest bump and have to muscle the thing downward to prevent it from dumping forward. The pneumatic tires I had high hopes to help rolling resistance do absolutely nothing in comparison to scotts plastic tires, and I'm sure they'll be a headache in a year or two when they constantly go flat. The edge block design was pathetic. It didn't stay shut and would walk itself halfway open while i was walking along the perimeter of the yard. The number setting set screw is a junk design, i opened the lever at one point and went right past my setting, so i tighted it up and didn't happen again, but I'm sure that design will break in a year or two. I guess i had higher hopes as this was my first "nice" spreader after buying second hand used scotts spreaders all this time, but this is apparently just another entry level p.o.s. I will modify it to my liking with some extra tube steel to fix the balance issue, and maybe a taller tire to help with rolling resistance. I don't recommend.

Robust spreader with ease of setting distribution amount and pattern.

This item was a birthday gift and he loved it!!! Good quality!

Mine lasted less than 2 years. I always cleaned the spreader down after use. The spreader adjustment cable corroded and broke off. I wasted a lot of money on this product; don’t do the same.

works very well ,

Got this spreader to do double duty as an ice melter applicator. So far, it has worked well. Its durable construction makes me think it will work fine for lawn fertilizer and last a long long time. Assembly was a breeze out of the box (two bolts to install handle) You can buy similar for less but never regret good quality at a fair price.

good quality