Hound Dog Products HDP1-6 Weed Hound

Works well and saves a lot of bending over (2010-08-24) : 4/5
I bought this from Amazon when we started having to spend a lot of time in the yard weeding the flower beds. The constant bending over, grabbing, and pulling took a toll on my hands and back. I'd read a review of this product on a web site whose opinions I trust, and decided to get one.

Overall, I'm pleased with it. To pull a weed with this edger all you need to do is position it over the center of the plant, push down on the device, and pull it up by the handle. Its spikes surround the root of the weed and pull it (and a plug of dirt about the size of a C or D battery) out of the ground. Push down on the black knob and it spits out the weed.

If you use this on small-to-medium weeds right after a rain, it will be one of the easiest weeding jobs you've ever done. You'll pull up weed after weed, using the black knob to eject them right into your lawn waste receptacle. You probably won't have to bend down at all.

My biggest complaint about this device is that periodically it "sticks" after picking up a weed and you have to apply a fair amount of force or a good "smack" on the black knob to release the weed.

It's really good at pulling up random weeds, dandelions, and smaller plants. It's not so good with things that have wide, shallow roots like crabgrass. It's also not so good for anything large or with really deep roots, as it only goes about 3-4 inches into the soil. If you keep after your lawn and flower beds, though, you probably don't have anything like that in there that you need to worry about. And if you do, there's always the old fashioned way - but at least you won't be having to bend down for EVERY weed you pull.
Hound Dog Weeder. (2010-08-12) : 5/5
Excellent, heavy duty product that delivers on its promise. Like it so well, bought more for early Christmas gifts and have received appreciative comments on the device's effectiveness. Would highly recommend this product to anyone who wants to weed their lawn without bending over. It has the side benefit of aerating the lawn. A++++++++++++++++++.......
Glad I purchased this tool (2010-08-09) : 4/5
This tool is best used after a rain when the ground is likely to be willing to give up the root. It pulls up dandelions very easily compared to other hand weeders out there. I didn't give it a five star rating because the release mechanism can sometimes be a bit stubborn and hard on your hand. But I've recommended it to anyone complaining about dandelions. Passersby (both pedestrians and cars) have stopped to ask me about the tool--I've yet to pull a Tom Sawyer on them and get them to do my weeding for me, tho . . . ):)
Hard to use and ineffective (2010-07-08) : 2/5
Had the same experience as several others. I can only get it to pull up a small part of the root. I have a Fiskars weed eater that works much, much better, but unfortunately the model has been discontinued.
Perfect on open areas after the rain! (2010-06-17) : 4/5
I ordered this product after reading some customer reviews and now I've experienced some of the first results of using this
product. My parents have an acre lot in the country with some trees and also open areas of lawn. I took the weed hound out to their front lawn right after a spring rain and found that it worked great in areas that are not very close to trees. I carried a 5 gallon bucket for the dandelions, and I could not believe that in under one hour I had it overflowing with the dandelion plants with LONG TAP ROOTS!!! I also had a small container of patch grass seed with me, and I sprinkled a little of that seed mix over every place I had removed a dandelion.

Yes, the weed hound does remove some of the surface soil around the weed, but it's just a little larger area than a normal aeration machine would leave in the lawn. We continued to have rain, and the patch grass seed filled in very well. After a few mowings it's very hard to tell that a plug of dirt was removed from the lawn.

Some things to note regarding areas with trees...stubborn little dandelions seem to adapt their tap roots and curve around the tree roots...this tool cannot really remove the WHOLE tap root as often in that situation. But we all know that lawn area under trees is a bit more of a challenge than other areas of a lawn. I still recommend this product for how quickly it can take care of the open areas that are damp, and I can't believe how much better the lawn looks with just that quick process of the weed hound after a rainy day and a little bit of patch grass seed. Even better - my parents well water tastes normal without having any nasty weed-killing chemicals applied to their lawn. YOU GOTTA LOVE THOSE RESULTS!!!!