First off, WOW. $750??? I agree that is insane. I get prices go up, but Allett is developing a pattern with prices and it's starting to get silly.

I've researched verticutters in the past. I don't know of any that are less expensive than buying a cartridge. I looked at slice-seeders but man, that's several thousand dollars. Even used ones are over a grand. I know there are some "Verticutters" online that are "Sun-Joe"-type machines. But in my experience, if it's not star-shaped, it doesn't work well. The swardman verticutter sucks and is worthless.

Hopefully someone can chime in with suggestions as I am also interested. Meanwhile, you are welcome to use the Liberty with verticutter anytime you want and see if its worth it for you. Its a lightweight machine you can throw in the back of a car or truck.

 

Being an Allett user, my plan was to eventually buy the verticut cartridge that's available for my mower. However, Allett raised the price from the $460-ish to $750. At 460 it was expensive, but I was okay with the smaller form factor and the idea of not having to store another machine.
But at 750, they can suck a 🥜.

So, what is a good verticutter machine for the home lawn? I assume the used market is where I need to be looking. What are some of the verticutters I should look for?

Which Allett machine do you own, I have the Kensington 17b and have all of the attachments. There is the possibility of lending cartridges to other members. I literally only vertices 1-2 per year. If you have a 17b I'd be willing to lend out.

 

@jimbeckel, very cool of you to offer, but I have the 20". I figure I'd be using it two-ish times a year as well.
There's na fellow TLF-er in my area that says the Allett verticutter works pretty great.

@Austinite, just now seeing your reply. Yeah, I may take you up on that. Thanks so much.

 

@jimbeckel, very cool of you to offer, but I have the 20". I figure I'd be using it two-ish times a year as well.
There's na fellow TLF-er in my area that says the Allett verticutter works pretty great.

@Austinite, just now seeing your reply. Yeah, I may take you up on that. Thanks so much.

The verticutter works pretty well, used it last week, the scarifier dethatches nicely too

 

@jimbeckel, yes the scarifier is great. I bought that as a package deal with my mower. It's an awesome tool for cleaning up.

 

I wonder how good the sun joe is. I'm sure it's not the best verticutter in the world but for less than $100 I may look into it.

 

@SouthernTiftuf, I had a SunJoe a few years back, but at the time I only used the dethatching cartridge and not the scarifier.

It's a great little machine that I think could do a decent job at verticutting by sharpening the blades.

 

Have you considered renting from Home Depot? You can rent an overseeder for $60 for 4 hours.

Here's a picture of the underside to get an idea on the tines used. It's super easy to take off a few if needed and out back on after you're done.