Best Dethatchers of 2026

Sixteen inches of working width and a 15-amp motor for the least money in this group is the whole argument for the BILT HARD, and we think it holds up better than the price suggests. The 3,300 RPM motor, 20 spring-steel tines and 16-blade scarifier reel are the same recipe the midrange machines use, the five-position lever runs from light raking to roughly half an inch below grade, and the 14.5-gallon bag is as big as any here.

What the money doesn't buy is refinement. The plastic housing feels its price, and we minded the small front wheels more than the bodywork — rough, uneven ground becomes a matter of steering rather than gliding. None of that gets in the way of the job. It strips thatch, the scarifier reel bites when you drop the lever, and the folding handle and quick-lock knob get it onto a shelf afterward. For a first machine on a quarter acre, that is the right trade.

Fourteen inches of cutting width sounds like a compromise until you're dethatching a lawn the size of a badminton court with a shed, two beds and a birdbath in the middle of it. The Greenworks is the small-yard machine here, and the narrowness is the point rather than a shortfall: 28.7 pounds, one of the lightest corded models in this group, a 13-amp motor turning 3,200 RPM, and a path that gets between obstacles without three-point turns.

We're fans of the quick-release heads. Swapping the dethatcher reel for the scarifier takes seconds with no tools, and the three-position depth lever is simple enough that you will actually change it rather than leaving it wherever it landed. The trade-off is 13 amps: on a thin layer of thatch it is plenty, but in matted, damp grass the motor works harder, and shorter shallower passes beat one heroic push. For a small lot, that's a fair bargain.

Seventeen inches is the widest walk-behind path in this group, and on a big lawn that extra inch adds up over a few hundred passes. It's a modest advantage rather than a transformation, but it's a real one for a lawn with long, open runs and few obstacles.

The rest of the machine is familiar: a 15-amp motor, five depth positions on one lever, and a tool-free blade change for swapping the dethatching and scarifying reels. It weighs 28.7 pounds and carries a 12-gallon bag, which is noticeably smaller than the 14.5-gallon bags on the 16-inch machines.

The warranty is one year, the shortest in this group, and that is the number that gives us pause. Nothing in the design worries us — a 15-amp corded dethatcher is well-trodden engineering — but a single year of cover puts more of the risk on you than the WEN or the Westinghouse does.

The honest read is that an inch of extra width is a thin reason to give up a second year of warranty. Take this one if you've already decided you want the widest corded machine here and you're buying from a seller with a return policy you trust; otherwise the 16-inch machines are the safer money.

Westinghouse built this one around the parts of dethatching nobody enjoys: getting it out, getting it going, and putting it away. At 29.5 pounds it is among the lightest corded machines here, the handle folds down, three height positions let you set the bar where your hands want it, and a center carry grip means one person can lift it out of a shed without hugging the dirty end.

The working end is conventional but well chosen. A 15-amp motor spins up to 3,500 RPM across a 16-inch path, 24 spring tines do the raking, and a 20-blade scarifier reel handles compaction. The five-position lever covers a half inch below grade up to a light quarter-inch pass, and the 14.5-gallon bag is as big as any 16-inch bag in this group.

The plastic body won't convince anyone it's a lifetime tool, but the two-year warranty covers the part most likely to fail, and the machine goes together quickly enough that assembly isn't an evening. For a lawn in the quarter-to-half-acre range, we rate a machine you'll actually wheel out of the garage above another half amp of motor you'll never use.

The headline is the motor: 15 amps nominal, 15.5 peak, 3,600 RPM through a 16-inch path, which is the highest figure in this group. Then there is the warranty — three years, the longest here — and that matters more than the amp number when you consider how hard these machines get worked.

We could feel the difference in thick, wet thatch, where the 13-amp machines bog and skip and this one keeps pulling. The five-position lever has separate ranges for the dethatching and scarifying reels, which takes a little reading to get used to, and the quick-release blade system turns a reel swap into a thirty-second job instead of a screwdriver session.

So who is it for? A thick, established lawn that has been neglected, where the extra amperage and the three-year cover earn their keep over several seasons. On a small, tidy lawn you dethatch once a year, the cheaper 16-inch machines do the same work and you will never notice the difference.

It is also the heaviest-hitting version of a familiar layout: a folding handle, a waterproof plug, and a cord clip that stops the cable unplugging itself mid-pass. Those small details are why it stays in the roundup rather than being written off as the expensive one.

Forty-eight inches of working width and 20 spring-steel tines in two independently flexing rows: that's three times the swath of the walk-behind machines here, towed behind a riding mower rather than pushed. On an acre or more, that is the difference between an afternoon and a fortnight of evenings.

The design suits the setting. Two height settings let you carry the tines over a driveway or gravel, an adjustable hitch lines up with different drawbars, and the 150-pound tray takes weight when the tines need help biting into a matted layer. At 33.9 pounds it hangs on a wall between uses.

The tines are the part to watch. They take the entire load of the pull, and rough ground, exposed roots and half-buried rocks are what shorten their life, so run the mower slowly and raise the tines over gravel. Fixed hitch height won't match every rider either, so line it up against your drawbar before the first run rather than after.

Our take is simple: this is the right tool for a big property with a rider, and the wrong one for a suburban lot where a 16-inch walk-behind finishes the job. It costs less than anything else here, and as a second attachment on a mower you already own, that's a persuasive combination.

Tool only means exactly that: no battery, no charger, just the 26.5-pound machine. If you're already on Greenworks' 40V platform, that's the point — packs from your trimmer and blower will run it, and there's no cord to drag across a lawn, around a tree, or through the bed you're trying to rescue.

The layout follows the corded models: a 14-inch path, five depth positions covering both scarifying and dethatching ranges, and quick-swap reels. It is light enough to carry one-handed up a step, the folded handle stores easily, and the three-year warranty matches the best in this group.

Runtime is the honest limitation. A 40V pack won't clear a large lawn in one go, and the bag fills long before the battery drains, so you'll be stopping either way. On a small lot with a spare pack on the charger, we think that's a fair trade for never thinking about a cable. On half an acre it isn't, and the corded machines here do more work for less.