The RotoShovel is a 22-inch long 12V Max cordless auger that can “dig out” holes 3″ wide up to 7″ deep.
You could potentially bore out deeper holes, as Rotoshovel says in answers to customers that it can reach a depth of 10″ if needed.
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Despite this being described as a cordless electric drill shovel, targeted towards homeowners and even landscaping professionals, it’s more of a powered hand trowel.
It looks like it could still do a lot, although its scope of use is likely going to be very specific.
I purchased a ProPlugger bulb planter a few months ago ($40 at Amazon), and in some areas the compacted soil was very difficult to cut through. Would this RotoShovel have been able to power through that? Probably not.
The RotoShovel has safety features that turns off power to the auger when it hits any rocks or roots. If working in difficult soil, the auger is unlikely to provide an effortless and quick experience.
What if you started plants indoors or bought something at the nursery, and are faced with transplanting a 4-inch plant into a 3-inch diameter hole? Sure, you can remove some of the initial potting mix, but probably not without traumatizing the root structure.
I think the RotoShovel is a neat idea, and it could work very well for certain users, namely anyone looking to dig 3″ diameter holes in easy-to-work soils.
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For me, its digging diameter is too narrow, and for tasks where it’s not, I doubt it would be up to the task of digging into very dense soils.
If it suits your application, the removable auger and strong scoop allows for manual digging if needed.
Price: $125 for the kit
The kit comes with a battery, charger, and case. The battery is removeable and replacements or spares are said to be available separately.
Rotoshovel says the included battery lasts for 2 hours.
Discussion
RotoShovel’s marketing language deserves an eye-roll.
It’s time. Time to say goodbye to your shovel, because the RotoShovel is going to forever change the way you garden. Our cordless, electric shovel works just like a drill for your dirt, digging holes ideal for planting vegetables, installing annual flowers, and more.
Goodbye to my shovels? But this does not match the functionality of a shovel, it’s sized to replace hand trowels. That’s a big difference, like calling a bucket a wheelbarrow.
Learn more about how the RotoShovel will smarten up your gardening and why shovels are dumb!
Really?
I can understand the direction they’re going in – RotoShovel wants to portray their product as a do-it-all replacement. But it’s not. I do think it has the potential to be fantastic for certain gardeners, replacing manual small hole-digging with this cordless power auger.
But as mentioned, what happens if you need a hole 4″ wide? 5″? 6″? Can this create wider holes? It’s very difficult to precisely widen a drilled-out hole in wood or metal – can this fare better in soil?
From the product videos, the auger makes a little mess when boring a hole, or at least much less of a mess than without the included trowel-like blade. I would also guess that the unspecified speed of the motor helps for controlling the mess as well.
Watch the Video
See Also
If you need something a little different, there are quite a few auger and post digger attachments at Amazon. This one is a 4″ x 12″ auger attachment that’s meant for planting bulbs and for similar uses.
Here’s a good question: if a task can be completed with either the RotoShovel or an auger attachment, which tool would deliver easier, better, or faster results?
Jared
I’ve got one of those auger bits for my drill. I bought it a couple weeks ago in anticipation of planning more seedlings around my farm’s shelter belt in the spring. I’m glad you mentioned that option because – who would buy a $125 cordless mini auger kit when an auger bit in a drill does the same thing?
Sure, this has a towel-shape portion on the side, but I can fine tune the clutch on my drill if I want root protection and I guarantee my drill is way more powerful – plus the auger bits come in different sizes and are cheap.
I usually try to appreciate the benefit of a new tool even if it won’t be useful to me personally – but I’m struggling with this one.
Stuart
Consider the person that doesn’t do much DIY, but likes to garden and plant bulbs, flowers, or vegetables.
This doesn’t fit any of my needs, but it still seems like it would be useful for certain users.
Jared
I guess. 🤔 I envision even a base-model Ryobi or Craftsman drill kit equipped with an auger bit blowing this out of the water… and then you also get a drill. I suppose the all-in-one nature of this tool might be appealing to some.
I also think the 90o handle of a drill would be easier to hold onto.
Argie
Jeez. For 125 I’d be buying a drill and an auger bit. That way at least I would be on a somewhat sensible battery platform.
Mister Mike
Does it have a brushless motor? A titanium blade? A laser crosshair marker? A non-contact voltage detector? Is it Blue Tooth compatible? Can it chew up the voles before they escape down their tunnels? If not, then how the heck is it an improvement on a shovel?
Koko The Talking Ape
It strikes me that a 4″x7″ hole is too wide for bulbs, and too shallow for posts, though maybe it would work for some transplanting jobs. I wonder why they don’t offer a few different auger sizes. Narrower ones would be faster and allow longer run time. Why dig a bigger hole than you need?
And it looks like it would be hard to hold onto, to counter the torque. No handles, not even any knurling or texture, just a smooth plastic cylinder. But for a weak-ass tool, maybe that’s enough.
It occurred to me that the blade could counter the torque by creating friction against the side of the hole, but ideally, it would have several long narrow fins running the length of the blade on the outside, to bite into the sides of the hole. But it doesn’t have that. And even that wouldn’t work in very loose material.
Plastic gearbox. ;-/ But they can do amaing things with plastic nowadays!
Vards Uzvards
3″x7″ is better sized for bulbs.
E.g. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015Z3OZ2/
But it doesn’t work well in New Mexican “soil” (mixture of sand and clay) 😐
Stuart
I’m thinking 3” for bulbs, 4” for larger veggie and flower plants.
Koko The Talking Ape
Yep. And a 3″ hole is nearly half the volume of a 4″ hole of the same depth. So why move dirt that you don’t have to?
And some kind of depth markings would be good too. Bulbs like a particular depth. Too deep and they won’t flourish.
Greg
If you want to go this route, and it can be time saving, look into https://powerplanter.com/
Plugs right into most power drills. They have a wide variety of sizes and depths.
One word of caution with these kind of devices, if they catch a stone, they can seriously torque against your wrists, USE an auxiliary handle on your drill.
Jared
That’s neat that they make longer ones. I’d only ever seen auger bits that were >14 inches or so.
Jared
That was supposed to be “<14 inches".
Steve Turners
Thank you for the reference. I will need to plant two hundred small trees when the ground thaws, and this looks to be just the thing I need to save my back. Flimsy looking plastic thing that TS posted does not bring me much enthusiasm.
Allen
I would really hate to be a cordless tool designer. All the pressure to come up with something new.
Nathan
For the person that doesn’t have cordless power tools, or the significant other that doesn’t want to mess with the other’s power tools. I could see this appealing.
I don’t know how well it would work would be interesting to see. If they were smart while making the parts they would have also made a drill attachment that is their front end of the tool.
so they could sell to both markets. Like I wouldn’t buy that for the wifey, but I’d probably consider their auger forend attachment if they made it that way.
I’ll stick to my trowel and shovel though.
Mike S
I’m holding out for a pneumatic toothpick.
Stuart
Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z3XX1Q/?tag=toolguyd-20
Kent
I’m sure they’ll sell some, but I’m just buying into another battery system – especially from an unknown company. I with the existing tool companies would license their systems so that small tool companies could use DeWalt, Milwaulkee or other batteries.
I’ll buy an auger attachment for my existing drill.
Blaine
In the video it looks to me like the model is having to push way too hard to make the tool work.
Koko The Talking Ape
I had a friend tell me that the fastest way to dig lots of little holes in the ground was with a pressure washer. I don’t know what nozzle he used, and I’ve never tried it myself. And you’d have to deal with the hoses, gasoline, etc. But it sounds plausible.
Eric
FWIW PowerPlanter makes some really good stuff. Their auger combined with a DeWalt drill (I use the mud-mixer 60V) works really well.
Caroline
I’m having a tough time with the auger staying in place after digging thru the soil. It keeps falling out even though I’ve secured it .
Big Richard
Craftsman is coming out with a cordless auger – https://www.toolservicenet.com/dewalt/en//CRAFTSMAN/CORDLESS/DRILLS//p/CMCA320C1
It is up on Lowe’s website, but not sure when it will be available. Having a few V20 tools/batteries I may just need to try this out.
MM
That has me scratching my head as to just what its purpose is. From the handle configuration I don’t think that is a very heavy-duty tool, I doubt it could make a hole for a fence post, it looks like it is intended for small holes like gardening or bulbs. But at that point why not put an auger like a Power Planter in a cordless drill? Those have been around for long enough now that there are countless versions in a wide variety of sizes available. Or, if you have a large cordless drill like a stud-and joist model, there are adapters which fit in the drill and mount standard gas-type auger bits. About the only thing I can see is that this tool might have better ergonomics with its grip angle, I can see that it might be more comfortable to use compared to a normal drill if you had to do high volume.
Big Richard
I think it is meant for lighter tasks, like bulb planting, but I also think it could handle a larger heavy duty auger just as well or better than a good drill.
Craftsman calls it a “Multi-Use Garden Tool” and says “Compatible with other CRAFTSMAN specific garden bits (Sold separately)”. The only other accessory they have listed at the moment is a weeding bit – https://www.craftsman.com/product/cmcawa/weeding-bit-accessory?tid=568846
As for why this over a drill, part of it may be to fit existing augers that have that same slip fit tube/sleeve with cotter pin connection as well as developing new accessories specific to this tool. Also, I don’t have any specs on it, but I have to imagine this is lower speed and higher torque than an average drill. Niche tool for sure, and like you said if you already have a drill you may be better off just buying an auger bit.
MM
The pin connection resembles that on the large augers (traditionally gas), but it looks a lot smaller to me. Also the fact that the handles are so close together makes me think that there’s no way it could be used effectively with full-size augers even if it did use the same size connection. Of course this is 100% speculation, but it looks like they have created their own new coupling size for this tool which resembles the full-size gas type but is scaled down for lighter duty use. I’m sure you’re correct that this tool is lower speed and higher torque compared to many drills but I doubt it has anything much to offer compared to a typical 1/2 capacity drill in low range. I’m quite sure a heavy-duty drill like a stud-and-joist or a “mixer” model would outperform it with larger augers, if for no other reason than such a tool has its handgrips much farther apart to provide better control. Even if this Craftsman has super-high-torque gearing the fact that the handles are so close together is going to be the big limiting factor on how big a hole you can dig with it.