Clarke Rotary Soil Sieve CRS400

This is in a different class to a handheld sieve because you do not have to hold the weight of the soil and can devote your strength to the process. Therefore, you can process more soil in one go. The end result is good with plenty of fine soil for planters, pots and topping up raised beds. I have not tried it with compost but have used it extensively to filter stone out of existing soil and it is very good at this. It can also be used to wash pebbles from a pond with a hose as long as the pebbles are not tiny. It’s weakness is that it clogs up quickly if the soil is wet and or particularly heavy or clay. You need to wear a glove because the knob on the top of the Roto arm will blister your palm. I would buy again if I had to but at the moment my six month old example is not showing any wear.

I'd been using a hand sieve to riddle soil into a barrow and the old back didn't like it much. Can't put a price on making life more comfortable, I thought. This looked like it might help. Costs about 3.5 times the price of a decent sieve. Turns out, that's the price of making life more comfortable! For use in the barrow, fire a couple of shovels of soil in, pick out the big stuff, and give it a spin while applying downward pressure. Perfect. Using one hand to steady the riddle, I'm also using it to hold my weight when leaning forward, easing the strain. It's still work, but much less sore afterwards. When emptying the crud, grip the handle and crossbar together with one hand to stop the spindle falling out. I'm very happy with this product in this use case, got more done, more quickly with less effort.

It's strong and sturdy and does the job really well. I'm a short, 57 year old woman and had no problems lifting the sieve to empty stones etc, and our garden is giving up a LOT of stones. It's very easy to assemble with a crosshead screwdriver and spanners, although we did need two different sized spanners 8mm and 10mm, if I remember rightly. I'd recommend wearing some decent gloves if you have a lot of sifting to do so your hands don't get sore. Not surprisingly, dry soil was much easier to sift that wetter soil and it's easier to work with small loads of half the capacity of the sieve, or even less. It does take a bit of effort to operate if you have a lot of soil to process but I swapped hands regularly to even up the work my muscles were doing and definitely didn't need the gym afterwards. I would have liked to have some flat feet on the legs to prevent the legs from sinking into my vegetable beds, but other than that it's a really good basic bit of kit for the price and I recommend it. I do realise these are more hints and tips than a review but I hope they help with your decision.

Nice and strong, has suffered a lot of abuse and still working fine.

I love this sieve! I can’t yet comment on its longevity but on its first use I was able to sieve two full barrows of great quality compost in record time and with minimal effort. It feels sturdy so far and sits comfortably in a standard wheelbarrow. Very happy!

Nifty little thing, you plonk it on a bucket/wheelbarrow/the ground and chuck rough soil in the top and get the good stuff in the bottom. Very simple basic design. Emptying the left over crud out the top is not smooth you just tip the thing upside down. I would say a tiny annoying design flaw/quirk. Not sure if intentional but the handle lifting up when you tip stuff out is irritating. I'll probably pop a second bolt through it to keep it through the sieve section. I also wouldn't complain about bigger legs... It's too low for even a standard builders bucket. But all things I can move past as it does actually do the job I needed it for.

I was looking at this some time ago but came across it again recently. I was in the process of sifting 40l bags of peat free compost and mixing in horticultural grit. After using an ordinary sieve and hurting my back I purchased this. It came in 2 days which was quick and I put a bag through it in about 10 minutes total. This includes mixing the grit as I sieved and another mix after in the wheelbarrow I was using.Then moving the final result and adding it to a grow bag. I have a fair amount of this type of work to do and am very pleased with the results.

First up, on delivery mine came without a rotor arm - the seller was *excellent* and got it sorted super-quickly. I've just sieved about 1m3 of dry compost heap, and it took me about an afternoon. It was pretty tiring, and lifting the sieve to turn it over and chuck out the 'residue' gets pretty boring because you have to put the rotor back in its little hole, and potentially untangle roots and whatnot from it all. Turning the handle is surprisingly hard work if you do it for any length of time. The knob doesn't spin, so you can't grip it and have to let it run through your hand, which is a shame. You absolutely want to spend some time getting your wheelbarrow or whatever to a decent height so you're not bending down to turn it (or lift it). In terms of build quality, the 'clarke' logo seems to be upside down on mine, and the rotor scrapes on the sieve around about a third of a full rotation. None of that seems to make too much difference though. Occasionally you get a twig or something that seems to stick in the sieve holes and completely stop the rotor, but that's rare and can't be avoided. All that said though, it's much faster than a 'manual' sieve. It's also about ten times the price, but it's comfortably worth it. You can get about 1-2 shovels full of soil in it at a time (so loads more than a manual sieve). It's fairly big, but not too big and bulky that it won't go on a shelf in the shed or whatever for several months until I need it again. For the most part the paint work doesn't get any real friction on it, so I don't expect much (or any) to rust any time soon either. There's really not much else to go wrong with it, and there's almost no where that would ever need oiling or whatever.

Quel plaisir à utiliser enfin un tamis qui fonctionne vraiment. Je l’utilise pour tamisée Mon terreau maison. Sur la vidéo on ne le voit pas bien car je me dis qu’une main vu que je tiens le téléphone. Mais c’est vraiment facile à utiliser et le résultat est carrément parfait. Le montage a été plutôt aisé, et la qualité semble rendez-vous

Muy bueno, he tamizado estiércol y tierra sin ningún problema, lo hace a la perfección, muy contento con la compra. La única pega que tardaron mucho en enviármelo, tardaron casi dos meses desde que lo pedí.

Ottimo prodotto ma piccolo, va bene per un po' di compost per qualche vaso, ma per chi come me ha due o tre metri cubi di compost da setacciare è piccolo. Forse potrebbero essere indicate con più enfasi le misure del cestello (400 litri è fuorviante e penso sia un errore, forse 20 litri è più verosimile).

Great for sifting through home made compost

Dieses Gerät habe ich nach Erhalt sofort zusammengebaut und ausprobiert. Ich bin begeistert. Der Kompost wird eingefüllt und mit der Handkurbel gesiebt; das Grobe kommt wieder zum Kompost. Die Kurbel lässt sich leicht drehen. Man kann das Sieb auf dem Hochbeet, Gartenbeet oder im Gewächshaus aufstellen oder in die Schubkarre oder einen Kübel sieben. Das Gartensieb ist gerade für kleinere Gärten gut geeignet, wo ein Durchwurfsieb keinen Platz hat und es ist wesentlich praktischer, weil man schneller damit arbeiten kann. Tolle Erfindung.