I review these products during tasks I personally carry out within my garden on a regular basis. Using the right product or tool for the job makes the difference of doing it the easy way or the hard way, so I really value a product which can make my life easier.

I am hoping that garden related companies will send me ‘products’ to test and evaluate. However I must stress that I will not be anything but fair and make no promises to these companies other than to tell the truth. Many of the products here are what I have already purchased for my own gardening use and are happy with.
You may ask, what are your qualifications? Well Judy and I opened our garden through the ‘Australia's Open Gardens’ for
10 years. We now open to support a specific charity.
We had our 18th Open Garden in 2019.
We won Gardening Australia’s 2009 ‘Golden Trowel’, have appeared on the ‘Garden Guru’s and ‘Gardening Australia’ twice and on various other television shows. We have given over 200 presentations to garden clubs on Sub tropical gardening and open our garden for bus tours. What is more important is that we have learnt from our gardening mistakes.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Stanley Wheelbarrow

My good old rugged Kelso wheelbarrow ended it's life about two months ago after years of really hard work.
What a wonderful rugged and reliable barrow.
Why did I not get another Kelso?
I was stupid, thought more about cost than quality and went to Bunnings and bought a Stanley Wheelbarrow.
To start off with all the nuts and bolts needed tightening and the bearings needed greasing.
Then when I started to use the barrow to cart garden soil it was nowhere as easy as the Kelso to push, also it creaks and groans and is unstable.
I did a bit of concreting the other day and with only six shovel loads of mixed cement the barrow bin started to go out of shape and almost collapsed on me.

As you can see all the nuts and bolts have started to fall off, makes you wonder why they did not put on spring washers, now I have to go and buy new bolt's nut's and washers, not happy.
How cheap and shoddy is this.
I wish I had kept my Bunning's receipt then I could of taken it back and changed it to a better one.
I absolutely hate this wheelbarrow but will keep it as it will only last a couple of years (if I am lucky), then I will get a good, one not cheap Chinese rubbish.
To make matters worse the inner tube split, so that was another $20 dollars for a new tube, not to mention the hassle of putting it in.
Sorry about this Mr Stanley but it's not a good product, in fact it's a load of cheap rubbish.
As of December 2013 over 2000 people have read this post.
http://ianjudy.blogspot.com.au/

12 comments:

  1. Hey Ian,

    My name is John, and my background is as a structural landscaper. Started working on a project at my brothers place in Kingston Qld, and after searching 'tropical gardens Qld' your site came up first. There's a lot to go thru!

    I saw that you will have an open garden day in November and would love to come and see your incredible garden.

    But... oddly, the main reason I was motivated to contact you was the review on the Stanley wheelbarrow! haha I thought I was the only one with a dud.

    My brother bought his from Bunnings too, and they arent exactly cheap in comparison to others, and with the Stanley branding, we assumed they'd be decent enough. Bearing in mind that the barrow wasnt ever likely to be subject to 'commercial' use.

    Bollocks. Like you, we also experienced the whole structure starting to weaken, resulting in that god-awful 'wobbly' sensation that seems unfixable. I actually suggested to my brother that we tack weld the crucial elements, but by that time he had started to hate the barrow with a passion and simply couldnt be arsed.
    He had a half-barrow load of large river rock (100mm?) and when he went to tip it forward, the load took out about 250mm of the front of the poly tray! I have since used it to mix mud/mortar and the tray just worsens with each mix. Ive not seen a poly tray so thin, so rubbish. I am a fan of poly over steel too.

    The crowning moment came last week when I had 3 x 20kg bags of colour hardener in it, on level ground, and it 'decided' to tip over sideways. As a result I have a badly grazed and bruised calf muscle, a stained patch of now black grass and permanent blackening of the inside of my boots, meaning that no matter how careful I am...there will always be black oxide EVERYWHERE! haha
    If I wasn't as environmentally responsible as I am, I would gladly grab a few beers and sit down to watch the ceremonial burning of that useless POS!

    Like you, we don't have the receipt either, but your tale has motivated me to contact Stanley and have a whinge. If I get anywhere, I will let you know mate.

    Regards,
    John Faulkner

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  2. Hello I was online checking feedback on the Stanley wheel barrow and found your site

    I too have had hassles with my Stanley as mentioned I had to tighten all the bolts, unlike previous chap I had spring washes and washers included but they are thin cheap metal and meant for lighter non weight bearing items like an ironing board
    The tray has holes caused by rust I had to get the wire brush and welder out I have just finished repainting the tray and replaced the rusted out thin washes with heavier duty washes
    The wheel barrow is only 2 years old and only used for domestic duties
    Stanley quality has gone down hill over the years from a reputable brand making good tools and you know the rest
    I will never buy a Stanley product ever again.

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  3. Hi everybody, I have a Stanley wheelbarrow too and had problems with the nuts and bolts rusting then falling off so i have replaced them with 316 stainless steel only costing me 30 dollars . Also i have sanded and sprayed my barrow yellow and red . It now looks fantastic , toooo good to use. The wife though is not so happy . Regards MAD DOG MARK .PS I now have to go buy another wheelbarrow for the dirty work as i don,t want to scrath mine .

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  4. I also bought a Stanley wheelbarrow had to tighten all the nuts and bolts, the tyre worked loose and after two days of use the tub cracked straight through the middle. Lucky I kept the receipt so I could get my money back and buy a kelso.

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  5. Hi, I also bought a Stanley and I cannot work out how to inflate the tyre as it has gone down. Not as easy as I thought. Any suggestions? Apart from throwing it on the tip....thx

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  6. MIne too. I bought the Stanley over the cheaper brands from Bunnings as I thought it would be a quality product. You should be ashamed Stanley. Within two weeks the poly tray had split open from carrying some rocks and tipping them out. I patched it ....with metal. Now after 3 months the tyres tube is gone. Not punctured just split and I can't find where to buy a replacement tube. A really poor customer experience.

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  7. Glad I read this as I was looking at this particular wheelbarrow. So does anybody recommend a better one for me to get

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  8. Lucky enough to have a split tube to try and fix after 6 months. Rubbish wheelbarrow

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  9. What wheelbarrow do you recommend? Or what was the Kelso wheelbarrow you had previously? Cheers, Jade

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  10. The powder coating wore off the front of the tray of my Stanley wheelbarrow after carting 20 loads of concrete from the mixer to the job. As there is no galv beneath the powder coat rust has formed.

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  11. Had all the above problems including tyre continuously going flat even after replacing tube.
    Never buy anything with stanley brand again.
    Jimmah

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  12. Just incase anybody has forgotten... This wheelbarrow isn't worth crapping in - it would surely tip over.

    The bugger of a thing is so unstable even with a minimal load on board. You really need to concentrate on your stance and grip. You can't go slow either, she'll tip. If Stanley ever expand into making motorbikes, I would love to watch somebody ride one.

    Hearing the experiences of others with the poly tub, I don't feel quite so stupid having gone with the steel tub version, as mine has held up reasonably well.

    But stupid enough to deserve the dunce cap I'm wearing, as did all those who stood before me.

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