Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I tried to like it, I tried to make it work, really, but sadly, no, just.. no... The first one I had lasted around 4 months, then the inner gears failed. So reluctantly, I decided to buy a replacement. Lo and behold, the moment I turned it on, I heard the same dreaded clicking and popping with a rake that wouldn't move. Fed up, I decided to open the drive unit and see what the problem was. Inside I found the main gear missing a tooth, or rather it wasn't missing, just "relocated" to somewhere it shouldn't be. The pop is when the motor gear runs over a jammed trough, and the stick is when it can't catch the missing tooth. What was jamming the trough? Why the broken tooth of course. AND THIS WAS ON A BRAND-NEW, FRESH OUT OF BOX UNIT! Don't buy this garbage, they use cheap plastic gears that wear out far too prematurely and cannot handle the stresses placed on them by their environment, and when the gear knocks off one tooth, it'll be sure to jam up the rest of the machinery real good... Congratulations Littermaid, you saved a whole $0.02 using plastic over metal for the main gear. I hope the damage to your reputation was worth it when a $0.01 gear destroys a $100 product.