Chapin 82088 82088B 80-Pound Made in USA Commercial Sure Spread Ice Melt Walk Behind Spreader with 360-degree Baffles, Enclosed Gear System and includes Cover and Salt Grate, Blue

Generally, happy with product but have yet to use it. Took a long time to assemble, instructions were poor.Package arrived at my door opened. It’s obvious someone opened the box. Fortunately, no parts went missing or got lost.

I took everything out of the box. It was not packed very well. The two wheels were under the hopper assembly which is packed upside down and then everything else was in a box on top of the bottom of the hopper. Except for the nuts, bolts, small plastic pieces and cotter pins everything was just loose without any wrappings or protection.I took an inventory of the included parts and I noticed that two major sub assemblies were missing. The Gate Controll (C-11) and the Gear Box (c-3). This was disappointing.I called the 800 number on the front of the manual and I reached a customer service representative. I told her a couple of parts were missing. She asked me what parts they were and after i told her she said they would be shipped by UPS 2 business day.I asked her if she would like the inspected by number on the front of the assembly manual and her response was "No, I have no way of knowing who they are"As a manager my self, I would want to know who inspected the box and why there were two major components missing.Since there automated voice mail system has missing parts as a selection and customer service didn't question where I bought it or anything and their apparent lack of concern for product quality, I can only conclude that their manufacturing/shipping quality control is not of a major concern to upper management.The assembly manual is mostly pictures with part numbers that match the part numbers on pages 3 and 4. There is almost no verbiage at all on the assembly part of the manual. Simple cautions and suggestions would be advantageous.The metal pieces seem to be decent and the plastic hopper seems to be thick and durable. I cannot attest to any durability until I have the parts I need to finish the assembly and actualy get to use it.My last one's gear box started to freeze up from corrosion after about 4 years. We will see how long this one lasts.21-Jan-25 Update - I have not received the parts as of yet so I called Chapin and spoke to customer support who gave me the order number and than transferred me to shipping who gave me the tracking number. Here is the timeline (abbreviated) according to UPS.16-Jan I called customer support17-Jan UPS label created21-Jan UPS receives package in Batavia, NY21-Jan Package arrives in Buffalo, NY21-Jan Possible weather delay notification22-Jan Package arrives in East Syracuse, NY23-Jan Package arrives in Buffalo, NY (Again)23-Jan Package leaves Buffalo, NY24-Jan Estimated delivery.I can understand a weather delay. I was promised 2 day delivery and it is entirely possible that it package was shipped UPS 2 day but weather delayed the package. However, since Chapin creates the order and shipping label on 17-Jan (Friday) why did UPS not receive the package until 21-Jan (Tuesday). That means it took Chapin 2 - 3 days to process and pack the order. I would think that missing parts would be a high priority to them to support their customers.I cannot comment on the product because I still don't have all of the parts to put it together. And after 8 days since I received the product and I still can't even put it together, I am a VERY frustrated customer and I will definitely not purchase anything from Chapin again.I will say that their customer support is friendly and helpful but that is useless if their quality control is bad and their response to customer issues is very slow.I cannot recommend products from Chapin Manufacturing due to what appears to be their total lack of concern for the quality of their products.

I was looking for a broadcast spreader that could spread sand as I was attempting to level my lawn and could not locate a Top Dresser with 100 miles of my house. Advertisment claimned it could handle all sorts of heavy media as it was designed to spread rock salt. Unfortunately it didn't do well with sand, or top soild.After the nursury dumped 8 yards of sand on my driveway, I realised that an inch under the surface the sand was damp. damp sand does not go through this spreader. So I spread the sand out over my entire driveway to dry it out. 1 week later ( fortuneatley no rain), it was 100% dry and the spreader worked great.If you need to spread sand, dig deep and buy a Top Dresser and rent it out to your commnity. You'll pay it off in a few months. If you're going to spread Rock Salt, buy this spreader.

Assembly was absolutely brutal. Never again

I bought this for my government job to salt a large sidewalk surface. Installation was easy and the instructions were written well, the cover to protect the ice melt from water came in very useful, and the area of spread for the ice melt is wide and even. The one issue I have is when the ice melt is getting low there is no way to funnel it to the dispensing door. This is more of a design flaw that I don't know how to fix, other than adding more ice melt.It's a great product and aside from that one design flaw works perfectly. Thanks for the product and will recommend purchasing in the future.

I use this to spread salt onto driveways and walkways. I’ve used it a few times this winter and it covers very well.

work well with dry salt and grit but with wet salt need to be help

Works great! Just takes some time to assemble but worth it compared to others!

Only thing I wish this spreader had was a larger agtitator to move the product better. The older design was a bit better at moving the product in the hopper.

I can’t believe I got this for $37 on here. Haha!I had this together in about 45 minutes...adjusted and all. I did have an extra cotter pin and a small washer included. I don’t know if that was supposed to be like that, but I went over the directions 3 times and couldn’t find where they went...I’m not worried. The fertilizer settings are going to take a bit to get used to, but nice thing, Chapin included a conversion chart on the back of the spreader. This thing is built like a tank and seems extremely sturdy. The gear box is VERY heavy, even though it is encased in plastic. The hopper cover seems a bit weak (there were reviews about this ripping) but this for residential use and I will be careful with it I only gave it 4 stars because I haven’t used it yet, but I did roll test it out and it seems very smooth and everything seems to work well.Pros: GOT THIS SUPER CHEAP!!! VERY sturdy. Rolls smooth. Plastic hopper is quite thick. Directions were pretty good (if you can follow diagrams well) and was only about a 45 minute job to put together.Cons: I was expecting the auger inside the hopper to be a cast aluminum or something, but alas it is plastic. We will see how it holds up. The auger blades are pretty small as well...again we will see how it works. The rain cover seems a bit weak, but I’m sure if you’re careful it will be fine. If it rips, I will just purchase another one that fits and is a bit better quality.All in all I am pretty pleased with this, but I haven’t used it yet. And if it doesn’t work as intended, I will just eat the $37 :)***edit***. i upped my rating to 5 stars. i just put down 30lbs of summer in my yard in 15 minutes. spread pattern was VERY wide and even. last little bit of stuff left in the hopper as stated by other reviews, but it wasnt that much and all i had to do was rock it a bit to get it done. deflector shields worked AWESOME! im about to pick up another one just to have...at this price you cant go wrong!!!!!cheers!**edit**well after almost a year, the spreader is not spreading to the left for some reason (no the deflector is not down). i am not sure i would spend $199 on this knowing i would only get a year of use. i may mess with it a bit to see if i can get it working again....or i may just get something else and save this for winter salt. i did get this for $37, so its not a big deal for me....