When Julie asked if I would like to review the Scotts® Snap® Spreader System and Snap-Pac fertilizer, I told her I would be glad to. I love having a nice yard to show off to everyone. Mowing is one of my favorite things to do around the house, although I don’t like to weed-eat. Taking care of my lawn and making it look its best makes me feel like I have accomplished something. Conventional spreaders are convenient but can be a hassle. There are lots of steps before you’re ready: lugging around the large bags, having to cut them open, pour the contents into the spreader, read the instructions on the bag to know what setting to put the spreader on, and finally setting the spreader to the correct settings. After doing all this, you are finally ready to start fertilizing. Enter Scotts newest foray into turning your yard into a beautiful masterpiece. The Scotts Snap Lawn Care System Snap Spreader takes all the guesswork out of having a beautiful yard.
With Scotts’ newest design, you can just Snap, Lock and Go…
Comparison of the new Snap-Pac bag to the older style bag…. Notice the handle holes on the Snap-Pac bag for ease of handling and placing in the Snap Spreader.
Getting started is actually quite easy, after unpacking the Spreader from the box it came in, taking off all the cardboard, unfolding the handle and locking it into place with the thumbscrew on the side of the handle, the Spreader is ready to receive the Snap-Pac bag.
You simply place the Snap-Pac bag down into the Snap Spreader. You will see on the front of the Snap Spreader is a little lever; after placing the Snap-Pac bag into the Snap Spreader, simply push the lever into the locked position and the Snap Spreader is ready to go. You don’t have to worry about setting anything. The spreading rate is automatically set for you. 
You will notice on the bottom of the Snap-Pac bag there is a oblong opening with a plastic bushing. On the Snap Spreader, there is a a similiar setup, but instead of a plastic bushing there is a plastic shaft that inter-locks with the bushing on the Snap-Pac bag.
After placing the Snap-Pac bag in place, you are ready to fertilize. As with all spreaders, there is a lever that activates the system. There is a some resistance on the lever. I wasn’t sure if I was doing something right, but after a little more pressure we were able to get the lever to work. When you pull the lever, it engages the plastic shaft and slides it over to open the Snap-Pac bag.
After pulling the lever up, just start walking at a normal pace. Pushing the Snap Spreader around the yard engages the rotary spreader, which throws the fertilizer around your yard. Keep a steady pace of walking, not too fast but a slow pace, and the fertilizer spreads evenly. The large wheels on the Snap spreader are nice; they allow you to effortlessly go over your yard.
I had my mother try this spreader so I could take some pics. She enjoyed the ease of the Snap spreader and had fun walking around and fertilizing her yard. The Snap spreader works great. I wish the Snap-Pac bags would cover more area, but I’m not sure they could make the bags larger. If you have a large yard, just make sure you have purchased enough Snap-Pac bags to cover your yard. When the Snap-Pac bag runs out, just slide lever over to unlock, remove empty bag, place a new bag in, lock it back in place, and you are ready to continue. Doesn’t get any easier. 
The Snap spreader also has a edge guard to keep the fertilizer out of your flower gardens. Just pull the lever down to engage the edge guard; when you are away from the flower garden, just pull the lever back up. All this can be done without having to stop – nice feature and easy to do.
One thing I noticed on the Snap Spreader that I received is that the lever didn’t go back down; it was stuck in the open position. I was able to remedy this by pushing the plastic shaft back over to its original position. The first picture shows the shaft in the open position; the second shows the shaft pushed back over by hand. This is a slight annoyance and I’m not sure why it is doing this, but just releasing the lever did not let the shaft go back to its original position to accept a new Snap-Pac bag.
Once finished with fertilizing, removal is just the opposite – slide lever to unlocked position, pull the bag out, and fold the handle down for easy storage. Then just toss the empty Snap-Pac bag into your garbage for quick disposal….
I would definitely recommend the Scotts Snap Lawn Care System to anyone. The ease of this system with no guess work makes it a great spreader to have around. No more large bags of fertilizer to haul around, and no more setting the spreader to different settings.. I like this system. And you can purchase more than just fertilizer for the Scott Snap Spreader. There are bags of seeds and weed killers also available in Snap-Pac bags.
For even more info, check out Snap Perks on Facebook.
Product Information
| Price: | About $50 for the Spreader; about $14 to $27 for Snap-Pac bags, depending on the product |
| Manufacturer: | Scotts |
| Retailer: | Various hardware stores and other retailers |
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Concern: I have noticed that the bags of fertilizer can become suffused with lumps. With a normal system you can beat/drop the bag and use a length of 2×4 to break up the chunks in the spreader but would question whether this can be done to the bag here without damaging the coupling.
I have never tried this system but is it *really* hard to cut a bag open and drop the content of it in a normal spreader? This thing only uses more plastic to make the bags, more parts that will stop working … and the settings. IF you get a bag (fertilizer, seeds, etc) that has the setting for your spreader, you are done. Buying this system makes you the sole client of Scotts.
On another note, I always wonder why the instructions on the bags (fertilizer, insecticide, etc) don’t say something like set your spreader to 30% open or 80% open or something not 3.5 for Scotts hand spreader, 4.5 for Scotts edge guard spreader etc.
Vlad
Those were my initial thoughts. The biggest advantage of NOT using this system is the flexibility of using any brand fertilizer. I would argue cutting open a bag and dumping it into the hopper of a spreader is not difficult at all as long as you can operate a knife/scissors and lift. Also, any decent spreader will correlate the spread rate to the settings on the spreader. The spread rate on the bag is simple: weight of bag of fertilizer divided by the amount of coverage the bag is suppose to cover, then look that up to determine the settings.
This snap pac seems like a marketing gimmick more than adding value.
Interesting. I wonder if you can buy just one bag and refill it with cheaper bags. I agree with Vlad, unless you can recycle the bags its hard to say this is a cost effective way to fertilize your lawn. I see bags of Fertilizer for 10 bucks at Costco so keeping the same setup with your regular spreader will save more money then this. Its just a ploy to get you to stick to one brand only.
Steven I found it easy to cut open the top of the snap pack bag and fill it with fertilizer from a regular bag. The trouble that I had was the regular bag had been open in the garage for a while. So I had some small clumps of fertilizer clog up the snap pack opening before it reached the spreading device. So any fertilizer you add to the snap bag has to be clump free. That’s why the Snap bag is sealed. Charlie
This product is the biggest rip-off ever invented. A TOTAL FAILURE for Scotts. Don’t buy this because they will discontinue these bags and spreader very soon. Nobody is stupid enough to buy any of these at the retailers and they are already giving them away. The lawn in their commercials would take multiple Snap bags to feed. Stay away from this!!!
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction- this product has all the marks of April Fools, but I actually saw one in stores.
What were they thinking? I don’t think anyone needs a more expensive, lower quality spreader, with completely proprietary products. The shear nonsense of it is almost laughable- thousands of these things will end up tossed after only a season or two.
I generally like Scotts products, but it seems as if they sat around a table trying to come up with a product that would make them seem even less environmentally friendly and even more expensive for commodity products.
Two words: Proprietary connector!
I bought one of these systems and think it is a great idea. My yard is about 3500sq ft and the 4000sq ft bags is just the correct size. All old style bags were 5k or bigger. The giving it away quote above is misleading as these are promotions at the retailers like were I bought mine. I agree it would be nice to have an option to refill the bag.
I am a merchandise/counselor for Scotts.
I have been in the green industry for over 33 years.
The snap system is set up for small yards 4,000 yds and under.
However, you can use multiple bags for larger yards or cut a slit in the bag and add more from a larger bag etc.
I’m sure the Scotts Company are reading these comments with the closest scrutiny for improvements.
A refillable, zip lock bag would be a good addition.
In my opinion the spreader is great for a number of reasons:
1) Ease of use e.g.: material, settings, size
2) Compact size and storage
3) Clean storage of material
4) No spill system
The clients that have purchased these have been very satisfied.
why is applying chemicals wearing sandals
They keep discounting the spreaders and giving bags away with a purchase of a few bags but no customers are buying them. What a waste of space for the retailers giving them prime space to sell 3 to 5 a week. What about when you want to lime or use a non Scotts product. Why pay more for less product 4000 sq feet for more money then the regular 5000 sq feet already overpriced products
I did get the spreader free from Home Depot by buying 2 bags of product. Yes, the bags are a little smaller but are large enough from our yard. The ease of use is wonderful!!!! The bags can be refilled – just use a funnel and flip open the hole in the bottom. (Worked fine for me.) I can’t guarantee the product will be spread at an extremely accurate rate since consistency may be different. I do fear the product could be discontinued at some point in time, so I will save a few empty bags to prolong the useability of the spreader. Yeah – it’s a bit of effort, but it only takes 5-10 minutes to do our 4000sq ft yard with no mess!
I just want to add that yesterday at Walmart Scotts has a new feeder that takes regular bags of fertilizer and has every feature that this system has. Like the edge guard, adjustable controls and only cost 30.
This is the nearly the same concept that was designed and developed by the Corporate Design Center, Worthington, Oh in 1987 and test marketed by Scotts in 1987-88. It was a great idea then and was recieved very well in the test market. I’m amazed that they sat on the concept for 25 years and that Scotts could get a utility patent on this (good lawyers?). Not a novel idea but still a good one.
These Snap bags are NOT designed to be refilled (defeats the whole idea of the system). The Snap granules are specifically designed to work only with the Snap system so you can’t use, say, Scotts Turf Builder (think crushed pepper granules) in a Snap since the Snap system is designed to work only with a specially designed simple mix (think uncrushed pepper) in order to get the correct flow rate. The Snap system is unique and could work OK for some consumers with small yards since it’s very simple to use but refilling the bags defeats the purpose. For most consumers, it’s probably better to use a traditional spreader, dial in the spreader setting (easy), dump in the amount of fertilizer you need (not too tough) and go.
Being a home owner, with backyard lawn, for three seasons, only, – so far,I have been looking over the different ways to feed the lawn.I don’t have the time to test every available system, so when I saw the Snap spreader, I didn’t mind the high price. I have the bags ready to run, watching the weather forecast, to apply as directed. I like the enclosed bag, when it starts to rain, and the crystals do not get wet, when I’m catching up with fertilizing my back yard on the last minute. That was the case when Sandy ran us over.
I have a Snap spreader and while it has its pros and cons, I purchased it mainly for the the size and the the heighth of the handle. Most spreaders I have used are far too low for me to walk behind for very long. For things like fire ant bait, I simply cut open the top of the one Snap bag I purchased and fill it with the kind that I prefer. It worked fine. But for other weed control that is not the Scott brand, I have a difficult time knowing the spread rate. I may have to revert to a conventional broadcast spreader, if I can’t figure out a comparison on spread rates.
purchased the snap on spreader and a bag of fertilizer. I cannot use it on my lawn. Did the front lawn and now have three patches that are burned from a large drop on fertilizer when the spreader got hung in a dip in the lawn. To use it you need a smooth lawn, which no one has in this neighborhood. Will put it in the next garage sale. Sorry I bought it.
I just used my system today to lay down the grubex. My recommendation is that you only consider utilizing this system for the chemical applications where the overlap is not critical and one has no risk of the burnt lawn situations that are very likely with the fertilizer products as noted B. Bennett’s 4/30/14 post. I experienced a number of cases today where the product was dumped in a large qty at a start on an incline.