Nice little spreader but it has some obvious flaws. Pro: 1) Came with batteries. 2)Can do a decent job of spreading granular material. Cons: 1)Less than 10lbs spread (when set on 3-1/2 or 4) on 4 AA Batteries. Batteries went in at 1.65v, it quits when they are down to 1.46v (remember these are 1.5v batteries!)- obscene usage. 2)Tried with with Barricade and Eagle (medium and small grain products). The angled bottom will not keep the hopper fed unless you tilt the whole machine downwards at a 30 degree angle-which is hard on the wrists. 3) the very small screw holding the battery cover on makes it a PITA to change the batteries; takes several minutes each time.

Having owned several hand cranked spreaders that had shortcomings, I knew exactly what to look for in my quest for a good spreader---if not the perfect spreader should one exist. In the illustration of the Scotts Wizz, the rotating "merry-go-round" which actually spreads the material is spaced generously up from the platform base. It is this generous space which allows the machine to operate freely and without jamming.

Hand-cranked spreaders of this form have a very small space between their wheel and base. Material easily gets jammed in that tight space under the merry-go-round --- and the spreading comes to a grinding halt. This Scotts spreader just keeps whizzing along---all over your yard.

Two things upset me though. First, there appears to be no way to spin the wheel without the door opening. I prefer to have the wheel spinning while I open the door. Second, the battery compartment is secured with a small screw---requiring a screwdriver. There are thousands of examples of battery-powered equipment which have battery covers which do not require any tool with which to gain access or close.

While I feel confident that Scotts will correct both of these deficiencies in the next generation of this tool, I would not want to wait until then to avail myself of using this otherwise excellent tool. After many years of gardening and small scale farming, this is the first spreader I've owned which gets the job done with a minimum of fuss and bother. I believe it is a bargain and I recommend it.

I'm pretty happy with this and wanted to give it 5 stars but there's two minor flaws.

1. The dial selector doesn't translate from the commonly established settings that everyone publishes on their packaging for the larger rotary spreaders. The Wizz does come with a little instruction card to do that but that's annoying to keep around. I've included a picture of that. I wish it was at least printed on the Wizz.

2. I wish it was a little bigger but that's a minor gripe.

Otherwise it's a well made and designed product. I like the built in loop to enable it to be hung up as well as it comes with batteries already installed.

I purchased this spreader to replace an absolute piece of garbage handheld Scotts spreader with a hand crank. Therefore, my expectations were fairly low that this would be of any better quality, considering all of these things are made in China. I was pleasantly surprised. I used it to spread about 15 pounds of insect killer granules. It worked like a charm, and is effortless to use. The batteries come pre-installed. Just pull the plastic tab from the battery compartment, which connects the batteries. Fill it up, set the dial, and pull the trigger. It shot the granules out in a nice spray pattern about 6 feet, which is better than the hand crank model I replaced. Durability is yet to be seen, as I only used it once. However, it looks promising so far.

I've used this with granular fertilizer, insecticide, and fungicide. Spreads evenly every time. I love that I only have to just let it dangle from my hand and go for a brief walk around my yard. No gripping, no cranking. This makes it much easier on my old arthritic hands. And what used to take 40 minutes now takes about 10, including stops to refill the hopper.

My only wish is that it had a lid or cover. Most of the granular lawn products need to be watered in right away, so I like to wait until clouds gather, and spread just before the rain hits. A couple of times, I've gotten caught in the rain before I was done (rain is sudden in Florida!). With no lid over the hopper, this means anything in there turns into a wet sticky mess if it gets wet. I ended up cutting and shaping a plastic cover cannibalized from an old spiral notebook so it fit (sort of) flat over the top of the hopper but under the handle, punched a hole on each side of my makeshift "lid" with a hole punch, and attached it with a mini-bungee cord strung around the bottom of the hopper. Crude but it worked to keep the hopper contents dry next time.

If the hopper had a real lid, it sure would come in handy for those of us who need to spread stuff when it's raining or snowing.