Post Hole Digger Showdown!

A test of a drain spade shovel, post hole digger, hand auger, and Earthquake power auger for the title of Post Hole Champion.

Support and follow me:

#postholes #postholedigger #diggingholes

My downloadable plans:

Some of my most popular videos:

[flooringspecialist]

The only guy on you tube who is really digging a hole just to show the difference, big respect and definitely a like.

[brian-classic]

I can't believe I watched your video all the way to the end. The best hole digging video I've ever watched.

[sciwolf]

A small trick we used to do when I was working on a fence crew, cut a large circle out of an old tarp or a piece of ground fabric, cut out a center hole, like a donut. place that over where you want to use your power auger. And when you drill your hole all the dirt stays on the plastic. Then when you set your post and backfill you just lift up the plastic and it’s like a funnel pushing all the dirt back to around the base of the pole, then lift your little circle up off the top of your pole and voilà cleanup was easy. We had four or five of them in varying sizes. Really came in handy when you’re doing a extremely large fence job.

left a very clean finished looked that the customers appreciated. Especially if they weren’t growing behind us and putting mulch down for a grow bed or something along the fence line.

[markpaterson]

A word of caution using the two handled post hole digger.
Two years ago I was building chicken run and coop, I had 20 holes to dig quite deep, around 3 foot into hard packed clay.
I dug them all and concreted all the poles in 1 day!
Biggest mistake in my life, my shoulders were killing that night and they have never come good since.
After scans it turns out I now have chronic bursitis in them.

A simple hand tool that does a good job but take care of your shoulders folks, you don’t want the constant pain and sleepless nights I now have.

[minoutv]

I think a combination of the hand auger and the post hole digger is great for smaller projects. I have three 36” fence post holes to dig this season, and I’m a senior, so I truly appreciate the effort you made creating this video for us.

[DoyleShadduck]

I have the Seymour Industrial 6 to 8 inch auger, but I paid like $170 bucks for mine during the pandemic. I noticed that they’ve come down substantially to around $130. Where I live in upstate New York it’s mostly sandy soil and this thing is a miracle for digging holes. I’ve already dug 3 shallow wells down to 20 plus feet for hand pumps. Plus I dug another one that I set a sand point in with just pea gravel around it. I didn’t have to pound it in at all.

If you need a shallow well, then the Seymour Industrial is your Huckleberry, it’s fast in sandy loam soil. However be warned that all your neighbors will be asking to use it when they see your new sexy hand pumps!

I’m lucky to be in a good glacial area where most of my rocks are massive sized, some as big as 8 feet tall or more. If you do hit a rock it’ll stop you in your tracks though. Primarily the rocks here are very near the surface and can be removed.

To extend the Seymour to reach down I just add 3/4” inch pipe and couplings to get down around 20 feet or so. With any luck you’ll have a 20 foot hole in around 15 minutes or so. Also, when you get into the water I wrap my auger basket in duct tape to hold the soil because the water makes it harder to get the soil out without it falling out of the auger. Trust me, duct tape is your friend if you want a good deep column of water in your well. It’s slower digging but worth the extra effort to get as deep as you can get. I thought i was the only nut that liked digging holes..lol Great video btw!

[bristolpotman]

This is just what I needed as I've got several posts to set in our allotment here in the U.K. and really had no idea how these tools worked and therefore had a great problem deciding which way to go. I finally plumped for a Draper hand auger after seeing your video and it's a great tool for the job. Thanks so much for posting this . Tom!

[walligator]

Great Video! You helped me decide that all I needed was a post hole digger for a small job I have to do tomorrow. You saved me time, money and a big headache..Thanks!!

[jeffreyernst]

Owned a power auger 35 years ago. Did 80 acres with it. Concept in smooth soil is great. Rocky soil not so much. Tore ligaments in elbow. Took 7 years to heal. Conclusion: few holes = ok. 2 man auger safer. Lots of posts... Get auger or post pounder for skidsteer/tractor. I still use the old standard 2 levered post hole digger in predicament situations. Jeff, WI.

[ronspruill]

I enjoyed watching you dig 4 holes. I only dig 1 or holes a week. I install mailboxes. I was wanting to find out if the manual auger would make it easer. After your demo I think I will stay with the post hole digger and 16 pound iron bar rock buster. These two work in all soils, clay or rocky. Thanks again.

[steven.h]

I ended up with permanent nerve damage in my dominant wrist when my Earthquake grabbed a large root. Can't bench press anymore, no more curling bar, no free weights.. it's hell just turning a door knob. 🤜💥🤛

[robertsleight]

Boring subject but make a lot of sense, u know you’re getting old when u watch a post hole digging video all the way to the end and don’t get bored 😂

[SteampunkSteve]

Nice comparison of the tool options.
My longest day as a Girl Scout Camp Ranger was when I had to rearrange the horse pasture. 87 post hole with a posthole digger. Only hit one rock. That part of Michigan is all sand

[michaeljames]

Thanks for taking the time to make this Video.. I am building a Shelter and didnt know which Post Hole Digger to use... Now I have my Answer, , I think I will buy the Hand Auger for what I need it for.... Thanks again...

[Charliemmafan]

Great review and showing how everything works including their pluses and minuses, regarding the post hole digger I noticed if I dig a hole more than about 2 ft or 2 and 1/2 ft I literally can't open the 2 handles at the top to actually squeeze the dirt at the bottom of the holes to pull it out because the sides of the handles will actually hit the inside of the top of the hole when I'm trying to dig deep holes that are like 3 ft deep or 3.5 feet deep for example and trying to actually get the dirt out so the post hole digger works great if you have a shallow hole to help dig the hole and especially pull the dirt out like if I use my Harbor Freight Earth Auger to make a hole which is what I use primarily on most holes to actually dig the holes and I use an 8 in auger bit instead of the 6 in one that it came with because the one that it came with is just so much more narrow and a lot shorter at only 22" compared to 31" long on the 8" bit but you can also buy the extender arm thing that will help you dig a hole much deeper but sometimes there's a lot of dirt at the bottom of the holes so I try to use the post hole digger to remove the dirt from the bottom of the holes but then if the holes are deep I can't even get the dirt out with the post hole digger really just because of how they're made because when you try to squeeze the dirt the handles hit the insides of the hole so that's a problem and a shovel can't even get it out either often so there's this certain specific type of a shovel that's made for removing dirt or sand or whatever from the bottom of a hole that angles up more at the bottom that costs like $30 that I might buy from Home Depot only online but it's a little bit pricey but I think it's worth trying it for deep holes that have a lot of dirt and or sand at the bottom of them to remove that material so that I can put my posts in deeper than normal on my fence that I'm building but great video and thanks for showing how these different hole makers work because people need this type of information because if anyone's going to build any fence or anything beyond just a couple holes they need to know this type of information and how all these things work for sure and yeah if there's a lot of rocks in the ground for sure your earth auger will automatically stop working great and cease to function so that's when a shovel is needed and the other straight rock breaker thing like you have on the video are necessary and it will take a lot more physical work to try to break up and remove the rocks but when you have a lot of rocks in your ground or your hole it's going to take you much longer to dig holes and especially if you have a lot of them and you're going to need shovels and the other bar thing for sure but great video!

[markgriffin]

I like the power auger. I usually use it with another pair of hands. My wife and I are a pretty good team. I agree, I bring everything to the job site.

[charlescooper]

Very surprised to find that someone performed an experiment to demonstrate the different methods of digging post holes. Thank you so much! I only need to dig a few holes to replace old posts that have decayed over time. Other than hiring someone I wasnt really sure what I should do. Thanks again.

[jeremyhenderson]

I was actually looking for design ideas for a diy earth auger for the diy 3 point hitch I built for my 2002-2003 Stanley GT when I stumbled upon your video, :) and your demonstration provided A LOT MORE helpful information than I would have received from any 1 "diy 3 point earth auger" would have. :) Thank you so much; I've got an idea that combines the concepts of the power auger, the hand auger, and the manual well version of the hand auger. Post hole diggers have always been my go-to for holes. I had 2 OLD sets my great great grandpa bought in his time and they are beasts, :) I have the upper body to prove it. Lol they are made out of 1/8" steel and are pretty heavy compared to modern post hole diggers. The bolt broke in 1 set last year and I put off replacing it because I still had the other set, but then decided not to replace the bolt because I discovered that a half of a post hole digger was the perfect companion tool for a complete set. The half is perfect for shimming the sided of the bottom of the hole in order to get the post hole diggers deeper (and lighter than a whole set.). Just my take.

[jethrom]

I needed to know more about the Seymour hand auger. I loved how you described the challenge of each with rocks and roots, the bane of my existence. I did six holes with a sharpshooter and a post hole digger. I paced myself. Chopped the roots with the shovel and brought up dirt with the post hole digger. I could see how the power auger required so much lower back when bringing it up, great video. I want to add the Seymour hand auger to my toolset, not so much the power auger. Thank you so much!!!

[CoCotheTurtle]

Waiting for Part II: The Post Show Digger Hoedown, haha! Would like to have seen what the working end of the hand auger and the rock bar looked like. As you noted with the post hole digger, _you_ supply all the power. So the comment at the end about how that tool cuts through the roots and rocks... well, that is _you_ (or me) doing all the work. Machine auger 100% for me!