Just wanted to post some thoughts on my experience using the 'Weed
Hound' tool available at Home Depot:

The tool is fairly fast, but in my experience has done a worse job of
getting roots than just using a regular spade. I am inclined to think
that this has to do with my soil type and the size of the dandelions.
This tool probably works better in drier, sandier conditions, while my
lawn has a heavy wet clay content. Also, the dandelions I need to get
rid of have been growing untamed for upwards of 3 years, so they are
mostly multi-sprout jungles looking like a pile of greenish-purple
worms coming from a central node. The Weed Hound just can't pull
these monster dandelions up - it instead tears them apart into messy
chunks. It did seem to work a little better on smaller dandelions
(one sprouters or beginning spawns). I only got two plants up with
roots intact and they were both fairly small ones.

I've also found that it isn't always best to slam the Weed Hound down
all the way and as hard as you can. When you go all the way, the ends
of the nails meet and can clip off the root rather than grab it. If
you instead push most of the way down then pull up, you can sometimes
pull more of the root up and snap it by pulling pressure rather than
simply cutting it off about an inch below the ground.

Popping the dandelion/weed out the end of the Weed Hound isn't totally
an easy thing either... I think this has to do with my wet clay dirt
too. When you pull something out of the ground you have to push the
big knob at the top to 'pop' the weed out. But if you've pulled wet
dirt up with the weed (as I often do) you need to pop that out, and it
requires a blunt punch with the palm of your hand or you can turn the
whole thing upside down and slam it into the ground. Hitting it with
your hand hundreds of time can take a toll... and turning it upside
down all the time gets old too. But maybe in drier, sandier
conditions this isn't such an issue.

In general, I don't think the Weed Hound is a working solution to huge
dandelions in wet clay soil. Maybe that's obvious, but I thought I'd
post my comments since everything else I've read about the Hound say
it works great but don't go into details about soil types, plant
sizes, etc.

Any thought? Comments?