Puddling is one of the commonly used methods of land preparation and important step for rice cultivation. Puddling affects the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of soils and these characteristics affect the growth of rice. The common method of puddling is conventional tiller which requires long time of soil operations. For rice cultivation, during the shortage of water, flood irrigation is changed to intermittent irrigation and the main problem with intermittent irrigation is development of soil cracks. After irrigation, when soil losses water, the soils in Guilan province crack due to high clay content and cause high deep percolation. In this study, the effects of different puddling methods on hydraulic characteristics and moisture conditions of dominant paddy soil of Guilan province were investigated in laboratory. The treatments were: 1- tillage equipment (T1: conventional tiller, T2: rotary puddler, T3: cone puddler, T4: tractor mounted rotivator), 2- number of puddlings (P1: one time puddling, P2: two times puddling, P3: three times puddling, P4: four times puddling), 3- irrigation (W1: permanent flooding, W2: irrigation after the appearance of small cracks with width of 3 mm, W3: irrigation after appearance of cracks with width of 1 cm , W4: irrigation after appearance of cracks with width of 3 cm). The effects of the above treatments on soil physical characteristics and soil crack properties were investigated during the soil wetting and drying phases. The results showed that the effects of irrigation on soil physical characteristics and soil crack characteristics were significant at 1% level for both soil wetting and drying phases. During the drying phase, as the soil moisture condition changed from W1 to W4, soil compaction and water losses increased and soil moisture decreased and the highest soil compaction was belonged to the W3 treatment. In W4 treatment, soil compaction was lower than W3 treatment because soil shrinkage was lower for the W3 treatment. As number of puddlings increased, soil moisture decreased. During the drying phase, soil bulk density increased from W1 to W3 and the soil water losses increased from P1 to P3 treatments. The highest soil shrinkage and soil expansion was belonged to the T4 treatment. The soil shrinkage decreased from P1 to P3. The highest soil column diameter change was belonged to the P4 treatment. The highest crack length was belonged to the conventional tiller and the tractor mounted rotivator treatments and the lowest crack length was belonged to the P3 treatment. The results of this study showed that the use of two new methods of T2 and T3 treatments (rotary puddler and cone puddler) caused higher soil misture conditions and delayed crack development. These new methods reduce the number of puddlings and consequently lower labor costs. Keywords : Puddling, Tillage equipment, Paddy fields, Intermittent irrigation, Rotary puddler, Cone puddler.