My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

jod1983

Purchased the Automower 315 this evening:):) Thanks for all the advice. Must have looked at 100 youtube clips on the Automower.
My local dealer took my ride on as a trade in which helped reduce my costs. The only downside is, i have to install myself as he wouldnt be available for about 2 weeks. Im not the most patient!!! He showed me a recent installation he did and it looks fairly straight forward.
So, all going well it should be cutting this time tomorrow evening. Ill post a further update

whippet

cornet wrote: »

If it's a really complicated installation then perhaps it's better getting a professional.

While I wouldn't consider my garden to be overly complicated .. it needed to be routed from front to back through two narrow gaps and we have some awkward flowerbeds etc.

KCross

ED E wrote: »

Whats the story with security? Are there any mitigations for some hi-ace rolling by the gate and deciding "we'll have that"?


The suggestion I'd make (based on old info in the initial few pages of the thread) is if you find yourself checking it regularly to ensure its still going ok you could add an IP camera with motion detection to the area with the base station. That way ever time it took off and returned you could receive an email so even on holidays you'd know if it were in the green.

It has an alarm that goes off if lifted.
It has a PIN code which renders it useless to anyone else.... cold comfort if your mower is gone but at least they cant use it or sell it.

You also have the option of adding a GSM unit to the mower and once it leaves a specific area(as it has GPS already) it will notify you and you can track its whereabouts.

I haven't heard of one being robbed but it is of course possible.

jod1983

And its up and running:D:D:D
Started the install at 5.15 and set the automower on its way at 6.55. Cut for an hour and 5 min and back in for a charge. As said before by everyone, it is surprisingly quite.
The went crazy for the first 15 mins but got bored after that. Now if only the midges would clear off so i can watch the next run!

jod1983

And its up and running:D:D:D
Started the install at 5.15 and set the automower on its way at 6.55. Cut for an hour and 5 min and back in for a charge. As said before by everyone, it is surprisingly quite.
The dogs went crazy for the first 15 mins but got bored after that. Now if only the midges would clear off so i can watch the next run!

Zzippy

jod1983 wrote: »

And its up and running:D:D:D
Started the install at 5.15 and set the automower on its way at 6.55. Cut for an hour and 5 min and back in for a charge. As said before by everyone, it is surprisingly quite.
The dogs went crazy for the first 15 mins but got bored after that. Now if only the midges would clear off so i can watch the next run!

Feckin midges are bad this evening. No wind.

Best of luck with the automower, ya won't look back!

Sysmod

"It has a PIN code which renders it useless to anyone else..."
But if it's in the lawn, running, as would be normal, it can be lifted and placed down elsewhere. As long as you don't turn it off, it'll go on working, won't it?

Do you need the PIN code to get it to recognise a changed guidewire, or if it's moved outside the previously recorded GPS location?

cornet

Sysmod wrote: »

"It has a PIN code which renders it useless to anyone else..."
But if it's in the lawn, running, as would be normal, it can be lifted and placed down elsewhere. As long as you don't turn it off, it'll go on working, won't it?

Do you need the PIN code to get it to recognise a changed guidewire, or if it's moved outside the previously recorded GPS location?

If you lift it or stop it during operation then it will alarm unless you enter the PIN code. You don't need to do it anything if you change a wire or the layout - it learns to map the area as it cuts. Only the top of the range models have GPS.

Sysmod

OK, thanks, cornet, so it'll be unusable practically - unless they know how to turn off or hobble the alarm, in which case as long as it cuts anywhere they won't mind. My question on GPS (Husqvarna 430X) was me wondering if it would stop working if removed offsite. I guess not then. There is an Automower Connect option for 200 euro - a SIM card I presume - which sends its location to your smartphone. Might be cheaper to just include it in the insurance.

KCross

Sysmod wrote: »

My question on GPS (Husqvarna 430X) was me wondering if it would stop working if removed offsite. I guess not then.

If removed offsite the alarm will go off and it won't work anywhere until the PIN is entered. If you enter a wrong PIN it starts to lock you out in ever increasing times so you cant just keep trying every possible PIN.

Sysmod wrote: »

Might be cheaper to just include it in the insurance.

Im not sure an insurance company will cover it. Its not locked up in the house or a garage so I don't think they will cover it from theft. I asked my insurance company at the time and they said no. I didn't try since and maybe others are different but I wouldn't assume you can cover it by house insurance.

jod1983

I checked with my insurance before purchase. They will not cover it for 2 reasons, 1. when its operating you need to be with it!! 2. when its not operating, it needs to be in a locked garage.
Once you lift the automower, the blades stop turning and the alarm goes off until the pin is entered of the battery goes dead. It will not work with another base station until they are paired. If stolen, you are to contact your dealer and it will get blacklisted, a new pairing then is not possible.

Sysmod

I checked with my insurance company and it's the same as jod1983 and KCross report. Hmm. expensive and superficially attractive thing. Even if it won't work that won't stop it (and the base station, that's just a mat & socket connected to an 18V power supply I think) being taken by someone who doesn't know the protection, and then dumps it.

Zzippy

It's a worry alright, opportunistic thieves won't know the mower is useless without the PIN and might take it and dump it. I plan on getting the app and connect module so if it is taken I might be able to track it for a time at least, and at least I'll get an immediate notification if it's removed outside the geofence. Must give the dealer a call actually...

KCross

The hope is that it's not readily sellable so they won't look at it.

And if they do, the alarm will go off when they lift it so that should slow them down.

There is a sticker on it with PIN Protected written on it

And I've CCTV on mine.

Not ideal but I haven't heard of one being stolen, but of course possible. Ride-ons can be robbed too and much more sellable!

Shefwedfan

KCross wrote: »

The hope is that it's not readily sellable so they won't look at it.

And if they do, the alarm will go off when they lift it so that should slow them down.

There is a sticker on it with PIN Protected written on it

And I've CCTV on mine.

Not ideal but I haven't heard of one being stolen, but of course possible. Ride-ons can be robbed too and much more sellable!

People are targeting ride on's and there is a lot been stolen but a ride on can be covered under house insurance. I checked when I bought my ride on and once i had in shed with lock etc it would be covered

As we are seeing with electric cars, as automower become more popular you will start to see them been targeted

Husqvarna just posted on facebook "3 years ago this amount of Automowers would have represented a years worth of sales in Ireland. Today, it wont even fill 50% of the orders we have for May. It's exciting to see such a rapid growth as the benefits of Automower are being realised."

With that amount of Automower been sold there will be a market out there for second hand/stolen units

Zzippy

Shefwedfan wrote: »

People are targeting ride on's and there is a lot been stolen but a ride on can be covered under house insurance. I checked when I bought my ride on and once i had in shed with lock etc it would be covered

As we are seeing with electric cars, as automower become more popular you will start to see them been targeted

Husqvarna just posted on facebook "3 years ago this amount of Automowers would have represented a years worth of sales in Ireland. Today, it wont even fill 50% of the orders we have for May. It's exciting to see such a rapid growth as the benefits of Automower are being realised."

With that amount of Automower been sold there will be a market out there for second hand/stolen units

Second hand yes, where the seller can disclose the PIN code so the machine can actually be used, but buyers will not be able to use a stolen automower without the PIN, so there might not be that much of a market for thieves. Stolen automowers will also be registered on the dealer network, so they cannot be paired with a new charging station, even if they can crack the PIN. There's always a risk, but I don't think they will be stolen to order. It's the opportunistic thief who hops the wall and grabs one not knowing how useful it is I'm more worried about - might be no use to him but even if he dumps it it's still no use to you gone.

Sysmod

What are typical charges for cabling and installation? I see 2900 for husqvarna 430x plus 300 for 500m cabling plus 300 installation.

whippet

Sysmod wrote: »

What are typical charges for cabling and installation? I see 2900 for husqvarna 430x plus 300 for 500m cabling plus 300 installation.

mine was installed including the cabling for €300.

It is in almost two weeks now and already the grass is looking healthier. while there wasn't much growth due to the rare occurrence of sun for a week or so .. the lawn is slowly showing more green than orange.

my lawn was horrific before hand ... moss, thatch and weeds. After clearing as much thatch and moss as possible and giving it a feed before installing the mower.

so far the mower is doing what it says on the tin .. the installer seems to have done a good job in laying the wires routing it through some narrow channels to the three zones. I had it on 24h / 7 for the first week and now it is just doing 2x 6 hour stints daily.

The height is set to 6cm so when the grass recovers a bit i'll drop it a bit lower and fingers.

Its great to have the time now to finish off the grass each weekend .. edging, strimming and tying it up ... before after spending 3+ hours battling with the mower I just had no interest or time in looking after the edges and making it look nice.

While its only been a couple of weeks .. no regrets here and by all accounts on of my neighbours will be putting one in based on the amount of time he spends looking at mine!!

KCross

whippet wrote: »

mine was installed including the cabling for €300.

It is in almost two weeks now and already the grass is looking healthier. while there wasn't much growth due to the rare occurrence of sun for a week or so .. the lawn is slowly showing more green than orange.

my lawn was horrific before hand ... moss, thatch and weeds. After clearing as much thatch and moss as possible and giving it a feed before installing the mower.

so far the mower is doing what it says on the tin .. the installer seems to have done a good job in laying the wires routing it through some narrow channels to the three zones. I had it on 24h / 7 for the first week and now it is just doing 2x 6 hour stints daily.

The height is set to 6cm so when the grass recovers a bit i'll drop it a bit lower and fingers.

Its great to have the time now to finish off the grass each weekend .. edging, strimming and tying it up ... before after spending 3+ hours battling with the mower I just had no interest or time in looking after the edges and making it look nice.

While its only been a couple of weeks .. no regrets here and by all accounts on of my neighbours will be putting one in based on the amount of time he spends looking at mine!!

Since you said you had it out 24/7 for a week I'd take a look at your blades after another week or two as they will obviously have been worked much harder on the initial runout to get the grass down to level.

After that one or two more changes during the summer should do it.

whippet

KCross wrote: »

Since you said you had it out 24/7 for a week I'd take a look at your blades after another week or two as they will obviously have been worked much harder on the initial runout to get the grass down to level.

After that one or two more changes during the summer should do it.

I will do .. plan of giving it a good clean this weekend.

The grass was cut to the bottom before I got it .. as it needed all the moss and thatch taken off so from the outset the automower was only keeping the grass down as opposed to cutting it down to level.

jod1983

Said i give a quick review of the first 13 days with the automower.
My automower 315 is running from 7.00 -19.00 6 days a week for a 800m2 lawn. That seems to the recommendation of the manual.
The one doubt i had was the mowers ability to cut every single bit of the lawn. After the first full days working, i thoroughly walked every m2 of the lawn and found one little piece that didn't get done. I marked this area with a few golf tees just to see if it would get done the following day. That piece was cut by 7.45 the next morning.
One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be tracks after it. Not sure what way to address that.
Another thing, my wife had been away for a week with work when it was installed. She did comment that the grass looked flattened.
In the last few days, the lawn is looking a little yellow in places. On the 15th April, i scarified the lawn followed by a bag of 7-6-16 fertilizer. We didn't get rain then till last Friday. Debating whether i should lightly fertilize again just to green things up abit. The mower setting is at 5.5 which i think is an ok height.
Overall, i am very happy with the automower and would recommend it to anyone.

bauney

Flattened grass? Please keep us informed on this as I have seen just one automower in action and the grass was truly flattened. To me it looked like the grass was just been rolled continuously. Very little actual cutting.
This is a major deciding factor on whether I will actually buy an automower (or autoroller 😖)

jod1983 wrote: »

Said i give a quick review of the first 13 days with the automower.
My automower 315 is running from 7.00 -19.00 6 days a week for a 800m2 lawn. That seems to the recommendation of the manual.
The one doubt i had was the mowers ability to cut every single bit of the lawn. After the first full days working, i thoroughly walked every m2 of the lawn and found one little piece that didn't get done. I marked this area with a few golf tees just to see if it would get done the following day. That piece was cut by 7.45 the next morning.
One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be tracks after it. Not sure what way to address that.
Another thing, my wife had been away for a week with work when it was installed. She did comment that the grass looked flattened.
In the last few days, the lawn is looking a little yellow in places. On the 15th April, i scarified the lawn followed by a bag of 7-6-16 fertilizer. We didn't get rain then till last Friday. Debating whether i should lightly fertilize again just to green things up abit. The mower setting is at 5.5 which i think is an ok height.
Overall, i am very happy with the automower and would recommend it to anyone.

Sysmod

I've cooled off on the idea now as the costs kept rising each time I came closer to what I needed. Add to the 3500 another 200 for the Automower Connect feature which I presume is a SIM to transmit the GPS to your smartphone. I don't know what the monthly/annual mobile rates are for that SIM. Even with the dealer offering to take off the 300 they had just added, it's still too much. I'll stick to petrol at the moment. I'll wait till next year, for the technology to become more popular and so costs come down with economies of scale.

I wish I had started this search earlier this year back when I phoned Husqvarna Ireland to ask about the "Automower Challenge" offer where people get a free automower in return for a youtube video, they said that ended two months ago. Missed it by only two months! On the other hand it does mean that the only videos you see are from people who got them free, which is why boards.ie is much more important for opinions.

KCross

€3500. That's expensive.

What size lawn do you have?

For an average size lawn and install it yourself you should be able to do it for around €2-2.5k

KCross

Sysmod wrote: »

I'll wait till next year, for the technology to become more popular and so costs come down with economies of scale.

I don't think much will change in 1 year. These mowers are around for 10+ years so the tech is well established already.

Based on the prices you've been quoted it sound like prices have gone up as it becomes more popular rather than down.

When I bought mine 3yrs ago the cable was included and now it's a €300 extra for something you have to have. It's like buying a car with no wheels!!!

I'd price around a bit more, including online and install it yourself. You can buy the wire online separately and be sure you buy the right model for your size lawn.

Sysmod

3500 is 2900 for husqvarna 430x plus 300 for 500m cabling plus 300 installation.
I'd rather the installation was done by somebody familiar with the kit.
My lawns are about 2500 m2.

cornet

jod1983 wrote: »

Said i give a quick review of the first 13 days with the automower.
My automower 315 is running from 7.00 -19.00 6 days a week for a 800m2 lawn. That seems to the recommendation of the manual.
...

One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be tracks after it. Not sure what way to address that.
Another thing, my wife had been away for a week with work when it was installed. She did comment that the grass looked flattened.

I think your problem is that it's out too often. Your machine is oversized for your area so does not need to be out 6/7 days per week.

From the manual "The factory setting is that the robotic lawnmower will operate around the clock seven days a week.
If the size of the working area allows it, the quality of the grass can be further improved if it is cut every other day instead of a few hours every day. In addition, the grass benefits from resting completely during at least a three- day period once a month."
I think you should try it at 4 days per week and see how it goes (it will also prolong your battery).

jod1983

cornet wrote: »

I think your problem is that it's out too often. Your machine is oversized for your area so does not need to be out 6/7 days per week.

From the manual "The factory setting is that the robotic lawnmower will operate around the clock seven days a week.
If the size of the working area allows it, the quality of the grass can be further improved if it is cut every other day instead of a few hours every day. In addition, the grass benefits from resting completely during at least a three- day period once a month."
I think you should try it at 4 days per week and see how it goes (it will also prolong your battery).

Thanks Cornet for the advice, have it set now for the same hours but on Sun,Mon,Weds,Fri.
Im also getting the Automower Connect fitted next Saturday by my dealer. More of a security thing than anything else but i am very interested in the GPS assisted mowing. Anyone got any experience of this?

KCross

Sysmod wrote: »

3500 is 2900 for husqvarna 430x plus 300 for 500m cabling plus 300 installation.
I'd rather the installation was done by somebody familiar with the kit.
My lawns are about 2500 m2.

I think I paid something like 2700 for the same mower and cable was included. They have increased the price quite a bit or else that dealer is just riding it!

Fair enough on the installation. Its not that difficult but if you aren't comfortable with it then best to pay for it to ensure it works right.

jod1983 wrote: »

Im also getting the Automower Connect fitted next Saturday by my dealer. More of a security thing than anything else but i am very interested in the GPS assisted mowing. Anyone got any experience of this?

I use the GPS assisted cutting. Works fine.
On the first year it didn't work so well, there was a patch being consistently missed. After a software update it was resolved. Works fine now. It decides where it goes based on an internal map it keeps of your lawn and it records where it has been. There isn't any config of it, you just turn on GPS feature and thats it.

Naturelle1

Hi everyone. I've been looking into the idea of purchasing an automower. I'm currently looking at the Husqvarna 310 and 315 models.

Can somebody tell me the difference between the 310 and 315 which makes one suitable for a 1000m2 lawn and the other for a 1500m2 lawn.

I'm asking this as i don't see any obvious difference between their specs.

Any info is appreciated.