My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

bauney wrote: »

Do many have their mowers out now?
I put mine away in November thinking i was being smart but my grass is fairly long and still growing (albeit slower)

Is there any harm in the grass getting longer that it should be for the mower (even at top height) before it starts out for the new season? i have automower 430x

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I have mine out on a reduced schedule. In the past I have found that the mower has no problem cutting grass taller than the mower itself!! The only downside is that your lawn looks like a mess for the first few cuts as the mower is bending some of the grass rather than cutting it.

KCross wrote: »

Put mine out about 2 weeks ago and let it cut it all at top height and then brought it back in as the temps dropped to freezing again (so the grass stops growing).

It just means it will be a bit easier for the mower later when it has to go back out again and the lawn does look a bit better too.


What height do you normally have the automower at?

I normally cut it at the 2nd highest level (cant remember what number).
I would have left it cutting occasionally except that i extended the lawn last year and that part is horribly wet and spongy. I just walked it there and heard squelching all around, it looks fine from afar but its a mess when u walk on it. i was hoping to stay off it completely until it gets a bit drier but when will that happen. The soil is poor quality and heavily compacted in that the water cannot penetrate well at all. And yes i put in loads of pipes and drainage stone.

On a side note/different post arguably: has anyone done any aerating of their lawns for such issues? this area is about 1000sq meters of heavy compact wet soil.

MCCarthys Macroom Tool Hire sell and install also, Husky.

Roen wrote: »

I'm up and running as of yesterday with my 2017 model 430x, autoconnect module and shiny headlights.
Fingers crossed.

How did the install of the guide wire go? What size lawn? Cheers!

Hi All,

thinking of pulling the pin and buying a Husqvarna 315x in the next few weeks through a local dealer/installer.
I've read on the official website that the batteries need to be replaced every 2-4 years. Has anyone had experience of battery decline and how much are they to replace?

Also, I've put up some fencing to separate the back garden from the front while the kids are small so the fence will have to stay in place for a few years yet. I'll probably have to lift the mower to the back garden which I think i'm fine with.
However, is it easy to adjust the wire so that I can change the route/layout of the lawn in the future?

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

I've read on the official website that the batteries need to be replaced every 2-4 years. Has anyone had experience of battery decline and how much are they to replace?

I've my 330X for 5 years now. Still on its day 1 battery. Still get the same cutting time per charge so I think the 2-4yrs is very pessimistic. Maybe Husqvarna just covering themselves for warranty purposes.

I think the battery replacement is around €200 but dont quote me on that.

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

that's what I'd be worried about....escape to victory!!
Anyone have any ideas of a lawnmower only way of getting from one side of a fence to another?

3 options....
- Physically carry the mower between lawns. Some people do it. It wouldnt be for me. It defeats the purpose of having a robot mower if you have to carry it every few hours between charge sessions.

- Buy an extra charging station and setup the perimeter wire as two separate lawns. You'd still have to carry it between the lawns but at least you could leave it on one lawn for half the week and the other lawn for the other half and it would autonomously do its thing.

- Get kids that are bigger than the mower!
Ultimately if you want the mower to cover the entire area without being physically moved it has to be able to drive itself through whatever gaps you give it. If your child is smaller than that gap there isnt much you can do.

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

would it be possible to have the mower set to mow the back lawn during certain times ie night time where I could leave a gate open for the mower to go through?

Then if I forget to open the gate, the mower bumps into it and continues cutting the front lawn??

Yea, that would work.

It needs to be a bit wider than your average gate though.

Roen wrote: »

By the by, the installer was at a course the day before he called over. A goal of Husqvarna is to do away with boundary and guide wires altogether and have wireless charging by 2022.

Would rely on GPS for boundaries and god knows how it would do wireless charging. Body of the mower is way too high up for inductive charging to take place.

Either way some interesting tech to come in the garden.

irobot are going to do something similar this year, working off GPS and some wireless poles in the garden for accurate positioning, no boundary wire necessary..., Just manually drive around the boundary once and it remembers....

Cyrus wrote: »

shouldnt be that hard the vacuums do it

vacuums have a nice wall to bounce off.

Moreilly wrote: »

The price of these lawnmowers will drop big time when companys like Xiaomi get in on the act, the likes of husqvarna are seriously overpriced , when you look at the tech that's in them. My 250 euro Xiaomi vaccum has more tech, laser mapping, misses nothing, very intelligent in the way it cleans and the routes it takes around the house and doesn't randomly bounce around....at 250 euro.......

Sounds good, can you give a link to that . tia

It's far from new tech !, Take a look at this video, well worth a look https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1000685544647475201?s=19