My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

I got the Segway Navimow X3 for a difficult U shaped garden (extremely hilly, bumpy, plenty of interruptions (rockery, trampoline, trees etc) and I love it, it doesn't require a wire and for the first few days needed some calibration (fine tuning boundaries, changing mowing direction to avoid it stuck on raised boundaries etc) but since then it works without interruption and the grass looks amazing

they need to be able to swing, otherwise it will be under more pressure when it hits the grass as there will be no give.

I bet the mower is “groaning” more when it hits high grass and having to work harder and hence battery being hit too.

Hi guys,

I got a Segway Navimow x330 a few weeks ago. Delighted with it so far.

I've a couple of general robot questions for those more in the know.

1. Optimal cutting height? The Segway can be set to cut at any height in the range of 20mm to 70mm. I've had it set to 55mm so far. I'm wondering is that a bit too low, or do people cut even lower than this? It's definitely a bit lower than my push mower was cutting it at. My one concern is that the lawn is definitely suffering with more "brown patching" than it was this time last year and I wonder if cutting it too short is contributing to that?
2. At the moment, I have my 2 front-lawn sections setup as isolated zones, i.e. I have to carry the mower to them. Not ideal but it's only a minor inconvenience for the moment! Before I do anything permanent like dropping kerbs or putting in any permanent ramps I was thinking of just getting some temporary ramps and experimenting with different positions. Can anyone recommend a place to get ramps to fit the bill? My kerbs are low-ish (barely 3 inch high). Anything I see on Amazon or the likes seems more suited to much higher kerbs. My kerbs are also "slanted back" or wedge-shaped if that makes sense, so sticking a rubber ramp in front of them will likely leave a gap between the kerb and the ramp for the mower's wheels to get stuck in… if that makes sense.

@JoeA3 I cut mine at 50mm. I can get some browning during a dry spell but nothing of any concern. Grass looks great at that height.

Re the ramp, if it were me, I would just make up something myself from anything suitable.

Apppreciate any help. Thank you.

Here is the gravel:

Thank you, seems like this will do the job and is much quicker than the Luba Mini?

Very tempting.

Its both a good and a bad time to be considering a robot mower. You will get a deal price, but this space is very fast moving technology-wise. There will be new models and features launching next season that you might be disappointed to miss out on if you take the plunge now.

To answer your question though Luba 3000 will easily cover that and should be able to navigate crossing the gravel. its small enough that it would have it cut in a few hours. Locate the RTK high (outside, with a full 360 degree view of the sky, not in the attic) and it will be fine.

How quick it completes the lawn is a big factor in my opinion, especially with Irelands weather. I had a segway H3000e for 3 years and it used to take 14 to 15 hours depending on weather to fully complete my lawn. I now have a segway 330x which takes about 6 or 7 again depending on weather and dampness of grass.

All robots leave a much nicer finish on dry grass. When the grass is wet all models leave clumps of grass unless you are constantly cleaning wheels etc, which defeats the point of auto mowing.

With the H3000e I used to have to start the cutting process at 6am when the grass is nearly always wet and it wouldnt finish until 9 or 10pm

Huge advantage now sending the 330x out at 11 and its finished by 5 or 6.

Wet grass also slows down the robot

How far into the Autumn/Winter do you guys let the robot keep on working? Right into December? It is difficult enough to tell if the lawn is still growing when the robot is out every 2nd day keeping it trimmed. Or would it be an idea at this stage to reduce the frequency of mowing gradually?

Sorry if I've missed this in past posts but I'm looking for a recommendation for a robot mower that will handle a 15m long bank about 1.5m high with a slope of about 40 degrees. The rest of the lawn is flat and not huge taking about 20 minutes to cut with a 19inch mower.

I plan to do my own research but hoped someone here might give me an idea on where to start or if not to bother.

Thanks for the recommendation that looks like a good place to start.

From the spec sheet and google it does roughly a 27 degree slope (A 50% slope corresponds to an angle of approximately 26.57 degrees).

This a recommendation for someone to buy one as a present for their husband. I know the garden well but need to pop in and do a ninja reconnoiter with a inclinometer (angle gauge and a spirit level). My best guess is a 30 degree slope but looking a machines that will do more just in case. I think the lawn size is far to small for the X330.

The problem isn't cutting the main lawn by hand its the bank that makes the whole thing much more of a chore than it needs to be.

Looking to replace a 10 year old Robomow that's ready to be retired. I tried a patkside 1000sq meter version and added a 6ah battery but its just not up to the task.

Does anyone own or know anything about the Dreame A1? It seems like a good price at around €1k. It uses LIDAR instead of RTK,.is that a good or a bad thing?