My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

prospect · 20-05-2014 11:15am #1

Preface:

I do not sell these machines, nor am I in any way related or affiliated with anyone who does.
Also, I am not trying to convince anyone that they should/should not purchase one, or that these are a better/worse alternative to the other lawn mowing machines available on the market.
I have contacted a moderator of the gardening forum in relation to this thread and received their permission to go ahead.

So, what is this thread about?

I have spent a good while researching autonomous (robotic) lawn mowers and this week I have purchased one (awaiting delivery). I am pretty satisfied that there is an element of gambling with this investment and am fully prepared to accept the consequences, i.e. whether it proves to be a successful purchase or an unsuccessful one.

I will try to be as impartial and honest as I can, detailing all the positive, neutral and negative experiences I have. Hopefully, anyone considering purchasing a robot lawnmower in the future will find information posted by an actual user/owner to be a useful aid.

prospect · 20-05-2014 11:45am

Deciding to purchase a robot mower.

Truth be told, I actually first considered a robot mower in 2003, the year we designed our home & garden. I say this because I deliberately planned our lawn as one single area that wrapped around two sides of the house. Also, when landscaping I resisted the temptation to have lots of trees, shrubs and beds within the lawn. At that time, my initial research suggested that robot mowers were more suited to large single lawns and the fewer ‘obstacles’ the better.

More recent investigation suggests that modern robot mowers can handle multiple lawns (zones) and obstacles. But this is according to the manufactures sales literature.

So, now I have a lawn which is circa 1000sqm. There is one large-ish shrub bed within it and one tree. I also have a ride-on mower.

During peak growing season I would spend a minimum of 45 minutes twice a week cutting the lawn. If I missed a cut or two (working late, holidays etc) then the cutting time increased accordingly. To some people that is not a lot of time, but to me it is. I have no interest in getting into a debate about laziness etc, but different people have differing amounts of free time and value it accordingly. So in my case, time is the single most significant driver behind this purchase.

As I mentioned, I have a ride-on mower, and I am keeping this. I have the ride-on since 2006 and it owes me nothing. I also find it useful for other tasks like scarifying and towing. Also, there is a strip of grass outside our fence and some grass paths through some ‘woodland’ areas of the garden which will not be cut by the robot mower, so I need a second mower of some description.

looksee · 20-05-2014 2:04pm

Interesting idea, can you give some sort of ball-park figure of what one of these robotic mowers costs? Also does it roll around randomly or how does it work? Presumably the grass is left on the lawn?

?Cee?view · 20-05-2014 2:28pm

Prospect,

For my point of view, you couldn't have timed this better. Many thanks!

I have an old "garden" which hasn't been cared for in over 20 years. It's completely overgrown and even if cleared back it's full of paths and walls which made sense when a full time gardener was employed but are completely impractical now.

I just this morning spoke with a landscaper who is bringing a guy with a digger at the weekend to see about clearing the whole lot. He reckons, with a machine, it'll take a few days to do it.

When all is done I intend to have one main lawn of approximately one acre. I've looked into the various robotic mowers available and one seems to be streets ahead of the others, but I think it still might struggle with the size. I'm told by the dealer that while it's rated for 3,000 sq metres, it'll do more if its intensity level is adjusted.

Which make are you looking at?

Have you seen any in action?

Anything (bar the obvious keep the number of obstacles down) that you'd recommend in designing the space?

Thank again. Looking forward to this.

prospect · 20-05-2014 2:54pm

Choosing my mower

So I had a good look around, and was originally thinking of going with a premium or recognised brand like Honda or similar. However, I ended up going with a 'Robomow' for a couple of reasons.

This particular brand have been manufacturing these machines for a good few years and as such they have evolved over that time with improvements in several areas which I'll mention shortly.
Secondly, there is a distributor and service/warranty agent for these machines not far from where I live, so I figured that this would be beneficial for aftercare.
Having seen the Robomow in operation I was happy with its features, build quality and low noise level.

I had been advised, (internet forums & articles) that it would be best to buy a machine rated to cover areas larger than required (under-work it rather than over-work it) (this may be of interest to you Cee View). I opted for a RL2000 (circa 2000sqm machine, double my lawn size) which is costing me €1700. This is not a recent model, developed around 2010 i think, and as such it has not got some of the advantages of the newest models.

So what can improve in terms of evolution of these machines:

1. Batteries - Newer models have Lithium Ion batteries (as opposed to Nickle Cadmium I think). Lithium Ion batteries have longer life expectancy (4-6 years instead 2-3 years). The charge faster, last longer and are lighter.
2. Weight - Newer machines are developed to be lighter, meaning the batteries last longer
3. Sensors - These are improving all the time to increase the safety features of the mowers.
4. Other technical stuff which I won't pretend to understand.

- I expect to have to replace the battery, at a cost of approx €200, every 2 or three seasons.
- I would expect to replace the blades every 4 seasons (approx €50 - but I'm not 100% on that figure).
- I believe that the annual running cost of electricity is less than the cost of 1 jerry can of petrol.

(so far this is all information gleaned from conversations with the distributor, viewing demo machines and reading up web forums, not much in personal experience just yet)

?Cee?view · 20-05-2014 3:34pm

Hi Prospect,

My research has led me the same way as you.

I'm looking at the Robomow RS630 which seems to be the biggest one that they do. They've been making these for years and others seem to have only come to this lately

I suspect that the guy I was on to is the same guy you were dealing with. He said by email:

"The RS630 is rated at 3000sq mtrs. It will maintain 4000 sq mtrs but will be on the lawn cutting more often by adjusting the cutting Intensity . There is an intensity adjustment on the RS630 and people increase the intensity to reach up to the larger area.

These machines are rated for tough grass such as USA and Spain and thus they are rated by the manufacturer very conservatively however our type of grass is soft and easier maintain."

In fairness, what he's saying about grass toughness seems to be true. I hadn't realised, but US grass seems to be much tougher than ours. Must be something to do with the heat it has to stand.

It'll likely be next year when I take the plunge, when the new lawn has established itself. I will most likely buy from the fellow who mailed me. Very interested to hear of how you get on.

prospect · 21-05-2014 12:10pm

Getting ready for its arrival

Okay, so I suppose the first disadvantage of these machines is that there is some infrastructure required for them to operate. You will have to peg (at a minimum, I will be burying mine slightly below the surface) a perimeter cable (to define the outer edges of your lawn area) and also provide a power supply.

In my case I do not have a power source close to any point of the lawn (poor foresight I know). I suppose the advantage for me, having to retrofit an outdoor socket, is that I can pick the area where I want the charging dock to be located, rather then putting it near an existing outdoor socket.

Each robot mower comes with a charging dock and a cable that runs from the dock around the perimeter of the area to be mown and back to the dock. I am trying to choose a location that is discreet (from an aesthetic, security and weather protection point of view) and I will most likely place some kind of cover over it (maybe a dog kennel). I have been told that a cover is not necessary, but I don't think it will do any harm. I was also advised that it is probably best to bring the charging dock indoors over the winter, to protect its rubber seals and more vulnerable parts from frost. No harm to do this is suppose.

In my case:

1. Install an outdoor socket
2. Run perimeter cable
3. Provide a cover for the charging dock

prospect · 21-05-2014 12:25pm

So, how it supposedly works:

Well first of all the machine (and dock) are brought out of winter storage at the start of the growing season, early March I suppose. It remains outside until the end of the growing season, around mid to late October. There is not meant to be any requirement to cut the grass with a traditional mower at the start of the year, as the cutting height of the robot mower can be increased to accommodate early growth.

You can set days and times that the mower will operate, i.e. never before 8am, or never after a certain time. You can also ensure it does not operate on Saturdays, if that is the day that the lawn is most likely being used by kids etc (if the kids want to play when it is scheduled to cut, you can just pause its operation using a button on the machine itself).

Once the schedule allows it, the robot mower will start up, leave its dock and begin cutting the lawn. For the first cuts it will follow the perimeter cable and then began randomly traversing the lawn until it completes the full area. The blades cut the grass up fine like a mulcher, (as it cuts regularly it should only be cutting minimum growth), so there are no clippings to collect.

The machines have rain and frost sensors, so it will not begin cutting in either of these conditions. There are also bump sensors that cause the machine to immediately change direction if it hits a solid object (e.g. a bike left on the lawn). Finally the lift sensor switches off the machine and blades if it is lifted off the ground during operation. Another potential disadvantage I have read about is the inability to detect low objects, so a hurley or a jumper left lying on the lawn could cause issues, this is one thing I'll be keeping an eye on.

When the machine is low on charge, or it's scheduled to finish, it will return to the charging dock, activate the power (the charging points on the dock are disabled when the robot mower is cutting the lawn to prevent an electrical hazard), and begin its charging sequence.

Thats the principle of the machine in a nutshell, if it operates as described I'll be very happy, but that remains to be seen. I hope to get delivery before this weekend, at that time I will take some photos and post up something about the actual set-up process. I'm happy to answer any questions. I think I have answered the ones posted so far.

21-05-2014 1:47pm

This is an excellent thread. good to have some detailed feedback from a user. When people say a jerry can of petrol do they mean 20 litres of petrol ie €30 - €32

?Cee?view · 23-05-2014 9:46am

Prospect,

When are you expecting delivery?

Thargor · 23-05-2014 10:25am

Just posting to subscribe to this thread, thanks Prospect please keep us posted.

prospect · 23-05-2014 10:32am

I collected the machine yesterday afternoon, but I was busy yesterday so it is still in its box. I'll unpack and get some photos up this evening hopefully.

My first piece of advise as an owner is, don't attempt to collect one in a small car or a saloon car. It is packed in two boxes (Charging Dock & Mower itself). Both boxes are quite large and the mower is pretty heavy. I have a large MPV and it just about fit in the boot.

?Cee?view · 23-05-2014 10:37am

prospect wrote: »

My first piece of advise as an owner is, don't attempt to collect one in a small car or a saloon car. It is packed in two boxes (Charging Dock & Mower itself). Both boxes are quite large and the mower is pretty heavy. I have a large MPV and it just about fit in the boot.

That's the first thing I have to thank you for. I'd have gone halfway across the country fully confident it would fit in my little three door yoke!

prospect · 23-05-2014 12:52pm

?Cee?view wrote: »

That's the first thing I have to thank you for. I'd have gone halfway across the country fully confident it would fit in my little three door yoke!

I'd say a hatchback would be grand, as long as the back seats fold down.

prospect · 26-05-2014 2:25pm

Setting up:

Well folks, I spent Saturday afternoon getting the Robomow set-up. Right here is another disadvantage over a conventional mower. You bring a ride-on or push mower home, lash in some petrol and off you go. Not with a robot mower I'm afraid.

My lawn is fairly basic, but it still took a good few hours to get everything up and going, I'll detail the process here and post up some images later). The manual that ships with the mower is Dutch, (not sure why, made in Israel and sold in Ireland!!), so I had an english one sent to me by the dealer. The mower ships with a DVD which was pretty good to give an overview of setting up.

Step 1: Choosing where to locate the charging dock. The manufacturer advises a discreet location, and as sheltered as possible (not necessary, but the more sheltered the better). The manual provides two location options, a. in-line, and b. off the lawn. Basically, one is along the lawn boundary, the second is up a recess or path off the lawn. To be honest, I made a bit of a bags of setting up mine (it needs to be 1 meter from the nearest corner, and there must be 2 meters of a straight run up to it, etc, I took a shortcut

) and I'll be re-doing it soon.

Step 2: Run the wire around the perimeter (or perry-meter as the American lady on the DVD calls it

). This sounds easy. My calves are still sore from this. You run the wire counter-clockwise from the charging dock all around the edge. A ruler is provided to position the wire the correct distance from the lawn edge, and from walls or solid objects. I ran the wire and pegged it at 2 meter intervals, pulling tight as I went along.

-- A bit about the wire & pegs. The wire is an insulated single strand of copper wire, it is pretty heavy duty and feels like good quality. The pegs (I got 6 bags I think, probably 30 or 40 a bag) are thick plastic. They seem okay, however some did break where I had to pull them back up to re-position the cable (more on this later). The wire does not need to be buried, the pegs are hammered just below the surface and the grass grows up around the wire over time --

Step 3: I had to join the roll of wire to a second roll (two rolls provided in box, I used about 5% of the second roll) using a provided connector, then the two wires are terminated in the charging dock. This whole process was technically easy, but physically challenging and time consuming.

-- Tools required are hammer/mallet, slot head screwdriver, philips head screwdriver and a snips --

Step 4: Plug in the charging dock. Insert the fuse into the mower battery pack and drop this into the mower (no tools or clips required). The mower powers on and its set-up begins.

Step 5: This is where I ran into an issue. The mower goes through some set-up prompts, country of use etc (this is on the controller located on top of the mower itself). It then tries to find N, S, E & W using its internal compass. All this time it drives around in circles, scanning I suppose! Mine failed and asked me to move it elsewhere on the lawn and retry (there is a wired controller which allows you to drive the mower like a remote control car). This failed several times. I called the distributor and he talked me through disabling the compass. This means my mower will now mow purely on a random pattern. (apparently underground cables or water pipes can mess up the compass).

-- The remote control, this could be handy mowing hard to reach areas that I was going to continue using my ride-on to cut. Basically, if you have a narrow path, you can chose to drive the mower over that area using the remote controller --

Step 6: The mower then scanned the perimeter cable. This means it drives along the perimeter, (without the blades spinning) so you can check how close to the edge it goes and ensure it strikes nothing. You can now adjust the location of the cable to get the perimeter exactly as you want it (just be careful pulling up the pegs). Once I was happy with the perimeter I hammered in lots more pegs, basically one every meter, or even closer along bends/curves.

-- Where you have a flowerbed, tree or other obstacle, you run the perimeter cable out to it, around it and then back along the same cable (and pegs) to your main perimeter circle. Where the cable doubles over itself cancels out its signal meaning that the mower passes over that "bridge" but still avoids the bed/obstacle. TYhis is clearer on a lawn plan image I will post later --

Step 7: Set up the schedule. Here you choose what days you want the mower to work. You set a start time for each day, and a running time. You can choose from Edge & Mow, Mow only or Nothing.

Set-up is now complete. It does take a while, and learn from my mistake, don;t try to take a shortcut (no pun intended). Once this is all completed you should not have to worry about it again.

Later I will post on its operation.

prospect · 28-05-2014 9:16am

First Runs:

Okay, so I set-up up the program to run on Mondays (Edge and Mow), Wednesdays (Mow Only) & Fridays (Edge and Mow), starting at 1 pm and running for 2 hours. I figure that 3 x 2-hour runs a week will be plenty to keep the lawn cut.

** The program allows you set the operating time at 20 minute intervals (20min, 40min, 60 min, etc) up to 2 hours. After that you can set it to MAX, which means the machine runs until it needs a charge. **

So on Monday evening I arrived home and discovered that the mower had not run as scheduled. After a bit of cursing and head scratching I discovered that I had incorrectly set the machines clock (12 hours behind). I corrected the clock and decided to leave everything else as it was.

All day yesterday (Tuesday, a lovely bright dry day) I sat looking out my window in work cursing the fact I had not reschedule the mower to run. When I got home yesterday evening at approx 5:45pm, I went straight to the mower and hit the 'Go' button (this button can be pin locked to prevent children activating the machine) and let the mower set off on a 'Max' runtime. I'm not sure exactly what time it stopped, but sometime between 9:15 and 9:45 the machine headed back to its charging dock after over 3 hours of mowing.
The lawn has now been mowed twice since Saturdays installation and there are only a handful of small patches (less than 200mm sq) that have not yet been mowed. (I was told by the distributor that it could take 2 weeks to cover everything first time).

So far so good. It was a bit more effort than I anticipated getting the machine set-up, and there is still room for improving the perimeter wire location to get better edging. But the lawn looks perfectly acceptable so far. I am guessing that by Friday evening there will be no missed patches.

EDIT: Sorry about the lack of photos, I took them on my phone but there is 'gps information' in the images which I'm not keen on broadcasting. When I figure a way around that I'll get them online.

Thargor · 28-05-2014 10:03am

Images uploaded to Imgur automatically have all that info stripped out when you upload, or you could just turn off your phones GPS when you take the pics:

https://imgur.userecho.com/topic/60879-exif/

Imgur is the best host by a mile anyway:

http://imgur.com/

prospect · 28-05-2014 11:54am

Some Photos, thanks for the uploading tip Thargor:

The two boxes, one for the Charging Dock and the other for the Mower itself.

The mower is well packed and is strikingly big when you see it first. Also in this pack (beneath the mower) is the two rolls of perimeter cable.
The grey part of the mower is the battery. This lifts out without the need for screws and clips, handy for safety when working on or near the blades.

This is a view of a lot of the lawn, there is some more to the right and left of the image and some behind the bed of trees and shrubs in the top center of the photo.

There are a few paths in the lawn, some through this area which will eventually be a wildflower meadow. I have just let the grass grow long so I can experiment with shapes and path positions/routes.

An example of another path area through an established 'woodland' part of the lawn. I will cut these paths either with my ride-on mower, or using the Robomow in manual mode (i.e. using the remote control).
The paths are not part of the area on the mowers automatic cutting schedule.

This is the mower on its first trip out.

The lips · 04-06-2014 9:19am

The robowmow rl2000 is currently being reviewed on gadget geeks, sky one.

Along with two other autonomous mowers.

Edit: pretty poor review but the robowmow won out. Very interested in this thread.

prospect · 04-06-2014 10:07am

Thats interesting the lips. I don't have Sky, I wonder will it pop up on youtube at any stage?

Anyway, the Mower has been working away on its schedule for a week and a half now, and it is two and a half weeks since the lawn was last cut by a conventional mower.

So far, it just does its thing. The lawn is all cut pretty much perfectly, no more patches of uncut grass. I still need to fine tune the edging to get it to cut as close as possible.

-- I suppose that is a good argument against burying the cable at the beginning, it will take a bit of tweaking to get the cable exactly the way you want it --

I am not sure if I mentioned noise level before. Our garden is quite large, (I suppose anyone considering a robot mower will have above average size gardens), and in most places the mower either cannot be heard, or at worst it sounds like someone far off in the distance is mowing their lawn. In order to conserve battery power, and reduce noise I presume, the blades run at a low speed. When the mower hits longer or thick growth the blades speed up, increasing the noise a bit (still a lot quieter than a petrol mower). Now that the mower is on a regular schedule and has 'caught up' with the mowing, this rarely happens because the grass does not get a chance to grow any significant length.

I will post some photos soon, before I fix the cable, because that will show how long the uncut grass has grown.

I will keep posting updates for the rest of the season, just to report any faults or issues that may occur. For me, reliability of the machine is pretty key to whether it is a success or not.

prospect · 05-06-2014 9:36am

Okay, I didn't expect to be back so soon reporting the first issue...

I arrived home from work yesterday and asked my little fella if he had seen the mower working, he said no. So I went out to check it out. When I walked out around to the back of the house, where the charging dock is located, I could hear a repeating beep, and the mower was stopped about 5 feet away from the dock.

I checked the screen of the mower and it was blank, and the beeping was coming from the dock. So, pressing the green button on the mower gave a message saying 'Signal Cable Fault' (or similar, I can't recall the exact term).

-- The perimeter cable runs in a loop and is terminated in the charging dock, which is permanently plugged into an electrical outlet. The dock sends a small charge around the cable, and this is what the mower 'senses' when it is operating. However, in the event of a loss of power the mower will stop operating (otherwise it would keep on truckin' beyond the perimeter). --

We had been doing some work in the house the evening before, which involved turning off the main fuse for the sockets. I investigated if that was the issue. But that was all okay. I checked the join in the perimeter cable (where I had to start the second roll of cable during installation), but that was also okay. Then, I decided to check the point where the perimeter cable terminates in the dock. While unscrewing this I happened to notice that the mower had stopped almost directly over the perimeter cable. I moved the mower and there was the problem. It had cut the cable. The area in question is a bit bumpy and I must not have secured the wire well enough. I am guessing that one of the rear wheels ran over the wire and pushed up the slack and the blades sliced it.

Thankfully, the mower shut itself off and no harm done. Also, there was 3 cable connectors included, so five minutes later we were up and running.

Some pics to follow.

?Cee?view · 05-06-2014 6:17pm

The lips wrote: »

The robowmow rl2000 is currently being reviewed on gadget geeks, sky one.

Along with two other autonomous mowers.

Edit: pretty poor review but the robowmow won out. Very interested in this thread.

What other mowers did they review? Another one I'm thinking of as an alternative to the Robomow is Husqvarna.

prospect · 10-06-2014 9:29am

Two more photos for now, apologies for the quality:

The edging needs to be adjusted, however this shows the amount of growth since the robot mower has been installed:

And here is a photo of the mower working away, it gives an idea of the scale of the mower size to the lawn size:
s9sskuD.jpg?1

?Cee?view · 10-06-2014 9:33am

Looking good!

Three quick questions.

1. The laburnum at the end; have you had to cut grass yourself at its base, or does the robomower leave it as tidy as it looks?

2. The large bed; have you that set up with the perimeter cable going around it so it's excluded?

3. The edge closest to the gravel; has the robomower cut that edge? Could it be neater is the perimeter wire were moved?

Thanks again for taking the time to post these updates.

Norfolk Enchants_ · 10-06-2014 10:04am

Two quick questions.

How will you ever achieve the lovely striping effect you get with conventional mowers and secondly how will you ever experience the soothing satisfation of manual labour?.

redser7 · 10-06-2014 10:27am

I think the amount of manual labour that garden would take would not be very soothing!

prospect · 10-06-2014 10:36am

?Cee?view wrote: »

Looking good!

Three quick questions.

1. The laburnum at the end; have you had to cut grass yourself at its base, or does the robomower leave it as tidy as it looks?

2. The large bed; have you that set up with the perimeter cable going around it so it's excluded?

3. The edge closest to the gravel; has the robomower cut that edge? Could it be neater is the perimeter wire were moved?

Thanks again for taking the time to post these updates.

Thanks ?Cee?view,

1. Yes, the robot mower has cut the base of the Laburnum. All the mowing since it has been installed has been by the Robomow, nothing else.

2. Same with the large bed. This had no really proper defined edge, so I made a new one with the perimeter wire. When it is exactly the shape I want, (with some minor adjustments), I'll just spray off the uncut area and make a clean edge.

3. Yes, the edge closest to the gravel is cut by the robot mower. Because there is a 4" drop there, I was a bit overcautious with the position of the perimeter cable. I will slowly move it closer over time, until it is perfect.

Norfolk Enchants_ wrote: »

Two quick questions.

How will you ever achieve the lovely striping effect you get with conventional mowers and secondly how will you ever experience the soothing satisfaction of manual labour?.

Hi Norfolk Enchants.

No, you cannot get the striping effect. It cuts on a random pattern and because it cuts so little off the lawn, it leaves no mark at all. (Well, the wheels do leave a small mark where they have pushed down the grass, but that is gone within a few hours).

Great question about the "soothing satisfaction of manual labour", which is something I do enjoy, especially in the garden. However, I found that lawn mowing was monotonous and not at all soothing. Now I have several extra hours a week available to me to do manly stuff like lift rocks and hammer things, oh yeah! :pac:

prospect · 10-06-2014 10:38am

redser7 wrote: »

I think the amount of manual labour that garden would take would not be very soothing!

That is only about 1/3 of the garden. There is no lawn anywhere else though. But I very much enjoy my outdoor time, and one of the drivers behind the robot mower was to be able to be more productive with that time.

Thargor · 10-06-2014 10:45am

Could you program it to cut in a spiral or circular pattern? I suppose that would need GPS onboard though.

?Cee?view · 10-06-2014 10:52am

Hi Prospect,

Since you started this thread, you gave me the impetus to start my own project. The landscapers have been in and cleared the jungle. Now I'm left with what will be one large lawn (with some areas of trees). Using the Robomow app, the largest lawn will be approx 0.9 of an acre (3,554 metres). The biggest Robomow is rated for 3,000 metres and from what I've said in a post above, the Irish distributor tells me that it should manage my lawn.

I'll let the landscaper cut for this year and all going well (for you particularly!), I'll buy next year.

I've another lawn about a third of the size. I think I'll just get a separate smaller one for that.

prospect · 10-06-2014 11:24am

Thargor wrote: »

Could you program it to cut in a spiral or circular pattern? I suppose that would need GPS onboard though.

Thargor,

If you see my post above (#15 - Step 5), I mentioned that the internal compass would not pick up NSEW, the distributor mentioned underground cables etc, can meddle with it.
I *think* that, assuming the mower can calibrate its compass, it will cut in a particular pattern, e.g. on the first run it will cut S-to-N-to-SE-to-N etc (like a 'Z' on its side). The following run will cut in the opposite pattern.

I actually do not mind that it cuts in random directions. I remember hearing a long time ago that it is not a good habit to always cut your grass in the same direction. I'm not sure if that advice is in any way logical, but I have always endeavoured to alternate the direction of cutting on the lawn.

But to answer your question, No, the mower I have cannot be programmed to run in a spiral.

KCross · 25-06-2014 2:51pm

Im planning on buying one of these automowers in the next 2 weeks or so.
I had it down to the Robomow RS630 or the Husqvarna 330X. While researching came across this video
youtube.com/watch?v=_f-4J98EWrI

It is unashamedly Husqvarna marketing, so take it with the pinch of salt but I found the sound test at the end interesting.

Thargor · 25-06-2014 3:02pm

Prospects mower seems to have turned evil and murdered him.

prospect · 25-06-2014 3:47pm

Unfortunately (in terms of your entertainment), that has not happened

Nope, I literally have nothing to report. The mower heads out each scheduled day, cuts away for about 3 hours, and then heads back to base to charge up for its next run.

It is a bit of an anticlimax really, it's just doing its thing. I am pretty happy that that aspect of it is proven, the remaining consideration is reliability.

It is very pleasant to look out at a freshly cut lawn all the time.

Actually, another downside (if you decide to only have an auto mower), is that is will not pick up leaves after hedge cutting. After cutting my hedges and usually I rake up the leaves and then run over the area with the ride-on and collect up the small stuff, the robot mowers will not do this.

prospect · 17-07-2014 12:43pm

Hi Folks,

Just another update.

Well, we arrived back from 2 weeks away in the sun to a perfectly cut lawn. I have to say it was pretty great, one less job to have to play catch-up with. So far, it has been really everything it should be. As I said previously, the only thing I remain to be convinced about is its reliability, and only time can prove/disprove that.

I raised the cutting height before the holidays as the lawn was quite yellow looking. It has greened up nicely now though. I'll post pics at the weekend.

Another point to note. I have heard people mention that you can set it up and let is off, not having to worry about it from the beginning of the season till the end. The reality is that this is not the case. I have found that I have to check in on it at least weekly. As I reported earlier, it cut the cable one day. Another day I noticed it hadn't run on schedule and when I checked it, it had not docked properly and therefore was not charged. So, it is no harm to keep an eye on it cause funny little things can happen no matter what.

Sorry this thread isn't that exciting!

KCross · 21-07-2014 4:17pm

Hi all
Just to add an additional data point I would like to share my experience of robotic lawn mowing.

Sorry for long post!

My house sits on just over an acre. Taking out the house, driveways, patios etc the lawn is approx 0.75 acres which is about 2900 sqm. So, it is a large area to cover and is heading towards the recommended limit for most of the automowers out there. The lawn is alot of open space with a few (<5) items that needed to be worked around (trampoline, swings, sandpit, sewage treatment covers etc) and the front and back lawns are separated by a post & rail fence.

Using a 42 inch ride-on it takes me over 1.5hrs to cut the lawn so the robotic lawnmower made sense to me as spending over 1.5hrs every week just to cut the grass seemed a waste of my Saturday morning and then there was the issue that it might be raining at the weekend which meant I didnt get to cut it for another week when it would be getting out of control and harder for kids to play on.

I saw the robotic lawnmower as the ideal solution. It keeps the grass clean cut ALL the time regardless of weather. I get my Saturdays back and the kids are spending more time enjoying the lawn since the robot went in. The robot is cheaper to buy than a 42in ride-on and hopefully much cheaper to run than a ride-on.

I researched the following robotic mowers:
Husqvarna Automower (330X)
Robomower.com (RS630)
Honda Miimo (HRM500)
Viking(Stihl) (MI 632 P)
John Deere Tango (E5)

They are all much the same price. RRP is €2700 give or take €100. You can bargain it down though.

Based on my lawn size I ruled out the John Deere. It only goes to 1800 sqm.

Based on my lawn shape/layout I ruled out the Viking as it does not have a lead wire to take it to the harder to reach parts of the lawn. In my case I have a fence between the front and back lawns and I made a 6ft wide slot for the mower to go under the fence. You have no way of telling the Viking to go into that space to get to the rest of the lawn so it would only get to it by chance every now and again.

With the 3 that were left in the list I picked the Husqvarna 330X for the following reasons:

1) The Husqvarna is much quieter than the Robomow and the Honda.
2) I have a local Husqvarna agent. Robomow was a few hours away for me.
3) There were some new features in the Husqvarna that I liked.
- GPS Navigation
- 2 guide wires. Some only support 1 guide wire.
- Park button on the charging station. You can press the button and it calls the mower home. Useful if you want to get it off the lawn to allow kids play.
- Weather compensation. It will auto adjust the length of time it spends cutting based on weather conditions. e.g. if there is a cold spell the grass wont grow as quickly, hence it will go out less.
- Husqvarna seemed to be the first to develop an automower (15+ yrs ago?) and they are a reputable company in business a long time so I trusted it. Robomow was good in this regard too.
- The Husqvarna has an electric height adjustment so you set the height via a setting in the menu. You dont have to get out any tools and adjust it up/down via trial and error. It has a setting from 1-9, pick your number and it adjusts the blade accordingly.
- I knew a few people who had the older Husqvarna model and they were happy with it so overall it seemed the safest option to me.

I did give Robomow some serious thought also and I would say that both mowers are probably top of the pile when it comes to robotic lawnmowers based on the research I've done.

So, I went with the Husqvarna 330X which is capable of mowing 3200 sqm which is more than I need(2900sqm).

Setup:
I set it up over a weekend and it got its first run on 30 Jun 2014.

The setup was 'simple', but as prospect has detailed, was time consuming. Like most robotic mowers, you setup a perimeter wire and also section off flower beds and other obstacles that you dont want the mower to venture into. It took me most of a day and you spend all of that on your hands and knees putting in the pegs every metre or so and ensuring that you have the wire the correct distance from the obstacle/edge. If you go too close the mower will hit the obstacle, go too far back and you will have more uncut grass to trim afterwards.

Regardless of where you put the wire you will still need a trimmer as the mower will not cut tight to a wall/kerb etc. i.e. the mower is 56cm wide but it only cuts 24cm wide. So, the blades are purposely 16cm inside the edge of the mower so that any little fingers that might attempt to lift the mower are a long way from the blades and it will, of course, auto switch off if the mower is lifted.

Our patio is at the same level as the lawn so I have the wire much closer in that case and so it cuts right upto the edge. In some other parts I have a hedge and I have put the wire as close as possible to the hedge and then sprayed off the grass that it doesnt get, so I dont have to trim there but where it comes next to a solid object, like a wall/fence, I do have to trim the edges. I wouldnt say this is a disadvantage to a ride-on as you have to trim the edges with a ride-on too.

As I mentioned, the front and back lawn is separated by a post & rail fence. The mower goes under the bottom rail to get between the front & back. The bottom rail is less than a foot high from the ground and the mower is just about a foot high so I had to do some digging to allow the mower to fit and to slope it at each side. It works well and this was an added complication to getting it setup but it was just a once off and I was prepared for it.

If you are thinking of a robotic mower you do need to think about where the charging station will go (which obviously needs access to electricity) and how the mower will travel to every part of the lawn. e.g. is there a fence,wall,gate etc in the way. Does it have to travel across a driveway or gravel path. There are solutions and ways to get it to work but you should think about it and have a plan BEFORE you buy the mower. This was the main reason I did not buy the Viking mower as it did not have a guide wire system. It simply would not have worked for my layout.

The guide wire goes from the charging station out across the middle of the lawn to the specific spot in the fence where I have made space for the mower to go under. The mower knows what sections it has and has not cut and so when it wants to get to the front lawn it knows it needs to follow that guide wire and THEN start cutting rather than just its normal random cutting pattern once it leaves the charging station. Likewise when it needs to come home it uses the guide wire to find the charging station which makes its trip home quicker.

Results:
About 50% of the lawn area is at the back. I set the mower off at 6pm on its first trip out and when I got up in the morning that 50% was all done. I was very surprised how clean it was for its first run. There were no patches at all. I am still tweaking some settings like dropping the height and reducing the time it spends out since it seems to be more than capable of keeping on top of the job at present. The default setting out of the box is that it stays cutting 24/7. I have it cut back to Mon-Fri from 8pm-2am at the moment.

Its current pattern is to spend 1hr charging and 2hrs cutting. So, for the 6 hours per day I have it setup for, it is cutting for 4 of that.

The blades are razor style blades. They literally look like the blade you would put into a cut-throat razor, but stronger. They swivel when they are on so when the mower hits something solid like a stone or something left on the lawn it does not break/bend the blades. The blades simply swing back and the mower goes over the item. It will cause minimum damage to anything it hits.

I would recommend you viewing this video
youtube.com/watch?v=_f-4J98EWrI

As I said in a previous post, it is Husqvarna marketing so the results are skewed to make Husqvarna look better but I think some of it is reasonably impartial particularly the blade bit, setting cutting height and noise level.

Issues:
It is now cutting the full 2900 sqm. There is one small section at the front that it is not cutting properly. It is patchy. I havent figured out yet why that is, since the rest of the lawn is immaculate. The section that is patchy is a narrower section with a bend in it. It might be that I need to run the guide wire to it. I will let you know when I know! I'm sure I will resolve it.

Other issues.... 2 or 3 times the mower has got stuck. My lawn is only a year old and so there are some stones in it which I pulled up after the grass had grown which left, in some cases, quite large holes in the lawn. I should have filled them in. The mower wheel got stuck in the holes. It also had an issue with a mobile slide we have on the lawn. The legs of the slide are wide and sloped and when the mower came to it it proceeded to drive up on the leg and it didnt like it and stopped.

When I took the mower out of the box it had a PIN already setup on it. There isnt a default PIN so I had to call the Husqvarna importer in Dublin for the PIN. The local agent didnt even have access to it. This meant I couldnt use it for the first few days as it was a weekend. I guess this is for security reasons in case it got robbed while in transit. The mower is not usable without the PIN so it is worthless to a thief. Not much comfort if your mower is gone but at least someone else isnt profiting from it.

Maintenance:
Similar to 'prospect' the reliability and maintenance costs of battery/motors/blades etc will be the main item that decides whether it is successful or not long term.

The main service items are battery, blades and motors.

- The blades are cheap (€20 for 9). It takes 3 razor style blades and I think the 9 blades will easily cover a season or more.
- The battery is expected to last 2-4 years depending on size and layout of lawn.
- I dont know about the motors. If they start breaking down that could be costly. Time will tell.

Even if I had to buy a battery (approx €200) every 2 years I would consider it a success based on the time it saves me every week and how good the lawn looks all the time.

You also have to allow for what you save in servicing/maintaining a ride on and of course petrol costs, which for me, would be over €100/yr based on the few times I've used a ride-on on my lawn.

I'm hoping the battery will last longer than 2 years though, since it is one of the newer type Li-Ion batteries.

Overall:
It is a very positive experience. Very happy with the quality of the cut. Very happy to have a clean cut lawn ALL the time. The kids are really enjoying it as they use the lawn more now... not waiting for Dad to cut it anymore!

I would recommend it, if you are not afraid of the setup.

Good luck with yours, if you buy one!
KCross

prospect · 06-08-2014 4:43pm

Quick Update:

Grass = Short
Work Required = None
Happiness = Lots

?Cee?view · 06-08-2014 4:47pm

Want one = Loads

?Cee?view · 06-08-2014 5:29pm

prospect wrote: »

Quick Update:

Grass = Short
Work Required = None
Happiness = Lots

Has the quality of your lawn improved? Specifically, is the frequent cutting leading to weeds finding it harder to thrive? Do you think that the mulching has been beneficial?

prospect · 07-08-2014 2:02pm

God, I don't know.

It was never great, but I suppose you could say its better. Or maybe I just want to think that because it is all green and short and that suits me.

Sorry I can't give a more objective, or even useful, answer.

mister gullible · 07-08-2014 3:45pm

Realising that my robotic mower won't lift dog poos, I sadly had to give my dog away. I replaced him with a patrolling robot dog which barks at intervals (also set to bark at 2am each morning just to annoy neighbours). The robodog also has sharpened steel jaws so intruders know that he means business and his bite is FAR worse than his bark. As long as thieves don't throw in magnetic sausages to disrupt his circuits all should be fine.

Hunter Mahan · 13-08-2014 1:19pm

Is there anything stopping you having the mower running at night?

prospect · 13-08-2014 3:02pm

Nope, it will operate the same at night.

Although, it is worth noting that on the machine I have there is a large orange warning light that flashes during operation, at night time this would probably draw more attention than you would desire.

KCross · 14-08-2014 6:07pm

prospect
I'm interested to know two things on your setup:

1) what cutting schedule you have
2) if you ever override the schedule, particularly if there is heavy rain.

For me, I have it set to cut Mon-Fri 8pm-2am

In theory it is supposed to be able to cut in the rain since all it is doing is clipping very short amounts off the top and it does appear to work fine in the rain but I do sometimes send it back to the charging station if I know there is heavy rain coming. Maybe its just a bit of paranoia on my part and still being used to the old way of thinking that you need to wait for a dry day to cut the lawn.

Can you give your experience with your mower.

thanks, KCross

prospect · 14-08-2014 8:38pm

Hi KCross,

Mine is set to run on Mon, Wed and Fri. It starts at lunchtime and runs until it requires a charge (a little over 3 hours).

I have not interfered with that schedule in weeks.

?Cee?view · 14-08-2014 10:19pm

Prospect,

KCross talks about the husqie having a feature where you can press a button to to call it home mid-cut. Does the Robomow have any similar feature? Could you manually drive it back even if it's in the middle of a scheduled cut?

KCross,

You talk about the Husq having two guide wires. What does that mean and what advantage is it?

Thanks to you both

prospect · 15-08-2014 11:45am

Yes, you can stop the mower at any time and choose return to base option, it then drives back to the dock without the blades spinning.
Alternatively, you can just remove the control pad and use it like a remote control car and drive it back (with or without the blades spinning).

KCross · 15-08-2014 1:43pm

?Cee?view wrote: »

Prospect,

KCross talks about the husqie having a feature where you can press a button to to call it home mid-cut. Does the Robomow have any similar feature? Could you manually drive it back even if it's in the middle of a scheduled cut?

KCross,

You talk about the Husq having two guide wires. What does that mean and what advantage is it?

Thanks to you both

Ceeview
The "park" button on the Husqie is at the docking station and on the mower as well, so you just go to the docking station and press it and it will come home as quickly as it can. I'm not sure if the other mowers have the park button on the docking station. Maybe they do.

Guide wires.... You have the boundary wire to tell the mower where the boundary is. The Husqie also has 2 optional guide wires which are used to guide the mower to difficult to reach areas. The robotic mowers use a random cutting pattern when they leave the docking station and if you have multiple lawns, say, a lawn which is down a narrow passage, the mower will never get to it without a guide wire. So, you run these additional guide wires to guide the mower to these areas. The Husqie allows you to use 2 guide wires. Some mowers have 1 or none so you need to decide if you need one or not before buying a mower.

My front and back lawns are spearated by a fence and I made space under the one of the posts for the mower to get between the lawns. The guide wire takes the mower to that exact spot in the fence so the mower can quickly and easily find its way between the two lawns. If the guide wire wasnt there it would only find that spot by chance and it would not be often enough for it to get all the front lawn cut. Also, the guide wire is used to find its way back to the docking station. If the mower needs to recharge and it crosses the guide wire it will follow it home. Thats quicker than randomly looking for it.

KCross

prospect · 30-10-2014 5:26pm

Hello folks,

Well, 'Mow' as it has been christened in our house, has been put into winter hibernation. There is little or no growth now so I figured it was a good time to bring it in.

Now, strictly speaking the base station can remain outside, but as it is easy to disconnect it, I decided to bring it in also. Once in, a 10 minute clean on the underside of the robot has it looking grand. Also the battery just lifts out, I will keep it in the house where it will be warmer over the winter.

So season one, very happy so far.

mno101 · 14-02-2015 10:13am

hi,
can you tell me where you purchased please? I have robomow rl1000 for 5 years now but i let the battery completely discharge (used the wrong socket in the shed ...not happy !!). the supplier i purchased from is no longer in business. I am now looking for advice on how to get the robomow restarted.

appreciate any info.
fyi...very happy with robomow after 5 seasons.

mno101

agentblue · 24-03-2015 6:03pm

I'm going to resurrect this post to add another experience. Just like the OP, I am not a dealer nor do I have any vested interest in any company/dealer. I have gone through the various considerations that the OP has outlined so I won't bore you with those again.
I moved house just before Christmas and my new place has a largish garden, roughly 0.6 acres of lawn/flower beds. I would attach some photos but I am unable due to my low post count!! If anyone wants to pm me i can email them to you to post for me.
I was toying with the idea of a ride on when I came across this post. I was still uncertain about the prospect of buying a robotic mower until I eventually found a dealer that would give me a 30 day trial on condition that if it didn't work for me I would buy a ride on from him instead.
With this safety net and after much research I decided to go with the Husqvarna Automower 330x. The main reason I chose this option was that it supports 2 guide wires. My garden is somewhat unusual in shape with 2 narrow sections and the 2 guide wires should be useful to ensure that all areas of the lawn are covered regularly.
I have taken delivery of all the ancillary equipment but not the mower itself. I did this so that I could do all the prep work before my 30 day trial starts. I work shift work so all the work is being done in fits and starts whenever I can get a couple hours.
Over the last 4 days I have installed the perimeter and guide wires. I decided to stake the wires down rather than bury them as I may need to move them slightly once I get up an running. I fist had to cut the grass short where the wire was going to go and then spend approximately 14 hours on my hands and knees making sure the wire was laid down properly. The manual gives the appropriate distance the wire should be laid from various different obstacles e.g. 35cm from a fence but only 10 from a paved area at the same level as the lawn.
The manual gives some instructions which are to be followed when installing the wires and of course I forgot that you are not supposed to have any 90 degree bends. This caused me a lot of headache when i had to go back and reroute some of the wire where I had corners as obviously I ended up with some extra wire in places. This doesn't sound like much of a problem but when you have the whole thing pegged down and suddenly find yourself with a foot or two of spare wire in the middle of long runs and you don't want to add unnecessary breaks in the wire, some creative thinking was required.
I also have one area about 8m by 2m between sections of lawn that is currently loose stone like pea gravel. This is unsuitable for the mower so instead of paving the section with slabs I have decided to try astro turf. That's this week's work. Once this is done, I should be good to take delivery of the mower itself and test everything.
I'll write again over the next few weeks with my progress. Again, if anyone would like to volunteer to post pictures for me that would be great.

My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

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