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My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,848 ✭✭✭✭Thargor


    Prospects mower seems to have turned evil and murdered him.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


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

    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    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!


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross


    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


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    Quick Update:

    Grass = Short
    Work Required = None
    Happiness = Lots


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,833 ✭✭✭?Cee?view


    Want one = Loads :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,833 ✭✭✭?Cee?view


    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?


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 463 ✭✭mister gullible


    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.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 654 ✭✭✭Hunter Mahan


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


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross


    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


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,833 ✭✭✭?Cee?view


    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


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    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).


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross


    ?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


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭prospect


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 83 ✭✭mno101


    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


  • Registered Users Posts: 45 agentblue


    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.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 45 agentblue


    So since my last post I have gotten the automower up and running but I'll start where I left off with the last post.
    The astro turf turned out the be a much bigger job than I had anticipated. It turns out that the area I needed to cover was 12m x 4m which equated to a costly enough ammount of fake grass!!
    As you know last weeks weather was pretty crap with a lot of rain but when I had gotten everything in place I decided to bite the bullet and take delivery of the mower and begin my trial. I figured I would jump in at the deep end and put the mower to work in 'non-optimal' conditions. The grass had started to grow in ernest and the ground was soaked so I was curious to see how the mower would cope.
    When I got the mower last Thursday I placed it in the docking station to charge. While it was charging I went through the setup process. This turned out to be a fairly easy and intuitive experience. The 330x has 2 guide wires and allows for multiple zones to be set up to ensure that every section of the garden is covered with some regularity but I decided to use the default settings to see how well the mower could figure it out itself.
    With the setup and charge complete the mower headed out for its first run. The grass was very wet and quite a bit higher than the rim of the mower and I found that it was tending to flatten the grass more than actually cut it. Having said that, it was cutting some of it so I didn't worry too much. After about an hour, it started to rain but I was pleased to see that even in the rain, the mower didn't lose traction on the slopes or on the astro turf.
    After a few hours the mower returned to the docking station for a good night's rest! It was obvious from the tracks in the wet grass that the mower had gotten to each section of the garden. Having said that, it certainly hadn't cut the grass very well or covered every square meter of the lawn but it was early days so I didn't worry. In fact it was very impressive to see how the mower handled the 2 narrow passages in its random fashion.
    The next day (Friday) proved to be much drier and from the get go it was obvious that the mower was doing a much better job of actually cutting the long grass. We had to head away over night on Friday so after a few hours I pushed the park button on the base station and after about 3-4 minutes the mower came trundling around the corner and docked without any problem.
    Saturday was another fine day and the mower headed out at its programmed time and did what it was supposed to do. However, at one stage I noticed that it had stopped in the middle of the front garden. When I checked the control panel it said that it could not detect the boundary wire!! I went around the back to discover that my father in law had cut the wire with a spade! I had to use my two spare couplers to splice in a new piece of wire but I had it back up and running in only 10 minutes.
    Today (Sunday) has been another fine day and the mower has worked away without any intervention. I would say that at this stage it has cut around 96% of the grass to a fairly even level. There are about 3 or 4 patches that it still has not cut properly. These patches consist of high tufts or clumps of grass surrounded by mowed grass. I am hoping that after another few days it will have dealt with those too. I have decided to give it a full week before I intervene! If it still hasn't covered everything properly I'll look into manually setting zones but I'm confident enough that I won't have to.
    So that's it so far. It is looking very promising. KCross has kindly offered to post some pictures for me, so I'll send them on during the week. I'm going to buy a few more couplers from ebay as the dealer is quite expensive for that type of thing. I'm also planninig on changing the blades after the first week when all the heavy cutting should be done.
    I've just realised while rereading this before posting that the fact that I'm considering purchasing stuff for the mower before my trial is over shows how happy I am with it so far.
    If you have any questions don't hesitate to post or PM me.
    I'll post again later this week to update you all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross



    I'm also planninig on changing the blades after the first week when all the heavy cutting should be done.

    I'd be very surprised if you need to change the blades after one week, even if the grass was high. I used 2 sets of blades for last season Jul-Nov.


  • Registered Users Posts: 381 ✭✭Repolho


    Just wondering how you are all getting on with your autonomous lawn mowers?

    I was at the Ideal Homes show in the RDS last weekend and spoke with the Robomow people. They gave a very convincing sales pitch and told me that a Robomow will do any lawn that a ride on will do! For those of you who have them, can I ask you is this your experience or do you think that you need a lawn like a snooker table for a robot mower to work?

    My local lawnmower man was selling me a 22" self propelled mower with a B&S engine but when he saw the lawn he said no way would it do and advised getting a small ride on. If that mower is unsuitable, would a robot be up to the task.

    Thanks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross


    Repolho wrote: »
    Just wondering how you are all getting on with your autonomous lawn mowers?

    I was at the Ideal Homes show in the RDS last weekend and spoke with the Robomow people. They gave a very convincing sales pitch and told me that a Robomow will do any lawn that a ride on will do! For those of you who have them, can I ask you is this your experience or do you think that you need a lawn like a snooker table for a robot mower to work?

    My local lawnmower man was selling me a 22" self propelled mower with a B&S engine but when he saw the lawn he said no way would it do and advised getting a small ride on. If that mower is unsuitable, would a robot be up to the task.

    Thanks.

    What's wrong with your lawn that he thinks the self-propelled wont do the job? Is it just that the lawn is too big?

    The automowers will do just fine as long as you dont have any big holes in it. It doesnt have to be snooker table smooth and it can go across steeper hills than a ride-on can.

    I would 100% recommend a robot mower. It willl be cheaper than a new ride on and you save your time and petrol costs every year.


  • Registered Users Posts: 381 ✭✭Repolho


    KCross wrote: »
    What's wrong with your lawn that he thinks the self-propelled wont do the job? Is it just that the lawn is too big?

    There is a lot of moss in it and the grass is quite thick. The back lawn is poorly drained and very damp. Even after the couple of weeks sunshine we have just had it is still a bit wet in parts. He reckoned the gear box on the particular mower he was originally recommending would not be strong enough.


  • Registered Users Posts: 45 agentblue


    My lawn is most certainly not snooker table smooth. it's quite bumpy actually. Some parts of it are quite damp too. When I started, the grass was very thick and quite clumpy in places. The mower didn't do a great job for the first few days but after around 1 week it had the lawn perfectly even and it had no problems with the thick grass or bumpy surface. It will cut damp grass but the wheels can get quite clogged with the cuttings. I find that if it has been cutting wet grass i have to clean the wheels after maybe 4 days. Actually, when I say have to.. it hasn't caused the mower to stop or anything but I just feel that its more efficient not to be dragging around a load of clippings on the wheels.
    The wheels do provide very good traction even on wet slopes. I would say that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have it driving though a load of puddles, not that I have done that or anything.
    I have to agree with KCross. I am very very happy with my automower so far, I had serious doubts about it working in my garden but it has handled everthing perfectly.
    I was out in the garden yesterday, and I could hear 2 neighbours cutting their lawns with all the stopping and starting etc and I had a huge grin on my face not having to deal with that any more.


  • Registered Users Posts: 381 ✭✭Repolho


    One more question, how does your robot mower handle multiple lawns?

    My garden is laid out in 3 separate lawns. Would the robot mower be able to follow the footpath to the separate lawns or would I have to pick it up and bring it from lawn to lawn myself?

    Thanks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,030 ✭✭✭✭KCross


    Repolho wrote: »
    One more question, how does your robot mower handle multiple lawns?

    My garden is laid out in 3 separate lawns. Would the robot mower be able to follow the footpath to the separate lawns or would I have to pick it up and bring it from lawn to lawn myself?

    Thanks.

    If the mower can physically drive between the lawns without being picked up(no steps or rough gravel etc) then it can handle it. You simply have to lay down a guide wire along the route you want it to take to get to each lawn.

    If a concrete path is the only path between the lawns you could lay the wire at the edge and get it to drive on the path side of the wire(not all robots mowers can do that so make sure you check before you buy) or you could cut a narrow channel in the concrete to bury the wire in it.

    So, there are options but it wont drive between lawns, particularly narrow passges/paths, without some guidance.


  • Registered Users Posts: 45 agentblue


    Repolho wrote: »
    One more question, how does your robot mower handle multiple lawns?

    My garden is laid out in 3 separate lawns. Would the robot mower be able to follow the footpath to the separate lawns or would I have to pick it up and bring it from lawn to lawn myself?

    Thanks.

    I have 2 lawns separated by a stone covered passage. The blade on my mower spins all the time when cutting so it can't handle the stone. To get around this I put down astro turf. The rest is as KCross has said. At the minimum you will have to lay the boundary and guide wires along the paths between lawns. If there are kerbs or level changes you'll have to build little ramps. It might take a bit of work but it's definitely possible. Just remember that the blade will be spinning so the surface is important. the only time the blade doesn't spin is when it is following the guide wire back to base when it has been told to park.
    On the Husqui you have to lay the boundary wires upto 35cm INSIDE the area to be cut so if you have a path to be travelled at the very minimum you're going to need a path width of approx. 90cm. In reality you'll need a bit more than that. Of the top of my head I remember somebody on another forum saying that they had managed to get the mower to work with a passage that had 45cm between guide wires. that would mean the path width would have to be 45cm + (30~35cm)x2 so minimum with of actual path would be in excess of 1m. the problem with tight passages is the tighter they are the longer the mower will spend in them bouncing between boundaries.
    I hope this helps.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 45 agentblue


    Well just like Prospect last year, I have very little to add. The mower just works. It's great for me but bad for a running commentary because once it's set up and the boundary and schedule are tweaked you just forget about it.
    I'm very happy with my purchase.
    If anyone has any questions I'll be happy to try and answer them.


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