Robotic Lawn Mower

[OzSolar]

Giving very serious consideration to getting a robotic lawn mower. I've got a ~1 acre yard with steep enough hills that I really shouldn't be taking my ZTR on.

My ZTR only has a few more years of trouble-free service if I'm lucky and I've been daydreaming about an electric mower to replace it.

These robotic mowers sound pricey until you compare it to a new rider then all at once they seem reasonable plus I just freed up a hr. or two a week. (My wife loves to mow but she's terrible at it and that's all I should say....)

I'd be very interested in what those with experience can share with any brand of robotic mower. Good, bad, spring for the GPS mapping??

AUTOMOWER® 450XH

For a limited time, receive a free large installation kit during checkout when purchased online. Husqvarna Automower® 450XH is a reliable, high cut performance

www.husqvarna.com

 

[D71]

Giving very serious consideration to getting a robotic lawn mower. I've got a ~1 acre yard with steep enough hills that I really shouldn't be taking my ZTR on.

My ZTR only has a few more years of trouble-free service if I'm lucky and I've been daydreaming about an electric mower to replace it.

These robotic mowers sound pricey until you compare it to a new rider then all at once they seem reasonable plus I just freed up a hr. or two a week. (My wife loves to mow but she's terrible at it and that's all I should say....)

I'd be very interested in what those with experience can share with any brand of robotic mower. Good, bad, spring for the GPS mapping??

AUTOMOWER® 450XH

For a limited time, receive a free large installation kit during checkout when purchased online. Husqvarna Automower® 450XH is a reliable, high cut performance

www.husqvarna.com

I like it. The price is not bad if consider zero turn lawn mower pricing now. I don’t have one …. But that is a consideration now. I’d definitely want gps and an optional remote. The yard would have to be setup and cleaned for it. Sort of like robot vacuum. I love my robot vacuum. Just have to robot vacuum setup the home and get the missed areas hence why would want remote control. That lawnmower is probably along lines of robot vacuum for controls.
Just my guess

 

[gotbeans]

I prefer putting a camera & 2 motors on a mower and just remote controlling it around. I guess it gets old after a few runs though

Plenty of youtube reviews on the automated lawn mowers, they all seem to use little blades as the bigger motors probably killed batteries too fast. but they do work as long as they're out there frequently and the grass doesn't get too high

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

Pretty nifty. I don't have grass, but if I did I would look into one. I am curious how the weather timer actually works. Is it automatic or does it require manual input?

 

[OzSolar]

Pretty nifty. I don't have grass, but if I did I would look into one. I am curious how the weather timer actually works. Is it automatic or does it require manual input?

To be honest I hadn't even thought about the rain sensor issue. You did remind me that the Missus and I talked about replacing large swaths of yard with some more native that doesn't require mowing.

Plenty of youtube reviews on the automated lawn mowers

Doh... I hadn't even thought about that! Oddly enough Consumer Reports does not appear to have done any sort review on them.

 

[D71]

To be honest I hadn't even thought about the rain sensor issue. You did remind me that the Missus and I talked about replacing large swaths of yard with some more native that doesn't require mowing.


Doh... I hadn't even thought about that! Oddly enough Consumer Reports does not appear to have done any sort review on them.

Have you researched about these robotic lawn mowers - having issues for not returning to charge stations or faulting out and you have to drag them back to charge station facility? That happens with robot vacuum. Technically they could cut the grass at night so is there lot of noise to disturb yourself or neighbors. Next or maybe first are they avoidance - pet friendly? Reported Robot vacuum makes mess if runs over pet poop. Lawn mower would get pet and poop at same time if not designed to avoid. They now make robot vacuums that avoid pet poop. seen video it is extreme messy when poop is hit by robot vacuum and it gets spread around.

Is there a definite easy to access battery disconnect for servicing these robotic lawn mower?

I Just think because robotic vacuum cleaner requires maintenance and such that the lawn robot will be similar. A simple sock or shoe string can quickly disable robot vacuum. House has to be made ready Imagine yard has to be made ready with obstacle removal such as pets…small .kids maybe small kids should of been first …

If that is the blade it is tiny. I always like to look at the parts suggested for a purchase. That border burial wire looks like a pita. It is for invisible pet fences.

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

Reported Robot vacuum makes mess if runs over pet poop

Shtf literally.

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

To be honest I hadn't even thought about the rain sensor issue.

you know what mowing wet grass is like. Cakes up under the deck and such. Maybe the little razor blades deal with that better. Or some other automation?

 

[D71]

you know what mowing wet grass is like. Cakes up under the deck and such. Maybe the little razor blades deal with that better. Or some other automation?

I see that. A really sharp blade won’t work with grass …. requires work edge.

I see it getting clogged up why asked about battery cut off. Looks like crazy big robot vacuum as a base on steroids with cutters. Says has antitheft does it attack would be thieves? $3000+ stolen . Be nicer if cheaper based on robotic vacuum prices. Anti theft engaged ninja warrior.

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

Anti theft engaged ninja warrior.

Urban legend states the reason they put those safety handles on push mowers, is because some guy tried to trim his hedges with one. They call him Lefty now.

Sorry for the tangent Oz. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[OzSolar]

Urban legend states the reason they put those safety handles on push mowers, is because some guy tried to trim his hedges with one. They call him Lefty now.

Sorry for the tangent Oz. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

All good! A friend sent me a series of pictures of the carnage his robotic vacuum caused after it ran into a cat poop.

 

[TommySr]

I've got a ~1 acre yard with steep enough hills that I really shouldn't be taking my ZTR on.

OzSolar, IMO when you have acres of grass , and none flat environments to deal with
the small consumer models may not be up to the task, if you have deep pockets there
are commercial units available that could pull it off, the way the small consumer models
work is you run a wire around the area that you want mowed, in your case you could try
running the wire around just steep areas, for the price of consumer models it would be worth a try.

I don't have deep pockets, I went the DIY route.

 

[fpgt72]

I know of two people that bought battery lawn mowers in the past 5 years. They are not happy.

The first one bought because he lacks the skills to keep a gas engine running. The second because she has a very small yard and figured it would work just fine. It is fully fenced in and there was little worry of it running off on its own. Guy one has a battery push mower, not a robot.

Guy one worked just ok the first year. If he missed a mowing for some reason, and the grass got tall, it turned into a weekend long job, mowing 1/3 of the yard, recharge, mow, recharge...... Then year two he could mow about half the yard, just in the second year. Year three he got sick of it and bought a gas mower and learned basic engine 101.

The female with the real small fenced in yard, that thing was pretty expensive, but it did work. It would get stuck in an area around the porch, but aside from that it worked fine. This yard was what I would call a postage stamp. I would say 20' long and about 10' wide. That was all fenced in. The front yard she did not trust the robot so she did that with a push mower....a gas mower.

I could halfway understand it, but it would take under 30 min to do both with the push mower. I think she just wanted a new toy. This gal does know more then guy 1, one of those that can grow a beard but not change a tire.

 

[OzSolar]

OzSolar, IMO when you have acres of grass , and none flat environments to deal with
the small consumer models may not be up to the task, if you have deep pockets there
are commercial units available that could pull it off, the way the small consumer models
work is you run a wire around the area that you want mowed, in your case you could try
running the wire around just steep areas, for the price of consumer models it would be worth a try.

I don't have deep pockets, I went the DIY route.

All good points. Noted!

I don't know if anyone else has had this thought but if you've spent anytime around the riding electric mowers you've probably noticed that they are usually "fly by wire" so it doesn't seem a big stretch to think that they could also be made to be autonomous.

I know of two people that bought battery lawn mowers in the past 5 years. They are not happy.

That's pretty much the conclusion we've come to.