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Robot lawn mowers

seakaleseakale Posts: 142
in Garden design
anybody got any experience of robot lawn mowers out in gardening land.

area of coverage, cost, plus or negative points
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  • Jules41Jules41 Posts: 178
    I don't have one yet so I'm very interested to see what everyone has to say about them .
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  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    My understanding for many robot mowers is that a wire has to be run around the edge of the lawn so the mower knows where to stop.  That would be OK on a small, regularly shaped lawn but difficult, if not impossible on large and/or irregular shaped ones.
    If the mower used an optical sensor it might work but I'd be worried about how it would differentiate between lawn and low growing plants overhanging the grass.  I have this vision of a Mad Max lawn mower creating havoc as it destroys everything in its path.
  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    I have a Worx landroid (called Zebedee), which has been cutting my grass for over a year now. My lawn is probably about 30 square metres and has humps, bumps and slopes - in fact we chose this particular brand because it is the one which copes best with slopes. I also have a flower bed in the centre and a random tree which he has to avoid. I only have the smallest model but they have bigger ones which claim to cope with bigger lawns.

    You do need a wire around the borders but you peg it down as often as you need to so it can cope with curves etc. with no problem. Angular corners are more of a problem because the mower can't get into them. We have had to make some of the angles smoother to cope with this.

    I'm very happy with mine - we got it primarily because we're often away (and I hate mowing the lawn). It does cut right up to the edge and overhanging plants don't get damaged (it has very tiny blades compared to a normal rotary mower). Heavy overhanging plants might deflect it from cutting underneath, I suppose.

    I have some lawn edges with drops and he does very occasionally fall off and need rescuing.

    One unexpected bonus is that the moss has disappeared from my grass.

    I noticed when I was in Edinburgh a few weeks back that the Botanic Gardens there is trialing one so will be interested to see how it copes.
  • seakaleseakale Posts: 142
    I notice your robot mower is a ‘he’, does he have a name also?
  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    Yes, he's called Zebedee because he knows when it's time for bed!

    That dates me a bit!

    My sister has one very similar (bought recently on my recommendation) but hers is a female apparently. Perhaps we should arrange for them to get together....
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    My lawn is about 10 times larger than yours so I wonder how many times it would go home to recharge and if it would know which area it had already cut when it started up again.  As a matter of interest, how long was the edging wire provided with your Worx?
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I've just been reading a review of the Worx Landroid, admittedly an old one from 2014, and the setting up and use seems to be a real faff about.  Having to bury the sensor cable under the lawn and mow sections up to 10" wide around the edges after the robot has finished seems to limit its value.  I'm guessing there are similar issues with most robot mowers so the comments aren't aimed purely at that one.
  • glasgowdanglasgowdan Posts: 632
    So your lawn will be roughly kept short-ish... no edging, no stripes, and I hear they can leave a lot of bits untouched at times. 

    Nah... I'm not worried about being put out of a job any time soon! :)
  • seakaleseakale Posts: 142
    In past years Wisley has Robomower hoovering around on the green sward as you enter the gardens.  Of course it’s only a small area but it’s quite mesmerising watching it.

    i mowed the grass yesterday, petrol driven, raised the heart beat, sweated buckets, best form of exercise this year.

    i can well remember Zeberdee, and every snail in our garden is called Brian.  Our children loved the show.  Cripes that dates me!!
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