Robot mowers and kids stuff on the lawn

[Thematic]

Anyone got a robot mower and tween boys? Our lawn is permanently covered with footballs, cricket balls, cricket bats, a football net etc. Just wondering whether a robot mower is in any way possible or will it just eat all the balls/get stuck in the football net etc? Should I give up on the idea of ever having a nice lawn until the kids leave home?

To be honest, I can't really be bothered with that. Had hoped it'd just come on automatically at night. The extra effort of getting kids to clear up is more stress than just cutting the grass for me.

It's not once a week though, they go round every day and cut a tiny amount of grass instead of doing one big mow a week. Life's too short for that battle.

So I'd need to bring in the football net every time the mower would be due to go round? And will it not nose a ball out of the way?

Ours is fine with footballs, they can be left out. Our goal posts have scaffolding boards around the bottom as mower has tried to go over the bottom pole and eaten the net!

Program it so it only does night time and week days.
In terms of your lawn looking better for it, ours just looks great from a distance but not so good up close.

Would I go back to tractor mower? Not a chance! Love mobot!

I'm not sure what's complicated about the question?

Yes, of course I want to cut the whole lawn. But I don't want to have to spend half an hour picking up 30 tennis balls and to have to move a football net every day. But I also don't want the balls and net to be destroyed by the mower, or for the mower to get caught in the football net.

So if having to move everything is the only option in order to have a robot mower, then we won't get a mower. Having never seen one in the flesh I've no idea if they're like my robot vac and will just go around obstacles, or whether they'll chew everything up. Other than the crazy expensive ones, they don't seem to have scanning eyes like the robot vacuum does and use a boundary wire instead so I just don't know how vicious they are when they encounter obstacles and whether they'd be capable of popping a football or chewing up a tennis ball. I really wouldn't mind at all if the mower went round things as they get moved all the time so it'd all get cut over the course of a few mows.

So just trying to find out from those who already have one how it works when encountering obstacles.

Thanks, that's want I wanted to know. Sounds like your garden is a lot larger than ours - we live in a town, so no need for tractor mowers! But all the rain is making it hard to keep the lawn cut as when we have time at the weekend it always seems to be raining and now it's like a meadow already! I really don't care about it being pristine, just as long as its cut.

Will it cope with a tennis ball as well as a football? I could probably do something to stop it eating the net, but the balls are a constant presence at the moment now its cricket season.

Robot mowers are fine with balls. They sometimes get stuck and have to be manually reset. I'd have thought a net would be the main issue but they tend to stop before they do any damage in my experience.

It's not high enough off the ground for it to go over tennis balls. This is why it can get stuck on tree roots/football goal as the nose goes over and becomes grounded or eats net. Scaffolding boards with bricks holding the boards in place around bottom of goals work!

When the kids friends come over we do stop it as there's normally a jumper or sock (why??!) left on the grass. It would definitely munch them.

The biggest menace has been me. I tried to tidy up the area around mobots charging mat and I mowed through the boundary wire. If you like immaculate borders this isn't for you. If you just want a garden that isnt over grown and you can forget about it's perfect!

Once every two months I have to tidy the edges as they get about a foot tall. Random humour if you are old enough to remember the Mary Whitehouse experience remibds me of pants moustache!

They come in loads of different sizes, ours is waaaay bigger than the inside vacuum robot, this is def not a spinning disc. More a metre long by 50cm wide.

Could you look into whether there is a small robot bulldozer that does a sweep of the lawn prior to the robot mower undertaking it weekly duty?

Oooh - following with interest. I've been trying to research the best one for my small lawn. Can't manage with a bad back. I'm mainly concerned about the odd hedgehog or frog (no footballs here these days). Any particular brand or model you would recommend?

I'm struggling to work out which one to buy too as we have a couple of steep slopes in our garden - over 30%. Seems its going to be pricey as only the expensive ones can cope with the slopes!

Ha @Goingtroppo - thought it was just me that did that! Not the first time either…

Eek @GladiatorsFan am feeling the same expensive pain!

When we were looking there were two trains of thought

1. We have a husqvarna and got local supplier to fit including boundary fence. Been using supplier for years for constantly repairing tractor lawnmower. They measured the garden and recommended size etc but crucially for us if something went wrong we can just ring them (only had to ring when i went through wire)https://www.husqvarna.com/uk/robotic-lawn-mowers/

2. buy much cheaper one from B and Q and can install wire yourself. If garden smallish and more of a regular shape should be straight forward. Also if already have outside electric etc. This would save you a fortune. But if it goes wrong you are prob on your own.

We do bring it in during winter to save battery (supposedly if it gets really cold it destroys the battery a bit) and the grass isn't growing!

It goes up a good 20 degree incline no prob.
We have seperate bits of garden and the home guiding wire gets it home for charging every 30 mins. If it finds a long spot it spins on it!

Good luck deciding!

We've ruled one out as we couldn't figure out how to deal with the net but I have to say that the robohoover has made the kids a bit tidier around the house as they know things might get munched. Unfortunately, they quickly learned what might get munched and what it too big or mobile so those don't get moved!

Some have an 'obstacle avoidance' feature- slightly more expensive than those which do not.

Got a robot mower. Balls are ok but nets probably wouldn't be. We just try and get in the habit of clearing stuff off to the side by the house when putting it on. It's more likely just to get stuck if it can't move something rather than destroy it.

Btw not regretted the purchase for a minute, it saves so much work!

I found DC become better at picking up their stuff if they think it might be eaten by a robot...

We’ve had the Flymo EasiLife 400 for about a year now and would replace it tomorrow if it went!

Like Troppo he hibernates indoors for the winter but we (ahem, DH) did the fully DIY installation. It’s not complicated at all - we didn’t bury the wire, just let the grass grow over it, which has been fine. Does need a bit of keeping an eye on etc as I only have it on for 10mins x 3 days a week, which I’ll gradually increase as the weather warms up.

There have been a few occasions where it’s gone out to mow and I’ve forgotten to move the bench back or left a full watering can out. If gently bumps into these obstacles and changes directions.