Has anyone got a robot lawnmower?

[Justmadesourkraut]

And please can you recommend make/model? (Or not!)

Thank you

Not personally but neighbour in our old farmhouse in the country had one and accidentally turned it on whilst working away and it rammed into Mr marshalls field and destroyed 4 acres of radishes and was brought home by the police

DH has been reviewing them for months! Today he said that eufy (same brand as our robot vacuum) had a new lawn version for £1,500! 😳

I 'think' there are 2, main types. 1 which requires you to run a physical strip or some sort of wire around the perimeter of your garden. This might work for a smaller garden which doesn't have multiple areas. The other type which are more expensive 'map' the area I believe and can be used on larger gardens and those with various sections.

Sorry, I haven't really helped, but a hopeful bump to us all.

Yes, we have a Honda Miimo. Have had it 3 years. Very reliable. Has an app so you can set if off remotely, see where it is in the garden, set the mow height etc. Depending on your garden and requirements, you might still need to do a manual mow every now and then. Our garden is very square and due to where the wires need to be laid, it doesn't get quite into the edges in some areas, so we have to do a manual mow/edge mow as these areas get missed.

However, for the cost, would definitely recommend, particularly for large lawn areas.

Sil has one, it runs on a wire sunk into the grass. It's goes back onto its docking station to recharge. Like Op said he needs to strim the edges as part of grass is on a slope. He operates it from his phone. Does a good job.

I have one and it’s a God-send for me due to my health. It’s a Landxcape model, very basic and cost around £400 from Amazon a few years back.

it need a wire around the perimeter that you can bury underground but don’t have to, and it’s currently not working as there’s a loose connection or break somewhere and I haven’t gone looking to find it due to the weather.

It’s great because I run it daily and the mulch feeds the grass. I have to do it daily or the dog and children walk the clippings in through the house; when it’s daily it’s too small to pick up on their shoes the same way. Periodically I do a full mow the old fashioned way but usually only because it’s been a few days, like on holiday, and I can’t face all the clippings in the house. I also am a sucker for stripes which the lawnmower does and the robot does not.

I can set mine to come on the same time each day or alternate days but it likes to take the weekend off, so I sometimes manually press the start button. It’s meant to dock itself but only has about 3 times last year! And it can get annoyingly stuck trying to ram a plant pot and doffing a grove in one spot to get through: again, this is sporadic and unpredictable.

Still worth having despite the drawbacks!

I had two Flymo's, about 5 years ago. When working they were pretty good, but both died within about a year. One needed a circuit board that would have cost more than I paid for the mower! At least £600 down the drain.

Oh! I just checked on Amazon and it was £300 in 2022

Ive had 2, one wired and one GPS mapped. Our garden is on a slope and the first one was good but just kept getting stuck. The second one is a Dreame one and is superb. We are in the south of france so it literally is too hot to work in the garden for 4-5 months a year but the grass grows ridiculously fast in the spring and autumn. He cuts in strips and the lawn looks awesome after he has done his job.

Well worth the money IMHO.

Oohhh… stripes…. Tempting! 😆

Yes, we have one. A Mammotion Luba mini. It is fab!

DH mapped out the front and back gardens and now it trundles round a couple of times a week doing its thing! No wires required. If it gets tired, it pops back to its charging station and when recharged pops back and continues from where it stopped.

It does stripes. For DD's 18th, he mapped and cut the number 18 into the grass!

We have a Flymo, it was quite a cheap one as we weren’t sure how well it would work as a concept so didn’t want to spend too much, but it’s been great. This is its fourth year. I would definitely replace instantly if it ever broke, probably with a fancier one now I know how well they work!

I have one and I love it!

I wanted a very simple one - no boundary wire, no outside electric socket needed, no apps to navigate. It works by camera and sensors in a random pattern. It has a removable battery pack which I take inside to recharge about once a week. It's quite hypnotic to watch!

It's ideal for my smaller garden. There are a few disadvantages - It needs a visible edge to the lawn to detect, but in places around the border where it gets confused I just place out a few empty plant pots about a foot apart to create a more visible border. It also leaves a 6 inch strip of uncut grass around the perimeter of the lawn, so I finish that off with a lightweight strimmer about once every couple of weeks in summer.

https://www.cleva-uk.com/products/lawnmaster-drop-and-mow-robot-mower-vbrm16

May I ask those with one already- do they navigate around dog poo, balls on the law or just plough through? 🤔

Maybe clear it up before you switch it on!

Yes, of course this would be the plan, but you didn't answer my question.

Dbro and SiL have one at their house in France, have had for years. SiL’s sister painted a cat’s face on it - their neighbours were very bemused - probably thought they were bonkers!

Ours has a camera and dodges obstacles. It should detect dog poo but we haven't tested that theory out!

For our first one. I stuck reflectors on him so I could find him at night when he hadn't got back to base by shining a torch across the garden. With the newer one we can see where he is on the map if he doesn't return.

We have rather a large number of cats, tame, semi feral and feral who snooze on the lawn and he stops before he gets to them if they don't jump up as he gets closer. But they soon learn where best to snooze to not be disturbed. And yes he does stop for balls or large things such as if a branch has fallen but we usually do a walk round each morning and would remove those and any random deposits before he goes out (currently a visiting badger is leaving presents for us), but otherwise he would just plough through or mow over them.

I don't have one personally but the neighbors have one and it does seem to work well

Yes we have a Mammotion one.
He's called Snippy.

Thank you all so much. Off to investigate. 🙂

And 😂😁@ShakyBake 's neighbour 😁😂