Battery Lawnmower

[Mr Gus]

I must admit to buying a flymo robot thing the other year, when I get round to installing it is another matter, perhaps by autumn.

[Windbag]

Has anyone tried any of the robot (mower in a kennel) type mowers?

[Mr Gus]

I first came across them some 20+ years ago, likely a husqvarna at an agricultural show.
They are random pattern.
The battery packs are tiny 18650 units which are easily replaced via ali-exp, when they die.
All modern units are keypad security coded.
All modern units have an associated app, pulling data from your network.

They are mobile micro strimmers on wheelsT
As a result of tiny motor, smothering weight over the high speed low voltage strimmer head you hear sound mainly from from the wheel motors, less so the constant whirring of the strimmer head.

They produce micro fine mulching.
They hate pine cones & the like.
They splatter dog & cat muck, the underside neeeds periodic washing & scrubbing.
They are capable of large & small gardens, front and back, as long as you disable the alarm code you can lift it from one lawn to the other (tight arse logic)
The low voltage perimiter cable is best put in having made an earth & turf cut with a half moon edger poked in & filled over, banging in cables.with the supplied kit is a fingers crossed methodology of setting up to fail as tracing cuts & nicks is less likely viaa a slender edging tool methodology.
Yes people have stuck wee solar panels on them, but depending on what it is going to scrape under, maybe a solar canopy like a lot of americal lake boats use for shade is best considered, making a coat -hanger frame & a large er overhead suncatching panel affixed via bodgineering such as velcro which sticks to the abs plastic shell.

They come with a charger base as part of the guide by wire perimiter set up powering it, no idea what the guide wire draws.
Obviously timer can be set / delayed/ pushed up, be aware of wildlife feeding hours initially, though it moves slowly enough not to really impact on local blackbird populace etc.

They do handle inclines ok generally.
Sizes of machine are based on lawn size (& cost) 100, 200, 250, 500 sq metres etc.

If you look at husq / flymo they are the same tech, think husq bought the license or mower division of husq?

Amazon prime week sales offer these as a big ticket discou nt item, every year, the limited amount offered goes quickly, but you then typically get an email offering you the larger model as a replacement, so often best hanging on / cancelling, it is really just the battery pack size after all.

[Joeboy]

I drive past one that is working.the lawn around a large furniture shop on the edge of our town. It is probably a 1/4 acre lawn and it slopes. It's very neat all the time. Always gives me a lift of spirits when.i see it doodling along.

[Jinx]

I have a Landroid, it’s possibly the best garden item I’ve ever bought. Requires a little effort, it’s not flawless but it saves so many man hours. I love it and would buy another in a heartbeat if it failed. On year 3 now. The Landroid has a bit of a following with decent community input and regular updates from Worx.

[Mr Gus]

Not heard of that one..

Ah, it's the "Worx" unit, which I always thought may be a bit knock off iffy, happy to hear that is not necessarily the case

I remain wary of their wire led units still, (research, lack thereof) but the unit I imagine you are referring to with AI & HDR camera is a big departure from that image.

https://www.worx.com/landroid/

[Andy]

Has anyone tried any of the robot (mower in a kennel) type mowers?

I have a Husqvarna Automower 315 which I bought in 2017. It's a love hate relationship. When it works it is fantastic. However since the second year I have had something break on it most summers taking it out of action when the grass is growing fastest. Last year it failed about 1.5 months before the end of the mowing season and I didn't get it back until the winter so it went straight in the garage. When I went to start mowing I found it wasn't driving properly so took it back. The new motherboard wasn't working so it was replaced.I took it back home and found now the cutting disk wasn't driving. Again the new replacement motherboard wasn't working. I then had to wait for 6 weeks for another new motherboard. it is finally cutting but hitches now and then which is a sure sign that one of the drive motors is on its way out. They make the gear boxes from cheese.

So some of the things that have broken...

The base station hadn't been assembled correctly resulting in moisture damaging the motherboard requiring replacement just out of warranty
3-4 drive motors, I forget exactly how many.
Corrosion on the mower motherboard leading to replacement.
Battery requiring replacing as it was useless.

They are a lot of money and the last repair cost £600 which is just ridiculous. The next time ti fails I'm paying my son to mow with a regular old push mower as I'd prefer he gets the money

[Mr Gus]

Wow, a husqy? ,...how the premium priced mighty has fallen! ...I feel for you.

[Andy]

Another one that is getting a lot of YouTube coverage at the moment is the luba. It will mow using GPS so no need for a wire. It can mow stripes and diagonals if you desire and can handle an impressive slope. The deck seems to need cleaning like a traditional mower.ie after every cut if raining. The Husqvarna doesn't have a deck in the same sense so doesn't need unblocking.

[Andy]

Wow, a husqy? ,...how the premium priced mighty has fallen! ...I feel for you.

Yep, a battery charger for the trimmer also failed after about 7 uses as well. I'd struggle to recommend them now.