Robot mowers

[monkfish1]

rfisher said:

l.

It's clear from my experience of 3g connected mowers that some manufacturers are regularly tweaking the software side as they get feedback from the mower and users.

It's not unusual to see the mower start doing something that it previously couldn't.

In some cases it's mowing a bit of the lawn that it used to just ignore or miss.

Other times it's how it approaches the docking station, or what it does if it doesn't dock first time.

They're catching up with us I tells ya!

Thats pretty poor though isn't it?

Im going to be in the market for one, but i dont need to be getting something needing lots of IT style updates and general frigging around. I need buy, install, mow. Sure, i get it needs mechanical attention though.

This is partly driven by the fact i will struggle with that kind of stuff. But still....................

[Zoon]

monkfish1 said:

Thats pretty poor though isn't it?

Im going to be in the market for one, but i dont need to be getting something needing lots of IT style updates and general frigging around. I need buy, install, mow. Sure, i get it needs mechanical attention though.

This is partly driven by the fact i will struggle with that kind of stuff. But still....................

Flymo is perfect in that respect.

[monkfish1]

Zoon said:

Flymo is perfect in that respect.

Good to know. What model is yours? Ive got 1/3rd acre to do.

[Zoon]

monkfish1 said:

Good to know. What model is yours? Ive got 1/3rd acre to do.

1200R, specs say it will do 400m² but I know a few people using them on an acre with no issues.

[monkfish1]

Zoon said:

1200R, specs say it will do 400m² but I know a few people using them on an acre with no issues.

Thanks

[PhilboSE]

Just bought a new house which has a path running all the way through the garden. The path is edged with metal liners that are proud of the lawn height, and the path itself is made of medium sized pebbles (much larger than pea shingle) which can be 1"-2" deep in places. I very much doubt that a robomower would be able to cross the path as it is in order to mow both sides. Turfed part of the garden is just about 1500m2 (56m long and 26m wide) and just a few trees which I'm sure the average robomower could handle. Currently taking 3 hours to mow and £75 per time if I pay someone else to do it, which means that a robomower would pay for itself in a year or so.

If I were to make a crossing point in the path for the mower, can a robomower be programmed how to transit between the sides? Or would I be better off with two mowers, one per side of the path? The path is offset to one side, so the lawn split is about 90:10.

Edited by PhilboSE on Friday 8th June 13:45

[Zoon]

With the flymo there is an additional guide wire which you route to remote areas so that the mower knows to cut there.
As long as the path to the other lawn is passable you should be fine.

[Sandy59]

One option might be to make a crossing on the path with slabs and run the wire under them for the mower to follow.
You can usually program different start points, so this would control which side it actually starts cutting on each time it leaves the docking station for example.

[Retrospek]

Hi All,

Glad to have found this thread.. I bought the Flymo 1200 a few weeks ago.. On the whole I'm very happy with it. However, the one issue I do have is the mower always seems to take the same track on the guide wire when it returns to base.. This is causing me to have some pretty bad track lines in the grass.

I read the manual and it appears to imply that the mower will adjust to be a different distance from the guide wire when it return to base to stop these track lines - but mine doesn't appear to do that as it always follows the guide wire exactly each time. Anyone else got this issue ?

Also, I would be interested to know what cutting height people are running these mowers at ? Especially the Flymo ?

Cheers,

[Chris Type R]

Retrospek said:

- but mine doesn't appear to do that as it always follows the guide wire exactly each time.

Also, I would be interested to know what cutting height people are running these mowers at ?

Sounds like yours is set to short-cut mode

[kryten22uk]

Retrospek said:

Hi All,

Glad to have found this thread.. I bought the Flymo 1200 a few weeks ago.. On the whole I'm very happy with it. However, the one issue I do have is the mower always seems to take the same track on the guide wire when it returns to base.. This is causing me to have some pretty bad track lines in the grass.

I read the manual and it appears to imply that the mower will adjust to be a different distance from the guide wire when it return to base to stop these track lines - but mine doesn't appear to do that as it always follows the guide wire exactly each time. Anyone else got this issue ?

Also, I would be interested to know what cutting height people are running these mowers at ? Especially the Flymo ?

Cheers,

My Flymo does seem to vary the home runs, so I don't have any track marks. I have it set on its highest cutting height currently.

[Retrospek]

kryten22uk said:

My Flymo does seem to vary the home runs, so I don't have any track marks. I have it set on its highest cutting height currently.

Thanks - but weird - I wonder why mine does. It always takes the same track back to the docking station... It doesn't vary it at all..

[James-gbg1e]

I've had my Husqvarna Automower 420 for about 3 months now, couldn't be happier with it! Everybody comments on how good my grass looks.

[Ean218]

PhilboSE said:

If I were to make a crossing point in the path for the mower, can a robomower be programmed how to transit between the sides? Or would I be better off with two mowers, one per side of the path? The path is offset to one side, so the lawn split is about 90:10.

I wouldn't bother.

We have two small patches of grass set apart from the main lawn by a gravel path. The boundary wire has been laid around these two as well and as the Flymo/McCulloch/Husqvarna machines have a manual mode it means the mower can be placed in these satellite areas, mows for an hour or so and is then put back on charge. As they are relatively small they only need cutting once a week so it is not exactly an onerous task.

[PhilboSE]

Ean218 said:

PhilboSE said:

If I were to make a crossing point in the path for the mower, can a robomower be programmed how to transit between the sides? Or would I be better off with two mowers, one per side of the path? The path is offset to one side, so the lawn split is about 90:10.

I wouldn't bother.

We have two small patches of grass set apart from the main lawn by a gravel path. The boundary wire has been laid around these two as well and as the Flymo/McCulloch/Husqvarna machines have a manual mode it means the mower can be placed in these satellite areas, mows for an hour or so and is then put back on charge. As they are relatively small they only need cutting once a week so it is not exactly an onerous task.

Thanks (and to others) for the thoughts. I did a bit of a site survey today, bizarrely there's no external power sockets anywhere so I've got a bit of work to do. The easiest place to have power is actually on the "thin" bit of grass to the right. The path is actually not very nice to walk on, bit like walking on a beach, the pebbles are too large and deep. I think what I'll do is replace the pebbles and the metal edge trim and with a stone slab path below grass level, and then the whole garden will be a single area and the robomower can just trundle over the path.

I did quite a lot of research over the weekend; mowers specified for my 1500m2 seem to be around the £2000+ mark (Husqvarna 430X, Robomow RS615u, Stihl MI632P) apart from the Worx Landroid WG798E which is half the price at £1000. I like what I've read about Worx though this has mostly been for smaller capacity versions - anyone got any experience of the WG798E?

[Podie]

Retrospek said:

kryten22uk said:

My Flymo does seem to vary the home runs, so I don't have any track marks. I have it set on its highest cutting height currently.

Thanks - but weird - I wonder why mine does. It always takes the same track back to the docking station... It doesn't vary it at all..

Happened to be in the garden over the weekend and watched ours return to the dock on a couple of occasions. I'd say it runs 20-30cm either side of the "home" wire. Certainly no tracks in the grass.


Treated ours to new blades and screws as well.

Edited by Podie on Monday 11th June 10:39

[Zoon]

Retrospek said:

Thanks - but weird - I wonder why mine does. It always takes the same track back to the docking station... It doesn't vary it at all..

There is a setting that you can change which enables this. Although I think it is switched on by default.

[James-gbg1e]

PhilboSE said:

Thanks (and to others) for the thoughts. I did a bit of a site survey today, bizarrely there's no external power sockets anywhere so I've got a bit of work to do. The easiest place to have power is actually on the "thin" bit of grass to the right. The path is actually not very nice to walk on, bit like walking on a beach, the pebbles are too large and deep. I think what I'll do is replace the pebbles and the metal edge trim and with a stone slab path below grass level, and then the whole garden will be a single area and the robomower can just trundle over the path.

I did quite a lot of research over the weekend; mowers specified for my 1500m2 seem to be around the £2000+ mark (Husqvarna 430X, Robomow RS615u, Stihl MI632P) apart from the Worx Landroid WG798E which is half the price at £1000. I like what I've read about Worx though this has mostly been for smaller capacity versions - anyone got any experience of the WG798E?

My Husqvarna 420 cost me £1649 and included a Husq strimmer worth £200. It's cutting my 1700sqm garden admirably.

Got mine from Sam Turner.

https://pricespy.co.uk/home-garden/gardening-tools...

[wjwren]

how easy is it to use a strimmer round the edge to cut the grass without scalping it?

[Zoon]

wjwren said:

how easy is it to use a strimmer round the edge to cut the grass without scalping it?

If you've got an ounce of hand eye coordination, very easy.