Robot mowers

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Discussion

kryten22uk

2,344 posts

232 months

Sunday 4th September 2022
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Spent a good few hours this afternoon trying to find the break in the boundary wire, as I had the blue flashing light on the Flymo 1200R. My usual tricks were not coming up trumps and I had pulled out most of the wire by the end and had cut out a few dodgy bits but nothing worked.

In the end it was simply the purple connection plug on the wire that connects to the base station! Simply corroded over time and lost connection. Simple to remove the purple plug, cut a 2cm off the wire and reattach the plug.

Just something to think about or test first if your system is a couple years old and you get the boundary error.

bennno

11,677 posts

270 months

Sunday 4th September 2022
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kryten22uk said:
Spent a good few hours this afternoon trying to find the break in the boundary wire, as I had the blue flashing light on the Flymo 1200R. My usual tricks were not coming up trumps and I had pulled out most of the wire by the end and had cut out a few dodgy bits but nothing worked.

In the end it was simply the purple connection plug on the wire that connects to the base station! Simply corroded over time and lost connection. Simple to remove the purple plug, cut a 2cm off the wire and reattach the plug.

Just something to think about or test first if your system is a couple years old and you get the boundary error.
Where can you get replacement purple plugs?

Zoon

6,718 posts

122 months

Monday 5th September 2022
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bennno said:
Where can you get replacement purple plugs?
Amazon have them

kryten22uk

2,344 posts

232 months

Monday 5th September 2022
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bennno said:
Where can you get replacement purple plugs?
You don't really need replacements you just open them and remove the old wire and reuse them. They aren't like the gel connectors which are one-use. But yeah amazon if you want.

bennno

11,677 posts

270 months

Monday 5th September 2022
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kryten22uk said:
bennno said:
Where can you get replacement purple plugs?
You don't really need replacements you just open them and remove the old wire and reuse them. They aren't like the gel connectors which are one-use. But yeah amazon if you want.
You do when your wife helped you remove the mower before the digger drove in to the back garden…. Now purchased, thank you

Bam89

632 posts

102 months

Monday 5th September 2022
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Bought our first house a few months ago, one of the selling points was the garden, which has approx 30m x 10m of lawn.

Up to now we’ve kept on the gardener the previous owner used, but he’s not the cheapest so I’m considering getting a robot mower.

The garden is mostly flat, with a couple of bumpy sections and goes slightly downhill.

Have read through some of the thread, but are there any go to brands/models that would suit my needs best? Not fussed about brand or how it looks

durbster

10,288 posts

223 months

Tuesday 6th September 2022
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Bam89 said:
Bought our first house a few months ago, one of the selling points was the garden, which has approx 30m x 10m of lawn.

Up to now we’ve kept on the gardener the previous owner used, but he’s not the cheapest so I’m considering getting a robot mower.

The garden is mostly flat, with a couple of bumpy sections and goes slightly downhill.

Have read through some of the thread, but are there any go to brands/models that would suit my needs best? Not fussed about brand or how it looks
That's pretty much the same size as my lawn and I've got a McCulloch Rob S400 which does the job nicely. Mine's flat but I doubt it'd struggle with a but of a gradient.

gregch

313 posts

70 months

Tuesday 6th September 2022
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Really happy with our Flymo Easilife 350, FWIW - he copes with quite a bumpy bit of lawn pretty well.

joestifff

785 posts

107 months

Friday 30th September 2022
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Had to Husqvarna 310 mk2 now running for 3 weeks, and the lawn has never looked better.

The first couple of days it looked fairly awful with random marks crossing over everywhere, but the installers did warn us about that.

I have found myself following it around on a night, sure the neighbours think I am mad.

Couple of questions though, when do you put them away for winter, I know it has not been cutting loads this week, as the grass has hardly grown, but next week is a warm one, so I imagine that it will shoot up again. Is it before the first frost, once the grass has definitely stopped?

Also, how much are they to run? I have not noticed a difference in our energy usage that I track. it only has a 1.3ah battery, and runs 8pm until 6am. So probably charges 5 times maybe. My (jealous) neighbour told me I'd be looking at £15 a week minimum!! But that seems very very high!

M1AGM

2,374 posts

33 months

Friday 30th September 2022
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joestifff said:
Had to Husqvarna 310 mk2 now running for 3 weeks, and the lawn has never looked better.

The first couple of days it looked fairly awful with random marks crossing over everywhere, but the installers did warn us about that.

I have found myself following it around on a night, sure the neighbours think I am mad.

Couple of questions though, when do you put them away for winter, I know it has not been cutting loads this week, as the grass has hardly grown, but next week is a warm one, so I imagine that it will shoot up again. Is it before the first frost, once the grass has definitely stopped?

Also, how much are they to run? I have not noticed a difference in our energy usage that I track. it only has a 1.3ah battery, and runs 8pm until 6am. So probably charges 5 times maybe. My (jealous) neighbour told me I'd be looking at £15 a week minimum!! But that seems very very high!
I have a 450x and have never noticed any significant draw on power when it is charging. The tech spec for the 310 (I have one of those too) quotes 25w when cutting, so not much at all.

Regarding winter, I expect everyone has 'their' way. Because I have a lot of trees about I will turn it off and store it when the leaves start to fall as it causes problems with the mower, and recommission it once the spring arrives. A gardener once told me running them over damp mornings is a good thing for clearing the dew to allow the grass to get better light, but I have no idea if that is the case or not.

sidekickdmr

5,078 posts

207 months

Friday 30th September 2022
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My Husky mower had 2 spots it seems to get stuck in, and of course it seems to make a beeline for them both all the time!

one is down a hill with a tree at the bottom, so it cant reverse as its up hill and it cant go forwards as its up against a baby tree.

Other is just the edge of the lawn, they buried the wire too close and it drops off a little and has dug 2 big holes with its wheels and gets stuck there.

Is it just a case of putting some pressed down stones/gravel there so it can get traction?

joestifff

785 posts

107 months

Friday 30th September 2022
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sidekickdmr said:
My Husky mower had 2 spots it seems to get stuck in, and of course it seems to make a beeline for them both all the time!

one is down a hill with a tree at the bottom, so it cant reverse as its up hill and it cant go forwards as its up against a baby tree.

Other is just the edge of the lawn, they buried the wire too close and it drops off a little and has dug 2 big holes with its wheels and gets stuck there.

Is it just a case of putting some pressed down stones/gravel there so it can get traction?
You could try changing the drive over wire limit by increasing it. To stop it falling over the edge.

Not sure about near the tree. Gravel? An obstacle between the hill and tree to stop it getting close?

monkfish1

11,128 posts

225 months

Friday 30th September 2022
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After 2 years, my imow 422 has fell over. Contant hood blocked fault.

A strip down and removel of debris worked. For 2 days.

Had to admit defeat and get it looked at. Been good up to now.

sidekickdmr

5,078 posts

207 months

Wednesday 12th October 2022
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When do people tend to pack their RM's away for the year?

(I guess I'm asking when does the grass stop growing, as its hard to know when its kept constantly short with a RM)


deckster

9,630 posts

256 months

Wednesday 12th October 2022
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In these days of ever-milder winters it never really stops growing! But I put George into hibernation once we've had a couple of frosts, mainly because it doesn't do the battery any good to be out in sub-zero temperatures.

joestifff

785 posts

107 months

Wednesday 12th October 2022
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Considering putting mine away in the next couple of weeks, grass doesn't really seem to be growing up North, just the mower going out on a night for a jolly, going back to charge and repeat!

Although it does knock a lot of the dew off the grass, which I am told is a positive!

I still can't work out how much they cost to run, I was expecting to see maybe a small uplift in usage. But I honestly haven't. My neighbour telling me they cost £25 a week in electricity, got me thinking.

The best I have got it worked out, and please correct me if I am wrong, as it seems insanely cheap to me:

Husqvarna 310mk2 per the website it has a 2.1Ah 18v battery, which I make 0.04kWh.

Say it charges for about 5 hours a night then 5 x 0.04 = 0.2kW and at todays price of about 33p = 7p
Boundary wire uses power, I read somewhere, and now cannot find, that it is about 2 watts so that's 0.002 x 24 hours x 33p = call it 2p

So 9p a day to run.

This seems overly cheap to me, wonder if my calcs are out by a factor of ten somewhere, I may have to buy one of those usage meters just to end my curiosity.

M1AGM

2,374 posts

33 months

Wednesday 12th October 2022
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joestifff said:
Considering putting mine away in the next couple of weeks, grass doesn't really seem to be growing up North, just the mower going out on a night for a jolly, going back to charge and repeat!

Although it does knock a lot of the dew off the grass, which I am told is a positive!

I still can't work out how much they cost to run, I was expecting to see maybe a small uplift in usage. But I honestly haven't. My neighbour telling me they cost £25 a week in electricity, got me thinking.

The best I have got it worked out, and please correct me if I am wrong, as it seems insanely cheap to me:

Husqvarna 310mk2 per the website it has a 2.1Ah 18v battery, which I make 0.04kWh.

Say it charges for about 5 hours a night then 5 x 0.04 = 0.2kW and at todays price of about 33p = 7p
Boundary wire uses power, I read somewhere, and now cannot find, that it is about 2 watts so that's 0.002 x 24 hours x 33p = call it 2p

So 9p a day to run.

This seems overly cheap to me, wonder if my calcs are out by a factor of ten somewhere, I may have to buy one of those usage meters just to end my curiosity.
How do you know it charges for 5 hours a night? Is it cutting for 19 hours?

Work out roughly how many hours of cutting it does a day and multiply that by 25w. My schedule is 1100-2200 so being overly generous 11 hours (will be less than that as it will recharge during the schedule as well) at 25w = 275w a day, 8kwh a month, at 33p per kwh is less than £2 a month. Is your neighbour a shade of green since you got a robot mower?

joestifff

785 posts

107 months

Wednesday 12th October 2022
quotequote all
M1AGM said:
joestifff said:
Considering putting mine away in the next couple of weeks, grass doesn't really seem to be growing up North, just the mower going out on a night for a jolly, going back to charge and repeat!

Although it does knock a lot of the dew off the grass, which I am told is a positive!

I still can't work out how much they cost to run, I was expecting to see maybe a small uplift in usage. But I honestly haven't. My neighbour telling me they cost £25 a week in electricity, got me thinking.

The best I have got it worked out, and please correct me if I am wrong, as it seems insanely cheap to me:

Husqvarna 310mk2 per the website it has a 2.1Ah 18v battery, which I make 0.04kWh.

Say it charges for about 5 hours a night then 5 x 0.04 = 0.2kW and at todays price of about 33p = 7p
Boundary wire uses power, I read somewhere, and now cannot find, that it is about 2 watts so that's 0.002 x 24 hours x 33p = call it 2p

So 9p a day to run.

This seems overly cheap to me, wonder if my calcs are out by a factor of ten somewhere, I may have to buy one of those usage meters just to end my curiosity.
How do you know it charges for 5 hours a night? Is it cutting for 19 hours?

Work out roughly how many hours of cutting it does a day and multiply that by 25w. My schedule is 1100-2200 so being overly generous 11 hours (will be less than that as it will recharge during the schedule as well) at 25w = 275w a day, 8kwh a month, at 33p per kwh is less than £2 a month. Is your neighbour a shade of green since you got a robot mower?
My app on my phone tells me a fair few stats that make it seem for the ten hours I let it out at night, it cuts for about 5 and charges for 5. Mine is also only running for 6 days a week. It also tells me it’s done 144km. Bonkers.

We are coming to a very similar figure. So we both must be about right. Over egging it. And including the boundary wire. I make it £2.40 a month.

Yes he is a shade of green. My grass has never looked better. It’s lovely only having to strim round edges and trees, and cut the front lawn. Should have got one sooner!!!

fiatpower

3,051 posts

172 months

Wednesday 12th October 2022
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Last year mine was out until deep in December and back out in early March. I also bring it in when the frosts start arriving regularly.

Currently mine isn't cutting as I have a blue light with no obvious breaks. Last time I had this I made a test wire and had to go the full way around the garden until I found the break hidden in the ground. Looks like i'll be spending an hour or so this weekend doing that again.

elanfan

5,521 posts

228 months

Thursday 13th October 2022
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[quote=fiatpower

Currently mine isn't cutting as I have a blue light with no obvious breaks. Last time I had this I made a test wire and had to go the full way around the garden until I found the break hidden in the ground. Looks like i'll be spending an hour or so this weekend doing that again.
[/quote]


See my post on the last page 19th July. You’ll find the break very quickly