Robot mowers

[wjwren]

^ mine isnt in a garage either but I do know from experience that the cold kills the li-on batteries so I bring mine in when I stop using it October time.

[Dan_1981]

Does anyone do a mower for smaller lawns?

I don't need anything near 800 sqm but I do need a robot mower.

[wjwren]

^ mine is only 80sqm. I dont really need one but bought it for the hell of it and its one less thing to do. Also the grass looks better been cut every day.

[jcremonini]

kryten22uk said:

jcremonini said:

I also bought a cheap (well £82) garage to keep it out of direct sunlight. So glad I did what with the current temperatures.

Why does sunlight or temperatures make any difference? Mine is exposed 24/7, and has no problems. It's what it's built to cope with.

I guess you didn't bother reading the manual then. Page 11. It doesn't say you will have problems, it's just a recommendation - anything with a battery in it is best kept in lower temperatures I would have thought.

It's also mentioned in the flymo video.

[Chris Type R]

Chris Type R said:

Podie said:

You know it’s bright fking orange...?

I'm quite confident it'll go unnoticed for a couple of weeks.

Day #1, it's been unpacked and charging on the floor of my home office today. Missus has walked past it and the box a few times and not noticed/commented.

[Podie]

kryten22uk said:

jcremonini said:

I also bought a cheap (well £82) garage to keep it out of direct sunlight. So glad I did what with the current temperatures.

Why does sunlight or temperatures make any difference? Mine is exposed 24/7, and has no problems. It's what it's built to cope with.

Ours lives under trees. Pigeons are dirty bastids and it’s easier to clear bird st off the smooth garage surface than the undulating mower one.

Manual advises you to bring them in over winter / under 4C

[pdavison]

Spotted Amazon have the McCulloch ROB 1000 at under £500, any thoughts as to whether it’s a good option at that sort of price?

I’ve got quite a large lawn that has lots of trees so leaves fall regularly! Do they cope with that sort of thing?

[snake_oil]

Timely bump. I'm setting my McCulloch up today. Also noticed the price was cheap at the moment.

[Podie]

pdavison said:

Spotted Amazon have the McCulloch ROB 1000 at under £500, any thoughts as to whether it’s a good option at that sort of price?

I’ve got quite a large lawn that has lots of trees so leaves fall regularly! Do they cope with that sort of thing?

Dry are fine, as is the odd wet one.

When we get to leaf fall time I usually clear the leaves first.

[snake_oil]

I've come up short on boundary wire

Is it anything special or just copper core stuff? Husqvarna want 90 quid for a roll!

[Podie]

snake_oil said:

I've come up short on boundary wire

Is it anything special or just copper core stuff? Husqvarna want 90 quid for a roll!

Bosch stuff on Amazon is 34 quid for 100 metres

[pdavison]

So at £469 worth a shot do we think, appears cheap compared to others and what I’ve seen them selling for previously?

Edited by pdavison on Saturday 11th August 23:44

[snake_oil]

Podie said:

Bosch stuff on Amazon is 34 quid for 100 metres

Cheers I found and ordered that earlier this afternoon and it arrives tomorrow.

I'd congratulated myself that the 200m supplied *just* reached the base unit with about 20cm to spare laying the boundary... then realised the guide wire needs to be cut from the same reel... FFS

[snake_oil]

OK so 'Mo' is all set up and doing his thing. It appears I've got everything setup okay including a daisy-chained set of 'islands' around my allotment beds, so we're all good.

Only issue is I struggle to see how he'll cope with the size of the garden, I hadn't realised how long it would have to be running to cope with the garden size. I'm around 1000 sqm so the recommended running time in the manual is 20 hours a day, 7 days a week! Didn't realise that, thought in advance maybe 8 hours a day would have it covered and it could do that overnight (I do accept my research may have been lacking).

Reason I mention it is we have children and also are quite active in the garden. It's a bit distracting playing games etc having a mower constantly going round effectively 24/7.

Anyone else see this as an issue?

[snake_oil]

Pegs. No drama there and yes I see it as a test installation for the first couple of weeks to see how it gets on. It's also prompted me to do some garden tidying and organising, which is nice.

[Podie]

We buried the cable. Took our time and cut the turf. Added the odd peg, but it’s been fine.

[Podie]

snake_oil said:

OK so 'Mo' is all set up and doing his thing. It appears I've got everything setup okay including a daisy-chained set of 'islands' around my allotment beds, so we're all good.

Only issue is I struggle to see how he'll cope with the size of the garden, I hadn't realised how long it would have to be running to cope with the garden size. I'm around 1000 sqm so the recommended running time in the manual is 20 hours a day, 7 days a week! Didn't realise that, thought in advance maybe 8 hours a day would have it covered and it could do that overnight (I do accept my research may have been lacking).

Reason I mention it is we have children and also are quite active in the garden. It's a bit distracting playing games etc having a mower constantly going round effectively 24/7.

Anyone else see this as an issue?

Ours is quiet enough to run at night - could be an option?

We typically find it takes a few days at the beginning of the season for it to get everything cut. Stick it in your preferred hours and give it a week and see how it’s doing.

[snake_oil]

Yes it's certainly quiet enough for nighttime running and that's how I've set it up, but still. 20 hours is 20 hours... Anyway I'll see how it pans out.

[Podie]

I've put our transformer indoors - but in your case I'd be tempted with one of those waterproof box things.

[Flibble]

IPX4 is splashproof from any direction with a water rate of 10 litres per minute. It should be fine for leaving in the rain.