Robot mowers

[mikeiow]

33q said:

I have mine treated and it doesn't seem to be an issue

Ahh, nice: I assumed the treated cuttings would be bad....perhaps not!

TimJMS said:

Feed, weed and top dress mine too. No issues. I sometimes pause the robots for a couple of days after feeding though.

Yeah, the pause makes sense!

thanks!

[Notrial]

ash73 said:

They are programmed to use a random distance up to 1m to the right of the guide wire (left on return), to avoid leaving tracks by using the same path every time.

You are absolutely correct.
Today it was on top of the wire going to the remote area, then in the afternoon about 30cm right of the wire.

I guess there is no way to stop that behaviour (robonnect maybe?). Either that or building a wider bridge I guess

[snake_oil]

I'm not entirely convinced the bridge is the issue. I have a small gap of around 1m width between my primary and secondary areas. It's only 1m deep as well though so is effectively a 1m square joining two lawns.

I've never had any issues with my setup.

I am confused as to why his mower doesn't follow the guide wire straight out of the base station when set to remote start... I am wondering if it's because there is not enough width either side due to the narrow corridor it's in.

[crashley]

Has anyone got any lawn photos where they're using robot mowers? I'm seriously tempted but concerned the OCD in me won't appreciate the lack of lines/random squidliness.

[mikeiow]

crashley said:

Has anyone got any lawn photos where they're using robot mowers? I'm seriously tempted but concerned the OCD in me won't appreciate the lack of lines/random squidliness.

We have a decent-sized lawn at a holiday home, and Rob O'Mow has been named Employee of the Year 2018-19

Out in all weathers, minimal intervention needed.....
This lawn, in previous years, would be patchy, brown and have mole hills. Every year, for many years.
Deployed Rob about 15 months ago: the moles have kept away.

In this shot, you can just see at the bottom the start of the end of the garden where he does not mow:


View from rougher end of the garden he doesn't touch:


Home is where the Rob Lives:


Someone described the lawn as being more 'carpet-like', & I think that is a fair description. Yes, I too like stripes....but in this instance, I also like not having to pay for 2 hours work needed just to mow every week!

[Notrial]

snake_oil said:

I'm not entirely convinced the bridge is the issue. I have a small gap of around 1m width between my primary and secondary areas. It's only 1m deep as well though so is effectively a 1m square joining two lawns.

I've never had any issues with my setup.

I am confused as to why his mower doesn't follow the guide wire straight out of the base station when set to remote start... I am wondering if it's because there is not enough width either side due to the narrow corridor it's in.

I did some extensive research and testing. It definitely randomly selects the distance from he guidewire in order to avoid making tracks.

In the meantime I've installed Robonect HX+, and there is a setting in there where you can actually tweak the offset from the guide-wire (when remote start is set). Setting it to 1 (there is a 1-9 slider) it always stays on top of the guidewire going to the remote start location. Plus there is a setting for secondary remote start (which only more expensive models have), but I haven't tested it yet.

This solves my problem, and basically I can have a bridge that's only 70-80cm wide now (I will do 1m just in case...).

[Rib]

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/worx-landroid-s-3...

might be of interest tro some

[33q]

Here’s mine in action. Garage in the background. I do need to do the edges though.

[TimJMS]

mikeiow said:

Snip...

Home is where the Rob Lives:

Call that a Robohome?

this is a Robohome...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmftLd7JJ0g&t=...

[mikeiow]

Rib said:

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/worx-landroid-s-3...

might be of interest to some

That's like the unit we have here. A bit more troublesome to us: I think I mentioned before, but there is a blade guard fitted which we found gouged any slight "hills" near edges....taken some fiddling, but does do to the edge better
Ours was as £250 on an Amazon deals day. Worth keeping an eye out!

[Zoon]

TimJMS said:

Call that a Robohome?

this is a Robohome...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmftLd7JJ0g&t=...

Some of the wiring looks questionable on that, wonder how well the electrics fare when the pit fills with water?

[dynamomomo]

Fun question time.

The base unit is flashing a yellow light and Rob has started to get stranded in the middle of the garden with an empty battery, indicating a break in the guide wire.

Any easy ways to find out where, short of digging up my whole garden? I wish he could somehow follow it to the point of the break then... I dunno, spin or something. Haha. (Yes, I tried the AM radio. No, it didn’t work.)

[Zoon]

dynamomomo said:

Fun question time.

The base unit is flashing a yellow light and Rob has started to get stranded in the middle of the garden with an empty battery, indicating a break in the guide wire.

Any easy ways to find out where, short of digging up my whole garden? I wish he could somehow follow it to the point of the break then... I dunno, spin or something. Haha. (Yes, I tried the AM radio. No, it didn’t work.)

Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on? Serious question.
Mine had a flashing red light and it was due to a power cut, disconnected the PSU and it came back to normal.

Unless the mower has cut through the cable I'm not aware of the guide wire being damaged by much else.

[TimJMS]

Snip -

dynamomomo said:

..... (Yes, I tried the AM radio. No, it didn’t work.)

The only time the AM radio trick hasn't worked for me is when I forgot to disconnect one of the two perimeter wire connections on the connector block in the charging head.

[dynamomomo]

Zoon said:

dynamomomo said:

Fun question time.

The base unit is flashing a yellow light and Rob has started to get stranded in the middle of the garden with an empty battery, indicating a break in the guide wire.

Any easy ways to find out where, short of digging up my whole garden? I wish he could somehow follow it to the point of the break then... I dunno, spin or something. Haha. (Yes, I tried the AM radio. No, it didn’t work.)

Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on? Serious question.
Mine had a flashing red light and it was due to a power cut, disconnected the PSU and it came back to normal.

Unless the mower has cut through the cable I'm not aware of the guide wire being damaged by much else.

That was weird. Got home and he was working fine with a green light on the base unit. Obviously didn’t fix anything myself. He’s been docking and undocking just fine.... but if I test the charging station through the secret menu (7 and 9!), then it indicates fault with the guide wire and something called F?

[durbster]

I finally joined the club about six weeks ago with a Mcculloch Rob S400.

The only downside has been the dogst-seeking mode that I don't seem to be able to turn off. Three times now I've done a sweep of the garden ten minutes before the mower's scheduled, the dog sneaks another one out while I'm not looking and within seconds of the mower leaving the base station, it's got a brown smudge stuck to one of its wheels.

Apart from that, I love it.

Anyway, I did have a point: for those who have been using them for a while, how do you decide when to pack it all up for winter? Temperatures are starting to get close to freezing which makes me nervous, but the grass still has a little bit of growing I think. I'm not sure what should trigger the decision.

And do you leave the base stations out or put that away too and cover up the end of the wires?

[mikeiow]

Last year ours was only popped in the garage from about Nov to Feb....it was quite mild.

It does feel like the grass isn’t growing so much now....although here in the Midlands the overnight temps are still above 7-8 degrees,
Didn’t put the base station away last winter. Too much faff.....
Probs the same this year. Makes sense to charge him every now & then: wondering about making a box to cover him up switched off but plugged in!

[pdavison]

I keep coming back to this thread and robot mowers but still haven't been able to make a decision.

I've roughly measured my lawn and it's about 650m2 with relatively gentle slopes. My big concern was the leaves as we have lots of trees but my think is by the time the big leaf drop happens I'll probably be putting the mower in hibernation anyway.

So having spoken to a couple of suppliers and read lots on here I'm still not sure what the best option will be. I was thinking that going for something with a greater capacity (lawn size wise) would be a good idea so the thing isn't mowing constantly but still not sure if I should be spending circa £600 or closer to £1k (which I'd rather not do!).

So would really appreciate any pointers and, is this time of year a good time to grab a deal as people are starting to put them away for winter?

[jodypress]

pdavison said:

I keep coming back to this thread and robot mowers but still haven't been able to make a decision.

I've roughly measured my lawn and it's about 650m2 with relatively gentle slopes. My big concern was the leaves as we have lots of trees but my think is by the time the big leaf drop happens I'll probably be putting the mower in hibernation anyway.

So having spoken to a couple of suppliers and read lots on here I'm still not sure what the best option will be. I was thinking that going for something with a greater capacity (lawn size wise) would be a good idea so the thing isn't mowing constantly but still not sure if I should be spending circa £600 or closer to £1k (which I'd rather not do!).

So would really appreciate any pointers and, is this time of year a good time to grab a deal as people are starting to put them away for winter?

I'd thoroughly recommend a robot mower. My rear garden is approx 900m2 and split in 2 sections. Also has 2 goals, a large trampoline and a climbing frame etc. All obstacles I had to put the boundary wire around. Having used a self propelled 48cm lawn mower the last 2 years this summer has been a revelation with "Bob" (my toddler named him). I bought a Worx 105sr last October and didn't install until March this year. Had a few teething troubles mainly to do with docking station which Worx replaced under warranty. (Their customer service was great). I've got a lot of stress around d the garden and Bob just ploughs through them. The lawn hasn't been I a better stated tbh.
He's having a few weeks off atm as I've done the Autumn MOT of weed killer, scarifying and overseeing.
I think he'll be back out until I start to see temps really drop.

The trickiest part was setting up the boundary around the goals and they will move around a hit when the kids play football so have to remember to put them back.
Oh and I got a deal o n the mower as bought off season. (Paid about £260 if I remember)

[pdavison]

ash73 said:

pdavison said:

I've roughly measured my lawn and it's about 650m2 with relatively gentle slopes. My big concern was the leaves as we have lots of trees but my think is by the time the big leaf drop happens I'll probably be putting the mower in hibernation anyway.

My lawn is about the same size and I bought a McCulloch R1000, Amazon drop the price from time to time. It saves a lot of work and means the green bin can be used for other things. You don't get nice stripes but it looks neat all the time like a golf course fairway.

As you say the only problem is leaves, it ignores them so I use my old lawn mower to pick them up at this time of year.

Thanks for the advice, what sort of price would you say is good for the R1000?

The other model I'd spotted was a Yard Force X-Series X100i, anyone have any opinions on that one?