Discussion
Anybody got one?
I already have a robot vacuum cleaner, which I don't regret buying at all. The mowers are a tad on the expensive side, but they have dropped a bit recently (at least the Flymo has) which tempts me.
However, most (including the Flymo) seem to use random patterns, meaning they take - literally - hours to cut your grass each time and that seems ridiculous. So I'm currently favouring the Bosch Indego, if I can persuade myself that it's worth spending that amount of money to save myself the trouble of cutting my grass manually (which admittedly only takes about 15 mins).
I already have a robot vacuum cleaner, which I don't regret buying at all. The mowers are a tad on the expensive side, but they have dropped a bit recently (at least the Flymo has) which tempts me.
However, most (including the Flymo) seem to use random patterns, meaning they take - literally - hours to cut your grass each time and that seems ridiculous. So I'm currently favouring the Bosch Indego, if I can persuade myself that it's worth spending that amount of money to save myself the trouble of cutting my grass manually (which admittedly only takes about 15 mins).
Andehh said:
Can't comment other then the reviews on Amazon....26 people rating it 4.5 out of 5 is a pretty good metric to go off!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flymo-Lithium-ion-Robotic...
Yep, I saw them - but I really don't like the idea that it will be running pretty much all day to cut the grass. I think the "intelligent" ones make more sense, and in this price range that seems to basically mean the Bosch.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flymo-Lithium-ion-Robotic...
OK - it's a totally frivolous purchase, and I shouldn't have done it - but I have.
I was favouring the Bosch Indego and there are two varieties - the normal one (currently £950 in Amazon) and the Indego 1000 - which seems targetted to bigger lawns (which I don't need) and allows remote control with a phone app (which I obviously do - at least, as much as I "need" one of these in the first place!). That's currently £1025 + £10 delivery on Amazon (not available on Prime at the moment) and about £850 from other sellers. In reality, still a bit too pricey I thought.
However - I noticed from the Amazon reviews that one reviewer had bought his Indego 1000 from Amazon.de, at 999Eu - which works out a chunk cheaper than the UK. So I took a look - and by coincidence, today that is reduced to 799Eu - for Prime members only. However - although I'm a prime member, it wouldn't let me order at the prime member price.
Turns out, Prime membership is only to your domestic Amazon provider - so although I'm a prime member here, I'm not in Germany. But - it also turns out that Prime membership in Germany is half the cost it is here - 49Eu / £40.
It seemed too good a deal to ignore - although clearly, I will need to put a UK plug on, or use an adapter. Delivery will take a few days (they estimate delivery around the 10th - 11th) and still only cost me about £10 (18 Eu). So instead of the cheapest UK price I found of £850, it came in at £673.68 - plus £40 prime fee.
Interestingly - I assumed I could cancel the German prime membership once it turns up, but the wording of their T&Cs seems to imply that if you cancel it they will take back any saving you made by using prime - so although it's a free trial, you can't use it like this. However - it's relatively inexpensive so can run for the year and I'll cancel the renewal in April next year - guess there may be other things in the next 12 months which work out significantly cheaper from Germany (although I did browse my recent orders and most things looked the same).
Hopefully - no more manual grass cutting this year (apart from once more to get it in a state the robot can cope with).
I was favouring the Bosch Indego and there are two varieties - the normal one (currently £950 in Amazon) and the Indego 1000 - which seems targetted to bigger lawns (which I don't need) and allows remote control with a phone app (which I obviously do - at least, as much as I "need" one of these in the first place!). That's currently £1025 + £10 delivery on Amazon (not available on Prime at the moment) and about £850 from other sellers. In reality, still a bit too pricey I thought.
However - I noticed from the Amazon reviews that one reviewer had bought his Indego 1000 from Amazon.de, at 999Eu - which works out a chunk cheaper than the UK. So I took a look - and by coincidence, today that is reduced to 799Eu - for Prime members only. However - although I'm a prime member, it wouldn't let me order at the prime member price.
Turns out, Prime membership is only to your domestic Amazon provider - so although I'm a prime member here, I'm not in Germany. But - it also turns out that Prime membership in Germany is half the cost it is here - 49Eu / £40.
It seemed too good a deal to ignore - although clearly, I will need to put a UK plug on, or use an adapter. Delivery will take a few days (they estimate delivery around the 10th - 11th) and still only cost me about £10 (18 Eu). So instead of the cheapest UK price I found of £850, it came in at £673.68 - plus £40 prime fee.
Interestingly - I assumed I could cancel the German prime membership once it turns up, but the wording of their T&Cs seems to imply that if you cancel it they will take back any saving you made by using prime - so although it's a free trial, you can't use it like this. However - it's relatively inexpensive so can run for the year and I'll cancel the renewal in April next year - guess there may be other things in the next 12 months which work out significantly cheaper from Germany (although I did browse my recent orders and most things looked the same).
Hopefully - no more manual grass cutting this year (apart from once more to get it in a state the robot can cope with).
now you see you need the correct herbivore for the job. A goat will eat pretty much everything in your garden except the grass. What you need for grass is a sheep. sidekickdmr said:
My lawn is about 1/3 an acre, so would need the bigger "1000" one.
However one side of my (level) lawn drops off down a hill/cliff with no protection/fence, would my mover commit suicide immediately or can I bury a "no go" wire that it won’t cross?
It comes with the "no go" wire. My understanding is that you need to use this anyway, even if you have a flat square garden - it marks the perimeter and the mower will only work within that perimeter. Seems to be a common feature of all of them.However one side of my (level) lawn drops off down a hill/cliff with no protection/fence, would my mover commit suicide immediately or can I bury a "no go" wire that it won’t cross?
Condi said:
What benefit is there to an 'intelligent' one? The random ones seem to do a very good job from what Ive seen.
In reality, perhaps none. But it seems the random ones don't know where they've cut and hence have to run for many hours to cover the same area - that can't help the battery life, and I would prefer it was running for half an hour than half the day.Since I went the German route, the intelligent Bosch has cost about the same as the dumb Flymo - which was significantly cheaper than most brands anyway - so for me, there would have to be a big advantage to the non intelligent one to make it worth the same money.
JMC180 said:
What do you do about the unfinished edges?
Strimmer I guess - however, before laying the boundary wire I'm going to take some steps to miminise the need for this. About 2/3rds of my edges are flower beds - although as I mentioned they're pretty much 100% weeds. My neighbours recently had their garden dug up and re-turfed, and edged with paving blocks, which looks quite good. I figure my weed beds should now be edged with the same things, level with the grass - which should hopefully allow the mower to cut to the edge.Well, it arrived today so I've spent the evening laying the guide wire around the border of the garden. I initially started laying it slightly dug in but decided that was too much effort - at least until I prove it works.
Which it does - or at least, it navigates it's way around the garden. Since the grass was cut very recently anyway it's too early to say whether it's actually cutting anything!
One slight negative, is that although it's "intelligent" - it's actually pretty dumb at docking. It follows the guide wire back to the base, and looks on perfect course for the charging pins - but once it's on the base and millimetres from the pins, it often suddenly swivels slightly to the right - which means the front of the mower now hits the pins rather than slotting in to the holes.
It does eventually dock - sometimes it's first time, but more often it will take 2 or 3 attempts. It's a bit odd - the guide wire is definitely correct under the base. I'll see how it goes - since it does work eventually I suppose it doesn't matter, but I may delete the map and restart or maybe even not feed the wire in the guides on the underneath of the base and force it to come in slightly to the other side.
I'll give an update in a few weeks when I guess it will be obvious whether it's been keeping the grass cut.
Which it does - or at least, it navigates it's way around the garden. Since the grass was cut very recently anyway it's too early to say whether it's actually cutting anything!
One slight negative, is that although it's "intelligent" - it's actually pretty dumb at docking. It follows the guide wire back to the base, and looks on perfect course for the charging pins - but once it's on the base and millimetres from the pins, it often suddenly swivels slightly to the right - which means the front of the mower now hits the pins rather than slotting in to the holes.
It does eventually dock - sometimes it's first time, but more often it will take 2 or 3 attempts. It's a bit odd - the guide wire is definitely correct under the base. I'll see how it goes - since it does work eventually I suppose it doesn't matter, but I may delete the map and restart or maybe even not feed the wire in the guides on the underneath of the base and force it to come in slightly to the other side.
I'll give an update in a few weeks when I guess it will be obvious whether it's been keeping the grass cut.
I tried making it leave the base / return a few more times last night, and although it generally seemed OK it did fail to dock once and got completely stuck.
Anybody looking at my garden would say it's flat - however, it's actually a bit uneven. To put the base where I wanted it, it's actually on a very slight slope (and I do mean very slight) - so the mower is going very slightly uphill as it docks. Unfortunately, when the grass is wet, the wheels are wet, and the base is wet - this leads to some wheel spinning. In this case, the front of the mower was on the base, but the left rear wheel appeared to have found a slight dip and was spinning away so it couldn't dock. It's probably made worse by the fact that - due to trying to sort my garden out - some of the edges it's doing are more mud than grass, which means the tyre "tread" was caked in mud.
I had another brief trial this morning, and it had a major wheelspin when it got both rear wheels on the base, resulting in it going very sideways - but amazingly, it corrected itself immediately and docked first time.
The instructions do say that the base should be on level ground, so I may have to move it - if I move it about half a metre further up the garden, it should be flat so I will probably do that. Although that does mean I'll have to cut the cable on one side and join it to the other side.
Anybody looking at my garden would say it's flat - however, it's actually a bit uneven. To put the base where I wanted it, it's actually on a very slight slope (and I do mean very slight) - so the mower is going very slightly uphill as it docks. Unfortunately, when the grass is wet, the wheels are wet, and the base is wet - this leads to some wheel spinning. In this case, the front of the mower was on the base, but the left rear wheel appeared to have found a slight dip and was spinning away so it couldn't dock. It's probably made worse by the fact that - due to trying to sort my garden out - some of the edges it's doing are more mud than grass, which means the tyre "tread" was caked in mud.
I had another brief trial this morning, and it had a major wheelspin when it got both rear wheels on the base, resulting in it going very sideways - but amazingly, it corrected itself immediately and docked first time.
The instructions do say that the base should be on level ground, so I may have to move it - if I move it about half a metre further up the garden, it should be flat so I will probably do that. Although that does mean I'll have to cut the cable on one side and join it to the other side.
rfisher said:
It doesn't save the docking station position so you can now place this anywhere, as long as you leave a meter to the side of the station for it to get out.
It doesn't need to be able to get to the back of the station either.
Interesting - I assumed it did know the location of the docking station, but perhaps it just remembered where it started. But that does mean I can simply shift the docking station further along it's current line which will mean it's no longer on the slight slope. I sent it out earlier from work just to amuse myself, and it spent 15 mins trying to dock, so must have taken quite a few attempts!It doesn't need to be able to get to the back of the station either.
From watching it map the lawn last night, it does need to be able to get to the back of the dock when working out the initial perimeter, because that's how it knows it's finished. But I agree - it doesn't seem to need the 1m that the instructions would have you believe.
moles said:
How accurate is the Bosch one at following the buried cable?. I'm about to pull the trigger on one but I have almost a raised garden with flower beds all around the perimeter that are 2 inches lower than the lawn. Will it constantly be falling off the edge?. Also how does the mower follow the wire is it set to mow inside the wire or does the mower follow over the centre of it?. I am trying to work out where I would have to bury the wire (on the edge of the flowerbed, right on the line of the lawn edging or 5cm inside of the lawn edge)?. We have smartedge lawn edging which means burying the cable may be hard around the perimeter as the triangles that are pegged into the grass are unable to be removed now without mass destruction
It follows the wire over the centre of the mower - so you need to leave 35cm between wire and edge of lawn. It follows it when it maps the garden the first time, and when it does a border cut (every 4th mow) but usually it's mowing across the lawn and stops as it crosses the wire.I chose Bosch because I didn't want a dumb mower that was running randomly for 12 hours a day. I've programmed the Bosch to come out in the evenings and it's done in half an hour.
mikeiow said:
Okay, although I read that with the Flymo you can:
First review up at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flymo-Lithium-ion-Robotic... is pretty extensive.....I am tempted !!
True. However, because it uses a random pattern you need to cut for a long time / often to ensure the entire garden is covered.- "choose your cut times and days with the easy to use programmable schedule. The easy to use screen on the robot mower itself allows you to quickly set it up to the schedule so that you can ensure the lawn is cut when you are not using it. The regularity of the cutting is up to you and can be done every day if you require."
First review up at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flymo-Lithium-ion-Robotic... is pretty extensive.....I am tempted !!
I think it's probably true - I first looked a year or so back and all robot mowers seemed to be at least £1k. When I looked again a couple of weeks ago it was the flymo price that tempted me - it seemed to be reaching the kind of price I was willing to pay.
I was lucky that when I looked last week the Bosch was on offer in Germany for not much more than the flymo for one day.
I was lucky that when I looked last week the Bosch was on offer in Germany for not much more than the flymo for one day.
gottans said:
What is stopping someone nicking it while it is cutting the front lawn? Seems very vulnerable to me.
I don't have a front lawn. But you're right, it would be easy to carry away. It wouldn't be much use though - it's locked with a pin code and as soon as it's taken outside the perimeter wire it won't work. For some reason, mine is having a bad day.
I set it off this morning after I'd done some work in the garden - it launched itself at (relatively) turbo speed across the garden, straight into a flower bed and complained it was too far over the perimeter wire. Moved it and it seemed happy.
But on its scheduled cut this evening it reported 'idle on lawn'. It had stopped near the docking station for no real reason I could see.
Tried it a few times since then and it keeps going outside the perimeter - at different locations, and sometimes even when it seems to be following the border. I've deleted and remapped which didn't help.
I've just made sure the connection for the perimeter wire is good and relearned again. If that doesn't fix it I may be calling Bosch soon.
ETA : Same thing again as it was returning to base.
I think I will give it the benefit of the doubt and lay the perimeter wire again without a join (which I have because I moved the base slightly). But probably can't do that for a few days.
I set it off this morning after I'd done some work in the garden - it launched itself at (relatively) turbo speed across the garden, straight into a flower bed and complained it was too far over the perimeter wire. Moved it and it seemed happy.
But on its scheduled cut this evening it reported 'idle on lawn'. It had stopped near the docking station for no real reason I could see.
Tried it a few times since then and it keeps going outside the perimeter - at different locations, and sometimes even when it seems to be following the border. I've deleted and remapped which didn't help.
I've just made sure the connection for the perimeter wire is good and relearned again. If that doesn't fix it I may be calling Bosch soon.
ETA : Same thing again as it was returning to base.
I think I will give it the benefit of the doubt and lay the perimeter wire again without a join (which I have because I moved the base slightly). But probably can't do that for a few days.
Edited by davek_964 on Sunday 15th May 21:22
superlightr said:
be keen to see a pic of the garden/robomower etc if you can?
I can take a pic tonight - what did you want to see in it?I spoke with Bosch earlier, who were really not very helpful. My problems "might be something under the garden" - there is in fact a power cable that runs from the top of the garden to the bottom, but I really don't think that's causing the problem - it's buried deep and the mower is going outside the perimeter at random points. However - I may try switching the power off at the fuse box and seeing if it makes a difference.
If I think it's faulty, they will collect it to check under warranty but didn't really seem to think they'd find much.
I will possibly take the old wire up and lay a new perimeter tonight in case that makes a difference. It's worth a try before having to box it all up again.
BigBen said:
superlightr said:
just curious as to the layout the mower can cope with/slopes/mud etc ie a real garden rather then a demo garden from the manufacture.
That is why I have my Bosch mower as my mate who worked at Bosch knew my garden was an odd shape and has some slopes in the lawn, not like off road course type slopes but far from flat. The mower has been fine.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff