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TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

I'm rapidly approaching a move to a larger piece of property where I need to decide if I want to purchase a riding lawn mower. Now a lot of people (goons as well I image) enjoy taking care of their lawns.

I don't. That poo poo sucks.

Enter the modern (and somewhat lackluster) realm of the robot lawn mower.

For now, there are only a few robot mowers to choose from:
WORX Landroid - Cheapest option
Robomow - I found more 3rd party and owner reviews of this brand than any other
Husqvarna Automower - Biggest recognizable name in lawn equipment manufacturer making these

There's a few other manufacturer's out there but these three seem to be the ones that I came across most frequently.

To give you an idea of the different performers here is a totally not sponsored by Husqvarna video that gives a completely unbiased head to head of a few of the available products: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f-4J98EWrI]

So what's great?
Number 1: Time saving. You can set any of these up to run as frequently as you want during whatever time of day you want.
Number 2: Fully electric. No motor to maintain, gas to refill, super quiet (relative to a gas mower), etc. All of the benefits of an electrical motor system over a gas motor system.

What sucks?
Number 1: Difficult to setup. Nearly all the mowers use a perimeter wire that the mower randomly bounces around inside of. Setup of the wire has to be done properly or problems will arise. This seems to be the number one complaint I came across.
Number 2: Not that widely adopted. There just do not seem to be that many people jumping on the robotic lawn mower and it shows in a lack of 3rd party reviews.
Number 3: Every manufacturer uses their own proprietary hardware and longevity is still in question. The last thing someone wants is a super expensive piece of lawn equipment being rendered useless because the manufacturer doesn't make blades for it anymore.

Final verdict?
I will likely be buying one of these because I hate mowing the lawn just that much. If I'm going to invest thousands of dollars in a lawn mower I want one that does the job for me and makes my life easier.

That said, does anyone here actually own one of these and if so, what has been your experience?

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Birudojin
Oct 7, 2010

WHIRR CLANK
I can't say I've tried any of those tools, but in a similar vein, there's now a kickstarter for a robot garden weeding robot

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rorymackean/tertill-the-solar-powered-weeding-robot-for-home-g

Of course, it's kickstarter, and it also uses guide wires that you need to manually place around your tomatoes. I don't see it working well on things other than bare soil, like flowers on small gravel, but obviously I've not tried it.

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
I have a lawnbott/ambrogio/Husqvarna. I got the largest residential unit they make under the Lawnbott name and it has been going good for 4 years. I did have a wheel motor and transmitter break at the same time. I think my automotive battery charger spiked the house wiring and fried them.
This wasn't a huge deal except that Husqvarna, the parent of Ambrogio, named Lawnbott in the USA pulled out of US distribution. It took months to get parts from Italy. Paraside Robotics jump started US distribution and now is the sole distributor in the US for what is now known as just Ambrogio. So if you live here, you'll need to be comfortable with one distributor for your parts supply.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

Aeka 2.0 posted:

I have a lawnbott/ambrogio/Husqvarna. I got the largest residential unit they make under the Lawnbott name and it has been going good for 4 years. I did have a wheel motor and transmitter break at the same time. I think my automotive battery charger spiked the house wiring and fried them.
This wasn't a huge deal except that Husqvarna, the parent of Ambrogio, named Lawnbott in the USA pulled out of US distribution. It took months to get parts from Italy. Paraside Robotics jump started US distribution and now is the sole distributor in the US for what is now known as just Ambrogio. So if you live here, you'll need to be comfortable with one distributor for your parts supply.

Well that's good to know.

I'm waffling between the Husqvarna and the Robomow. I like the Husqwarna because of the name/size of the company and I like their lawn equipment. But I like the Robomow because it's designed to be serviced by the owner.

Since you've had to work on the Automower yourself, is working on it fairly straight forward?

Since you've owned it for 4 years (and that's longer than any other review I've come across), if you had to do it again would you?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

I balked at the $1000 price tag for the cheapest one. I think these will become popular like roombas eventually but the price just isn't there yet

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

The initial investment is pretty high but I'm not sure the total cost of ownership is that far out of line.

You figure with a typical walk behind gas mower you'll spend anywhere from $150 to $300 but then you have the recurring cost of gas, oil, spark plugs, filters, etc. And then the biggest cost is time. I'm on 1/3 of an acre now and it takes me 2-3 hours every week to mow, edge and trim.

For a robomower it's a high initial purchase but the only recurring charge is the electricity and blades. And then you have what is probably the biggest savings which is time.

Even comparing robovacs to manual vacuum cleaners has the same kind of cost spread but it's just a lower dollar amount.

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
Landscapers want to charge 150 a month to mow my yard. Having a robot go out every day and keep it the same height every day is great. I feel like it has paid for itself after 4 years. I do have to use an edger, but I only bring it out every couple of weeks.
Working on it is straight forward, everything comes apart. They are really simple machines and the money you pay for is from the low volume production and R&D.

I have no regrets.

https://youtu.be/bIiioX9AC_c

Working again after waiting for parts. I let the grass die, I hate mowing.

Aeka 2.0 fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Jul 6, 2017

Previa_fun
Nov 10, 2004

I guess the idea with these robotic mowers is they go out every day or every other day and take a tiny bit off your grass? As far as I've seen none of them have real blades that produce any sort of suction nor a deck to contain grass for mulching.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

That's correct. They're expected to run every 1-3 days so that the lawn is constantly getting clipped as opposed to growing for a week between mowings.

The argument for this seems to be 2 fold. 1) It's healthier for the grass to be cut more frequently and 2) the tiny pieces of grass biodegrade quickly and avoid thatching/clipping buildup.

I think another reason for the 1-3 days is that the mowers do the random path method as opposed to a back and forth method. So the entire lawn isn't going to be mowed everyday but by day 3 it should have covered everything.

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
The blade moves faster as well as being sharper so the cuts are more clean instead of the ripping effect that traditional mowers do.

gschmidl
Sep 3, 2011

watch with knife hands

A friend has the Gardena Sileno and is very happy with it, but it's pretty drat expensive:

http://www.gardena.com/ca-en/products/smart/smart-system/smart-sileno/967264403/

blugu64
Jul 17, 2006

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?
How much of a worry is the liability of the line getting broken, and it running off to someone else's property? (And potentially someone getting hurt trying to pick it up?)

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
The line constantly broadcasts a keep alive signal, if the line is broken the robot stops.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

I've gone ahead and ordered the silly thing. Got the Robomow RS622.

I'm having a fence installed in a couple of weeks so I won't be able to set it up until after that's done.

Not going to lie. I almost chickened out and bought a lawn tractor. Then I thought to myself, "self, what kind of silly fucker doesn't spend more money on questionable technology to do a job for you that you could just as easily do yourself?" And then I hit the purchase button and it should be here on Tuesday.

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
I've been curious about the Robomow brand, so let us know how it works.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

Fence is finally getting installed today and tomorrow.

I'll probably be setting the little monster up this weekend.

Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates!

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
Video please.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

Looks like it'll be a few more weeks before I get a chance to set it up.

Weather didn't cooperate and I have a trip coming up which both poo pood my plans.

I'll see if I can get some video of the setup and the little rascal at work though.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

I started the install today and I've been at it on and off for 4 or 5 hours now.

What I've learned:
If your lot is flat and square this will be cake.
If you lot is not flat and square, getting to about 90% functionality is easy but that last 10% is a real fucker.

I didn't think it would matter but the app for controlling the Robomower uses bluetooth. Anyone who knows anything about bluetooth knows that the range isn't great which is fine for headphones but not fine when your mower is stuck in the back 40 and it can't notify you.

My experience with the app is also less than stellar in that it seems to have trouble making the initial connection to the robomow and I've already had to reset the mower once because the app connected but couldn't download the settings.

So far I would rank my experience with the Robomow a 6 our of 10. Setting up the wire is a pain (even if it is only once) and the app, while fully featured and very useful, is incredibly limited due to the inconsistent and short range of bluetooth.

I'm sure once it's all setup and running I'll love it but so far I'm not sure I would recommend it to the average person.

Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
I was going to get a bluetooth module for my Lawnbott but the range was obviously going to be an issue. It got stuck a lot at first due to wire placement and incline, once that is ironed out it can run for weeks without getting stuck. I had to upgrade the wheels to some spiked wheels as some of my inclines were a challenge.

TouchyMcFeely
Aug 21, 2006

High five! Hell yeah!

My experience is similar. I've had to fiddle with the wire placement a fair bit to try and get everything dialed in.

What I've found to be helpful is to set up the mower in sections.

Initially I got the backyard mostly how I wanted it. Then, once it was good I expanded to the front yard and got that mostly how I wanted it. Just this last weekend I cleaned out a section of the backyard that was an old fire pit that had been over grown and adjusted the wire for the mower to include that area. Once I'm happy with that there's a section of old garden that needs to be flattened out and cleaned before adding it to the mowed section.

But once it's setup it really is hands/worry free.

It'll be interesting to see what the new mower offerings are in the next few years. I would say the biggest hurdle is the wire setup. If they can figure out a better or easier way to fence in the mower I could see them really gaining some momentum.

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Aeka 2.0
Nov 16, 2000

:ohdear: Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.




Dinosaur Gum
I have mine move from the back yard to the front yard through a fence doggy door for it. I have it back track counter clockwise along the perimeter wire x amount of feet for a "secondary area" the wire runs through the doggy door. The other side of the loop doesn't run through the door, it just runs through the fence so when its in the "search charge" mode it runs clockwise along the wire, when it comes to the part where the wire runs into the fence the mower bumps into the fence, backs up, makes a large turn to find the wire again, bypassing the doggy door. I'll have to put a vid some day.

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