I Thought Robot Lawn Mowers Would be Simple: I Was Wrong

I spent most of spring and a good part of summer transform my courtyard into a parking lot to test the best mowers of robot lawn. Doing it, I learned a lot about their advantages and gaps. One of the largest lessons was that, like most forms of automation, they can be a real pain to settle at the start, but once they are ready to leave, they save you a ton of efforts and time compared to regular electric lawn mower.

I did not expect this initial discomfort in this project, but I think it is important to document these pains so that you can avoid them in the future. Here are some of the lessons I have learned about the obstacles you will have to overcome if you decide to pull the trigger on a lawn mower.

Much more threads than what I expected

The 800 -pound gorilla in the robot mowers room is delivered in the instructions that each clipper company sends with the robot. First of all, there are a ton of threads. You may need to run the power of the base station or the RTK tag or both. If you are not familiar, RTK means kinematics in real time, a tag that corrects the coordinates of a mower to improve precision. The tags are all wired, which means that you may have to run lines all around your courtyard.

The mower companies tell you not to place the mower within 7 feet of a building or under a tree. They also tell you not to pass wires through the grass. But if you are not supposed to place the base station under a tree or less than 7 feet from a wall, where are these sons supposed to go? If you have a courtyard like mine, that doesn’t leave you with many options.

I also encountered a problem where an animal chewed a wire at a RTK station and I had to drive 70 minutes (in a sense) to a service center to have it repaired. You will want to protect your sons where you can. Entering them is a way of doing it, but it will damage your court. Because I had to run them in a garden, I traveled them through pool noodles to protect them. It’s raw, but effective.

Not all sites will work well

My backyard is almost entirely covered by a large tree, so it was difficult to find an appropriate installation space. In the end, despite the opposite instructions, I had to line the mowers next to my house. Only the Yarbo lawn mower And Averseekers Tron could not manage this; The others were good.

The limits of the court are another thing to consider. Do you have a fence? Should the door be opened to let the mower pass? Do you have an insane neighbor who will set fire to your court if a robot dares to walk on his property? Is there a border between your property and your neighbor, such as a fence, a sidewalk or a driveway? These are all important things to consider before making a four -digit dive in the world of robot mowers.

I hope you have outlets outside

Another important factor to consider: do you have an external power? These mowers must all be connected. In my case, I converted an outdoor lighting light into an exterior cap; It may not be an option for you. The cords that the mower companies provide cannot be long enough to switch from power to the position of the base station or the RTK tag, so you may need to buy additional cables or you may need an electrician to go out and install a new outdoor plug.

Staying within the limits can be struck or missed

All the mowers that I tested handle the limits using GPS and an RTK tag. The only exception to this is the Tite Eufy E15Who uses GPS and vision systems to navigate, which makes it easiest to use and installation from afar, but he had problems with obstacles and did not work at night. The limits are generally fixed by manually controlling the mower around the property and recording a card. Obstacles are, however, a different problem.

Various mowers manage obstacles differently. Most robot mowers manage obstacles using vision sensors and those who are not my favorites. THE Sunseeker X3 To a bump sensor, like what you will find in a vacuum of the robot, but I found it too sensitive and that would prevent good cover of the mower. Others use a radar module, which I also left less than impressed – or at least my toes, because it would not always stop before hitting my foot.

All the mowers allow you to define zones without Go for areas where additional sensors do not quite work. If a mower is regularly stuck or has problems, you can define a prohibited area and the mower will ignore this particular patch. The exception, once again, is the EUFY E15 which cannot define an unemployed area without physical barrier.

The common theme is that the more you work on sensors, the better you will be, but my favorites are: GPS, vision sensors, radar sensors and bump sensors.

The interview was not demanding, apart from the blades

Robot lawn mowers are generally easy to maintain because they are designed to be outside. The most maintenance you will have to worry about is the blades and wintering. The blades are quite easy – each mower I tested included a set of replacement blades. Keep in mind that these are small razor blades, so they can start becoming dull faster than a traditional push mower. They could also be more prone to rupture, so be sure to collect all sticks or other debris in your courtyard, especially after a bad storm.

Speaking of blades, these tiny razors who ship with the mowers make the mower more effective by considerably reducing the weight that the engine must turn, but it is accompanied by the compromise that the blades do not last long. After concluding my first cycle of tests, I noted that most blades were starting to show signs of rust, which is not encouraging after only two months of use. That said, summer in Chicago only lasts four to five months, so a set of blades could do so, but if you live in an area where you cut the grass all year round, your blade budget should be higher.

Beyond that, the main thing you need to do is bring the mower for winter. Preferably, before the first frost, you will want to pack the components of the mower and bring them out of the elements. Each mower has its own set of steps and recommendations that you should be able to find in the manual, but in general, you will want to store the mower in an environment that will not get frost. Your garage or hangar can work if it is isolated or heated.

If possible, you can also remove the battery and store it inside your home at room temperature. You can also take advantage of this opportunity to clean the mower and the base station and even change the blades.

Your work is not done, most of the robot mowers will miss spots

Remember that a mower will not do all the work for you. If you have narrow grass paths in your lawn, the robot will not manage them well. You will also need to go out and cut the grass on the edges. You could also find an area that the mower decided to jump for any reason – perhaps a sensor has been launched and the mower jumped an area. You will always have to be aware of things to make sure your lawn remains the best possible.

Do the robot lawn mowers are worth it?

Overall, the main thing I learned from my experience is that the robot lawn mowers are finally worth it despite their weaknesses, an opinion that I share with other CNET reviews that took them for a turn. They eliminate a task that many owners do not like first. In addition, they are easy to adjust. When summer started to become too hot, I adjusted the cutting height higher to help the grass to prosper. One day, when we organized a party, I just moved the automatic time from the mower to another day.

Once you have crossed these initial steps, the mower takes care of itself. Just make sure that other people from the family have access to the mower, so if you are in London and the mower is stuck, they can go help it – and yes, it’s based on a true story. But other than that, go back and enjoy your grass perpetually distant and the envious looks of your neighbor.