Robot lawn mowers

[Old Grumpy]

Don't be silly. Donald isn't that clever.

In the diplomatic service, by any chance, EA?

OG

[Dave2002]

Do they return to sit in the charger and wait until all the green lights are on, and then return to complete the job? If they do, I might be tempted...

EDIT: I've just read the blog. It really does, and I was only joking.

They do indeed return and charge themselves up in the charger - day in, day out, rain or shine. They can be programmed to go out on a schedule.

if you have a mower and quite like mowing then OK. If you pay someone else to do it, these things probably pay for themselves in about a year.

[gradus]

Thanks for the detailed reply Dave. Like many gardens our grass is in 5 different areas and it's just a pain to mow so a robotic device has some appeal. I think I need to do some background reading on these things to see if it could work here.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the detailed reply Dave. Like many gardens our grass is in 5 different areas and it's just a pain to mow so a robotic device has some appeal. I think I need to do some background reading on these things to see if it could work here.

If it's like a Dalek, it might not like going up steps!

[Dave2002]

Thanks for the detailed reply Dave. Like many gardens our grass is in 5 different areas and it's just a pain to mow so a robotic device has some appeal. I think I need to do some background reading on these things to see if it could work here.

I know of one rather large house with front and back lawns - both large - and the problem was solved by having two robot mowers. It sounds as though you have a substantial area, so could be worth it. The Flymo is around £500, and is sold as capable of handling 400 sq metre patches. Actually I think these can do more than that, though it obviously depends on how the wires are laid out, and how much of the time they’re switched on. We went away for a week, and locked the mower away. In theory they can be left out and should still work, but we’re a bit cautious so took it in. It’s taken about 3 days to get things back into reasonable shape again. if you’ve already got a mower, and are not planning to get rid of it, there’s no reason why you can’t use them together cooperatively. For example, if away for several weeks you could do a quick cut with the regular mower, then leave the finishing to the robot. Also if you have a mower with a mulching plate you could use that to avoid having to deal with cuttings.

How these things will cope with extended periods away if not used will depend on local weather conditions, and other vegetation. For example a lot of rain and sun will tend to encourage hay fields, though if you have trees as we do, they may actually starve the grass of water, so the grass will thin out.

The quality of the lawn definitely improves with the robot mowers.

Another option which perhaps the manufacturers will discourage is to buy a second charging plate and power supply, and just use the one mower.

if you’ve a seriously large garden, then you might want to look at some of the more expensive models, such as the Husqvarnas. The Flymo, btw, is made by Husqvarna.

There are videos about layouts here - https://youtu.be/wpJbDbJbvtk

[Pianorak]

I recently bought one of these and couldn't be happier. I had no idea battery-powered self-propelled lawnmowers existed.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/stihl-rma-448-tc-cordless-lawnmower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdHVBEsjF84

[Dave2002]

I recently bought one of these and couldn't be happier. I had no idea battery-powered self-propelled lawnmowers existed.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/stihl-rma-448-tc-cordless-lawnmower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdHVBEsjF84

Indeed that might be a good option for a relatively small garden. I’m not recommending robot mowers for very small or small gardens. The benefits of robot mowers gain traction as the size of lawns increases. I’m glad you have a solution which works for you.

[Dave2002]

Now got the robot out and working again. It has been running fairly smoothly for a while now. However, we had what turned out to be a temporary glitch as it refused to work this week. After a bit of rewiring I got it to do the back lawn, and then turned my attention to the front. Did a few continuity checks on the wire to rule out some sections to examine, but eventually had to resort to a more brute force method. However, this quite quickly showed up the break in the boundary wire, so the mower’s been back out for the afternoon and evening. Hopefully tomorrow the lawn will be back to a suitably neatened state.

I reckon that even with time spent on fault diagnosis, and reinstalling a section of wire, that compared with having to mow the lawn myself, and then take the clippings to the dump (no garden waste service here), the time savings are still considerable. I’m also hoping that in the longer term the lawn will also improve, since not so many nutrients will be taken out.

[Dave2002]

Managed to cause the mower to behave badly recently, but finally spotted the problem.

One thing I knew already - if the loop wires are reversed the mower thinks it's outside the loop, and won't go.
I have no idea how the mower knows, but that's consistent. At least that problem is easy to spot.

The new thing - which happened by accident - was more tricky. If one of the loop wires is swapped with the guide wire, then the robot's behaviour is erratic, and it'll run around for hours without finding its way home, and the battery will drain nearly completely. Not good, but charging the battery up again, and making sure the guide wire is not swapped with one of the loop wires seems to restore the normal behaviour. Hopefully no long term damage will have been done, and our lawn will return to being in smarter condition.

The smaller back lawn still needs attention though - I hope I've not left it too late.

[oddoneout]

Managed to cause the mower to behave badly recently, but finally spotted the problem.

One thing I knew already - if the loop wires are reversed the mower thinks it's outside the loop, and won't go.
I have no idea how the mower knows, but that's consistent. At least that problem is easy to spot.

The new thing - which happened by accident - was more tricky. If one of the loop wires is swapped with the guide wire, then the robot's behaviour is erratic, and it'll run around for hours without finding its way home, and the battery will drain nearly completely. Not good, but charging the battery up again, and making sure the guide wire is not swapped with one of the loop wires seems to restore the normal behaviour. Hopefully no long term damage will have been done, and our lawn will return to being in smarter condition.

The smaller back lawn still needs attention though - I hope I've not left it too late.

I dunno - outside the loop, crossed wires - these robots get more and more like humans don'y they?

[Dave2002]

Now I'm wondering if our robot mower will reduce the large number of oak tree leaves which I think will inevitably fall on the grass, to such small fragments that they will effectively disappear, and thus help to fertilise the lawn. I'm also wondering what proportion of leaves originally on an oak tree actually do fall off - will they (nearly) all come down, or will many stay on the tree? I should have watched what happened in previous years.

If there are many more to come down, and the robot won't reduce them to very small pieces, then I'll probably have to resort to rakes and perhaps blowers/suckers and put the leaves in bags, but if the robot can minimise the problem that would be great.

In the past I've used a regular mower with the collecting bags on to collect a large proportion of the leaves from trees.

[Serial_Apologist]

Now I'm wondering if our robot mower will reduce the large number of oak tree leaves which I think will inevitably fall on the grass, to such small fragments that they will effectively disappear, and thus help to fertilise the lawn. I'm also wondering what proportion of leaves originally on an oak tree actually do fall off - will they (nearly) all come down, or will many stay on the tree? I should have watched what happened in previous years.

If there are many more to come down, and the robot won't reduce them to very small pieces, then I'll probably have to resort to rakes and perhaps blowers/suckers and put the leaves in bags, but if the robot can minimise the problem that would be great.

In the past I've used a regular mower with the collecting bags on to collect a large proportion of the leaves from trees.

As with most of our native deciduous trees, saplings retain their foliage (as a protection, I believe): the older the tree the more of its leaves it sheds. Eventually the spring leaf shoots push off the previous year's, obviously. Oak leaves are "woodier" than many other varieties, and take longer to decompose - I'm not at all sure pulverisation will accelerate the decomposition process.