Garden tool box talk about the best robot lawn mower

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Best robot lawn mower

Just amazing aren’t they? A robot lawn mower has successfully replaced a human. That’s no small feat. As far as jobs at home go, it’s genuinely the first one a robot has successfully taken over and while many of us like to mow the lawn for a bit of exercise, or justify an afternoon Gin and Tonic on a sunny Saturday, there are many that hate it; that’s where the best robot lawn mower comes in.

A robotic lawn mower needs a decent start. You’ll have to give it a nice base to start from and install a wire line around the cuttable area which is supplied with all bots. Once you have, it will take over and make life a breeze. The feeling of the lawn staying in tip top condition with zero effort will feel surreal. Let’s be clear, it is zero effort too if you pick the right model that’s pretty polished in performance and software.

This review gets a bit long winded so I will fast forward you(if you don’t want an interesting read) I am including my findings now. I still highly recommend a long read though, it’s quite interesting believe it or not.

Best robotic lawn mower

McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower or the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower

The Best robotic lawn mower aka the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower(when factoring price to performance for a larger garden) or the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower for a smaller garden will shred and mulch grass fine enough for it to fall between shoots of grass and decompose, sending nutrients back into the soil as part of the process. Yeah, sounds too good to be true right? Actually, apart from installing the boundary wire, that’s it. You’re done! The little robot will even head back to charge himself 🙂 and these two cracking lawn mowers will head to the main page to form part of an overall review of the best lawn mower.

On a side note. If you can afford it, the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower is literally the best robotic lawn mower. The problem is the value for money but we will go much more into detail further down the review.

The review of the best robot lawn mowers is a bit long so I’ve included a table of contents and just beneath that, a price and performance comparison table.

1. WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower

WORX WR130E S300 Landroid Robotic Mower 300m
4.4 out of 5 stars ( 23 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £498.00
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

The S300 Landriod from Worx is my first pick in this budget lawn mower category. It is available on Amazon for £498.00. It’s dimensions are 62 x 53 x 29cm and it weighs just 16kg, so hardly a bulky machine and
 it’s powered by a single Lithium-ion battery that comes with the lawn mower. In operation, this WORX lawn mower robot runs very quiet at about 68 decibels and should be able to manage gardens up to 350 square metres. Great for people with ‘techno fear’ the S300 Landriod doesn’t need to be programmed. Simply set up the wire boundaries and the machine will do the rest.

WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower: Very tidy bit of kit, looks after itself and operates at up to 35 degree gradients

It has a dual blade cutting action where the blades spin in both directions. This makes the blades last longer and lengthens the time before you need to change them.
The way the Landroid cuts, little and often, actually leaves tiny clippings back in the soil, fertilising your garden for you.
 It also cuts close to edges, leaving an uncut area of just 2.5 cm.

Like most modern robot lawn mowers, the Landroid is fitted with sensors to let the machine know important things. For instance, it can sense rain and won’t come out to cut until it’s been stopped for a while. It can also sense when the battery is running low and will return itself to it is docking station to be charged.
 Other sensors, plus the lawn mowers AI, guide the WORX robot mower through narrow channels.

The all terrain wheels help this robot lawn mower to move over uneven ground and up gradients up to 35%.

Of course, the Landriod has it is niggles. Firstly, one of its drawbacks might be a preference, not a drawback, depending on your preference: it can’t be programmed. This might be great for some, but for others who like more versatility and control over their robot lawn mower, it could be an issue. 
Also, there seems to be a lack of documentation or online support in the way of an instruction manual.

There’s been complaints of the AI not recognising certain obstacles too, and instead of going around them, it bumps into them. It will work it’s way around eventually, it’s just off to watch it bump itself at the wall what seems like on purpose!

WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower Review

Best WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower Features

What needs work on the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower

No need to program Programming can’t be customised
Dual cutting action Reports of AI problems
Very quiet
Relatively cheap
Self charging
Easy to use
Rain sensors

Could they improve the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower?

All in all, the Landroid is a decent budget robot lawn mower best suited to people who are looking to save time and aren’t too bothered about being able to customise their mowing schedule. Quite frankly, it’s a hard ask to buy this when the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower and comes with so many positive reviews which is up next.

2. Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawnmower

Flymo 1200 R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawnmower Up to 400 sq m, 18 V
4.4 out of 5 stars ( 405 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £439.00
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

This offering from Flymo is currently available on amazon at a price of £439.00. It’s powered by 18 v 1.6 Ah Lithium-ion battery that will give you about 60 minutes worth of action before it needs to be recharged. When the battery runs low the robot lawn mower will return to its docking station automatically and charge itself.

 The Flymo 1200R robotic lawn mower measures 69 x 52 x 39cm and weighs only 7.4 kg when unpacked which is a lot smaller than the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower.

Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower: great robotic lawn mower, reliable, value, intelligent, and programmable.

 

The Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower is suitable for gardens up to 400 square metres. It is even quieter then the Landroid, producing only 58 decibels, the same as a normal spoken conversation.The 1200R cuts with razor sharp swing back blades with a cutting width of 17 cm and can be adjusted to cut from 20mm to 50mm. Like the Landriod, the cuttings are mulched as the machine mows helping to fertilise your garden and eliminating the need for raking making this easily a contender for the best robot lawn mower. This is extremely good value for money, just like the best cheap electric lawn mower, the Flymo Turbo Lite 250 Electric Hover Lawnmower.

A great feature of this robotic lawn mower is that it cuts in an irregular pattern insuring that all areas of the lawn get cut so you won’t be left with a patchy garden. When it bumps into an obstacle, it changes direction and continues mowing.

This Flymo is easy to set up and comes with a manual and quick-guide to help you along so you should be up and running in no time.

Unlike the Landriod, the Flymo 1200R can be programmed to cut on a schedule to your suiting. Just tell it what times and how often you want it to cut and leave it to do the rest.

The negatives to the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower are the same as most robot lawn mowers, you have to spend time setting the guide wire up and it won’t cut all the way to the edges of your lawn. This model has also been known to cut through its own guide wire on occasion and to run out of charge before making it back to its charging station but it does seem improved since those reports came to me.

Because of the way it cuts, this robotic lawn mower doesn’t leave stripes on your grass. 

So, although the Flymo 1200R is not without its faults, the vast majority of the robot lawn mower reviews have been very positive and is definitely the safe bet for a garden.

Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower Review

Best Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower Features

What needs work on the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower

Great price Need to spend time setting up
Mulching feature Can’t cut to the edges
Programmable
Irregular cutting pattern
Moves around obstacles
60 minutes run time
Best robotic lawn mower
Best seller

Could they improve the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower?

This little Flymo robot mower is a brilliant bit of kit and certainly choice for a small garden. OK, it has a few niggles but they have improved and also its easily the best value for money. Also, with the reports of broken wire, I’m unsure how the wire has been cut because ideally it is placed slightly beneath the soil. There’s a possibility the wire raised there too. Overall a great bit of kit that works for 99.9% of customers no problem.

3. Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower

Yard Force SA500ECO Robotic Lawnmower with Lift and Obstacle Sensors, for Lawns up to 500m²
3.3 out of 5 stars ( 17 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £493.84
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

The first thing you notice when you compare the Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower to the two previous budget options, is that it has a much sturdier feel, mainly due to its great build quality. The Robomower gets its power via a 28V Samsung lithium-ion 2Ah battery and is good for gardens up to 500 square metres. It has a 60 minute running time and takes the same amount of time to charge, which, like most robot lawn mowers, it will do automatically when it runs low on charge.

Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower: Quality robot lawn mower, well built, irregular cut for even surface and overall not bad.

Although not fully programmable, you can select what mowing hours you would like the robot to work for you and then it will repeat the process every day.

Like the Flymo, Yard force’s robotic lawn mower cuts in an irregular pattern and also has sensors to help guide it around obstacles. 
The 28V Samsung battery gives the robomower enough punch to handle cutting inclines up to 27 degrees very well and the cutting height can be adjusted between 20mm and 60mm. This model also mulches the cuttings like the Landriod and Flymo 1200R.

Apart from the long set up time that is the problem with nearly all robotic lawn mowers, this Yard Force model also has another drawback: its docking station is comparatively quite large and could take up a fair bit of space.

Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower Review

Best Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower Features

What needs work on the Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower

Good battery power Large docking station
Mulching feature Limited programming
Fast charging Long set up time
60 minutes running time
Good build quality

Could they improve the Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower?

I think all robot mowers, this is a work in progress. I don’t think it’s as polished as the Flymo robot mower but it shows plenty of promise and I think if they can reduce the docking station size and improve the software it will become a decent seller. It’s too tough to ignore the Flymo for me.

4. McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower

Mcculloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower 18 V, Up to 1000 m sq
4.6 out of 5 stars ( 46 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £749.99
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

The McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic lawn mower is designed for gardens up to 1000 square metres. It comes with 3 cutting blades, the boundary wire and 400 staples for you to set up with. It runs very quiet, almost unnoticeable and will do so for around 65 minutes before it will return itself to its docking station and charge.

McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower: best robot mower[UK], most intelligent, best robot mower reviews, and all round performer

Charging time is fairly quick at 50 minutes. It is the best robot lawn mower for sure, the question is do you want to pay nearly double the price of a Flymo and is your garden big enough to justify it?

The ROB 1000 robotic lawn mower has a cutting width of 17cm and adjustable cutting heights of 20mm – 50mm. Like most robotic lawn mowers, it cuts the grass, mulches it and feeds it back as fertiliser. It can cut nicely on slopes up to 14 degrees.

Apart from the competitive price of £749.99, another thing I like about this lawn mower is it’s fully programmable. You can set the days, times, frequency and even the cutting length. It also follows an irregular cutting pattern that gives your grass a nice uniform cut.

McCulloch’s ROB 1000 robotic lawn mower has good security features. Firstly, it has a PIN code feature that needs to be entered to change the machine’s settings. Secondly, each machine is paired with a specific charging station and won’t work with any other. Thirdly, it is fitted with an alarm that sounds if any would be thief decides to take it for a walk. Once the alarm sounds it can only be turned off with the correct PIN code. Although it has to be said, the alarm could have been made to be louder in my opinion.

Apart from the quiet alarm, other complaints that have been made about the ROB 1000 is that it’s susceptible to water damage and also that it is complicated to set up, but this is a complaint made about nearly all robotic lawn mowers. Otherwise the robot mower reviews are pretty much exceptional.

There are also little details that need to be known before purchasing, like the charging station needing to be on very flat ground (no more than 3cm height difference from one end to the other) and the fact that flower beds and such need to be protected by a 6 inch barrier so that the robot will not bump into it and turn around.

McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower Review

Best McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower Features

What needs work on the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower

Fully programmable Hard to set up for some people
Multiple security features Needs to be kept away from water
65 minute running time Charging station needs to be on flat ground
50 minute charging time
Comes with everything needed to set up
Best robot lawn mower

Could they improve the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower?

All robot lawn mowers need improvement. They are in the early stages of the product life cycle. That said, this one needs the least improvement and is the best robot lawn mower at sensible money you can buy. Apart from rain issues it doesn’t have any design faults and the quiet alarm is an easy fix.

5. Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower

Gardena smartsystem smart Sileno robot Lawn Mower 19066-20
Buy on Amazon for £929.00
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

Priced at £929.00, the Gardeno Smart Sileno is at the top end of our mid-range prices, but is the price justified? Time for a closer look.This robotic lawn mower runs on an 18V lithium battery that runs on average for 65 minutes, the same as the ROB 1000. At around 50 minutes, the charging time is also the same. It is designed to be able to cut lawns up to 1300 square metres and slopes up to 35%. Pretty impressive.

Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower: nice robot mower but the McCulloch still seems better value for money

With dimensions of 63x51x25cm, it’s bulkier than the ROB 1000 but at 8.5kg, weighs only 1.5kg more. 
The bigger frame houses a larger cutting deck of 22cm, significantly wider than ROB 1000’s 17cm and the 3 thin razor blades leave a nice cut at multiple height adjustments from 22mm to 60mm.

Gardena’s smart Sileno robot lawn mower is part of their smart system gardening range and can be linked up to other products in that range through an internet router. You can also get the gardena smart system app for your smartphone (both ios and android) and control your new gardening toys from the palm of your hand.

The Smart Sileno really is smart. It has sensors that can read how long the grass is and will only cut it when necessary, saving energy. It also has a very good navigation system that allows it to guide itself through areas and channels as long as they are wider than 1.5 metres.

As with the ROB 1000, the Gardena robot lawn mower has a PIN system and alarm for security. It also has a lock feature that stops anyone using it without the pin.

Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower Review

Best Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower Features

What needs work on the Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower

Can interact with other gardena products such as sprinklers Highly priced
Can be controlled by smart phone Has problems navigating narrower passages and channels (less than 1.5m)
Is able to sense the length of your grass It’s quite bulky
Has security features
Comes with everything needed to set up
Handles slopes up to 35%

Could they improve the Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower?

For a start, they don’t provide anywhere near enough information on Amazon to get taken seriously and so the feedback is limited. Personally, at the price tag, until more information becomes available I would head to the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower.

6. Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower

Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower
1 out of 5 stars ( 1 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £4,496.34

 

This is one of the most expensive robotic lawn mowers out there with a price tag of £4,496.34.

The main reason for the high cost is the fact that the Ambrogio L60B requires no installation.

While the vast majority of robot lawn mowers out there require you to spend at least a couple of hours setting up the boundary and guide wires, this one is wire free.

Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower: no setup robot lawn mower, the next generation is here. Easily the best robotic lawn mower if you can afford it.

It works through a sophisticated system of sensors that tell the machine where the borders of your lawn are. It even has sensors on the blades so that this robot lawn mower knows when it is over grass or not.

The L60B uses four wheel drive to move around and it is brushed motors can tackle slopes up to 50% when not cutting and 40% while mowing.

It is small and lightweight, with dimensions measuring 44x36x20cm and weighing in at 7.9kg. This makes it fairly manoeuvrable and allows the unit to get into smaller areas of your garden.

The cutting deck is a 4 pointed star design that cuts at a width of 25cm and the lawn mower has reinforced bumpers so it will try to cut as close to the edges as it can without worry.

Unfortunately, the Ambrogio L60B has a few flaws. Firstly, it’s only suitable for smaller gardens of 200-400 square metres. Secondly, this robotic lawn mower isn’t self-charging and it needs to be done manually, and finally, for such an expensive lawn mower, the run time is only 2 hours with an hour needed to fully charge the battery.
In summary, the Ambrogio L60B is a step in the right direction with its no installation, no boundary wire operation. However, for such a high price I would have expected it to be able to tackle larger areas.

Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower Review

Best Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower Features

What needs work on the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower

Wireless. No need to set up boundary Very expensive
Four wheel drive Doesn’t auto charge
Can handle slopes of 50% Only suitable for smaller gardens
Lots of smart sensors for various features
Comes with everything needed to set up
Lightweight

Could they improve the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower?

Yes, for the price tag they need to make this thing self charge. Apart from that it’s the next level. There’s barely any negative feedback online and it’s a good buy if you can afford it.

Best robot mower

The best robot mower is the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower if we are talking pound for pound. If we are talking simply the best robot mower irrespective of value then without hesitation you’ll go to the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower. You have to question it’s value though at £4,496.34.

I can get my lawn cut for me about 80 times. Now, I don’t know about you but I cut my lawn about once a week maximum maybe 30 times a year. You see where I’m going with this… so while it is the best robot mower I’m not convinced this mower is solving a problem just yet.

Best robot mower [UK]

The McCulloch by contrast, cuts 1000m2 and will pay itself back in no time at all. This is a mower that’s fixing a problem and definitely worthy of the best robot mower[UK] title. I really can’t wait for these little robots to continue to improve.

Robot lawn mower review

The robot lawn mower review winner by a mile is the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower. With literally hundreds more robot mower reviews than the competition it is most definitely the safe best for any small garden. Also, there’s no way the competition, other than McCulloch are going to be able to keep pace with research and development of Flymo.

Robotic mower reviews

In terms of being unbiased, Flymo does have a couple of negative reviews. The most alarming is the mower cutting it’s way through the wire fencing. I am not convinced the wire has been installed correctly though and would love Flymo to step in and research and investigate this so that if it is not user installation error, they can make a fix rapid! Overall though, if you buy based on robot lawn mower reviews, you go Flymo, no hesitation.
It’s hard to trust low robotic mower reviews volume and so Flymo gives you the piece of mind and comfort that you would expect from a top mower brand.

WORX lawn mower robot

I’m genuinely quite surprised the WORX lawn mower robot is as good as it is. While that seems rude it’s not. They are not a company with unlimited development budget and with the limitations of their resources have produced a really cool piece of equipment in the shape of the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower. I should be surprised though they are doing great things, take the WORX cordless lawn mower for example. An accomplished bit of kit! Where I think the problem lay, they have effectively positioned themselves right up against Flymo with this model.

If there’s anything history shows us about lawn mowers, the only people that won’t be beaten are Flymo. So you have to question the sensibility of battling them when your price point is nearly the same.

WORX robot mower

I think this shows though, the number of reviews of the WORX robot mower is around twenty times less. Whilst I think it’s a good product, it’s a hard think to beat off Flymo when they decide they want a market, invariably they take it. Whilst I don’t like monopoly, Flymo are winning here due to a superior product, not because of the brand. The WORX robot mower doesn’t need much to catch up though.

If they keep plugging away at this robot mower I can see great things, so I hope they so. It will benefit us all in the future which is almost certainly going to be full of weird and wonderful robots that help around the home, not just lawn mower robots.

Flymo robot mower

The Flymo is the best robotic lawn mower pound for pound in my mind. While it’s not the best robot. It is the best value. I expect them to continue to develop this product and we can expect amazing things from the Flymo robot mower. While it’s already worth buying, it’ll only continue to improve to the point of making all other options redundant. That is my prediction for the future.

You can always rely on Flymo to produce great results, you only have to look at their range of best hover mowers to see where this will end up for them.
Well, that review brings an end to this section on robotic lawn mowers. I hope that it has given you a better idea of the different models and features available at the moment.