Late July Update:

I've only reel mowed 3 times since getting the Automower and it's been great!

The last time I reel mowed was for the 4th of July, so it's been about 3.5 weeks when I took these new pictures. It's been a while since I've fertlized, so it could use some for green up. When I do reel mow now, I double stripe to make a diamond, or go over the same line multiple times to make them more prominent. I thought I would want to do a lot more reel mowing, but have found that I use my time for other things, like weeding and golf .

I've been good about changing blades every 14-21 days, but don't know that they need it. The blades on the mower are about 18 days old. I've been running the automower from 9:30PM to 7:30AM every day, and the lawn is a consistent length throughout with no missed patches.

I've kept it on setting 2 (the second lowest setting) and I believe it cuts close to .9 on my reel mower.

I strongly recommend to anyone one with cool season grass wanting to go low without the committment, or having a tool to augment your reel mowing for vacations, or when you just need a break.

 

More Photos

 

Great details in your OP! Great to see you're representing the Lansing area well!

 

How invasive and disruptive is the installation of the guide wire?

Also, is the guide wire electrified? If so, does it confer current to a waterlogged lawn?

 

The installer didn't seem to have any issues despite me having several trees and shallow roots. The machine they used cleanly sliced the ground and was not very noticeable. It's a basic slice and wire drop vs. a sprinkler install, which requires a lot of disruption to the soil. I didn't have to do any leveling or notice any dirt outside of the narrow hole that was made and it self healed within 2-3 weeks and became unnoticeable.

The wires do carry a very low voltage current, i guess similar to that of a dog fence, that the mower uses as a stop, so that it can cut clean along the edges of the yard.
It looks like depending on the severity of these wires being waterlogged it could impact the ability of the communication to travel from below ground to the mower in those locations. You would likely need to set that wire a little higher and not burry so deep in those locations. Also, I would suggest not mowing saturated areas. I have been careful not to run mine when there is severe rain or standing water (which really only happens for me in the spring).

If you have water logged sections during certain times of the year, there are temporary options you could use to keep the mower off of that area.

I was surprised, I paid less going through my local dealer (including free install), and have a better options for long term warranty support and repairs, vs. purchasing through amazon, etc.

 

Hey Longtee,
What a great thread! I’m currently deciding on whether or not to bring my kbg here in Colorado to 1”. Any suggestions on how to do this? Should I let my yard really fill in at 2.5” HOC before going low? We get really hot here in the summer and I’m concerned about extra stress with the lower height. How’s your experience been? Thanks again.

 

Hi @Aubie1983, I think you should be able to do it in Colorado but I'm not sure what climate zone you are in. I'm in Zone 5b in the central Michigan area. If you dropped it from 2.5" to 1", the biggest thing to consider is that are are going to need to mow it more often, since you really don't want to cut off more than 1" at a time, even less if you can. I would not worry about having it fill in first, but you should probably focus on dropping it down over a couple of weeks. Just mow it every couple of days and work it down slowly. Where this goes bad is if you attempt to do this when the grass is not growing (either too early in the spring when it's still a little dormant) if you do it right before it slows down in the summer. If it does scalp a little as you lower you are probably taking too much off at once.

You really need to have sharp blades too, when you start getting around 1 inch (and should have either a reel mower, or an automower with sharp razor blades).

The nice thing with the automower, is that you can easily move it up a bit if you want to in the Summer, and then bring it back down when things cool down a bit. Even with this option, I kept it at 1" (setting 2 on the low mow version of the automower) for the entire Summer.

As it relates to water, I really don't water any more than before I mowed low. For years I always mowed at the highest 4" setting. I now wait until I see the grass starting to stress a little and then hit it with a longer cycle. I do think you have to pay closer attention with this approach, but it saves a lot of $. I also do a good amount of spot watering with the hose in my front yard, that has issues with the tree roots competing with the grass for water.

You really need to have an irrigation system to pull it off at the shorter height. You will find that cutting it frequently and lower is going to make it really thick (as long as you have a good amount of sunlight) and I do think that this help to keep it from drying out. If you mow low with KBG in a shady area, it will struggle to get thick and never thrive.

The biggest issues I have in my climate area that seems to only effect low mowed yards is lawn fungus. You will likely experience this, and certain times of the year and will need to prevent or treat. Not a big deal, but it is something that you bring out by cutting it lower and thickening it up a lot.

I would say just give it a try. If it doesn't do well, or becomes to much, you can just let it grow out, no harm.

Let me know if you have any other Q's!

 

Really digging the longer grass along the edges

 

Thanks! It gives it a little bit of a golf course look and really speeds up the mowing. I found the edges, were always a problem with either hard surfaces, awkward angles or mulch being moved out of the beds by wild animals. This approach helps to keep the blades sharp

 

Thanks so much, great info!

 

Could you program it to possibly make some pretty cool designs for the major holidays?

Props to you for realizing the turf was starting to interfere with day to day things. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves "it's just grass."

 

Could you program it to possibly make some pretty cool designs for the major holidays?

Props to you for realizing the turf was starting to interfere with day to day things. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves "it's just grass."

I think that's coming in the future, with the newer models, but my 430x is an older version that is all random and uses the border wire to atay in the yard. Looking forward to getting it going this season as I upgraded the cutting discount to their newest 5 blade model vs the 3 blade that was on it last season!