I have a neighbor that has some form of roomba like mower. His lawn is always perfectly cut to that height with no visible wheel marks. It does however do an extremely poor job of going near edges or curbs, which means the grass gets over grown in those parts very quickly. The result of this is a very poor looking lawn. If you have the means to weed wack every once and a while i bet the electric mower would take care of the rest.

 

I have a neighbor that has some form of roomba like mower. His lawn is always perfectly cut to that height with no visible wheel marks. It does however do an extremely poor job of going near edges or curbs, which means the grass gets over grown in those parts very quickly. The result of this is a very poor looking lawn. If you have the means to weed wack every once and a while i bet the electric mower would take care of the rest.

That's a great point: you're still left with the detail work. I'm my case I'd be left with my tree lawn too, as there are way too many young kids flying around here on electric bikes to make that part of the geofence

Still, it would take out the bulk of the chore. Love the idea of no wheel marks too...

 

From what I have read and seen, robo-mowers are not ready for prime time just yet.

Want to reduce your mowing time? Why not reduce your lawn areas and make some perennial flower beds or better yet, grow some food?

 

Simple. Hire someone to cut it. Sounds like you don't like the act of cutting or yard work, so farm it out to a landscape company to do it twice a month and you cut the other weeks they don't come.

 

Husqvarna Automower 315X owner here.

Had it installed for my back yard ~2 years ago. (Quarter Acer)

It cuts on a timer, every other day in the spring months, and when June 1st hits, 1 time a week for 12 hours.
It can cut in the rain, had GPS, antitheft, etc.

The quality of my back lawn is better than the front lawn in the summer and spring! I have to trim the edges with a weed eater around the border, which is not a big deal. I've saved about 100 hours a year in cutting.

Backyard: Blueberry KBG
Front: Blueberry KBG (rotary, for now)

A paper by Pirchio et al (2018) noticed that Zoysiagrasses cut with a robo mower have better quality overall, or nearly identical to reel mowers. Conversely, Ferguson and Newell (2010) observed a higher turf quality produced by an autonomous (model Bigmow; Belrobotics, Wavre, Belgium) vs. a reel mower only 6 months after their trial had started. Ferguson and Newell (2010) also found that the autonomous mower produced a lower weed encroachment compared with the reel mower throughout the trial.

Brede, D. 2000 Turfgrass maintenance reduction handbook: Sports, lawns, and golf. Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI

Autonomous Rotary Mower versus Ordinary Reel Mower-Effects of Cutting Height and Nitrogen Rate on Manila Grass Turf Quality
Authors: Michel Pirchio 1 , Marco Fontanelli 1 , Christian Frasconi 1 , Luisa Martelloni 1 , Michele Raffaelli 1 , Andrea Peruzzi 1 , Lisa Caturegli 1 , Monica Gaetani 1 , Simone Magni 1 , Marco Volterrani 1 , and Nicola Grossi 1
View Less
1 Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa 56124, Italy

https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/28/4/article-p509.xml

 

Simple. Hire someone to cut it. Sounds like you don't like the act of cutting or yard work, so farm it out to a landscape company to do it twice a month and you cut the other weeks they don't come.

Unfortunately that won't work for me. It was the mishaps of local landscaping companies that got me into lawn care in the first place. It culminated with them trespassing on my neighbor's property to get around a temporary fence that I'd installed specifically to keep them from mowing it (and yes - we'd called and notified them too). It had rained heavily, they tore up the yard with their Scag and destroyed my overseeding project.

And that's not to mention the creeping bent grass and other junk that would find its way into the yard.

I envy those who have decent local lawn care companies.

 

Try PGR?

 

Husqvarna Automower 315X owner here.

Had it installed for my back yard 2 years ago. (Quarter Acer)

It cuts on a timer, every other day in the spring months, and when June 1st hits, 1 time a week for 12 hours.
It can cut in the rain, had GPS, antitheft, etc.

@tneicna - that's incredible info!! Thanks so much!

Given the effects that frequent mowing is meant to have on grass it seems to make a lot of sense.

So what drove you to choose Husqvarna vs. Worx?

Cheers!

 

Husqvarna Automower 315X owner here.

Had it installed for my back yard 2 years ago. (Quarter Acer)

It cuts on a timer, every other day in the spring months, and when June 1st hits, 1 time a week for 12 hours.
It can cut in the rain, had GPS, antitheft, etc.

@tneicna - that's incredible info!! Thanks so much!

Given the effects that frequent mowing is meant to have on grass it seems to make a lot of sense.

So what drove you to choose Husqvarna vs. Worx?

Cheers!

Tried Worx. It was terrible. Cheaply made junk. It has so many problems that the Worx people ended up telling me to go away!

 

@HungrySoutherner has discussed his automower in his journal.

 

@tneicna What kind of life expectancy do you think your 315X will give you? How often do you change the blades and have you had to have it serviced since you bought it? Has the wire needed any repair?

I am very interested in this thread as I am looking at the 430X for about 28K pretty flat back yard. I am the same as you in that I do not want a lawn service driving commercial heavy zero turns in my yard.

My though is if I could get 5 years out of the automower it would pay for itself compared to a lawn service in about two years with our longer growing season.

Thanks for the info.

 

@AndyS I read this article a few days ago as well. DFW company using automowers and just come out every week or two to trim and check.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/2021/04/15/north-texas-grown-lawn-robot-maker-buys-up-competitor-strengthens-partnership-with-swedish-giant-husqvarna/

 

@AndyS I read this article a few days ago as well. DFW company using automowers and just come out every week or two to trim and check.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/2021/04/15/north-texas-grown-lawn-robot-maker-buys-up-competitor-strengthens-partnership-with-swedish-giant-husqvarna/

@cldrunner - that's fantastic! No doubt the market will go this way eventually, but a service like that would be perfection :thumbup:

 

@tneicna What kind of life expectancy to you think your 315X will give you? How often do you change the blades and have you had to have it serviced since you bought it? Has the wire needed any repair?

I am very interested in this thread as I am looking at the 430X for about 28K pretty flat back yard. I am the same as you in that I do not want a lawn service driving commercial heavy zero turns in my yard.

My though is if I could get 5 years out of the automower it would pay for itself compared to a lawn service in about two years with our longer growing season.

Thanks for the info.

I changed the blades once in about a year. According to the documentation, the battery will last about 4 years.

I've never had it serviced. The biggest pain in the butt was where to put the charging station.

 

@HungrySoutherner In your journal you show pictures of your auto mower. Would you be able to tell us the model and your experience so far with your operation? Has it made your mowing more efficient? Thanks..

 

I believe @HungrySoutherner has a Husqy 450X at 0.38" HOC

 

In my humble opinion you are a perfect candidate for the Husqvarna 430x, 450X or depending on if you have extreme slopes the 435x. Before last season I had been reel mowing my lawn at .25" and then I had the chance to get a Husqvarna 450X at a price that made me take the leap and give it a shot. The first issue I needed to work through was that the minimum HOC on the Automower is .8" which wasn't going to work for me, I've got Bermuda and ideally I wanted to be down to .5". After a little research I found the fairway kit for the mower that sets the HOC down to .38" for golf course use and set the mower up to be mowing low, problem solved. After living with the mower for 1 full season, I can't imagine going back to reel mowing, unless I just want to do it for fun. My turf quality was better than it had been in the previous season, to the point that I ended the season with turf that was way to dense.
There are pros and cons to the system so I will run those down for you. The Pros: You're lawn is always mowed and maintained at the same HOC. The turf is never riding the roller coaster of growing out and be hacked down, the automower just goes out every day and does a shave and keeps things nice and neat. Depending on the condition of your turf the mower doesn't care if its raining or sunny it will mower either way (I'll come back to this). It's an all electric system so the maintenance is extremely minimal, and the mower knows to go home and charge when the battery is low and will resume mowing when it's charged. The blades are cheap and easy to change, just 3 screws. I generally just keep an eye on my blades and just change them as needed, but just a force of habit I don't run them longer than 3 weeks your mileage will vary. Other maintenance is just checking the wheels to make sure they aren't clogged with wet grass or dirt and that the underside of the mower is clear of grass. Outside of that there isn't any other maintenance. All mechanical things will wear out, but these systems are easy to change parts and maintain and there are guys that are still running the first and second gen automowers that are 20 years old. The base station is designed to be all weather so you can pretty much stick it anywhere as long as the mower can easily get to it. The system requires guide wires and boundary wires to be buried so the mower knows how to to get to different zones, find the base station and what the boundaries of the lawn are. If you buy the mower through a local dealer they usually will include the installation in the price, but I have a suggestion work with your dealer to do the installation above ground with the stakes first so you can make adjustments to the wire boundaries before having it buried. In my case I bought a spool of wire and some extra stakes, temporarily staked it down looked at how it was cutting and then once I was happy I buried everything myself.
Everything is managed from your phone or on the keypad of the automower. The automower has included cellular system and gps and that is included in the purchase price so you don't pay extra, which means it's not dependent on wifi. You can manage the mower from anywhere in the world in terms of changing the mowing hoc, sending it to different zones, telling it to mow, changing the schedule and getting realtime GPS location if someone gets brave and tries to steal it. If someone tries to steal the mower the alarm is blaring loud, won't shut off without the pin code and immediately alerts you on the phone with a play-by-play gps location of where your robot is headed. I've goofed around with it and stole my own mower to see if I could track where it was headed and it works great. I set mine up to mow mostly at night since the mower doesn't care.
Cons: Mowing in the rain. The mower will mow whenever you tell it to which means in the rain. In my lawn on bermuda its not a big deal it can handle it, but the wheels get sandy because of my yard. Some yards its to abusive to have it running in the rain and the mower gets covered in wet grass clippings and the wheels will get muddy. If that's your case, you can set up an IFTTT program to tell the mower to stay home if rain is in the forecast or just tell the mower to skip mowing from your phone when the rain starts and resume later. The second con is the buried wire, if you bury it to shallow or go nuts with aerating or dethatching you can cut the wire. It's not a big deal and super easy to repair, but knowing where you have the wires buried or getting a cheap wire locator is important. The final con is what was mentioned earlier edging and weed eating areas the mower just can't get in to. Its just a limitation of the mower for tight corners or fence lines or even like in my case the curb near the street where I don't want the mower to be to close to and risk falling into the street. There is a very simple solution to this that at least limits the amount of time you need to trim to keep it looking nice till you can weedeat, PGR. I use the high edging rates of PGR on the areas that the mower can't get into so that I don't have to weed eat and the lawn doesn't look weird with areas that look great and some over grown. The first time you run that high rate those strips of grass are probably going to get bronzed out, but for me its worth it considering I go out and do that once a month and the yard looks crisp with the least amount of trimming. The final con is price, automowers aren't cheap but if you think about what it provides and consider that if your lawn is so large you are in zero turn land, the automower to me is the better buy because you don't have to ride it to do the work and don't need gas.
If you've made it this far in the novel then you will know I love the automower and can't imagine ever going back. Considering that I can have reel low turf without doing the mowing even if I'm on vacation its perfect for me. The cut quality is great, and for me I'd rather have nice cut turf than a participation sticker that says I got out and mowed it low 3 days a week for it to look good. If you have any more questions I'm an open book.

 

Nice review. Thanks!

 

Great write-up @HungrySoutherner - it makes me want one.

 

:shock: Wow! I did not know they had a fairway kit to cut that low.... now I'm rethinking my GM1600 I just bought! Thanks @HungrySoutherner :lol:

 

Wow, wow, WOW! @HungrySoutherner what an incredible write up!! Thank you! I did make it to the end of the novel and it was all worth it :thumbup:

Great point about the participation sticker... That's exactly how I feel! Maximum turf quality and health is my goal and this micro cutting seems to be the best route for me.

Quick questions:

1) I have a few pin oaks that drop branches occasionally. I assume the mower just navigates around them until you pick them up?

2) I also have acorns (what a fun yard) but I assume that at a higher HOC (I have KBG) that wouldn't be an issue for the machine?

3) Can you sharpen the blades, or is it a throw out and replace?

Thanks!!

PS - this thread has been such quality that y'all are reminding me to make a little donation to TheLawnForum. Cheers :thumbup:

 

Great write-up @HungrySoutherner - it makes me want one.

You're new place would do great with a automower. It would just be out there covering the whole thing all the time, but the benefit would be you could run the fairway kit and keep the thing down "reel automower low".

 

Wow, wow, WOW! @HungrySoutherner what an incredible write up!! Thank you! I did make it to the end of the novel and it was all worth it :thumbup:

Great point about the participation sticker... That's exactly how I feel! Maximum turf quality and health is my goal and this micro cutting seems to be the best route for me.

Quick questions:

1) I have a few pin oaks that drop branches occasionally. I assume the mower just navigates around them until you pick them up?

2) I also have acorns (what a fun yard) but I assume that at a higher HOC (I have KBG) that wouldn't be an issue for the machine?

3) Can you sharpen the blades, or is it a throw out and replace?

Thanks!!

PS - this thread has been such quality that y'all are reminding me to make a little donation to TheLawnForum. Cheers :thumbup:

Ok so here goes in my shortest attempt possible:

1) If the branches are big the mostly likely scenario is the mower will bump into it and turn around and go a different direction, if they are small enough for the mower to run over the mower will just run over the top of the stick and mow it, but it's not aggressive like a rotary. The blades are kind of like sharp thick razor blades in a straight razer, but they are swinging a pivot held out by centrifugal force, so they would just slap the stick and fold back and the mower keeps going. Worst case if your mowing sticks all the time you might have to change blades more often. My neighbor has a pecan tree that drops pecans and limbs in my yard all the time. The mower handles it no problem and I just get out and pick it up, no harm no foul.
2) Acorns are no problem, worse case is you are mowing low like me and they get hit and mildly chopped up but does no harm. If you are mowing taller the mower probably will never see it.
3) The blades are completely disposable. You buy them in huge packs and each blade includes a new screw. They are quick to change out and cheap to buy so I keep my changed regularly. Depending on your grass and how much you are mowing will determine how much life you get out of them. A pack of 30 blades and screws goes for about $14 which is 10 blade changes. That like 2 year supply even if you are aggressive with them. I tried 3 different blade vendors from super cheap to the OEM blades last year to see if it was worth buying Husqvarna brand at the premium price, and I will tell you don't waste the money. With the fairway kit that is the harshest you could be cutting with the blades and the cheap packs on Amazon last just as long as the Husqvarna.

BONUS: If you are one of those people that leaves water hoses in the yard, especially cheap water hoses Automowers can cut the water hose if they roll over them. I haven't experience that, but I've heard of other owners who have left hoses out and forgot and the mower went out to mow and nicked up the hose. To be fair any mower would destroy a hose if its hit, but robots aren't out surveying the lawn for hoses.

 

:shock: Wow! I did not know they had a fairway kit to cut that low.... now I'm rethinking my GM1600 I just bought! Thanks @HungrySoutherner :lol:

Yep. It's pretty awesome. I have a small lawn, I can't imagine reel mowing a large property. Automower to the rescue.

 

Great write-up @HungrySoutherner - it makes me want one.

You're new place would do great with a automower. It would just be out there covering the whole thing all the time, but the benefit would be you could run the fairway kit and keep the thing down "reel automower low".

That would be cool, but it looks like the biggest ones will only mow up to about 1.25 acres?

If so, I would need a small fleet (3) of them.