Robotic lawnmowers have well and truly arrived. Now which one should you choose?A lot of people take great enjoyment from cutting their lawns, but a lot of people also find it to be a chore.
The chore can be magnified if your lawn is also quite large.We are going to explore the relatively new concept of robotic lawn mowers and more specifically a robotic mower for large lawns. As the majority of robotic lawn mowers are powered by battery, this will put a limit on run time and area cut per single charge.
With the arrival of robotic lawnmowers you can sit back and relax while the mower takes care of the grass. You can control most manufacturers mowers features from a paired app on your phone or tablet, things such as cutting height, a calendar to set cutting dates and starting, stopping and parking the unit at its base station for charging.
Popular Robotic Lawn Mowers
We have looked at the top selling robotic lawn mowers available right now. We discuss their key features to help you make a more informed decision on which model suits your garden best. Don’t worry if you can’t remember their individual features, we have put together a table at the end to bring all the information together.
1. WORX WG 794
The Worx is one of the best selling robotic lawn mowers available today. It has a reasonable price and it has a respectable run time of 40min and a 2hr charge time. It has a safety rain sensor to return to base for charging if the rain gets too heavy or if the battery gets a bit low. The other thing to note about the Worx is that it has the best adjustability for cutting height on all the models we reviewed.
2.Husqvarna AM315
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The Husqvarna AM315 is a good reliable brand and has good run time and cutting time. It has a cutting width of 8.7 inches and can tackle steep slopes up to 40 degrees. The only point i would recommend you check is its cutting height. It seems a little limited (from 0.8 to 2.4 inches) which at its highest setting may be a little short for some lawn owners.
3. Robomow RX 12
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The Robomow RX 12 is the baby of the bunch, and would not be suitable for owners of large lawns. It has a maximum cutting area of only 2000 square feet (0.045 acres). The charge time is very long at 16-20 hours. Given it takes this long, you would want the entire area to be cut in one charge otherwise you may be waiting over two or more days to cut your lawn once.
4. Robomow RS 630
The Robomow RS630 is a beast of a mower compared to the other we tested in terms of physical size and weight. It has a massive 22 inch cut which is twice the width of any of the other mowers. The Husqvarna 450 would be its rival and these two mowers are perfect for large lawns, you just need to check the specs in the table below to see which suits you best.
5. Husqvarna 450x
The Husqvarna 450X is the flagship model from Husqvarna and it has the largest cutting area at 1.25 acres, it has all the features you would expect from a top lawn mower manufacturer such as GPS mapping to ensure an area is not cut twice, remote object detection for trees, shrubs and electric height adjustment.
Husqvarna use Automower Connect which enables you to connect to your smartphone or tablet to use features such as start stop park, adjust settings and GPS location.
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Important points to remember about robotic mowers.
Before you can get straight into mowing your lawn you should be aware that most robotic mowers need to set a boundary wire which robot to cut the perimeter of the lawn. The distance this needs to be set at will be dependent on the manufacturer so you should check before set up. You will also need to set up a charging dock where your mower will dock to recharge its batteries.
Setting the perimeter wire can be a tedious process- but it is rewarding if done properly, most installation kits come with around 200m-400m of copper wire and pegs which you are advised to embed into the ground fully out of sight. You will still need to edge your lawn yourself, but the bulk of the work can be done by robot now!
Beware of small objects
The mower will cut anything left lying around on the lawn, which is not big enough to fully block the mowers path- take note plastic cups or bags not lifted will be shredded into a million pieces.
Each manufacturer has different cutting heights, but for your first cut be careful that your lawn has not become overgrown before using your new mower as none of them like to be put into an overgrown lawn. The robotic mowers are designed to cut your lawn, little and often. They struggle to cut long grass, another reason to cut little and often is they don’t come with a grass collection box, so it is best to keep your clippings short or they will be lying on top of your lawn.
Another point which you should know before you buy is that a robotic lawn mower does not leave your lawn looking like a traditional walk behind mower with wheel marks up and down the lawn. A robotic mower doesn’t really leave any wheel marks which takes you a while to adjust to. It looks like the lawn has frozen in time as it always looks short but never really mown.
Summary
The title of this article is Robotic Lawn Mower For Large Lawns, so after looking at all the models i think the only two models to choose from would be either the Robomow RS630 or the Husqvarna 450x.
Both mowers can cover a large area although they do it in two different ways. The Robomow cuts twice the width in half the time although many people have written reviews stating the Robomow mower did not cut anything near what it claims it does in one charge. They also commented that due to the weight of the mower it got stuck in ruts in their garden easily.
The Husqvarna is slow and steady, cutting half the width but keeps going for a lot longer. The Husqvarna is much lighter and rarely got stuck in ruts compared to the Robomow, it also could climb much steeper gradients than the Robomow.
Both makes have good history when it comes to robotic mowers, although Husqvarna as a brand has been around for 300 years. I feel the Husqvarna is let down by quite a small range in height adjustment 0.8 to 2.4 inches which i would have liked to have had more adjustment especially higher when you come towards the end of the season, but the Robomow does not offer that much more at 0.78 to 3.14 inches so its no big difference.
I would buy the Husqvarna 450x, it has a better pedigree and requires less things to be perfect compared to the Robomow 630.
