Not really if Sue has so much else to do with the gite… and clearly she likes to have it all looking good for the guests…
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I am hoping my robot arrives in about a week. It should save me approx 4 hours per week to get on with other stuff.
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Although properly long grass will defeat a domestic robot mower I’ve not had to manually cut our 1500m² of lawn for 9 years now, due to using a robot, including the first cut after a winter break. I simply set the cutting height to maximum & let it go for a week or so before dropping the height (though I never scalp the grass either).
That must be quirk of the model you have. I’ve never found that to be the case with our Husqvarna.
I had to smile at your Freudian typo.
Yes, I confess to being an ardent battery fan. I think “determined to be happy” is not the way I would describe myself. I AM determined to evaluate the battery solution (be it mowers, power or garden tools and of course cars) because of the obvious (and some not so obvious) benefits. I am not disturbing the audio tranquillity of anyone within earshot (up to ½ Km in case of my tractor mower). I am not poisoning people or wildlife near bye, and of course the environmental benefits of not using fossil fuel.
Yes, it sometimes take a huge effort to make a change. Being in the fortunate position to have plenty of time on my hands, I am happy to take on the challenge. If I was still working I am sure I would find every excuse possible not to have to change but, as it is, I AM happy with the result.
Regarding molehills, I fully expected the object detection system to avoid them but the mower just goes through them like a knife through butter leaving flat, grassless patch behind. I still go and open the hole and put coffee grounds down to deter the moles.
The direct benefits are no bone shaking rides every week, silent operation so able to mow Sundays and fete days, and the best looking lawns I have ever had.
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Rules! I live in a hamlet of 6 houses, 2 holiday homes and 4 permanent homes of which we are one, and one is the home of our deputy maire with his mother next door.
Our DM mows his grass on Fete days, Sundays and any otger time that suits him so I never worry when doing the same.
Last year I replaced our tractor mower. It cost over 4k while the battery equivalent was almost 9k!
My concession to battery power is my hedge trimmer, a 60 volt battery powered tool that is brilliant, maybe the worm is turning.
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My luxury is an electric sécateur bought to offset problems with arthritis. Magic kit.
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Tell me more, my wife would love one.
I got mine from the Lidl.fr site. Here is the link
It is is part of the Parkside group of tools of which I have several so the cost of the battery (not included) has already been spent.
There are some links to Lidl (Parkside) stuff via social media. Be careful. My first attempt to buy the secateurs was a scam.
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This is basically what we are looking for. The fact that we intend to be away more often at our other property to do it up means that having a robot keeping the grass manageable will mean we will come back to less of a jungle, especially in the spring and early summer (like now). Plus the whole boneshaking, leg cramp making drive on the tractor mower is beginning to take its toll on me, so I’m perfectly willing to forego that torture to the extent possible.
One thing I did think about was how lightning proof such things were. As T-storms are a little hard to predict, I might have to curtail the robomower’s sorties when it looks like a T-storm is forecast. Getting fried by a lightning strike would not be the best end result for it!
The one Mik and I have has a rain sensor and it takes itself back to its home.
I was watching a video from someone who’s had one of these for some months and he found it irritating that the mower didn’t pop out to check whether it had stopped raining. It has to be started again by the owner. If you are not going to be there when you want the mower to be cutting your grass you may need someone close by to keep an eye on it for you.
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Here’s a very handy hint for robot mowers operatives . Leaving your garden hose in the designated mowing area is a sub optimal strategy for your watering regime
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It arrived, installed and working:
It has already cut the entire lawn and will now cut it twice a week - it makes a much better job than I have done previously with the tractor.
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Why do you think that is?
I think it is due to the undulations of the lawn and it has a far shorter wheelbase.
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Looks good. I think the reason for a better cut is - little and often. Since it is automatically done you don’t find excuses not to do it. Also, the blades are much sharper.
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Are your clippings of a mulchable length hence feeding the lawn?
The clippings length are a function of the interval between cuts. The blades of most robot mowers are not designed for mulching, just cutting, hence the higher frequency of cutting required. It is a good idea to cut a lawn very closely before the first use of a robot because if the clippings are too long they just get piled up to the side of the path that is being cut.
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Yes, we now have a Mammotion Luba AWD 1500, and whilst we started out at maximum cut length (6.5 mm), we will be bringing it down as we increase the frequency. For the moment though, most of the grass is a burnt crisp colour, so there won’t be much mowing going on for a while.
No real complaints about iNavRTK either, which mostly works fairly well once a task has been programmed).
One issue I have noticed is the 4G dropout, which makes connecting to the mower remotely, e.g. from work or when we might be away, problematic, with a 50% hit or miss rate. Sometimes you just have to wait 5 minutes and try again, but it can be a bit frustrating.
The bot has so far only died once out on patrol, and I had to go and physically carry it back to the charging station. It seemed, from the log messages, to have got lost trying to navigate its way back through the return channels, in amongst the pine cones (which it definitely does not like, and we will have to rake up), and then ran out of battery. Fortunately, this has not happened again since.
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How big is your lawn Mat and I know it’s not time you’re having to spend doing it, but how long did it take to do it.
I’ve nothing to add to this thread other than I’m beginning to get Robomower envy.
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