It’s a scorching afternoon in August 2024, with temps hovering at 101 levels. I’m flat on my again, sweating underneath a Seventies Land Rover, making an attempt to rescue a Segway Navimow. It seems that the primary rule of utilizing a robotic lawnmower is “don’t let anybody park in your garden.”
Robot lawnmowers have been round for a number of a long time, and with them the heady promise of spending the summer season together with your toes up, sipping a pleasant tall glass of one thing, whereas a robotic mows your garden. But it’s solely previously couple of years that they’ve grow to be virtually sensible sufficient and low cost sufficient for me to check out.
In all however a couple of eventualities, robotic lawnmowers nonetheless aren’t price your cash
New navigation tech means you most likely received’t have to dig a trench round your garden to put information wires (besides, it seems, in my yard), and when you can nonetheless spend $6,000 on a mower, now you can discover one for underneath $1,000.
However, after three months of working 4 bots round my property, my recommendation is that — in all however a couple of eventualities — robotic lawnmowers nonetheless aren’t price your cash.
If you will have the appropriate situations and an limitless provide of endurance, a robotic lawnmower may be just right for you. But if you’re anticipating a plug-and-play resolution or if, like me, you will have a whole lot of tree cowl, hardy grass, sandy soil, and family and friends who wish to park in your garden, you then’ll need to look ahead to these automowers to get quite a bit smarter.
The excellent news is that there are new and improved robotic lawnmowers arriving this spring that declare to unravel a few of these points. In the meantime, right here’s a rundown of what you’ll want to find out about robotic lawnmowers earlier than shopping for one. Then, learn on for a take a look at which bot triumphed after I pitted the Navimo Segway i110 , Mammotion Luba 2 AWD , Dreame A1, and Husqavarna Automower 430X head-to-head.
Seven issues it’s best to find out about robotic lawnmowers
1. Robot lawnmowers don’t lower your garden …
… they shave it. Robot lawnmowers use a number of small razor blades to chop a set quantity of the grass every run (typically between 1 and three mm). This means they should run day-after-day for a number of hours, typically twice a day, to maintain your garden trim. The Dreame A1, for instance, takes about 24 hours to chop a quarter-acre garden. (Most manufacturers supply a number of sizes of mowers, going up in value based mostly on how massive a yard they’ll sort out.)
While in principle, taking all day to chop your yard shouldn’t be an issue — these mowers are battery-powered and, like robotic vacuums, can return to their charging docks to energy up when wanted — the problem I had was getting them to complete their job.
In my testing, an excessive amount of sand, a giant twig, or an errantly parked automobile meant that about 60 p.c of the time they received caught and simply sat exterior within the solar to die. Most weeks, I spent extra time rescuing mowers than it might have taken to mow the garden myself.
You additionally have to begin with a mowed garden (in the identical means you’ll want to begin with a clear home for a robotic vacuum to work effectively). The excellent news is that two of the mowers I examined (the Dreame and Mammotion) produced the right skilled garden stripe that can make your neighbors envious.
2. You may have to put an antenna in your yard
Two of the robots I examined used a geo-positioning expertise known as Real Time Kinematic (RTK), which together with a digital camera and Location Services, lets them navigate with out information wires. In principle, this could make for a a lot simpler setup; reasonably than dig a trench for a whole lot of toes of wire, you simply want to stay an antenna someplace in your yard.
However, discovering the right spot that’s shut sufficient to an influence outlet and has a transparent view of the sky was a critical battle in my yard, which is basically lined by big oak timber. If you will have a treeless yard, you have to be high quality. However, I spent hours positioning and repositioning RTK stations round my property, looking for a spot that may let the Navimow and Mammotion navigate my yard. Spoiler alert: I failed.
3. You’ll should babysit them
I used to be not ready for the way a lot setup and ongoing consideration these bots wanted. In addition to a good quantity of meeting and searching round my yard for energy retailers and clear views of the sky, I needed to bodily draw a map for every bot.
I spent extra time rescuing mowers than it might have taken to mow the garden myself
In most instances, this meant driving them across the perimeter like an RC automobile, utilizing my telephone as a distant (okay, that half might have been type of enjoyable, however not in 90-degree warmth). I used to be stunned that, in contrast to robotic vacuums, they’ll’t autonomously create a map of your yard. I additionally needed to manually create any keep-out zones.
Once arrange, I continually needed to go and rescue them. You can’t anticipate to go away for every week and return to a superbly mowed garden. (You’ll even have to depart your gate open if you wish to mow the back and front yard.)
Robot lawnmowers are a few decade behind robotic vacuums in the case of person expertise, because of poor connectivity choices and customarily crappy apps. Most folks don’t have robust Wi-Fi of their gardens, and whereas the robots don’t want Wi-Fi to run, with out it, they’ll’t hook up with a wise dwelling system or voice assistant, and also you’ll should get into Bluetooth vary to vary the mowing schedule or begin or cease the robotic by the app.
Several fashions supply LTE connectivity, which additionally allows theft prevention options. However, this will likely value additional; Dreame’s LTE module is $229, and Segway expenses $32.90 a yr for connectivity on its Navimo mowers.
5. Obstacle navigation is a piece in progress
Just as most robotic vacuums 5 years in the past recurrently received tripped up on stray socks or cables, robotic lawnmowers immediately want a easy garden and a transparent path to finish their job. While some can navigate round bigger objects, like soccer balls or wading swimming pools simply, smaller objects like twigs, stray canine bones, and toys will cease most of them of their tracks. And, whereas this might not be an issue for you — if, like most Americans, you don’t park in your garden — they are going to drive proper underneath your automobile.
Hills and uneven floor may journey them up. In normal, most bots can deal with inclines from 30 to 45 p.c (as much as 24 levels). If you will have steeper areas or sandy soil, you’ll want to take a look at a bot with all wheel drive and the potential to sort out sheerer slopes. The Mammotion has the very best slope restrict of these I examined, at 80 p.c (38.6 levels). However, the realm I stay in is named the Lowcountry for a motive; I had no hills close by to check this on and loads of sandy soil that each bot received caught in.
Robots appeal to consideration. I met extra neighbors in my three months testing lawnmowers than within the 10 years I’ve lived on this avenue. Everyone who walked previous and noticed one working needed to ask about it. Since they run on a regular basis, that was lots of people. Even my normally all-business UPS driver had a number of questions (“Is it simply mapping your yard? It doesn’t appear to be it’s reducing something.”).
On this level, theft is clearly a priority, particularly in a entrance yard if you happen to don’t have a fence. Most mowers require you to enter a numerical PIN on the display to make use of it after it’s been picked up, in principle rendering it ineffective to thieves. Some additionally sound a loud alarm, and most have Location Services monitoring, so you possibly can comply with your mower if somebody nabs it, though it’s possible you’ll have to pay additional for the mobile service required to take action as soon as it leaves your Wi-Fi.
7. Do not put a robotic lawnmower in your lap
This is apparent, however must be acknowledged. These mowers have blades — small ones, however blades nonetheless. At least two of the mowers I examined required a good quantity of meeting. My husband, who is way handier with a screwdriver than I’m, was sport to assist me with this.
As he was fidgeting with a tough half, he picked up the bot and put it on his lap to get a greater buy, which proceeded to shave his pores and skin pretty badly. The ethical of the story is that, whereas a robotic lawnmower isn’t going to cut your foot off if it one way or the other runs over it (which is unlikely as all of them have in-built security options that cease the blades as quickly as they encounter an impediment), it could do respectable injury to something that does one way or the other get involved with these blades.
Sadly, this was the start of the tip of my husband’s love affair with robotic lawnmowers. He had been so excited by the prospect of a machine that may do his greatest chore for him, however after three months of frustrations and failures, to not point out everlasting scars, he was completely over them.
From August by October of 2024, I examined three new automated mowers in opposition to a staple within the house, the Husqvarna 430x, which is its third era and was launched in 2016. I ran these in my flat, three-quarter-acre, coastal South Carolina yard, with sandy soil, centipede grass, ample oak timber, and a number of hurricanes.
Bear in thoughts, this isn’t a standard assessment or shopping for information; it’s a gauntlet. Each bot is judged by how effectively it labored in my yard, which, admittedly, is difficult. The following opinions give attention to what impressed me (and irritated me) about every bot, and what induced them to be eradicated till I (form of) topped a winner.
Navigation: 3D imaginative and prescient and RTK antenna (wire-free) / Yard size: 1.25 acres / Cutting peak: 2.2” to 4” lower peak, 15.7” reducing width, 80 % slope / Theft options: Lift alarm, Location Services anti-theft / Weatherproofing: IPX6 / Connectivity: LTE (buy individually, $49.90 a yr), Wi-Fi, BLE. Works with: Alexa and Google / Price of unit reviewed: $4,009
The Luba 2 I examined was a severely spectacular, severely costly machine, with actually unhealthy software program. The excellent news is that Mammotion has since launched an upgraded model (linked to above) that’s cheaper and, in accordance with the corporate, has higher mapping and extra dependable navigation.
I actually hope that’s the case, as a result of when this beast truly mowed, it did a tremendous job, creating good traces that made the garden appear to be an expert landscaper had cared for all of it summer season. Its enormous wheels and massive physique might sort out virtually any terrain, and its impediment recognition tech was very good; it additionally had the vary to handle my whole yard.
But it’s the primary to be eradicated on this battle as a result of, on the mannequin I examined, the mix of an unusable app, sophisticated software program, spotty Location Services, and an virtually fixed want for updates meant it was practically not possible to get it to run reliably and autonomously. Also, these good traces that it created? Those have been in my neighbor’s yard.
Because my ample tree protection blocked its view of the sky, the Luba couldn’t create an entire map of my yard, which meant it wouldn’t mow. After weeks of making an attempt to get it to work, I had to surrender and ask my neighbors, who’ve fewer timber than I do, if I might mow their garden for every week. In their smaller, extra open entrance yard, the Luba was capable of create a map on the primary attempt.
However, even with a map and its RTK antenna able the app deemed acceptable, the Luba required nonstop consideration. I needed to go to it a number of instances a day for all the things from software program updates, docking assist, or reconnecting its RTK station to the app — which, regardless of a Wi-Fi connection, solely labored after I was standing proper subsequent to the mower. I received so many mosquito bites from these journeys that I nicknamed it the Mosquito Mower.
Sadly, after its first few runs, which created some beautiful garden stripes, the Luba started to cease a couple of toes away from its base and simply go spherical in a circle. This created an enormous sand pit, which it repeatedly received caught in. At this level, my neighbors requested if I might please take it away. Eliminated.
As talked about, the corporate introduced an upgraded model of the Luba 2 at CES this yr, which is accessible now. Mammotion says it has improved navigation, even underneath timber, can routinely map your yard, and it’s about $1,000 cheaper. It additionally comes with a built-in LTE module and a yr of mobile service; I plan to check it quickly.
Reliability isn’t all the things
Navigation: information wire / Yard measurement: 0.8 acres / Cutting peak: 0.8 to 2.4 inches / Cutting width: 9.45 inches, 45 % slope / Theft options: raise alarm, PIN code, Location Services anti-theft / Weatherproofing: IPX4 / Connectivity: BLE, built-in LTE (free for 10 years) / Weight: 28.7 lbs / Price of unit reviewed: $2,499.99
One of the unique automowers from a Swedish firm with a protracted historical past in garden care, the Husqavarna 430X is a dependable workhorse with a dialed-in app expertise and fundamental options. It ran on time each time, navigated my tough terrain easily, virtually at all times making it again to the bottom, and it lower the grass very effectively. But its information wire required digging a trench across the perimeter of my garden, and its lack of impediment detection meant it stored getting caught underneath vehicles.
While Husqvarna has a line of wire-free RTK-enabled robots that use its Exact Positioning Operating System (EPOS), and embrace Wi-Fi connectivity and impediment detection, these fashions, the 450X and 450XH EPOS, value practically $6,000 and require skilled set up. Husqvarna additionally suggested that my timber may trigger points if I examined one in all these, and mentioned the 430X, which makes use of a boundary wire, could be greatest for my setup. Outside of the garden parking, they have been proper.
I put in the 430X in my entrance yard as a result of the again yard is big, and that was simply an excessive amount of wire. While digging a trench for the wire was arduous work (says my husband), it was one of many easiest setup processes we went by — if not the quickest; wires don’t complain about the place you place them.
We ran the wire throughout the garden, which, whereas it made sense on the time, turned out to have been a foul concept. In our neck of the woods, folks park in your garden. When we had plumbing work performed, the mower — which has bump sensors however no capability to see obstacles — wedged itself underneath the wheel effectively of the plumber’s van. When the plumber left, the mower received squished.
Unfortunately, it’s not straightforward to redo the wiring, and there’s no choice to set digital keep-out zones on the 430X for momentary objects in your yard — like parked vehicles or paddling swimming pools. If you will have a wide-open garden with no delicate obstacles, the 430X is an effective selection, however it’s simply not sensible sufficient for my yard. So, considerably reluctantly, it was eradicated.
Husqvarna’s new Automower iQ sequence, which options impediment detection, RTK navigation, and begins at a extra cheap $3,000, is coming this Spring. I’ve received extra particulars on this beneath, and I plan to check it quickly.
Navigation: RTK antenna and imaginative and prescient navigation (wire-free) / Yard measurement: 0.25 acres / Cutting peak: 2 to three.6 inches / Cutting width: 7.1 inches, 30 % slope / Theft options: raise alarm, PIN code, Location Services anti-theft (with LTE module) / Weatherproofing: IP66 / Connectivity: Wi-Fi, BLE, Built-in LTE ($32.90 a yr) / Weight: 24 lbs, Works with: Alexa and Google. Price of unit reviewed: $1,299
The Navimo is the cutest robotic mower of the pack and in addition the most affordable by a large margin. Despite a extra plasticky construct, it was sturdy sufficient to outlive a run-in with a (stationary) Land Rover, and it moved very easily, navigating round obstacles nimbly (when it sees them).
The Navimow’s greatest function is its app. It’s the simplest to make use of of all of the mowers I examined, had probably the most options, and labored probably the most reliably, though, as with many of the others, it had frequent connectivity points. It allowed me to schedule mowing in a number of zones and create digital paths so the mower might transfer between the again yard and the entrance yard — no, it could’t open a gate.
The Navimow’s random bump-and-roll fashion of mowing left a number of spots untouched
However, it stored complaining that I will need to have moved its RTK station, which I hadn’t. This is presumably a symptom of the tough Location Services protection in my yard. And I needed to set up it in my entrance yard, because it couldn’t discover any space in my again yard the place it might get a sign. (Unlike the Mammotion, the place placement was trial and error, the Navimow can advocate the most effective spot to put the RTK antenna.)
The Navimow ran reliably and infrequently received caught within the sand or on twigs. However, working in my entrance yard, it had much less of these to take care of than those who ran within the again.
The mower makes use of a “vision-enhanced RTK Location Services,” which means it has a digital camera to navigate inside its boundary if its Location Services sign is weak. But it refused to go previous the keep-out zone I positioned round my giant oak tree, to the grass on the opposite aspect, and its random bump-and-roll fashion of mowing left a number of spots untouched.
The digital camera additionally permits for impediment recognition, which was pretty efficient, so long as the impediment was instantly in entrance of it. It didn’t detect the underside of a automobile and wedged itself caught underneath my husband’s Seventies Land Rover a number of instances.
It additionally doesn’t have a rain sensor, which is a giant difficulty in a South Carolina summer season, with frequent and fierce storms. Instead, it depends on Wi-Fi-fed climate information to find out if it must cease mowing. In my testing, this was not correct — it stored working throughout a number of main rainstorms. This, mixed with it not with the ability to attain my whole yard, means it was eradicated.
Segway launched a brand new mower sequence this spring. The Navimow X3 sequence begins at $2,299 and goes as much as $4,999 for the X390, which may mow 2.5 acres. I plan to check this quickly.
Simple and smooth, however not a seashore bot
Navigation: 3D lidar (wire free / no antenna) / Yard measurement: 0.5 acres / Cutting peak: 3 to 7 cm / Cutting width: 22 cm / Slope: 45 % / Theft options: raise alarm, PIN code, Location Services anti-theft (with LTE module) / Weatherproofing: IPX6, 50 to 95-degree working temp / Connectivity: Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz), BLE, LTE (with $229 module) / Weight: 26 lbs / Works with: Alexa and Google. Price of unit reviewed: $2,500
The Dreame A1 is the default winner right here as a result of it truly labored in my tree-covered again yard and didn’t require putting in a pain-in-the-ass RTK antenna or laying boundary wire.
Instead, like Dreame’s robotic vacuums, this lawnmower makes use of lidar navigation. But the Dreame is much from good. Its little plastic tires struggled within the sandy areas of my yard, and whereas it largely blew by leaves and branches following hurricanes, it might invariably find yourself caught in a sand pit in a nook of the yard or get a twig wedged in its wheel effectively, and I’d should lug it again to the bottom station. It’s not mild.
The Dreame is one in all solely two bots I examined (the Mammotion being the opposite) that may create these good garden traces — as a result of it makes use of a programmed U-shape method to mowing, versus the bump-and-roll methodology. Its 3D impediment recognition is excellent, and it nimbly dodged pets, garden furnishings, and enormous twigs. But small twigs and sand recurrently derailed it. I didn’t take a look at this within the entrance yard, nevertheless, so I can’t touch upon the way it offers with vehicles.
After discovering it beached within the yard with a twig caught in its wheel for the gazillionth time, we fired up the using garden mower.
Its built-in rain sensor means it reliably took itself dwelling when it rained and began up once more when the rain stopped. The Dreame app is barely extra polished than some others, because it makes use of the identical one as its robotic vacuums. But it’s nonetheless not an awesome expertise; there’s a whole lot of ready round for one thing or different to obtain each time you open the app.
The app allows you to modify the reducing peak and mowing angle, which will get you these good stripes, and lets you set totally different reducing heights for every zone. It additionally allows scheduling, enhancing the map, beginning or stopping the robotic remotely, and even spot and edge mowing.
However, after discovering it beached within the yard with a twig caught in its wheel or buried in sand for the gazillionth time, it went again within the field, and we fired up the using lawnmower.
It ought to get higher — even with timber
Since I began testing mowers final summer season, many of the firms featured on this article, together with a number of others, have introduced new fashions which are out there now or will likely be shortly.
Many of those tackle a whole lot of the problems I had, together with bringing extra dependable navigation, automated mapping, and higher maneuverability over sandy soil and thicker grass. Here’s a short take a look at what’s coming subsequent. The grass is rising once more, so I’ll be testing these this summer season.
- Husqvarna’s new line, the iQ Series, which is accessible for pre-order beginning at $3,000, is the primary one the corporate has constructed that’s “actually designed, engineered, and examined for North American lawns,” in accordance with Husqvarna’s robotics lead, Scott Porteous. It’s a giant efficiency and expertise replace, he says, constructed to sort out all the issues I had— tough terrain, sandy soil, thick grass, and obstacles. The mowers have bigger wheels, the next chassis to assist navigation on slopes and round obstacles and paths, they usually can deal with inclines as much as 70 p.c. The iQ sequence makes use of Husqvarna’s EPOS RTK expertise and might additionally work with wires — which means I might wire up the areas of my yard which are underneath tree cowl and have the liberty of Location Services navigation in all places else.
- Another robotic vacuum firm, Ecovacs, has a brand new automower, the GOAT 3000 (nice title). This $3,000 robotic doesn’t use wire or RTK positioning; as an alternative, it navigates with lidar, just like the Dreame A1. It additionally options front-facing and fisheye cameras and might autonomously map your yard. Like Ecovacs’ robotic vacuums, it has AI-powered impediment detection, and it additionally boasts quick charging, claiming 15% to 80% in simply 45 minutes, which ought to assist it get round your yard quicker.
- Eufy’s first automower, the Eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 and E18 (beginning at $1,799.99) claims to work with no boundary wire or RTK station required, as an alternative utilizing full self-driving expertise, together with visible recognition, AI algorithms, and 3D sensors to keep away from obstacles, and establish garden edges and paths. The firm additionally says it could routinely map your yard for you. Its onboard digital camera can be accessed remotely, basically serving as a roaming outside safety digital camera.
- Segway’s new Navimow X3 sequence, beginning at $2,299, claims to be quicker than the competitors, able to mowing one and 1 / 4 acres in 24 hours (the Dreame A1 can solely do 1 / 4 acre in that point). The firm says it makes use of a extra superior navigation system that mixes RTK, vSLAM (visible simultaneous localization and mapping), and Visual Inertial Odometry expertise (a mix of movement and imaginative and prescient tech). On-board cameras give it a 300-degree area of view for impediment avoidance, which ought to assist it see automobile undercarriages.
Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
