Can a robotic lawn mower really work?

As you are looking at a robotic lawn mower I would guess that you have at least some interest in learning more. 

I am not going to give you a bunch of hype and super marketing language to try to "sell" you a Lawnbott. That's now how I am. What I will do is give you my real world experience and tell you how I came about the Lawnbott, what I know about using it, because it mows my own yard and what you can really expect.

So, let's jump in.

Let me start off by saying Yes is really works. Now, am I saying that because I want you to buy a robotic lawn mower. No.

I am saying that because for two years before I was a dealer of Lawnbotts, I owned one and it cut my grass. It's kind of like the Norelco commercials from years ago. "I liked the [product] so much, I bought the company." Well, it was like that for me.

I saw this robotic lawn mower in a Popular Science magazine or something similar while I was on a plane flight somewhere. I thought, "Hey, that is a pretty cool idea but I already have a lawn service, why would I need it?" Not much longer after that I fired my lawn service. Why? For several reasons.

• I have a contoured yard that would have bare dirt left from the 60" deck on the service's mower that wouldn't follow the contours of my lawn.
• They mowed right after it rained and since they went 9000 miles per hour when they mowed the turn around points would be a little torn up from their tires
• They never mowed when I thought the lawn needed to be mowed.
• Their mowers left a "line of grass" because they wouldn't bag the mowings and haul it away.
• I like robots and the purely electrical nature of a robotic lawn mower satisfied my "green" side I had been looking for in this part of my life.

So I plunked down the money from an online seller of Lawnbotts (all dealers have a low price that they cannot sell below so you can't bid one dealer against another.)

I pulled "Moe" (named by my kids) out of the box and looked at the installation manual. It was pretty simple.

• Find the spot where you want to put the recharge station.
• Figure out what you do or don't want mowed (like flower beds, mulch under trees and ponds)
• Decide where to put the transformer and signal generator (where power is present)
• Lay down your perimeter wire.
• Let your robotic lawn mower get a full charge before going.

Right out of the box, your Lawnbott will pretty much do things right for many yards. If you have a basic yard with easy access (read no gate, fence off areas to be mowed or lots of concrete to traverse to get to a mowing area), your Lawnbott will pretty much be set up. If you have a more unusual yard or secondary areas that you would want to mow on a more frequent basis than others, you'll have to dig into the manual to get the gist of what needs to be done to get a "second area" setup or get an automatic gate opener (really!)

Just remember, if you have a fence in your backyard to keep your dog in (not invisible fence but a real fence) and you opt for an automatic gate opener so your Lawnbott can go out and do another area automatically, it will take your dog about 3 seconds to figure out the robotic lawn mower is his chance at freedom!

Let's look at how the actual experience with the robotic lawn mower went for me at my home.

The First Day after installation

So, I had my mower out and it was the first day. Moe backed out of his charging base at 8 am (I set a mowing window of 8 am to 11pm) and did his startup routine. Off he went. About 4 hours or so later (I have two batteries in my LB3210 so it's an LB3250) he went back to his house to charge.

Wait a minute!

He didn't do the whole yard!

What is going on here!

Well. He won't do your whole yard perfectly when he goes out. Most likely, you are going to be like me and won't mow the yard before you install your Lawnbott (like it says to do in the manual). I had stripes of uncut and cut grass all over my yard. This can't be right! I'll wait and see what it is like after he charges.

I was upset.

I spent how much!

Look at this yard.

My wife wanted to kill me. I told her, it will get better.

Well, about 4 hours later, Moe came out for a second mowing. This was impressive, because I didn't tell him to do this. This robotic lawn mower knew the lawn wasn't done and he wasn't going to let the lawn be unfinished. He mowed for about 4 hours or so and went back to his house to charge again.

The lawn looked a lot better but there were parts that were missed. Moe did his "smart spiral", where the Lawnbott will start mowing in an ever growing spiral when it senses deep grass, to make the mowing more efficient (not on the basic model) when there was deep grass, just like he was supposed to do. This really cut down on the amount of "patches" that were in the lawn.

It is one thing to know the Lawnbott will mow in a random nature, as designed. It's another to see stripes in your lawn. It was pretty late that evening so as I recall we went out for dinner. It was past 11 when we came home so I can't say if Moe cut the grass when we were gone.

Day Two

Moe rolled out of his house at 8 am and began cutting the now significantly more mowed lawn. He cut for his 4 hours or so and went back to charge. The lawn looked a lot better. If I had mowed the yard (again like the manual told me to), he probably wouldn't have come out on day two because the grass would be done. Anyway, he mowed twice on day two and the yard looked pretty darn good.

Day Three

Day Three was a Monday so I had to go to work. I came home for lunch and Moe was out doing his thing and went to his dock while I was home. The lawn was nearly perfect! I guess my thoughts of "what was I thinking" were unfounded. This thing really works!

The installation manual is pretty easy to follow. I did it, how hard can it be? Look at the installation page and it will spell out what need to do.You just have to be sure to do what it says (like mow before installation) and your yard will look good.

There really is no downside to having a robotic lawn mower. The only "complaint" I would have is all of the people that drive by, stop and stare at the mower then ask me what it is. It has gotten to the point where I put a sign on the mower that says, "My name is Moe, I am a fully automatic, robotic lawn mower. If you would like to know more, please feel free to knock on the door and my owner will be happy to speak to you." Seriously, I did this.

My layout

Pretty much, this is how my lawn is laid out. Like most people's lawns, I have a front, sides and back yard. I don't have a fence and I don't have the little shed so I didn't have to wire around that.

John Tarvin, the Marketing Manager of Kyodo America, explains the robotic lawn mower in this way, "“It’s so quiet it won’t disturb anyone. “It can work while you sleep or allows for a quiet evening at home without worry of disturbing the neighbors, or yourself, while it mows.

We have our mowers set to mow anytime from 8am to 11pm. Never has their been a complaint from the neighbors over mowing while they are trying to sleep.

A real mower for a real job

All robotic lawn mowers from Lawnbott Central are able to handle pretty much any yard you can throw at it as long as the appropriate mower is chosen for the size of the yard and installation instructions are followed closely.  You can't expect a robotic lawn mower to do a job it wasn't designed for.

Consider that 80% of U.S. Households have a private lawn. The average lawn is 1/3 acre of mowable grass. (ref 1).

This means 50 million US households have a lawn to mow. Think of the pollution generated by the gas powered lawn mowers out there. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a traditional gas powered lawn mower produces as much air pollution as 43 new cars each being driven 12,000 miles.

Why not do your part and help reduce this pollution. Electricity generated at mass plants has less impact on the environment than a gas engine in a lawn mower. Couple the generation with green power sources like Solar and Wind and you have a super green method of mowing your lawn second only to a reel mower pushed by hand.

Americans burn 800 million gallons of gas each year trimming their grassy yards, according to the EPA. Why not burn zero?

The EPA states that 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled each year while refueling lawn equipment. That's more than all the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez, in the Gulf of Alaska

Make the easiest part of your choice and decide to go with a green, safe way to mow your lawn, a robotic lawn mower.

Can't decide? Use the LawnBott Chooser to pick the right LawnBott for you. Click here.

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