As above really. Anyone got any experience of these? They’ve come down in price now, and not much more than £500 (up to several thousand) will get one. But how good are they?
They appeal after having come back from 11 days in Crete to grass somewhat longer than is desirable...the thought of something just pottering bout keeping the lawn at the right height is very attractive!
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A friend has the Flymo 1200R and swears by it. Works well on his regular shaped lawn, but leaves a "fringe" round the outside. Not sure you can get that for 500 quid tho.
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>>Not sure you can get that
>> for 500 quid tho.
>>
...you can get it for less if you wait for an owner to go on holiday.,,,,
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Thanks...I wondered if there was a risk of a fringe round the edge. Our lawn is a pretty regular shape, and one of the four sides has a hard border by way of a stone terrace. One is a hedge, and the other two are combinations of fences and borders. I’m assuming that it could overlap the terrace and borders and under cut the hedge to eliminate a fringe, but that the fences would cause a problem... The flymo one is more like £600 I think at the moment
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We're been umming and ahhing over this for a few weeks. We don't have an external power supply at the moment, but that may be remedied soon (having a new bathroom so will get the sparks to sort one whilst they're here)..Having read up on the Flymo - seems to be a bargain. It was being widely advertised at around £500.00 a few weeks ago - maybe internet forum talk has upped the price. We may well get one in the next few weeks (once the power supply problem has been solved)
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Personally I wouldn’t bother. You will get a a mower that retails for about ten times the price of its non robotic relative, is a bit of a pain to set up, will leave an unmade strip around the edges, and will leave grass mowings all over the lawn to tread into the house.
You will still need a conventional mower/ strimmer/shears to do the edges which is by far the most time consuming part of cutting the lawn
The benefit is that it will save you about 20minutes gentle exercise per week for six months.
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Peter
I have had one of these since 2009 - so I guess the technology will have moved on quite a bit since. Mine is a Robomow. I have a large area of grass and the mower is cabled for three separate areas. I think there are some newer ones that can move themselves to a separate area. Mine can't.
The grass clippings are not a problem, at least very rarely (if you have let the grass get out of control, basically). Otherwise they disappear into a very fine mulch and feed the grass. You don't have to deal with the clippings or feed it separately (or at least less). It is noticeable that the areas where the Robomow cuts are generally greener and in better condition than the areas cut by the ordinary rotary mower.
Obstacles within the lawn are a problem. I have quite a few, some that are marked off by cable and some that the mower is supposed to bounce off. Neither is ideal. I don't have mine set up for automatic operation because of these obstacles, but clearly that is the way to go.
I am very happy with mine and I am sure a new one would be a big step forward. I am, I believe, not far from you (the Shell station at Fontwell you used to favour is very local to me - sadly the visual attractions that used to be a feature there seem to have moved on...). If you want to get in touch I would be very happy to give you a demo of what one of these is like in use.
I realise that the possible acquisition of a new Audi A1, or similar, has probably now taken over on the priority list from the acquisition of a robot mower. At least it sounds like there are no serious/permanent ramifications from your partner's accident.
Justin
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>>the thought of something just pottering bout keeping the lawn at the right height is very attractive!<<
It's called a gardener in the Fen.
A Tenner cash in hand and copious mugs of tea will do the job a lot better and cheaper!
Pat
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My attitude, price and practice entirely, Pat.
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Do robot mowers make tortoise soup, too?
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I prefer the old fashioned method with a simple push along mower. Lovely cut and no faffing about tripping over cables or poncing about with petrol.
And a bit of nice gentle exercise into the bargain.
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>> I prefer the old fashioned method with a simple push along mower.
I'm guessing you have a small lawn, Robin...
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I like Tech...apparently the grass cuttings are so fine that they mulch and are a natural fertiliser...I need to cut the grass today. Just building up the energy. Housebound today, the new bathroom is going in...well the old one's being ripped out as we speak.
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>> I'm guessing you have a small lawn, Robin...
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I have now, but when we had a garden three times the size I still preferred a push along mower. As BBD says, wandering round with one is quite theraputic, no tangled leads or half the afternoon trying to get it to start.
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I used one for many years. The whirring of a manual mower is so much nicer than the sound of an electric or petrol model. Does anyone still make decent manual mowers with a roller?
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Absolutely, RO'R.
When we bought this house 15 years ago, it was new but incomplete. Had to finish building the top floor, and it needed everything, it was just a brick shell. Had to buy flooring, doors, kitchen, boiler, radiators, bathrooms, tiling, furniture, fencing, patio, shed and even the lawn. Every last penny went, my savings, her savings, everything, we were brassic.
The garden was just all soil but when the grass seed started to grow, it quickly became a beautiful lawn and I had to buy a lawnmower. Of course there was nothing in the budget and the best we could afford was a hand-push mower. I wasn't happy at all, I hated mowing the lawn anyway, but for some reason I fell in love with the chore, pushing it along. A man and his mower with nothing but muscle power and an hour of daydreaming. Therapeutic. I even used to look forward to it. Alas, it's a Black & Decker mower now and she cuts the grass cos she wanted a dog. I don't do anything that involves dog crap.
And I've no idea where it went either, perhaps the mother in law has it now.
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Our Qualcast electric cylinder mower died an awful death on our daughter and SIL's newly bought rental house front "lawn". Neglected for ages and liberally strewn with pebbles and pine cones hiding under the dandelions and pine needles it hit an object hard enough to shear the bottom cutting plate on one side.
I'd already decided to donate it to the house and buy a replacement for our own use, so it was not a real disaster.
I bought a Mac Allister electric rotary machine, with a 33cm. cut, from B & Q and by buying on a Wednesday and using my geriatric's discount of 10%, it cost just £50.40.
Does the job OK for me!
Last edited by: Roger. on Mon 21 May 18 at 22:04
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What incline can a robot mower manage?
We have a lot of lawns, some steep slopes, some patches a big boggy at times. A cylinder mower won't grip in the damp, certainly not a push mower.
What I'd really like is a lightweight powered mower on crawler tracks, but I don't suppose they exist or else are very expensive.
I can't see a robot managing - it would get stuck or lost somewhere in the wilderness and we'd need a tracker to find it.
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>> What incline can a robot mower manage?
Should be in the specification.
Husqvarna quote from 14° to 24°, depending on model.
Flymo quote 25 %
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>> What incline can a robot mower manage?
>>
>> We have a lot of lawns, some steep slopes, some patches a big boggy at
>> times.
How big an area are the lawns, more than an acre?
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>> How big an area are the lawns, more than an acre?
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Probably about that, it's hard to guess as it's a rambling network of grass with interconnecting paths mown through shrubberies, wild borders, orchard, woodland. Some is quite steep, there are a couple of small streams, boggy bits where you have to take the mower at a run so as not to get stuck.
I'm sure a robot needs definite edges to work to, not an ill-defined no-mans land blending off into wilderness. It would be quite fun letting one loose and seeing where it went. Also I imagine it needs the grass to be quite well cut before it starts, otherwise it's not going to know the difference between long grass and a flower bed.
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>> What I'd really like is a lightweight powered mower on crawler tracks, but I don't
>> suppose they exist or else are very expensive.
Depends on the finish you want I guess...!!
youtu.be/vx4Oo0GKjFs
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 23 May 18 at 10:16
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Just wasted another bit of my day watching Youtubes, this time of robotic lawnmowers. Last but one was a speeded up film of the mower in operation taken from a drone. Boys and their toys...
But this one takes the biscuit - he's built a garage for it, complete with solar lighting and an automatic door.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLOCag2X4s8
I am quite impressed with them... :-)
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Talking of lawns - my next door neighbour (a singlton who is away lot with his work) has just had most, of a perfectly OK, paved front garden removed and replaced with absolutely vivid green artificial grass. By the cringe, it looks exeedingly false and truly awful.
I'd far rather have honest paving than dishonest fake grass. {His back garden is paved too: he is NOT a gardener :-) }
BTW - there seems to be a fashion for god-awful round plastic topiary balls dangling from chains.
At least there are no gnomes visible in any front gardens in our quiet little close!
Last edited by: Roger. on Thu 24 May 18 at 00:04
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Don't get me started Roger.
There is no place in a garden or a house for artificial grass or plastic or silk flowers.
I also see artificial hanging baskets with summer flowers in full 'bloom' in mid-winter. Now, what's all that about?
Surely better to accept you're not a gardener and go and buy some slabs.
Gnomes have no place in my garden either but I do collect old stone Spriggens.
Pat
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>> and an automatic door.
That automatic door is a bit Heath Robinson. A moveable bar at the rear of the garage, and a piece of string connecting it to the door. Robot hits bar, pushes it forward, and it closes the garage door. Moves away from the bar and door opens. Quite clever really though.
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Re mowing. I hate all gardening with a vengeance. Since returning from Spain yesterday ( my 90yo Mum acquired a taste for small G & Ts and the odd glass of Mahou during the fortnight away) it looks like my two moss areas need their second cut of the year.
I’ve got to lump my heavy old Honda petrol up two flights of stone steps to get to my extensive, severely undulating, ex farmers field, top moss/lawn. I’m going to procrastinate again by sitting in the sun, drinking beer, finishing some books and snoozing.
Life’s too short....
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Forgot to add on the other thread (now we finally have ALL the information!).
Go and by a light electric Flymo of similar and a long extension lead....Job Done:)
Pat
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Gardening...robot mowers - Zero
