Robotic Lawn Mower

Product Description

The Worx Landroid is the pre-programmable robotic mower that lets you customize daily mowing schedules. The Landroid runs 7 days a week giving your lawn a continuous manicured look by giving the grass a trim on a routine basis as opposed to traditional mowers that take off substantial amounts of grass on a less frequent basis. Among its many features, Landroid navigates narrow passages, cuts with precision on slopes angling up to 20 degrees and does it all with zero emissions. If your lawn is under 10750 square feet and you want it to look great every day, the Landroid is designed precisely for you. The Intuitive keypad makes it easy to customize a mowing schedule so your lawn is neatly mowed every day. The low noise operation allows you to mow during the day or night. This allows you to wake up to a freshly mowed lawn every morning. The Landroid runs off of a 28V rechargeable battery so there are zero emissions.

Features

• Fully programmed out of the box for easy set-up and use; equipped with an anti-theft system using a security pin
• Aia technology allows landroid to make intricate cuts and navigate narrow passages
• Landroid evenly Mows inclines and declines up to 20-degrees
• Landroid uses shock sensor system to mow around obstacles
• Automatically returns to base in case of rain or for recharging Battery

Top Reviews

Poor initial experience but now MUCH better!
by Dr. Simon L. King (5 out of 5 stars)
July 23, 2016

The unit looks pretty solid and well made. However, after spending several hours setting up the perimeter wire in 100F heat, which was a huge hassle, I set it off on its first mow. It failed to get back to the charger in time when the battery needed charging, which required some adjustments to the perimeter wire.

However, it then would not charge. The battery pack was dead. Rather than simply return it, I decided to try a new battery pack and phoned WORX directly on their customer support number.

The agent was helpful and personable, but utterly clueless. He insisted that the serial number was on the sticker at the back. It was only when I finally texted a photo of the sticker on the back to his personal cell phone from my cell phone, after having said "no, there is no serial number on that sticker or anywhere else I can see" for about 20 minutes and him saying "I can't do anything without a serial number" that he somehow became able to proceed without a serial number.

A bit later in the call, he spoke to a colleague/supervisor who told him where the serial number is (it is actually on the battery pack).

It took 45 minutes to finally get the warranty order through. I was told it will arrive in 7-10 days to get from NC to TX. Why on earth does it take so long in this day and age when Amazon ships in hours?

Seven days later, the battery arrives AND IT"S THE WRONG ONE. All that effort over serial numbers, model numbers and I receive a 20V WA3525 instead of the correct battery which is a 28V WA3225.

Customer support was a little quicker this time. After first insisting that I had received the battery so why was I calling, it got through that I was calling because I had been sent the wrong one. OK, now they're sending the right one (hopefully), but I have to wait ANOTHER 7-10 days, which I protested about. "We can't (won't) send it any way other than 'standard delivery'", she says. Oh, but they're sending me a Fed Ex envelope to return the incorrect battery.... go figure.

So, I have had this machine for 10 days now and will be getting close to the one month return period for Amazon before I will get a chance to use it.
...Assuming this second replacement battery is the right one...

Obviously if the new replacement battery doesn't work/is wrong, it's time to send the whole thing back to Amazon.. I'll update this review when it arrives.

UPDATE: The correct battery arrived a week later and "Larry" has been mowing away for a few days now and doing a GREAT job. I am particularly impressed with the way it extricates itself from tight spots, exhibiting considerable perseverance before it eventually gives up and beeps for help. However, it almost always succeeds in getting itself out of the jam and is very good indeed at navigating rough terrain.

The border wire still needs some tweaks and it might take a week or two before I get it the way I want it and before it returns to its base 100% of the time (I'm at about 90% right now). However, that is only a matter of time and I have decided Larry is a keeper. I'm upgrading to 4 rather than 5 stars because the initial experience and the setup is a pain in the *** but I'd give it 5 stars for quality and workmanship.

The set up was about the same effort as mowing 3-4 times. Wouldn't it be great if it had accurate GPS and cliff detection so that it could be trained where to go (and holler if it got stolen) without needing the border wire? Maybe in a couple of years....
11 month UPDATE

Larry started misbehaving - sometimes he'd drive in circles or just change direction at random and then start behaving normally. I didn't think much of it since I'd checked the boundary wire, the light on the base was green and he seemed to pull himself out of his funk after a minute or two.

UNTIL, it's everyone's nightmare - a few days later you come home and find a body floating in the pool. LARRY!!!

Alas, he could not be resuscitated. Larry was now plugged in to the same circuit board as ENIAC and Asimov...

All of which brings me to why I just upgraded this to a 5* review. In the intervening 11 months, Worx had set up a dedicated support line for the Landroid, this time staffed by people who knew the product. My (completely un-informed) guess is that it's been a rough few months dealing with teething problems with the Landroids and the company has had to take significant steps to address customer concerns.

And that they have. They did ask me a few questions about Larry the first's behavior - well, quite a few - but once satisfied with the answers, WORX shipped Larry the second under warranty at no charge. They could have said "tough. It's your fault (somehow)", but that's not what they did.

Larry Jnr, apart from being confused about his name, is smarter, better at getting home and all together more forgiving of obstacles (which confused the heck out of Larry I).

I judge a company not by what it does to make a sale, but by what it does to keep a customer - how it behaves when something goes wrong. After this experience, and seeing how they have ironed out many of the issues both with customer service and with the product itself, it's two thumbs up and 5 stars from me.

I asked Larry but all he had to add was a contented "Whirrr" as he brought the yard back to its former glory within three days.
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Mo Works great!
by Scott1620 (4 out of 5 stars)
June 2, 2017

We call our landroid MO, after two months of use, this thing is really doing great. I have a half acre lot and this keeps up with that just fine. I have it work 12 hours on most days. I use the multiple zones function to allocate time between front and back. I used pet fence wire to extend the wire that came with it for my bigger lawn and it works great. two things that I would like on this would be an app on my phone and a better algorithm to find the charging base. It goes all the way around my front yard every time it goes to charge. I have the base under my deck. The rain sensor seems accurate enough for me, it does cut when it is lightly raining but heavy rain will send it back. I use a door sensor on the base to know when it comes and goes that connects to smart things, so I get a text every time it docks and un-docks. Saves a lot of time mowing :)

UPDATE: almost 4 months in and still working great. I did encounter the battery being too deeply discharged once when it got stuck and was sitting for a few hours it didn't make it back to charge then wouldn't power on. I searched and a youtube post shows how to charge the battery when it is out of the mower by connecting wires to the charger prongs and directly to the battery for ~15 minutes. After that I was able to get it to power on and it hasn't happened again...
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Saved a lot of money by replacing my lawn service with the Landroid.
by RaggedRocks (5 out of 5 stars)
May 30, 2017

Update after 1.5 months of usage:
- Unit continues to work great...able to deal with most small objects which blow or are left on the lawn
- Neighbors think the lawn looks as it good as it did with the lawn service...for a lot less (admittedly the service did trim the lawn, which I now have to do).
- Makes virtually no noise.
- Sufficiently dependable that frankly it has become boring.
- It has freed up enough time to work on other projects around the house.
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Original review:

I needed a small lawnmower..the choices were spend $400 for a push behind mower or go crazy and spend $900 for a robotic lawn mower which I did not see how it could work. Of course being technically oriented, I put caution to the wind and went for the robot. My wife laughed that setting up this robot would take all summer and I would end up purchasing the push behind mower anyways. Well, 4 hours after opening the box, the landlord was busily cutting the grass and has not stopped in the last two weeks. Even my wife admitted the lawn looks better than it did when we had the $3,500/year lawn service cutting the lawn. All I have to do now is spend 15 minutes per week trimming around the edge of the lawn. Net savings: $2,600 (for the first year) and 1 hour pushing the lawn mower each week.

The Landroid robotic lawn mower is such a hit that the family has even named it. Of course the landlord is not perfect. Below is a list of pros, cons and lessons learned:

Pros:
- The boundary wire sets up very quickly if you follow the instructions
- The small 28 volt battery does not really affect performance, because the Landroid will automatically return to base
- Because it is designed to run every day there are no clippings to clog the lawn mower shot and then drop off in a back compost pile.
- The Landroid is VERY VERY quiet. You will not even notice it running on the lawn. Much better than my previous lawn service.

Cons:
- If you lay the boundary wire on the lawn secured with pegs, be prepared for line cuts. The documentation does state you will want to bury the line once the positioning is right.
- The ruler provided on the box to measure out the distance between the lawn edge and the boundary wire did not seem very accurate. I spent a lot of 4 hours setting up the unit just moving the wire around.
- There is not a phone nor web app to let you know if the Landroid is running or has gotten stuck. Fortunately, it has only gotten stuck once in the last 2 weeks.
- If you let the lawn get a little long prior to installing the landroid, borrow a neighbor's lawn mower. It really does not like long grass (that was another hour out of the 4 hours total setup time).
- The rain sensor as some have already mentioned in their review does not seem to engage during light rain.

Lessons Learned:
- Have electrical tape ready before you start installing the landroid
- If setting up the Landroid over the weekend, know that the standard program won't start executing until monday and will stop on Friday
- Get the boundary wire as close to the lawn edge as you can to avoid using the lawn trimmer
- The manual says that the boundary wire should be at angles greater than 90 degrees. I have found on my lawn that you can get very tight with the angles as well you have have spaces smaller than 3 feet wide. But of course, following the manual's instructions probably is better idea :).
- Don't worry about bumps in the lawn nor 'small roots' which are lower than the blade height. The large wheels have successfully cleared some obstacles I missed during the setup when I was trying to even out the lawn and make it easier for the Landroid.
- Make certain you have a weatherproof plug and water tight box for the charger. The day after installing the Landroid we had a major rain storm and the Landroid charger tripped the GFCI circuit breaker. A week later had a similar storm after securing the charger and no such problem.
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Just follow the directions and it works perfectly
by Lauren (5 out of 5 stars)
April 23, 2016

I've been intrigued by the concept of an autonomous lawnmower ever since I saw the concept years ago. However, the price to performance ratio was always asinine, and there wasn't a significant external stimulus that could justify such an expense. Fast forward a few years, I've relocated from Michigan to Texas, and I discovered it was a very different environment mowing your lawn in May-August. Trying to maintain my lawn while it's nearly a 110F heat index on a daily basis during these hellish months made me reconsider the idea of purchasing a robot that would perform this task for me. Yes, I briefly considered a lawn service, but at a charge of $40 a visit on a weekly basis, I would break even with a lawn bot in less than one mowing season in the lone star state.

I wanted an unbiased opinion on the current state of the art, so I went to Consumer Reports. They had reviewed 4 of these units recently, and the top pick happened to be the Worx Landroid WG794. As an added bonus, the Landroid was also the least expensive. Something about knowing what you're doing and not being a greedy corporate villain made me an instant Worx fan. Next step was Google to seek reviews, videos, forums, manuals, etc. I always perform due diligence before committing to such an indulgence. From the looks of the internet landscape, the overall opinion was very positive. Finally, I start the bargain hunting process. Most of the time, I wind up on Amazon, due to reputation, price, and peace of mind. In this particular purchase, Amazon was indeed the lowest bidder, $160 below the $1K MSRP. For some reason, I take notice at the offer of an $80 gift card if I sign up for the Amazon Visa Card. I think why the hell not, it will make this deal that much sweeter and I can just cut up the card when it gets to me. Then a second offer comes to light: $40 gift card when you apply for the Amazon Prime Store Card. This time, I note the benefits of the card: no annual fee and 5% off all Amazon purchases? Why was I not using this card already?! I place order, able to checkout for a sweet deal of just under $700 (I had a bit of a gift card left to use as well) No 2 day shipping, but free nonetheless, so I'm satisfied.

I get the unit a week later and set it up in my back yard to start. Like any good bicentennial, I half-a** the installation by placing the boundary wire 8-10" from the fence line (14" recommended), separating the pegs by at least 5' (2.5' recommended), I don't bury the wire or even so much as try to work it into the grass, and on top of this the length of the lawn is from a full week of growth (recommended to mow lawn before installing). I'm not quite sure how I was expecting this setup to perform well by any means; I guess I'll say I wanted to see how the Landroid "behaved" before committing to a more permanent, proper installation. Of course the next few days is filled with "optimizing", while I effectively continue to try and jam a square peg through a round hole to make my style of installation work with the robo. But he was acting out against all this nonsense by slicing through or pulling out the boundary wire, not reacting to my 90 degree corners and alarm that he was "outside the working zone" and I couldn't once get him to actually enter into his charging station. Even if I set him right on the wire, 3 feet from the charger, and a straight shot home, he would turn of to the right at the last minute, bumping into the side of the house, causing him to reset and either try again, or wander off in another direction, simply refusing to fuel up so he wouldn't have to be subjected to this disgraceful work environment any longer.

On the fourth day I commit to doing things right, 14" gap from the fence/house, 2.5' between pegs, nice round corners, and I used a trimmer to outline a trench down to the soil level for the wire. The da** thing worked perfectly from that point forward. If you follow the directions, the Worx Landroid will serve you reliably and consistently. Try to pull anything else, trust me, you will lose the battle.
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I don't know why everyone doesn't already have one of these.
by T. Masters (5 out of 5 stars)
May 7, 2018

I am going on my second season which is about 10 months of use. I just bought a second one for my mother's yard, that's how awesome this is. The reasons why I got this.
1. I was in the market for a new mower or a riding mower and this is in that price range
2. I traveled a lot at the time and didn't like my weekends to be consumed by yardwork
3. when considering paying someone to mow, this unit costs about as much as one season so ROI was high
4. I have seasonal allergies, so mowing means medication and time out afterwards to recover
5. It's a robot, its awesome and the rest of my home is automated so why not my yard too

Pros.
1. my yard is always mowed, the clippings are tiny and my yard is healthier than it's ever been
2. it's whisper quiet, no noise pollution
3. it's environmentally friendly, no fumes or exhaust
4. once you nail down the installation and clear it's path, it works great
5. depending on how long it lasts before maintenance, it is economical
6. contrary to some others, I have had great experience with customer support
7. the only issues I've had has been user issues on my end trying to get the boundary too tight to edges
8. replacement blades are cheap
9. total cost of ownership is lower than a lawn service, a riding mower, and over time an upper end push mower
10. your neighbor will be jealous

Cons:
1. it is an investment, but not as expensive as others, so features are on the low end. In the EU they sell other models with some advanced features you cant get in the US
2. the boundary wire can be a challenge when neighbors aerate and don't tell me and cut the boundary wire, which is hard to fix on your own
3. the algorithms could be a little more efficient to get out of jams
4. the menu can be a little tricky
5. you will need more petfence wire and 300 more staples than what is provided to install
6. the threaded holes for the blade screws are plastic and I am concerned over time from changing blades I will need this part, but for now I am very careful when changing blades.
7. needs a push/reset every few days when it gets trapped or out of bounds

Tips and tricks:

Follow the installation instructions, watch youtube videos.

I tried to get my boundary wire as close to walkways etc.. so I didn't have to trim as much, but this can cause the mower to get stuck. Also try not to have sharp angles but curve the wire into a smooth radius. When there is a downhill slope, the mower can cross the boundary wire if it picks up speed so be careful there too. Keep your yard free of sticks and other debris, they can get stuck underneath and it may get trapped. The traction is strong and can chew up the ground and get stuck on tight right turns and can also dig up the border wire and cut it. The razor blades have four sides to flip and rotate and they take 5 mins to change, I do this monthly which is good for the grass to have a razor cut. I made a "dog house" for mine to keep it out of the elements, there are a lot of youtube videos on this, some very complicated. Mine is very simple and it keeps it cool, dry and hidden. I also connected a SmartHome sensor to the front so I know when it leaves the charger to mow and when it returns back as well as triggers an alarm and turns on a security light if someone takes it off the charger at night for added theft protection.

Lessons learned:

The only frustration I have had has been with the boundary wire. It helps when installing to use a trimmer to cut a line a little down in the dirt. The grass will grow over it and you won't see it. I have had the line cut in 7 places from aerators, even though I painted the location of the wire with landscape paint. I was reimbursed for the repair. I tried to find the cuts with the AM radio trick but that is challenging. There are tools you can search for that can help find wire breaks or call a dog fence company to come repair (or install) if you don't have time. If you follow the instructions, you will have better results. I keep the mowing height high enough, about 3.5 inches so it clears dog poop and doesn't make a mess, but it helps to clean up after fido often but it hasn't been an issue. The yard should be policed often for little toys, sticks, rocks etc.

This was my favorite purchase last year, hopefully again this year with #2.
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Good maintenance mower not replacement for your lawn mower
by KevT (3 out of 5 stars)
September 1, 2018

Almost un-worth using without a firmware update. With the high sticker price of over $800, don't expect this to replace your lawn mower and here's why. I've owned and used this since April 18' and now it is Sept. It is does a decent job once you fix your electronic fence cabling. You need a lot of time getting the cabling right before you decide to bury the cable underground. I don't think it's necessary to do it but it is better in case you have animals that could potentially chew up your cables. It took me almost 2 months to have the cable properly situated that the Landroid doesn't trip on or dumb enough to get caught in a bad spot and goes dumb.

Recently did a firmware update and found out that my Landroid was the 2d gen newest version and had a different software. WORX did a very bad job documenting which file and what the firmware update process. It seems they did not design the software at all or subcontracted the software out. The original firmware made the Landroid very stupid when it crosses the over the wire and bump into a bush. Sticky tall grass, bumped a fence, or on an incline or just any uneven surface it would get stuck and go dumb. Since the firmware update it seems to be smarter with edges and uneven surfaces. I still think they need improvement on the pathing and way points. When it hits something, it does a 360 circle and then just randomly picks a direction. That rotation wastes a lot of time and energy.

Once it starts cutting it means your electric fencing is working and the last thing to check is to ensure the base is properly installed. It must be on a flat area and right on the lane of a line so it can find itself back into the base. It took me almost 6 weeks to get that right so it can automatically return and start on its own.

As for grass cutting, you have to set it to the lowest setting to cut grass properly. I cannot find a decent height that does the job except the lowest setting which is 2.5" . Another thing is the circumference of the cutting area is so small when the blades spin it cuts less grass than your handheld trimmer. Which is why you need to have the Landroid cut almost everyday for a lawn that is about the size of your house. Any larger lawn I think it needs to run twice a day and everyday.

That's where the problem is that if you have lots of sunny days, that's fine. But anytime it rains for 2-3 days the landroid cannot cut quick enough than the grass growth.

At the optimal mowing schedule, I still needed to mow my lawn on the weekend just on the areas that it missed often and trim areas that are not suitable for it to reach which is a tight sharp corner or any uneven spots that it could get trapped and you would have to move the cabling away from.

So get this landroid if you are a busy working guy and don't want to spend a whole day cutting the lawn. The Landroid cut my lawn maintenance by atleast in 1/2. I can spend more time trimming, mowing a few spots, and work on pulling weeds and putting pesticides.

I think the future will be great for robotic mowers. In another 5-6 years we'll see the Dyson of Robotic Mowers and many landscaping business will convert to running these things.
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Don't waste your money
by L. Barlow (1 out of 5 stars)
September 4, 2018

We've had the WG794 for right around a year now. It requires more work to keep it mowing than just mowing the grass! First, the good:
1. When it is working, it makes the grass look great where it cuts consistently.

Now the bad:
1. It gets stuck a lot. As I write this, it is just stopped in the middle of the grass with an error that it can't find the home base. This one is actually new - normally it just runs outside the boundary wire somewhere and gives up. At most, it will cut for around 3 days before it has to be handled/reset. The last firmware update upped this to 3 days vs. 1 day previously.
2. It misses parts of the yard. The reason it does is because our yard is in an L shape with a slope. It is within the grade specs - and it cuts the upper part some - but it misses a lot even after giving it starting points exclusively in the upper area.
3. Sometimes it stops and won't restart (turn on) until 24 hours later. Maybe it is overheating? Maybe it doesn't really like getting wet when it rains? I'm not sure - we will press the on button and it will just start beeping and the screen flashes on/off/on/off etc.

It's a very frustrating robot to say the least.
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The mower does a nice job, however
by Lee M. (2 out of 5 stars)
September 2, 2017

The mower does a nice job, however, it doesn't quite do it well enough. My issue was that the mower would lose itself and near the center of the yard, it would start doing circles then go into error mode and say "outside boundary". It would be disable and about 10 times a day I'd have to move it to the charger to reset it, then it would head back out. As soon as it passed thru the center of the yard, same problem. No matter how I tried I couldn't resolve the issue. At the furthest point, it was only 26 feet from any given boundary wire. The mower is supposed to be able to be up to 60 feet away without issue, however this is not the case. I unfortunately had to return this and upgrade to a German competitor that seems to be a bit more advanced - hopefully the new one will work. These have a lot of potential, they're just not quite there yet.
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Very fun for the technically interested
by ped28 (4 out of 5 stars)
April 17, 2016

Background

I like mowing my lawn with a push mower. I purchased this so that I would have more time to fertilize and water the lawn and work on my vegetable garden. My 20 year old son studies robotics and computer science in college; we like technical things, aren't afraid to try new technologies, and enjoy tinkering with things. I've been looking at robotic lawnmowers for several years. Their price drops and improvement in function over the last several years have reached the point where I was willing to try it out. This model was less expensive, yet seemed to do as well or better than other models based on reviews I read. This largely (see "Final Summary" comments) replaced my eGo 56V electric mower, which is an excellent push mower..

Initial Impressions

The mowing unit is very light making it almost toy-like, but it feels sturdy. The charging base and mower were well-packed in their box. It came with 200 or 250 stakes and 580 feet of wire. I needed more wire (100 feet) and stakes (110) to wire the perimeter of my 3500 square foot lawn (which excludes the size of my house on the property).

Setup

The perimeter wire took most of a full day in total to lay down, done in parts over two days. I would have finished it in one day except that I ran out of stakes first and then wire. 100 stakes cost $23 on Amazon and the stakes were better than the ones that came with the mower. I needed 110 extra stakes and 100 feet of wire in addition to what came with the mower. Black wire hides as well or better than the green wire included in the package. I followed the provided directions to the letter when wiring the perimeter wire, figuring I might modify the perimeter later. The directions were clear, with good diagrams. I had seen online videos on YouTube, so I was already familiar with what I was getting myself into.

Working Impressions

I had left some extra wire to work with at both ends of the perimeter and I tucked the wire underneath the charging station as the instructions were unclear about what to do with the extra 3 feet of wire it suggested leaving at both ends. This misled the mower to believe that it was "out of bounds" or the perimeter. I cut the perimeter wire short near the base so that there was little excess wire. That solved this problem. I didn't bury the wire, but I took the time to make it tight and near the roots of the grass. This has worked well for me so far.

You set the mower to mow a certain size lawn and the mower automatically selects a schedule for you, in my case mowing for two hours per day five days per week. The mower mows relatively randomly, although it follows an algorithm to help it continue up a narrow channel to ensure it reaches all parts of the lawn. The mower takes 10 hours per week to do something that took me at most one and a half. It would be nice if mowing was even less random, then theoretically it could go out less frequently and might leave the grass with the "freshly cut" look.

The mower follows the perimeter line back to the charger when either the battery is low or when it's done with its day's work. At first the mower was getting stuck in some areas, particularly where there were tight turns. The instructions showed a picture of rounding out the turns, and so after watching the mower navigate around the perimeter several times (I learned you can push the "plug" button on top of the charger to send it straight to the perimeter so that it will go charge itself), I rounded out the turns in the areas where it was getting stuck and now it reliably gets all the way around the perimeter wire to the charger. I am still tweaking the perimeter to get it more perfectly around our property. 14" between the wire and solid objects is probably more than ones needs. 8-10 inches is probably better for straight areas, although 14 inches might be best for areas where there are curves next to a solid object. Some objects, such as trees can be left inside the perimeter as the mower with merely bounce gently off them.

The mower is very silent and it's not obtrusive even at close range. I can't hear it even if I am right inside the house next to where it is working. Members of our household are often pleasantly surprised to see it working when I go outside. You could easily schedule it to run in the middle of the night and no one would know it was there. I'm building a garage to protect it from the elements and to keep it out of sight.

There's a moisture sensor and the mower seems to stay in its charger when it is raining or wet. This is good since the mower does not seem powerful enough to cut very wet grass, though it seems to have no problem with moist grass.

The quality of the mowing is very good. Since it clips only a small amount of grass at a time and since the pattern is relatively random, you won't see the satisfying appearance of a recently clipped lawn as you'd with the lawnmower, but the lawn is always neatly trimmed. You'll be left with some areas around the edges that need to be trimmed with a string trimmer and you'll have to do the edging as usual.

The mower seems very safe. It immediately stops if it is lifted. I feel safe if it hits me. It is light, runs into things with only a tap, and turns a different way. I have a three year old son and he loves to follow the mower around. I like to supervise his activities with the mower, however being a three year old with a mind of his own, he goes out to play with "his robot". The only way he can get hurt by it is for him to allow it to run over part of his body, which would be nearly impossible since it turns at the slightest brush with something. Still I would advise caution with pets and children.

People are fascinated by this mower. The neighbors have texted my wife to alert her that my three year old's toy is running by itself in the yard. I sometimes see bunches of people in my lawn following the mower around the yard. I just wave to them and this does not bother me; others may not have the same reaction. I have often found the mower out of bounds. Sometimes it is likely that someone who was curious picked it up; once that happens it will require you to enter the password to make it work again. I have seen it leave the boundary at times and am working on solving that problem by manipulating the wire. If you have an area that is at the bottom of a hill, you may need to babysit the mower and bring it back in bounds a few times per week.

We often send it out even after it's been out so that we can watch it run. I have it run sometimes while I work around the yard. I have now had this mower for the whole season and have yet to use my push mower other than for the area between the sidewalk and the street. I've reduced my effort on my lawn from an hour and a half per week to about 15 minutes (for the edging and touch up and bringing the mower back to its base when it gets lost). My neighbors' lawns grow taller during the week and my lawn always looks exactly the same.

Final Summary

Cons:

The perimeter wire is the main downfall of this and mower, as it is with all others with which I am familiar. The wire could somehow get broken by digging or mowing, etc. The wire would have to be moved if we made changes, such as added a patio or deck.

The area between the street and the sidewalk is impractical to include in the perimeter and that needs to be mowed with the push mower.

I don't get the "perfectly manicured" look that I saw using my push mower.

The mower does not stay within its boundary every time and needs to be monitored.

Pros:

I have more time to spend doing other things such as fertilizing, watering and gardening.

There is some entertainment value in having a robotic lawnmower as well as curious neighbors to watch.

My lawn is always well trimmed.

You would save you money if you are paying someone to mow your lawn, though keep in mind there will still be some maintenance to do, such as edge trimming, fertilizing, and watering.

Final note:

I would recommend this mower to someone who is not afraid to try something new and doesn't mind the small challenge of placing and maintaining the perimeter wire.

I will provide updates on quality of mowing over time, other findings, and blade changing. I'm not sure where to get blade replacements, though the unit came with 4 sets of blade replacements and I could probably sharpen them as well.
↭ 🍁 ↭
Works as described but requires monitoring.
by Aardman (4 out of 5 stars)
April 18, 2018

We've had ours for almost a year now and I deliberately waited until I've had it long enough to really get a good idea of what it can and can't do. For what it's worth, the negatives are far outweighed by the positives, and most of the negatives will be applicable to any other brand of robotic mower anyway.

We named ours "Billy" after a little cartoon billy goat that eats everything in an old Tex Avery cartoon.

We have a yard that's a little more than a 1/4 acre front to back. It contains numerous trees, stumps, a garden surrounded by railroad ties, herb boxes, and other miscellaneous obstacles. In addition, a relatively narrow band of yard connects the front to the back. The boundary wire that came with it was insufficient to do the entire yard so for the first month or so it only mowed the back. When I spliced the remaining boundary wire to add the front, it had difficulty following it to the front yard as the line forced it to travel sideways on an incline and it kept wanting to slip. I finally had to move the line downhill some so that it could travel all the way to the front yard, which means there a narrow band of our yard it's not mowing. Luckily, my neighbor just hits that patch when he mows. The literature for this says it only meant to handle 1/4 acre or less, but the truth is you can mow larger areas as long as you program it to spend more time meandering around your yard, and you set the zones so it makes sure to cover the yard evenly.

The manual recommends a complex system of creating boundary loops around obstacles. Instead of this, I used various landscaping bricks and judiciously placed spikes nailed in the ground to turn Billy around. This works fine.

The bad: No matter how much I try Billy just about always finds some way to get himself stuck somewhere once every few days. Sometimes he backs up just a little too far and gets caught on the fencing around the garden. Sometimes his treads fill up with too much mud and he loses traction and slips out of boundaries. Sometimes he figures out a way to hit an obstacle just the right way to flip himself upside down. Sometimes he gets mysteriously "trapped" in a reasonably open area. The upshot of this is, every day, usually a couple of times a day, I step out to see how he's doing - an usually he's doing his job. But, if I don't see him working, I go looking. Usually I find him in some obscure corner somewhere munching grass, but sometime I find him stuck and I have to reset him. Maybe if your yard is simple and free of obstacles you won't have this issue.

The good: The yard ALWAYS looks freshly mowed. This was something I'd not thought of when I bought this. Not only do you not have to spend hours & hours pushing your mower around in the heat, the yard never looks anything but freshly mowed. Not only that, but the dandelions we used to always struggle with never get a chance to pop their little yellow heads up very far before he chops them right off. The time spent monitoring him to make sure he's not hung up somewhere is more than worth the small effort considering how much this has simplified our lives.

He's entertaining and somewhat meditative to watch too as he slowly, aimlessly meanders about munching grass. When we first started using this it was amusing to watch people walking down the street pause to stare at it as it automatically mowed.

Unless you simply enjoy mowing your yard, and I know some people find it pleasant, you can't beat this.

After finishing this review I stepped out back and snapped a pic of Billy doing his job.

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