r/roboticLawnmowers

I have been running an AWD robotic mower for several years which has been amazing for the dryer months. During rainy summer days, not so much. There is slight grade on the back half of my property, and the moisture gets trapped until afternoon, which gets really tricky.

The AWD wheels pack up frequently with wet clippings and worse, mud. It loses traction on slight incline. In its effort to get out of it, it digs ruts into the softer part of the turf. So I ended up having to get it out, meaning I have to stay within the proximity whenever that happens. Not so automated in those spring months, that's for sure.

This is why I am seriously considering a tracked unit, and I have been researching robotic mowers with tank tracks like the Yarbo Y Series and others, thinking that the traction on the tracks is much stronger and it wouldn't dig rug. Because of its weight distribution, theoretically speaking, it shouldn't sink.

But it is a heavy machine, I am worried about its turning mechanics though. Whenever it needs to pivot or do a zero-turn or any type of sharp turns, would it tear the grass or the yard? That would be money NOT well spent if that's the case.

For those who have experience with tracked units, do the tracks really keep it from getting stuck like what my research tells me? Also if anyone has experience with Yarbo, I'd like to know how did it hold up. All advice appreciated.

Did a fun video. Hope you all enjoy!
Matt

Guys,

Story behind this video: I forgot to mow a zone that I typically would with my Lymow...but that's been broken for about 5 weeks now...another story for another day. Its a very mucky, marshy area behind my fence that I generally would tackle if I would remember to schedule a cut (lowest priority). You can see it in my other videos (Lymow One Plus Cuts 3 foot tall weeds).

I decided to test the Luba 3 to see how it handled 1 foot tall weeds...figuring the razor blades would be no match for the thicker stuff and overgrown area...I was totally wrong. I'm now highly optimistic now for using this automower to handle stuff well beyond what you would normally think about cutting. I realize i'm going to get push back saying this mower isn't meant to do what I put it through, but, what if you were on vacation for 2 weeks and needed to cut your lawn and didn't have any other way? This video does dispels that notion.

Settings:

Travel Speed: .7 Feet/second

Path Spacing: 7.9"

Perimeter Laps: 1

Cut Pattern: Grid, Random

Cut Height: 3.9"

Blade Speed: High

Thoughts? Any other tests you want to see? I'm going to swap out the factory blades for some titanium ones I found on amazon for my next test. stay tuned!

Are there mowers that would evade animal droppings (like produced from a deer)? Or am I SOL?

Thanks!

I’ve been running robotic mowers for a few seasons now (made the jump to wire-free/RTK recently), and honestly, it’s been a massive game-changer. Reclaiming my weekends from pushing a mower in the heat is something I’ll never go back on.

But let’s be real: mowing is only one piece of the puzzle. I still find myself out in the yard sweating over all the other maintenance tasks. It got me thinking about the future of yard automation and what the next "killer app" for residential robots should be.

If you could have a robot completely take over ONE other yard chore, what would it be and why?

Some things on my mind:

1.Edging and string trimming: Still having to manually weed-whack along fences, garden beds, and driveways kind of defeats the "hands-off" dream.

2.Leaf blowing/collection: Fall cleanup is incredibly tedious. A robot that patrols and clears leaves off the turf and driveways would save hours.

3.Lawn health management: Things like precision weed spraying, automated fertilizing, or monitoring turf health/moisture levels.

4.Heavy-duty seasonal work: Automated dethatching, core aeration, or even hard-surface brushing.

What is your biggest remaining pain point in the yard? Is it about the physical toll, the time it takes, or just how tedious the task is? Really curious to hear what the community thinks the next frontier for yard robotics should be!

Curious to hear everyone’s origin story with robot mowers. I first found out about them when I was researching lawn care solutions online.

I set the sprinklers in my yard and my navimow mower with separate time windows. The irrigation system runs early from 8am to 10am. The mower starts later in the day, and there’s a buffer in between for the grass to dry out.

The problem is that the irrigation window is not always the same. The controller may delay watering because of rain, add extra runtime during hot weather, etc. Once that happens, the mower's window needs to change accordingly. I tried a larger fixed buffer, but ended up losing a big part of the day when the mower could be running. How are people handling this? Just adjust two separate schedules manually every time? Thanks for your tips in advance.

Dear Husqvarna,

I’ve had your 410IQ mower for a few weeks. The equipment is great, and the software is clunky.

This is why:
There is no reason I should have to be in bluetooth range to change most of the important settings. I can change some settings and the mower can communicate over every wireless protocol known to man.
If bluetooth is so important, why is the difference between connected and not connected about 5 monochrome pixels?
Why does it take nearly two full minutes to find out where my mower is and what the battery is at?
Why would editing a boundary cancel all open jobs?
Why does the mower drive 100 feet to return to the dock between every zone when the next zone is only 4 feet away?
Why is there no map to tell me where the mower is hitting objects frequently?
Why can’t I queue jobs and rearrange them in the order I please?
Why can’t I adjust the return battery threshold?
Why can’t I see the job history with timestamps?
Why can’t I see what portion of the active work area has been cut in the map view?
Why can’t I pick a park duration between 3 and 24 hours?
Why can’t I set more than one maintenance point?
Why aren’t there more patterns?
Why does it drive out to the full extent of the border it already cut?
Why doesn’t it have any capacity to learn to avoid an area where it has collided with an object ten times this week?
Why can’t I add a point to a map anywhere other than equidistant from two other points?
Why doesn’t the charging time statistic work?

I could go on. While some of these may stem from hardware limitations, many are entirely fixable with relatively little effort. Can you please fix the app?

Thanks.

Anyone have experience with robot mowers near the beach? We're about 200 yards from the ocean and looking to get one for our small yard (roughly a quarter acre). It's mostly centipede grass with some St. Augustine mixed in. The yard is relatively flat, but there are a few bare sandy areas where I could see a mower getting stuck and a few slopes around the septic drain field. I'm also concerned about salt air, rust, and overall longevity in this environment. Anyone have a model they'd recommend that holds up near the coast and handles sandy spots without getting stranded?

Hi there! We're looking to invest in a robot and would like some suggestions for which ones will support our needs best. A lot of videos I've watched do not have as busy of yards as we do. We have at least 50 young trees and shrubs (all at least 1.5ft tall) in our back yard. Our yard is .75 acres with a chain link fence around the back yard and no fence up front (we don't know if we will be moving the robot from back to front or just having to mow the front with a push mower ). We have a few mulched areas that sometimes get messy and spread out because of our dogs. Will that become a problem if we don't keep it tightly packed?

Does having a robot sound feasible for us?

Thank you!

Anybody buy a mower for their baseball field? I volunteer my hours mowing and would like a better alternative. Looking around 2.5 acres. Would be willing to spend up to 7k if the quality is there.

Any suggestions/comments???

Thanks!

I have .65 acre yard and have Cub cadet tractor. I am only thinking of buying robot mower or ego self propelled mower to mow the edge of the house and backyard with patio. With tractors that's a hard task and clipps get into my flower bed etc.

Is there a robot vacuum for cheap say 300-500 I can get that will do what I need? Or getting ego 2nd hand self propelled is the only option?

Do they mow tall fescue well or do they struggle? Have you noticed more wear on the blades

I have a flymo easilife, so a mower with a guide wire. I have a couple of depressions in the middle of the lawn that I want to fill and seed before the autumn/winter. Obviously it'd be best not to let the mower over these patches before the new grass is established. I don't really fancy having to find and cut the guide wire (it's buried), install new guide wire for the patches then remove the guide wire in a few weeks time.

Would building a small barrier be my best option here? Anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks