How to choose a robot mower for your needs

Picking the correct robot for your lawn is best done through a specialist dealer, a lawn viewing is essential and is always free, takes around 15-20 minutes to measure a lawn up and pick the perfect mower. Robot mowers aren’t always the best answer for every lawn though roughly 60% of lawns are suitable. Robot lawn mowers are all rated in m2 so your lawn will be measured in m2. Its essential you have a level area for the charging station with a level area leading in and out of the base with no obstacles within a 5m radius of the base station, we will cover more on base stations at a later date.

Things to take into consideration when looking at robot mowers, we have large amounts of grass growth here in Ireland, so all robot companies recommend 20% is deducted from the robot’s area specification this is due to our wet climate and growth rate compared to the continent were robot mowers get it a lot easier. This is worked out by taking the Ambrogio 4.0 robot as an example, its rated for 3500m2 – 20% = 3000m2. So quickly that means an Ambrogio 4.0 is capable of cutting a simple straight forward 3000m2 lawn here in Ireland. This goes for all models minus 20% from there rated area. Another example the Ambrogio L35 rated for 1800m2 – 20% = 1500m2. Now this has its flaws in the system as if you have a complex shape of a lawn, lots of obstacles or a point were the mower crosses between lawns, this leads to complexity for the robot meaning a bigger robot will be essential so for example if your lawn it 3000m2 but has a crossing point, lots of obstacle and is an unusual shape you will require an Ambrogio L250i S+ Elite rated to 5000m2 even though your lawn measures within capacity for a particular model doesn’t mean that model will work. So quickly for example your lawns a complex 3000m2 on paper a 4.0 should cut this but in reality, an L250 will be better suited this is down to run times a 4.0 can cut for 3hours45mins and L250 can cut for 7hours meaning a lot more work completed on a single charge. Slopes become a problem as well and any slope over 20-30 degrees is best avoided unless you’re opting for a 4WD option as the wet climate here leads to problems on these kinds of terrain such as regular stopping on the slopes etc.

Its best suited to get a specialist to view your lawn and select the perfect model, advise whether a robot is the answer over a push mower or ride on tractor. Also good to advice if there are areas of the lawn best avoided for a robot and would require conventional methods to be kept tidy while the robot takes care of the rest, lastly any narrow passages below 5m are best avoided and if you have narrow passages in your lawn a robot is definitely not a good option to maintain these areas due to becoming trapped and spending large amounts of cutting time in these areas.

Robot fitters are generally highly experienced on what lawns aren’t suited and which areas are best avoided etc, also recommended any lawns under 250m2 are best avoided via a robot if possible as the cost of a robot, service costs, maintenance and parts doesn’t justify itself.