The Robomow RL 555-HD Lawnmower : A Robotic Automatic Lawnmower with a Few Issues!

Firstly, a disclaimer : I don't actually own one of these, but have spent time gathering the opinions of others, and hopefully can point out a few of the glaring omissions in the design of the mower, whilst helping out anyone who owns one (or something similar) and is having issues with it.

What we have is a re-branded Husqvarna (marketed by Gardena on the continent, and Flymo, I believe, in the UK) and, for the record, I'm pretty happy with it.

The Robomow RL 555-HD

The first issue is that the 555 needs to be indoors in order to be charged. This doesn't make sense for something that ought to be automatic in every sense. In fact, I was hard pressed to find another robotic mower that has the same requirement.

Luckily, Robomow have fixed this design fault in other models, such as the RL2000 and the aptly named City 110 (it won't mow anything bigger than a 'city' lawn!)

The 555 has, instead, a remote control that is supposed to be used to drive it out of the garage and onto the lawn. That feels a bit like pushing an old fashioned lawnmower (sorry, traditional lawnmower) out onto the lawn, and not what you'd expect from a 21st century invention.

Once on the lawn, the 555 navigates using a perimeter wire. This is the preferred method of enclosing mowing zones, and used by Bosch, Flymo, Robomow, and others. Usually it works well, but when it doesn't it's usually because there's a break in the wire.

These can be hard to track down, and there's no real substitute for going along the wire (a pain if it's been dug in) and trying to find the fault. However, that's a problem shared by all the current market leaders.

A word of advice - first check that the connectors are still plugged in okay by unplugging and re-plugging them into the base unit. Then, if that fails, change the connectors (I've left about 20 inches of cable after the plugs just so I can do that!) just to be 100% sure it's the wire, and not the plugs.

The plugs are outdoors, so it could just be that they have become full of water, eaten by pests, or otherwise damaged or moved.

The mowing action is also the same as any other automatic robotic lawnmower in that they don't pick up after themselves. They're designed to be run frequently, clipping the ends off the grass, and letting it drop down onto the lawn, thereby fertilizing it (the mulching idea.)

Now, the Robomow 555 has two issues here.

The first is that it is heavy to take from the garage to the lawn, and so having it mow every day is going to become a problem over time. Secondly, there are issues with the Robomow and wet grass, according to an Amazon review. Apparently, it doesn't cope well with it.

This could be an issue, because mulching is best done when the grass is damp, according to one of my fellow mower-owners. But, since I don't own one, I can't comment further.

All in all, the main downfall of the 555 is that it can't be charged outside, which removes one of the central pillars of the buying decision : that it be convenient. To give them credit, the manufacturer has spotted this, and other models are self-charging, outside.