Friday 22 September 2017

Ambrogio L60 Review, Manual, and Comparison to Flymo, Miimo and Yard Force Automatic Lawn Mowers

The Ambrogio L60 is a different kind of robot mower.

It's a mower for people who don't want to mess with full-on automation.

There's no boundary wire, for example. Nor is there a charging station.

In essence, this is a mower that replaces a person, even down to the fact that it can only really mow when you can be bothered to take it out of the garage.

Ambrogio L60 Features

For all that, it's a clever box.

It can tell the difference between grass, and not grass; coupled with bumpers that help it figure out if there is an obstacle such as a family pet, small child or tree.

The mower has 4 wheel drive, and can mow for about 3 and half hours on a three hour charge. It just can't get back to it's refuelling point by itself.

That means that if your lawn is big enough that 3:30 of cutting leaves some areas untouched (bearing in mind that the mower covers the ground at random), you have to pick it up, take it inside, and charge it up.

The advantage is that installation is easy. You just drop the mower in the middle of the lawn, press a button, and go about your business.

Ambrogio L60 Manual

The Ambrogio L60 Manual is one of the clearest, and easiest to follow that I think I've seen.

However, that's not surprising, as the robot mower is pretty much plug-in-and-go. There's no messy perimeter wire installation, and for those with a simple garden, not much extra landscaping to do.

On the other hand, it is clear from the manual that if you have ponds, walkways, and flower-beds, that you need to make sure your garden is up to the job.

There are some pretty tight guidelines for things like the height of delimiting curbs, and the kinds of materials that the Ambrogio will recognise as 'not grass'.

The screen needs very little explanation: it's so basic that there's nothing more than some descriptions about starting, stopping, and charging the mower.

The manual, is, in short, as complicated as it needs to be for a device that is clever, yet pretty dumb.

Ambrogio L60 Price

Here's where I have a problem. Price-wise, the L60 sits somewhere between the Flymo 1200R (which I own) and the es of the Honda Miimo or Yard Force machines.

The blades are non-standard, making them more expensive to replace.

For a machine that needs so much manual intervention, I find that the £1,500 plus price tag is a bit excessive.

However, the manufacturer would probably cite the admittedly clever technology that powers the robot in their defence. I have a friend with an earlier model, and for what it's worth, it works.

I just think that, for me, I'd rather have the mower on-call 24/7 than have to haul it around between charges.

Then again, I enjoy messing around with the perimeter wire, too. That's not for everyone; perhaps the Ambrogio L60 will find a market with the less technically inclined gardener whose garden is large, with complex shapes, and yet with well defined boundaries...

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