YardForce Lawn Mower: New Robotic Lawn Mower to Rival Flymo 1200R

The Yard Force SA series robotic lawn mowers are German built, four wheeled, swing bladed lawnmowers with a price bracket that matches the cheaper end of the market such as the Flymo 1200R.

The basic features are similar:

• Perimeter wire;
• Weatherproof charging station;
• 3M style connectors;
• Swing blades, etc...

However, there are also some aspects that are an improvement on the venerable Flymo / Gardena / Husqvarna automowers.

Yard Force SA600 Specifications

For a start, the wheels are solid, and there are four of them. This means no rubber bits to wear out, and cause the wheels to come apart, as happened with the Flymo, before we replaced them.

The mower happily deals with up to 40% (27 degrees) of slope, too, even in the wet. However, mowing in the rain is not recommended.

It has a large touch-screen to adjust various parameters, and a handy set of icons for illustrating the exact level of battery charge.

It's a real bonus to be able to see all the relevant information on the screen at once, too, unlike the line-by-line approach of other mowers. It's not quite as good as the Miimo's screen, but that comes at a price.

Naturally, in line with all the others, it has the usual PIN protection as well.

Yard Force Lawn Mower Manual Review

According to the Yard Force SA Series Manual, installation is pretty much the same as all other boundary-wire based mowers.

As seems to be the trend, there's no return wire, which increases reliability, but means that the manufacturers have to come up with increasingly clever ways to get their bots back to the charging station!

Programming looks easy, and is well-explained. There doesn't seem to be a function to change the way that the mower cuts (i.e. no 'lines' or 'spiral' setting), but the grid approach to programming the timer looks to be effective.

Various options, such as the rain sensor, can be turned on and off, and there's both a handy 'Stop' and 'Home' button.

Finally, the blades seem to be the standard type used by most spinning, rotating blade mowers, so the replacement blade cost ought to be in line with other manufacturers.

Yard Force Lawn Mower Price

The Yard Force SA600 is listed at around £600 at the time of writing, which makes it competitive when compared with the Honda Miimo and Abrogio mowers.

It's still slightly more expensive than the Flymo 1200R, but arguably the solid wheels, and higher level of customisation make for better value for money.

AL-KO Robolinho 3000 Review: Comparative Review of the AL-KO Robolinho 3000 Robotic Lawn Mower

AL-KO has a proud tradition in the production of lawnmowers. They first started building them in 1966, and in 1975 were honoured with a Franz Beckenbauer (then a famous professional footballer) testimonial for their Golden Line mowers.

Now, with the AL-KO Robolinho, they've taken their reputation for safety and quality, and applied it to the world of automatic robotic lawn mowers, production of which actually goes back to 2012.

This comparative review* looks at the AL-KO Robolinho 3000;one of the most popular models, if not the cheapest, at around £2,000 as we went to press.

So, what do you get for your money?

Blades

The first difference between many of the mowers on the market an the AL-KO line is the blade configuration.

The Robolinho has double-decker blades, apparently offering improved mulching and less grass build up. Regular readers will remember what happened to the Flymo 1200R when grass built up inside our mower. Long story short: the rubber dampers broke, presumably as a result of the acid in the grass.

Anything that helps reduce grass build-up and mulch better at the same time is to be welcomed. The innovative twin blades are non-standard, though, which potentially makes them more expensive to replace.

Boundary Wire & Charging Station

The Robolinho uses a standard boundary wire, but no return wire. So, unlike other mowers (actually, mainly those based on the Husqvarna Automower chassis, like the Gardena R40LI, or Flymo 1200), the mower has no easy way to get 'home'. It even has a 'home' button, which is an innovative feature, but without a return wire, I suspect it will spend a while bumping around until it finds, and presumably follows, the boundary wire.

With a 1200 square meter mowing area, that could be a long journey!

The home itself has to be placed on the boundary wire, akin to mowers from, for example, Bosch, and has a single transformer providing power. It's an open charging station, according to the installation manual.

Looking at images of the charging unit, it seems that connection is provided by two pads, that match up to two pads on the base station. This could be an improvement over the 'slot in' connectors that other makes have to contend with, which can get dirty, but one has to question what happens if the pads become slightly burnished or if they are exposed to corrosion.

Features

The control panel looks about the same size as the Flymo 1200R, but seems to contain space for a bit more explanatory data judging by the screen shots in the manual. There are also some fairly self-explanatory buttons around the edge of the screen, which make programming easier.

One of the additional features is the rain sensor, built into the mower, but the manufacturer also notes that the mower is quite capable of cutting the lawn in the rain.

Conclusion

Most of the features are comparable to other brands, but there are a few areas that, for the price, you'd expect a bit more for your money:

• Small screen;
• No GPS;
• Open base station.

The upside is the large mowing area. However, since the Flymo 1200R is now around £500, you can get three of them, and still be £500 better off for the 1200 square meters, or just risk buying two, and be £1000 better off...

In addition, the mower comes with rubber coated wheels, which I always find a bit of-putting. Read "...and then the wheels came off" to find out why I swapped from rubber to solid wheels on the Gardena R40Li.

To sum up: the specification is okay for the price, and AL-KO has a solid reputation for quality, but there are mowers that represent better value for money, with more modern features like GPS and smartphone control.

(* DISCLAIMER: review performed by comparison to the Flymo 1200R / Garndena R40Li range on the basis of features only, and is not an ownership-based review.)

Flymo 1200R vs Honda Miimo 3000: Are High Tech Robot Mowers Better?

It's fair to say that the Honda Miimo series is pretty fully specified. In fact, a lot of buzz about the Miimo online makes quite a big deal of the smartphone app control, electronic height adjustment, amongst other leading features.

Of course, regular readers will know to ignore anything that talks about the blades, mulching effect, low noise and ability to mow in the rain; unless they're missing! Every mower worth buying can do all of these things, but it's the little details that set the leaders apart.

Flymo, part of the Husqvarna group, appear to lead on price.

More specifically, the Flymo 1200R, while not the latest iteration of mower technology, has a top line price of around £900 but can be had for under £500 online. The Miimo comes in at three times that; albeit with some additional bells and whistles.

It also lacks a few things -- like instructions. However, this has improved with recent models, but certainly in the early days, the advice was to get the local Honda dealer to install the Miimo rather than try to do it yourself.

Not that it's difficult; but there are apparently a few limitations (revealed in this online article) such as not being able to run over paving stones, which would make the installation a bit more challenging.

Flymo 1200R vs Miimo Feature Comparison

The core similarities between the Flymo 1200R and Miimo are:

• Perimeter wire;
• Docking station with smart charging;
• 360 degree bump and tilt sensors;
• Random mowing movement;
• PIN code protection;
• Height adjustment from 20-50/60mm.

The core differences are some additional Miimo features:

• The Bluetooth app;
• Electronic height adjustment;
• Seasonal timers & day/night modes.

Both models, it has to be said, lack the more advanced features that are becoming more common such as rain detection, GPS aided mowing, and neat little docking stations with rain hoods. However, it is debatable whether the high end mowers with these features actually do a better job of cutting the lawn.

On that front, both the Flymo and Miimo have very similar mechanics. Spinning blades, double edged, for longer blade life and a good mulching action that doesn't leave any residue. They both mow randomly, so don't leave worn tracks (a problem for some mowers that take the same route 10 times a day!), and are nice and quiet.

Is the Honda Miimo Better?

Where the Miimo might have the edge is in two areas not yet touched on in any detail: it's turning action, and place anywhere docking station.

When the Miimo gets to the edge, rather than stopping, reversing, and turning, like most other mowers, it will gently curve away from the perimeter wire. I think there are two advantages in this: the smoother action will likely prolong part life (motor, wheels, etc.), and it may produce  a better cut to the edge.

The drawback might be that gaps could appear where the curve's apex is, but these will, over time, be covered by repeated mowing sessions.

Finally, the place anywhere docking station means that you don't need to worry about the orientation of the docking station when you design the perimeter wire path. This is a neat differentiator, especially for awkward shaped gardens, or ones where you could  hide the docking station away.

The only question is: is the price difference worth it? Check out the Miimo here, and the Flymo here, and decide for yourself!