Robot Lawn Mower Shelter Reviews

It had to happen: there's now an active market for robot lawn mower shelters.

Although each make usually sells its own shelter to go with a specific mower, these can be quite expensive. Not to mention the fact that, since prices are coming down, and anything mechanical will eventually fail, you might not necessarily want to replace your existing lawn mower with one from the same manufacturer.

Even if you did, the chances are good that the existing shelter wouldn't be compatible.

The following selection of robot mower shelters are designed to work for most brands. While it's also possible to make your own DIY lawn mower shelter, for most of us, it's just easier to buy one off the shelf.

However, let's start with one that almost looks as if it could be made by measuring up, buying wood, and spending a weekend in the shed with an array of power tools...

This German made wooden mower shelter looks a bit like the first one that I knocked together for my own Gardena/Flymo/Husqvarna (same model, different country variations).

It's also not cheap, either, at around £90 including delivery, and much the same effect could probably be achieved by a skilled weekend DIY-er.

For the rest of us, though, it's a viable option: but you will need to drill some holes or even cut some of the rear away to accommodate the mower's charging station and connecting wires.

At least with wood, that's an option. However, take a look at the next example, again German-made, but this time a stainless steel robot mower shelter, priced at £230 to £260 depending on delivery options.

This puts it at a price point slightly ahead of the competition, including branded options. On the plus side, though, it is built to last, and can be bolted down to the ground.

Where I'm a bit concerned is with those charging stations that need space at the rear for wires. The steel probably wont't be easy to cut through, and the overhang may leave the mower partially exposed unless the charging station can be pushed right up against the back.

Next is the slightly cheaper Robohome Universal Garage.

This is a £200 self-assembled, low profile shelter that is designed to blend in rather than stand out.
br/>The effect works, and is pictured here housing the ubiquitous Gardena/Flymo/Husqvarna entry-level mower.

One advantage with this model, and others like it, is that since it isn't fully enclosed, there's plenty of access to the rear plate of the charging station, so installation should be that much easier; especially if the charging station was installed some time ago and has become part of the lawn!

This is even more apparent with the next model, pictured here, from WilTec, a standard robot mower carport with sun protection.

It's even more low profile than the Robohome, but is a little larger, designed to accommodate all sizes of robot mower. To give you an idea, the roof is 103cm x 77cm and it stands over 40cm tall.

Luckily, it comes with some long nails to help hold it down! It is also democratically priced at £95.

However, take a look at the final item -- the VidaXL weather resistant lawn mower garage -- doesn't it look somewhat similar? The measurements are also pretty much the same, as is the styling. The roof may be made of a different material -- it looks more opaque -- and the unit is listed as self-assembly.

With all that said, the one thing you can't quibble is the price: at £40 it's the cheapest one here, and for light weather-proofing looks to be the ideal solution. Now, where did I put my credit card....?

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...

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.

Honda Miimo 500 Robotic Lawn Mower: Price, Manual, Review

The Honda Miimo 500 is one of the more expensive robotic lawn mowers on sale. Although it has a lot of key features (such as silent running and different cutting modes), it also lacks some, like Bluetooth or WiFi control, that cheaper models are starting to offer.

On the other hand, Honda has a long association with robotics and electric vehicles, making it a natural first choice for those looking for reliability and innovation.

The HRM 500 is the middle model in the Miimo range, and has a bigger battery, allowing it to mow a larger area than the 300 series, but lacks some of the features (such as smartphone control) enjoyed by the model above it.

Honda Miimo 500 Robotic Lawnmower Features

The HRM 500 has some interesting features that mark it a cut above (pun intended) mowers like the Flymo 1200R:

• Ability to cut in stripes;
• Up to 5 programmable 'start points';
• Special 'edge cutting' mode.

It's also nearly silent, and has blades that bend rather than snap when they hit a solid object like a rock.

Honda Miimo 500 Reviews

Here's a run-down of opinions across the various review sites:

• UK's Alphr has a comprehensive review which confirms the silent operation, and notes that, if you employ a gardener, they would have to cut the lawn over 60 times before paying back the purchase price (source: Alphr.com.)

• C|Net called it "an adorable Roomba for your lawn" (source: C|Net.com), citing innovative features such as timers and variety of cutting modes.

• The UK's Which? magazine praised its good looks, but lamented a 'luxury' price tag (see Which? online).

• The German site Testberichte gave it a score of 1.9 'Good' (source: Testberichte.de) with lower scores going to the operating instructions (poor) and time between charges (average).

• The Netherlands-based Rientes Tuinmachines was also impressed, noting the mulching capability and giving precise instructions on laying the perimeter wire (see their web site.)

It's worth noting that there aren't any Amazon.co.uk reviews at the time of writing.

Honda Miimo 500 Manual

The manual can be downloaded from Honda's site.

A quick glance through it doesn't confirm Testberichte's assertion that it is a difficult read. In fact, I found it both clear and comprehensive.

Alphr also noted that it requires a Honda technician to install: however, the installation is very well covered in the manual. I'd recommend doing it yourself, if only so that you know how to fix it if something goes wrong!

The manual also confirms some of the more advanced features, such as:

• Setting mowing start points (Page 19)
• Setting the Work Calendar (Page 22)
• Setting the work timer by start point and season (Pages 27-29)
• Programming 'Quiet Times' (Page 30)
• Settings for narrow passages, and other configurations (Pages 32-37)

All in all, from the opinions, manual, and various videos, it's clear that the mower has a lot to recommend it. The level of customisation is beyond anything that I've seen in other robotic mowers, but it's unlikely that anyone with a regular shaped garden will ever need most of them!

Honda Miimo 500 Price

The HRM 500 is quite expensive. Amazon lists it at around £2,200 and Alphr at £1,900; which puts it at around 3-4 times more expensive than the Flymo 1200R.

However, the Flymo is noisier, has fewer mowing patterns, and can only start from a random point (or the end of the return wire). It also doesn't have the customisation that the Honda has, which makes it easy to install, but useless for complex lawn designs.

Oh, and the Honda is better looking.

Of course.

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.)

Professional Installation Guide: More than just a Robot Mower User Manual!

Regular readers will remember my post on Paradise Robotics, a while back. Now, they have released a new edition of their installation guide for the mowers that they stock - namely Ambrogio and LawnBott models from Zucchetti Centri Sistemi (ZCS).

Written by Kathy Moseler, and first published in 2011, it covers pretty much all the Ambrogio, LawnBott and other ZCS mowers that have been on the market since the early 2000s.

Due to this extensive coverage, it also serves as an excellent getting started guide for anyone interested in buying a robotic lawn mower. In fact, it would be a great accompaniment to any of the manufacturer's official robot mower user manual.

For example, because Ambrogio has followed trends in robot lawn mower design, it discusses models with and without return wires (known as Follow Wire, or On Wire) in a section entitled "Base Return Methods".

The guide has both diagrams (annotated examples from various user guides) as well as photos of real-life gardens, helping to solve the various boundary wire design challenges that lawn mower owners will face.

Given that most mowers have the same basic requirements (except those with GPS), the section covering the installation of a boundary wire would be useful to everyone, and well worth the £20 price tag.

For those who can't afford, or can't find Ambrogio lawn mowers, it also helps to build a picture of the kind of mower that you need -- some of the advanced features of the mowers such as the ability to cross asphalt paths are also covered. In conjunction with our own free Buyer's Guide FAQ, a comprehensive question and answer session can be conducted in-store to make sure you get the most appropriate model.

Not to forget, of course, that online deals can quite often yield huge savings; but as always, it's better to enter into a large online purchase from a reputable store armed wit the right information. Paradise Robotic's "Professional Installation Guide" for robot lawn mowers would make a great starting point!

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!