Considering investing in a robot lawnmower but don’t know your boundary wire from your base station? Don’t panic.
We’ve taken a closer look at the newest models to help you determine which is the best fit for your lawn, whether you’re an urbanite with a square-shaped garden or the proud owner of a Downton Abbey-worthy pasture that desperately needs whipping into shape.
First things first. Robot lawnmowers aren’t the kind of thing you’ll casually drop into your trolley during a visit to your local garden centre. You’ll struggle to find one for under £500 and many cost over £2,000. But there’s a reason for the high price tags.
These lean, mean grass-slashing machines, most of which work in conjunction with apps, won’t just keep your lawn in check by trimming the grass but by relying on Bluetooth and GPS, detecting weather conditions to work out optimal mowing times, and knowing when to return to their charging bases for quick battery boosts.
While it’s not possible to provide an all-encompassing guide to every mower we’ve included (as shown by the Bible-like user manuals which came with many of the models we tested), we’ve focused on their main selling points, as well as the ease in which they can be set up.
Typically, you’ll need to use pegs to lay down a boundary wire, which acts as a perimeter outline for the mower. The two ends of this line will plug into the mower’s base (the “home” to which it returns when it needs to charge). When mowers map the area – the first thing they will do – they rely on this boundary wire. However, some mowers come with a second wire, known as a guide wire. This will extend, in a straight line, from the mower’s charging base across the centre of the area to be mowed. When the mower has finished its mapping or mowing, it will find this wire and use it to return to its base.
A few words of advice:
After rigorous testing, we can determine that these are the factors worth paying attention to:
Best robot lawn mowers at a glance
FAQs
How long do robot mowers last before they need charging?
Robot mowers typically last between 60 to 90 minutes on a full charge, depending on the model and the size of your lawn. After this, they automatically return to their charging station to recharge before continuing their task.
Do robot mowers cut to the edge?
Most robot mowers are designed to cut near the edges of your lawn, but not all models can get right up to the boundary. Some advanced versions come with a smaller cutting width or additional sensors to improve edge cutting, but you may still need to trim certain areas manually.
Can robot mowers cut wet grass?
While robot mowers can technically cut wet grass, it is generally not recommended. Wet grass can clog the mower's blades and result in uneven cutting. Additionally, cutting wet grass may affect the mower's performance and cause it to require more frequent maintenance.
How do I clean a robot mower?
To clean a robot mower, start by turning off the device and removing it from its charging station. Use a brush or cloth to remove grass clippings and debris from the blades, wheels, and underside of the mower. For a more thorough cleaning, you can rinse off the mower with water, making sure to dry it thoroughly before storing it.
See our pick of the best here
Husqvarna Automower 405X
Best for: flashy gardening
This is the Lamborghini of the lawnmowing world. It’s seriously chunky and takes the tech to a whole new level.
It doesn’t just have the app (one of the best we’ve come across incidentally) but offers gardeners the option to tweak the blade height using electronic controls on the mower itself. Typically, most hi-tech mowers only have manual blade controls.
It’s designed for lawns up to 600m2, and its chunky wheels allow it to tackle a wide range of terrains - including inclines of up to 40 per cent in our test garden - with ease. It seemed incredibly intuitive. It mapped our garden in record time, with fewer pauses than other mowers we tested. We also loved the fact that it came with a guide wire, which made it easier for the mower to dock.
The best bit? It’s got headlights – genius. Bonus points for the ultra-concise quick start guide, too.
Buy now £1899.00, Husqvarna
Flymo EasiLife Go 150 Robotic Lawnmower
Best for: quietly getting on with it
Our favourite thing about the incredibly quiet EasiLife Go 150 Robotic Lawnmower? The FrostSense function, which ensures it “stays at home until it’s warm enough to mow.” Because let’s face it, we’ve all had those days when we’ve peeked through the curtains and decided to stay in bed. In all seriousness, it’s a brilliant feature which prevents unnecessary damage to rock-hard, frozen lawns.
Setting up this mower, designed to mow gardens of up to 150m2, was easy, and it’s another mower which has a guide wire, allowing it to quickly find its way home after the lawn has been mapped or mowed.
We also loved the positioning of the wheels. Often, three-wheeled mowers have the larger wheels at the back, but having the larger two at the front meant it happily rumbled over uneven terrain. We admittedly struggled to pair it with the app at first and ended up relying on the manual controls, the upside of which was the realisation that although it’s a mower designed to be used paired with your phone, the manual controls are incredibly easy to operate.
Buy now £469.99, Amazon
Lawnmaster L12 Robotic Lawnmower
Best for: speedy charging
This mower is definitive proof that the best robot mower isn’t the one with the highest price tag or the most tech. It’s one of the few which doesn’t come with an app, but it was the only one to come with a peg driver – a tool which made laying the boundary wire, and hammering in the pegs required, a breeze.
It’s designed for gardens up to 800m2, and we loved its super quick charge time. It took only 45 minutes for a full charge. Honourable mention also goes to the ease with which we could switch between mowing time lengths.
Its three pivoting blades slashed effortlessly through our severely-neglected lawn. We used the dial on the lawnmower to crank up the grass-cutting height to its maximum of 60mm. It was also incredibly quiet - its 62 decibels put a nearby roaring manual mower to shame.
Shop the former L10 model for £449.99 at Amazon.
Buy now £399.99, Amazon
Bosch Indego XS 300
Best for: the very laziest of small gardeners
The obvious lawnmower of choice for the truly torpid, the XS 300 comes with what some people might view as a somewhat exorbitant price tag. Designed by Bosch’s finest brains for gardens of small to medium size, if you cannot abide the idea of getting your thumbs green or, indeed, you have such horrendous hay fever that getting cut grass in your nostrils signifies the start of a sneezing fate worse than Hell, then why not let a robot run all the risk?
Designed for use in gardens with a maximum 300m² lawn area, this smart bit of grass trimming kit features a ‘Logicut’ navigation system to mow grass in organised lanes, rather than some higgledy-piggledy manner like other automated offerings.
It’s capable of cutting to three different lengths, depending on what effect you’re after, and packs a powerful battery that delivers 45 minutes of blade spinning based on 45 minutes of charging. Built-in touch sensors stop the Bosch from obliterating objects left lying on your overgrown lawn and, to confound would-be lawn mower larcenists, if the Bosch is removed from outside of your pre-installed boundary wire, it locks down completely until reactivated by a pre-set PIN.
The laziest route to lawn management, but if you’re like me and you enjoy your garden wholly as a ready-made refuge for G&T-based relaxation, then forget the grass-cutting graft and turn to the tech.
Buy now £549.00, Amazon
Bosch Indego S+ 500 Robotic Lawnmower
Best for: pruning multiple spaces
From one of the biggest names in home improvement and care comes this smart lawn mower, adept at cutting grass in beautifully neat lines. Bosch's muted black and green gadget remembers which way it cut the last session and alternates its blades, so as not to leave permanent tracks across your lawn.
The auto calendar function is also useful for creating a personalised mowing schedule to keep your green in tip-top condition. If you've more than one space to maintain, the multi-area function can retain a memory of up to three lawns for a combined area of 500sqm.
The brand has an expansive collection of robot lawnmowers at different price points.
Buy now £899.03, Homebase
Honda MIIMO 40 Live Robotic Lawnmower
Best for: easy set-up
This super-quiet mower was another one which was incredibly easy to set up. We started by simply scanning the QR code handily displayed on the side of the box, before downloading the app, which guided us through the set-up process in a clear, concise way.
It appeared to be slightly more sensitive than the other robot mowers we tested – it stopped twice when confronted with an “obstacle” (an errant strand of ivy). It responded by asking “Is this the base?”, and then asking us to remove the obstacle, which we did, after which it carried on with its session.
However, this enhanced level of sensitivity could well appeal to some as it’s designed for smaller gardens covering up to 400 m2, which will inevitably have more delicate areas. It’s perhaps an unavoidable downside to such a compact mower but the advantage is that it tucks effortlessly into the smallest of spaces. We also appreciated the presence of not three but four wheels, which (barring the ivy incident) gave it added manoeuvrability and allowed it to tackle gentle inclines without losing traction.
Buy now £1010.03, Just Lawnmowers
Husqvarna Automower 415X
Best for: country estates
If you’re lucky enough to have a huge lawn, then the Husqvarna 415X Automower is for you. It tackles up to 1500m2 in size, and comes packed with the features you’d expect to see if you’re spending your hard-earned cash on a lawnmower like this - namely GPS theft tracking, GPS-assisted navigation and what’s known as Firmware-over-the-air (FOTA). This means, in a nutshell, that the mower’s software will automatically update.
It’s another incredibly rugged model with a sturdy bumper, extra-grippy wheels and the ability to mow slopes with an incline of 40 per cent.
We were particularly impressed with the ultra-bright LED lights. These weren’t just useful on darker days, but also act as an alert system, and will flash on and off in the event of a problem.
Buy now £2299.00, Husqvarna
Gardena Smart Sileno city 250
Best for: versatility
In the same way that you can use Phillips’ Hue Bridge to control multiple Phillips Hue indoor and outdoor lights, the hub which comes with Gardena’s mower, designed to mow gardens of up to 250 m2, can be used to control multiple Gardena products. Sadly, we can’t lay claim to a garden filled with Gardena kit, but it’s a brilliant concept. For example, if your Gardena sprinkler is on, your Gardena mower will sense this and take a rain check (if you’ll excuse the pun).
The mower was easy to pair and it was the quietest model we tested. A protective strip on the outside of the wheels meant it could mow close to low-lying greenery without leaves or stems snagging, and we loved the extra stability provided by its extra-large front wheels. We also loved the colour scheme – a pebble grey with a cheery turquoise trim.
It’s also worth noting that this is the only mower which flashed up a weather alert. Our tests took place on a particularly chilly day and we were warned that the frigid temperatures could be an issue. Nevertheless, it went on to do its thing without any complications.
Shop the full range here for different-sized gardens.
Buy now £799.99, Amazon
LawnMaster L10 robot lawnmower 20V Max
Best for: Value robot lawnmower under £500
Given how robot lawnmowers can vary between costing silly money and being as much use as a jam fireplace, I simply love the L10, constituting as it does a great value robot lawnmower with a sub-£500 price tag, 18cm cutting width and a cutting height that’s easily adjustable from 60mm to 20mm.
The supplied 2.0ah battery should be good for 35-40 minutes of runtime off a charging cycle of around 45 minutes and LawnMaster reckons it’s good for lawns up to 400sqm, handling sloping lawns with gradients of up to 35 per cent. Once set up it’s about as low-maintenance a lawncare solution as you can get.
Want your lawns cut daily? You got it. Every other day? No problem. Going on holiday? It’s got you covered. Simply set up the boundary wire in your garden, as per the instructions, position the charging station and this bad boy will automatically recharge, carrying on regardless, as programmed, its mulching action helping nourish your lawn.
Rain needn’t stop play either, thanks to the L10’s IPX5 waterproofing, and sensors shut off its blades if it’s picked up or bumps into objects, ticking the safety box. Plus, PIN code protection prevents your jealous neighbours from hijacking its flight route to take out your prize-winning petunias.
Chances are that, as you eyeball it lovingly out the window, you’ll wonder how you did without it.
Buy now £399.99, Amazon
Verdict
Both Husqvarnas (despite being quite different, and designed to tackle very different sizes of lawns) ticked all the boxes. From the seamless pairing with the brand’s app or the way they tackled rough, uneven terrain, to slashing through our embarrassingly overgrown lawn in the blink of an eye.
We were also blown away by the Flymo EasiLife Go 150 Robotic Lawnmower, which served as a welcome reminder that one of the world’s most popular lawnmower brands is still very much one to be reckoned with.
