I love hosting gatherings in the garden and preparing the grill for delicious feasts. And while I’m sprucing up my backyard to make it look presentable, that includes the task of maintaining a freshly cut lawn. However, mowing the lawn during hot days is my least favorite chore. My yard catches direct sunlight for most of the day, so pushing a traditional electric lawn mower by hand in sweltering heat can become unbearable.
Other than relying on the hubby to do the arduous task, I needed an alternative to solve all my troubles. What’s more, I needed a tool that would minimize the manual labor of using a lawn mower and do all the hard work in ‘unworkable’, outdoor conditions. So, when I was offered to test the “world’s first remote-controlled lawn mower”, I jumped at the chance. The Mowrator S1Pro 4WD is a powerful, battery-operated lawn mower that is simply controlled by a 3-in-1, remote controller. What’s more, this all-wheel drive claims to tackle slopes up to 75%, which I thought would be ideal for my backyard incline. It comes with all the features you would expect from a standard lawn mower and has sensors similar to a robot lawn mower to avoid obstacles. It also has a 3-in-1 mulch, rear bagging, and discharge system for grass clippings.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, I was keen to put this smart piece of tech to work in my backyard and find out. Here are the things I learned after using a remote-controlled mower for the first time.
1. Setting it up is surprisingly easy
Considering the mighty weight of the Mowrator S1 (it weighs a whopping 120.2 lbs), it’s not as intimidating as it looks to set up. Luckily, it comes pre-assembled, and all you’ll really need to do is secure the four wheels with the screws provided, and also the grass collector hood at the rear.
The User manual comes with step-by-step diagrams, but there is also a larger, more condensed version for easy set-up. Alternatively, I found scanning the QR code for the instructional video helpful, especially for novices like me!
The Mowrator S1 itself has a pretty straightforward build. Underneath the top lid, you’ll find the battery that can be easily detached and lifted out by its handle to charge. The battery run-time is stated to be 2.25 hours, and takes around 90 minutes for a full recharge. It also has red emergency buttons, and the push-button, Start.
It comes with a 21 inch blade underneath, that has an adjustable height between 1.3 - 4.6 inches, so you can tackle any heights of grass. You can easily adjust the height by using the shift lever on the side of the mower.
Other notable features are the four collision sensors on each side of the mower, that will detect obstacles and come to a halt. It also comes with a mulching insert and grass clippings bag — should you wish to mulch your lawn and improve your soil.
More importantly, I didn’t have to spend extra time unwinding a power cord to plug my electric lawn mower into a power supply. Just simply turn on the remote control to synchronize it, and start mowing.
2. Using the remote control was a lot of fun
Admittedly, I was slightly skeptical about using a remote control to cut my unsightly grass. And it reminded me of a larger version of my son’s game console controllers. Still, I was intrigued to know how this humble device could move a 1600W powered mower, and get the job done well.
When you turn it on, it will ask you for a password to enter, before you have the option of changing it. Now, the caveat here is there isn’t anywhere on the User Manual that tells you what the default password is. To get around this, I had to watch Mowrator tutorials online to find out what the password was — which is a series of the number 8. Once I had figured this out, the instructions are all self-explanatory on the screen.
Once you pair your Mowrator to your remote control, you simply press the two top buttons on either side of the control, and press Start on the screen. The mower will then kick into action, and you can control it via the front/back and left/right toggles on the remote control (just like playing a computer game!).
3. It's not just a gimmick — my lawn looks great
Just like a traffic light, the green lights on the side of the mower will indicate it’s on the move, while the amber or red will indicate that there is a problem. Again, any issues and guidance will be displayed on the remote controller screen.
I was pleasantly surprised at how responsive the controls were, and I was able to manoeuvre it around our 80 ft lawn with ease. For the sake of not ruining the lawn, I wanted to go at a slow pace, so had it on ‘Tortoise’ speed. However, if you have plenty of lawn, a faster speed would be recommended.
I had initially set the height level on 3 before going down to 2, as I wanted to give the grass a low, neat trim. It performed well on overgrown areas that had high grass levels, and automatically stopped whenever something had got caught on the blade underneath, like a rogue branch or yard debris. While its sensors are super sensitive (which is a great safety feature), it does give you the option to disable this function.
In any case, the fact that I was cutting grass by controlling a hand device was a surreal yet fun experience. Even my hubby and son were excited by the concept, and couldn’t wait to have a try — which made the gardening task seem less of a chore.
What’s more, the Mowrator was able to cut the grass in under 20 minutes — compared to my 40 minutes of manual labor. In fact, the only thing I needed to do was empty out the grass clippings into our compost bin, but besides that, I didn’t have to break a sweat!
A couple of drawbacks
Although I was impressed with the overall results and sheer convenience, it didn’t seem to tackle edges very well. In this case, I’d need to get the trimmer out to make it look nice and neat. However, this isn’t a deal breaker in the grand scheme of things, and it still cuts down a considerable amount of time.
Secondly, the Mowrator is a heavy beast — down to the battery and blade. So I had to be extra careful lifting or pushing it to my preferred location. While it’s better to keep it in one storage location when not in use, those who need portability around the yard might struggle.
Verdict
Although the idea of a remote-controlled lawn mower may sound very ‘gimmicky’, I was actually impressed by the results and ease of use of the Mowrator.
Not only was the mower straightforward to initially set up, but using the remote control was fun and easy to manoeuvre it around my lawn. As to be expected, such high-end, advanced mowers don’t come cheap, and the Mowrator S1 will set you back around $4,000. However, those with acres of land or a large backyard will benefit from this. It will save you valuable time, be more economical and you’ll have fun in the process.
The Mowrator S1 lawn mower is available on Mowrator.com.
