sg3000 asks:
"Our lawnmower broke -- it's an electric, rechargeable Craftsman mulcher mower, and it seems the battery won't charge any longer. So, now we have to find a new lawnmower. My wife, being an environmentalist, listed her requirements: electric, zero emissions, and mulching. Luckily, she never said she didn't want robot to mow our lawn, so my solution so far is the Toro iMow. Unfortunately, the iMow isn't selling well; They only sold about 500 units last year and Friendly Robotics's US local company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. They've already dropped the price 50% since it's introduction, so I don't want to pick one of these up and then have Toro discontinue the model. Has anyone had any experience with one of these things? Does it really work? Will my lawn look good afterwards? Will I spend 3 hours watching it to make sure it doesn't run over a neighbor's kid? Does it have little arms that sprout out to run the edger? Should I look for something else, resigned that my dreams of a little robot to mow my lawn are still years away?"
"Apparently, the way it works is you lay out some conductive wire along the perimeter of your lawn, and let the iMow loose. It first mows the perimeter, and then it zig-zags through the inside until it completes your lawn. It looks a little random in action-- kind of like a teenager half-heartedly mowing the lawn after he's been told 5 times to, 'Do it already!'
After a little searching on Google, I learned a little about the mower. Apparently Toro rebrands the Robomower made by Friendly Robotics. There are some mpegs of the mower in action on their site. The movies are pretty funny to watch -- check out the "Handling a Tree". Unfortunately, the robot doesn't seem to be very efficient and there are no good shots of what the lawn looks like afterwards. There should also be a movie showing what the neighbors think when they see this thing in action."
Slashdot Mirror
- No more than 5,000 square feet of lawn.
- Yard is flat, with slopes no greater than 15 degrees.
- Yard is free of excessive obstacles.
I dunno about your yard, but that's not even close to mine. I break all those rules, and I think most of the yards in my neighborhood do, too.www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Someone on K5 got one of these and reviewed it in their journal.
Arguments in the robo-mowers favor were that he has a simple small yard, few obstructions (house, two trees, sometimes car in driveway, never any toys, kids, pets, etc.) His land is fairly private so there was little fear of the mower being robo-napped. The biggest feature was he has little time at home, a passion for gadgets, and grass 'stuff' triggers his allergies.
Those pointed out the mower does a moderately good job. It doesn't hurt anything but it's coverage isn't optimized, once done following the perimeter it pretty much goes on random and trundles around the yard without any apparent strategy. Thus while the drunk walk does eventually cover all of the yard it's also quite inefficient at doing so, may mow the same spot a dozen times while the wedge next to it remains untouched for a long time.
'Course efficiency isn't all that important as long as he's not the one out there doing this all. And as long as it is sunny out the mower just keeps going on its own so he usually simply puts it out on a sunny morning and comes home after work to find the yard clipped & reclipped. Pop the 'bot back in the garage and the lawn is ready for the weekend.
However, he is in a particularly good situation for the mower. The theft concern would be a big one for most folks; the fear of some bored kids coming along and "liberating" the 'bot. There's also the point his yard is absurdly simple with few obstructions, nothing that the 'bot could ever accidentally mow-over. Also his yard is sunny, small, and the grass is never allowed to get tall.
Cost-wise it's pretty much a trade-off. So far the mower is competitive with having a lawn crew come by once a week. On the other hand they'd also edge the walk, fertilize, leaf-blow, etc. Should the mower last another season or two without repairs it'll have justified itself mostly. Should something break, well, it's not like the lawnmower-repair/bait-shop down the street knows how to fix one of these...
My own parents go the lawn-crew route and are quite happy. Dad isn't up to mowing the yard and they do a mostly good job. The lawn always looks great; unfortunately they've damaged trees by nicking their bark regularly and occasionally over-edge and take out the garden border plants. On the plus side they keep it all looking like a golf-course, don't mind putting away a forgotten sprinkler and hose, take care of the leaves in the fall.
In another buddies case he went with an old fashioned push mower when his gas one died. He says the effort is about the same, while the gas mower had powered wheels it took a lot of effort to maneuver so overall there was little effort change in the mowing. However he says it's a lot nicer following the snickity-snick of the mechanical then the roar, dust, and fumes of the gas one.
As to no-lawn - in some cases that's an option but in many it's not. There are often local laws about keeping up one's property and the hassle and ill-will of being different may not be worth it. Also the effort and cost of a more 'natural' look is often about the same as the green desert. Finally resale value of a house is greater with the traditional grass lawn then with other more eco-friendly or labor-saving alternatives.
Oh, and the old hire-a-kid? I tried that at my old house - none were interested. Nobody I know has any kids in their neighborhoods interested either. One acquaintance did tell a story of a new-to-the-neighborhood kid coming by asking but as his dad had just bought the house with the money from a large & very dubious job-injury claim the fellow declined.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I have a Friendly Robots model, which is the same as the iMow. I have used is for a few years now and find it very useful in the open back lawn. It is a few feet long and so does not work well in the narrow strip between the houses. In automatic mode it's safty software turns it off on hills greater than 15 degrees, but I can use the game pad like control to manually drive it and have set the wire to have it avoid the hill. I leave it out many Saturdays or at night and go shopping or make dinner and it is done when I return.
It's more a 80% solution, a way to reduce the work than a complete solutions, your will still need a edge trimmer. I normally in a wet summer put it out every few days and run the normally mower over the edges and strip between the house every two weeks. There are some OS bugs in the firmware, but I think the product is generally good and I recommend it.
It is very safe with lots of sensors safty features and warning lights. The quality of cut is very nice.