Gardena Robotic Mower SILENO minimo 500 m²: Intelligent lawn mower with excellent connectivity, programmable with the Gardena Bluetooth® app, UK version (15202-28)
Simply connect with the GARDENA Bluetooth App
The GARDENA Bluetooth App (online registration required) offers a simple way to control your robotic lawnmower from up to 10 m distance. Benefits include EasyApp Control, Auto Schedule and EasyConfig for easy installation and use with zero fuss.
The quietest, best in class noise level
Relax in your garden while SILENO minimo quietly gets to work. The best in class low noise level 58db (A) won’t disturb you at all.
Reliable precision
The better navigator, tackles the narrowest spaces and tightest corners with reliable precision.
In any weather in any terrain
SILENO works under all weather conditions, rain or sunshine. Easy or complex lawns.
Which SILENO is the right one for you?
 SILENO minimo 500 | SILENO minimo 250 |  SILENO city 250 | SILENO city 300 | SILENO city 300 Set |  SILENO life 1000 | SILENO life 1250 | |
| Recommended lawn area | < 500 m² | < 250 m² | < 250 m² | < 300 m² | < 300 m² | < 1000 m² | < 1250 m² |
| Max. incline | up to 25% | up to 25% | up to 35% | up to 35% | up to 35% | up to 35% | up to 35% |
| App controlled | Gardena Bluetooth App | Gardena Bluetooth App | Gardena Bluetooth App | Gardena Bluetooth App | Gardena Bluetooth App | Gardena Bluetooth App | Gardena Bluetooth App |
| Cutting height (min-max) | 20 – 45 mm | 20 – 45 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm |
| Energy consumption (per month) | 3.5 kWh (max. area capacitye) | 2.1 kWh (max. area capacitye) | 2.0 kWh (max. area capacitye) | 2.5 kWh (max. area capacitye) | 2.5 kWh (max. area capacitye) | 6.0 kWh (max. area capacitye) | 7.0 kWh (max. area capacitye) |
| Garden-hose cleanable | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Anti-theft protection/PIN code | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SensorControl | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| EasyPassage | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SpotCutting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Silent Drive Motor | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Exclusive equipment | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Weight: | 12.4 kg |
| Size: | Up to 500 m² |
| Dimensions: | 60 x 50 x 31 cm; 12.39 Kilograms |
| Model: | 15202-28 |
| Part: | 15202-28 |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | Yes |
| Batteries Included: | Lithium Ion |
| Manufacture: | Gardena |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Size: | Up to 500 m² |
An interesting robot mower that worked fine for several months. Our garden is basically a straightforward suburban bit of grass but it has a sculpture in the middle on a flagstone so I had to lay the guide wire from the grass edge around the flagstone and back to the edge. The mower did what is supposed to and I stored for the winter last year. Spring arrived and time for the first cut but now all I get is the blue flashing light which the manual says relates to a problem with the guide wire. As this is buried just under the surface it’s difficult to know where the problem is. I’ve forgotten about it for months because fortunately, I didn’t dispose of my Bosch Rotak cutter. The Gardena manual is quite comprehensive but doesn’t go into too much detail about a factory reset which I think might solve my problem.
We have had the Sileno minimo robotic mower since Apl 2021. The first year it worked perfectly in Nov we switched it off and stored the mower in our garage. In 2022 it has never worked properly since reinstalling initially we had an antenna fault cured with a free replacement charging station. We now have a flashing green light, the mower will leave charging station and cut grass but it will not return automatically to the charging station. Customer service is non existing for this fault we have been trying to get it fixed since April 22. If you need help then it does not exist with customer service.
There is a manual but I found that a bit hard to follow so I watched a couple of videos in YouTube including the one put up by Gardena.
Although the instructions say you can peg the boundary wire and guide wire (to guide the lawnmower back to its charging station) it is better to bury them unless your garden is very flat otherwise you risk cutting through the wires.
Once the wires are setup, the actual controls are quite straightforward.
The lawnmower does leave a gap around the edges that will still need to be strimmed.
I have not had the lawnmower long enough to see how it will cope when there are autumn leaves on the grass but I assume these will need to be raked up pretty regularly to avoid jamming the lawnmower.
What should also be born in mind is that it shreds the grass clippings and leaves them as a type of mulch on the lawn. The idea is that its a compost. The reality is that it forms thatch on the lawn. For this reason I did a quick scarify of the lawn to get rid of existing thatch and then over seeded. You cant seed through thatch as the seeds wont reach the soil. So I took this chance to get rid of the accumulated thatch of years of regular grass cutting and then over seeded to make sure I have a thicker more robust lawn. I then placed the guide wires etc. So the first cut was after a few weeks when the new seeds had taken root and the grass had thickened.
I would recommend this lawnmower for small gardens and particularly if you enjoy having the grass height kept at an constant, even level.
There are also some really good and simple videos that demonstrate what to do and how to do it on youtube via GARDENA WORLDWIDE. SO they have made sure that even if you dont want to read through the entirety of the instruction manual, there are visual/audio descriptions in bite-sized videos on YT.
Pops has a Very large garden on the property with plenty of grass area, but due to Dads struggles with the lawn some patches of grass were longer than others – however as we suggested before, this machine has cut down the majority of Dad’s efforts and taken so much strain off of his wrists that it’s really hard to fault this lawnmower. Without it he either wouldn’t be able to do the lawn and would have to pay someone else for the regular upkeep so we dont lose little doggy when the grass gets longer.
The family are really happy with this and Dad appreciates the hell out of it! He’s amazed by it. Great Father’s Day or Birthday gift also.
As a ‘Vine’ reviewer I received this magnificent ‘Gardena Robotic Lawnmower’ some time ago but initially I felt intimidated by its complexity, and I was reluctant to try it out alone. A son-in-law came to my rescue and with his aid I have now carried out an assessment. His input was vital for everything digital for which he assures me all is well.
The lawnmower comes complete with battery, charging station, boundary wire, stakes, cable, couplers etc. The lawnmower itself is made largely of some industrial grade plastic and it appears robust, and capable of being washed with a hose — though a brush and damp cloth would be sufficient. It could be left outdoors but it is lightweight for carrying and is probably best kept under cove — and safe from theft!
Together with son-in-law we looked at the ‘Quick Guide’ but it soon became obvious this is not really enough and we went through the ‘Operator’s Manual’. The supplier helpfully draws attention to installation support videos, and the advice is to install boundary wire and guide wire, and charging station before the mower settings and any pairing with Bluetooth app and entering of PIN code. Location and installation are important and some re-arrangement of lawn edges could simplify matters. Finishing off at lawn edges is fine at situations where grass is level with kerbs, paths, patios etc. but any upstands or obstructions will leave longer grass that requires occasional strimming.
Alternative circumstances can be tested with my lawn being square and level and ideal for a robotic lawnmower with frequent short cutting. It doesn’t suit the steep gradient of my son-in-law’s lawn, and it doesn’t like his long grass. It appears that to avoid over-mulching there must be either frequent mowing or raking up of cuttings. Running time is approx. hour which is more than necessary for my 150 sq.m lawn, but in any event as this is a single ‘main’ area then docking at charging station is immediate.
To select from alternative modes of operation the lawnmower incorporates a keypad with various LED indicators. All seem straightforward though I have not tried setting up a ‘secondary’ area or ‘override’ function. It is so simple to just switch on, so I haven’t considered scheduling and I haven’t used remote control. Safety features include cut-off as large orange stop button, but the machine also stops automatically if lifted.
In spite of its ‘all singing-all dancing’ features I will never be satisfied with a mower that does not pick up the grass cuttings, and though publicity blurb claims random mowing patterns as a virtue I want my lawn to display stripes. Sorry — but I’m giving a 5-star product a 4-star rating.
This is my first robot mower and I suspect the technology has come on a long way, just like robot vacuums, in the past few years. To me this needs a fair amount of set-up before it’s ready to get going. Setting up the app is pretty straightforward. It takes a while to get the wires strung up in the right place around the lawn and was a bit fiddly on my lawn which has a lot of borders and odd edges. Never mind once done and the app was set up it actually worked really well. The cutting is good quality and honestly I don’t think I could have cut it better myself. I never much liked stripes on the lawn so the cutting randomness works well for me.
The major downside has to be the lack of grass collection. I realise there are trade offs when you get a motor like this. Adding a grass collecting pod would add extra weight and complexity, but I still I feel this one lacking feature does hinder convenience. We are maybe 1 or 2 generations away before these get genuinely intelligent enough to do the whole job. For now though this is pretty good, it definitely reduces time spent on the most mundane gardening activity, gives a good result and I would recommend it.
Did Like
* Obviously, that it cuts the grass so someone doesn’t have to!
* Simple to use, aided by the clear and well-written user guide, and you are not obliged to use the bluetooth app. All functions are available on the top panel, and you can just just press the Start button and it will trundle off and be about its business.
* Very quiet operation.
* No cuttings to dispose of, it sprinkles those back onto the lawn as it works. That does mean it’s best run every day through the growing season or there will be a big mess.
* Safety has been well thought of. For example, if it were to tip over by accident (a steep border?) or misadventure (a foolish child?) then the blade rotation is halted.
Did Not Like
* The perimeter and guide wires seem vulnerable when pegged (plenty of pegs are supplied) to the lawn edges, yet burying them will be hard work and leave a scar. Ideally it should be more intelligent, to ‘see’ lawn edges and find its charging station without external assistance.
Gee. This looked super complicated when I took it out of the box. I recommend reading the instructions and watching the online video first. It seems easier after that.
For the first mow, I used the pegs to give it a fenced-in area, but afterwards I intend to bury the wire, which is less trouble. It does discourage hard corners, so I may have to soften the contours of my lawn.
It does need a good area to work and the docking station must be next to it. It rons for about 45 minutes between charges, and the book recommends you set it to run daily. Rather it than me, I say.
It moves in a random pattern, but struggles with slopes, which my back lawn has a gentle one. It kind of manages.
On the whole I like it. I have yet to see it try cutting wet grass, and it can’t cut long grass, so there’s that last mow for you to do before you set it going.
Well, quite a lengthy setup procedure, but it is all in the comprehensive manual and doesn’t require me to repeat it all here, save to say – there is a lot of it and boundary wire!
Having different lawns which are not connected and all larger than 250 square meters, means either choose one bit of one lawn, or move the equipment each time, or get more robot mowers! To be honest I enjoy mowing, I like the satisfaction of seeing a neatly clipped striped lawn and this machine doesn’t stripe and it also mulches so it doesn’t pick up cuttings – not that there is any room to store them, and no facility to empty either, also the mulched cuttings are short enough to soon disappear.
So, I picked a lawn at the back of the house where I could set it up on a permanent basis – it’s far too much hassle to move all the gear from place to place, this lawn has a couple of mature oaks growing in the middle, so making ‘islands’ with the boundary wire was required – all explained in the manual. It is also too big so choosing an area that was just 250 square meters and near enough to the house to get a connection was the task. Once the boundary were set and the position of the charger picked and connected, off went the robot doing its thing. I did cut the lawn first, I don’t think this ‘little mower’ could handle anything too long. This was its first outing and the result surprised me. It looks a neat job and it can be scheduled to do its thing at whatever intervals the growth rate of the grass dictates, there are different heights that can be set – see the manual, it couldn’t be left too long during the warm days, the grass would have grown to much for it to handle. Our dogs think it’s well worth watching, it’s pretty safe since the cutters stop if its lifted. They have turned it over once in play, but they usually just watch it carefully, making sure it doesn’t go in the house! And its fun watching it run off back to the charger.
So, in conclusion if you have somewhere that you can fix a permanent mains line, a lawn that is reasonably flat and the grass isn’t too long – this may well suit your needs, it’s easy enough to use once it’s been set up, and the phone App is very useful, the machine can have a software upgrade via the port underneath. I am happy to let it do the bit of the lawn it’s confined too by the boundary wires which I have buried, easy enough job, I used a lawn edger to make slits and dropped the cable in, stamping down the slightly lifted lawn. And of course, there is a consideration of fuel, if it normally entails an internal combustion engine then the environmental considerations will also come into play. Setting up takes time but it is probably worth it although I personally wouldn’t buy the product but I am happy to review it, I hope for the benefit of anyone thinking of purchasing and if you do think that it would suit your needs then its well worth the money and five stars.
JC
I really like this mower as i had never used a robotic one before and as we have just extended our patio area, this then took over quite a bit of our lawn (so our lawn area is not as large as it was) so i thought i would try this robotic mower instead of our larger one which took a while to use.
Setting the mower up was simple really. There is an app you can use for this called the Gardena Bluetooth app and this helps you to set up the mower too with hints etc. I am however a little old fashioned and have chosen to stick with the straight forward operation on the top of the mower.
I plugged the charging unit into my outdoor electric supply and left the mower overnight (as i also knew it was going to be be nice weather that night).
Now this is a pretty quiet mower compared to some i have used with only 57db. On inspection of the unit i also liked the fact that the wheels have quite a good tread on them so go over my lawn with ease.
You get a wire that you set up around the area you want to be cut and when the mower goes up to it, it simply turns and moves in another direction so it knows to go no further.
Once the mower finished cutting it simply returned back to it’s base and put itself on charge, however i took it off to clean it – and this only involved a good rinse with the hose.
With different cutting heights and easy of use i really like this and would recommend to people if you are looking for a new way to cut your grass
I was worried that a robot-mower would be a gimmick but after just over a week, I don’t know how I lived without it!
Mowing is always a bit of a pain, but more so this year with it having been so wet – when it has rained at a weekend, the grass has often gone a couple of weeks without being cut which made it look terrible as it was too long and overgrown. A robot which sorts the mowing out everyday without involving me sounded promising!
Straight out the the box, there is so prep work to do before you can start mowing. First, plug in the base station and set the mower on it to start charging. I found that I could plug in in my kitchen and run the low voltage cable out through a gap in the french door frame and out to the base station location, but you can use an external plug too. Gardena sell alternative charging cables if you need a replacement or a longer version than the one supplied.
Second, a boundary wire needs to be laid and first you need to figure out the best place to put that. That is easy if you have a flat, square garden but mine has some slopes, awkward spots and hard to reach areas to contend with. As a result, I went with the easy option of pinning the boundary on top of the lawn to start, with a plan of working out the best location to maximise the amount of lawn it could reach and then later use a hoe to run the wire underground. The boundary wire is on a reel and you work your way around the lawn holding it in place with the plastic pins supplied. I found it was necessary to pin it more frequently than the manual indicated – every 30cm or so, rather than every 70cm – this is because my lawn is not entirely flat and I noticed the wire sticking up in places when I pinned it every 70cm. You have to set the boundary 30cm from edges where there is a fence of a drop, or 10 cm from a level boundary which it can run over (the device is pre-set to run 32cm over the boundary wire, but you can change that in the app settings). I had no problem following the instructions to create an exclusion zoon around a old tree stump (the stump was cut quite low to the ground and so I worried about the mower running over it) and creating a “secondary area” around a patch of grass which could not be reached from the main lawn area. The important thing to note with these secondary areas is that they still need to be connected to the main boundary wire (as the boundary wire relies on electrical power from the base station) and so I could not create an entirely separate secondary area at the front of the house (unless I wanted to move the base station and power cable out there to power it).
Third, you have to lay a guide wire and connect it into the boundary wire and base station (connectors are supplied, but you will need a pair of pliers to clamp them shut). The point of the guide wire is that the mower follows it in order to find the base station. Laying the guide wire follows the same principle as the boundary wire – you can go above ground with plastic pegs or run the cable underground again.
Once the boundary and guide wires are in place and connected to the base station, you will see an indicator light on the base station – if it is green, that indicates that the boundary and guide wires are fine and you can set the mower running.
I gave the mower a hard time at the start – it had been a couple of weeks since I last cut it with a traditional mower and I figures that I would be best able to see how good the mower’s coverage of the lawn was if I left it like that. In the end I wished I had cut it first – it would have made laying the boundary wire above ground easier and with very long grass, it meant that there were long clippings left behind on the lawn. Over the next couple of days, these clippings disappeared and so I assume that they were cut up into smaller and smaller pieces as the mover went back over them.
After an hour of running, it needed to charge and trundled back to the base station. At that point, I was worried – the cut was uneven and left the lawn looking like it had had a run in with some clippers! But, after a second hour, it was looking much better. I used the spot cut feature to catch a couple of areas which had been missed, but all in all I was very pleased. I programmed it to run for an hour and a half most mornings and over the course of a week, it is looking neatly trimmed. It is not as good a cut as I would get if I got the proper mower out, but it is good enough and I can just leave the mower to get on with it.
For me, it is not a total lawn solution, but that is because of the characteristics of my lawn. I have some borders where there is a drop at the lawn edge (down into a flower bed or dropping down to a patio) – setting the boundary wire 30cm back from the gap leaves a strip of about 5cm at the edge un-cut as the mower cannot go all the way to the edge of the lawn (or it would fall into the drop). Likewise, there are small areas behind trees at the edge of the lawn, where there is a narrow strip of lawn and steep slope which the mower cannot cope with. I have cut those back with grass shears for now, but a quick solution would be a grass strimmer. On the plus side, parts of the lawn are bordered by a level patio and the mower can run over that with ease. I actually set the base station up on the patio to ruining a patch of grass by placing it on the lawn and that has worked really well.
I did have a mis-hap whilst I had the boundary wire above ground – pushing my luck running the boundary wire closer to the edge of a flowerbed than recommended (trying to minimise the un-cut edge), the mower dropped off the edge of the lawn and sliced the boundary wire in half. I noticed this later when looking out the window and wondering why it was not going anywhere. That meant that the boundary wire stopped working but the good thing was that the mower stopped immediately as well for safety. I took that opportunity to lay the cable underground and repair the broken piece with one of the spare connectors supplied to stop that happening in future.
In use, the mower is very quiet – like an electric car. When the grass is long enough that it is being cut, it sounds like using hair clippers. It is unobtrusive, so you can be out in the garden at the same time as the mower is running (just be careful not to leave anything on the grass which could be damaged by the mower, such as gloves or tools which it could run over). I would also keep children and pets out of the way. It is designed to stop and reverse if it hits something (eg a tree). It did the same when it bumped into my leg (I deliberately stood in the way for test purposes, but would not set out to do that otherwise) but I would worry about a child as it could run over a hand laid flat on the ground, because that would be too low to trigger the anti-collision feature.
It also has a lift and tilt sensor and will stop if picked up (you have to input a pin to get it going again, for security, although I am not sure that it a particular theft deterrent, fortunately, my garden is not too overlooked and the location of the charging station is hidden from the view of most neighbouring houses) and if it runs onto a slope that is too steep, the tilt sensor kicks in and it stops and reverses again. There has been one occasion so far when it was mowing in the rain (according to the instructions, that is no problem – you can also switch on a frost sensor which stops it mowing if the temperature is too low) and when it got onto the small but steep slope at the bottom of the garden and must have slipped as it ended up outside the boundary wire. Again, it stopped and would not start up again until I had popped it back into the working area. This has only happened once, despite the fact that it has rained three or four times already while mowing, so I am prepared to live with the possibility of having to pop the mower back into the working area if it happens to slip out rather than moving the boundary wire further back to avoid that possibility altogether.
Whilst basic functionality can been controlled on the mower itself, I found that the app was best, as it has more detailed controls, including setting up a mowing schedule.
Overall, I am very pleased with mower and if this one ever breaks, I will replace it!
You then need to produce a plan which will save you a lot of time and possibly problems. Essentially you need to plan where to put the base unit, how to lay out the perimeter wire and where to lay the guide wire. I’ve had to extend my outside power supply to accommodate the mower because the supplied power lead is only around 4 metres long and part of that needs to be attached to the wall/fence (the transformer) so realistically it’s about 3 metres long.
Mow the lawn before starting. Once you have decided where to put the base unit charging station, then you can start pegging the wire around the perimeter. I have an island in the middle of my lawn so I had to run wires to the island, around the island and back again as part of the perimeter. Once the perimeter is done then you lay the guide wire. When the mower needs to park itself it looks for the guide wire then follows it back to the charging station.
There are two ways you can lay the wire, either on the surface of the lawn using pegs or you can bury it. I put it on the surface initially to make sure it was all in the right place and worked okay, leaving a little extra wire in case I needed to adjust things. After a week I then buried the wire by cutting a groove with a straight spade then pushing the wire in using a piece of flat wood. It was quite hard work. I buried the wire 2 to 3 inches below the surface but you can bury it up to 8 inches. Note that you need to leave a little extra on all your wires because burying it will take up extra wire by 2 x however deep you bury it (e.g 4 inches deep means you will need an extra 8 inches on each wire to go down and then up again).
Now it’s all set up and the mower runs a daily schedule, quietly, randomly and slowly keeping the lawn in check whatever the weather. The mower doesn’t stop in the rain, the only thing that will stop it is frost, although they recommend to unplug the charging unit and bring the mower in if there’s a thunderstorm.
One thing I was surprised about is how small the cutting blades are (see picture) but the system seems to work okay. There are three cutting heights you can set the blades. The mower doesn’t collect the cut grass because with regular use it only cuts off tiny bits of growth which mulch back into the lawn. It also doesn’t cut right up to the edge (unless the edge is level with the lawn, such as paving) so you will need to go around cutting the edge with a strimmer every so often.
It does take a bit of planning and some work to get the mower set up properly, but once it’s set up it just does it’s own thing whatever the weather. It’s like having another pet and my wife actually wants to name it.
This is a re-review after having the mower for about a month, and increasing the review by one star because the performance is so good.
This was very easy to set up – much more so than I would have thought. Plenty of cable and pins etc. Quite straightforward. But oh dear what has (had) brought this down to four stars is the instruction booklet/manual. (since raised to five stars by dint of the superb performance.) However, to make up for this is the excellent YouTube series of videos. Tricky app but once actually working – it works well. Time will tell how good it is as a mower. What is clear, especially with the blades set high is that it only cuts a tiny weeny bit at a time. It does however cut for hours and so – slowly, slowly, catchee monkey. Might get another one for my mother-in-law if this performs well in the next few weeks. Very impressed. Get a user to write the manual please!!!! (since writing this, I have had a few weeks of it performing excellently. Lawn is perfectly cut – as silent as it gets) About to buy another one.
If you are a really dedicated gardener to the point whereby you use every free moment to care for your garden to such an extent that you would probably be the talk of the village then this concept will probably delight you.
To my mind it works best on a totally flat garden; meaning that the surface does not have any appreciable undulations on it. Also, don’t even think about using it on long grass; you would be wasting your time, not least because this Gardena mower doesn’t have a grass collection box. Those points take me back to my earlier comment about it being best suited to someone who has the time to keep the lawn cut down to the bone, so to speak. Thinking that you can ignore grass cutting duties for a while is not a good idea unless you intend to use a conventional mower and then use the Gardena but, well, what’s the point then of having a robot lawn mower.
Some aspects of the Gardena: I personally didn’t find the instructions to be as lucid as Gardena claim but perhaps that was due to my novice level of understanding of robot lawn mowers.
However, once I sussed it out it didn’t seem too complicated to set up for use. I should add that the Gardena app works very well, no glitches; and allows further control of the mower, which cannot be achieved without the app.
Firstly, there is a factory set pin number (well, that’s how they refer to the things). Nothing will happen until that is entered. Also do concentrate on the instructions regarding connecting the boundary wires and charge wire etc. before usage — as ignoring that point will cause the mower not to work. It will also only start when the mower is parked in the charging station itself. On the subject of the charging station it has a very short power supply between it and the wall plug; which to my mind means that a dedicated power source needs to be installed in the garden area.
The mower is programmed by Gardena to cut in a random pattern in your garden in order to give the proper appearance. It constantly monitors its battery charge level via an integral sensor and the charge wire located at the periphery of your chosen area to be mowed – and when the charge is low enough the mower will automatically return to the charging station.
Given that just about everything that used to be made of metal these days seems to be made of plastic — albeit in this case I suspect ‘engineering’ plastic — I find the build quality to be fine, other than the cover which needs to be removed in order to get to the stored tool if you wish to alter the depth of cut, which needs said tool. It, the cover, feels a bit too flimsy and the edges of it a little sharp; not enough to cut fingers, howeve
What a marvellous idea to have a robotic lawn mower.
I love gardening but have to take it easy due to back pain.
When it comes to cutting the lawn I have to wait for my son to come round and do that for me.
No more I say!
The mower was really difficult to set up for me even with the instructions but I persevered, but once that was done I was fairly pleased. There is also an app if you wanted to control remotely.
I don’t have an enormous garden, but it’s big enough for me.
The mower has a lithium battery which I’ve charged and used only once and that charge was enough. I don’t know how many times you can use the mower before having to charge again.
There is a good safety mechanism which ensures that there are no nasty accidents. Lifting up the mower disables the motor immediately.
The mower also has sensors that helps to avoid collisions of any objects that are not grass
The mower cut the grass well exactly what I would have expected for the price.
I haven’t set up any routine as yet as getting it going in the first place was a challenge. I think it’s my age
I’m very impressed but not so impressed with the price although having said that you do get what you pay for and for somebody like me its been a god send.
I hope you found this review helpful
We have a relatively small garden so installing the boundary and guide wires took about 30 mins, made easier by the fact that the soil was soft and easy to push pegs into. The distance of the wire from the edge of your lawn is dependent on what obstacles there might be but this is explained clearly.
Gardena’s advice is to programme the robot to mow once a day which might seem too often but at this time of year the grass is growing very quickly so it makes sense. I like a longer lawn so left the cut height at its factory setting but there are two shorter settings available if you prefer. The blades are literally razor sharp so be sure to turn the mower off before adjusting the height!
The mower is very quiet and just gets on with the job with minimal fuss, following a random pattern to avoid making any stripes or lines. The positioning of the charging station needs a little thought as the mower can struggle to dock if there is not enough space but again this is clearly explained.
Overall a very impressive piece of garden equipment that, once set up, will save you loads of time and effort and give you a nice and tidy lawn. Recommended.
There is an app that you can get to control the mower from your phone. I will work this out at the weekend. Reading the manual, it seems fairly intuitive to set up and operate. We just used the stop and start buttons on top to get it going the first time out. It seems there is a decent variety of cuts you can get.
Operating it from an app on my phone, with bluetooth on, rather than a remote control, which would add to the cost, seems very sensible. I wouldn’t leave it outside to schedule grass cutting, as someone would probably steal it.
The first thing that we had to do with this was lay out the boundary wires, which are included, around the edges of the lawn. We got a lot more with it than we needed, so we doubled it up. The mower detects the wires and stops and turns when it reaches them. The wires could get cut by the mower if you don’t cover them up properly, so make sure that you put some soil over them, or you’re just going to end up with damaged wires. At least you only have to do this task the once.
The mower has a lithium battery which seems to last well. I’ve charged this once. I just left it to charge while we went out shopping and it was fully charged when we came back. It comes supplied with a cable, charging station and 5 connection terminals, which are simple enough to work out how to use.
It seems there is a decent variety of cuts you can get.
Researching the battery life online, it will deal fairly happily with much bigger gardens than ours and run for about an hour. We set the mower going and it did our patch of garden in about 20 minutes. It is really quiet when running. I had to go back outside to look at one point, to see if it was working. It was. I just couldn’t hear it.
I checked and lifting it stops the blades immediately, so if for any reason it gets knocked or tipped over, it is highly unlikely that there will be an accident with the blades.
It worked its way around a garden chair that was left in place on the lawn and managed to trim the area fairly well. Putting it back down there afterwards it went around and finished the job off. It has sensors to stop it damaging any items that are on the floor, but it is obviously still advisable to tidy the area that the mower is going to work on properly. Our cats hated it, but at least they will stay away from it.
It wiped clean very easily with a damp sponge. It’s an extremely professional looking and high performing unit, very good for a flat and small-ish sized lawn, like ours, or for a bigger one. It apparently deals with sensible inclines very well, but we don’t have any.
My opinion is that if you are going to research this type of mower, this is possibly one of the very best that you can get and a good deal on one of these makes it a great purchase.
I haven’t had to use their tech support for this mower yet and I expect not to have to, looking at the manual for it.