Gardena SILENO Life: Robotic Lawnmower for Lawns Up to 750m², Bluetooth App Available, Easy Passage Function, Very Quiet at 57 db (A), Inclines Up to 35%, Mows in Any Weather (15101-28), UK-Versio
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 life 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 life 750 |  SILENO minimo 250 | SILENO minimo 500 |  SILENO city 300 | SILENO city 500 | SILENO city 300 Set | SILENO life 1000 | |
| Recommended lawn area | < 750 m² | < 250 m² | < 500 m² | < 300m² | < 500 m² | < 300m² | < 1000 m² |
| Max. incline | up to 35% | up to 25% | up to 25% | 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 – 50 mm | 20 – 45 mm | 20 – 45 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm | 20 – 50 mm |
| Energy consumption (per month) | 2.5 kWh (max. area capacity) | 2.1 kWh (max. area capacity) | 3.5 kWh (max. area capacity) | 2.5 kWh (max. area capacity) | 4.0 kWh (max. area capacity) | 2.5 kWh (max. area capacity) | 6.0 kWh (max. area capacity) |
| Garden-hose cleanable | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Anti-theft protection/PIN code | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SensorControl | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| EasyPassage | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SpotCutting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Silent Drive Motor | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Exclusive equipment | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Weight: | 17.2 kg |
| Size: | up to 750 m² |
| Dimensions: | 57 x 40 x 24 cm; 17.16 Kilograms |
| Model: | 15101-28 |
| Part: | 15101-28 |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | Yes |
| Batteries Included: | Lithium Ion |
| Manufacture: | Gardena |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Size: | up to 750 m² |
This mower I so much better – it helps that I had all the boundary wire set up already… Practically plug and play! This version has LONA intelligence and so far has mapped the garden well. There is an area it has missed which is hard to get to but inplavln to change where the guidewire goes for this.
As a 750m2 model, it could do with 50% more pegs if you were installing from scratch. I had to replace a portion of wire and used most of the pegs provided.
I have also struggled to get a response from gardena about the 3 year warranty. At the moment the warranty is set to 2 years but there should be an additional year. I’ve marked it down in score under ‘tech support’ for this reason.
I would definitely recommend this mower though. It is the same engine as husqvarna (and flymo) but cheaper than the former, and more intelligent than the latter.
I’ve always been very sceptical when it comes to robot lawnmowers; they have struck me as the kind of thing that look good on paper, but are simply more trouble than they are worth, either they because they cut badly. miss bits, can’t handle certain parts of a garden such as slopes or narrow sections, or career off the lawn and mow down the contents of flower beds.
This Silenia larnmower has been a revelation, however. There is some work involved initially in that you need to peg out wire around the area of the lawn you want to cut (thus avoiding flower-bed carnage), but then you just let the mower off its metaphorical leash … and it just does what it’s meant to do, quietly, without fuss and as expected. It can handle large lawns (perhaps four times the size of ours). while it does handle slopes okay, you need to careful that you mow only when the lawn is very dry, otherwise the mower can get clogged up, But this is common sense. after all.
This really is a fantastic piece of kit; a well-mown lawn with minimal effort. Plus our cats like riding around on it. It’s excellent.
Oh, I know why I waited… To get one at a fair price. The 750m2 one is selling for just under 1200 right now for the Bluetooth version – but for some odd reason (an error?) I managed to get the 1000m2 one for 569 that comes with the smart box so you can control it from anywhere.
First things first – if the pricing is as it should be (ie it increases the larger the area ‘model’ you get), don’t bother getting one that’s bigger than you need for the size of your lawn. The battery size is the same across all models – everything is the same infact, apart from getting more pegs and boundary wire in the larger models. The ONLY difference is that Gardena change the firmware so that the smaller models will operate for fewer hours in each 24hr period on the smaller area models. Bit cheeky, but hey ho.
Setting these things up is time consuming and tiring. My lawn is approx 750m2 – I reckon it took me 3-4hrs to pin down the boundary wire and the guide wire. But it’s worth taking the time to do it… And do it properly. Read the instructions or better still watch the countless videos on YouTube etc which show you just how to do it.
I’m inherently lazy. So did I mow the lawn properly before using it? Of course not. I mowed the border and I mowed the route where I wanted to lay the guide wire. That’s it. Not that I’m recommending copying me… I just wanted to be able to see how well it would cut longer grass. Some areas were probably 10-12cm high and it handled it no problem.
Don’t expect the robot to mow the grass like your old-school push mower – ie one pass and it’s cut. That’s not how this works. I’d say it probably cut 30-40 percent of the grass it passed over, sometimes less if it’d been flattened. Does that matter? Nope. Because if you’re running it for 8hrs (1hr cutting, 1hr charging repeated over and over) it will just pass over each section several times until it’s all the same level.
I ran it for around 8hrs on day 1 (4hrs cutting) and the same on day 2. And by that time the lawn looked pristine. Even though the grass was long I couldn’t see any grass cuttings at all! Which surprised me.
Please don’t pay 1000+ for one of these though – be patient and wait, like I did, until you see it reduced to sub 600 and grab yourself a bargain. Especially if you have a big lawn like we do.
I didn’t think I’d find a better robot than my Neato vacuum cleaner. I was wrong – the Gardena Sileno Life is by FAR the best gadget I’ve bought! Can’t tell you how happy I am that I never have to mow that bloody lawn again EVER!
Bit of a pain to set up the border wire but a fantastic product since. Instructions could have been cleare
I have waited to test this out a few times since the weather got acceptable for a review of this Gardena Robot Machine. I can say 100% that robots will do a lot of our work for us. Whilst some of the older generation will say “I want to do it myself”… there is just no need now.
The premise is very simple. A robot that continues to run and bases itself off a perimeter to cut the grass. The garden i have used this on is about 750m sq so whilst this one is overkill it does mean that it doesn’t have any risk of not being done so now twice through all has been amazing. I will explain
I watched videos of this machine prior to using. Not only on the Gardena site but other peoples experience just to make sure I did not make any mistakes. This is not just plug and play no matter how intelligent you are. Read the manuals prior..
There are permiter wires and guide wires which help the machine get back to the docking station.
The height of trimming is adjustable too (like clippers for a haircut.. haha). I used to have to cut the grass myself at my mums house when I lived there and now I can sit back for the first time and scroll through news whilst I watch a little robot cut the grass for me. It is fantastic. I do not have a dog but my partner has two. When they come over it is funny to watch them chase this robot around and then running away. The noise is not even really loud either.
2 Years Warranty come with it and the customer service emails are responsive if you want to contact them also although I do not think you will need to. I would not recommend this for people with really complex garden structures though or a lot of those winding gardens with rock pools and waterfalls etc. This is more of a straight forward joby but will cope with hills too.
Here is the spec for this in case you wanted to know which I am refering to
Brand Gardena
Name Gardena Smart Sileno Life Robotic Mower
Model Smart Sileno Life
Price 1199.99
Lawn mower type Robotic
Features
Powered by Lithium-ion battery
Battery charge time 60min(s)
Battery life 65min(s)
Cutting height 20-50mm
Number of cutting height settings 4
Cutting width 22cm
Lawn size suitable for 750m
Mulching Yes
Smart compatibility Yes
Noise 58dB
Weight 7.3kg
Warranty 2YEAR
TOP TIP! Just make sure that the gap to the edge is even. Don’t worry whether it is the right distance, just even, because you don’t have to move the wire ever, as you can adjust how far over the wire the robot mows 1cm at a time, on the Bluetooth App leaving virtually nothing to trim.
After it is working, not only does it avoid the work yourself but the lawn never looks in need of a cut because it does a little bit every day. Genius
This is a great quality robotic mower from a well known and trusted brand. The mower is well balanced and has 4 wheels which makes it really stable on the grass even when it encounter any holes or bumps in the lawn which I unfortunately have a few of. Installation wise, it’s straightforward, but it does take time and effort as you have to lay the boundary/guide wire which is unavoidable. Being able to connect to the mower over Bluetooth using my phone is huge advantage as I can change the settings without going outside because it’s not that far from my living room. Even without the app, the control panel on the mower itself is simple to use anyway. Cleaning is also super simple thanks to fact you can hose it down. Overall, it’s a great mower that is also super silent which means you can schedule it to run any time without worrying about it disturbing you. It is expensive, but you’re paying for the quality and features so you just have to decide what’s the most important to you.
I had no idea what the installation would involve but we did find it quite long winded so weren’t able to use straight away until everything was correctly setup and due to mess in the garden. For newbies like me, installation involves you having to install a wire around the edge of the grass in order to ‘guide’ it. So the bigger the garden, the longer it will take. On the positive note, once its done, you won’t need to do this again, so using the lawn mower will be quicker and straight forward. You get 50m worth of boundary wire which is more than enough for our garden. The only worry with the guide wire for me is it being pulled by local cats, as there seem to be a lot in our area, but it is fairly secure.
The mower is extremely fancy, as it has a hidden control keypad where you can control the settings which was very easy to do.
You can control the lawn mower on the app which we downloaded from playstore (android) called Gardena smart system. We found it was a good app, easy to install and quick to understand. Connection wasn’t an issue where it worked as expected so highly impressive.
With the name ‘sileno’ we expected a quiet lawn mower to be fairly quiet, and that is what we got. Don’t expect exact silence, however it you certainly won’t ever have your neighbours thinking Texas Chainsaw Massacre is outside anymore. Overall it performed well and is actually fascinating how it handled our back garden. Our grass isn’t completely flat, however it handled the bumps fine. Cutting wise it cut the grass well, not perfect but it got the majority of the grass and cut it neat and well.
The price of this is extremely off putting, especially for your regular working family, however the specs do make up for it. I’ll be honest, based on the price i would find it hard to recommend to friends and family as it wasn’t mind blowing, and my partner does prefer to do things manually as he thinks the finish is always better, however if you can afford this luxury and hate gardening like me than this is definitely for you!
The charging base stays outside on the lawn, we’ve actually now built a little shed without a base around it as we didn’t like the idea of having the lawnmower on show, even though it cannot be operated without the PIN code, someone could be tempted to try and steal it without realising this so it makes us feel more secure that it’s safe. You add a secondary wire to help guide the mower back to its home, we made a fairly narrow 70cm housing around it and it guides itself back without hitting the door frame! It charges itself in around an hour and cuts for around an hour, so with our larger lawn we find we need a couple of charges to get the lawn perfect.
The mower adjusts itself to the lawn height and cuts well, the grass it cuts is left on the lawn, it doesn’t suck it up like regular mowers but it’s very fine and is good for the lawn and doesn’t look messy. It cuts very well and it’s so fun watching it going around the lawn cutting it for you, it can deal with slopes, we have a very mild one at the end of our lawn and it doesn’t phase it at all. You can even use this when the grass is wet but it’s more of a pain to clean afterwards so I prefer it when dry and you can brush it out or hose the underside if needed.
The guide wires needed adjusting slightly from when we first laid them, it wasn’t coming close enough to the edges, we moved the guides slightly so it is closer but I do still have to manually strim the edges but it’s not a problem, it’s much easier than cutting the whole lawn myself and now I have the time on a Sunday afternoon for other jobs whilst watching my new Robotic Groundsman do all the hard work for me and it’s amazing watching it take itself home again to its charging base after!
I’d definitely recommend this, the set-up is fairly complicated, it took my Partner an entire afternoon getting it right but once the hard work is done this should last a long time and the effort outweighs the fact we never have to manually cut our monster of a lawn again! Great fun, very effective and a great investment to have one less chore to do.
The robot itself seems very well made and able to withstand the elements and toils of the garden.
The instructions for setting up the guide wires were clear and it was easy to use the included measure to correctly place the wire the recommended distance from the border. In hindsight it would have been quicker to peg out the corners of straight edges, stretch the wire taught and then peg between the corners instead of measuring for each peg. The back of the “garage” is where I feel this is let down. I didn’t feel the cables plugged into place securely, nor is there a cover to protect the connectors. There is a bit of a lip to protect from above and the main power connector is waterproofed so I’m sure it’s fine. But it wouldn’t take a lot for the connectors to be pulled out and then you potentially have a rogue robot mower!
The programming interface is a bit confusing at first but after a bit of playing it makes sense. Reassuringly there is a test mode where the mower can test the boundary wire and guide wire without turning on the cutter. In operation the mower sounds like a radio controlled car. I expected the mower to be a lot louder once the blades started moving but in fact they’re quieter than the wheel motors so you can barely hear it cutting. You can just about hear this through a window but I’m sure it wouldn’t disturb your neighbours if you set it to operate at night unless their windows are open.
During the initial testing I found that the mower didn’t return into the charger properly. It would end up at a bit of an angle, unable to connect to the charger. I simply made the last couple of feet of the guide wire as straight as possible, pointing directly towards the charge connector and a gentle curve before it gets to the last straight bit. I haven’t had an issue since.
The first mow was on a lawn that had grown fairly long. I expected it to struggle and have to give the lawn a mow with the normal mower first but in fact it coped fine. The only issue was, some of the grass was pushed flat instead of cut but after a few sessions this worked itself out. As this is robotic, you can set it to mow as often as you want, perhaps even multiple times a day. The idea is that the clippings remain so small that they just drop to the bottom and you don’t need to clear them away. I didn’t find the clippings to be an issue at all and it’s great not to have the chore of clearing them away.
The results I found were fine for the main body of the lawn. Edges required a bit of adjustment of the guide wire to get it to cut all the way to the edge. Unfortunately, if the wheel cannot go over the edge, perhaps if it’s a step up or down, or there is a structure in the way, then there is no way for the mover to cut it. In this case, you will be left with about 10″ of uncut grass. One solution would be to pave around the border so the mower wheels can go on it.
In terms of safety, the mower will stop if it hits a certain angle, I haven’t been brave enough to test this! There is also a big “STOP” button on top. The blades are a lot smaller and flimsier than on a standard mower. These will probably be damaged if they hit anything hard – a good incentive to keep your lawn clear! They are a consumable part and look easy enough to replace by removing a single screw. There didn’t seem to be any spare blades included with the mower, which considering the price, I feel is a bit stingy!
As I mentioned, the interface isn’t amazing but it does get the job done and once set up you don’t really need to access it. Cutting height is via a separate, physical knob and doesn’t affect the programming.
One thing to note is that this mower (probably most robotic mowers) doesn’t create any suction/vaccuum in the same way a normal mower does in order to send the clippings into the bag. This is both bad and good: It’s bad because it doesn’t lift the grass as it cuts but it’s potentially good, especially with the precision blades that are kinder to the grass, which means I think you could actually lay grass seed but still have the mower cut the lawn as the seed germinates and grows. Potentially no need to wait until the grass is mature enough to mow it.
I’m pretty satisfied, it mostly seems to be a set and forget job, except for the inability to cut close to steps and structures.
Two improvements I think that are in order are:
– A cover over the connectors at the back of the “garage”
– “Next mow time” to be persistently shown so you know it’s set up correctly.
Priced at around 1220 (16th March 2021)
Automating garden work feels like the final frontier of home automation and this mower gives it a good go
Here’s my breakdown:
Set up is easy via the app, it walks you through
Large range (says up to 1250msq but my garden is no way big enough to test that)
Surprisingly quiet
Easy cleaning, even with mulched leaves
Price
In summary
It is an amazing piece of home automation, but at a cost
Thanks for reading
Functionality:
The 1250 metres is supplied with more than enough cable. I have a patch of lawn that this robot is well suited to, as is pretty much left to it’s own devices with little need for assistance once the controls were set directly from the panel. Unlike some well known brands with a similar cutting area to this robot, which are 2 to 3 times cheaper, this machine doesn’t constantly get stuck, I speak from experience.
Rough Terrain Performance:
On uneven land such as lawn bordered by mature trees, with a deep lying well-established root system, it is able to manoeuvre over troublesome areas with little issue. This I found very impressive over other brands we’ve had – where others failed, flipped are needed assistance, defying the point of having a robot mower; this one trudges on at a unfaltering pace. So that I can sit inside with a cup of tea in these colder, early months of the year, watching it do it’s business, admirably.
The Lawn Area & Bondary Wire:
A 35 x 35 metre lawn totalling 1225m, is close to the maximum capabilities of this medium to large robot size. It requires 140 metres of boundary wire (354). The amount supplied is more than adequate, with a good amount of spare, should I need to repair or replace certain parts due to curious pets or weathering. I can buy more separately too, if I need to.
The Initial Setup:
The setup took about have a day as we chose to bury the wiring underground. This only needs to be done once, my current and past experience of this mower brand tells me that it is time well spent, as the wiring as well as the robot is built to last and all-weather safe.
The ‘Guide Wire’:
Unlike others, this one has an impressive little solution to an acknowledged problem: a secondary cable called the “guide wire”. This can be placed along the perimeter of the first wire – at any point – and fits along the first wire all the way to the base station.
The purpose of this guide wire is to assist the robot to find the base from a trickier or narrower spot in the garden. Such as along a narrower stretch of lawn leading to behind a solid construction, like a shed, coop, pen, garage etc.
The Controls:
Controlling the mower is breathtakingly straightforward – there is a control panel under the flap on the top of the robot which is weather-tight. The control parameters are easy to understand, unlike some I’ve experienced.
The robot is lower lying than others we’ve used. Allowing it to get under lower lying overhanging branches without any issues. It is very good at avoiding obstructions too, redirecting where necessary.
Pleasing Neat Lines?
You won’t get any neat lines with this model. In my experience, neat lines and robot mowers is a recipe for disaster as it is difficult to achieve and easy to complain about – should you not get what’s promised. It is refreshing to therefore have Gardena praise the zig-zagging mowing nature of this machine as if it’s ‘all the rave’!
Just like a clumsy puppy, it’s endearing to watch it aimlessly fumble around the lawn, determined and eager to please with it’s capabilities.
The Sound:
Much quieter than a puppy though. With a maximum sound of 60db, making it quieter than a dishwasher. Sounds pretty awesome in my opinion.
The Operating Instructions:
All instructions are made clear with helpful little short clips on Gardena’s website. A well laid out set of instructions are there too should you need to understand any step to setup better.
The Bottom Line:
It’s ability to manage rough terrains, it’s inconspicuous stature, together with it’s quieter operation, allows us to enjoy the garden without the mower looking like a glaring eyesore on display.
If you have a large garden and your looking for a robotic mower then this one from Gardena is a great choice. It’s not been the best weather lately so haven’t had much time to use it but from my experience so far it’s been great. It takes time and effort to set up as you need to install the boundary and guide wire first but once done,
the mower takes over so you can relax.
The mower has four wheels which makes it super stable even on lumpy grass and the wide cutting width means it’s perfect for large gardens as it’s able cut a garden up to 750sqm in size. It’s quiet when in use and is really simple to use. Just set a schedule and let it do it’s thing. I also love the fact that you can just hose it down when it needs a clean, amazing.
Item arrived safely and comes delivered well packaged in a nicely designed box. Everything you need to get started apart from a hammer and some pliers is included in the box.
I own several Gardena products and one thing that stays consistent is the quality, this lawnmower is no different and everything about it including the charging base is made to a high standard and designed to be as easy to use and maintain as possible. It also looks great and it doesn’t feel out of place in my garden, it’s interesting to watch and just looks like a cool piece of technology overall.
Setting the whole thing up is initially time consuming and there is a lot to get done but you get this time back afterwards when you no longer have to mow the lawn. I read through the instructions, but I found the video guides on the Gardena website very informative and helpful, I’m really glad they decided to make them, and I highly recommend watching if you need help with setting it up!
Even though we are approaching winter there was still enough height on my lawn that I could use this mower. After setting it up and selecting the cutting height I started it off and it does a great job of staying within the boundary wire and covers my lawn very evenly without missing any areas. The small cutting blades do a great job of slicing through the grass, id say it leaves a much better finish than my push lawnmower does, the grass just looks so clean and well-kept after its done.
Two things I particularly love about this lawnmower is the noise and climbing power it has; its so quiet when its operating that you don’t even hear it when your indoors, I don’t think I’ve ever heard grass being cut with a motorised tool so quiet before, even my dog isn’t bothered by it and she usually tries to bite the wheels on my push mower. The way it climbs is also impressive, my lawn has a short but steep section at the end of it which I normally cut with a strimmer, but this thing just goes straight up it with ease, even when the ground is soaked. The wheels have excellent traction, and the motor has a lot of torque considering its weight.
This mower is looking to a be a right winner when it comes to the summer next year and the fact that you can just leave it outside is brilliant, I feel a bit cruel watching it sit there in the pouring and freezing cold rain, but it’s not bothered by it and its so easy to clean, I wish I could hose down my normal lawn mower like you can with this one. I only have a small storage shed as well so it will be great if I can get rid of my normal mower and just use this robot instead, it will be a great space saver!
Overall, for the time I’ve spent with this mower so far, I haven’t found anything to dislike about it and its just a fantastic bit of kit. It seems expensive but I think your getting a lot of value for money with this mower as it benefits you and your lawn in a lot of ways, especially the time it will save you from not having to cut your lawn ever again apart from just tiding up the edges here and there. For anyone who has a medium to large sized lawn I highly recommend this product and I think you will be very happy with it!
I know I’ve got this mower at the wrong time of year for cutting grass but decided to give it a go to see how well it copes with grass that had been left to long since it’s last cut.
Before that though the product itself.
The first thing to do is read the manual thoroughly as it’s not a plug and play device, there is a fair bit of setting up to do first.
Setting out the boundary cable takes a little while if using the pegs but longer if burying it ( better aesthetically ). Follow the guidance about distances from objects otherwise you’ll have problems with running into things.
Running through the programming of the mower itself once you’ve got your head around the instructions in the manual, quickly starts to make sense and was relatively easy.
It’s got a test feature where it does a little run along the guide wire where it meets the boundary wire coming off it a couple of times whilst it calculates the rough area of the cutting area.
It’s also got a copy feature so once you’ve programmed 1 day, it offers you the option to repeat the same times all week or on specific days.
The cutting blades are very small but sharp and I had my doubts as to how well it would function, I set the mower onto its highest setting and when it set off at my programmed time the first thing was “wow it’s quiet”
I was impressed with its cutting abilities, they are excellent, it cut the wet grass no problem.
It doesn’t have a grass collection box as the idea is if it cuts the grass every day then the amount of cuttings will be minimal and disappear into the lawn. The build quality is very good and solid with the added benefit of being able to hose it off afterwards, you get a generous amount of boundary wire with various connectors and 3 bags of pegs to hold it down. Overall I’m delighted with this mower and I’m looking forward to the warmer months to get it going again, fantastic!
This mower is one of the best I have tried and its geared up to cut lawns as big as 750m squared — that’s one big garden, luckily this is more than up to the job to keep your lawn tidy all year round.
Setting it up was the hardest part, you will need to install the boundary wire around your garden perimeter, this will eventually sink into the lawn, but it can take months. The docking station needs electric so this will require electrics. This will allow the mower to come and go and charge up in-between cuts. I am going to make a little house for it but it is weatherproof so there is no need to.
I found the lawn mower easy to set up. There is on display and a control panel which allows you to set a schedule on how often you want it to cut your lawn. Daily is best as it mulches the grass back into the ground so there are no cuttings to deal with.
The mower manages about an hour before it needs to return back for a recharge, it then comes back out to finish the job. It somehow knows where it has been although it looks random when you watch it. It has sensors on so if it bumps into anything — like an animal it should just reverse and carry on around it. I would still remove stuff; I had a line prop on the lawn which fell over and it went over this and didn’t detect it.
My lawn does not have an incline so I couldn’t test this, but it has nice large gripped wheels and says it can do inclines up to 35% and looks like it would cope with this. There is a selection of cutting heights which is selected through a rotary dial on the top. 20mm to 50mm is the range and is more than enough.
There are 3 blades underneath that do the cutting. These screw off to be easily replaces. When its cutting this thing is silent, you cannot hear it. So even at night you could do the lawn. It can even cut in bad weather like rain. It has a sensor built in to detect this.
You can use an app to monitor and set this up, but this requires a gateway and I did not have this so could not test it. The app is free. You will need a Wi-Fi connection and a smartphone, tablet, or PC to operate it.
If you have never had a robotic lawnmower then you really are missing out. I could not live without one. They do such a good job. The only thing I need to do now is edge the lawn and it wont do right up to the edge. I have always worried that it might get stolen but luckily for protection it has a PIN code as well as an alarm.
Pros:
Great performance- cuts neat and no stripes
Safety features like collision detection
Works in all weathers
Cleans easy (hose down with a hose pipe)
Cons:
App requires optional gateaway
Won’t cut up to the edges
What a wonderful invention and truly a worthwhile investment in terms of time back.
I have approximately square metre back garden, about 15m by 20m. So fairly average. It is on a fair slope that with my petrol mower I have to use the self propelled assistance to push it up the incline. So I was concerned that this Robot Mower wouldn’t be powerful enough to cope with the incline. But I had nothing to worry about, it copes easily.
My garden is is also a patchwork dips, bumps and holes. It is rather imperfect. Yet it still copes and its power can most often get itself out of difficulties. However, it would be best to fill these pot holes in, which I’ll do but it is reassuring to see how capable it is.
Setting it up was hard work. It is simple but running the boundary wire around the garden is quite time consuming. It is important to set it perfectly. Remember to set the boundary 30cm from any obstruction, so for me that was around the chicken enclosure and the raised timber sleepers of my kids play area and obviously the fence line.
I pegged it down to make it run along as close to the ground as physically possible. This gives you a good idea of how to set it up perfectly for your garden as it is a bit of trial and error if your garden is complex. But iverall quite simple. Now it is set up perfectly for my garden I will bury the boundary wire.
This Robot Mower doesn’t collect the grass cuttings but mulches them down to a really low level. As your grass can now be set to be cut very frequently, the grass never gets that long for unraked lawns to be a problem.
I am really impressed how quiet it operates at. I can set this up to mow in the middle of the night and not wake me or the neighbours up. My kids have louder remote control cars.
Security is pretty good on this, as you’d hope. You’re leaving a bit of kit worth the best part of a grand out in the garden unlocked. But this is PIN protected and has a security alarm.
It has proximity sensors which is pretty good
I have free range hens that wonder freely in the garden, they run away from the robot mower. But my dog whilst taking a slumber in the summer heat may not be so quick. But I have stood in front of this whilst it is operation and the sensors prevent any issues.
Note that when you’re setting this up and the boundary line, if you’ve not buried it the mower need to run over it quite a lot during the set up. So make sure it is set very low. Additionally, make sure that you do not get tempted to ignore the instructions, which state leave it on the highest setting for a couple of weeks. If you set it lower prematurely you run the risk of it moving the boundary line.
The build quality is amazing and the interface is very simple and instinctive to navigate. I love how you can set up a rota. And set it up to mow when ever. It even works in the dark.
This will last ages. It is good to know that the user can replace the battery and install new blades too.
The instructions are long winded and comprehensive but well written and all of it very necessary and well presented. They are clear but due to the nature of the topic they take a few reads to fully understand and worth referring to during the set up.
The instructions state it is best placed in the lowest part of the garden. Also for it to work it needs to have a constant power supply for the boundary line. So an external nearby power source to the lowest part of your garden is a must.
Overall, this is a brilliant bit of kit. I’m going to save so much time over the summer where I won’t have to spend an hour mowing and raking. I’ll still have to do a bit of strimming though but I can live with that.
The box contains the mower, docking station, guide wire and various clips and connectors, everything you should need to get the mower up and running. There’s also an instruction manual and quick start guide. I didn’t set this up myself as I didn’t have a suitable outside power point to connect the charging station (electrician needed) and I also didn’t lay the guide wire, although I did supervise my handy man as he did the job for me. It looked like a daunting job but actually isn’t (subject to having an electrician and handy man, I guess, or the necessary skills yourself).
I have many obstacles for the mower to navigate around, but the video on the Gardena website provided useful guidance about how the wire needed to be laid to get around these, as well as a ruler to ensure the wire is laid the correct distance away. My main problem was the pond and the need to have a 15cm barrier to avoid the mower inadvertently falling in. The barrier wire also needs to be laid to avoid the mower knocking into walls or things it may get stuck on, like tree roots, but it will reverse if it knocks into things like people or pets; my cats haven’t met the mower yet and I am not sure they will take too kindly to being knocked into (I somehow doubt I will post a video of a cat riding on the top).
The charging station sits on the edge of the lawn and I had to adapt landscaping to accommodate this, as well as ensure it was somewhere that wouldn’t become a trip hazard, such as by the washing lines. It wasn’t complicated, particularly when the videos on the Gardena site are viewed, but it takes time to ensure all of the setting up is properly done – you don’t want a mower in the pond or stuck on a tree root when you want it to cut the grass.
I am used to having stripes in the lawn when I cut it and the haphazard progress of the robot means such things are in the past. However, so is my effort to get the mower out, so I can live without stripes. There seems no logic to the route taken by the robot, but it must have a system as the grass ends up trimmed evenly in the end.
Installation requires more work than just plugging in to a suitable socket and preparation is key; do a good job there and the grass will be cut well and with tidy edges. I recommend consulting the Gardena site to view all of their ‘how to’ videos, as well as reading the manual before you start and you cannot go far wrong.
Setting up the robot mower is the most time consuming part of operation, luckily this is only once. This is true of all robot mowers – laying the boundary wire around the perimeter of the area you wish the mower to operate within.
For a garden measuring 750 square metres which this mower can cope with, would be about 30m x 25m which would require 110 metres of perimeter wiring being laid down in total (2 x 30m lengths and the 2 x 25m widths).
This installation takes a couple of hours to complete but all necessary parts are included in the box to carry this out, except for the tools. You will need a hammer, diagonal wire cutters and a pipe wrench to use for the connectors and clips.
What is unusual about this mower compared to others is that it comes with an additional wire called the ‘Guide Wire’ which you need to connect to a central point directly onto the boundary wire. The robot then uses this wire to make it’s way back “home” to the charging point. This wire can also be used to direct your robot to a specific section of your garden, particularly if your garden is an unusual shape.
Once the installation is complete, by the aid of the very well put together short clips on Gardena’s own website, on this products description page, I went ahead and turned the mower ON and got a solid green light confirming successful installation. The mower then performed a short calibration dance, which I have to confirm I watched. Installation is then complete.
The control panel is below the cover on the upper surface of the mower, from there I can select a number of specific options suited to our individual needs with the shape, incline of our garden in mind.
They suggest you let it cut to the highest setting for the first few days, to allow the mower to calibrate and avoid damaging the boundary wires. After that you are free to set the grass height to the length of your choosing.
We have had the mower clipping the lawn for the last few days now. It works through the boundary area in an almost haphazard fashion. Zigzagging it’s way in an apparently random rhythm. No pretty straight, neat lines. Gardena market themselves as being advantageously stripe-free!
It cuts at a distance of about 20cm to a vertical barrier, such as walls and fences, all the manuals and installation videos are available on their website. Though you do get a set of written instructions too.
There is no doubt that this is an expensive piece of kit. I know and use Gardena products already, they have, in my experience, been high-end and built to last. I am quite certain that this excellent piece of kit too, will stand the test of time.
Plus it’s rather quiet – I can continue to enjoy my garden, even whilst it performs the Tango in the semi-rhythmic fashion, that only it can get away with.
5 stars
I think this gives me the chance for a true makes maintenance-free lawn, once I set out the boundary it’s all pretty easy from there on in, the mower itself can be hosed down to clean and is a very robust mower, easy to program and also has an anti-theft device which is always handy with expensive items like this, I think this will be my all in one lawn care solution as it’s a pretty comprehensive package. I have no problem recommending this great mower.