If you have an obstacle on your lawn, you can run the perimeter wire out to, and around the obstacle to tell the L10 where not to mow. Just be sure to run the perimeter wire less than 1cm apart leading out to the obstacle to ensure that the robotic mower ignores this stretch of the wire and mows over it. Gardena Sileno City is one of those machines that you might try. It has a very simple and helpful programming assistant that not only guides you to set the mower but also shows you a mowing plan based on the inputs. It’s not necessary to follow the inbuilt mowing programs, there are options for manual instructions as well. SAFETY: Using the camera and ultrasonic sensors the mower detects and avoids obstacles such as garden furniture. A child safety key prevents unauthorised use, and sensors stop the blade when the mower is lifted. One of the things that impressed me about the LawnMaster L10 was that you have several easy to adjust options when it comes to how long the device will mow for each day. The maximum is ten hours which is plenty even for larger lawns, but you can also set it to run for four, six or eight hours according to your lawn needs. For smaller gardens that don’t need as much maintenance, there’s even an option to run it every other day, so it’s pretty versatile. As I was only testing this robotic mower on half of my 80m² lawn, I set the operation time to 4 hours on alternate days. Setting the operation time is simply a case of entering your PIN and pressing one of the 4 buttons. Use a longer three second press of the button to enable the alternate day mowing. Most robot lawnmowers have to be connected to Wi-Fi if you want to control and schedule their activities using a smartphone app. The Honda Miimo 70 Live is a bit different because it has a mobile internet connection built in.

Rain detection: It’s better to let your grass soak up excess moisture before mowing it. A rain sensor will send your robot home if it starts to rain, and can delay mowing until it’s dry again. With the LawnMaster VBRM16, you don’t need to blow your life savings to get a robot mower with a fantastic range of features and that does an excellent job of cutting. Robot lawn mowers are traditionally fiddly to set up, requiring an outdoor power supply and a boundary wire laid around the edge of the lawn to stop the robot disappearing off into your flower beds. The LawnMaster VBRM16 is different, though, and can be ready to start mowing as soon as you’ve brought it home and charged its battery. It’s designed to cut up to 100m² and has a 16cm cutting width. Combine this with the four hour run time, which I’ll talk more about shortly, and you’ve got something that’s going to deliver an even cut without running out of power. However, all of them are not equal. To find the best robotic lawnmower, you need to consider some of the factors that we will discuss now. But before that, you should be aware of some basics about their working. How Does a Robot Lawnmower Work?I have also done a video review of the LawnMaster VBRM16 which includes a detailed rundown of its performance and, as you will see, the excellent results on my front lawn. Again, for such an affordable piece of equipment, I was pleasantly surprised.

The LawnMaster L10 is unusual among robot lawnmowers in that it doesn’t give you much control. As with most robot mowers around this price, it follows a random pattern around your lawn, using the principle that if it keeps mowing it will cover the entire lawn eventually.If you service a robotic mower every year and don’t damage its housing, the life expectancy is up to 10 years. The battery adds to the operational cost because you need to replace the cells anywhere after 3 to 6 years; depending upon the make and model. The charging station is oriented so that the terminals are on the left and open end on right (as viewed from the centre of the lawn) Unlike many robotic mowers that adopt a zigzag pattern, this one is said to cut lawns using a diagonal up-and-down method. This means that the patterns on your lawn during the first few cuts won’t look quite so irregular. SpotMo is another cool feature that enables the Indego to mow small patches of growth under tables and other garden furniture (obviously you’ll need to move the furniture to the side first). The downside of the LawnMaster VBRM16’s unwillingness to traverse anything that isn’t grass is that it wasn’t brilliant around bare patches. I have a fairy ring in my grass that fared particularly badly over the hot summer of 2022 and hasn’t managed to recover, leaving bare patches in the lawn. When the mower approached these, it stopped and avoided them. If it was a flower bed I’d be thankful for it but it’s worth noting that the patchier your lawn, the harder it will be for the Lawnmaster VBRM16 to navigate it successfully.

Buy LawnMaster® products directly from the manufacturer, Cleva. Manufacturer of over 40 million appliances worldwide. Browse our latest product range, access detailed specification information, and use the insights from the team that design and make the products to choose the best lawn mower for your needs. We offer free UK delivery; great customer service and additional peace of mind with our manufacturer's guarantee. As you will see in my YouTube video, I tested the LawnMaster VBRM16 on my front lawn which is around 100 square metres; the perfect size for this mower. The Sileno City cuts very well, albeit slowly, and is very adept at negotiating tight turns in confined areas. The bubble-type keypad interface is relatively easy to use too (it comes with its own onboard programming assistant), but those with poorer eyesight might have trouble reading the LCD screen in bright sunlight.

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Instead, when you first get the robot, you only need to charge the removable battery using the separate charging unit. It comes partially charged and I found it was fully charged within 30 minutes. Remove it from the charger and slot it into the cavity on the rear of the mower, and it’s good to go. The battery should last around three hours and only takes an hour to charge from empty. However, you can add additional functions and take greater control over the mower using an app on your smartphone. This lets you start and stop the mower remotely (though it only supports Bluetooth, so you still have to be in the vicinity). More crucially, it lets you control exactly when the robot should head out for a run, with two programmable mowing slots available for each day of the week, so you can really fine-tune your mowing. Gardena Sileno City impresses you with accurate cuts, but that doesn’t mean it can disturb you or your family members. Well, it knows the same and never crosses a sound limit of 58 dB. At this sound level, it will never even think to bother your neighbourhood.

WORX WR142E is an intelligent mower that knows what’s best for your lawn. It automatically adapts according to the dimensions of an area and the length of its grasses. Agile, accurate, safe, and quiet, the Worx mower is perfect for a lawn up to 700 square meters. Those looking for neater edges will be better served by the Worx Landroid M500 Plus WR165E. This needs perimeter wire and a base station to be installed but its off-set blade is capable of cutting as close to the edge of the grass as a robot mower can safely be allowed. Its cutting schedule can be controlled by a smartphone app and it can manage a lawn of up to 500m2. The LawnMaster L10 comes with a charging station, power adaptor, 250 pegs, 150 metres of perimeter wire and tools needed to set up (Image credit: Steven Jenkins) First time with the LawnMaster L10 The sky’s the limit at the upper end of the scale but, for a top-of-the-range mower with the smartest sensors, the most sophisticated control apps and enough equipment to mow a large lawn, you can expect to pay thousands of pounds. Other features to look out for:Buttons to program the mower are generally present on the control panel. The common settings that you can access from this panel are the power button, mowing timer, changing the cutting height, and configuring the zones. Most of the autonomous mowers run quietly. The average sound output among the mower is between 55 dB to 65 dB. ADJUSTABLE CUTTING HEIGHT: Choose from cutting heights of between 20mm and 60mm for a neat looking lawn. For best performance and to encourage healthy lawn growth use 60mm for longer grass and after regular mowing, gradually reduce the cutting height to your desired length.