DIY robotic mower installation ...

You can cover a (nearly) circular area with a self-propelled mower, a pole, and a rope.

I don't think that I would want to crawl 700m, without the added hassle of burying a wire!

You don't own a tractor, I take it?

But, yes, if it were me, I'd hire someone to do it.

How come it can't map the area and use that. Like what my robovac does.

At the very worst a few retroreflective disks should allow the LIDAR to get a pretty good idea of what's out there.

My main worry about a robotic mower is the scrote magnet factor.

I was thinking of something with a bit more...bite:

Theo

I suspect that most trenchers go far too deep. Robot mowers probably are expecting wires very close to the surface.

I recommend a tall chair, such as a lifeguarding chair, so you can see the terrain to be mowed.

That's from sixty three years ago or so.

Today, there are some that don't use perimeter wire.

I don't understand the notion of acreage, when the thing can just recharge and do another section.

There's a large house with very large immaculate lawn which goes down to The Thames - I walk past on the opposite bank occasionally. There's always the robot mower going. I have wondered how many they've lost into the river.

We have a pond. That has occurred to me too.

More of an issue is that I mow around the orchids that pop up from time to time.

Andy

It's simply down to the time it takes compared to the rate at which grass grows ...

And who empties the grass collector.

That would be mine too - either stealing it while in use or coming back knowing there is probably one in the shed.

A lot of them just go round constantly nipping a mm or two off the grass, letting it mulch into the lawn.

Once you see how small the cutting tool is on the bottom of one, you will realize this is no ordinary mower.

One of the machines has a rotating disc, and there are three "shaver blades" affixed to the circumference. The blades might be three inches long, and the blades look replaceable.

The machine has to keep trimming the grass, every day, to stay ahead of it. It is like an "ideal for golf courses" design. You would likely leave it running while you were on vacation.

Your first cut in the season is done with a regular mower, as the grass could be quite tall and the machine would only stall in it. Once you are "trimmed to golf course level", and "checked for square with a plumb bob", then that little machine is in its glory. Every day, driving the same route.

Only the grass blades are a little disappointed about their station in life :-)

Since it only gets to cut off a little bit each day, it is "inherently mulching" and there is no bagging to do. I can't imagine the shaver blades on it, last all season.

You do want to see a bottom view of the one you've picked out, to decide whether it is a match for the boulder strewn moonscape you happen to own :-) I've mowed the lawn in a boulder strewn moonscape, so I have experience. The robot mower will have some limits as to how much "undulation" in the landscape it can handle. That's why I make a reference to "ideal for golf courses". That's what the machine craves.

If the machine were made bigger, then it would be a safety issue.

Paul

Our neighbour has one for the back lawn (which is out of sight of the road). It's out far more often than I could be bothered with. When it's not running it goes back to a little hutch for a recharge.

Andy

It has to stay ahead of the grass.

If the grass grows two feet high, and you dispatch the machine from its hutch, the machine will be most unhappy. It's not really that powerful, and only a little bit of growth, is what it wants to snip off.

On some of these, not only is the blade type a giveaway, just the amount of space underneath the deck tells you the machine simply cannot tolerate thick grass. It mows every day, to reduce the volume of material.

In its own way, it is very much like a roomba. OK when there isn't much work to do, not really designed for a "big mess".

One of those robot mowers, cannot be your "only" mower. You need a regular lawn mowing device on the premises too. When the robot has a bad hair day, the regular mower fills in for it.

Paul