Husqvarna automower Apple homekit. Husqvarna Automower 450X Review
Husqvarna Automower 450X Review
With its ability to handle rough terrain and large areas, the Husqvarna Automower 450X robot lawnmower is a practically maintenance-free way of keeping large lawns looking their best with absolutely no effort.
By Richard Jackie Stevenson Contact via linkedin October 9, 2018 10:28 am BST
Cons
What is the Husqvarna Automower 450X?
Topping the company’s robot range, the Husqvarna Automower 450X is a serious robot mower capable of handling lawns up to a whopping 5000m² (1.25 acres). It incorporates GPS-assisted mapping, can handle slopes up to 24 degrees (45%) and, unlike yours truly, is prepared to mow day and night, whatever the weather.
Effective, efficient with a razor cut and velvety lawn finish, the Automower 450X is an outstanding large lawn robot with a brilliant control app. Professional installation is pretty much essential and will add 10% or so to the cost, but the 450X will save you money in the long run and more than justifies the total outlay.
Husqvarna Automower 450X – Design and features
At £3200, the 450X is on par with other flagship robot mowers that we have tested and is about the same outlay as a middle-spec ride-on petrol mower. That is where the similarities end. The Automower 450X is a fully autonomous mower, bristling with GPS-assisted mapping, GSM networking, PIN-based security and ultrasonic obstacle detection. Even Alexa voice control is imminent yet not available at the time of this review.
The Automower’s moving pattern is random, backing up and spinning around at different angles when it detects an obstacle or the perimeter wire. It runs for over three hours on a single charge, at up to 3km/h on the open lawn. The cutting width is only 24cm across but covering that much ground, up to 18 hours a day and seven days a week, gets the job done. Run timings, days off, pause, dock and full scheduling are all configured from the app or direct through the mower’s keypad and LCD.
The cutter system itself is unlike any other mower blade we have seen. A two-part disc houses three doubled-sided, razor-like blades on loose pivots. As the disc spins, the blades rotate outwards through centrifugal force. The grass is cut very cleanly yet the blades fold in immediately if they hit a twig, for example. The lower steel-coloured disc spins freely, so will stop on small mounds of soil rather than scalp the area. It’s very clever, leaves a super-clean cut and replacing the razors is a whole lot less faff than sharpening traditional mower blades.
Ultrasonic sensors detect larger obstacles and slow the machine’s pace, ensuring it very gently contacts anything in front of it. That included a couple of trees that were not annexed by the perimeter wire, the dog and Jackie. She said it crept up on her.
That is a testament to just how quiet the 450X is too. It is near-silent and the only sound you hear from more than a few metres away is the gentle ticking of the grass being clipped. If you set the machine to mow regularly, those clippings are tiny at just a few millimetres long. The clippings mulched into the soil almost immediately and the 450X didn’t need cleaning the entire spring and summer.
Not being a collecting machine does mean that lawn debris, such as leaves in autumn, remain untouched. Robot mowers with traditional blade systems do begin to chop up leaves and light debris, but the 450X will sail straight over them. Nor are you going to get lawn stripes with its narrow wheels and random mowing pattern. What you are going to get is a very smooth and even cut all summer long that encourages greening and low growth. And you don’t have to do a thing. What’s not to like?
Husqvarna Automower 450X – Installation and controls.
Theoretically, installation is as simple as installing the Automower docking station and tacking down a perimeter wire to border your lawn. The lawn shape is all but irrelevant for the guide wire, allowing the mower to navigate tight corridors and awkward obstacles like trees or low tree roots (that the 450X’s ultrasonic sensors would not detect). Fixed areas can be annexed off using paired out/return wires to create no-go islands. robust impediments like trees and bordered flower beds will be detected by the 450X’s ultrasonic and bump detectors anyway. Several other guide wires can be laid out across the lawn to aid navigation, mark off obstacles and give the 450X the fastest route home.
It all looked straightforward when we watched Husqvarna’s excellent Field Support Engineer, Robert Trott, do the professional installation. The mower subsequently ran faultlessly, pretty much until I decided to make some DIY changes to the perimeter wire installation. Experience counts it seems. on which later.
Robert wired out the main lawn, leaving about 50cm of space between the wire and the vague demarcation line into the woodland trees, The machine overshoots the perimeter wire by 20-50cm, defined in the app. He annexed some trees and roots and placed three guide wires the full width of the lawn. Given the lawn is around 50m x 70m, that was over half a kilometre of guide wire and a huge box of ground pegs. My back ached just watching him.
The 450X connects to the outside world, and more importantly the Automower Connect app, using GSM mobile data. There is nothing to register or sign up to as a 10-year data contract is included in the mower price. As we struggle to get Wi-Fi to the end of the lawn, that is a real plus point. The 450X never lost connection all spring and summer on test.
While not enabled during our test, Husqvarna has demonstrated a beta version of Alexa voice control for all its Automower range, which should roll out to connected units in September/October 2018. This first version will be able to take care of the most commonly used commands such as start, stop and park, and the company is working on a raft of voice control commands for future updates.
Core set-up can be done using the 450X’s keypad and LCD, or the app. The keypad doesn’t cover all the features of the app but it’s useful if you are beside the mower and don’t have a phone handy. The keypad covers main functions including cutting height, messages and basic settings. The keypad also acts as the security PIN input.
The Automower Connect app is available on iOS and Android platforms, and there is even a dedicated version for the iWatch. It is by far the most comprehensive and easy-to-use mower app we have tested to date.
For starters, the basic Dashboard page is straightforward, clear and concise.
The main setting menus are equally logical with an obvious hierarchy of menus and features.
Adjustments include cutting height, albeit in arbitrary 1-10 numerals rather than an actual measurement, and set-up of the GPS-assisted navigation. You can control how far it reverses when it meets an obstacle, what angles it moves off at, how far it passes the guide wire and the width of the corridors for narrow strips of grass or between lawn areas.
Deeper into the menus still and you get long-grass sensing spiral cutting option, which is handy if you have bits of the lawn that grow quicker than others. You can deploy a weather timer to cater for different growth rates and engage an ECO mode that turns off the boundary loop signal when the mower is docked.
Given the 450X navigates by a combination of GPS, ultrasonic sensors and boundary wires, the inclusion of headlights, LED signature style ones at that, is purely for cosmetics. Oh, how we sniffed at such a feature… before we spent fun evenings watching it hoon around the lawn in the dark, lighting the way and scattering rabbits. The lights do flash if it gets into trouble, which sort of justifies it.
In Husqvarna’s native Sweden, pimping your robot mower is huge. Making them look like animals, cars and even Star Wars ships is something of a national pastime, and there are even competitions. We resisted giving our review sample a makeover. We did, however, rename it in the app as Husky. That lacked imagination, I grant you.
Husqvarna Automower 450X – How does it perform?
Quietly. By far the quietest robot mower we have tested, the Husqvarna is close to silent in operation. It absolutely doesn’t sound like a lawnmower. The drive motor and motor that spins the cutting disc are super quiet, so the only noise you hear over their low hum is the blades clipping the grass. Annoying the neighbours isn’t going to be possible. Well, unless they get jealous when you are kicked back with a brew while they are still pushing their traditional mower.
Those razor-blades cut extremely clean too. Looking closely at each blade of the cut grass reveals a very neat line with virtually no feathering or tearing of the leaf. Ragged cut grass tips tend to go brown while cleanly cut grass makes your whole lawn look greener. The razors work very well indeed.
On the flipside, the lightweight fold-in razors didn’t cut-up lawn debris, such as leaves and twigs. That might be a good or bad thing depending on your lawn care schedule and environment. Woodland surrounds our lawn, so tree debris getting cut up and mulched into the lawn is a good thing or we would be forever picking it up. That simply isn’t going to happen with the Automower. If you have a cleaner, tidier lawn and fewer nearby trees, it won’t be an issue.
Thanks to the blade’s fold-in action when they hit something, they stay sharp for an extremely long time. After three months in action, the blades were pretty dull but still cut the grass OK. We flipped them around, as they are double sided, and another pack is supplied with the mower. That should see you through a hefty mowing season with ease.
Other than an occasional blade replacement, maintenance of the Automower is nonexistent. Thanks to the incredibly small clippings it doesn’t get clogged up with grass like a traditional mower, even after several months of being outside and mowing in all sorts of weather.
In spring, the main lawn had already received its first cut as we let bluebells grow through the turf until May. What was left for the new 450X install was 4-5 inches of rough-cut grasses and stems. A bowling green it wasn’t.
Fast-forward to August. Despite the ridiculously hot weather, a game of bowls was a definite possibility. As we have found with previous top-notch robot mowers, the grass finish is outstanding and looks like velvet all of the time.
Compared to a ride-on mower, there was no letting the grass get ragged before you mow, and then scalping areas. No brown patches where you let it get too long before cutting. And, frankly, no breaking into a sweat on a Sunday morning while listening to your ‘Mowing Playlist’ on noise cancelling headphones to drown out the din.
As the Automower established its routine, the lawn went from rough to a bit messy, to well-trimmed and eventually to velvety. The constant cutting successfully mulches tiny little pieces of grass back into the lawn, encouraging low growth and delivering an all-over look that would require putting green-level time and effort to achieve with a normal mower.
On the downside, the very same was true of weeds like clover and moss. These lawn invaders seemed to learn the Automower’s cut-height and started spreading out low to the ground in order to survive. This slightly peculiar issue is true of all robot mowers with continuous cutting action. You might want to give the mower a week off occasionally to let the weeds get their heads up enough to be lopped off on the next outing.
Large obstacle detection was top-notch throughout. The ultrasonic sensors would noticeably slow the machine as it approached fixed objects like trees and mobile ones like the dogs. Domestic and wild animals alike got used to the Automower’s quiet operation very quickly, with rabbits simply hopping out of its path as it approached. Ziggy, our new puppy, was intrigued but the Automower sensed his approach, slowed and stopped as it bumped into his leg. No animals were harmed in the making of this review.
The Automower app showed its class during testing. You can control all of the 450X’s functions from the comfort of the living room, get great updates on what it is doing and alerts if something goes wrong. We particularly liked “Automower upside-down” message when we swapped the blades around. Using the mower’s GPS, the Automower’s movements and locations are instantly available too. You can view them as a standard map.
Or if you fancy something a little more realistic, you can overlay satellite photography, presumably pulled from Google Earth.
That proved useful for the two times the Automower 450X went ‘feral’. The mower sent an alert the moment it left the perimeter wire and pinpointed its location on the map. It would do the same if it were taken outside the perimeter wire by thieves, of course.
The 450X’s errant moments were largely due to, erm, ‘user issues’. Around two months after installation, I cut and extended the perimeter wire to encompass another 300sqm of lawn, mostly steeply sloping banks up to 30 degrees. Laying out the wire is a bit of pain, requires a lot of pegs to keep it low to the ground and you need to pay careful attention to the install guidelines in the manual. I got the perimeter wire too close to a critical pond edge over a very steep section and failed to avoid a really rough section of broken ground.
Both mistakes caused the 450X to bounce over and break out of the perimeter wire. It ended up stuck in a bush and hanging precariously over the pond flashing its headlights in desperation, respectively. See note above about opting for professional installation. These were mistakes an experienced installer wouldn’t make.
The good news is that whatever the weather, the 450X had no problem navigating up, down and at jaunty angles across the steep banks as part of it revised mowing schedule. As this sloped area is normally a complete PITA to mow, the 450X won us over here despite its escape shenanigans.
Our only other caveats to ownership are common across all robot mowers; they won’t create lawn stripes, they won’t pick up lawn debris like leaves in the autumn, they can’t handle rough overgrowth like brambles, and they can be a bit of a thief magnet in exposed lawns, even if the PIN code disables them. The leaves and brambles are a bit of an Achilles’ heel here chez Stevenson so we would end up as a two-mower family: an old petrol unit for the leaf pickup and rough stuff cutting once or twice a year, and an Automower 450X for the rest of the season. Perfect.
If you don’t have those issues, the Automower’s labour-savings, running cost-savings, negligible maintenance, fabulous velvety lawn finish all summer long, brilliant app and top-notch eco credentials make a petrol ride-on mower look like a dinosaur. The 450X is a truly outstanding robot mower for large lawns and, based on the same technology, we would heartily recommend Husqvarna’s smaller Automower models for those with more sensible-sized gardens.
Why buy the Husqvarna Automower 450X?
For big lawns up to an acre and a bit, Huqsvarana’s Automower 450X is a very quiet, incredibly effective robot mower that gives a super-sharp cut and velvety smooth lawn finish. It handles steep slopes up to 30 degrees like a mountain goat, deals with the most complex lawn shapes and multiple grassed areas, and is controlled by a truly class-leading mower app.
Installation is fraught with pitfalls for those without robot mower set-up experience (or ability to read the manual…) so you do need to factor in 10% or so on the asking price for professional installation. It won’t do lawn stripes or pick up leaves in the winter, but for kicking back with a glass of vino and enjoying your expansive lawns looking lush, green and velvety all summer long, the Automower 450X is hard to beat.
Verdict
A superbly designed, near maintenance-free robot lawnmower with excellent control app and the ability to take on the most complex of lawns.
Husqvarna Automower Review
Drugstore Divas received a Husqvarna Automower robotic lawnmower, but was not required to write this Husqvarna Automower review.
If you found a genie in a lamp who granted you three wishes, what would you wish for?
Honestly, I think everyone would say “more time.”
time at the end of your life is generally implied, but we’d all take more time during our life too. time to spend with friends and family, to stop rushing, to spend doing anything but crossing things off of never ending to do lists.
The Husqvarna Automower robotic lawnmower isn’t a genie in a bottle, but it can grant you that wish of more time. Because the Automower will mow your lawn, and you can spend that free time with your friends and family, sitting on the porch, enjoying a drink as you watch the sunset.
Not feeling guilty that you should be mowing.
Husqvarna Automower Review
This Husqvarna Automower review is based on our experience with the Husqvarna Automower. We do not represent Husqvarna in any capacity.
Choosing a Husqvarna Automower
Because Husqvarna sent us an Automower, we didn’t go through the process of deciding which was best for us. Husqvarna decided the Automower 430XH was best for us … and my parents.
Yup, we have the Automower installed at both homes, so we had to get a mower that could handle both.
You can choose between three lines: the Bluetooth Connect, the X-Line series, and the Professional Models.
Bluetooth Connect
The Bluetooth Connect Automowers have a high cutting capacity and low noise levels. These mowers use [email protected], so you can send commands to the mower from up to 100 feet away via Bluetooth. Which is cool, but it’s not as cool as us being able to be states away and still run our mower.
There are three models in the Bluetooth Connect line: the Automower 115H, the Automower 310, and the Automower 315. They vary on working area capacity, cutting height, and typical mow time on one charge. If you like your lawn short, either the Automower 310 or 315 is for you because it can cut as low as 0.8 of an inch.
X-Line Series
This is what we have. This series has a lot of features the Bluetooth Connect line doesn’t, like GPS theft tracking, GPS assisted navigation, LED headlights, a front rubber bumper (which is great because it will bump into your flower beds, garden, edging, etc.), and the ability for them to be started from anywhere. Plus, the X-Line series is more heavy duty than the Bluetooth Connect line.
There are six options in the X-Line series. Three kick off the line (the Automower 315X, the Automower 430X, and ours, the Automower 430XH). Then, two have premium features (the Automower 450X and 450XH), and finally there’s the Automower 435X, which has all wheel drive.
These, like the Bluetooth Connect line, vary based on working area capacity, cutting height, and length of time it can mow on one charge. Some of these models can cut down to 0.8 inches, but for whatever reason, ours can only go as low as 2 inches. It can, however, cut the highest at 3.6 inches.
Professional Models
The Professional Models were created for landscapers and property managers to use. There are three in the line (the Automower 550, 550H, and 535 AWD). But since this review is focused on the Automower for home use, I’m not going to go into any details about those.
Installing the Husqvarna Automower boundary wire
You can order an Install Kit, which comes with loop wire and staples. The Install Kit comes in three sizes, so be sure to choose the installation kit that’s the right size for your lawn.
The small Install Kit has 492 feet of loop wire and 300 staples; the medium Install Kit has 820 feet of loop wire and 400 staples; the large Install Kit has 1,312 feet of loop wire and 600 staples.
You’ll have to install the boundary wire around the perimeter of the lawn, but also install the wires within the lawn as well. So you might need more boundary wire than you anticipate.
You can set it up on your own, but we actually had an installer come and do ours. That was a lot easier for us because the installer knew exactly what he was doing. And when we wanted one of the wires to be moved (because my mom was building a path in her backyard and was heading right for the wire), the installer came back and moved it for us.
To install the wire, you cut into the grass — between 1 cm and 20 cm — and lay the boundary wire. You may initially see all the wires, but after a couple days, grass will grow over the wire and it will be completely unnoticeable.
You don’t want the wire to be too shallow because you run the risk of the mower snagging it. And you don’t want to cross the wires.
If you have grass on both sides of your driveway, you might be tempted to lay the wire across the driveway. You could do that, but then you risk breaking a wire when you are parking your car. If you park on top of the exposed wire, the weight of your car may break it.
Instead, make a continuous loop that circles one side of the lawn, goes to the backyard, then circles the other side of the lawn.
When you’re laying the wire, think about any heavy items you have in your backyard, like a wrought iron table. You don’t want to sit it on top of the wires.
You also want to circle it around things like flower beds. It can bump into them and move along, but setting the boundary wire so the Automower avoids obstacles is a better option.
Does the Husqvarna Automower work if you have a fence?
If you have a fence, you have two options for the Husqvarna Automower.
Cut a hole If you’re really committed to your Automower, you can cut a hole in your fence, almost like a doggy door. Then, the boundary wire can be installed through that hole. When the Automower is running, it can go through that hole when it’s going from the front to back lawn.
Open the fence doors My parents didn’t want to cut a hole in their fence and, honestly, I don’t blame them. So instead, the boundary wire was installed with the fence doors open. Then, when we run Moe, my parents just have to open the fence doors.
In this case, we don’t let Moe run overnight at their house. Having the fence doors open when they’re home is fine, but for safety, they close and lock the fence doors at night. So they only run the Automower during the day.
Setting up the Husqvarna Automower charging station
The Husqvarna Automower charging station is actually comprised of two parts. There’s the charging station, which is basically a dock for the Automower when it’s charging or not in use. Then, there’s the power supply, which is the battery and wires that connect the charging station to an outlet.
So, keep that in mind when you’re deciding where to place the charging station. It does need to be relatively close to an outlet because it will need to be plugged in to work.
Running the Husqvarna Automower
The Husqvarna Automower takes a few runs to map out your entire lawn. So, we were told to run the Automower for 24 hours, give it a one-day break, run it for 24 hours, give it another one-day break, then another 24 hour run. After that, it should have a good idea of your lawn. It can take up to two weeks for your Automower to completely learn your lawn, though.
How does the Husqvarna Automower work?
As its running, it is assigning “numbers” to sections of the lawn. It then starts to use this information to mow. So, if it goes out and doesn’t get “section 85” before it needs to recharge, it will head out and start at “section 85” on its next mow.
After those initial marathon days, you can set your Automower on a schedule and run it when its convenient for you.
Our lawn is a little less than half an acre, broken up over a front and back lawn, and it takes the Automower about 6.5 hours to complete the lawn.
That number actually sounds shocking compared to the amount of time it takes a person with a push mower to mow the lawn. Pete will usually take an hour or so to mow our lawn, so it takes the Automower about six times as long.
It does move a lot slower than Pete and cuts the entire lawn with three very tiny blades as opposed to the very large blades a push mower users.
The Husqvarna Automower relies on two pieces of technology to mow your lawn.
First is the boundary wire. That wire is placed around your lawn to set up a perimeter. Within that perimeter, there’s a return wire and that’s how it knows how to go home to its charging pad. When the battery is low or when you hit “Park” on the app, the Husqvarna Automower will find the return wire, cross it, and then follow it directly home without mowing along the way.
It also uses GPS technology to choose the path it mows. The Automower doesn’t follow the same path each time it mows, so you don’t end up with cut lines in your lawn like you get from a traditional lawnmower.
The Husqvarna Automower Connect app
The Husqvarna Automower Connect app is, quite possibly, my favorite part about the Automower.
The app works for both iPhone and Android, so Pete and I can both have the app on our phones (I have an iPhone and he has Android). The Husqvarna Automower Connect app controls everything about the Automower.
From the app, you can start, stop and pause the mowing session, change the cutting height, view a map to see the path your Automower has mowed, turn the headlights on and off, park the Automower, order new blades, change the name of your Automower, and more.
You can do the majority of these things manually on the mower’s keypad (except order blades), but it’s so much easier to do it from the comfort of your own home.
We’re sitting at the farmers’ market right now and I just started Moe.
If the Automower has any trouble, the app will send a notification that pops up on your phone. If he gets stuck somewhere or tangled on something, you’ll get a notice. Both of those things happened when Moe was at my parents’ house. I got the notice on my phone and was able to run right over to see what the trouble was.
My parents don’t have the app (although they could get it if they wanted), but they saw Moe’s headlights flashing — another way Moe alerts you when there’s an error. So that’s a great feature if you’re home; the notifications from the app are great if you’re not home.
How to protect the Husqvarna Automower
The Husqvarna Automower has a charging pad that it stays on when he’s either charging or not mowing. That charging pad stays outdoors and must be placed near an outlet (you need to plug the transformer into an outlet at one end, then the charging pad in the other).
The Husqvarna Automower can stay outside in the elements, although I wouldn’t suggest leaving it outside all winter long if you live somewhere that gets a considerable amount of snow.
You can bring it into your garage during the winter, which is what our plan is.
But you don’t want to have to think about bringing the Automower inside during every rainstorm. You have a few options.
Option 1: You can buy or build an Automower “dog house.” It looks like a traditional dog house, but it’s actually to house your Automower. I saw one online that is a house for the Automower, but it’s a planter on top. So, when Pete gets a little free time, he’s going to build that for us.
Option 2: Get a tarp and throw it over the Automower when it rains. This isn’t the prettiest option, but it is the most economical. If you get a lot of rain, the tarp will puddle with water, so be careful when you’re taking the tarp off the Automower. You don’t want to spill heaps of water on it.
Option 3: This is my mom’s solution for now. She purchased a collapsible kiddie/pet pool. When we’re not using it as an Automower cover, it folds up for easy storage. And, when my nephews comes to visit and want to swim, we can use it as a pool.
Option 4: Husqvarna sells an Automower House. No. Seriously. It’s called a house. But it’s basically a roof that matches the look of the Automower and sits on top of it to protect it from rain and excess sun exposure. The house is retractable, so you’re still able to access the Automower’s keypad even with the house.
What about security for the Husqvarna Automower?
Like I said before, I’m typing this up at the farmers’ market while Moe mows our lawn. I can’t physically see the Automower with my eyes. I can, however, open the Husqvarna Automower Connect app and see exactly where the Automower is. The Automower’s location is marked by a circle with an image of the Automower in it. If you click that circle, you’ll get the GPS coordinates for exactly where the Automower is at that moment (okay, it’s more like where it was a minute ago because there is a slight delay).
If your Automower goes missing, you can open the app and locate exactly where it is.
The Automower has a built in alarm, though. When it passes the boundary wire, the alarm will sound. One of the members of our installation team said the alarm is so loud that as soon as a thief tries to take it to his (or her) car, he (or she) will bring it right back.
An additional security feature is the pin code. In order to start the Automower or access any of its settings, you need to enter the pin code. So, if someone does try to steal your mower, they won’t be able to use it without your code.
Can you set up the Automower for multiple homes?
Yes, yes, yes. Okay. This is so cool.
So, for those who don’t know, we live two doors down from my parents. We actually had the opportunity to buy the lot right next to them, but the lot was about half the size of the lot we did buy and it just wasn’t enough room. So there’s a house between us.
But we have the Automower installed on both lawns.
This was actually part of why we really wanted the Automower. See, my parents live in Florida, and then have a house in North Carolina where they stay part time. When they’re in Florida, Pete and I are in charge of their house. My part is easy. I just check the mail and bring it inside. Pete has to mow their lawn. After a long week of work, then working the local farmers’ market on the weekend, the last thing he wants to do is mow two lawns.
Now he doesn’t have to mow any.
We have one Automower and we can move him back between both houses.There is a charging station and transformer at each house, though.
When we want to move the Automower, we have to physically pick it up to move it. If we bought the house next door to my parents, the boundary wire could have been installed to connect both houses, but it was not (obviously).
The Automower weighs about 36 pounds. That’s not bad. I can actually lift and carry it myself, so if I can do it with my lack of upper arm strength, anyone can do it.
Once you move the Automower from house to house, you just use the keypad on the Automower to “change the loop signal.”
The loop signal, by the way, it the path set by the boundary wire.
The Automower will ask you to place it in the charging station, and once you push it in, it will change the loop signal and know which hose to move. You can hit start right away (from the keypad or from your phone app) and it will immediately start to mow.
Can you personalize the Automower?
You can name your Automower. We named ours Moe, which makes me laugh all the time. My dad will text me “Send Moe home” when he’s ready to close the fence doors and go to bed, and it’s the funniest thing.
You can also purchase replaceable covers for the Automower. They come in orange, white, or gray. There are covers for the center portion of the Automower and then there are covers for the entire top layer of the Automower.
Honestly, the white looks so sleek, we might have to change Moe’s outfit — for before Labor Day, anyway.
You can also upgrade the Automower’s wheels if you need all terrain wheels.
What are the negative things about the Husqvarna Automower?
We love our Husqvarna Automower. Like seriously, we can’t live without Moe anymore. He really has made a difference in the short three months we’ve been running him. The Husqvarna Automower is pretty close to perfect, but it’s not perfect.
So, what are the bad things? So far, we’ve only really found three. And one is not that bad.
One: The Husqvarna Automower doesn’t edge the lawn. It gets to the edge, but doesn’t actually do the edging. It takes Pete ten minutes, max, to edge our lawn so that’s a lot better than the hours he spent outside mowing.
Two: The Husqvarna Automower doesn’t have a rain sensor. Our sprinkler system has built in technology so if it senses water or that the lawn is saturated during its scheduled run time, it won’t run. The Husqvarna Automower doesn’t have that type of sensor. So, if it starts to rain suddenly (which happens quite often in North Carolina) while the Automower is running, you have to stop it via the app. It’s fine if we’re home. It’s not as easy to know the weather when we’re on an out of state vacation.
Three: The Husqvarna Automower won’t cut our weeds. We have two main types of weeds at our house, clovers and cylindric sedge. The Automower won’t cut the weeds, mostly because of the fibrous stem.
When Pete would mow the lawn, the push lawnmower would cut the clovers and grass, so the clovers didn’t bother me. I knew they were there, but they were green and didn’t stand out. Now, since the Automower won’t cut them, the clovers really stand out and make our grass look patchy. The regular grass is beautiful — healthier than before the Automower started running. But the patches look bad.
I’ve been pulling weeds by hand, one grocery store-sized bag a day, in hopes that I’ll be able to get rid of all of them (I know I can use chemicals and I can use vinegar, but I’m a little stubborn and anti-chemicals, so I’m doing it by hand). So I guess this complaint is really that the Automower does such a great job that it makes the imperfections in our lawn really stand out.
But I do wish it cut the weeds for me.
Purchase a Husqvarna Automower
You can head over to this link to purchase a Husqvarna Automower.
Do you have any other questions about that we didn’t cover in this Husqvarna Automower review? Leave them in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев and we’ll be sure to answer them as best we can.
Husqvarna Automower Robot Questions Answered!
Wondering about the Husqvarna Automower Robotic lawn mower? How does it work, how much does it cost, does it actually work well. These are all valid questions you should be asking if you’re thinking about buying one.
I’ve owned the Husqvarna Automower 450XH for several months now and have the answers you need!
To begin, let’s start with an introduction to the mower:
What is the Husqvarna Automower?
In the simplest of terms, the Husqvarna Automower is a robotic lawn mower that cuts your grass automatically. It employs the help of boundary wires, guide wires, GPS, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and ultrasound to accomplish this.
Its settings can be modified on the mower itself or via a smartphone app.
The good news is, the Automower comes in various sizes and capacities. Below is a breakdown of Automower model, max working area, technology, and price (MSRP):
| Model | Max Working Area | Cutting Height | Technology | MSRP |
| 115H | 0.4 acre | 2. 3.6 inches | Automower [email protected] | 1,599.95 |
| 310 | 0.25 acre | 0.8. 2.4 inches | Automower [email protected] | 1,599.95 |
| 315 | 0.4 acre | 0.8. 2.4 inches | Automower [email protected] | 1,799.95 |
| 315X | 0.4 acre | 0.8. 2.4 inches | Automower Connect | 2,499.95 |
| 430X | 0.8 acre | 0.8. 2.4 inches | Automower Connect | 2,699.95 |
| 430XH | 0.8 acre | 2. 3.6 inches | Automower Connect | 2,699.95 |
| 450X | 1.25 acres | 0.8. 2.4 inches | Automower Connect | 3,499.95 |
| 450XH | 1.25 acres | 2. 3.5 inches | Automower Connect | 3,499.95 |
| 550 | 1.25 acres | 0.8. 2.4 inches | Husqvarna Fleet Services | 3,699.95 |
| 550H | 1.25 acres | 2. 3.5 inches | Husqvarna Fleet Services | 3,699.95 |
Technology
Besides the professional mowers which are made to be part of a commercial fleet of Automowers, the home units have 2 different technologies that they operate on:
Automower [email protected]
Automower [email protected] is the entry level controls and technology package. It’s installed on the smaller, lower-end machines that appear to have been designed for small, enclosed yards without much complexity.
Husqvarna didn’t pack too much features into Automower [email protected], like they did with Automower Connect. For example, @Home uses Bluetooth to communicate with the mower, while Connect uses GPS. As a result, you are limited to how far you can be from the mower to connect to it.
Automower Connect
Automower Connect is the flagship technology powering the Automower 315X models and higher. With Automower Connect, you have full control over your mower from wherever you are.
One of the coolest things about Automower Connect is the GPS. As a result, you can see where your mower is at anytime. even where it is in your yard at that very moment!
The GPS feature aids the Automower with navigating its way through your yard, and with improving its cutting patterns. Furthermore, it’s a key component of the anti-theft features built into the machine. In the event someone runs off with your Automower, you or the police will be able to see its last known location.
This premium feature is made possible by an actual cell phone antenna installed inside the Automower (included is a 10-year contract). In other words, you don’t need to connect it to your home Wi-Fi and deal with dead-spots or the mower being too far away from the router.
After the Automower Connect App is installed on your Android or iOS smartphone and connected to your mower, you can control it. Here’s what you can do through the app:
- Start or stop the mower;
- Park the mower;
- Pause mowing;
- View and change settings like. cutting height, LED headlights, and Weather Timer.
- Set operation schedules. start and end times Sunday. Monday;
- View the real-time GPS location of the mower;
- Receive and view alarm notifications;
- Connect to Amazon Alexa and Google Home to control the mower;
- View statistics, and more.
So, Automower Connect makes owning a Husqvarna Automower innovative and convenient, but what is the actual mower like?
The Husqvarna Automower
In the world of machines. Features and technology can be the most innovative and coolest to ever exist, but if a machine can’t perform its most basic purpose well, the whole thing is crap!
From a distance, the Husqvarna Automower almost looks like a cybernetic turtle. In fact, if you have never heard of or seen a robotic lawnmower before, you would really be caught off guard at first sight of the Automower! I’ve humored at passers-by of my home that catch the Automower at the corner of their eye as it mows the front yard. The looks of confusion, curiosity, amusement, and WTF have been prominent!
Body
The Automower is weather resistant. That means it’s engineered to stay outdoors for every season it’s actually used. That means, it will cut the grass while it’s raining and has no issues in wind or other moderate weather (I wouldn’t test it in a tornado or hurricane)!
In addition, the Automower should be stored indoors during winter, especially in areas that snow. You can’t expect it to be buried in snow all winter and then expect it to work fine in the spring! Plus, this time of year is the perfect time to have preventative maintenance performed on it by your local Husqvarna dealer.
The mower body (shell) is made of plastic. I’m not sure what type, but it’s durable from what I can tell. My mower has got caught up in my garden fence and sideswiped many hard objects in my yard. As a result, the body has a few scuffs, but nothing beyond superficial.
The Automower 450XH weighs less than 30 lbs, but is built well and powers though my yard without any difficulty.
Cutting Deck
The Cutting Deck is steel and has 3 razor blades that pivot out when the deck spins, but retract back in when it stops. Fortunately, this is a safety feature that reduces the risk of the Automower chopping something up that happens to fit underneath its low profile.
The blades are replaceable and last for a couple of months, but that can vary depending on your use and species growing in your lawn. Thankfully, there’s a cutting edge on all 4-sides, so you can simply unscrew the blade and flip it to a new side until all are dull. Replacement blades cost 24.99.
Wheels
The Rear Drive Wheels are made of hard rubber with strong knobs. As a result, they provide impressive grip that allows the Automower to climb hills up to a 24 degree incline.
Battery
The 450 series is equipped with an 18V Li-Ion battery with 10.0 Ah capacity. This provides a typical mow time of 270 minutes. To serve my curiosity, I calculated how much gas I saved last year by not using my tractor. 30 gallons! Hey Al Gore, you can thank me later!
Charging Station
The Charging Station is made of durable plastic. It’s equipped with leveling pads so it can be placed in an optimal area of your yard. In addition, this is where the boundary and guide wires are connected.
I am impressed with the overall design and construction of the Robotic Lawn Mower. But, how does it work? Believe me, I was skeptical about this at first, but happily surprised.
Performance
As mentioned above, it doesn’t matter how nice something looks or how many cool features something has. What really matters is performance. So, does the Husqvarna Automower actually cut grass well?
It works really well. but here’s the catch!
Cutting.
The Automower’s cutting deck is equipped with three (3) razor blades for cutting. As I’m sure you’re aware of how a typical lawn mower blade looks, it’s much larger and stronger than a razor blade! However, don’t jump to conclusions yet, read on.
The way the Automower works is by clipping the grass. often. The whole intent of the Automower (and one of its greatest features in my opinion) is to maintain your lawn at a specific height. It achieves this by routinely working in your yard clipping just a tiny amount of length off the tip of the grass blade.
How Often?
My Automower 450XH is programmed to mow between the hours of 4:00AM. 8:00PM, Monday. Saturday. If you do the math, that’s 16 hours per day, 6 days per week!
That may sound excessive, but I have about ¾ acre of lawn. Think about it, during months of high growth like late spring. early summer, the grass grows like crazy! Sometimes you need to mow it twice per week just to keep up. That’s why it’s necessary for the automower to mow for long periods of time to maintain a consistent height.
Height Matters.
An established mower works really well for maintaining lawns. However, if it’s parked for a period of time and the grass grows by 2-3 inches, the Automower may need some help.
Long blades of grass tend to fall over and miss the blades. This results in a lot of missed grass blades. Situations like this might require you to cut your grass with your old lawnmower to get it down to a normal length. You could also set your Automower to maximum height (depends on the model) and change it back to normal height after a few days.
Slow or No Lawn Growth?
During weeks or months of slow growth, you can activate the Weather Timer setting. This setting will automatically park the mower that day if it starts mowing, but senses that the grass hasn’t grown since the previous day. Therefore, it’s not wasting cutting time or energy on just rolling around your lawn looking cool!
The great thing about this is you don’t even have to think about cutting your grass! The Automower does everything for you and your lawn never looks overgrown and unkept.
Free Natural Fertilizer?
If you’re not already aware, I’ll have you know that finely mulched grass clippings are some of the best natural fertilizer for your lawn. They naturally decompose into compost and make a great soil amendment. Why collect grass clippings, when they can replenish vital nutrients back into your lawn for free?
Since the Husqvarna Automower clips just a tiny bit of grass each day, it doesn’t leave clumps of clippings behind. The clippings are too small and just fall through the blades to the soil.
Cutting Pattern.
The default cutting pattern of the Automower is random. It cuts within your yard boundaries with help from the guide wires and boundary wires. However, it’s at all sorts of angles, lines, and intersections.
You might be thinking, But, I love the way rows look on my lawn. Sorry to break it to you, but mowing in the same rows (or direction) everytime is not great for the grass. It can lead to the blades developing a memory of the row and the blades will tend to lean in a specific direction. This could lead to that side of the blade always being exposed to the sun and burning quicker.
The random cutting pattern of the Automower allows the grass to grow straight up because it’s always being cut from a different direction.
Cutting Edge.
What about the edges of your lawn? Although the Automower eliminates the need to mow your lawn, you’re not off the hook for trimming edges. It’s good, but not that good!
The distance between the outside of the body or bumpers from the blades is a couple of inches. Therefore, the blades can’t reach all the way to the edges of objects. Therefore, yo still need to use a string trimmer to cut along yard features (like you normally would if you used a traditional lawn mower anyway).
Noise Level.
I’m confident that the Husqvarna Automower will be the quietest lawn mower you’ve ever heard! How quiet? The sound level of the Automower is 63 decibels!
As a comparison, that’s about as loud as a normal conversation. In fact, makes a low hum that you can speak over with no effort at all if the mower is operating directly beneath you.
Here’s a video, can you hear it?
Conclusion
The Husqvarna Automower has been a huge benefit in my life. Most importantly, it’s allowed me to spend more time with the fam and doing other things I actually enjoy!
It might not be an essential home tool, but it sure is a nice-to-have Smart tool around the house. Sure, the price tag might be steep, but it’s in line with the cost of a ride-on lawnmower. Plus, you don’t need to buy gasoline and oil changes!
You can learn more about the Husqvarna Automower on Husqvarna’s website.
Now that you know what the Husqvarna Automower is all about, what do you think?
Our Favorite Tech for the Home Garden
A backyard garden can be a healing sanctuary after a stressful day, but maintaining that sanctuary, ironically, can require a lot of effort and time. Unless you want to relax in a yard of dried weeds and brown grass, you have to mow, water, tidy up, and all else.
Luckily, a few simple upgrades to your backyard can make the maintenance of a healthy garden easier and of faster. Less time spent tending plants equals more time lounging in the spring and summer sun.
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A Smart Irrigation System
My life changed when I downloaded Orbit’s b-hyve irrigation app. Before, when unexpected weather blew in, I used to sprint into the darkest bowels of my basement to crank the Orbit control box dial on my sprinkler system. Now, I kick back on the couch and tap my phone to control it. If the weather gods give us another hot day, that’s OK. I don’t miss a second of The Mandalorian while my flowers get a drink. Note that the b-hyve app pairs only with the Orbit irrigation system. But I’ve found the Orbit system is the simplest of all irrigation systems to use. It’s easiest to set up, program, and schedule. And what I like most about its app is the ability to assign garden section photos to each valve. Other apps use icons, which are useful but don’t indicate the east side of your driveway rather than the west. Also, if you leave for a vacation and forget to program the app, you can take care of it while lazing in a faraway hotel pool. Also, the monthly reports are handy when monitoring water costs. A close second choice is the Hunter system with its accompanying Hydrawise app. Landscaping professionals often choose this trusted brand, but the system’s programming suite may be more complicated than home irrigation requires. If you want to go completely hands-off with your watering tasks, b-hyve may be a better bet.
A Robotic Lawn Mower
When friends of mine sent a video of their little robotic mower bumping along a long flat lawn, I was skeptical. How could a device the size of a small tire mow a large lawn? Well, Husqvarna makes mowers that can, pretty accurately, and have been for years. While the robot won’t be able to edge succinctly like a weed whacker, you’ll still get well-groomed grass for very little effort. It chops the blades and mulches to save you the work of constantly emptying a storage container. The limitations involve installing a wire pinned to the lawn’s entire perimeter. Also, automowers are less reliable than push or riding mowers on steeper slopes. And like a robotic vacuum, it can’t remove toys, chairs, and hoses obstructing its path. Obstacles need to be picked up before it departs the charging station. Lastly, separate areas of lawn dissected by a driveway or sidewalk can’t be covered. Otherwise, the device is fairly thorough. The biggest drawback? Price. For a city yard, the residential Automower 115H (4G) is 700, and to cover a larger suburban lawn, the wider Automower 415X runs 2,000. While other, cheaper brands may suit your needs just fine, Husqvarna has been perfecting landscape tools for decades and has a reputation for being built tough. I’d say it’s worth it, but the key is to find an automower that works for your yard and your budget.
A Torch for the Weeds
Weeding is the bane of a gardener’s existence. They appear every year in the most inconvenient and noticeable places. While a small blow torch from the hardware store will burn and kill weeds well enough, it may strain your back to constantly crouch down. The Flame King torch (45 at Amazon) comes with a long, 3-foot wand, fully assembled, and with an adjustable flame switch. Plus, you can swap in a variety of propane tanks and work farther from the base with the long hose. When using a torch, it’s easy to turn into a Doomguy-style fighter, killing the evil dandelions like demons, but you have to take extreme precautions not to set your yard on fire. Torches are best for eliminating weeds from seams in patios or driveways. When used with caution, they certainly work under shrubs and in between perennials. Also, they have the added use of melting snow, starting fire pits, and removing paint from asphalt. If you just scored a huge yard, or you’re a perfectionist, this is way better than dousing your outdoor space in pesticides and weed killers.