Husqvarna robot mower problems. Bosch Robotic Lawnmower vs Husqvarna Robotic Mower: Which One Wins

Bosch Robotic Lawnmower vs Husqvarna Robotic Mower: Which One Wins?

Bosch and Husqvarna are two leading brands in the robotic lawnmower market, offering innovative and efficient solutions to keep your lawn in tip-top shape. Both brands have unique features and benefits, and choosing between them can be tough.

When it comes to Bosch, its range of robotic lawnmowers comes with features like GPS navigation and intelligent scheduling, ensuring an efficient and effortless mowing experience. On the other hand, Husqvarna’s robotic mowers boast advanced safety features like obstacle detection and lift detection.

Additionally, both brands offer mowers that cater to different lawn sizes, so you’re sure to find one that’s right for you. To make the most of your investment, it’s important to consider the specific needs of your lawn, as well as your own preferences and lifestyle.

Bosch Robotic Lawnmower vs Husqvarna Robotic Mower: Side-by-Side Comparison

Bosch Robotic Lawnmower vs Husqvarna Robotic Mower: What’s the Difference?

Both companies offer a range of products that aim to make lawn care easier and more efficient. Let’s examine the differences between Bosch and Husqvarna’s offerings in the robotic lawnmower market to help you make an informed decision.

Navigation and Mapping System

The Bosch Robotic Lawnmower uses an NPV (Navigation and Positioning System) that helps it navigate the lawn and map out its surroundings. This system uses a combination of GPS, laser, and camera technology to accurately determine the location of the mower and the surrounding obstacles. This allows the mower to navigate with precision and avoid obstacles, ensuring a well-manicured lawn.

On the other hand, the Husqvarna Robotic Mower uses an NPX (Navigation System X) that operates with a completely different approach. This system uses a boundary wire that is laid out in the shape of the lawn and serves as a guide for the mower.

The boundary wire is connected to a boundary loop wire that provides the mower with a continuous signal to follow. The NPX system is simpler and easier to install but requires a more comprehensive planning and installation process.

User Interactivity

The Bosch Robotic Lawnmower is designed with the user in mind, providing a user-friendly interface and several convenient features that allow for easy operation. The mower is equipped with a touchscreen display that provides real-time information and allows the user to control the mower remotely.

This touchscreen display also serves as a dashboard that provides information on the mower’s battery life, maintenance schedule, and current status. The Husqvarna Robotic Mower has a simpler interface with basic control buttons that are easy to understand.

The mower is also equipped with a display screen that provides information on the mower’s battery life and current status. However, the Husqvarna Robotic Mower does not have a touchscreen display or the advanced features of the Bosch Robotic Lawnmower.

Cutting System

The evolution of the Husqvarna Robotic Mower has been a game-changer in the lawn care industry. This automated mowing system has come a long way since its first introduction in 1995. With advancements in technology and a FOCUS on user-friendly features, the Husqvarna Robotic Mower is now more advanced and efficient than ever.

One of the key improvements in recent years is the increased intelligence of the mower. It now uses GPS mapping to create a virtual map of your lawn, making it easier for the mower to navigate even complex garden landscapes. The mower can detect obstacles and adjust its path accordingly, ensuring your lawn is perfectly manicured.

Another significant improvement is the user interface. The mower’s control panel is now more intuitive, allowing you to easily adjust the cutting schedule and set specific zones for mowing. You don’t have to be a tech whizz to operate it. The mower’s control panel is designed to be user-friendly, so anyone can enjoy a perfectly manicured lawn without lifting a finger.

Bosch Robotic Lawnmower vs Husqvarna Robotic Mower: Which One Should You Use?

People recognize Bosch for its innovative technology and meticulous attention to detail, including features like a Smart navigation system and obstacle detection sensors. This makes their robotic lawnmowers highly effective and efficient in mowing lawns of various shapes and sizes. Bosch designs its models with safety as a priority, incorporating automatic shut-off and anti-theft alarms.

On the other hand, Husqvarna is a trusted brand with a long history of producing top-quality lawn equipment. They equip their robotic lawnmowers with GPS navigation, enabling highly precise mowing and cutting, even in complex gardens. Husqvarna also offers a range of models for different-sized lawns, making it a great option for homeowners with larger lawns.

Bosch and Husqvarna have their strengths and weaknesses, so the choice depends on the homeowner’s needs. If you’re looking for a highly advanced robotic lawnmower with a FOCUS on safety, Bosch is the way to go. But if you’re looking for a well-established brand with a range of models for larger lawns, Husqvarna is the winner.

Bosch Robotic Lawnmower vs Husqvarna Robotic Mower: Which One Wins? FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

What are Bosch and Husqvarna robotic lawnmowers?

Bosch and Husqvarna are two well-known brands in the robotic lawnmower market. A robotic lawnmower is an automated mowing device that uses sensors and navigation systems to independently mow your lawn.

The Bosch Indego and the Husqvarna Automower are two popular models of robotic lawnmowers. They both use GPS navigation and can be programmed to mow your lawn at specific times, ensuring a consistent and precise cut.

What is the cutting capacity of Husqvarna Robotic Mower?

The Husqvarna Robotic Mower has a cutting capacity of up to 5,000 square meters. It is designed for larger lawns and can handle slopes of up to 35%. The mower has a cutting width of 22 cm and can cut grass up to a height of 60 mm. It also has a larger battery capacity than the Bosch mower, enabling it to work for longer periods.

How does the Bosch Robotic Lawnmower navigate the lawn?

The Bosch Robotic Lawnmower is equipped with a GPS navigation system that helps it navigate the lawn. The mower maps out the lawn and identifies the boundaries and obstacles, allowing it to work efficiently without getting stuck. It also has a collision detection system that helps it avoid obstacles and prevents damage to the mower.

What is the maintenance requirement of Husqvarna Robotic Mower?

The maintenance requirements of the Husqvarna Robotic Mower are similar to those of the Bosch mower. The mower requires regular cleaning, blade sharpening, and regular charging.

The mower should also be stored in a dry, protected place when not in use. Additionally, the mower should be serviced by a professional every 2-3 years to ensure that it is in good working condition.

How do I set up the Bosch robotic lawnmower?

The Bosch Indego is easy to set up and can be programmed using a smartphone app or the control panel on the mower itself. To set up the Indego, you need to create a boundary around your lawn using a boundary wire, which the mower will follow. You can then program the mower to mow at specific times and set the desired cutting height and mowing pattern.

Can I control the Husqvarna robotic lawnmower from my smartphone?

Yes, you can control the Husqvarna Automower from your smartphone using the Husqvarna Connect app. With the app, you can start and stop the mower, adjust the cutting height, and program the mowing schedule. You can also view the status of the mower and receive notifications if there is a problem.

How does the Bosch robotic lawnmower handle obstacles?

The Bosch Indego uses sensors to detect obstacles and navigate around them. If the mower encounters an obstacle, it will change direction and continue mowing. The Indego also has a safety feature that stops the mower if it is lifted off the ground, ensuring that it is safe to use.

Review: Husqvarna Automower 415X (2022)

We review Husqvarna Automower 415X, the smallest premium robot lawn mower in the Husqvarna 400 series. Images, videos and in-depth testing! Husqvarna Automower 415X is, by lawn capacity, the second smallest robot lawn mower in Husqvarnas premium series of robots (the 400 series). It has a recommended lawn size of up to 16 000 square foot, and is part of the new Husqvarna platform that is rinse proof (IPX5) and slim in its design. This review consists of:

• Design – What does it look like?
• Installation – How do you install it and is the installation easy and time efficient?
• Performance terrainability – What types of lawns can it handle? Under what conditions does it run into trouble?
• Cutting time – How big lawn can it mow without having to mow all the time?
• Programming features – What features is it equipped with? Are they any good? How easy is it to program?
• Verdict – Is this robot any good? What are the pros and cons? How does it perform compared to other mowers in the same price range?

Design

Husqvarna Automower 415X is clearly smaller than its bigger sibling Automower 430X. While the standard series Automowers, like 310 Mark II and Automower 315 are physically identical to each other even though they are meant for different sized lawns, the Automower 415X and the Automower 430X are not at all the same.

Looking at the 415X it looks compact and stealthy while at the same time being light-weight and sturdy. Its smaller than 430X, and IPX5 so you can wash it with your garden hose. We really feel the design is appealing.

The Husqvarna Automower 415X is equipped with LED lights that you can set to always on, on at the evening, on at evening and night or always off.

The robot lawn mower has four wheels, with great tread-depth on the back ones. The two front wheels are just smaller, smooth support wheels.

The Automower 415X has a big red stop button on the top. That button also opens a hatch covering the display and the buttons to navigate the user interface on said display. There is no knob for the cutting height adjustment since that is programmed electronically.

Underneath the robot lawn mower is a knife disk holding three razor blade knives. They are hiding under a cover plate and are mostly only visible when the disk spins. This is great because robots that keep their razor blades uncovered usually gather a lot of grass around the screws which mess up the movement of the blades.

You also find a dedicated power switch meant to be used when you do maintenance work on the robot or when you store it during the offseason.

Inside the robot lawn mower is a SIM card so that you can operate your 415X remotely.

Installation process

The installation process for Husqvarna Automower 415X is very quick and user-friendly. We are up and running in approximately ten minutes (of course this does not include a full wire installation around the lawn since this is something you need to have in place with almost all robot lawn mowers on the market).

The 415X has a unique pin code which you find in the box together with the robot lawn mower, its charging dock and needed connectors.

The charging dock has connectors for the two boundary wire ends plus one guide wire. A guide wire is an extra wire that you connect to the station and then attach to the boundary wire in another area of the installation. It then acts as a guiding shortcut over the lawn, or as a guide through hard passages.

A positive thing with the guide wire is that it opens up for you to position the boundary wire in very steep slopes or in hard terrain without messing up the “going home” part since it now mainly acts as a “fence”, not a “sidewalk” for your robot. The only time the robot lawn mower will take the boundary wire way home is if it for some reason can’t find the guide wire, or if you program it to use the boundary wire as its main option.

Anyways, with the connectors all hooked up you simply position the robot lawn mower in the charging station, fire it up and enter the pin code. You now have the option to either start the mowing immediately or to program a schedule. We decided to download the Husqvarna Automower app (Automower Connect), created an account and connected the robot to that account.

One great thing with Husqvarna is that you can have multiple accounts for the same robot lawn mower. So if you and your neighbours share the 415X you can have one account each with your own password.

In the app you simply press schedule and create time slots for the different days of the week. You can have multiple slots with different time spans and multiple days attached to each slot.

In the settings area of the app you can adjust the installation fittingly, like changing how far it should drive past the boundary wire (depends on how much edge cutting you want) and what cutting height it should have. If it is the first start of the season you can set a target height and the mower will then start off by mowing at a bigger cutting height and gradually lower it during the coming weeks until it reaches the target.

Since we have multiple test lawns we set the GPS option on. It means the AI and the mower work together to identify remote areas and make sure each part of the lawn is cut often enough. But since AIM is available now you can also draw different zones on the map (more about this a bit further down in this review), or you can simply use starting points to send the robot directly to the remote part of the lawn a certain percentage of the starts.

You can do the same adjustments to the settings, schedule etc via the display. It has great readability and a user friendly interface. We do however recommend the app since it’s a lot more handy and you also get remote software updates through it.

Terrainability and performance

Husqvarna Automower 415X perform great on most lawns. It has no problem mowing slopes within its recommended maximum angle, soft lawns with moss or bumpy, uneven lawns with loose dirt. We would argue that the AI and the terrainability is what really separates Husqvarna from many of its competitors.

If you have a somewhat complex lawn you will want a robot lawn mower that is reliable, and this one sure is.

It did get stuck a handful of times during the several months of testing it. One of the lawns has a steep slope and the boundary wire is positioned at the end of that slope and right after that is a flowerbed. The 415X once ended up in the flowerbed after trying to go backwards up the slope, slipping a bit in the dirt and twisting around out into the flowerbed. It then tried to get out but the dirt in the flowerbed was too loose.

For most robot lawn mowers we have to close off this sloop area because they can’t handle this slope at all, but Husqvarna and Honda seem to be able to for the most part. But Husqvarna Automower 415X has a slight weakness when it comes to going backwards on steep slopes, so if you put the boundary wire here you will want to set some safety distance to your flowerbed.

It also got stuck 2-3 times on stuff we had forgotten to pick up in the garden, like toys and a big fallen branch. But it did not get stuck in situations that we could miscredit it for.

When it’s stuck it stops, sends you a push notification and go into a battery preserving state. So when you find it you can easily move it some inches (since it’s very lightweight), press start and it will pick up its mowing session where it ended.

Another thing we really appreciate is how quiet 415X operates. This robot lawn mower is one of the stealthiest out there, both regarding design and how quiet it moves – and mows.

Cutting time

The recommended lawn size of approximately 16 000 square foot is accurate. The cutting time is said to be 50 minutes and after a year we still get about 50 minutes of mowing time before it needs to go back to charge. It then charges the battery for 55 minutes and leaves the station to go out and mow again as long as it is still in a scheduled time slot.

This means that if you schedule Automower 415X to work 7-12 it will be out mowing the lawn for three hours that day. We estimate you need to have it out mowing every weekday (not weekend) for this schedule to be sufficient enough for the full recommended size to be mowed. Perfectly acceptable!

The guide wire saves a lot of time when the robot lawn mower is going back charging since it won’t have to travel all around the lawn before arriving at the charging station. We do feel Husqvarna could have been a bit more generous when it comes to the guide wire support, it supports one wire but we feel the option of having two would have been better since it gives us more options as to where to place the charging station.

To make this robotic lawn mower even more time efficient you should play around with the intelligent mapping zones.

Programming and features

Automower 415X is connected to your mobile and even though the display and the user interface on the robot itself is very easy to use, you will want to download the app and use that forever. Why? Because all features and settings are available via the app, and you also get push notifications if someone steals your robot or if anything else is going on that you need to know about.

The connectivity also means you can control this robot lawn mower from your Smart speaker or your Apple Watch. It even has support for IFTTT so you can include it in your advanced Smart home installation – if you want to.

The 2022 version of the Automower 415X (and last years version if you update the software) come with a handy feature named intelligent mapping. It’s a brand new feature where the robot lawn mower analyzes your lawn by GPS and measuring data, and then saves a map of it. You can use that map to create different zones, and each zone can have its individual mowing schedule and cutting height. This means you can have one zone that is temporarily not being mowed at all, and other areas being mowed more or less often.

We divided one of our test lawns into three zones. One zone is where the house owner has a pool area that is being used quite frequently during the day, so we programmed the 415X to only mow this area early morning. We also made a zone in the middle of the main lawn that was not supposed to be cut at all. We added loose objects to the center of it to see if the robot lawn mower interacted with it even though we had excluded it from the mowing schedule. We also set a different cutting height to the main lawn to see a noticeable difference from the lawn in the pool area.

The spiral cutting feature is by far one of our favourites. If the robot lawn mower detects uncut areas with grass of a certain height, it will make a circular motion and extend that circle for each lap – just like some of the robot vacuum cleaners do. You can set the intensity of this feature. The intensity setting determines how tall the grass has to be to trigger the feature. This feature works really well. And the neat part is that you can keep the mowing schedule to a minimum if you use it since the spiral motion will help determine if Automower 415X has missed any areas.

We are currently still evaluating the AIM functionality so we will update this review as soon as we feel we’ve gathered more data. So far we have a good understanding of the basic functionality. We have programmed two different cutting zones and one “no go zone”.

When we add a zone that is outside of the guide wire the robot lawn mower uses the boundary wire to travel to that zone. If we make sure the guide wire is part of the zone it instead uses the guide wire. Sadly it does not seem to make use of the GPS.

If it runs into any trouble on the way to the zone it immediately gives up and returns to the charging station, charges for a couple of minutes and then tries again. It does not navigate around obstacles along the wire, as it does when not using zones. The fact that is gives up so easily can cause problems and frustration since you have to keep a close eye on your lawn. Our hope is that Husqvarna acknowledges this and make sure to add the “go around the obstacle” functionality to the Intelligent Mapping function too.

With that being said the AIM functionality is a big plus. The robot lawn mower has different schedules and cutting height for our two zones and is following these settings in a perfect manner. It has never entered our temporary no go zone, and is sticking to mowing the areas we’vre told it too. The AIM functionality is easy to work with. But something we would love to see in the future is a “test your zone” tool. As of now it is kind of hard to know if you put the zone parameters in the right place.

See the AIM part of the Automower Connect app: https://www.YouTube.com/shorts/-ZluUnAhTN0

Besides the AIM functionality, you can also program up to three different starting points. Since the robot lawn mower come with guide wire support you can fine-tune your installation so that the robot a certain percentage of the time travels via the guide wire to a remote area and start mowing there instead of close to the station.

Frost sensor and weather timer, where the robot delays the start if it senses frost or if it’s about to rain, are other interesting features.

There are settings such as how far you want the robot to travel over the boundary wire before turning around, which is important since you want the edges to be mowed too. There is sadly no edge cutting option, but the “drive past wire” feature will mow the edge anyway so it’s not really a problem.

Something we would like to see in a future version of Automower 415X is an easily removable battery (like they have on Roboyagi and Worx Landroid). That would make it a lot more user friendly since you could just remove the battery during colder periods. Why not even add it to the Husqvarna battery sharing platform? That way you could borrow the battery from your mower and attach it to your Husqvarna battery grass trimmer, and then put it back in your mower when done. Husqvarna is all about sharing economy, so this would have been a great feature that it’s now lacking.

However, we love that the 415X robot lawn mower is IPX5. It’s so easy to rinse the wheels and the blades when needed.

As you can see there are lots of neat features that come in handy for the homeowner who finds these sorts of things exciting. But they also make the robot less prone to getting stuck, more thorough – plus you rarely have to change stuff in the installation (like moving the boundary wire etc), most can be done virtually.

Verdict

Husqvarna Automower 415X is a great buy. The Husqvarna Automower setup is as easy as always, and the app is one of the best robot lawn mower apps on the market. There are lots of great features! The robot has premium build quality, mows very quietly, is strong, resilient and durable. The cost is in the premium range, but if you are picky with your lawn this is the best premium option.

For who: Homeowners with a medium-sized or big lawn that are looking for a time efficient robot lawn mower with great terrainability and a neat set of features.

A top modern and quite stealthy robot lawn mower that supports custom virtual zones on your lawn, cellular connectivity and GPS-assisted AI. It’s very reliable and overall a great robot lawn mower in the premium segment.

The Best Robot Lawn Mower

New robotic lawn mowers have eliminated the nuisances that kept older models from delivering what most folks are hoping for: a big lawn mowed constantly, with zero oversight and minimal maintenance.

Several such mowers are emerging in 2023, and they’re quite pricey. But they’re already looking good enough to shift the conversation on what’s possible in lawn care.

We’ve tested one model so far (with plans for testing more as soon as they’re available). It’s the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS, and we’ve been more than impressed with its capabilities.

The best robot mower (so far)

A premium model with unmatched features, this mower raises your capabilities while reducing your effort. It corrects many limitations of older bots, but it’s not perfect.

Why you should trust us

I’ve been writing about tools and outdoor power equipment since 2007, and I’ve been testing lawn mowers and outdoor power equipment for Wirecutter since 2013. To learn more about robot mowers, I spoke with four leading manufacturers: Ambrogio, Husqvarna, Toro, and Worx.

Who this is for

Consider a robot lawn mower if the following features and capabilities particularly appeal to you.

Robotic mowers are tireless workers. Instead of mowing an area once a week, they can cut it once a day or every other day. This consistent maintenance not only keeps a lawn looking pristine but also improves turf health, because the mower is cutting only the very tip of each blade of grass, and the small cutoffs quickly feed back into the soil. In addition, most robotic mowers cut with small razor blades, so the cut is smooth, not the jagged tear you get from traditional mower blades once they’ve dulled a little. With that cleaner cut, grass is less likely to develop brown tips.

The new generation of robotic mowers can do more. Like a robot vacuum, a robot mower needs a clearly defined work area. Until now, defining that area has required the use of a boundary wire—either buried a few inches deep or pinned down with clips—around the perimeter of the lawn. Installing the wire is a fiddly process, and if it is ever damaged by an animal, a snowplow, or an errant shovel, finding and fixing the break can be difficult. To reshape the work area, you install additional boundary wires. The new mowers eliminate the need for the wire, using satellite positioning or onboard sensors instead, and their app-based controls allow for scheduled cutting, multiple work areas, cutting-height adjustments, mowing patterns, and even weather monitoring.

New robot mowers can handle bigger yards. How much acreage a robot mower can handle is determined by the battery life, namely how much can it mow and charge in a single day. Previous robot mowers worked in random patterns, which is not the most efficient method. New mowers can move in organized patterns, such as straight lines across a yard. Your lawn can look nicer as a result, and the mower doesn’t waste time criss-crossing over previously mowed areas. Thanks to this increased efficiency, a mower battery that could have handled 1.5 acres previously can now cover up to 2.5 acres. This kind of large-scale cutting puts the best robotic mowers alongside comparably priced tools such as riding mowers and zero-turns.

How we tested

As of spring 2023, boundary-free robotic mowers are just being released in the US. We found two available models, the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS and the Ambrogio Twenty ZR. We’ve spent more than a month with the Husqvarna model as of May 2023. We plan to test other models from Toro, Worx, and possibly Ambrogio as soon as they’re available at retail.

We installed the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS on a complex lawn in rural New Hampshire. The hilly lawn is roughly 2 acres and is littered with obstructions including blueberries, a wood shed, multiple flower gardens, a vegetable garden, a chicken coop, six Apple trees, maples, soccer nets, and a fire pit. Mowing this lawn with a riding mower takes roughly two hours. Our intent was to set up the robot mower on only a portion of the lawn and see how it did, but once we got into testing, we kept increasing the number of mowing areas until the entire lawn was being mowed by the relentless little machine.

The best robot mower (so far)

A premium model with unmatched features, this mower raises your capabilities while reducing your effort. It corrects many limitations of older bots, but it’s not perfect.

Buying Options

The Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS is a boundary-free robotic mower that relies on satellite positioning to maneuver around a yard. The associated app allows you to create and manage mowing zones, stay-out areas, mow patterns, cutting-height adjustments, and more. In our testing, it worked well beyond its listed capabilities, proving itself to be an excellent lawn-maintenance tool. It’s not ideal for every lawn—using it involves some annoyances, and it needs good satellite reception and a wide-open sky. But in locations where it’s a strong fit, it’s worth considering, even with its nearly 6,000 price tag.

The package consists of four parts: the mower, the charging station, the reference station, and the app. You have some restrictions on where to set the pieces up, due to the system’s reliance on satellites. According to the manual, the reference station, which looks like a weather station, should have 160 degrees of clear sky above it, so installing it up high and on a pole is recommended. Don’t mount it on the side of a building. Note that the reference station is responsible for the heightened accuracy of the mower—down to about a centimeter—so if the installation is loose, and the reference station moves or swings around on the mounting pole, the entire lawn map will shift accordingly.

You have two ways to connect the phone app to the mower. Option one is Automower Direct, which uses Bluetooth; option two is Automower Connect, which uses cell reception. Certain features, such as mapping a mowing area, appear in the app only on the Bluetooth connection. The cellular connection lets you control the mower from any remote location (though we had problems setting it up). You can also connect the mower to Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

The most time-consuming part is setting up the mowing areas. You accomplish this by driving the mower around the edge of the defined area, using the app as a controller, and marking points to create the boundary. Once you’ve established the perimeter, you can create stay-out zones for objects such as flower gardens, a birdbath, a child’s play structure, a tree, or a berry patch. Finally, you create a path for the mower to return to the charger. You can create multiple areas, too. Depending on your property or yard, this can be an involved process, and figuring everything out takes a while. Thankfully, once you’ve established an area, you can move the boundary points; in our tests, after the mower cut an area a few times, we could see where our initial points were off and could make slight adjustments.

With the mowing areas established, the fun begins. You can customize each work area with its own schedule, mowing height, and mowing pattern. Because everything happens through satellites, the mower can also work at night (it has headlights that you can turn on for safety), in the rain, or whenever is convenient. For example, the kids get home from school and often play in the yard around 3 p.m., so we kept the mower off-duty at that time.

We were surprised by how well it could handle our test lawn. All set up, our lawn had eight mowing areas and 21 stay-out zones. It worked—and it’s still working. Mowing that lawn with a riding mower typically takes approximately two hours, once a week. Going all mowing season long with the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS, that will be at least 50 hours we’ll have back. We’ll also have no need to deal with refilling gas, changing oil, or winterizing an engine.

The mowing patterns are customizable. We kept things simple with a straight-line mow pattern, but you can also choose a cross pattern or a triangle pattern. You can fully customize the direction of the mow lines, as well, so you can have them run parallel to the front of the house, perpendicular, or at any angle you want. Unfortunately, you can’t mow words into your yard. (Everyone asks that question.)

It cuts with three small razor blades attached to a spinning disk. The blades are double-sided, and each time the mower goes out to work, it reverses the direction of the spin, adding life to the blades. Husqvarna recommends changing the blades every six weeks or so—a simple process that you can do with a screwdriver. The cutting path is roughly 9 inches, and the body of the mower is about 28 by 21 inches, so the design puts a good 7- or 8-inch buffer zone between the edge of the body and the spinning blades, far more than on a push mower.

For added safety, it has a sensor. When the mower encounters an object that is not programmed as a stay-out zone—such as a person, a picnic table, or a delivered package—it slows down so that it bumps the object at a very low speed. Once it feels the bump, it reverses and starts to figure out how to get around the object, a process that leads to a lot more bumping and a lot more reversing. We found that it’s easiest to create a stay-out zone through the app for any object that will be on the lawn for more than a day or so, such as a kiddie pool.

But it does not detect smaller items. You need to clear your lawn of stuff that’s small enough to fit under the mower’s housing. We found this task especially tricky with four kids living in the house. Because we had scheduled most of our mowing for the nights and early mornings, each evening we needed to do a thorough check for baseballs, hula hoops, cornhole bags, sweatshirts, dog toys, socks, and anything else strewn about.

Hitting something might not be a disaster. On a couple of occasions, we missed an item, but the damage was minimal. The blades are smaller than a traditional mower blade, and they’re hinged to the spinning disk like a flail, so if they hit something, they can spin out of the way. A baseball that got run over had only a few nicks on it—a significant difference from all the baseballs we’ve chopped in half with a traditional mower.

This map shows five different mowing areas (green), a number of stay-out zones (red), and the travel paths back to the charger (blue).

The Husqvarna robot mower offers a lot of options, including a weather timer, which coordinates the mowing schedule to the growth of the lawn.

Each work area can operate on a different schedule. In this example, we set the area around the berries to be mowed between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. every day.

This map shows five different mowing areas (green), a number of stay-out zones (red), and the travel paths back to the charger (blue).

Security and privacy don’t appear to be an issue with the app. As we do for all app-based devices, we sent a security and privacy questionnaire to Husqvarna, asking about the company’s security policies and practices for handling a device owner’s data. Among other concerns, that includes login practices, whether the company supports two-factor authentication, what user data is encrypted, and what data is recorded and shared. Husqvarna’s responses were standard for what we’ve seen and didn’t raise any questions.

Not surprisingly, it’s expensive. The mower and charging station together cost about 5,000, and the reference station adds 800. You can purchase the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS only through an authorized dealer, who can do the installation at an additional charge, though we think a moderately handy person should be able to perform the install themselves. That is a lot of money, but the multi-acre capability of the 450XH EPOS, not to mention the convenience, makes it comparable to a riding mower or a zero-turn mower, which are up in the 2,000 to 6,000 range, depending on the size and features. Add in the time you recover by not mowing, maintaining, or winterizing, and the value of this Husqvarna robot mower starts to come into FOCUS.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The app is functional, but it has room for improvement. Using the app is mostly intuitive, but at times we were confused about how to navigate it. We also would have appreciated more mapping features, such as the ability to add a mapping point to an existing work area, and we found other little things, like inconsistencies between metric and US measurements. When we spoke to Husqvarna representatives, they indicated that the app and the satellite technology in general are still evolving, so we expect to see incremental improvements to both.

Satellite coverage can be an issue. During our testing, the Husqvarna mower exceeded its documented capabilities, working fine in many spots where it had no line of sight with the reference station, but it did drop out of satellite communication a couple of times. On occasion, when the mower was operating directly against a two-story structure or under a tree canopy, it would shut itself down, with the message that it was looking for satellites. This happened maybe one in five times it was mowing that area. Often it would recover on its own, but other times we had to manually restart it.

Cloud? Bluetooth? Hello? We had problems connecting to the mower through the Cloud. This was probably due to the lousy cell reception at the test property, and it’s likely not a universal issue, but it did limit what we could do with the mower. Because we could connect only via Bluetooth, we needed to be within close proximity in order to control the mower. So if it was raining out or if it was nighttime, and we wanted to change the schedule or stop the mower, we needed to suit up and head outside, instead of making the changes from our living room.

This mower won’t work for all properties. Most manufacturers we spoke with agreed that there are still some properties where a boundary-wire robot mower is the better fit. Some properties, for example, may have too much tree cover, or they might be simple and small enough for the lower cost of a boundary-wire mower to make more sense. Right now, the Husqvarna Automower 450XH, the boundary-wire version of our pick, costs almost 3,000 less.

What to look forward to

A number of other manufacturers are in the process of releasing their own boundary-free robotic mowers. We are excited to try several firsthand.

Ambrogio, a popular robotic mower manufacturer in Europe, is set to release in the US the 4.36 Elite RTK mower, which shares a lot of features with the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS, including the use of satellite positioning and an app. The specs show similar capabilities between the two models.

The Worx Landroid Vision is a much simpler mower, better equipped for smaller, well-defined lawns. It operates more like a robot vacuum, randomly bopping around the yard until it has cut all of the grass. Instead of requiring a boundary wire or satellite coverage, it uses cameras to determine what is grass and what is not grass. If it sees grass, it cuts; if it sees something that is not grass, it tries to go around. Though this mower does not need a boundary wire, it does need a well-defined yard, one that is preferably enclosed on all four sides by sidewalks, driveways, and a house. This mower is limited in capability in comparison with the Husqvarna model we tested, but it could be a great fit for certain yards. Worx is set to release four versions: 0.25 acre, 0.5 acre, 0.75 acre, and 1 acre. Pricing will range from 2,000 to 3,500, according to company representatives.

The Ambrogio Twenty ZR is similar to the Worx Landroid Vision but uses radar for sensing its surroundings, as opposed to a camera. Currently available, it works on spaces up to a quarter acre and appears to be in the 1,800 price range.

Toro is in the process of releasing a robotic mower, and we’re very curious about it. The technology behind this model sounds like it splits the difference between the simplicity of the Worx Landroid Vision and the complexity of the Husqvarna Automower 450XH EPOS. Like the Worx design, it relies on onboard cameras to find its way around, but it also lets you map out multiple mowing areas and stay-out zones. While it doesn’t have mow patterns, it does offer scheduling. Toro has not released any pricing or availability details, but representatives indicated to us that the cost would be in the range of a zero-turn mower, likely putting it in the 3,000 to 4,000 range.

The competition

We did not consider any models that use a boundary wire. This is a large group of mowers that have come and gone in recent years; the current lineup includes the Husqvarna Automower 430XH, the Robomow RK4000, and the Worx Landroid WR147. Such models may work for some people and situations, but the new boundary-free mowers, though more expensive, offer much more customization, larger work areas, and none of the frustration associated with burying and maintaining a wire perimeter around your lawn. If you have a smaller, well-defined lawn and decide to take this route, we recommend starting your search with Husqvarna, Worx, and Ambrogio.

This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.

The best robotic lawn mowers for 2023

Like the look of robotic lawn mowers? Browse our pick of the very best, for gardens of all shapes and sizes.

Increasingly popular with UK gardeners, robotic lawn mowers are a welcome, hands-free alternative to traditional petrol and electric lawn mowers. Because a robotic lawn mower is fully automatic, it can be a brilliant option for gardeners who have mobility concerns, are away from home a lot, or simply find mowing a chore. Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries, most mowers are guided by a boundary cable laid around the edge of the lawn, which helps the robotic lawn mower identify where to mow and to avoid flower beds, trees and other obstacles.

While we tested models from a number of different brands, note that all of them offer a range of mowers with varying sizes, capabilities and features.

To compare these robotic models against other types of mowers, see our reviews of the best cordless lawn mowers, the best electric mowers and the best push mowers. And, if you’re looking to give your lawn a bit of TLC, our experts have tested a range of manual and powered aerators and scarifiers. check out the best scarifiers and best aerators reviews. You can also keep edges looking neat with our tests of the best strimmers or pick of the best lawn edging.

Best robotic lawn mowers at a glance

Our expertise

To help you find a robotic lawn mower suitable for your garden, we tested a range of mowers for different size gardens, including gardens with slopes and a complex shape. Each mower is in use for weeks at a time to allow us to assess its battery capacity and cutting proficiency as well as ease of use.

Each mower in our review has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to set up and ease of use, cutting performance, extra features and value for money. Every robotic mower in our round-up below has scored a minimum of four out of five stars, so you can buy with confidence.

The robotic mower industry is constantly evolving, with new developemnts and advances, and we are currently testing a number of the latest models ready to update this review shortly. Please check back soon to see the results of our new review.

Best robotic lawn mowers

Husqvarna Automower 405X

RRP: From £1899.00

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

• Unobtrusive colour
• Easy connectivity
• Clever mowing features
• GPS theft tracking

Awarded a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for features, the Automower 405x boasts a huge range of features that help the mower cut well and make the experience easy for the user. These include, three different start points, switching mowing pattern according to where it’s mowing, such as through a narrow passage, frost guard and weather time that automatically adjusts the height according to the grass growth, and its new Rewilding Zone where you can leave 10% of the lawn aside to grow for pollinators.It’s available to buy as a bare mower, which is then installed by a dealer for an additional cost, or with the installation kit included and you install it yourself. Suitable for smaller gardens 600m2, the mower operates with both a boundary wire and a guide wire and unlike some other mowers, has a more flexible docking station, which doesn’t need a wide, clear space around it. ours was tucked neatly into the side of a hedge. It’s also easy to set up via the intuitive keypad or the impressive Automower Connect app, which allows you to change the schedule, adjust the height of cut, check on the mower’s progress and receive notifications, simply and quickly no matter where you are. As an X model, the mower also has a built in SIM so you have both remote and voice controlled control. Our only confusion with set up was working out the scheduling needed, which took a couple of weeks to establish, and that the height of cut on the app is listed as 1-9, when it cuts between 20mm and 50mm.The mower can cope with 40% slopes, which should suit most gardens. The slope in our test garden has a tendency to get muddy and slippery so at the installer’s advice, we used the spiked Terrain wheels which stop the wheels slipping. Only occasionally did the mower fail to get up the slope and when the weather was really wet we simply removed that zone from the work area. The mower cut consistently well and is very quiet, the only perceptible sound is the whirring of the blades as they cut. It occasionally missed spots on the lawn but overall this is a very easy to use and high performing mower.The Automower 405x is just one in a large range of Husqvarna mowers to suit different size lawns. A host of accessories are also available, including a cover for the docking station and wheel brushes, as well as spare parts, from batteries and blades to wheels. Both the mower and the battery come with a 2 year warranty.

Buy the Husqvarna 405X Automower from Sam Turner, Husqvarna and Red Band