This Article Was Last Updated on July 22, 2023
With the advent of robot vacuums in homes, it was only a matter of time. There are now robot lawn mowers that will cut your grass while you watch in awe from inside your home or go about your day. Even better, the price point of these robots are similar to the higher end of manual lawn mowers. As backyard enthusiasts, Scott and I had to test them out to find the equivalent of a robot vacuum’s iRobot or Shark brand. We found the best robot lawn mower and learned a lot in the process. In this article, we’ll teach you our key takeaways.
Best Robot Lawn Mower: Gardena Sileno Automatic Lawn Mower
- Highly intelligent robotic lawn mower: GARDENA SILENO City automatically mows yards up to 5400 sq ft using PATENTED streak-free technology, with easy…
- Precise, silent navigation: Relax in your backyard while SILENO City traverses narrow spaces and tight corners while cutting your grass with one of…
- Safe and reliable: The boundary wire ensures the Robotic Lawn Mower only mows the areas specified while collision sensors ensures the mower operates…
The Gardena Sileno is the best robot lawn mower we tested. It’s sleek in its appearance and operation. It’s quiet output doesn’t disturb neighbors or indoor guests like a traditional lawn mower does.
What To Look To Find The Best Robot Lawn Mower
- Square Footage: This was our highest priority when evaluating the best robot lawn mower. Much like electric vehicles, if the coverage isn’t ideal, the technology is far less useful. While the spectacle of every robotic lawn mower we tested was incredible, some of them aren’t practical, simply because they couldn’t handle a large lawn.
- Slope Coverage: Let’s face it, most folk’s backyards aren’t perfectly flat. Even in gorgeous backyards, there is normally some amount of slope. We looked for robotic lawn mowers that weren’t bothered by small hills or divots in a lawn.
- Passage Width: This can differ depending on your yard, but we believe the best robot lawn mower should be able to cut mow through narrow passage ways. After all, if you have an array of flower beds or walkways, you may want your lawn mower to cut in between. Some of the less technologically savvy models did not make the cut (pun-intended) because they wouldn’t accommodate a narrow width.
- Noise Emissions: When we began looking for the best robot lawn mower we quickly added noise as a key piece of criteria. We could not fathom how noisy some popular models were. Of course, some manual lawn mowers can be loud, but an electric and robotic one should not be detectable. Our expectations were that robot lawn mowers should be quieter similar to how robot vacuums are compared to regular vacuums. However, only the Gardena was noticeably quiet.
Best Robot Lawn Mower Reviews
How Does A Robot Lawn Mower Work?
Robot lawn mowers look and work similar to indoor robot vacuums. They move around automatically, understand where they’ve been recently and plug themselves back in to a charging dock. However, they do have one major difference.
Backyards don’t always have walls or boundaries around their perimeter. Therefore, you as the homeowner must do some setup work. Otherwise your robot lawn mower might wander off, cutting your neighbor’s grass or falling into a hole. The setup work entails using a long wire and some small posts. You essentially outline your backyard, telling the robot lawn mower where it can mow.
Just like an indoor robot vacuum, robot lawn mowers require charging. They come with a charging dock that is placed somewhere on the perimeter of your lawn. The robot lawn mower will return there when it’s low on charge to dock and replenish its energy. You shouldn’t need to plug in your robot, it will do it automatically unless something is blocking return access.
How Much Does A Robot Lawn Mower Cost?
Robot lawn mowers are in an affordable yet not entirely practical price range. They’re more expensive than the $200 – $400 robot vacuums for homes. However, they’re not thousands of dollars, either. One of the best robot lawn mower devices will be roughly $750 – $1,000. Surely there are more and less expensive models, but this is the ballpark.
This may sound like a lot of money and you’re not wrong. However, a quality manual lawn mower can easily exceed $500. Therefore, for the added convenience, a few hundred dollars more may make sense. Ultimately, it comes down to how unpleasant you find mowing your lawn.
Best Robot Lawn Mower Summary
Robot lawn mowers are still in their infancy, but that shouldn’t deter you from buying one. The most impressive model we tested was the Gardena Sileno robot lawn mower. It’s important to look for a large square foot coverage, high slope tolerance and fair price point. The convenience of having a robot mow your lawn