Review of the Friendly Robotics RL1000 RoboMower

I hate mowing the lawn. It is not the sheer sweaty work it entails really. I mean we could all use an extra chore or two to give us some exercise, but I have developed allergies over the years that makes me standing in a freshly cut lawn pure misery. However, I did find a product that prevented me from the weekly task of lawnmowing.

When I first heard of Friendly Robotics RL1000 RoboMower, I was intrigued. A lawnmower that operates itself? Impossible! Well, after I purchased the pricey item that retails for $1000-$1500, I realized that a mostly maintenance-free lawn can be a reality. When I figured it out, even if the mower only lasts me two or three years, it will still be lest costly than hiring a lawn service to do the work.

The hardest part of the mower is the set-up. Set up requires you to perimeter your lawn with this wire that guides the mower to stop at the edge of your lawn. Most people with larger lawns, especially if they aren’t perfectly shaped, are better off “zoning” their lawn into two or three different zones for the RoboMower to cut. I had to zone my lawn, but it did not affect the efficiency of the cut. When the RoboMower needed charging or was done with my lawn, it promptly returned itself to its own docking station to charge. Which is a great feature because I would probably never remember to charge it either!

The best feature of the mower is that you can set a mowing schedule, so the mower will automatically start mowing at a particular time each week or every few days. While the mower will do this all by itself, I don’t recommend operation while you are away from the house. I always worry about someone stealing the mower or it getting overturned or something and burning up the expensive motor. While this hasn’t happened yet, I guess I’m just a little cautious.

I recommend this mower especially to folks with picky homeowner’s associations that want you to cut your grass every other minute or be in fear of a fine. I will say that the mower does cut in a sort of random pattern though, so you won’t get those nice lawn lines that a mowing service will give you. However, it does have an adjustable mowing height so you can cut your yard really short or cut more often and leave your grass a little longer. Also, you will still have to find time to do your edging. The RoboMower doesn’t yet have that capability to cut so close. Still, I find the machine easy to operate once you set it up and it does save an extraordinary amount of time.