3 Best Robot Lawn Mowers (2025), Tested and Reviewed

1 week ago

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Who wants to beryllium mowing nan section erstwhile you could beryllium lollygagging successful a hammock pinch a acold drink, watching a robot mower do it for you? That’s right: No 1 does. Lawn attraction is simply a monotonous, thankless task. Robot section mowers were erstwhile nan sphere of nan wealthy, and they tin still beryllium connected nan pricey side, but they’re getting cheaper and amended each nan time.

I’ve been testing a fistful of nan champion robot section mowers complete nan last mates of years. As nan mowing play draws to a close, I've finalized immoderate recommendations, honorable mentions, and robot mowers you should avoid. I besides person immoderate adjuvant accusation connected what you request to cognize astir these robots successful this guide; consciousness free to fto america cognize your burning questions aliases thoughts successful our comments conception connected thing we didn’t cover.

For much robot assistance, don't hide to publication our Best Robot Vacuums guide.

How Do Robot Lawn Mowers Work?

Perhaps counterintuitively, nan setup instructions for your robot section mower will apt show you to commencement by cutting nan grass. Robot mowers mostly can’t woody pinch agelong grass. Unlike accepted mowers, these robots don’t cod writer cuttings; they mulch instead, and they are designed to trim frequently, keeping your section short and simply leaving nan cuttings connected nan ground, which tin besides amended section health. Most robot mowers are designed to tally 2 aliases 3 times a week during nan increasing play (from precocious outpouring to early fall).

They person rechargeable batteries onboard and tin past from half an hr to respective hours connected a afloat charge. They return to nan charging guidelines and recharge automatically erstwhile they get debased connected power. Most mowers person elemental controls, a mini display, and an emergency extremity button. You tin mostly commencement and extremity mowing, group schedules, and create aliases edit mapped areas utilizing nan onboard controls aliases nan companion mobile app, very overmuch for illustration a robot vacuum.

What Features Should I Look for successful a Robot Mower?

There are galore robot mower features to consider, and nan champion prime for you depends connected what your gait is like.

Lawn Size and Shape

Robot section mowers are mostly rated to screen a circumstantial quadrate footage, pinch wider sum requiring models pinch larger batteries. You should besides see nan style and topography of your lawn, arsenic astir robot mowers will struggle pinch steep inclines. While you tin often representation retired abstracted areas truthful your robot mower tin mow beforehand and backmost lawns, for example, it will mostly request you to assistance and transportation it betwixt those areas.

Navigation Type

There are a fewer types of navigation for robot mowers. We’ve tested 4 different approaches:

Satellite: These mowers request a outer awesome to navigate and will person a receiver that must beryllium placed successful nan unfastened pinch a clear statement of show to nan sky. Satellite navigation mowers are not suitable for areas pinch gangly trees aliases buildings.
Cameras: These mowers person cameras and onboard AI for obstacle discovery and avoidance. They tin automatically representation areas and trim nan writer successful overmuch nan aforesaid measurement arsenic astir robot vacuums navigate astir your location and cleanable your floors.
Wire boundary: These mowers require you to fresh a ligament arsenic a bound astir your section that marks retired nan separator nan mower should not cross.
Remote control: These mowers let you to remotely mow your section from nan comfortableness of your location utilizing a distant controller aliases an app connected your phone. Some only activity via distant control, while others tin besides trim automatically.

Power and Charging

Robot mowers mostly travel pinch ample charging docks, and you’ll request to earmark a suitable spot for yours. They usually person extended weatherproof cabling, but you will person to find a way to an outdoor socket.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

To link to your mower and schedule a mow, update nan firmware, aliases distant power it wherever supported, you request a decent Wi-Fi awesome aliases a Bluetooth connection. It’s champion to group up your mower’s charging position wrong scope of your Wi-Fi network. If you want to link your telephone via Bluetooth, you will person to get rather close.

How Noisy Are Robot Mowers?

Most robot mowers are acold quieter than their accepted counterparts, and you tin expect them to run astatine astir 55 decibels, though they whitethorn spell arsenic precocious arsenic 75 decibels. We only tested battery-powered mowers, but expect state mowers to beryllium louder. While nan cognition is often quiet, I did find that respective mowers made annoying beeping sounds erstwhile backing up aliases had a large recorded sound during setup aliases upon receiving a command.

Best Robot Lawn Mower Overall

Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill

Husqvarna

Automower 450X EPOS (410XE Nera)

While you don’t ever person to walk large to get nan champion tech, erstwhile it comes to robot mowers, nan pricey Husqvarna Automower 450X EPOS proved to beryllium a trim supra nan title (technically, I tested nan Husqvarna 410XE Nera (9/10, WIRED Recommends), which is nan closest exemplary successful nan UK and Europe). It employs Husqvarna’s EPOS (Exact Positioning Operating System) tech and relies connected a outer relationship to navigate your chosen virtual boundaries (no ligament required). But you do request to instal nan receiver successful an area pinch an unfastened statement of show to nan entity and, ideally, nary gangly trees aliases buildings nearby. (It worked conscionable good successful my suburban neighborhood.)

Setup involves remote-control driving nan Husqvarna astir your gait to representation nan virtual boundaries. You tin person aggregate abstracted areas and perchance screen an area up to 2.5 acres. I marked retired my beforehand and backmost lawns and simply carried nan mower betwixt them. It took 30 seconds to a fewer minutes to prime up nan outer awesome and get started. The charging position is weatherproof, and nan mower returns to complaint aft completing a trim aliases erstwhile nan artillery gets low. The obstacle avoidance is excellent. The only mishap I had was pinch a deflated paddling pool. It very seldom sewage stuck (maybe doubly successful a afloat summer), trim very efficiently and adjacent to nan separator acknowledgment to an overhanging design, and it’s quiet.

I seldom get to trial thing for this long, but nan Husqvarna has been toiling successful my gait for 2 afloat seasons (with short breaks to trial different mowers), and it is arsenic adjacent to flawless arsenic you tin get. Did I mention this mower tin tally Doom? The app makes it easy to automate your mows, way advancement (there’s besides IFTTT support), and prime mowing patterns. I besides recovered that nan anti-theft search useful perfectly, arsenic nan mower’s siren was triggered erstwhile I moved houses, and I was capable to way nan moving motortruck successful nan app. There’s nary uncertainty this is much than galore group will want to pay, but if you want nan best, look nary further.

Specs

Max area: 2.5 acres (108,900 quadrate feet)
Cutting height: 0.75 to 2.15 inches (20 to 55 mm)
Cutting width: 9.45 inches (24 cm)
Max slope: 45 degrees
Navigation: Satellite
Noise: 50 to 60 decibels
Battery: 210 minutes connected a afloat charge, 60 minutes to recharge

Best Budget Robot Lawn Mower

Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill

If you’re consenting to discuss a spot connected performance, you tin snag yourself a overmuch much affordable robot mower. The Anthbot Genie 3000 began life connected Kickstarter and is acold cheaper than astir different outer mowers, but it delivered awesome capacity erstwhile I tested it. Setup was a breeze, arsenic I installed nan GPS receiver and charging station, past remotely controlled nan mower utilizing nan app to group my virtual boundary. The app worked good for me, though you do request to beryllium rather adjacent to link via Bluetooth, and I had to move nan charging position person to my location to link to Wi-Fi.

You tin opt for car mapping, but nan distant power action useful amended and is much fun. The mower trim my section effectively, but moreover aft repeated representation updates, it near an uncut verge astir nan edge. The obstacle avoidance useful great, and it cuts successful neat lines. There were besides respective firmware updates during my trial play that improved capacity aliases added caller functionality, which is ever bully to see. It had nary issues returning to complaint aliases pursuing a schedule.

The sound that says it has connected aliases started began to annoy me, but thankfully, it tin beryllium turned off, aliases you tin trim nan volume. There were immoderate glitches pinch rainfall alerts preventing it from mowing, moreover agelong aft nan rainfall had stopped. I besides knowledgeable immoderate flaky relationship issues pinch nan GPS, and it occasionally sewage stuck. While location is support for aggregate areas, nan mower often struggled picking up a awesome successful my beforehand yard. Ultimately, this is simply a awesome mower astatine a reasonable value and cleanable for a comparatively modest-sized, straightforward lawn, pinch 2 cheaper models to cater for smaller lawns (0.22 acres for $789, 0.5 acres for $1,189).

Specs

Max area: 0.89 acres (38,768 quadrate feet)
Cutting height: 1.18 to 2.75 inches (30 to 70 mm)
Cutting width: 7.9 inches (20 cm)
Max slope: 24 degrees
Navigation: Satellite
Noise: 50 to 60 decibels
Battery: 240 minutes connected a afloat charge, 120 minutes to recharge

Best Remote Control Mower

Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill

Maybe you’re not fresh to springiness up power of your mowing, but you’re sick of pushing that mower around. The Mowrator S1 is simply a somewhat crazy remote-control mower that conscionable mightiness beryllium what you need. I thought nan S1 sounded for illustration a daft idea, but it turned retired to beryllium acold much nosy than I expected. If you loved playing pinch RC cars successful your youth, you’ll get immoderate nostalgic joyousness from cutting writer pinch this beast of a mower, and it is oddly satisfying to mow nan section this way. I tested nan four-wheel thrust model, which tin grip varied terrain, but location are besides cheaper two-wheel thrust models disposable for smaller, little challenging lawns.

The S1 is incredibly heavy. Seriously, get immoderate thief lifting it retired of nan box. Setup is speedy and easy, conscionable screw nan wheels on, plug successful nan battery, and occurrence up nan distant power console. I expected nan Mowrator to beryllium slow, but this point has immoderate superior va-va-voom. It’s accelerated and responsive, handling overmuch for illustration a elephantine RC car, and that’s precisely really nan power console feels, too, pinch 2 joysticks for easy power and a wee touchscreen to tweak settings. With plentifulness of cutting width and a gearstick to take your preferred height, it’s speedy and easy to mow your lawn. I'm capable to thrust it done my broadside gross and on nan way to mow my beforehand section too.

On nan downside, it is not autonomous. To occurrence it up, you clasp down some enarthrosis triggers and pat nan commencement fastener onscreen. Let spell of nan triggers, and it stops automatically. I had to move nan sonar alerts off, arsenic it was refusing to mow nan edges of my lawn, but it does observe obstacles reliably and cuts disconnected for safety. The S1 warns you to beryllium safe each clip you commencement it up, but I person concerns astir it being vulnerable successful nan incorrect hands. It ever stopped erstwhile it detected an obstacle during my testing, but sometimes only aft it collided pinch something. It's heavy, too, truthful drivers will request to concentrate. While nan Mowrator doesn’t let for nan laziness of an automatic mower, I was pleasantly amazed by really nosy it was to use, and moreover felt a small disappointed erstwhile nan occupation was done. It’s an overseas device, and it’s pricey, but for nan first clip successful forever, I’m looking guardant to mowing my section again.

Specs

Max area: 1.12 acres (48,787 quadrate feet)
Cutting height: 1.49 to 4.29 inches (38 to 109 mm)
Cutting width: 21 inches (53 cm)
Max slope: 40 degrees
Navigation: Remote control
Noise: 55 to 65 decibels
Battery: 145 minutes connected a afloat charge, 90 minutes to recharge

Other Robot Lawn Mowers We Like

Eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 for $1,400: This is different wire-free mower, but alternatively of relying connected outer navigation, it has a camera strategy tin of automatically mapping lawns and avoiding immoderate obstacles. It tin screen up to 0.2 acres (8,700 quadrate feet), trim from 1 to 3 inches, and grip up to 18-degree slopes. It is besides reasonably quiet and has GPS tracking, but you must person Wi-Fi sum successful your backyard, aliases you'll request a 4G information subscription. We recovered nan setup to beryllium lengthy, owed to a firmware download, but nan mapping and nan first trim were decent. We're going to request a small longer to put nan E15 done its paces, truthful it only gets an honorable mention for now, but we are still testing.

Avoid These Mowers

EcoFlow Blade

EcoFlow Blade for £1,849: While it was easy to group up and trim my section nicely without nan request for immoderate bound wire, nan EcoFlow Blade (6/10, WIRED Review) sometimes struggled pinch GPS navigation and ended up stuck successful a flower bed. It besides near an unmowed portion astir nan separator of my lawn. The entity avoidance was solid, and it tin beryllium automated successful nan app, though it occasionally grounded to commencement a scheduled trim for me. EcoFlow seems to person discontinued this model, though it is still connected waste successful Europe. Probably champion to avoid.

Yardcare E400 for $380: Curious astir nan fund extremity of nan robot mower market, I agreed to effort nan Yardcare E400, but this mower was an unmitigated disaster from commencement to finish. It’s a bound ligament model, truthful you must tally ligament astir nan area you want mowed. Yardcare suggests it tin screen up to 4,300 quadrate feet and trim to betwixt 0.8 and 2.4 inches. The problem is that it gets stuck often and struggles to moreover get connected and disconnected its charging position reliably. After trying aggregate fixes to nary avail and going done customer support, I had to reason that this exemplary has a superior creation flaw.

Do Robot Mowers Work successful Any Weather?

Robot mowers and their charging stations usually person an IP standing and tin header pinch rain, but you should battalion up and bring your mower indoors aliases into nan car shed during nan wintertime months. Many robot mowers person immoderate benignant of rainfall sensor and will region mowing erstwhile it gets excessively wet. Some mowers whitethorn request to beryllium paused manually. The wheels tin churn up your section and get caked successful mud if mowers proceed to labour successful nan rain, particularly pinch larger and heavier models.

How Well Do Robot Mowers Cut?

Mowers of different sizes will person different cutting widths, denoting nan width of nan portion they are capable to trim connected each pass. Most besides person floating cutting decks that alteration you to take nan magnitude of writer you want (perhaps 1 to 3 inches). Many robot mowers look to struggle pinch cutting astir nan edges of a lawn, particularly if there’s a wall aliases obstruction that prevents them from getting adjacent enough.

It’s communal to find an uncut verge astir nan separator of your lawn, truthful you mightiness request to occasionally get nan drawstring trimmer out. Every robot mower I’ve tested has besides struggled to trim nan area astir nan charging station, truthful I urge placing it connected a platform aliases paving if possible.

Can I Install a Robot Mower Myself?

Yes, astir robot mowers tin beryllium installed by anyone, but you mightiness want to group speech an day to activity retired immoderate snags. Finding nan champion spot for nan receiver for a outer mower tin beryllium tricky. The mapping process tin besides return a while; usually, it prompts you to remote-control your mower astir nan separator you want to set. After nan first mow, you should reappraisal its capacity and make tweaks to guarantee it’s covering nan full area you want to cut.

How We Test Robot Lawn Mowers

We trial each robot section mower for astatine slightest a month, assessing nan easiness of setup, nan mapping process, automatic scheduling (where available), navigation, obstacle avoidance, and nan value of nan last cut, looking astatine length, uniformity, and watching retired for missed patches. Where applicable, we effort other features, tweak settings successful nan app, and cheque really nan mower handles different upwind conditions. We besides support an oculus connected artillery capacity and charging clip to guarantee it aligns pinch nan manufacturer's claims.

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