Husqvarna Automower Challenge

For a bit of background on this see my first post on this. But, in summary, I am a participant in the automower challenge.

A week away

I've been away for the last week, with Little Shop of Horrors and Audrey II (who the Automower would be no match for I'm sure ;))

Rather unusually for the North of Scotland we've had some really good weather lately (the high today was 26ºC) and a little rainfall earlier in the week - so the grass has grown well.

Automower Connect

Or, keeping in touch with my lawnmower (there's a sentence I never thought I'd type!)

Because the Automower is new, and I was concerned about it getting stuck or otherwise encountering issues I did have a habit of checking the app occasionally; it was always reassuringly Mowing or Charging and didn't encounter any issues being left unattended for the week.

Day 10

The Automower has been running for around 10 days, and a total of 107 hours.

And what a difference it's made...

Maintainence

The manual recommends 'regular' cleaning, but doesn't make any suggestions as to how often this is.

The distributor recommended every 1-2 weeks; with a particular focus on the wheels as trapped grass can impede performance.

Whilst it clearly picked up a lot of grass, the cutting disc and blades were completely clear, and the drive wheels relatively clean and moved freely.

It took around ten minutes to clean it out, not a particularly arduous task, and a lot better than having to cut the grass in the first place!

Frustratingly, there are prominent warnings in the manual that you must not clean it with a pressure washer (or even running water) which is annoying, as it seems that'd be the easiest way.

Comparison

Rather than cut the whole lawn with the Automower, I have elected to cut only around half, this should provide a clear illustration of the difference that Automower makes. The remaining half will be cut as normal by the estate, roughly fortnightly.

Day 1

1 Week Later

Full disclosure: I am participating in a competition that means, in exchange for reviewing these, I do receive a free unit. It does not, however, mean that I'm biased. I will be posting my experience of this little robotic critter over the coming months.