Friendly Robotics RL850 RoboMower 21-Inch Automatic Cordless Electric Lawn Mower

Reviews of Friendly Robotics RL850 RoboMower 21-Inch Automatic Cordless Electric Lawn Mower

1.) By Golly, It Works
Reviewed by: KMW NH
Rating:

My paid lawn care service bailed out on me and left me high and dry with no mower and a lawn that was beginning to look like a hayfield. I added up the money I paid others to mow my lawn last year, and decided that if the Robomower worked, and lasted 1-1/2 years, I'd be even, and wouldn't have to give up my evenings after work and brave the mosquitoes and black flies.

I love it. I'm stretching its capabilities in terms of lawn size and inclines, but the little thing just keeps chugging along. I have it set to high clearance and a high cut, and it is handling my very uneven lawn with no problems. It took two mows per zone to transform my badly overgrown lot into a groomed lawn. The cut is good, just like my riding-mower or push-mower neighbors' except without the lines. The Robomower mulches beautifully, leaving no evidence of clippings on top of the grass.

I start the mower when I get home from work. While it mows, I'm inside doing all the other evening chores, and then relaxing. It keeps on mowing after the sun goes down, and it's so quiet that you won't disturb the neighbors if it finishes up at 10 PM. (Just remember to bring a flashlight to find where it has stopped when it is time to bring it in!)

While you can just set it up and go, to get the best cut be prepared to spend a little time optimizing things after you've seen it run a couple times: adjusting the perimeter wire, and changing zone configurations if you need to. I started out with two zones, but changed to three, given the size(10,000 sq ft+) and irregular shape of my lawn. I may get the optional fast charger so I can mow more than one zone per day.

Side effect: You will get passers-by stopping to stare and chat. It is a definite conversation starter.

Added over two years later: Still working, and I'm still happy with it.

2.) Does exactly what I expected, and does it well
Reviewed by: KMW NH
Rating:

Love it.

I bought this mower at the start of last summer, calculating that if it lasted a year and a half or more, I'd break even on what I was paying a lawn service to mow my yard.

I have an fairly uneven yard, with some steep parts. Set to the highest mow, robomower easily navigates the rough spots, and manages the slopes well. Robomower takes a lot longer to mow a lawn than it would take you to do it manually, but since you are off doing something else, and robomower can work in the dark, that doesn't matter at all.

Be prepared to experiment with the perimeter wire. I found dividing my front, side, and back yard into three zones was the best choice for me. Do the final complete pegging after you've run the mower a few times and know the wire is in the right place. If you have multiple zones and live in a part of the country where mowing days are limited by frequent rain, get an extra battery and/or the fast charger, so you can mow more than one zone per day when you get the chance.

The mowing pattern is not up and down in lines, but in angled criss-crossing, leaving lots of gaps at first, so you won't see a clean mow until it's done. But when it is, the cut is very nice: a smooth buzz cut with no lines, mulched finely leaving no clumps. My neighbor, who bought a riding mower just before he saw my robomower, agrees. After watching it all summer, he came over to say, "This thing does a really nice job. And you don't have to be outside with the mosquitos...."

So, now, when I get home from work on a dry day, I put the mower out in the next zone that needs done, and go in and let my cats out. Later in the evening, I go out and fetch the mower and let the cats in. My lawn gets regularly mowed and has never looked better.

3.) Works great! Wire placement takes time.
Reviewed by: al_martinez Weston, Fl USA
Rating:

Look, this took me 2 hours to write and edit just right because I'm passionate about my robotic lawnmower so give me the courtesy of reading this in full and then decide for yourself.

I live in Florida and can handle edging and blowing, but not mowing. I have about 1/4 acre of grass and my property is an L shaped corner lot.
Why did I buy a Robomower rather than hiring a service? This was a no brainer decision. Pay $140 per month to have someone MowBoe mow my lawn no matter what month of the year it is (quick math $1680/year), OR.. pay about $1000 and have Wilson mow the lawn more often and be rid of the deafening noise of the lawn service's equipment. PLUS SAVE MONEY!

How much of a savings? In my case about $2000 in two years. If this mower lasts 2 years it has paid for itself two times over, but from what I read, this bot lasts much longer. The longer it lasts, the more money I save.

I considered the 1000 series, but my lawn's area isn't that large and the docking station doesn't really make things exciting for me.

Wilson is my Robomower. Yes, I named it, I admit it. I name robots, it's tradition.... or it will be in a few decades. I also have a Roomba SAGE called Rosie and a Roomba Scooba called Willie. Robots are the way to go, even though they are really god awful stupid.... for now anyway.

I read all the reviews I could find on the RL850. Generally speaking they gave it two thumbs up except for the on board settings. I read the manual 2 times because I don't have a life and I didn't find anything too difficult to understand about the settings. If you can program your answering machine, you can do this.

HOW IT WORKS
There are 2 main settings you decide for the robot. The first one is follow the wire loop you laid down first then mow inside of it, this setting is called (EDGE), normally it would skip the edge so you have to tell it. It's just a push of 2 buttons. There is a second separate feature you can set called (WIDE SCAN), this allows the mower to take longer passes before it decides to turn to another compass heading.
This should be set after watching the robot mow your lawn a few times. It's for efficiency, you really don't need to do this if you don't have the time.. but like I said.. I don't have a life so I don't mind looking out of my window watching my mower do it's thing for an hour or two. Oh yeah, I'm the talk of the neighborhood alright. Yup, there's that crazy guy watching his robots again.

Basically, the Wilson unit has a built in compass and knows the direction it is cutting (for example North to South). Wilson cuts in a tight zig zag fashion meaning it moves south until it hits an obstacle or detects the wire then moves a little to the right and moves north. Back and forth it goes, at some point, Wilson decides to change the direction of the cut.

There will be uncut globs here and there, don't worry, somehow the idiot programming runs over these spots and your lawn will look perfectly mowed as if someone did it with a precision shaver. Yes, it's that good. It's like a barber cut my lawn, just keep those blades sharp. By the way, it handles small branches very well.

Remember, you MUST lay down the wire first. The bot will look for a signal from the wire or it won't turn on. A nice safety feature.

LAYING DOWN THE WIRE
Depending on the layout of your lawn, it may take you a few hours as the manual suggests, but my L shaped lot with a white picket fence smack in between and a detached garage has taken 3 days of planning, experimentation and installation. 3 zones have been laid out.
Nevertheless, if you have a less complex lawn configuration than mine, such as a big square you should be done quicker.
For multiple zones, I suggest you lay out only one zone first. ONE ZONE! Then try the bot out to see how it handles the layout. This will help you make adjustments and better layout decisions for the other zones. This may take more time at first but it's better than pulling up stakes and readjusting. That can get very messy.

Burying the wire 3 to 6 inches in the ground is not a problem for the mower. I have it going under my brick paved walkway. No problems with navigation. You don't need to bury the wire, just clear the way for the wire with an edger, wet the ground, then lay the wire on top of the grass and brush your hand over the grass so it hides in between the grassblades. Over time, the grass will grow over the wire.

The wire must be laid out in a big loop around your lawn then meeting back to a simple transmitter coupling. Don't rely on a fence to be a perimiter for you. Robomower will not do a good job bumping in to many things because it shuts the blades off, backs off then turns the blades on after it moves which is another safety feature I like. If you have trees it's ok to have it bump the tree, but bushes or flower beds must have the perimiter wire around them.

SUGGESTIONS
PLAN AHEAD! MEASURE! Make sure you have enough wire. The RL 850 box contains 4 bags of 50 stakes each. Plan to punch a stake every 3 feet or so. They give you 500 feet of wire which is good for 4 bags of stakes. If you need more wire buy it but don't cheap out on the stakes. I've caught Wilson's front wheel snagging the wire and pulling on it because I tried to cheap out on the stakes and used less than I should. Of course if you bury the wire this will not be a problem.

Remember, I am saving at least $500 for the first year and over $1500 fore every year afterwards having Wilson doing my lawn with very little elbow grease of my own. I want the wire to be there permanently without any snags so It's dumb to cheap out on the installation.

WHY ELECTRIC OVER GAS
I had it up to here with gas engines! I've given up on them which is why I contemplated a lawn service. Oh, they start up right away at first, but then it's maintenance time and cramps from pulling and tugging on that start rope. I threw out more sweat trying to start the darn things than to actually mow! Then it's the oil, the expensive fuel, yada yada yada...
Electric motors have more torque than gas motors and are QUIET!!!

Wilson was so quiet, I went and purchased a Black and Decker 18v cordless edger and a Black and Decker 18v cordless blower and gave away my gas engine edger and blower. Now I can edge my lawn at midnight and my neighbors won't even know it. Try that with a pull push tug skanky gas hog that breaks down and not to mention gets VERY HOT!

A riding mower doesn't do it for me. I look like a weeble in the first place and will make my neighbors laugh. Also, the noise, the gas, and I still have to edge and blow. PLUS! The riding mower is MORE EXPENSIVE! And I have to store it! Wilson fits under a shelf in my garage. It takes less space than a walk behind mower. Do the math.

HAVE DOGS?
I have two Shepherds. Beautiful, courageous and strong. Besides giving everyone a second thought before coming close to the house, they have one genetic quark. After a good dump they like to wipe their bear claws in the lawn, tearing in to it. This airates the ground somewhat so it's good, but take this in to consideration when you are laying down wire. My male shepherd I call Monster already ripped up a wire without knowing. He's a good boy, so now I have to make sure he doesn't do his business by the edge of the fence. This is a training period for both man, animal and robot.

Lawn... the primal fronteer... the everending saga of man over veggie and the pursuit of perfection.

The Lawn Weeble

4.) LOVE IT!
Reviewed by: Aileen USA
Rating:

Looks like a lot of the reviews that are negative talk about RoboMowers they've owned for at least two years. That would mean they're usually talking about the old models, the RL500 or 550. (Lots of upgrades since then for the "getting stuck" issues, but I cannot speak to the reliability yet.) My review is for the RL850, which is listed here. This mower does exactly what they say it will do. I have had absolutely NO problems whatsoever. My front yard has a pretty steep slope, which causes no trouble at all. My back yard has a crabgrass problem, also no trouble for the RoboMower. I set it out, it does it's thing. When it's finished I spend about 5 minutes getting a couple of narrow points that the RoboMower can't reach, and I'm done. My boyfriend who likes to mow (I've always hated it) says I've spoiled him now that he's seen the "finer things" and wants to setup his own yard to use it! The grass looks great when it's finished, no raking as the pieces of grass are chopped very finely. I would buy it again in a minute.

5.) Robo Mower delivers perfect cut ! First season's review added. Second season's review added
Reviewed by: Turbo Tony Cleveland, Ohio USA
Rating:

I just purchased my RL 850 from Amazon and installed the wire last weekend. I gave my lawn it's first Robo-cut.
The lawn looks like it got one of those professional haircuts. Looks like a golf course. No visible tire tracks anywhere.
It did take me 4-5 hours to stake the wire and adjust the edges by myself - and that was only the back yard (roughly 100'x75' with one landscaped island).
It took approximately 2 to 2-1/2 hours to mow a lawn I can cut in 45 mins. But I managed to get a nice sun tan on my lounge chair while IT was working.
If not for the picnic table obstructing the path of the Robomower, it would have done the job all by itself. I had to modifiy its course to finish cutting an area the table kept blocking it from. And it did get hung-up once backing up onto some tree roots (lifted off the ground and didn't make contact - wheels kept spinning). I have a few trees it just bumped into and backed away from.
So I guess I can't let Robo do it's thing unattended - at least not yet - and the instructions tell you NEVER to do that anyway).
As I develop more trust in the mower, I'll probably get some other chores done while it does the back yard (if I can tear myself away from watching the silly thing doing its job - looks like a turtle).
I'm considering purchasing more wire and perimeter switch for the front yard - but crossing over the sidewalk and driveway seems a bit complicated and perhaps hazardous (blades over concrete).
Now I need a clever name for it. Any suggestions?
Highly recommended product for those who have better things to do than walk up and down - back and forth - across their lawns - once or twice a week. Get it on sale tho!
Turbo Tony

Robomower and Roomba vacuum - anyone invent the home car washing robot yet?

Updated Nov 6, 2007:

I just finished my first season with the RL850 Robomower. What a delight!
The minor problem I had with it getting stuck on large tree roots - fixed by pounding a few stakes next to the roots.
"Bobby" delivers a near perfect cut each time. It does miss a very small patch or two every now and then - but so what - it gets it the next time.
The only regret was spending the money to buy this thing so that I could get more leisure time - but as it turned out - my 16 yr old son is the one who got the extra time off! Now he only cuts the smaller front and side grass with the noisy old Toro. Did I mention NOISY? I really got used to the "sounds of silence", well, ok, sounds of humming - while Bobby cut the lawn. It's to the point where I throw mean looks at my neighbor every time he cuts his lawn with his loud gas mower while Im trying to lay-out back and catch a few rays. If only everyone ( or at least both of my neighbors ) had one of these.

Consider this an endorsement. The thing works. And it's good for the environment ( can I use it as a tax write-off ? hmmmmmm..... )

Updated August 24th, 2008:

"Bobby" is nearing the end of his second season of mowing my lawn (got maybe 1-2 months left). It's performing like new. I charged the battery last Winter per online advice - remove the battery from the mower and charge for 24 hours once a month. It still runs for over 3 hours in it's second season. Love the cut and my wife says I'm getting lazier every day. Gotta love it! Thinking about buying more wire and another perimeter switch for the front yard (probably only 1/2 the front since my driveway splits the lawn).

Tony

6.) Love My RoboMower 850
Reviewed by: JGC DFW, TX USA
Rating:

I bought the RoboMower 850 several months ago, and I couldn't be more pleased with its performance. I have a really huge yard, which I divided into 3 zones, and the RoboMower does a great job. I am having a great time gardening while it mows the lawn, and chatting with curious folks who stop to ask about it. The green perimeter wire, which is staked at ground level, is easily adjusted to accomodate new flower beds, trees, and shrubs. The 850 model still has its "voice" and the sound effects, tunes, and speech are a hoot.

7.) Love it!
Reviewed by: MBW Pennsylvania
Rating:

It is just about the end of my first summer spent watching Mo cut the grass in our zone 6 Pennsylvania yard. It is a delight not to be doing the work myself. If Mo misses a spot I do not care because I AM NOT MOWING. Yippee.

Yes, it takes time and perserverence to lay the wire. I make my own pegs from wire coat hangers and I use 14 gauge wire from Home Depot because the supplies from this maker are just too high priced. The blades will probably have to be replaced (too many stones were hit this year) and the battery still seems fine after one summer of mowing 1/3 acre every week.

I have learned to use Mo only in dry weather - comments made by other reviewers are true, he does make a mess in mud and the deck does indeed get clogged with wet grass. But so did my big old gas powered Toro, which I do not miss.

You will like this mower if you are opposed to feeding and coddling lawn. MY "yard" was mainly weeds and turfgrass last May. Mo is set to mow high - 3" - and I can already see the improvement. The higher cut is allowing grass to crowd out weeds, with the result that there is more grass. The robot does a good job, costs over a three year period will be less than I would have paid the lawn service, and as for the edges, who really cares whether they are the neatest in town?

I love this thing.

8.) WOW!!!
Reviewed by: P. Henry Runaway Bay, TX United States
Rating:

What can you say about Friendly Robotics but "WOW" and keep up the good work. I can't wait for your next product. Your mower has saved me so much time and effort and it makes my grass healthier. What more could you ask for?!!! Thank you

9.) mower of the future
Reviewed by: Big Pumpkin
Rating:

Having been using it for a month so far, I have no complaints about this mower. It just works beautifully! I encountered no problem when following the DVD instruction to set up the perimeter wires. All my friends who have seen it in action were wow'ed too. My 21-month-old son also keeps asking me to get "Rob" out.

One caveat: it can't handle the scope in part of my yard. To be fair, the slope would have been hard for regular walk-behind mowers as well. If you have a hilly yard, don't expect this mower to go where walk-behind mowers cannot mow.

10.) rl850
Reviewed by: Robert A. West
Rating:

this is a great machine. the art is in laying the wire. it is a great product. i have had mine over two years. it works like the they say. it mows excellent. i love to watch the neighbors push their lawn mower, and put expensive gas into their lawn mower. i sit on the deck an watch it go. the support center in louisville, ky is excellent. i have been there and seen it. the man, Tyler knows the machines. if there is a problem, his staff of, polite, young automaited technicians, will fix your machine. this the machine to buy, with super support.

Robert West
Indianapolis, IN

11.) NEW FRIENDLY ROBOTICS MOWER
Reviewed by: DESERT FLOWER SEMINOLE,TEXAS
Rating:

EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE. MUCH BETTER MOWER THAN THE FIRST ONE DEVELOPED.

ONLY COMPLAINT IS THAT IT TAKES TOO LONG TO RECEIVE SPARE BATTERY PACK. ORDERED IN APRIL, RECEIVED IN JULY. THIS REALLY NEEDS TO BE IMPROVED.

LINDA ROBINSON
SEMINOLE,TEXAS

12.) fannnntastic
Reviewed by: tumax dallas,tx
Rating:

I ordered two in June ( one for me and one for my dad for fathers day ) and we both love them they work tirelessly and do a great job. Now if only they would come out with a robot weed eater/edger. Also, I ordered another for my neighbor for her birthday and they sent the wrong one so, I returned it am awaiting an exchange for the right one. Is it going to come or do I have to re-order?

13.) Does exactly what I expected, and does it well
Reviewed by: KMW NH
Rating:

The Robomower is the best product I have ever used. I never mow my lawn! My Robomower's mow my lawn for me. This product works. I have an RL 1000 and and RL 800. I have used this product for 5 years. I have had zero problems with either the RL 1000 or the RL 800. I have one mower do my front lawn and the other do the back.
I strongly suggest thsi product. I live in Alabama!

15.) Very useful tool
Reviewed by: Xiaoyan Chen
Rating:

I purchased RL850 in July 2008. I have beening using it almost every afternoon except when it rains. So far, I am pleased with this purchase. The instruction is easy to follow and the operation is very simple.

16.) An honest view...
Reviewed by: Jace Cisnero Tennessee
Rating:

First off let me say I've seen a mix of reviews. Most of them have been positive, but a few negative ones as well.

I will discuss the negative points fully since they should be mentioned, but they are far outweighed by all of the positive things I can say about this mower, which is why I have given it four stars. I would, and should give it five stars, but I want people to know how I honestly feel and I want them to read the negative points so they can decide if this is best for them.

The subjects I will cover are setup, use, upkeep, quality, and price.

Setup (Three stars): First off, this is by far the worst section. I can see a lot of potential for someone to set their mower up in an improper fashion resulting in limited performance, but if you keep in mind that this mower is supposed to help you overcome the bulk of your yard work keep in mind it doesn't do everything.

It works as has been noted by many people by placing a wire around the perimeter of your yard. Let me say that this is best achieved by breaking your yard up into sections, especially if you have a medium to large sized yard (half to full acre).

Getting the wire just right is the hardest part, and the wire is supposed to be held in place by special plastic stakes that nail it down. The package comes with 200 of these pegs and for any good sized yard it's not nearly enough since they really need to be close together to keep the wire from becoming loose enough for the mower to snag itself on. Alternatively, you can bury the wire up to six inches into the ground which I highly recommend if you have that patience and tools. Otherwise either buy extra stakes when you purchase your mower, or do as I did and visit your local department start and aquire some relatively cheap plastic tent-stakes since this can work out cheaper for you in the end.

Next is the issue of the wire itself. 500 feet is included and the officially available 16 gauge solid copper wire they make available for purchase is severely overpriced (nearly $50). Since 500 feet was barely large enough to do cover my front yard I had to buy 1000 extra feet. After some research I discovered that 14 gauge THHN solid copper wire which is available at most hardware stores works equally well (if not a little better due to it's stiffness) and is much cheaper (around $16 for 500 feet).

Setting the wire up is tedious and will require some adjustments and I feel that the process is a little more involved than they make it out to be. It took me the greater part of three days to get the wire setup in such a way that I was fully satisfied with it, and even still I can find areas that require an extra stake because the mower has worked them a little loose. Luckily I haven't manage to get one snagged yet, but this is because I've been supervising it closely to make sure it doesn't mow over a stretch that is too loose.

I also can't stress nearly enough how important it is to get the direction of your wire correctly (as illustrated in the manual) lest you be faced with a robot that gets easily confused with flower garden/tree islands that are wired in the wrong direction of flow.

After the setup though things are all downhill. So in closing the topic of setup, expect some hair pulling and annoyances because it isn't painless unless you do bury the wire which I would highly recommend after my experience with staking the wire down.

Use (Five Stars): This is where it starts to get good. The mower does it job as expected, and rather cleverly. It's ability to handle obstacles, zone-islands, corners, and even edges is much better than I expected. Keep an eye on the mower when you first get it to watch for problems, but most of them can be handled well with clever wire placement. The robot handles ruts, holes, and other such things better than the negative reviews I've seen. If it gets stuck in small pits or other such irregularities, it can work itself free. Most of the negative reviews I've seen have blamed the issues on the design, but the owners clearly owned the RL500 or 800. The RL850 is what I own and what this review is centered around. It has improved tires and navigation software and does a great job dealing with the issues some people have complained about in the past. Therefore any negative reviews you have seen regarding these issues are aimed at the RL 500 and 800 exclusively and not the 850. Those reviews are highly inappropriate for this model and should be taken with a grain of salt. (NOTE: The 500 and 800 are no longer available from Amazon.Com or any other site that I've visited.)

As for the quality of cut I can vouch for every positive review I've seen. It's a little slow but it is persistent. The battery lasts much longer than advertised and a full day's charge is enough to mow all three of my zones. I suspect the length of a charge for me will shorted as the battery ages, so I will almost certainly purchase a spare battery and rapid charger. That is something else I highly recommend. One battery may be enough while it is new, but it won't stay new forever. The rapid charger also will help a whole lot since the robot takes almost a full 24 hours to charge the battery on it's own.

Upkeep (Four Stars): This is one area where it doesn't fare as well as it's performance. The blades should not be sharpened in other to avoid getting them out of balance. This isn't by itself a bad thing but their price may turn some people off (see price section below). Since you can hose under the deck you will be picking grass-sludge out by hand or with a tool, and it does tend to get bits of grass all over itself. The wheels can also cake up with dirt and grass so I recommend not using this mower on wet grass or in mud. Since the wheels don't easily come off (if they come off at all) cleaning them is a chore. Though the mower claims to be able to handle moist grass and slight rain, I recommend avoiding it. It will make cleanup easier in the end if you restrict the use of your robot to dry and sunny days.

Quality (Four Stars): Many have complained about the quality of the unit. Don't listen to the most negative things you've heard. Some have complained about the battery not working (Did you check the replaceable automotive fuse, people?) and others have complained about the 2 year warranty not being long enough. Most complaints are centered around the plastic it's constructed out of (as opposed to what? Metal?) or the lifespan of the battery. These are items you can hardly complain about so that leaves just the motors and the controls, both of which are obviously very adequate for the job.

Yes, the robot mower is made of plastic. And yes the perimeter switch does feel kind of cheap. But overall the qualities that matter most are outstanding, and I've never heard of a motor being burned out. In fact the mower has the ability to stop and cool itself down if it feels the motors are being worked too hard. So if you have to knock the quality of this unit let's make some real complaints. The perimeter switch is my biggest complaint, and isn't designed for a more permanent installation in a yard. This could be improved upon but it is by no means a show-stopper. The robot itself feels quite solid. The controller feels at least as solid as any video game console controller. And the other major parts seem very rugged. It's hard to knock anything important about the quality of this unit. So once again, take the negative talk with a grain of salt.

Price (Three stars): Just over $1000 for the mower itself is a great price. I have no problems with that. However, the connectors for the perimeter switch, the switches themselves (should you need extras) and the cost of the wire, blades, and batteries (which you will also need to replace once every few years) is outrageous. Avoid the cost of the wire and the stakes by using alternatives that are cheaper. They work just as well and it will save you lots of money.

That leaves the blades and the batteries, which you can only get in official form from FriendlyRobotis (and their resellers). At around $50 and $200 respectively the price is very steep and it's a cost any potential buyer must feel comfortable with. I personally think it's worth that much to spend about $350 over the course of three years to keep my robot mowing and to keep my yard looking good, but this may be a bit much for most people to swallow.

Granted, this solution won't be best for everyone. However for some people it is clearly the best solution to keeping a yard well groomed. Don't let the the naysayers dissuade you. The worst points are the obvious ones that anyone could have guessed, and the best points are the reasons people buy these things. I couldn't be happier.

17.) Very good, but not perfect.
Reviewed by: Gadget nut Rochester, Michigan
Rating:

I purchased an 850 about three months ago. My thumbnail review: good labor saving device, if you do not set your expectations too high.

This tool saves me a LOT of work. Not necessarily time, but work. I don't feel comfortable leaving Raoul (our name for our "gardener") running when I go out. It takes him about two hours to cut one of our two zones. (It takes me about an hour to cut the whole thing by hand.) So for those two hours, someone has to be home. At first, we just sat and watched him cut. Now I usually work on something else, or eat dinner, or read a book. But I have to stay home. And he does not cut in an orderly fashion. Raoul just wanders around the yard in a long, cris-crossing fashion. What he does not cut in one pass, he might get in the next. Or maybe the one after that. So if you stop him early, you will have to look for the places he has missed. But I have gotten into the habit of just turning him loose whenever I happen to be at home for the evening, which is usually at least once a week. Not a problem.

You will end up with a nice lawn. It does not get closer than a couple of inches from any vertical wall, so you will have to edge, but it cuts well and mulches much better than anything else I have used. When the lawn is done, it looks good.

It appears to be pretty safe. In my opinion, you will have to work to lose fingers, or a pet. The bottom of my Robomower is relatively flat, with three bowl shaped indents. The indents are arranged in a triangle, two in front, one in the middle behind. At the bottom (top?) of each indent, about an inch above the bottom of the mower, is a blade. In order to get your finger in the blade, you must reach under the mower about two inches from the side (a good trick while the mower is moving), or about six inches from the front, then stick your finger up inside the indent, without lifting the mower (if the front wheel comes clear of the ground, the blades appear to stop), or bumping a sensor. Pretty hard to hurt yourself. Of course, you will have to make your own evaluation, and I accept no liability, and am just stating a personal opinion...

All of my problems have had to do with the state of my lawn. We just moved into a new house. We have five trees and a lamp post on the property. There are numerous low spots. Two of the trees have a significant surface root system. To be honest, I was impressed with how well Raoul copes with the roots. Usually, he rolls up, the front wheel bounces over the root (stopping the blade for a moment), he mutters to himself for a moment (something about removing the battery before lifting), then he proceeds on. Sometimes, though, he will try to go along the tree root, lifting his rear driving wheels, without lifing his front wheel. In this case, he really does not realize that he is not going anywhere. Sometimes he seems to figure out that he has gone further than is possible, and he reverses out, but sometimes that doesn't work either. I have stopped this for the moment by placing a rock partway up the problem roots. He bumps them and reverses. But I will have to come up with a permanent solution as we landscape.

The other environmental problem is the low spots. In some cases the front wheel will get in a low spot, the blades stop for a moment, and Raoul will drive out of it, but sometimes it seems to stymie him. I am filling in the low spots with a topsoil/grass seed mixture and I think this problem will go away.

Bottom line - Would I do it again? I think so. It took me a while to set him up and learn his foibles, but he is a neat toy and at this point, I just don't worry about cutting the lawn!
---
OK, it is two and a half years later and a couple of more comments... I need to buy batteries about every two years. The roots continue to be a problem. I have wired around one set, so that tree is no longer a problem. Of the four remaining trees, Raoul seems to cope with three of them all right, but I need to wire around the last and biggest tree (a huge old weeping willow). I have used three bags of stakes, and will probably need to buy a fourth.
The biggest pain in the neck has been wire breaks. Maybe I have stretched the perimeter wire too tight, but I have had three wire breaks. Not major breaks, but enough to break the circuit. Finding and fixing these breaks takes just about a whole afternoon. After reading some other reviews, I think I will try some 14 gauge wire, rather than the 16 that came with the unit.
Had one unit breakdown in three years. The folks from Friendly referred me to RoboDirect. These guys are VERY good. Diagnosed the problem over the phone, talked me through verifying it, and sold me the $25 control cradle that I needed, all in one day. Took a week to receive it, I installed it easily, and had Raoul back at work. Only had to mow once with the old push mower. I am sure that Friendly is trying hard, but the biggest source of negative reviews on this site seems to me to be tech support. Now I just deal with RoboDirect. No problems. The symptoms of a minor line break are not obvious (a 5 second delay, followed by the weak battery signal) and Friendly tech support did not seem to recognize it. I mentioned it to RoboDirect and they diagnosed it and told me how to fix it right away.
Don't know if everyone will have it this easy, but that has been my experience.

18.) Pleased!
Reviewed by: Matt Ohio
Rating:

I just purchased and used mine for the first time.

I am so far happy with this mower.

I am writing this to help potential others with the setup. As they say a smart man learns from his mistakes, a genius learns from the mistakes of others. So let me help you become a genius.

The worst part of this mower is the setup. After I have done my backyard, still have my front to do. I have found a potentially easier way to do this.

First off I agree that the line should be slightly buried. Here is what I suggest to do this quickly and less painful.

1) Rent/borrow/steal a lawn line edger. (Kidding about the stealing)
2) Mark your lines in the yard for the perimeter with spray paint, or maybe a chalk line.
3) Run the edger over the lines, to make a nice 2-3" deep cut in the lawn.
4) Place the copper wire in the line, staking it every 5 to 10' or so. I'd use a few more on places with a lot of turns. (This should save money on stakes, especially if you have a big yard.). (I have had to purchase more, b/c I didn't start out using this method, but I will for sure on the front yard).
5) Step on the lawn where you placed the wire, so as to smoosh the lawn back together.
6) Hook up the perimeter device and you are off and running.
7) Grab a beer and watch it go!

19.) Not perfect, but saves me a lot of work
Reviewed by: C. Andersen Houston Area
Rating:

I've had the robomower for a few months now. Laying the wire was the hard part; I had to get additional wire and stakes and was sore for a couple of days from all the kneeling and standing -- if I had to do it over again I would come up with some means of placing and pounding the stakes from a standing position. The first few times I ran it in my front yard it was a big attention getter, with neighbors and passersby stopping to watch and ask about it, and some kid even offered to buy it from me (I referred him to Amazon). Understand though, it is not perfect, and you likely won't be able to throw away your regular mower. It takes a LONG time (2+ hours) to mow a section of lawn, and it doesn't handle long narrow sections like the sides of the house or areas behind obstacles very well (it's really not very smart). I have given up on having it mow my front and side lawns as not worth the time it takes, so I let it go in the (large) back yard for a couple of hours, then get out the manual mower and quickly do the front and sides with it, plus the necessary trim in the backyard in areas where it has trouble (I have a lot of obstacles - trees, flower and vegetable gardens, pond). Overall I am pretty happy with it, as it saves me from the really heavy work on those hot summer days, and I barely break a sweat on what's left. I have only had one problem which required a call to customer support (it wasn't charging properly), and the response was prompt and helpful, even if it did presume that I owned a voltmeter and knew how to use it, and the mower was back to work a few days later. Oh yeah, it doesn't handle wet ground well, even if the grass is dry, so bear that in mind; I've seen it wedge itself against a tree root and just sit their spinning its wheels obliviously, until I freed it. In my fenced back yard I can let it roam relatively unsupervised, with the exception of an occasional check to free it from some minor problem or other (sometimes it gets confused and calls for help). One issue - as a software developer with some relevant expertise, I am a bit irked at being unable to modify the mower's embedded software, as I have little doubt that I could vastly improve its performance - an inquiry to this effect to the company has gone unanswered. While I can appreciate their presumed liability concerns, it would be to their benefit to mobilize the user community to develop and improve upon it - this sort of thing has been a big boon to the iRobot.

20.) Robomower looks good, tech support lacking
Reviewed by: John B. Lowell Wilton Manors, Florida
Rating:

Mower received in good condition on schedule. A technical problem came up and to date, I have made 4 calls to technical support during normal business hours, and no one has answered, or returned the calls. I have now sent an email as well, with noresponse yet. They also list no authorized service centers for repairs, which leads one to believe they are few and far between. Definitely disappointed with the lack of tech support, especiallyon a product of this type. I am highly technically oriented, and find the instruction book containing errors, and very poorly written.
John Lowell

21.) Takes A Little Getting Used To
Reviewed by: markd10 Chantilly, VA USA
Rating:

We have a challenging yard, sloped uneven ground and oddly shaped with a big side yard. I've divided the yard into 2 zones and I still can't get a complete job with a single battery pack. This weekend I'll chop it up into 3 zones to try to improve efficiency. I've also ordered a rapid charger and spare battery. For $1,200 you would think the rapid charger would be standard.

Laying the perimeter wire is a real bear of a job. The mower does a nice job cutting. The multiple sharp blades is like an electric razor and the yard looks shaved instead of cut.

Overall, we're not thrilled. Sure creates a stir in the neighborhood, though. Lots of stares as the mower merrily purrs along.

22.) 25 hours of use and dying (battery?)
Reviewed by: Discriminating shopper Kansas
Rating:
I had basement work done that involved digging up my entire yard, so I had no yard until reseeding in the fall. Anticipating that mowing would begin that fall, I bought the RL 850 Robomower in June. Seeding took place in September, and I eagerly began to try out my new mowing toy in October. I'll describe the entire process I went through to date:

Laying the perimeter wire was a major project, since I have a large size yard with several trees, a shed, and a rock garden island. I think that even if I simply laid out the wire around a rectangle box of a yard, the provided pegs and wire wouldn't be enough. I ultimately ended up ordering one extra roll of wire and four bags of pegs to get my front, back, and sides of the yard securely wired. (You'll want more. Trust me. See the very bottom of this review for more information...) I also ended up buying a 3-inch edger to get this job done without killing my knees and back. At that, it took three weeks of evenings to get everything in place and securely pegged down, with dirt wheeled in to fill in the edging.

Once all wiring was in place, we eagerly watched the mower do its thing. It was quite a spectacle to the neighbors and even the UPS man, watching this little mower do its thing in the front yard. Sure enough, it zoomed this way and that, back and forth, staying within the wire and fairly well covering the entire front yard. It does seem to be less generous with cutting tighter quarters. I have a tree that's about 5 feet from my sidewalk and driveway, and that area invariably gets neglected by the robomower. I just manually run it over that area, which doesn't seem like a big deal -- except that I have a few areas like that between the front and back yards. Anyway, it mows, and does a decent job of getting most of the area cut.

Right away, though, we noticed that the cut wasn't as short as I'd like. My neighbor was chatting over it and agreed that it hardly looked like it removed any grass last fall when we first ran it. We adjusted the height, which made no difference. An online investigation indicated that the mower comes with high-cut blades, and if you want a closer cut, you have to order the low-cut blades separately. So, we ordered and they arrived a couple of weeks later, and the yard was cut more to my liking.

If my robomower continued as it did last fall in October when cutting my lawn, I'd indicate we're happy with this purchase. It isn't holding up, and it's only April of the following year -- 6 months after I began using the mower. To put this in better perspective, I mowed my tender new grass 2-3 times in late October just because I was eager to use my new electric mower gadget. Living in Kansas, it got cold and even snowed, so the mower was safely stored in my garage through the winter months in early November and not in use...

I got it out three weeks ago for the first mow of the spring, and right away, I noticed it running somewhat sluggishly when manually moving it to the yard to start mowing. I set it up, turned on the perimeter switch, and let it do its thing, and the robomower nicely cut my side yard, which takes all of one hour. No problem so far, I thought.

Then I moved it to my front yard and let it mow that zone. It got about half way through the front yard before it died entirely and I had to literally drag the mower to the garage to plug it in -- only a half hour after it began cutting the front yard. When it died, it died completely. There was no juice left to move it to the garage or even to turn it on and begin to head in that direction.

I thought, maybe the poor thing is just sluggish from having been stored for the winter, etc. I recharged 24 hours, babytalked to the thing, and set it out on the front lawn to begin mowing again. It finished the front lawn, which takes 80 minutes, and then I moved it to my back yard to start in. It died within 20 minutes, although this time it had enough remaining juice to limp along to the garage for recharging.

Today, I brought it out to the back yard to try again. Just over an hour into the mowing process, after a full day's charge, it died again. This time completely. I had to drag the power charger cord and an extension cord out to resuscitate it before I could move it back to the garage again for recharging. Grrrrr!

I checked my battery stats setting on the mower, and it looks like the mower got all of 24 hours of use from the original battery it came with before it essentially wasted away. Given the size of my yard, it'll probably take four days of single hour-long mowings before I can get hte entire back yard mowed. Unfortunately, it's not like the mower can tell where it died out and quit mowing each time, so when I return it to eh yard to restart, it ends up going back to places it had already mowed.

Obviously, I'm an unhappy camper. Based on the many reviews I'd read prior to buying the robomower, I opted for a second battery which was purchased at the time that I bought the mower itself. I had envisioned that I could charge one while the other was on the mower. Unfortunately, I didn't buy the special external cord to charge it. It's still in the box as I type this. Looks like it was a good thing to have prebought, since the old battery will be going back as soon as I can reach tech support for a warranty claim.

I'll keep you posted on how Friendly responds to my inquiry about a warranty claim. At this point, I've socked a lot of money into a mower that fizzles after a single hour, and whose battery died after 24 hours of total use. Clearly, this product is not ready for primetime. Unfortunately, since I invested all of my mowing dollars into buying this thing in good faith, I'm going to have to go through the warranty folks to get this resolved so it's up and functioning right away.

About the need for more pegs: Because my back yard grass came in with a patch-type pattern, it didn't make sense to use the robomower all over the muddy dirt segments in order to get the patches of grass as well. So, my son and I went out and set up three temporary "zone" type areas for mowing efficiently until the grass filled out elsewhere in the yard. Because these were temporary patches, we used a minimum number of pegs to secure the wire above ground -- a perfectly acceptable practice in the manual for the mower. We also added an extra peg or two along each perimeter stretch for extra securing effort. By the second time the mower was out there cutting grass in the zones, it had a tendency of catching the perimeter wire in its wheel and dragging it along in stretches -- essentially reshaping the zones we'd set up. If I was going to use those perimeter wire setups permanently, I'd have to set up more pegs to secure the wiring. A decent rule of thumb: one peg for every 5-7 feet of straight stretch of wire.

23.) Will it last? I don't think so and here is proof
Reviewed by: kcobra07 USA
Rating:
Make sure you read all of this review before making your decision. Anyone can buy a new car, toy, or appliance and be happy the first few weeks. It's the time factor that you need in making an intelligent decision about a product. Just how long does it last. That's why I try to make sure I update my review throughout the life of the product.

I have had my robomower for 3 weeks now and I love it. No more taking allergy medication before mowing for me. You put it in a dry place, let it charge and then set it out on its own. It took a good 2 days to install and it includes everything to get you running. The kit includes 200 stakes, charger, 500 feet of wire (if you need more you can use 14 guage - 500 feet - $20 from hardware store), signal unit and two signal unit connectors.

It's controlled by the installation of the wire around the perimeter of your yard. The mower will only run inside the wire. You can also break your yard into sections and put it in that section, moving it from each section when it finishes. The wire can be buried or installed with the small stakes included. Once you install the wire you connect the signal unit to the two ends of the wire from the perimeter to a small unit that sends a signal around the wire. Once the wire is installed you simply use the hand unit that looks like a ninetendo controller to drive the mower to it's starting position. Starting the mower is even easier, just press the "Go" button on the top of the unit. The mower will start by cutting around the perimeter of your yard following the wire. Then it will stay inside the wire and go back and forth cutting the grass. It makes a shape like a bunch of W's connected (WWWWWWW) when it cuts.

As you can see from the picture it looks like a little toy space ship. Little toy!? Don't let this fool you. This thing weighs in at a little over 100 pounds and it has some torque to go with it. If you have holes in your yard you may have to fill them in, but they will have to be pretty deep before the mower will get stuck. The wheels are adjustable and the higher setting does make it easier for it to pull out of tough situations. I was worried that my yard might be a little steep, but the mower really surprised me. The cut was clean and my lawn has never looked better. The neighbors are trying to keep up with me now.

As I mentioned, it has a small removable control that looks like a Nintendo game controller that you can use to drive it around your yard. I did find the controls to be a bit sluggish and if you are not careful you will find yourself pressing on the controller pretty hard. This may lead to unusual wear on the control and I could see myself taking it in for a repair.

I guess you may be wondering what this thing uses to cut. Well, there are three tungsten blades that make a low humming noise, but it's so low that you can carry on a conversation while it passes you in the yard. I had one neighbor comment that it was great that it was so quiet. I have put robo out late at night before to cut until 1a.m. The neighbors didn't even know that I had it out. So far it's cut the yard nicely. Although I imagine that you will have to buy a set of blades every year. I'll update this on the price later.

The first couple of weeks I had to put the mower out almost everyday for the whole week so it could get all the grass cut. It has to run over the tall grass a couple of times, but it eventually got it all. I do wish they would put a sensor on the mower so it knows when it hits a clump of tall grass and would cut in a square or circle for a few minutes.

I would also recommend robo owners to put their mower out at least once a week. I noticed that the dandelions, which are usually a pretty tough weed, were only cut if they were less than 4 inches tall. Dandelions will grow pretty fast and can be 7 inches in no time.

I also had a little trouble with the charging mechanism. It has an LCD window on the controller that tells you when the unit is fully charged. I put the unit on charge and checked it again after 24 hours, it was still telling me that it was charging. I checked with the manufacturer. They told me that it was known to happen and that it could be considered fully charged after 24 hours. After I unplugged the mower it showed on the controller that the battery was full, but the mower did not run the full 4 hours. Since my grass was completely cut I let it charge over the weekend. This time when I checked it the Ready indicator was showing in the window.

If you do not like mowing your yard, get a robomower. I would recommend it to anyone. You may want to hurry since they are discontinuing the 800 series. The new 850 & 1000 are almost double the price, but they do charge themselves which makes not mowing even better.

----------------------------------------------------
June 24, 2004 -- Well into mowing season in NC.
The mower is doing great, although I have noticed a few sqeaks as it's running. I put it out every other day and let it run. I have noticed it being a little sluggish in thick bermuda grass, but I would have trouble pushing a mower through that stuff myself.

I also found out that you can replace the controller. It seems here is a small cover inside the controller tray that is removable. The controller plugs into the unit with a small plug that looks like a phone jack. Now I can replace it if needed.

The only other thing that I've noticed is that the charge time is around 36 hours instead of 24. The charger that comes with the mower is a trickle charge and doesn't put out much power. There is a fast charger but I don't think it's worth it.

Sept 16, 2004 - Hope this isn't a sign of the future
---------------------------------------------
Had to take the mower in for service. There is a sensor on the front wheel that detects if the front of the mower has been lifted. Mine is saying that the front wheel is off the ground when it is not. I just talked to the repairman the other day. He tells me that he put a new front wheel sensor in and it wasn't the problem after all. Now he is replacing the main motherboard. It's been 2 weeks now so my grass is getting pretty high with all the rain we have been having. I hope this is just a fluke of my luck. I would hold off on buying one until you see how my story ends. I'll post an update when I get the mower back. I only have a couple more weeks of mowing.

October 1, 2004
-------------------------------------------------------
Just got off the phone with the rep from friendly. He is telling me that the part for my mower should be here by next Wed. Today is Friday. They knew at the first of the week that the main board was bad. It looks like it's going to be a month before they can get my mower fixed. I understand that they are working with the local shop to make sure I get the part even though the shop should be going through their parent company. I also understand that it would have taken longer had it not been from Robomower company stepping in.

Final words: It's a good tool, but you better hope it doesn't break down. If it does it will take you a month to get it back depending on your area. Do your homework. Ask how long repairs should take. Also, my riding mower broke down once after 15 years of service. That was when I decided to buy a Robomower. I used to think that I wanted to sell Robomower's, but now I'm having my doubts. I will not sell a product that I feel will not give someone good service and they will get excellent service from the company.

My status on this product has gone from 5 stars down to 3 stars, those stars include the service you get from the company. I will always consider that in my reviews.

Service after the purchase always counts as part of the product.

October 7, 2004
----------------------------------------------------------
Finally got the robomower back. Lesson learned here. Make sure you know how long repairs will take. I did have a couple of issues after I got the mower back. Seems the repairman didn't reset the calibration settings so the mower would start in calibration mode. I talked with him over the phone and he talked me through the system settings. I had to play around with it a little while to get it to set the directional settings. Once it locked in it was fine. I let the mower cut for about 3 hours. The grass was rather high, so it took a while for it to cut. It's probably going to take a week for it to get all the high grass now.

--------------------------------------------------------
November 14, 2004
It's the end of the cutting season. I'm letting Robomower cut to test out the repairs. I've had it charging for a ouople of weeks. The last cutting seemed to do okay, but the mower would only run about 2 hours. Before the repair it would run for 3.5 to 4 hours. Also, the problem with the repairs seems to be with the shop where I bought the mower. I've been communicating with the home office and they are determined to make me happy. I told the representative there about my reduced battery time. He told me that if the time falls below 2 hours he would replace the battery. I'll keep this updated on the progress. If things work out I wouldn't mind buying their new mower that charges itself.
-----------------------------------------------

April 20, 2005
It's a new cutting season and Robo is doing great. The battery trouble that I had has been rectified. the manufacturer sent me a new battery after my time dropped to 1 1/2 hrs of cutting time. I took it into the shop with the battery and the repair was done in 3 days. Beats the heck out of waiting for the shop to order the parts. I have noticed some difference in mower. I noticed the first charging session that it only took 24 hrs to charge. then the next sesssion I unplugged it and then plugged it back in the "Keep Charging" changed to "Ready" right after I plugged it in. The mower only ran for 2 1/2 hrs. This time I let it charge for 48 hrs and didn't unplug it until it had "Ready" on it's own. I'm hoping it will run the full 3 to 4 hrs. I have new blades that were $58 if I remember correctly. I kept the old blades and may see if they can be sharpened.

----------------------------------------------------------
July 25, 2005
Looks like I'm having trouble with the battery again. I don't know if it was the shop repair that is causing the batteries to run low or if it is the batteries. I found a reputable dealer on the internet that seems to work good with people and he has a fast turn around on repairs. I may see if I can send him the mower for repair. Looks like this is starting to get a little out of hand, but at least it is still under warranty.

-----------------------------------------------------------
August, 4 2005
I have my mower back and it looks like it will do okay. I still can't get the full 4 hours of charge like it use to do. After I got the mower back it ran for 3 1/2 hours, but the time started to drop going down to 2 1/2 hours. They won't replace the batteries until it goes below 1 1/2 hours cutting time. I'm starting to think that the mower isn't all it's cut out to be. If I can get my five years out of it then it will have paid for itself. I will keep this updated.

---------------------------------------------------------
Feb 2006
It is starting to get close to cutting season and I've dropped the guy that I got the new batteries from a line. From my understanding Friendly robotics made a mistake in telling people to keep the mower on charge all winter. That's what caused the charge to drop. I didn't have mine on charge all winter and didn't charge it until a day or so before I needed to start cutting. It's a good thing that their are a couple of kids in the neighborhood that will be looking for some summer work cutting grass. It looks like my robomower will be in the shop again.

-----------------------------------------------------------
May 30, 2006
Here we are in may and I'm in full swing of grass cutting. The batteries won't last but 1 /1/2 hours. I have sent an email to the internet robomower sales and I will see if they will replace the batteries since they have a 1 year warranty. I would like to know if anyone else has experienced the drop in battery time on their mower. I will keep this updated.

I will also be changing my ratings on the mower as I really don't think they are ready for prime time. It is starting to look like an expensive car that is in the shop all the time. It's good when it works.

----------------------------------------------------------
December 2006
I believe this is it. My mower went out on me about August. The front wheel sensor is bad "AGAIN". They replaced the batteries, but then something else goes wrong. Seems like the distibutors are drying up as well. The distributor that replaced my batteries is going out of business. I bought a front wheel sensor from him and will be putting my robomower on E-bay for a deep discount. Watch for it and you can get a good deal.

April 2007
I sent an email today to offer Friendly Robotics a chance to buy the mower back for $75. They said they have no need for it. I guess they read my review. Don't make the same mistake that I did and end up with a money pit. I'm going next weekend to get my new X300 John Deere riding mower. Check out my reviews and you will see it posted.

To sum it all up:
Robomower is a good concept, but I don't want to put out $750 dollars every 3 or 4 years. the newer one has less trouble, but it is double the price. It would have to last 10 years to pay for itself. I may revisit getting a new one in about 15 years, but for now I'm done. The last mower I owned was a Craftsman from sears. It ran for 15 years with no trouble.

24.) RL1000 Unreliable
Reviewed by: J. Blakely
Rating:
Many of these reviews seem to be from recent purchasers. I've owned a RL1000 for 2 years now and I thought people could benefit from a more experienced owner.

In 2 years I've had to replace the power supply 3 times and the docking station board 3 times. Both these components are about $100 once you get done with shipping and such so you'll need to budget about $300 a year in maintenance costs. This isn't including the 2 sets of blades I also bought. (By the way, don't bother with the "deep cut" blades, they don't mulch any better than the regular blades.)
None of the components on this system were designed with durability in mind. I had 1 of the docking station boards fail after 2 (count 'em 2) days. The service for these units is terrible, simply terrible.
Finally, last week, one of the drive wheels failed and it just kept driving around in a circle. I'm not going to spend any more money on it, so I bought a lawn tractor.

Even when things are not breaking down, its operation is problematic at best. It is not something you can let run unattended. The first season the unit kept leaving the perimeter area. Had to call 3 times before anyone could tell me how to correct that issue (sensor needed adjustment). The unit would also get stuck a lot. More often than not, I would have to go out and move it away from an area that is was bogged down in.

I can't recommend this product to anyone. Which is really a shame because when it does work, it kept the grass looking very good.

25.) Stopped working in three hours - lawn not finished
Reviewed by: Vince Faltesek
Rating:
In writing this review I have very mixed feelings and buyers remorse.

First I would say that if you expect great customer service from the the manufacture, your not going to get it. I expected a vendor return with my product as it is defective, but the vendor is absolute in me sending it in for warranty work. After dropping a buck and a half you'd think they'd be concerned about reviews and such, but I guess not. Their stance is that it has a two year warranty and that how it should be handled.

The reason I have mixed feelings is that my mom has the mower with no issues, in fact she is the reason I purchased it, but I see a train wreck coming and things for me usually only get worse with defective product..............I THINK I GOT A LEMON.

Thank god for Amazon as they are taking a return!

26.) Song of the Sirens
Reviewed by: Bill Withers Flint, MI
Rating:
Well I must say that I was lured to the thought of a mower cutting the grass while I was doing other things. You can say I was like a Greek sailor and the Robomower was the Sirens. Anyone who knows Greek mythology knows that the Sirens lead Greek ships into the rocks and sent the sailors to their death. Tis the story with the Robomower.

For the high price of this mower I expected it to last more than 3 years without a major repair. My blade motor went out just after three summers of use. Since I live in Michigan my mowing season is quite short. Of course the mower is out of warranty. The cost of shipping for the repair and the repair itself is not a cost effective choice. I could purchase a low-end gas mower for the same amount.

Seems to me the technology has a little ways to go yet. I wish you luck if you choose to purchase the Robomower. For me I am going to wait until they are better built. My recommendation is you do the same.

27.) Poorly made to last just passed the warranty period
Reviewed by: Steve L Rochester, NY
Rating:
I purchased the RL800 in April 2003 from Amazon, hoping to get out of mowing the lawn. I ended up wasting lots of time and money on this useless device instead. My original review for the mower was actually positive. It worked well for the first summer and I didn't mow the lawn once with my push mower. I even recommended it to my coworkers. But the following spring, we got a lot of rain which caused the ground to get saturated. The robomower wheels lost traction in the wet grass and kept getting stuck in the middle of my lawn. I had to go out to push it along at least 5 or 6 times. I would have been better off taking my push mower out and mowing it myself, which is what I did until the ground dried up. Once summer came around, I brought the robomower out hoping it would perform like it did the year before. Wrong again! After less than 2 hours, the battery ran out of steam. The robomower is EXTREMELY slow so 2 hours is nowhere near enough time to completely mow my lawn. And yes I did read the manual on how to properly maintain the battery. I constantly charged it even while not in use. And during the winter if temps fell below 0 degrees, I was instructed to remove the battery and place it inside somewhere dry, which I did. Hoping to salvage use for the robomower, I purchased a second battery and the rapid external charger this year. I manually mowed my lawn with a push mower for the beginning of this year while the ground was too wet for the robomower. Then when it dried up enough, I decided to let the robomower take over. I unleash it on my lawn and 20 minutes later it stops. The robomower was beeping with the error "Check Power" message on the controller. I bring it back in and try charging it, but the error doesn't go away. I plug the power supply into another power outlet on a different circuit breaker and get same error. I put in my second battery and still same error. I end up calling tech support for assistance. Coincidentally, the 2 year warranty just ended in April so I was one month passed it. Their diagnosis was possibly a bad power supply and/or bad controller. When I asked if they could help me fix it, they told me not without getting charged even though I was only a month out of warranty. Keep in mind, I would have found out sooner about the problem if the robomower worked properly when the ground was a little wet. Thanks Friendly Robotics! So don't make the same mistake I made. Just mow your lawn yourself like I do now.

28.) Poorly made to last just passed the warranty period
Reviewed by: Steve L Rochester, NY
Rating:
I purchased the RL800 in April 2003 from Amazon, hoping to get out of mowing the lawn. I ended up wasting lots of time and money on this useless device instead. My original review for the mower was actually positive. It worked well for the first summer and I didn't mow the lawn once with my push mower. I even recommended it to my coworkers. But the following spring, we got a lot of rain which caused the ground to get saturated. The robomower wheels lost traction in the wet grass and kept getting stuck in the middle of my lawn. I had to go out to push it along at least 5 or 6 times. I would have been better off taking my push mower out and mowing it myself, which is what I did until the ground dried up. Once summer came around, I brought the robomower out hoping it would perform like it did the year before. Wrong again! After less than 2 hours, the battery ran out of steam. The robomower is EXTREMELY slow so 2 hours is nowhere near enough time to completely mow my lawn. And yes I did read the manual on how to properly maintain the battery. I constantly charged it even while not in use. And during the winter if temps fell below 0 degrees, I was instructed to remove the battery and place it inside somewhere dry, which I did. Hoping to salvage use for the robomower, I purchased a second battery and the rapid external charger this year. I manually mowed my lawn with a push mower for the beginning of this year while the ground was too wet for the robomower. Then when it dried up enough, I decided to let the robomower take over. I unleash it on my lawn and 20 minutes later it stops. The robomower was beeping with the error "Check Power" message on the controller. I bring it back in and try charging it, but the error doesn't go away. I plug the power supply into another power outlet on a different circuit breaker and get same error. I put in my second battery and still same error. I end up calling tech support for assistance. Coincidentally, the 2 year warranty just ended in April so I was one month passed it. Their diagnosis was possibly a bad power supply and/or bad controller. When I asked if they could help me fix it, they told me not without getting charged even though I was only a month out of warranty. Keep in mind, I would have found out sooner about the problem if the robomower worked properly when the ground was a little wet. Thanks Friendly Robotics! So don't make the same mistake I made. Just mow your lawn yourself like I do now.

Features of Friendly Robotics RL850 RoboMower 21-Inch Automatic Cordless Electric Lawn Mower

Imagine relaxing on your porch with your family instead of mowing the lawn. With the innovative Friendly Robotics Robomow RL850, you can turn your dreams into an eco-friendly, wallet-friendly reality. This fully automatic lawnmower cuts grass all by itself, so you can get a vacation from mowing--forever! Just drive the Robomow to the edge of your yard and press 'Go' for a beautifully manicured lawn.

Robomow RL850
At a Glance:
Automatic lawnmower mows entirely by itself
Cuts up to 10,800 square feet in a single charge
On-board sensor and bumpers to avoid obstacles
Grasscycles for a healthier, greener lawn that requires less water
Quiet operation means you can mow day or night

Robomow does all the work so you don't have to.

Operates without gas, oil, or spark plugs.
Automatic Lawnmower Does All the Work for You
The Robomow RL850 is an innovative lawn mower that works automatically, so you won't have to spend another weekend pushing your old gas guzzler around the yard. It mows on its own within a boundary that you outline with a thin wire (included). Once you handle the initial wire setup, this mower does all the work for you--simply press 'Go', sit back, relax, and mow!

Powered by exclusive drop-and-go 24-volt batteries, the heavy-duty Robomow RL850 is an eco-friendly 53-centimeter, 21-inch mower/mulching system. With its three blades spinning at 5,800 RPM--double the speed of a typical gas mower--the Robomow RL850 travels across your lawn in a crisscross pattern, covering up to 10,800 square feet on a single charge. Easy to set, the Robomow RL850 delivers a 1.75- to 3.25-inch cut with high-cut blades and a 1.0-2.5-inch cut with low-cut blades.

Eco-Friendly, Wallet-Friendly Choice
Unlike conventional lawn mowers that pollute as much as 40 late-model cars in just one hour of use, Robomow RL850 offers a way to keep your lawn looking great without sacrificing the environment.

The Robomow RL850 doesn't simply cut your grass--it repurposes the clippings through a patented process called grasscycling. The mower cuts grass into fine clippings and disperses the cuttings over the ground. These clippings quickly decompose and release valuable nutrients and water into the soil, resulting in a better-looking lawn. Grasscycling also leads to a deeper, healthier root system that increases your lawn's resistance to disease, drought, and insects, and it reduces the amount of water your lawn needs by as much as 85%.

And because the eco-friendly Robomow RL850 doesn't require gas, oil, tune-ups, or spark plugs, it will save you money.

Multiple Features for Safe, Quiet Operation
In addition to its environmental benefits, the Robomow RL850 offers several user-friendly, neighbor-friendly features. First, a user-controlled theft protection system guards the mower from unauthorized use, and a child lock provides peace of mind.

An on-board sensor and bumpers identify obstructions like trees, rocks and obstacles, and truly quiet operation means you can mow your lawn at any hour without disturbing your neighbors.

Dimensions and Warranty Information
The Robomow RL850 is WEEE and RoHS compliant, measures 26.0 x 12.5 x 35.0 (WxHxD), weighs 50 pounds (without battery), and is backed by a two-year warranty.

What's in the Box
Robomow RL850; 500-foot perimeter wire and 200 plastic pegs; sealed batteries and charge pack; 2007 Generation software; instruction manual.

1.) Automatic lawnmower designed to mow entirely by itself;
2.) Efficiently and safely mows lawn, while you relax;
3.) Cuts up to 10,800 square feet on a single 24-hour charge;
4.) Onboard sensor and bumper avoids obstacles; built-in child safety lock; powerful mulcher;
5.) This item is not for sale in Catalina Island;

Package Height x Length x Width: 38.75 in. x 38.75 in. x 29.5 in.
Package Weight: 95 lbs.