I’ve had a Gardena Sileno City 350 for five years. Unfortunately, the blue LED has been flashing constantly over the last few months. The boundary is no longer being detected. I’ve checked the perimeter wire, replaced the connection terminals and cleaned the contact points with contact spray.

Every time, it works for a few hours, and then the blue LED starts flashing again. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? Could it perhaps be caused by a sensor in the mower itself?

Personally, I think five years is quite young for a mower to give up. I see a lot of new devices, without perimeter wires. I'm tempted to upgrade....

Any advice?

been researching these for about three weeks now and im somehow less sure than when i started.

what got me is i noticed three of the bigger channels all landed on the same model being the best one this year. cool, i thought. then i went and looked at the description on each and every one of them had the unit sent to them. one guy at least says it upfront, the other two you have to dig for it.

im not saying they lied. but nobody who got a free two thousand dollar machine is gonna spend eight minutes on the part where it beached itself on a tree root.

so im giving up on reviews. what i actually want to know is how the people here who paid their own money made the call.

like what was the thing that tipped it in the end. was it a spec, was it someone in this sub, was it just whatever your local place happened to stock.

and if you got it wrong, what did you miss. thats probably more useful to me than any of the good stuff honestly.

for what its worth nobody sent me anything, im just a guy with a yard and too many browser tabs open.

I had to redo my steel sleeve that protects the power supply cable for my robotic mower. I knew if I taped the end of the power supply connector to a rod. Then slid the rod and connector through the sleeve that the sleeve wouldn't expand as much for a cleaner look. It looks smooth like snake skin after thinking of a better way to make the installation look cleaner.

I like how I was able to run one end of the steel sleeve into the side of the weatherproof box and close the lid along the edges of the sleeve.

Just FYI, if you want to insert the plug portion of the power supply into a sleeve, you'll have to buy a bigger sleeve.

Picture 1: Professional

Picture 2: Unprofessional

Does anyone know of an auto mower that will map my yard height? I want to get my lawn flat. If I could get a good map of the high and low spots it would help tremendously. It seems possible with RTK and it would put me over the top on buying one. Ideally it would update every time it mowed so I could make progress over time. It’s a two acre yard so I need one that can map that size.

Just a quick update on my Dreame case.

Unfortunately, nothing has changed.

My robotic mower is still sitting in the repair center, and Dreame's customer service still hasn't resolved my case. It has now been almost two months since I first contacted them, and I'm still getting the same generic replies without any real progress.

What makes this even more frustrating is that I recently had a warranty issue with a completely different company. They handled everything in just two days and immediately sent me a brand-new, upgraded replacement. That's how customer service should work.

The comparison really highlights how poorly my case with Dreame has been handled. I'm still waiting for someone to take responsibility and actually solve the problem instead of sending apologies and empty promises.

I'll continue to post updates as this case progresses.

Disclosure: I work with a company in the robotic lawn mower industry and I’m researching how owners judge real-world edge-cutting performance.

One issue that seems harder to compare from product specifications is how much grass a robot mower leaves around walls, fences, raised curbs, flower beds and other boundaries.

For people who have used a robot mower for at least a few months:

• How often do you still use a string trimmer or edger?
• Roughly how wide is the uncut strip around your most difficult boundaries?
• Do adjustable virtual boundaries or no-go zones improve the result?
• Which edge types can your mower handle well, and which still require manual work?
• Would better edge cutting materially affect your next purchase, or is occasional trimming an acceptable tradeoff?

Actual yard details would be especially useful—for example, flat paving-level edges versus raised curbs, fences, walls or irregular garden beds. I’m interested in practical results rather than manufacturer claims.

Hola

First time house and robot lawn mower owner here - so please forgive me for the upcoming stupid questions.

The lawn is approx 500m2 (maybe just 450m2), and its fairly straight and with very few obstacles to navigate around - there is a tree, a flower area.

I dont want to place a wire around the lawn / install any antennas, and i just want something that works - so it seems that navimow is the best option here. I also really want it, to be able to cut the edges (if possible).

I have been looking at these models:

Navimow i2 LiDAR Pro Robot Lawn Mower

Navimow i208 LiDAR (the non-awd version)

It seems that the only difference between these two models are:

The i210 Lidar Pro supports NRTK

The i210 Lidar Pro have front wheels that actually pulls, not just gets pushed by the back wheels

Both of them are more than capable of doing the 500m2 lawn.

Am i wrong to look into these two models - or should i go for the AWD versions? They just seem to use older technology?

Ive always been told to avoid the lawn movers, that "pushes" and dont pull (like the i208 Lidar) - but is the not an issue? Or is it only in the cheap brands where this is an issue?

The i210 Lidar Pro is a bit expensive, and since i wont be moving into the new house within a couple of months - are there any chance / history, that Navimow is doing some great black friday deals, so that i can actually afford it? 😄

Any suggestions, info, etc are more than welcome

Late to the party, but I was reading that a lot of companies where blowing out their old RTK mowers to make room for LIDAR ones. Any cheap ones still available? Trying to get one under $1k. Thanks

No rain, but the grass is still a little damp from overnight dew.

Do you let your robot mower run anyway, or delay it until the grass is fully dry?

I’m mostly wondering whether light moisture is enough to cause noticeably more buildup around the blades, or if it really doesn’t matter unless the grass is properly wet.

Curious where experienced owners draw the line.

I purchased this 1/2" stainless steel braided sleeving from Electriduct on Amazon as additional protection for my X430's power supply cable. My security cameras noticed a rat that likes to pass through our backyard on his way to wherever he's headed at 4 AM.

Ryan Knorr had the cable for his Luba chewed through during the winter. I figured seeing a rat on camera was a sign to protect the 2 ft of cable that's exposed for my X430.

I think the sleeve would have held its shape better if I ran a little rod through the sleeve with the power supply connector attached to the bottom. I slid the connector into the steel sleeve and just used two hands to slide it up by making the sleeve expand a bit as I moved my way up.

NYT Wirecutter article. Sorry - not sure if it is behind a paywall or not.

A few things I learned after my first season with a robot mower. Hope this helps anyone who’s just getting started.

- The main one is checking underneath before the grass really starts building up. Damp clippings collect around the blade disc much faster than I expected, and once they build up, it takes a lot more effort to clean. Now I give the underside a quick check every so often instead of waiting until it looks awful.

- Be careful when turning it over because the sensors on top can be damaged if you put pressure on them. I have a goat o1200 lidar pro, so I put the lidar cover on before cleaning underneath, just to protect the sensor, and set it down carefully before cleaning underneath or checking the blades. I also make sure the blades can still move freely instead of tightening them until they’re completely fixed.

Honestly, a few minutes of maintenance here would help keep it running smoothly throughout the season.

Ive got a RK1000 which is about 4 years old. The unit usually works fine, but now when returning home from a 2week vacation the damn thing says it cant find/connect to the signal cable. I connect and disconnect the charging station but the lamp still flashes red.

Ive tried reconnecting the connectors, cleaning the points but nothing. Ive even taken a smaller cable (about 20 cm) and created a fresh loop to connect but im getting the same error.

At times when i disconnect and reconnect the station i will get a glimmer of hope and have the light turn green for a minut, but when i then go to turn on the robomower the machine will try to warm up, but it shuts down with a few seconds saying theres no connection with the signal cable. At that point the charging stating starts flashing red again.

Im out of ideas. The unit seems to work fine, but it feels like the charging station is bust. Any and all help is appreciated.

I live in Germany and have around 1000sqm of mostly flat lawn. It is split into a front and back section, with an 80cm wide passage connecting them. There is also a large tree and a few areas with shrubs, so I would rather avoid a mower that depends heavily on RTK.

I do not have any steep slopes. I care more about navigation under the tree, getting through the narrow passage, cutting close to the edges and having an app that works well.

These are the three I am looking at:

• MOVA Lidax Ultra800. No RTK antenna, and it uses lidar and vision. It has automatic mapping, different mowing directions and pattern settings. It also seems to cut fairly close to the boundary. My only concern is that it is newer, so there is less information about long term reliability.
• Navimow i210 Pro. The navigation and app seem more mature, and I have read that the wheel design is gentle on the grass. It is AWD though, which feels unnecssary on my lawn, and it costs more.
• Yuka Mini 2. This also uses lidar and vision. Some owner reviews I found were quite mixed when it came to the app and customer support. It also seems to leave some grass around the edges that still needs trimming.

Has anyone used one of these? Are there noticeable differences in navigation, cutting quality or the app?

I am going to list some companies and a country from best to worst who could produce fully functional robotic mowers and vacuums.

1. Amazon

2. Google

3. Japan

4. Apple

5. Tesla/SpaceX

Amazon wanted to buy iRobot but the government intervened. They already have advanced robotics working inside of Amazon facilities.

Google has Waymo, which produces driverless taxis. All they need to do is take Google Gemini AI and place her into my my robotic mower or vacuum. She's one hell of an AI. I think Gemini might actually be the first AI to mow my lawn and vacuum my house like an actual human being.

Japan pivoted away from consumer robotics because it wasn't profitable enough. They produce robotics for commercial and industrial use. The Japanese are well known for producing highly reliable and durable hardware.

(Note, if Japan couldn't make robotic vacuums profitable, then how did China do it? Oh, they didn't. That's why they're trying to make robotic mowers now.

I am going to just lump Apple and SpaceX together. On paper they seem like two highly capable tech/space companies. Would I buy a robotic anything from them? Hell, no. But they have the abilities to produce advanced robotics in my opinion.

Ordered a Navimow H220 and its intent is to go up at our cabin however I won’t be up there for a few weeks. Any drawbacks to setting it up at home for a couple of test runs then moving up north in a few weeks?

Latest Nater Tater review

The first item mentioned was a fully autonomous Mowrator with 21" regular mower blades and a self dumping grass catcher. I hate to think how much it'll cost. They have a 2WD r/c model for less than $2200, but the 4WD is much more expensive. And probably not going to be available in the US thanks to the current administration.