First off I would like to say RobotLady seems to be very knowledgeable and does not try to deceive people to try to get a sale and I feel that Paradise Robotics will have the most satisfied customers because they will know what there expectations should be. Also I feel Paradise Robotics will get a lot more customers because of her knowledge and honesty.
Here we go I just wanted to share my opinions on the different robotic mowers since I first started comparing them before I purchased a Lawnbott until up to now and I was not planning on writing a book on this forum but I just kept rambling on about these mowers. Keep in mind I have only used the Lawnbott out of all the mowers because of this I know that I can't do a great comparison but I hope I can help some people out that are looking into buying a mower. I am very certain that all the mowers here are more than capable of doing there main job of cutting the grass.
Lawnbott Prices and max yard sizes LB2110 $2300 .5 acres LB2150 $2600 .5 acres LB3210 $3400 .75 LB3250 $3700 1.25 acres LB3510 $4000 1.25 acres LB3550 $4550 2 acres
Positives
The Lawnbott lithium battery is far superior to all the other batteries used for robotic mowers and even though it is expensive it is the best deal price wise to because it costs a lot more to make than lead acid and nimh batteries.
2 year warranty
Customer service is very good.
Replacement parts come with a one year warranty.
Lawnbott is the only one available for large yards except the very expensive Bigmow.
Less motors and other parts compared to the Robomower.
Easier to repair yourself than the Robomower and it does not void your warranty if you do.
It was designed to mow multiple zones on it’s own unlike the Robomower.
The mower constantly adjusts it’s blade speed according to the resistance of the grass.
The mower sometimes goes into a spiral mode when it encounters tall grass.
They have been trying to effort to put out a better quality product and are making general improvements and they seem to listen to there customers and dealers opinions.
The mower is small and can get into tight places.
All the models can mow steep inclines except the LB2110 only is rated for 12 degree slopes but the LB3510 can do 30 degree slopes and all the other mowers can handle 27 degree slopes.
Good charge and mow times of about 2.5 to 3 hours each and can mow multiple times a day.
The more expensive models have a feature that they can learn your grass growth and adjust there scheduling accordingly.
They have more extra features overall than any of the other mowers.
Software updates can downloaded on your own computer.
CSPC safety approved.
30 day money back guarantee is a good selling point.
Rebuilt wheel motors are available for the older Lawnbotts also motor brushes are available and planatery gears may also be available for the motors.
Negatives
This year there has been a price increase of up to 600 dollars on some models and the only model that has had changes made to it this year is the LB3500.
Before and after pricing
LB2110 $1950 Now $2300 LB2150 $2200 Now $2600 LB3210 $2800 Now $3400 LB3250 $3100(came with spiked wheels) Now $3700(No spiked wheels) LB3510 $3500 Now $4000 LB3550 $4100 Now $4550
Old motors where unreliable. The old wheel motors main problem is the gears wear out.
Only a 12" or 14" cut depending on the model.
There is still a question mark of how much a improvement in reliability the new motors will be over the old ones.
They have put out some false advertising like previous claims of cutting height and claiming the mowers will have a 8 to 10 year life span with no major problems. It makes since what RobotLady thinks that the company might mean parts will be available to repair the mower for at least that long and I think maybe a dealer toke it the wrong way and a couple other dealers started posting it to and I want to know where a regular mowers normal life span is 2 to 5 years came from because regular mowers been being perfected for a very long time now and I don’t believe that average at all.
Max cutting height of only 2.5” on the LB2110 and LB3210. The Lb3510 now has a cutting height of 3.25”. I know that most grass should be cut at least 2 inches or higher and some grasses are supposed to be cut even higher but this is a complaint I new I wouldn’t have a problem with because I have never cut my grass higher than 2.5 inches and a lot of people I know cut there grass even lower, I guess it depends on the climate you live in and your personal preference.
The mowers are at set prices so you will not find any sales but on the other hand you do not have to worry about seeing a good sale after you already purchased one.
The mower does not offer menu options you have to keep scrolling through a one line display until you get to the function you want to change.
The Robomowers where more reliable than the old Lawntbotts. The Robomowers can be used at there conservative max specs and still be fairly reliable and if we could compare the Lawnbotts that where used in the same .33 of an acre or less and 15 percent or less degree slopes then I think the reliability of those Lawnbott units would have about the same. But the fact of the matter is that the old Lawnbotts where originally rated for .75 of an acre with max slopes of 27 degrees but the quality of the motors could not handle that and on top of that they decided to offer mowers with an extra battery so that people could use them in up to 1.25 of an acre yards and add that up with yards that have steep slopes and these mowers never hade a chance in hell of having decent reliability. Meanwhile they where busy making the LB3500 and a lot more of the bugs should have been worked out of it before that model was released.
I feel that even if they did not increase the price of the mowers the quality of the new mowers right now is probably still not up to par with the old prices just yet.
Upfront cost is higher than the Robomower and Automower and parts are a lot more expensive than the Robomower and Automower. For the price that is being charged upfront and for replacement parts these mowers should already come with brushless motors. The Automower has reliable motors that are even brushless and the price starts at $2250 for the 220ac and it can maintain .5 acres the same amount as the LB2110 for about the same price.
I have read that the wheel motors cost $370 for the Lawnbott and I think that is for the old type I do not know if the new ones cost more(hopefully RobotLady will comment on this), the blade motor is another 90 dollars more.(update the new wheel motors cost $300 the old style wheel motors cost $230 and the blade motor costs $395)
The wire has to be in a continuous loop.
The mower should check if it is raining before it comes out of its charger instead the more will go out and start mowing before it checks if it is raining.
I feel that the restart option for the rain sensor is pretty useless because the mower only stays in it's charger for a couple of hours and even if it stopped raining right after it goes back to the charger there is no way the grass will be dry that fast before it comes back out again. I use the pause feature for that reason and also because once in a great while it will rain so hard that a small part of my yard will have water deep enough to completely submerge my mower so I like the pause feature a lot for that reason and like to decide if the grass is dry enough for it to go back to it's scheduled mowing. I think they should make it so the user can decide how many hours the want there mower to wait before it goes back out in the restart program or they could just make it wait to mow until the next scheduled mowing time period.
Husqvarna sued and won against Zucchetti(the maker of Lawnbott) for patent infringement. It seems that Zucchetti copied the Automower design and made a couple improvements(battery and blade) but put cheap motors in them(the most important component of the mower). Seems to be what some companies like to do because they just see the upfront profit and then end up losing money in the end because of all the warranty replacements(plus it hurts your reputation), now they seem to be passing on some of the cost of there mistakes to the customers by upping the price of the mower.
My biggest concern with the Lawnbott is that they picked a very bad time to raise there prices when they still have not proven that they have a lot better quality product then they use to, it can be very hard for companies to get rid of the reputation that there products are very poor quality and it makes it even harder when your products cost more than the competition.
If you are trying to decide between a LB2110 or a LB2150 I suggest buying the LB2150 because in the long run you will spend about the same amount of money on the batteries but if you have the LB2150 the mower weighs almost half as much so there will be all lot less stress on the drive motors.
Robomower prices and max yard sizes RL850 $1500 .25 acres RL1000 $2000 .33 acres
Positives
The cheapest priced mowers they are the best bang for your buck.
2 year warranty
Some places quit selling the Robomower but there is probably still more places that sell the Robomower than the Lawnbott and Automower combined.
There are not set prices for the mowers, when I was looking to purchase a mower I found some places selling them for a little less than I have listed, but some places try to sell them for more to.
The RL850 has to be manually driven to the yard to start mowing and it has to be driven to the charger afterwards.
Up to a three hour run time.
Up to 3.5" cutting height.
You can set up different zones with out having to run the wire back to the base but that eliminates the self charge feature of the RL1000.
The mower is slower than the Lawnbott but it cuts a lager amount of grass at a time with a 21" cut.
The replacement parts are cheap.
The mower is very big and heavy so it makes it harder to steal then the other mowers.
Negatives
The battery usually lasts two years or less. This is not a big deal sure you will have to replace about double the batteries in the long run as compared to a Lawnbott lithium battery but they also cost about half as much.
Poor customer support.
90 day warranty on purchased parts.
The mower can handle only 15 degree slopes.
Servicing the mower while it is still in warranty will void your warranty.
For small to medium yards only a .25 acre for the RL 850 and .33 acre for the RL1000(although I have heard that they upped this to .5 acres because of improved software but I have not seen anything official to prove this).
The gear case lasts about three years but a new one comes with two new drive motors for 300 dollars compared to the Lawnbott costing at least 370 dollars just for one drive motor. Like the Lawnbott the gears usually wear out before the motors them selves.
The mower can not get into as tight of places as the other mowers because it is large and because of the mowing pattern called roboscan.
The mower is only designed to maintain one large zone completely automatic, but even though it is not suggested by the manufacture you can set up the mower to mow more than one zone but the more separate zones you set up the more of a chance the mower will continue to miss the same areas because of the pattern it mows(the mower has four different starting points so if you are using all for points in one zone it will mow a different pattern each time but if your yard is divided up into smaller section it will be a lot harder for the mower to get into different parts of the yard.
Software updates have to be done by a dealer.
Now the problem I have with the Robomower line is that the newest mowers that they have came out with are for only small yards and the mowers they already had available(the one I have listed here) are already for small yards and the new mowers are only 200 to 300 hundred dollars less than there other mowers. I am surprised they have not tried to compete with the Lawnbott and Automowers larger mowing capacities.
Automower Prices and max yard sizes You can find the 220AC for as low as $2250 .5 acres 230ACX $2600 .75 acres Solar Hybrid model is $3000 .6 acres 260ACX This is a brand new model that is available in Europe but not the US yet. I have not researched it yet so the only thing I know about it is that it is for 1.4 acres.
Positives
2 year warranty that you can pay to have extended to a 5 year warranty
I have no stats for this but I feel that this mower is easily the most reliable, offering a 5 year warranty which helps give the impression that the machine is reliable to.
Wheel motor costs $170.00 and a blade motor costs $180.00
Reliable motors that are brushless.
It is capable of mowing a max incline of 35 percent(equal to about a 20 degree slope).
The display has menu options.
The solar assisted mower can send your phone a text message if it has a problem.
It has a feature like the Lawnbott when it is in tall grass it will go around in a square instead of a circle like the Lawnbott.
All three units have a short charging time of 45 minutes.
The unit has guide wires that sometimes help it get back to the charger faster so it doesn’t have to go around the perimeter wire every time it needs to be charged.
Negatives
Short run times 220AC 45 minutes 230ACX 90 minutes Solar assisted 60minutes
Only a 8.7" cut
2.4” max cutting height.
No rain sensor.
The mower uses razor blades to cut with. The blades are cheap to replace but it is recommended that you replace them often. My Lawnbott has chopped up a lot of twigs some of them were decent sizes and there has been no real damage to the blades just some little nicks. I imagine twigs would damage the razor blades of the Automowers very easily.
The Battery packs for the 230ACX costs almost as much as the Lawnbotts $300 and they won't last as long.
The battery will not last as long as the Lawnbotts because it is rated for less charge cycles and if you compare the 230ACX to a Lawnbott LB2150 it will take about twice as many charge cycles to maintain the same amount of grass because the run time of the mower is about 1.5 hours compared two 2.5 hours plus the Automower has a smaller cut.
The problems I have with the Automower is that it is hard to find good information on it and that Husqvarna is a large company and should have plenty of overhead to market there mowers way better then they do.
I Robot
I am very surprised they have not got into the robotic mower market yet considering that they are a huge robotics company that has a large government contracts and lots of consumer products but of coarse they are most recognized because of there Roomba vacuum.
I feel if they finally get involved that they would get robotic mowers to become mainstream products. The reason I say this is because I have heard that robotic mowers came out before the Roomba(Robotic mowers became available in 1999 and I don’t know when the Roomba came out) and everyone that owns a TV knows what a Roomba is but a lot of people don’t even know that robotic mowers are available let alone there are a lot of different models of them. Anyhow I Robot Applied for a patent in early 2007 for a robotic mower that if they manage to come out with one that has all the features listed for a reasonable price(I doubt they will be able to) they would completely destroy the competition and everyone else would have to go back to the drawing board. Here are the features they have listed.
Sensors to be able to tell where the grass has been mowed and where it needs to be mowed(This would make the mower mow very similar to how a person mows very efficiently).
The mower has a edge trimmer on the side(Could eliminate the need to cut your weeds).
It mentions a rain sensor and a body of water sensor(would keep it from driving into a deep puddle of water like an issue I mentioned earlier).
Bump sensors and infrared obstacle detectors.
If you would like to see the patent application go to this page
www.robotreviews.com/pics/mower/irobotmower.pdf I would still like some more information on the Automower but with what I know about it I feel that the mower lineup that they have is the best overall right now. The way I see it the Automowers comparable models costs less than the Lawnbotts and they have proven good reliability . The mowers are pretty similar with to the Lawnbotts with the biggest difference being the Automower has reliable brushless motors and my biggest concern with the Lawnbott is that the new motors reliability is still unproven so it seems to me the Automower is the way to go.
Second place goes to the Lawnbott
For second place it is hard to pick a winner when comparing the Robomowers with the Lawnbotts the only models that are similar enough to compare are the RL1000, LB2110, and the LB2150. I feel that even with the price increase the LB2110 and the LB2150 are worth the extra money because they can handle more complex yards and still be completely autonomous and I think that they are more reliable so that will help offset the fact that they have more expensive replacement parts. What else helps them out is they are improving there products and they have a very impressive product line.
The Robomowers maybe in third place but they are the least expensive way to get involved with robotic mowers and with the Lawnbotts increased prices they seem to be an even better value.
I know what you are thinking why did he buy a Lawnbott when he thinks the Automower is better and the reasons I decided to get a Lawnbott at the time are
I didn't know that the Automower had good reliable motors.
I did not know you could purchase a five year extended warranty on the Automower
I did not know the Lawnbott was based off of the Automower.
At the time a read a couple of articles questioning the reliability of the Automowers at the time and I don’t see any consistent evidence of this now(they might of got the Automower confused with the Lawnbott Just kidding).
The Automowers short run time, the battery, and the blades played a part in the decision to.
I did not know that the Robomowers parts were a significant amount cheaper then the Lawnbotts.
If I would of got the RL1000 Robomower my yard would have been pushing it’s limits I have a complex yard that is .33 acres and I probably could not get the Robomower to work very well completely autonomous, I would probably have to set up one or two separate zones which I would not have liked to do.
Robomowers top of the line mower has not had any improvements for a long time
The makers of the Lawnbott seemed to be improving there products and putting out new impressive products(Spyder and LB3500).
The 230ACX was the Automower that I wanted and at the time it cost $400 more than the Lawnbott I purchased.
The 30 day guarantee was a nice addition. There is a good chance you are like me and don’t know anyone that owns a robotic mower plus I do not have any dealers near me so the 30 day guarantee helps ease your mind of the possibility of paying a lot of money on something that is hard not to be skeptical of.
After all of that I will say that I am very happy so far with my Lawnbott purchase a year ago with the Lawnbott LB2150 with the new motors, wheels and a couple other upgrades that I got before the price increase I have not had any problems so far and will continue to be happy if the mower holds up well and paradise robotics starts rebuilding motors for the new models at a decent price so that when a motor does eventually fail I can repair it at a reasonable price.
