This Tech FINALLY Makes Robot Lawn Mowers Worth it

[@UndecidedMF]

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[@CaedenV]

I hope to one day be my robot's overlord! But yeah... I'm sure the transition where the tables turn will happen soon enough lol

[@BigTimeRushFan2112]

I'd prefer to not let a robot kill countless baby bunnies, birds, snakes or other creatures that have just as much right to live as I do. Plus robots make people lazy, where is the pride in doing things yourself these days anyways? In my neighborhood almost nobody hand washes a car, goes and get their own food, or mows their own lawns. No wonder why I'm in shape, tanned, and happy, I don't spend my time (or money) getting others to do things for me that I'm meant to be doing for myself. Rant over...

[@HughHalfordThompson]

Do you know if any of these are safe enough for a hotel yet? specifically there is 90 acres of land, and kids playing in the fields. Can a kid still chop their fingers off if they play with the device or is it fully kid proof yet?

[@XXPYR0XX]

junk junk and junk. the eletric is not nearly as reliable as a combustion engine. also the ev lawnmowers can hardly cut much. with combution engine you can do the entire yard and not have to w8 for a battery to charge. the Eletric mowers are only legit for people with pretty much no yard. you wont see very many lawn mowing companies using eletric mowers because they are not viable for any realistic work load.

[@manofsan]

Wait for the cheaper Chinese models to show up. Same as with solar panels.

[@andyl2201]

I live in the UK and have had a robot mower since 2013 and can say it is the best thing since sliced bread, a couple of things Matt didn’t mention is when you are on holiday your lawn gets mowed. I am retired and go away for six weeks at a time in our Motorhome. The mower is also so much quieter than petrol mowers. The main thing now is I am disabled in a wheelchair and my robot mower christened “RON” does the business. I would highly recommend a robot mower. 👍

[@jambojambo313]

Got rid of my old 18yr rusty Honda petrol mower for my electric self drive & robot mowers. Also, making my little bit of the UK 🇬🇧 a bit quieter. 😇

[@mattkennedy6115]

I’m in the US. I’d be afraid someone would steal or vandalize “Ron” 😂

[@christophersparkman]

What brand do you have? 11 years is impressive!

[@andyl2201]

@@christophersparkman it’s a British make Flymo

[@andyl2201]

@@mattkennedy6115 Ron has an alarm that sends out a high pitch squeal when touched it then shuts down and will not restart without the code 👍🏻

[@thisbymaster]

We got rid of our grass completely and replaced it with raised garden beds and native flowers. Helps with my grass allergies and produces tasty food. Now my manual push mower sits lonesome in the back of the garage.

[@V3ritas1989]

aren't gras allergies normaly just regarding their polen... so if you cut the grass before it is half a meter high and polinates it should be no problem. Though rolling around in the gras naked will probably still give you some red skin. So I just recommand not doing that.

[@TheDrackhenslager]

This is the way! The obsession with grass lawns is a remnant of a colonial trend that in many areas makes 0 ecological and practical sense.

[@anydaynow01]

Yep exactly this, not to mention not using all the chemicals put on lawns to maintain them by just getting rid of it! Rockscapes and natural ground cover plants are also better than mulch or lawns. To control weeds between the rocks in my yard I use table salt and a backpack sprayer filled with regular white vinegar instead of bottles of poison.

[@M98747]

I want to do this, but what do you do in the pathways? Woodchips?

[@thisbymaster]

@@M98747 stone chips for the back yard and the front yard already had concrete for the pathways.

[@CNCmachiningisfun]

I have a number of these on my farm. Each one is fitted with curled, front mounted antennas, and forward/peripheral vision systems. They all have tiny antennas at the back, too. What's even better is that they are powered by the grass that they mow :) .

[@daklhs6460]

I think those doesn't fit every house. But I've heard that work reliable for many years.

[@Senthiuz]

Autonomous Moowers.

[@cate01a]

powered by grass? anyway always surprising that it seems farmers always use so much high end new technology

[@cate01a]

ah damn well i suppose cows are rather highly technical biological machines

[@JL_421]

I have a 3000H as well and I never had to do the hoops you did during setup. Mine was: Remove from box, attach bumper and camera, place base station and RTK, update firmware on the robot, map. If yours shipped around the same time mine did, you might have had GPS issues with the solar storms that was preventing you from mapping. I didn't even realize the RTK could be connected to WiFi for updates until about 2 weeks after I set everything up. For people that say that battery tech isn't there yet, you need to realize that unless you're mowing 5+ acres, it doesn't matter. It's on robot time, not human time. Mine rolls off its base station every other day at 10 am, mows for 3 hours, then charges for an hour, mows 2.5 hours then another charge, then finishes with another hour of mowing. I don't really care that it took 8.5 hours to mow my lawn because I didn't have to be involved. I left to do some graduation parties, get groceries, live my life, and I came back to a mowed lawn. If you're able to let a robot mow at least twice a week, you're likely getting a better cut than you would have with a traditional mow once a week because a robot wouldn't be "mowing" at that point, it's more shaving the grass. You end up mulching tiny fragments of grass rather than the 1/3rd of the blade most people mow down to. It mulches faster and stresses the grass less and you end up with a healthier lawn. I also did the math elsewhere and it really isn't all that much more expensive than a lawn service. In my case I mow 1/3rd of an acre, and it takes ~900 watt hours to complete the mow. I'm about 37% of the way through the blade life (4 cutting surfaces per blade since only one edge cuts per blade). If I mow every other day, skipping rain days, I'll end up running the robot ~105 times in an 8 month mowing season. One season will eat a three pack of blades ($45) and use 94.5 kWh of power. Power is only ~$0.12/kWh where I am, so a mowing season only costs me $56.34 in operating costs. Assuming the mower has an absolutely terrible life span of 3 years, it still ends up costing me ~$170 in operating costs + $2,600 for the mower: ~$923/yr or ~$26.37/week to purchase and operate the mower. That said, I don't know that I'd recommend any robot mower for anyone that isn't comfortable tinkering with stuff. You *can* get perfect mowing and essentially never worry about the robot getting stuck if you are comfortable fiddling with your zones and no-go zones. I've found the editing of zones to be more pain than it's worth, so if there are any edits I've wanted to make, it's honestly easier to just delete the zone and re-map it. You just have to be willing to put in a little more work in the first couple of weeks to learn what your specific mower can and can't do well and be willing to adapt to it. If you aren't willing to do that, you will likely end up frustrated and unhappy.

[@tomas_klouda]

Yeah, after 7 years and almost 10k charging cycles my old beaten robomow is still going strong, so I would say battery technology is really not an issue. Sure, it now doesn't endure that long...something like 60% of running time, but as you described, the running time is not an issue.

[@Vodhin]

I have one of those, too. Mine isn't always quiet, though, especially after having hot dogs and beans for lunch...

[@northjoe]

How do you feel about the obstacle avoidance? Do you always get an error adjusting blade height? My app says it failed but the mower does actually adjust.

[@JL_421]

@@northjoe There was a day or two that I'd get the height adjust message once or twice, but it went away and I haven't seen it since. I also stay in soft touch mode, and haven't had a problem with it in my use case. That said while I was tuning it, and on some windy days where the RTK ends up moving a little bit, the Luba did show me just how good it is at inclines by going vertical on my neighbor's fence on the edge of a wheel like a goat. It'd be there at like a 70 degree angle stuck because the lift sensor was triggered and it locked out. Apart from that where I mapped a little wiggle away from every fence post, it's been good. I have some other minor niggles like I stopped doing perimeter only transits because the 5 or 6 random paths across my lawn were better than the 15-20 trips along the same perimeter line it'd take the other way. But really nothing that some tuning and compromising makes me regret the decision on.

[@northjoe]

@@JL_421 thanks. Yeah overall happy with it too I’m sure it will get better. I have soft touch on as well, I’m not convinced it does any sort of smart reroute based on the vision or ultra sonic. I’ve seen it take the same exact bad path around things.

[@nathanbanks2354]

I tried making a robotic lawn mower years ago as a thesis for my Bachelor's degree. I was trying to use ultrasonic sensors to detect the position. The GPS with base station looks soooooo much better! And the cost will probably go down a little with volume and competition.

[@joegibes]

Nowadays there are off-the-shelf RTK GPS products too, meant for drones and other autonomous things like this! It's totally possible to DIY an accurate autonomous mower today. Still probably a better deal to just buy one, although maybe you could get a cheaper $600 perimeter-wire mower and spend maybe $400 to retrofit to RTK GPS. You'll need to DIY the controller software and run on a Pi or something, which will probably take the most time... But to save like $4,000-5,000 it might be worth it! I gotta look if there is any open-source mower control software out there!

[@dzhiurgis]

unsure why you need rtk base station when the same can be got from online services (might be connectivity issue or accuracy issue or both)

[@dzhiurgis]

also I keep waiting for galileo 1cm service to become reality, unsure why no consumer devices are there yet iirc it needs more precise chips

[@mb-3faze]

Andreas Spiess has some videos on how to build a RTK receiver - centimeter GPS resolution.

[@ryancoody7069]

I’ve got a Luba and it takes care of my 1.5 acre grass yard. 10 stars

[@hyfy-tr2jy]

My gosh....does it have to do small sections every day? 1.5 acres with a small cutting width as one of those units must have it cutting full time 7-days a week . I used to mow 1.5 acres with a zero turn having a 52 inch deck that cut at 10 MPH and even that took close to an hour.

[@ryancoody7069]

@@hyfy-tr2jy oh yes, it spends an hour cutting then an hour charging. It takes 4 sunny days to fully mow the yard; running only between noon and 8 pm to avoid dew moisture which causes serious caking up of clippings on the bottom of the robot. To be clear, I’m not complaining. It was half the price of a zero turn, doesn’t require a shed or a garage to store, and it doesn’t compact my soil. It’s also quiet, so it can run during cloudy nights when dew isn’t expected and my neighbors will never hear it. The lines it makes are beautiful, it makes my backyard look like a golf course. I do have to change my habits a bit to accommodate the robot. Like I have to pick up sticks in the yard after every storm and weed wack some of the particularly dense fescue grass that trips the robots sensors. I don’t feel like it’s better or worse than an engine mower, it’s just got different chores and expectations that come with it.

[@alansnyder8448]

Do you feel that 5 acres would be too large a yard for it?

[@ryancoody7069]

@@alansnyder8448 based on my experience, I would say the grass would outgrow the robots speed at 5 acres. I only run it when grass is completely dry to avoid error messages like over-loading or overheating motors due to grass caking, so my hours of operation are limited. That’s mostly because I’m in north Alabama where it rains 3/7 days per week consistently. It might be able to keep up with 5 acres in consistently dry conditions.

[@alansnyder8448]

@@ryancoody7069 My mom and stepdad have 5 acres in Michigan. It does rain frequently there also.

[@ohrosberg]

My robotic lawn mower is now seven years old, and still going strong. Complex lawn, and yes, a guard wire, but that is a memory that is seven years old, and I've had no issues with it. In terms of cost, they are more expensive up front, but require no gas, almost no electricity and minimal maintenance. So, overall, over that period of time it is cheaper by far compared to a gas powered lawn mower. Also, the lack of noise is amazing. Side note, watching it cut is quite the ASMR experience... hehe

[@thatwolfboy2898]

What kind of maintenance have you had to do over the 7 years? Replace the blades in sure, but I wonder if other parts also need fixing sometimes?

[@ohrosberg]

@@thatwolfboy2898 The first was a freak accident where it had hit a pebble with the blades, and the pebble dislodged one sensor. The second time was one of the front wheels coming off last autumn. I could have fixed it myself easily, but decided it deserved a service. Other than that as you said, replacing the blades each spring. Nothing more.

[@dwarftoad]

What kind is it?

[@ohrosberg]

@@dwarftoad It's a Husqvarna Automower 315. So, basically a 315X without connectivity.

[@Snakesl7]

We purchased a Worx Landroid 4 years ago and I can honestly say it is my favorite tech purchase of all time. I have seen those on eBay from $400-600 and new for about $1200. Totally worth the price!

[@timonix2]

The entire neighbourhood has gotten way better thanks to robot mowers. Going out in the sun to eat lunch? Not without someone mowing the grass for. Thinking about a pleasant time sunbathing? Not with on my watch, mowing it is. But that was in the past. Now everything is quiet... and it's so good

[@ConfiscatedZyra]

i just use a reel mower...

[@thatwolfboy2898]

Wow they're really that popular around you? I've never seen a robot mower in person.

[@cgtboiler]

@@thatwolfboy2898 robots aren't yet, but I have several neighbors using electric mowers and they're incredibly quiet, one lady mows with her baby swaddled to her chest

[@thatwolfboy2898]

@@cgtboiler wow! That sounds efficient! Baby probably enjoys the rocking.

[@-whackd]

I've had a $100 electric mower with 150 feet of extension cord and it has served me 15 years without maintenance.

[@emilemil1]

My parents got one that required a guiding wire 5 years ago, and while it's been performing great when operational, the wire had to be fixed every spring because it breaks from ground frost and curious rodents. Finding the points where it's been broken has been difficult even with the right tools, so we've replaced the whole wire 3 times now. Yesterday my dad finally snapped and decided to buy a wireless model, we'll see how it does. In US dollars it cost about $4000 and is the second lowest tier option. For comparison the wired model that we're replacing was about $1700 and had roughly the same capabilities, so we're paying a ton extra for just the wireless feature.

[@Nphen]

You could buy a clean quiet an Ego mower for $650 then pay a neighborhood kid $20 per mow twice a month and not hit $4,000 in total costs for years, while helping a local youth instead of a giant tech company. Just my perspective.

[@robgriffin4801]

​@@Nphenor that kid could be doing something better with their time. Jobs are costs, except to the extent you'd do them for free

[@CaedenV]

I want to go in with a neighbor or two on one of these robo-mowers... but I feel like they aren't quite there yet. But if it hits 3 of our yards 2x a week then it would keep things way better managed that each of us attempting to mow our lawns once a week and sometimes being too busy or sick to actually do it. Maybe another year or two :) They seem to be improving quick, and dropping in price every year!

[@95dodgev10]

That's a pretty smart idea if you have good neighbors and can make it work out. It would be a busy little robot but very good deal for you guys.

[@riversshadow9678]

This is just me, but I'd offer it more as a subscription for them to use. Maybe charge them $20 or so a month. Likely 1 person of the 2 or 3 will need to tinker it when it does something wrong, replace the blades, and pay for charging. Also alleviates the issue if one neighbor moves but wants to bring the expensive robot with them.

[@antibureaucrat]

If you hate mowing - don't wait and sell your old gas thing. If it's more of a "cool" thing then you can wait - read others below about sharing

[@wholmes7177]

Purchased a Bosch Indego 350 5 years ago for £300 now costs £600 (760 USD), needs a perimeter wire but is idea, monitors the weather forecast which is a must have in the rainy England, alternates pattern and even leaves strips for a professional finish. Bang for the buck it can't be beaten. Looked at more modern alternatives but just can't justify the additional cost, yes the setup of the perimeter wire takes a couple of hours but relatively simple, my 10 year old enjoyed banging in the pegs. Highly recommended.

[@Selieca]

We've had a Husqvarna robot mower for years. We bought a very old model, that was on sale at the time as part of a clearence sale of old models. Absolutely brilliant thing! Regarding the wire, we had ours burried, nice and safe, by the people we bought it from. These machines have been worthit for years in my oppinion.

[@marco12377]

As weird as it sounds I actually enjoy mowing my lawn. That being said I did buy an electric lawn mower(not automated) and it has been great over the past 5 years, not dealing with gasoline, on top of it being quieter. I am intrigued by automated mowers though, maybe in the future I will make the switch, just like I did from gas to electric.

[@sbukosky]

Locally, we've had so much rain that the grass needs to be mowed every other day. I can't handle that, so the robot is a solution. But it's the best-looking lawn I've ever had too.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

The last mower I bought was for a tiny yard. After pricing out many mowers and cutting it with a corded string trimmer (which hurts at 6'3" - those electric trimmers have handles for short people) I bought a $50 Black & Decker corded electric mower. So light, fairly quiet, easy as HECK to clean under from clogs, no gas, no oil, no "winterizing" other than putting a tarp over it.

[@blackcountrysmoggie]

I, too, love my family dearly, but value that precious alone time mowing the lawn 😄. Such a lovely feeling of worth when you step back and see your handiwork too!

[@ckm-mkc]

@@MonkeyJedi99 A neighbor has a fully manual mower for his 25 sq ft - it''s brilliant, doesn't even need a tarp and it's so heavy no one is likely to steal it...

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@ckm-mkc I wish I was still healthy enough to use one of those.

[@konstagold]

I can't believe you missed the opportunity to say "robot MOWERlords"

[@UndecidedMF]

🤦 I can't believe it either

[@juerganboehm5161]

Adding the mower screaming TERMINATE TERMINATE!

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@juerganboehm5161 Dandelions are futile.

[@jaredk6428]

Have to save some puns for his brother in the podcast.

[@DrPeterKirk]

Hey Matt! This is my first comments on any of your videos, however, I really enjoy them in general. I absolutely love original version of Luba 5000! Actually have two of these running at two different houses. My house is 30,000 square feet of grass, and my parents does just about 20,000 square feet of grass. If I were to have to do these lawns myself, which I would have otherwise done, I would be spending hours every week. Also, I'd be spending a ton in gas. The other option is to have a lawn service. Well, I could pay for this, it would become prohibitively expensive in the long run. Additionally, while you did mention the cost of the Lubas, the $4000 is for the version that does very large acreage. My neighbors are always stunned with how my yard looks like a golf course everyday. And to put the cost into perspective, in reality if you have a yard as large as mine, it would really be done by a lawn tractor, which is roughly the same cost. I have jumped completely on the robot bandwagon, I admit. For example, my Roomba is named Sam, my Luba his name's Chris, and my Tesla is named Tessa. Conversely, my mother's Roomba is named Samantha, her Luba is named Christina, and her Tesla is named Vanessa! I do feel that I am in the long run with each of these saving huge amounts of money in gas, cleaning costs if I were to get housekeeper, and of course maintenance costs. To boot, I definitely feel like I am making an environmentally friendly decision with each of these purchases. They have all greatly improved my quality of life, and while they do have some larger associated capital expenditure, I strongly feel that they have already saved me huge amounts of long-term expenditures. Thank you so much for your excellent videos, and I was very pleased to see you pointing out the amazing qualities of robot lawn mowers, as they especially are much better for the environment than their gasoline-powered counterparts, and frankly I feel do an amazing job. In fact, one of the things that I really love about the robot lawn mower is that the narrow cutting deck never leaves any of my lawn scalped, as a conventional lawn tractor does when it goes over uneven terrain. Rather, the robot just flows with the terrain, creating an almost computer generated appearance of my lawn's profile. Amazing! I hope others join the bandwagon, and I hope others experience what I have! And yes, I occasionally have to save my Luba, my Roomba, and thankfully never my Tesla from the silly mistakes they blunder into! However, even those are often a little bit comical, and I usually understand exactly why they found themselves in that position!

[@pschweitzer524]

Get dog houses for mowers! Put the charging stations inside the dog houses for added security and slap some solar panels on top to power them.

[@Jaw0lf]

I have a Worx landroid and had to fit a wire around the garden. I have an injury that makes these tasks more difficult, so it is great to have robots that help. Downsides as you say are rescuing from a hole it has dug whilst being stuck. Then repair hole and try to stop it happening again! It is great having a much better looking back lawn and far less hot and sticky.

[@moon_wobble7782]

They’re taking our jobs!!! I have one and it is ok. 1 acre lawn with trees, it can’t do the whole thing because it loses GPS in areas. But it does help keep the grass near my house short so I only have to do about half myself. Saves time and keeps the backyard neat.

[@CaedenV]

There are some jobs I'm ok with being taken lol Granted, at current prices it would probably be cheaper to hire a neighbor kid, and I don't justify that cost yet, so I'm probably not going to be forking the money over for one of these any time soon lol.

[@moon_wobble7782]

@@CaedenV that’s right. I don’t have a neighbor kid who can do it and my kids are away. If you’re willing to deal with the shortcomings of a yard robot, it’s a neat gadget

[@sbukosky]

Do you have the Luba 2? That is supposed to eliminate or reduce the signal loss problems by continuing to mow by using its 3D camera backup besides its sonic sensors.

[@bbgator1]

@@sbukosky Luba 2 still require a satellite signal. It can only go 50 feet without signal.

[@gregp.7148]

What do you do with the cut grass? You still have to collect it.

[@dainius4168]

What do you mean finally? I haven't mowed my yard in 5 years. I'd say it's the second best investment I've made to make my time outside more pleasant.

[@mr.boomguy]

We've had robotic lawnmovers for 10-12 years plus at my parents place

[@nathanlonghair]

Same. And the funny thing is; I’ve got a more expensive BOSH and a cheap as dirt and super simple random-pattern AL-KO… and the AL-KO is far and above the best one. It doesn’t get stuck in pattern if it bumps into something, or gets stuck, it’s not a hassle to reset when it does, it’s got much better blades and much better traction. It’s a trooper. And random pattern works fine! There’s no point to mapping! I’ve never regretted paying double for a new fancy gadget more than with the BOSH.

[@yonkocommander5531]

Did you do the math for when it becomes profitable compared to a lawn-mowing company

[@41chemist19]

​@@yonkocommander5531Paying humans to out to your house and do work is always going to cost more.

[@dainius4168]

@@yonkocommander5531 I've always mowed my lawn myself. So I didn't do this calculation. Somehow hiring someone to do it for me did not seem right to me. I paid ~1000 euros for my automower so it would be something like 50 mows at 20 a pop. 6*4=24 mows a season gives me something like 2 years for it to be even. I myself noticed a difference and "profit" in the first few weeks 😁

[@alex.mcintosh]

Thank you for the honesty. It’s rare to hear a man be honest about their experiences. I’m still young and sometimes I get confused by all the “talk” out there. We need more honesty in this world.

[@danmccoy6164]

I'm finalizing my house build. Had the outside put up by a contractor. Did/doing everything else myself. All electric geothermal heating and cooling. Bumping up my solar to19,920kw and installing 71.5kwh of batteries. All infloor heat and fan coils for cooling 3400sqft. On 1 acre. I just installed 8000ft of pex and 2" of insulation. Then had 11 cement mixers of concrete poured over it for my driveway. Now hooking pv direct/DC to water heaters. And pv direct pumps to heat my driveway so no snow shoveling. In Wisconsin. Also to cover a lot of the yard with concrete. So less mowing. Next purchase the biggest zero turn lawnmower that will fit in my garden shed. Has 73 inch door. But maybe the rider I do have will last a few more years and the robots will improve enough and be cheap enough. So I can buy one instead... I might have to get the robotic snowblower. The city wouldn't let me heat the sidewalk. WTH.

[@supernewt]

I have a very basic robo lawnmower in the UK, its cost me £300. It only has visual sensors, no app and is somthing you have to set to go manuall however i have to say its been amazing so far. Granted i do not have a huge lawn and its pretty uncomplicated in its shape, but it just works. It does get stuck on occasion (mainly on trees and a small drop and due to it being small and rear wheel drive its struggling that i didnt mow the lawn for the past two weeks due to vacation. But when it doing the daily maintenance ive gone 3/4 months with perfect consisten grass. I love it and recommend them highly.

[@kevinneufeld5497]

Wow, those are expensive. I own a Landroid Worx WR165, bought last year for $1200CAD ($877US) and I love it. Yes I did have to install a boundary wire but it was totally worth it compared to the more expensive GPS models out there. Installed properly, the boundary wire is a non-issue. I absolutely love watching the mower mow, doing the painfully arduous task I once did weekly. I 3D printed a larger cutting disk so it’s more efficient when it goes out to mow, but I agree, the mowing duration is not really a selling feature. Mine goes out for 1 hour every second day. I can schedule a longer time or have it go out daily or more than once per day if needed (it only takes a hour to charge).

[@BR.]

I have an AL-KO Robolinho 1200 which is an older generation robot mower with a boundary wire. It was a one-time install job with regular electrical wire, not the expensive stuff they are selling. I recommend a bigger gauge than what they recommend so it survives a little abuse if you need to adjust it a bit after a few years. My yard is half what this thing is designed for and it's been doing a good job for 4 years already. It got a bit of cosmetic damage from bumping into everything, every day but I feel like it still has a few years ahead of it. What Matt mentioned for his newer generation mowers it's spot on for these older ones. It gets stuck once every 10 mowings or so. I would say the robot mower does 80% of the job considering once a few months it needs a quick clean and every week or so I need to do some edges with a trimmer. While the mower is cutting the grass I can do other things. The next mower I want is something with computer vision that can do weeds and plant seeds.

[@JasonWade]

As long as I have dogs, I don't see how a robot mower will be useful. There's just some "prep work" that needs attention in the yard before mowing.

[@CraigTaylor]

I have heard the Husqvarna robot mower has tech to identify 'obstacles' and avoid them

[@mrzackcole]

I was in the same boat. The absolute only way to fully trust that your robot is not going to hit piles is to pick up after your dog. I was doing this anyway, but maybe only once a month. I figured the only way I was going to make a robot mower work was to pick up after it every single day. I decided to give it a try. I now go out every morning with a shovel and spend approximately 2 minutes picking up after him. I have a woods so it's easy to move piles to the woods. The end result is that all of my mowing gets done for me, and I actually have a significantly more clean yard because of the tiny bit of pickup work that I do. I was dreading the idea of picking up dog poop everyday, but it's such a minuscule amount and it's well worth it to me for the pristine lawn and not having to mow, or even own a mower.

[@comfortablynumb9342]

Meh, let it spread 😂

[@EXROBOWIDOW]

Hire a professional to do that the morning before you let the mower loose. And be glad you don't have numerous neighborhood cats visiting your yard to "redecorate" it. The cats' gifts are usually below the cutting height of the blade, though.

[@ethandolph4688]

Next we invent a robot that picks up dog poop

[@En-Jon-eer]

I love my robot lawnmower and highly recommend them. Another thing to keep in mind with the cost is you could easily split the cost with your nextdoor neighbors and maybe even your back neighbors and have it mow everyone's lawn which would also cut further back on neighborhood noise. Even if you can't split the cost the older models are cheaper and well worth it. I spent ~ $500 and about 5-10 hours in set up for the old fashioned perimeter wire robot lawnmower and I'd never go back. Saving me about 2 hours a week of mowing time while keeping my lawn always looking great.

[@__-pl3jg]

I dreamed of having this when I was 15yrs old reading popular science magazine. I hated yard work with the fiery passion of a thousand suns! As an adult I still do. I'd either zero scape the yard or hire a robot.

[@eyefly001]

I have the same luba 2 3000H. It works really well. I upgraded from a worx landroid that just pinballs the way around the yard and gets stuck weekly. I have only had to help out the luba once in the past month, and it was because of how I setup my yard. I will say the app needs a lot of work, feature adjustments and such. I also feel like the 3d vision module doesn't really work, but overall I think the luba 2 is great.

[@Artista_Frustrado]

i thought the Elephant in the Room was the fact that they require a proprietary app that can remove features on a whim, or simply get delisted so now you have a mower that's inaccessible

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

That's one of the biggest problems with all IoT devices, but it tends to be ignored even by people who are aware of it in cases where a new or newly usable device class comes around in a category people desire (and automating away yard work is going to be a hugely popular field).

[@V3ritas1989]

@@bosstowndynamics5488 Why do you even care? this is not your place of responsibility. And should not influence your purchase decision at all. If the app of that company gets removed from the app store for whatever reason. They will move heaven and earth to allow you continuing using their product. And there is always money back guarantees. Worst case you will have to open the manufacturer homepage and read a tutorial on how to install the app without the app store...

[@joe-s5r]

Can't you just keep it off-line? And if you can't, then what would be their motivation to screw you over after you buy it. If they make it inaccessible, or rip you off making you pay to keep it running after you've bought it? If they did that to me then I'd never buy another mower off them and I'd tell all my friends, and shout it out on social media. Ripping people off doesn't seem like a good business strategy. If people are happy with the product, they'll sell more. If they're not then they won't.

[@ilenastarbreeze4978]

@@joe-s5r big companies do it all the time, doesnt seem to make them care , amazon removed and bricked an entire device they were still selling just because they didnt want to support it anymore, but because it wasnt a highly popular thing it wasnt widely spread and noone really cares, this happens all the time

[@mfpears]

I want updates. The software isn't amazing yet. Edit: It actually sucks pretty bad.

[@southsidesmoka]

I've had my LUBA 2 AWD 1000H since April and I love her! Someone said kids are cheaper, but LUBA never talks back or complains it's too hot. For a man a lazy and cheap as me with a little Texas size yard, the cost was a benefit.

[@2MANYWWWWWWWWWWWWS4U]

Kids are still cheaper

[@baseupp12]

Hmmph not with the 18 year possibly longer commitment they require

[@Paulftate]

Aren't they under their parents medical until 28 ​

[@jopo7996]

The mower won't live in your basement when it turns 20.

[@baseupp12]

@@Paulftate 26

[@Paulftate]

@@jopo7996 now that's funny .... could relocate to the garage

[@jaydebruin7857]

While the tech is cool, and I like it, it's still far cheaper to put in native plants that don't need mowing. Plus you get tons of butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife.

[@antibureaucrat]

that's fine if your climate and space allow for that - grass and weeds are about as native as it gets around me and planting trees and bushes is also expensive. I have a mix

[@ShmuelSpade]

HOA says grass

[@mikaelwester]

I was thinking about that.

[@rodlovely5598]

Definitely want the Luba 2 for my hilly lawn in NH. But not at that cost! In the meantime I'm loving my Ryobi electric lawn mower. Was hoping to see more about that snow blower - perhaps when winter rolls back around 🙂. Much appreciate your level of insight and review in all your videos. You explore/explain the technical aspects at precisely the right level for a KZbin video. I'm hooked on your channel!

[@sitnstill4now]

Same, anxiously awaiting the snow blower. Hope he acquires all the attachments as well. Looking for quality reviewers before getting one.

[@jerryodell1168]

Some of the people out here in the country have automatic mowers. They are called " Horses, Cows, Sheep or Goats ".

[@buddy1155]

Ah, that is next level, those are fertilising as well.

[@Benlucky13]

The problem, at least with sheep and goats, is they'll eat every plant you don't want them to before eating the grass

[@Artista_Frustrado]

you don't have to baby-proof a house for the robot like you need for a horse

[@jerryodell1168]

@@Benlucky13 Not the farmers around here. They are smart enough to manage their grazing ranges. Only, bad or poor farming techniques damage the fields. The fields here are enhanced with the proper grazing.

[@apieceofstring]

The sales pitch for the LUBA is basically "imagine a goat that doesn't taste good to coyotes". From that perspective you can see how it's revolutionary.

[@ZirothTech]

The shot at 7:38 really got me laughing Matt - I want to see an extended version of you taking it out for a walk round your local park 😂

[@tomelner]

I LOVE my robot mower. I've had it for 3 years and it's called Jason (Jason, me-mower). Mines basic with a perimeter wire which is annoying. But I've not mowed for 3 years and the lawn always looks perfect. Not only that but because it mulches immediately there is nothing to pickup and the nutrients stay on the lawn. Because the amount of so small each day you never see clippings

[@orrd]

What is the downside of the wire? It seems like it's a cheaper and more reliable option.

[@scottwilliams7395]

My elephant in the room was it mowing the lawn in the front yard by itself. Even though I live in a nice neighborhood, pretty confident it was safe, I never felt comfortable leaving a $2k - $4k mower out in the front lawn, where anyone could just walk up and take it. I know it wouldn’t work for them but that is the main reason it got returned.

[@orrd]

You don't have a back yard?

[@GameArtInstruction]

I'm loving my Luba 2 3000H so far. I have .5 acres with some STEEP slopes and thick fescue. The three biggest usability concerns are 1)bluetooth connectivity between the app and the mower fails when I am in the house, so I need to step outside to give the Luba new commands. 2) I have the charge station inside a gated backyard for added security. This does mean I need to let this guy in or out to charge or do a job. 3) It misses small amounts or single blades of grass pretty often. As I've only had it a few weeks, I am experimenting with its travel speed, path width/overlap, and cutting patterns to address this. The app gives you a lot of control which is nice. I also need to keep the blades clear of grass in their pivots so they can swing freely. Yes. The mower was expensive, but I save 2+ hours a week and the hill was very hard to mow even with a self-propelled mower. A gas riding mower would have cost as much or even a little more, and then I have to use gas, do maintenance, and do the actual mowing.

[@lopypop]

Thanks for the review! It still feels like we're 3-5 years out from the products maturing enough for me to get one.

[@kelvin0mql]

Very timely vid. Currently in a project with my grandson to convert a push mower to a Radio Controlled, FPV mower. I hate mowing, but have a riding mower that allows me to zip through 95% of the job in about 40 minutes. The R/C mower will allow me to get under the pine trees & the overhang of the deck. 1st iteration is a conversion of a gas mower. But if the proof of concept works, I hope to get a EGO electric mower, and remotely drive that li’l tank around while smoking my pipe in my easy chair. And yes, I am that nerd who would watch the robot mower’s FPV camera feed at least some of the time. Oh, and I’m also a Ham, so I’ve got expensive antenna cables that sometimes move to different positions, so that’s my main reason for wanting manual control.

[@spinnetti]

There's something nobody considers. What's the difference between a house and a home? The effort and care you put into it. For me a robot lawnmower solves a problem I don't have. Mowing provides exercise and is an investment of care by me in the house helping to make it a home. I spend about 2hr of yard home/external care a week and could just pay somebody which is probably more cost effective, but the personal satisfaction of caring for my home and the free exercise are worth more than the time/money of getting the lawn done. (I use all of the greenworks 80v stuff - mower, hedge trimmer, string trimmer, blower and chainsaw which all work great).

[@tomas_klouda]

The advantage of robomow is the missing noise and also having the lawn always trimmed even when you are sick or on the vacation. And don't worry, you still need to trim the edges and do the weed whipping, so it's not like you instantly stop caring about your lawn ;-)

[@nerds-nonsense]

Mowing a lawn regularly is antithetical to having a healthy one, especially when you blow the clippings away. Look up the history of lawns and how they work, they’re intended to keep people from actually being unique individuals and it’s always a losing battle trying to keep them “healthy”

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

Sure, you do you, but some of us find irritating, recurring maintenance tasks to be tiring and grating rather than fulfilling. I still wouldn't buy one of these in their current state, mind, but I would gladly do less garden work if there was a solid option to replace it for me

[@jeanne-gord7685]

Got my Luba 2 this march. Looooooove it. Runs like a champ. a little finicky to setup the mowing areas. I have a lot of fiddley corners and what not in the lawn. Its been working great for months now. Love the safety features. Whether it is my dog, the neighbors or the little bunnies in the area the mower spots them, slows down, maybe stops and then goes around them. We are the first and only ones in our town.

[@lizardmilk]

Very cool. But I just removed my lawn for drought tolerant plants. Lawns are archaic and wasteful. A nice landscaper yard is cheaper, less maintenance, less water and chemicals, and far more beautiful

[@Parmigiano1]

Plants are about 10 times more expensive than lawn. Unless you landscape and grow everything from seed yourself.

[@soymilkman]

@@Parmigiano1idk about your town but my town has special community events especially on Arbor Day or earth day where they give out free seeds and plants. I’d recommend looking into any local events like that. Also you’d be surprised the amount of native species that pop up in your lawn if you don’t mow. Goldenrod, asters, fleabane, clover, and coneflowers all volunteered themselves and i simply just transferred them over to my flower beds, now I have beautiful perennials that provide nectar and habitat for free :)

[@lizardmilk]

@@Parmigiano1 sure. I meant cheaper to maintain. Much cheaper in the long run.

[@nathanlonghair]

I'd love to - the question is maintenance. With a lawn I can get the robot to mow, and I never replant, water, fertilise or weed it out... because golfing isn't my passion, I just need a relatively upkeep-free garden. With other plants I can't leave it to a robot (except clover which is gone out of season) and weeding often becomes mandatory. Which plants do you use, and what's your experience with weeds? How much time do you spend on it? Obviously we might live in wildly different climates, but I'm curious never the less.

[@Parmigiano1]

@@nathanlonghair Yeah it certainly depends on where you live, what type of grass you grow and how pristine you need your lawn. If the climate is not extreme I think you can have an OK lawn with close to zero irrigation and maintenance apart of mowing.

[@transmitterguy478]

I am retired and I love to mow. I jump on my 60" Toro Zero Turn and mow my 3 acres with my AM/FM/BT headphones on, listening to music and smoking my pipe. I get to inspect the grass as I mow and can avoid obstacles like mud ruts my son puts in the field. It is 3 times faster than my old Craftsman Garden Tractor. I have 6 blades on it in an X configuration, 3 for cutting and 3 for mulching and it does a fantastic job.🏎

[@shad0wguy]

Love the Paul Hibbert call out.

[@PuG001]

One important thing to look into when looking at robot mowers - serviceability. Are parts available, and for how long will they be kept available? I've had a Worx Landroid mower for about 8 years, and in that time I've had to replace the LCD screen, and repair a couple wires. I learned that Worx makes parts available for 5 years after they stop selling a model. I picked mine up on a deal because it was an outgoing model, which means they now no longer sell parts for it. The next time something breaks that can't be fixed and must be replaced, it'll probably become e-waste. I'll have gotten enough use out of it for the money to feel ok about it, but would really, really prefer to be able to repair it instead of scrapping it. So, before you spend thousands on a piece of equipment, maybe find out if you'll be able to fix it later. Or if it's dependent on the company's servers, etc.

[@TFawkesable]

"Don't want to put a string around your yard? Then simply set up a GPS satellite connection!" lmao

[@McP1mpin]

It's ridiculous. 15 years ago I had a robot vacuum that could scan my house and create a route by just pressing start. 15 years later and I can't stick a robot mower in my fenced-in yard and have it create a map of the yard and run a route like my robot vacuum. Why?

[@homenovice8608]

I've owned a Husqvarna Automower 450 XH for a little over a year now. It uses the perimeter wire but so far I am completely in love with my mower. My son named it Cortana and it is almost a part of the family. There is nothing like seeing that little dedicated mower working every single day rain or shine mowing the lawn so I don't. It used to get stuck often but if you try to work on addressing each spot it eventually become fairly dependable. Buying a robot lawnmower $$$$, having it installed $$$, not having to mow the lawn each week? Priceless.

[@trevinbeattie4888]

You know what’s even more convenient than a robot lawn mower? Not having a lawn to mow. :)

[@NabPunk]

Even better, having a lawn and letting it get taken over by native plants. Though that sounds like a pipe dream these days.

[@djkeltn]

Hahaha

[@plow76]

Largest irrigated crop in North America. Water-intensive ecological dead zones.

[@joz534]

I also prefer to have paved backyard rather than greenery.

[@gemelwalters2942]

nah, pavement traps heat, especially during the summer. I don't enjoy being surrounded by a brick oven

[@randrade6791]

Extremely helpful information for those of us who have health issues that either rule out or inhibit our ability to mow our lawn. In some cases it will pay for itself within one season versus paying a lawn company to do it.

[@McBenjiBoo]

A lot of money for mowers that need a lot of set up and specific lawn requirements. I'm a gardener and I've thought about how robot tech can affect the industry. Realistically we are a very long way from fully automated gardening. A gardener can do so many different jobs, whereas you would need a different robot for each job. A mower bot, a hedge cutting and topiary bot, a cleaner bot, a digging/planting bot, a weeding bot. That $4,000 could pay someone to visit regularly and do all the different jobs in your garden for years, without you having to spend time setting up and maintaining something that only does one job.

[@MesoScale]

...which is why tech companies currently developing robots with a human form factor and similar capabilities.

Landxcape, I have the basic one, where you need to lay out a wire. While it may be a hassle for somebody, I thoroughly enjoyed doing that (and you only do it once, plus minor corrections after a while). What I love about that mower is that there is no app, no cameras, wi-fi or anything, you just set it and forget it. Plus, it cuts the grass pseudo-randomly, so it looks evenly cut from every angle. It was about 8000 CZK at that time ($350). A stellar buy.

[@ricoma6037]

One aspect I wish you'd cover is the cost over time aspect. Would these units drop in cost as sales climb and capabilities between brands standardize? Let's hope the evolution continues! Fingers crossed. 🤞

[@Beni_777]

Usually everything what is getting mass adapted will get dropped in price. Just take a look how much a simple SSD cost when it was new, and how much is it now. Or anything like that for the past 10 years.

[@yonkocommander5531]

It happened with robo vacuums too, once the tech became cheap all of a sudden everyone could afford one for $60

[@ronaldbell7429]

A lot of products have their optimal price niche and stay there. As tech advances and gets cheaper, the devs manage to shoehorn more and better tech for the price, but the price stays the same. So prices might come down, but you're not guaranteed. I had a robot lawn service in 2018. The machine back then cost under $2k. Something to consider.

[@AinaLove73]

I've been keeping a close eye on this technology, and it's exciting to see such significant improvements from the first generation models. Although I enjoy mowing my lawn, I currently spend about $160 per month on a mowing service, because I'm to busy right now. Which means the cost of these newer models could be justified within just two years. However, I'm planning to wait a bit longer, perhaps another 18-24 months, to see what further advancements are made. Additionally, we're considering a move soon, and I'm not sure if our new place will even have a lawn-it might just be trees and rocks!

[@donnerkebab]

Manual reel mowers are underrated. Cheap, silent, good and no electricity at all. I own a fiskars.

[@jackmclane1826]

No they are not. They are manual.

[@normt430]

But they are allot of work if you have a hill or get behind during growing season.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Those mowers are awesome... for healthy people. Be old, be sick, be an amputee? the robot mower starts to look REALLY good.

[@buddy1155]

How do I say I have a small yard without saying I have a small yard.

[@hyfy-tr2jy]

@@normt430 with the health of most Americans...a little push mowing as exercise is a small concession to convenience

[@drxym]

I have a Gardena robot mower, the kind which has a guide wire. It's working mostly okay now, but when I got it I had issues like a) before using it you have to close cut the lawn without any clumps or grass more than 1" high or the thing will get stuck *everywhere* and if you lay down the guide wire it's too late to mow it, b) there weren't anywhere close to the right number of pegs provided with the mower but luckily I have a 3d printer and printed about 40 more, c) it *will* cut guide wires if they're not staked all the way (see b), d) it still leaves tufts next to the guide wire which need occasional strimming, e) it will get stuck if you leave stuff on the lawn, e.g. tennis ball etc. I think if I were to get another mower it would be one without a guide wire but they're really expensive. Maybe in the course of time the price will come down. I'm kind of surprised someone isn't selling modular DIY kits for people to make their own and attract a modding community.

[@__-pl3jg]

SouthPark - "They took err Jubes!"

[@dksculpture]

I’ve had a Worx for four seasons. It works well, covering 90% of my lawn. The shortcoming is that it doesn’t pick up debris like a traditional mower. Leaves, “helicopters”, small twigs, etc just collect on the lawn.

[@SquirrelMasterT1]

When you said that it can't be stolen because "it's locked to your account" all I heard was the company has taken steps to ensure you don't resell the device on secondary markets.

[@nomore6167]

Also, if it's stolen, you probably couldn't care less whether or not someone else is using it. You're going to care about the money you lost.

[@Tech-zy3fj]

Matt never said, “it can’t be stolen”, you did. He said that using cellar/ gps service can “provide additional security.”

[@PhAzEvariance]

Having it locked means people might be less likely to steal it. When it turns on it phones home with its location as well, which you can see and track.

[@ronaldbell7429]

You misheard, perhaps on purpose.

[@orrd]

@@PhAzEvariance That's a really good point about being able to track it. Actually, just hiding an Airtag in it might be a really good idea. That should make it easy to retrieve if anyone stole it.

[@MiltonGeorges]

I’ve been using a husqvarna Automower for the past 5 years. The only issue it has ever had was when the guide wires were cut by landscapers working on my neighbor’s lawn. Absolutely has been 100% worth the initial cost.

[@tomholroyd7519]

Looking forward to the scifi DUST movie of your lawnmower looking into your neighbors' windows

[@garychlastawa8277]

I got a Automower 430x back in 2017. I love the thing, but it is far from hands off. My yard is difficult to mow, lots of different slopes, bumps. I've done what I can to try to improve it, but it struggles in certain spots. In the spring my yard is very wet and I have to block off one area where a big mud puddle forms. After a couple years I found there are Rough Terrain wheels available for my mower. They definitely helped. I will look at awd models when ready to replace. My biggest dislike with mine is the markup on replacement parts. over $400 to replace the battery. I've also replaced two drive motors and currently looking for a replacement front caster wheel. When tou take one apart and look inside, you can't help but feel you over paid. However the time ive gotten back is worth it. Bought one due to haveing a kid and not wanting to take time away from her to mow the yard.

[@soymilkman]

If you grow native clover instead of non-native grasses you won’t have to mow at all, and it’ll provide small white flowers that bees loves

[@bikndave68]

Unless you have cats (toxic for the felines) or bee allergies or you want a uniform lawn appearance or if clover isn't native to your area....

[@soymilkman]

@@bikndave68 first of all, cats should be inside. Second of all, if it doesn’t apply let it fly

[@clintcarpentier2424]

Got an electric mower some 15 years ago, love it! Filed the blade ONCE!!!

[@lolidasterner414]

I cant understand the lawn passion. A yard with some medium trees and nicely arranged bushes is far more beautiful , provides shade and saves water use. I don't get all those 'eco' friendly guys which have such a lawn passion. Water in the near future will be tha same as oil in the past or more important.

[@MrYishaiShields]

Why so dystopian? the price of cleaning water is becoming cheaper. And water efficiency and harvesting is becoming cheaper and more common.

[@ckm-mkc]

Kids & dogs. They play.

[@lolidasterner414]

@@ckm-mkc οκ. So you maintain for 20 years a lawn so children will play until the age of 3 and for the dogs. After the children will focus on their ipad , ps5 and pc gaming. That is what i call wasteful.

[@kenchapman6316]

I’ve had my Luba for over a year now. Wet grass seems to clog it & I get motor overheating warnings so I don’t mow at night when I’d like but during the day when the grass is dryer. Other than rinse it & free up the blades once a week I pretty much ignore it. The lawn always looks great. My neighbor watched it all last summer & now he has one as well

[@thornbottle]

i actually enjoy mowing my lawn so wouldnt ever get one unless i had mobility issues

[@ronaldbell7429]

For you it would be the definition of a pointless expense.

[@samclerkinoliver]

Fair review of the Luba, I have been running mine all season in a large hilly garden and its transformed my summer !

[@lordhosk]

Our lawn service costs $25 a week which includes weed whipping and edging the sidewalk. That means it would take a 3-5 years of paying the lawn service to equate to the cost of this machine, and I would still have to go out and do the weed whipping and edging every couple weeks AND that doesn't include the cost of electricity or the cost of new blades which im assuming are expensive and last no more than a month because they are so small. I get it, but it doesn't seem like a time or money saver, it feels mostly like a tech toy, which hey if thats what you are into great have at it.

[@ltborg]

How on earth do you have that? Everyone in the town I live in charges $50+/week

[@tomas_klouda]

sure, it's still too expensive. But robomowers are around for a long time (mine is chugging along for 7 years) and they do almost the same job for much less money (300-1000USD). I paid around 700 for mine back then but the prices of the cheaper ones went down considerably since then. At that price its much more tempting and I will wait till these smart ones will go at least below 1000 before replacing the old dumb one...

[@JL_421]

That seems like a very small lawn, or a really cheap lawn service. In my area they want $75/week for a 1/3 acre. Electricity is negligible, per mow mine costs me ~$0.105 in electricity. The blades hold up well, I've had mine for a month and am probably halfway through the second of the 4 cutting surfaces per blade, and that's mowing every other day. At that rate the blades will need to be replaced in just shy of 3 months, and they're either $25 for one set or $45 for 3. At those numbers a whole 8 month mowing season would run me $56 in costs: $11 in electricity and $45 for a 3 pack of blades. (240 days in 8 months = 120 potential mows - 15 mowings for skipping rain since we get rain ~15% of all days) Assuming an abysmal 3 year lifetime on the mower, it costs me ~$26/week to purchase and operate. So at least in my area, I get to skip mowing myself and save 1.5 hours per week or $50 per week for a lawn service by running the robot. It's still definitely a tech toy, but it's a useful tech toy that really doesn't cost that much to operate.

[@tomas_klouda]

@@JL_421 also if you have a bit of skill, you can just sharpen the blades without buying new ones. At least I am still using those original 4 sets I got with the mower and just sharpen them when all get dull.

[@danbert8]

This is a high end one. I have a basic Landroid and wire for boundaries isn't hard to do and you only have to do it once. It paid for itself vs mowing service in a year. It runs off minimal electricity and the blades are super cheap on Amazon. I weed whack about once a month and use a regular mower for mulching a few times in the fall. Other than that it's pretty much painless.

[@tomshahriari6602]

I’ve had the base model Husqvarna for almost 7 years, and aside from the wire and occasional getting stuck, it has worked great. I love it for our little yard. I actually like mowing, and have used a manual mower but now that I am older and lazier, my robot, Cedric, is a wonder. He is also amusing and i love sitting on the patio watching him mow. I just need to add little eyes to make him more alive. He also amuses the cats. If I had a larger yard I wouldn’t hesitate to get the larger Husky but would love a Ferrari like Luba. If you can spring the cash, go for it.

[@jopo7996]

Your videos always have so mulch information.

[@UndecidedMF]

Glad you think so!

[@jopo7996]

​@@UndecidedMF....tell me I didn't slip that mulch pun by you unnoticed.

[@davidreed7341]

first comment, great channel @undecidedMF appreciate all the work you put into it and the diverse topics. 👍👍👍I purchased the Segway i110 this spring, one big drawback you mentioned with the prior generation has been addressed, it allows setting the cutting height from 2.4" to 3.6". I give it a B- overall because it struggles with slopes or transitions between the street/driveway and lawn. However it excels on our, and our neighbors, backyards and is very entertaining. It has made lawn cutting and edging about a 20min task, highly recommend, but know the limitations of the mower and either alter your yard to accommodate it or live with it by selecting keep out zones.

[@HoboGardenerBen]

Lawns are inherently stupid. A bit is nice for chilling or playong frisbee. But the modern obsession is rooted in a shorn lawn being a demonstration of wealth from the past. It meant you had a lot of graazing animals. Now we just maintain it so people can admire our house from the street. It is a completely absurd practice. Growing a food garden in that space with permaculture principles by mulching with waste carbon biomass like fallen leaves, cardboard, wood chips is a much better use of the space. Robotisizing an absurd process doesn't improve it.

[@Kevin-the-Just]

A well kept lawn is still a sign of some affluence and / or just pride in the way your property looks. It also helps to provide some atmospheric conditioning, which that other popular symbol of wealth, the car, does not.

[@jmacd8817]

My issue isn't the feaux wealth aspect of a lawn. I agree it can make a nice environment foe the owner. And, like other hobbies, it's an end that can, in theory, justify the whole thing. Sadly, most lawns I see aren't maintained by hobbyists. They're either HOA/city zoning mandated, or kind of required by local culture. My issue is environmental. If it were only the local hobbyist, it would be much less common, and I wouldn't care. But, given how widespread they are, it's a huge mess. Between the chemicals used, the energy used (mainly an issue for gas powered, and/or for the vehicles used by gardeners)and, most damning, the water usage, especially in areas where fresh water availability is an issue and irrigation is required. (pretty much the entire southwest US) Hell, even in the Midwest with access to the great lakes and Mississippi and all the other local wager sources, we're seeing drought pressures that should make it clear that having a large, high maintenance, water and resource hungry, useless "crop" is just a bad idea all around.

[@GeneralNickles]

God damn you people are insufferable. The cultural origin of a well kept lawn is COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY IRRELEVANT! The modern day purpose of a well trimmed lawn is to keep pests away. Rats, snakes, bugs, and other pests LOVE unruly overgrown lawns. Plenty of places to hide. Plenty of places to call home. Keeping the grass cut short prevents them from setting up shop in your yard (and eventually in your house) by eliminating there hiding places. Pests don't like being exposed. It makes them vulnerable to predators. Let your lawn get overgrown for a few months and watch how many pests start infesting your house. The rats alone will have you wanting to move.

[@gemelwalters2942]

fair point but you also have to consider the disadvantages of a pavement. I don't agree with these sprawling lawns that need to be watered and maintained but pavements trap heat and are an oven in the summer that kids can't really play on.

[@HoboGardenerBen]

@@gemelwalters2942 Why would there be pavement surrounding a house instead of the lawn? That is a city ecosystem, not suburb. Different designs needed to do permaculture in a city. I'm talking big dumb lawns in suburbs and rural areas maintained just for curb appeal. When compared to the sensibility of growing food in a garden in the same space, the lawn is a pointless waste of resources.

[@clearz3600]

I love my EGO mower. I used to loath mowing the lawn and only done it when I really had to. Now I do it every week. I don't know what size of lawn that would take you a couple of hours to mow. I can do my own lawn, my neighbors front and back and across the road in 20 mins. That includes tidying with the string trimmer (also EGO).

[@LazyLifeIFreak]

I hardly have any grass and have pretty much planted over my entire yard.

[@etmax1]

The biggest problem I have with all current robotic mowers si that they don't do grass catching and disposal, our lawn is Kikuyu which is drought tolerant and stays green all year round without watering, But it grows so fast at times that you can't just cut and leave the clippings or the lawn will drown in its own waste. Also in some places it's so thick and spongy that you need 5" plus wheel diameter for the mower to roll over it without bottoming out. It makes for real good exercise sometimes. They would work on our front lawn OK but it only takes 15 minutes to mow that.

[@bcredeur97]

If the high end models were $2k and could mow like 2 acres, I’d get one. Everything hinges on battery tech improving lol

[@jackmclane1826]

I got mine from Husquarna 10 years ago and it works great (with a battery change) - old tech without optical sensors that fail in the dirt. Just doing 1 acre, but get a second one, if you need. Not for $2k, though. I don't see that coming anyway.

[@anthonyd4309]

Curious - why not set up 3 zones and cover your entire lawn twice a week, so that charge capacity isn't a concern? One zone per day/night, with an off day. Or possibly just at separate times on the same day. I do this with my robot vacuum, which can't get everything in my house on a single charge, so I just have it zoned out. It still covers the entire house every day, but with different start times for different zones, and charges between scheduled run times.

[@hyfy-tr2jy]

@@anthonyd4309 likely because these units are not rated for constant duty

[@theblueridge2]

This is exactly why Elon Musk should have designed an AELM (autonomous electric lawn mower) before or simultaneously with his tesla vehicles. Big market out there for such a robot!

[@That_Other_Guy_Oer_There]

My lawn is 1900 m2. A robotic mower was the same cost as a ride-on, and there is little time investment. I have had issues with replacement parts when it's broken down, but overall the time saved is well worth it! If I had to do it again, I'd definitely go with one with no boundary wire. Troubleshooting the breaks never went as smoothly for me as it does for those demonstrating it on this platform. My next project is a robotic weed zapper.

[@mattsheard2708]

In the UK there's a movement opposed to regular mowing to promote bio- diversity. 'No mow May' started a few years ago but has been criticised for cutting summer flowers. Personally I cut once in April, once in May and a couple of times in the autumn. Allows me to have plentiful flowers through the summer and the longer grass needs less watering. There's nothing quite like sitting out listening to the bees buzzing around your feet. So a robot mower will not be on my shopping list as it would only be needed 3 or 4 times a year.

[@ckm-mkc]

There are lots of parts of the US where you would get a (sometime substantial) fine for not mowing your lawn..... Some people have lost their houses due to all the fines....

[@Kowalski301]

@@ckm-mkc Land of the free 😆

[@bearclaw5115]

'No mow May' is stupid. First, there are tons of flowers available for the bees then, no need to make more in the lawn. Second the lawns look like hell and you will get calls, maybe fines. But worst is the fact that if you don't mow the yard nature will take over. Rabbits love to make their nests in tall grass where they feel safe. But what happens in June when you finally mow? The answer is that you will quite likely mow down some baby bunnies. I've had it happen twice to me on different properties and now I say no to 'No mow May'.

[@robgriffin4801]

Nevermind the increased tick habitat

[@casperhansen826]

I have had a lawnmower robot for a couple of years, it is probably the best thing I have done, my lawn looks great

[@ICDeadPeeps]

Although it may seem unpleasant, pushing a lawn mower outside has its benefits. Being sedentary under artificial lighting for long periods of time isn't good for your health. Yard work gives me a reason to step outside and soak up some Vitamin D. It's also great way to get some steps in walking back and forth. So I'm going to have to pass on robot mowers for now purely for my health.

[@_PatrickO]

You can take a walk at any time. No one is stopping you.

[@sbukosky]

I'm getting one FOR my health. I have a bad knee and the robot just may prevent me from having a knee replacement. For sun and exercise I ride my Lectric XP 3.0 bicycle. Way better than walking for me.

[@879PC]

Just... Walk?

[@FisheySauce]

"just walk" < Just don't spend unnecessary money on a robot mower

[@ICDeadPeeps]

@@_PatrickO Sure you can walk anytime, but you seemed to have missed my main point...a reason or an excuse to.

[@ahale1987]

Matt, Great video. In addition to saving time, you're not out in the sun as much. I enjoy mowing my lawn, but it is a time-sink (not a huge one, but one nonetheless). For me, the biggest reason I would look to getting a robot lawn mower like the Luba 2 is so I have to spend less time in the heat. I have legitimately gotten so hot from mowing the lawn that I felt physically ill. And it was only 11am! Also, and you touched on this, sometimes a lawn should be mowed more often (northern lawns' growing seasons are spring & fall, while it is peak summer for southern turfs). I really should be mowing 2x per week in June, July & August, the hottest months of the year for the US. Having a robot mower would not only save time, but significantly reduces the risk of heat illness.

[@MatthewHarrold]

My lawnmower is a marsupial cartel.

[@aussie405]

They have taken over the cemetery.

[@bigtenpochet]

I had the EcoFlow Blade last summer and it was one issue after another. Blade disc cracked and threw a blade… for some reason they didn’t have spare parts of this to send out so they sent me a new mower… cool, but then I had to take a day to set it up again. New SW updates would wipe out setups…. And finally the front wheel fell off of the second one I owned. It was taking me more time to deal with the constant issues than it was mowing my lawn the old fashioned way.

[@Nphen]

MAX HEIGHTS ARE *FAR* TOO LOW FOR DROUGHT RESISTANCE. In spring, the taller over 4" your lawn is, the more the roots grow. Instead of no mow May, let it get 9" tall, then mow down to 5.5 inches. These robot mowers have a max height at 3.9 inches, a full inch and a half too low to ever get root growth or drought resistance. Lawns 5 inches & taller can "self shade" and protect moisture in the soil. Mowing shorter allows the sun to burn & irradiate the soil & the root crown, browning and forcing constant watering. Never mow in heat over 85 degrees, or before/during a drought! No weed killer; clover is good, let wildflowers bloom.

[@ronaldbell7429]

A lot of this smacks of good advice turned up to 11, until it's not good advice any more. I have a push mower and its max height is 3.75". If I mow at that full height, my Bermuda grass lawn is not healthy. 9" grass definitely wouldn't be a healthy lawn, though the weeds would love it. Bermuda (and a lot of other grasses) do very badly if you cut half their height; robot mowers aren't suited for that kind of hacking. And your advice to never mow in heat over 85 degrees means you'd only ever be able to mow at 4am here in Texas.

[@Nphen]

@@ronaldbell7429 Florida and its crazy grasses, and other Southern grasses are different than the Midwest. We have lawns with cool-season grasses like Kentucky Bluegrass that burn out if it doesn't rain for a week. Not a good cultivar for Michigan, unless you want to water, which is total waste of money & resources. I used to sell & spray weed killer & lawn fertilizer but I would never tell anyone to use it, and never use it on my home lawn, especially against beneficial nitrogen fixers like clover. Mowing 6 inches down to 4.5 sounds like it would work for many folks. If your grass can handle being mowed over 85 degrees, fine. New sod bluegrass can't. Go out with a ruler; 6 inches is ankle height, especially if you press the end of the ruler down to the ground like a mower presses down.

[@ronaldbell7429]

@@Nphen It's kind of fascinating because I really don't think the two climates being all *that* different. But man I'd have my HOA all over me if I let my grass get 9". And my lawnmower is a pretty typical mower but it has no settings as high as you're describing. I'd actually assumed you must be in Nebraska or Montana and you were talking about some kind of prairie grass that's expected to be tall. With Bermuda grass, we're specifically cautioned about not cutting too much % of the height in any one go.

[@ComplexKangaroo]

I've enjoyed my Husqvarna 430XH Automower since 2019 quietly nibbling away at my lawn, doing a fantastic job. But the perimeter wire is a pain to maintain, and I have concerns about RTK coverage, so I look forward to fully lidar only lawn mowers - seems there's only one in kickstarter so far, but I'm sure they will come because everything else is just too much work to setup. My neighbors love to see it out and about, kids and dogs enjoy it. It's a lot of fun to show off. I cut my grass much longer than yours 4-6 inches up here in Seattle because it is better for the lawn health, and allows the lawn to do better in the 3 months of totally dry summer weather that we can get here. The Husqvarna can go up to 9 inches, so it's disappointing to see the Luba is maxing out at 4 inches. But yeah, these mowers are here to stay, they are extremely safe, quiet and green, bring on the robot mower-lords!

[@misterright4528]

I'm more worried about someone stealing a robot mower.

[@kobitz9001]

this is covered in this video.

[@Oranjeh]

@@kobitz9001 Making it tied to the account only helps if the thief knows that's. Likely they will just try to pawn it off or dump it when it doesn't work for them. For 4k that's pretty risky

[@Nathouuuutheone]

They're online devices that require an account. Some come with their own cellular connection to monitor location and alert authorities. In this day and age, stealing recent tech is a fool's errand. Stealing these mowers would be as hard as stealing the latest apple products.

[@normt430]

They most all have GPS and will sound alarm when lifted.

[@progamerr4999]

@@kobitz9001 It was indeed covered in the video, but all mowers don't have a geolocking and geotracking feature. You may want to buy an airtag or something similar

[@asprywrites]

The problem with people nowadays is they are quick to criticize something without having a shred of experience with it. It's literally saying nothing in the end. So many folks have talked down on robo mowers when they've never even had one. That said, I paid the same price for my Husqvarna 450X as I would've for a John Deer rider. The difference being, I don't have to do the work. And there's an awesomeness to saying, "Alexa, mow the lawn!" And it actually happens. Surreal! 4 years strong and it still keeps my 1 acre well-groomed.

[@10lawngnomes37]

How do they handle dog poop? Can't imagine those short blades lasting long against the droppings of man's best friend

[@BenKiefer]

Oh dog poo just gets sliced up instantly (obviously not ideal, but it won't damage the mower). The blades on mine can handle small twigs, though those do dull the blades slightly. You can expect to have to change the blades 1-2x a year, but they are like $5 for a pack of 12 blades (mine uses 3 at one time) so it's not a big deal at all. It only takes about 5 minutes to swap them out too.

[@sbukosky]

Doesn't everybody do a brief patrol and clean-up first? I do. But I'm sure dogs won't be a problem other than a filty mess. Depending on the dog pile, the Luba may "see" it and avoid it. I've seen videos of it doing just that with dog toys rather than running over them. Not reliably though.

[@rolandschindlerii9245]

I bought a Robomow RL800 in 2003. Robot mowing isn't for everybody but it has worked for me and "Rover" is in the process of delivering its 21st year of service. I especially enjoy watching this grind fall leaves into a fine mulch with its high speed food processor type mowing blades. I'd love to get one with modern tech. However, I can't justify it. This just keeps running. Worth every penny.

[@ronaldbell7429]

Ah Robomow. I had a love-hate relationship with those. I used a robot lawn service in 2018 and they used Robomow. It was nice when it worked, but it would try to mow when the lawn was still wet from the rain. It would get stuck and dig absolute trenches in the yard. I frequently found it in the garden, having apparently backed up across the wire. And once it stopped working completely for a couple of weeks. At the end of the season they wanted me to buy it off them at a discount and I refused. It was too high upkeep. But when it worked, the back yard looked great. It was terrible for the front though. I had to manually bring it through the gate, and it took 3 full mowing cycles before the lawn looked okay, what with the random walks.

[@MartinPittBradley]

I know I’m off topic, but living in a city, I’m wishing they’d reverse the safety features and instead hunt rats

[@UndecidedMF]

😂

[@kencramer1697]

So have a front bumper that opens into a tunnel of whirling blades and a shop vac attached to ingest the rodents through the tunnel and collect the results. Combine that with a bagger/composter feature integrated into the shop vac and you may just have a winning idea!

[@petermcsharry]

I tried a robotic mower a few years ago. Although they have come a long way, they still just smack around leaves in Autumn. The autumn performance of these is the dealbreaker.

[@JBoy340a]

There is a lot more to lawn care than just mowing. There is edge trimming, weeding, leaf raking, branch pickup, feeding, etc. And for us here in the West there are sprinkler systems, drip irrigation, etc. maintenance. For all these items I just pay someone $150/mo. The only thing we have to do is put the green waste can on the street.

[@ericmarcelo8976]

Back in the 70's or 80's, I saw an article in a magazine for an DIY autonomous lawn mower. It sensed the height of the grass using two sensors in front. When it sensed cut grass, say, on the left, it turned right until it sensed uncut grass. Then it turned slowly to the left until it sensed cut grass again, repeating the cycle. You had to "teach" it by precutting the grass around the perimeter of the lawn and around obstacles. Once you've done that, just let it loose and it did its thing without your guidance. It was simple and wireless (it was battery powered). (",)

[@Hobo_X]

I'm so terrified of these things hurting some poor little animal, I don't even want to risk it by using one.

[@ian3580]

They have sensors to avoid that, and also aren't going very fast. The risk is likely higher from lawn service or driving your car.

[@walterhiegel3020]

The soft whirring sound has been proven to enhance the nesting habits of the spotted owl. However, the kangaroo rat population seems to have been reduced due to the increased population of the spotted owl. No tiny creatures were harmed in the testing of these products. Actual results may vary based on setup and usage of these products. We require a release form to be signed to protect us from the legal rights of the tiny creatures and their tendency to fake small injuries.

[@eladgoldberg1542]

Ed, you can power your RTK antenna with a small PV panel and battery on the roof, no need for power outlet or line of sight between base station and the mower. If you want to go to extreme and have a south facing wall, you can use vertical BIPV mounted on the wall instead of the power outlet

[@spikes1529]

when i built my house i designed my yard to not need to be mowed..... i am all natural.

[@TheJohnTyra]

Matt, the timing of your video is PERFECT! 😍 I'm literally right in the process of a robotic mower decision. Thank you!!