Robomow RS612 Battery Powered Robotic Lawn Mower Small Yard, 22 inch Cutting Width, Green

I have had this Robomow on the ground for about a week, and I have some initial thoughts.This mower does a fantastic mowing job. As a lawn mower this should be the top priority. I am coming from a Worx Landroid, which I have owned and used for two years. It also mowed my lawn, but comparing the two is like comparing a bike to a Mercedes. Both are transportation, but one is considerably better transportation, at a higher cost. The works landroid uses 3 razor blades to trim the tops off your grass. Those blades need to be changed every month or they will just weed whack your grass. Robomow has two heavy duty stainless try tipped blades, that provide a little lift to grass that may be laying over. Those blades and the powerful brushless motors running those blades, can lift and slice grass, but they can also chop up the stray leaf, or pine cone or lawn debris. Now the Landroid is safer when encountering toys and other things you would rather not mow. But the Robomow has a full floating mowing deck, which has an inner layer that provides anti-scalping abilities, and will also likely push any stray toys right out of harms way. That floating deck also provides a much nicer, more even cut.The Robomow RS612 comes with a built in GPS chip, that you can’t access. What good is that??? Well more than you think. First it sends information to Robomow servers, so they know what’s going on with the mower and they use that info to improve their mowers. But secondly, when a nefarious character thinks they are a more suitable owner of your expensive robot mower, just give the folks at Robomow a call and they can track it down for you. Then get law enforcement involved, and you get your mower back, and you get a bad guy off the streets. They may even find a stash of not gps’ed mowers, and you’ll be the hero, for getting other victims their stuff back!! Being a superhero is fun!!I was confused about many of the features of the various RS series mowers from Robomow. So I called in and asked literally (figuratively) a million questions. Another thing I learned, which I could not find anywhere, is that all three models in the RS lineup use the same motors. In my mind, the primary differences in the three mowers were GPS, brushless motors, and larger batteries, in the upper two models, with the 612 getting no GPS, and old style brushed motors, and a tiny battery(this was true in previous generations, but no more). As it turns out, all three models are virtually identical, with the exception that the RS622, and RS630 have the same larger battery, and each model has programming to allow for the area of mowing they can handle. Rs612 handles about 14,000 square feet, rs622 handles 21,780 square feet, and the rs630 handles 34,000 square feet. Additionally the larger battery will fit the RS612 chassis (since it’s exactly the same), so by upgrading the battery when the need arises, you can functionally get the better mower. I was very pleased to learn the hardware was all the same on all 3 models. I was torn by only needing the RS612 for my 11,000 square feet of mowing area, and wanting the brushless motors (which last longer, run stronger, and do it all more efficiently), and also being concerned if I move to a larger yard, do I need a whole new mower. I don’t, I may just need a bigger battery, or I may just need to set up additional zones, with particular attention being paid to different zones on different days.I have had a few small glitches out of the box. But I’m an early adopter of this brand new for 2019 model. My Bluetooth has had some difficulty connecting. You can remote control the lawn mower via a bluetooth connection. You should have seen the joy in my 6 year old son’s eyes as he drove the mower around the yard via Bluetooth, from my iPhone. But the last day or do, it won’t connect. I’ll call and get some tech support, I’m sure it’s a small issue they will solve quickly. The other small glitch is the Amazon Alexa compatibility. Currently the skill is not available through Alexa, even though the box clearly says the mower is Alexa enabled. I called tech support and they said this is temporary, while they make some upgrades. But soon, I’ll be able to say, “Alexa, now zone 2”, and Robomow will be dispatched. I love the “Tony Stark” feeling of shouting commands to Jarvis, or Alexa, and having those things happen.I did have to re do 60% of my perimeter wire, from my Worx Landroid install. All the wire adjacent to my home, driveway, and community sidewalk was too close for the Robomow RS612. It stands to reason that a 22 inch wide mower (Robomow) would need more space than an 8 inch wide mower (Worx). Well, it does, but not as much as you might expect. It was really only off by an inch or two, and truth be told, I probably could have let it fly, but I didn’t want it rubbing the house and intruding on the walk, so I added new wire. The wire that comes with this mower is spectacular, and the stakes are even better, and it actually comes with enough to properly do the job. Worx and the Landroid used multistranded copper coated aluminum wire, and they gave you about 1/4 the number of stakes you actually need, and those stakes were smooth and easily pull out of the ground, or worse yet, broke while driving them in. Robomow provides two large rolls of solid core copper wire. It’s single strand, and heavy duty. They also provided heavy duty stakes with a biting edge to grip the ground, ensuring low risk for pull out. I did not break a single Robomow stake, during installation. When I laid the works wire, I ended up burying a lot of it, to make up for the shortage of stakes, and to ensure it did not get pulled up. With Robomow, just mow your grass very short, on the path the wire goes down. Use the included measure stick and stake the wire down about every two to 3 feet. It went in, in about an hour, versus a weekend. I’ve had zero issues with it since. The quality of the materials really help the installation process. Now, having a robot mower for 2 years, I knew what to look for, as far as obstacles and rounding corners and such, so I made zero mistakes with this install, versus, dozens of mistakes with my pervious install. But ultimately follow a few basic rules. Use the entire measure stick when going around any obstacle, and never turn more than a 45 degree angle at once. So when rounding a 90, bend out from the edge you’re following and turn 45 degrees, go another 6 to 10 inches and turn the remaining 45 degrees. Use your measure stick to ensure, you’re never closer than the maximum length of the stick, at any point in the turn. Your mower will easily go around each corner and obstacle. The Robomow programming uses much better wire follow algorithms as well. Where the Worx might stop and back up, Robomow follows the wire and probably scoots over a bit when a corner is detected, and just flows around the corner, with no stopping or backing. Not only is this more satisfying to watch, but it’s a more efficient use of the battery’s energy.This mower is a satisfying thing to watch. I catch myself standing on the back patio, or front porch and just following it with my eyes, looking at the beautiful 22 inch wide path it cuts. I think the fact that it cuts a path wider than its wheels is very pleasing as well. Watching the Worx Landroid, do its mowing, I would feel it was leaving grass uncut, as there was a row of grass on either side of the cut edge, between the wheel paths.I also really like the modular design of this Robomow mower. It has a nearly tool-Less design. You can pull parts off and replace them with minimal skill and nearly no tools. Hopefully this mower lasts at least 3 years before needing much in the way of repair. But when the time comes, they’ve made it simple. Whereas The Worx Landroid has to be shipped back to Worx for any repairs. That happened twice in two years. It was frustrating, and left me with out a mower for 6 and 8 weeks respectively. With the Robomow, they can diagnose problems for you over the air and ship replacement parts quickly. Leaving you down a day or two, versus a month or two. This mower has the mower and heft to cut thick tall grass if needed as well, where as Worx may need 5 to 10 cuttings to catch back up.I’ll update this review when I have more time with the mowers. But I wanted to share some important information that I struggled to find on my own, before ordering. I hope I’ve saved you some time and provided useful information. Maybe I’ve saved you some money, if you done really need to order the more expensive model. Amazon does have a fairly generous return policy with in the first 30 days, if something doesn’t work for you.

New unit showed up with no aparent damage to the box, but the charging docking pins were bent, they could do alot better jub of packaging. It also did not contain the perimeter wire and associated hardware to install. Before finding out about the missing hardware i was excited about getting it going so i plugged it in right away to start charging. It never got above 41 percent. This is when i found the bent charging pins. While charging i read the manual so i could do a setup. I could not access the start up screens on the mower. This was a total fail. Look elsewhere.

Dislikes --The initial wire setup is no fun.Tip-- Wish I could have used a lawn string trimmer/edger to begin the setup of the perimeter wire, use that to make an edge/continuous line in the grass on the ground with provided scale (like a small water canal) to lay the wire in the ground and then fix it with a rubber mallet and supplied stakes. Pour some water if the stakes are not going down, ensure the wire is touching ground and loose, it will end up breaking wire by a mower or disorienting the mower.--- Sometimes , not that frequent, mower will cross the perimeter and be there with the alarm sound; no notification that something went wrong and it needs attention, this is until you happen to see in your lawn if mower is doing good, this situation is unpleasant especially when it sits duck and you need to rescue it in the rain (even if it has rain sensor, once it gets an error, that is it, done, dead end) , on top of it this sitting duck and alarm could drain the battery all time along and you will need to pick it up (40lbs) and put back on it's base station.--- Similar to above, if it's bumper gets pressed, it will have that error and will not move at all -- needs attention to rescue it physically.--- Some areas, had left un-cut, FAQ suggests increasing the size of the area that is configured to overcome this issue, it's not a big deal as its very small area was left uncut.Likes--- It's a very efficient machine in terms of grass it cuts, I really had long and thick grass when this mower was introduced to my home lawn--- Smart movement around the obstacles and it doesn't give up easily on them (obstactles)--- Compared to a tractor or walk-behind mowers, it is very small and could fit in a very small area in it's base station--- Other than the initial setup and few times it gets stuck, there is nothing you need to do, it does lawn cutting on its own according to scheduled frequency and configuration, gets recharged, moves around very quietly--- Mobile-based maneuvering --- very useful when you want it to bring back to the station in certain situations--- Mobile based Bluetooth connected app is very good to just determine its status, schedule, and battery percentage--- It's fun and exciting if you have kids and interesting to watch when it is on the moveOverall, it is a very good value addition. Initially, I had a lot of hesitation over purchasing this as it's not being seen as used so much for home lawns (at least, I have not seen a sufficient amount of reviews online and what I read before the purchase was mix of good and bad both). I'm happy with the Robomow RS612 and would definitely recommend it for people who are looking for a maintenance-free, external service provider independent, not laborious, and time saver lawn mowing option for the residential lawn.--- Anti-theft number lock --- good prevention from malicious hands or intentional but possibly unwanted touches (kids)--

After set up, it is handy to have a robotic lawn mower. It took me weeks to set up and trouble shoot this thing. The issue was compounded by the fact that customer service is non existent and took three weeks of calling every number and sending every email to get someone who promptly tried to blow me off. Do yourself a favor and buy one that comes with installation. Robomow seems to be primarily european with a branch here in the usa. Features promised in the app simply are not there. Does not have gps for thieving, so you will have to buy that seperate. Anti theft features are easy to get around. Does not come with splicers recommended for attaching wires. Did not come with enough wire for my yard. Set up instructions very unclear, had to rely on few third party youtube videos that are available. Gets stuck on the sand. Not smart enough to know what it has mowed, just goes randomly.