Yard Roombas, AKA robot mowers ???

So, we've got a (duplex) place up North, one side annual rentals, one side short term so we can use it as well.  The yard is common to both sides, and that needs cutting.  The original plan was to get a yard service, but then the annual guy said he'd be interested in cutting it, so we started to look at lawn tractors (approx 1/3 Acre of grass after allowing for house, barn and plants etc). Well you'll all be shocked, but people on faceballs market place are E36 M3 at returning inquires for things they are trying to sell.  No one ever responds.  So we started considering buying a new tractor.  But now one of our neighbors has just got a WORX Landroid, robotic lawn mower, and my wife is now instantly convinced that it's exactly what we need rather than another gas powered POS. 

Now, in her defense I've said for a long time I'm never buying another piece of gas powered yard equipment as they are all crap (Unless real top $$) and still noisy, smelly, vibrating hateful things even then.  I'm so much happier with our battery stuff.  But I wasn't thinking about for a larger yard that may want a lawn tractor.  My concern is that even though regular house Roomba style vacuums have been out for 20 years, they're still finicky things that need constant attention. I'd hate to think about the hassle of a robot that's over 200 miles away.  The neighbors think it's great after the initial set up, which took two people a full weekend, but they've only had it a couple of weeks so zero input on even short term reliability or issues so far.  I thought the lawn robots were new tech, but it turns out they've been around for about a decade.  Based on that does anyone have any experience or comments on reliability, ease of use, maintenance etc?

So far my arguments on newness of technology, set up, long distance hassle, etc. are falling on deaf ears, she's convinced this is the way to go.  Unfortunately there is a long enough history of good/bad decisions tending in her favor not mine, so I'm losing this one.  I really don't want the satisfaction of saying I told you so when it's a the disaster I assume it will be, so come on peeps.  What say you all?

Now, if you guys (gender neutral) come back and tell me they are as reliable as gravity and effective as napalm at clearing grass, then I'll happily give in and concede.

What say the hive?

MoBot is a great name for a band

I've been looking into them. Even reviews on knockoffs look pretty decent. Although almost universally there were complaints of them not returning to home to recharge. Could be a problem if no one is there to help it when that happens. 

As long as it's flat, dog free land they should do ok, and obviously you make sure to get it inside before snow. 

The MowBots came up in this other thread from this week. 

If those worked as well as I want them to, I would place an order immediately.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

If you want something as effective as napalm, why settle for second-best? I'm sure we could come up with some sort of webcam-equipped remote control delivery system that would make yard time fun.

I realize this is not helpful at all, but I'm kinda hoping you'll go for it.

Buy roomba mower for your house and take your mower to the rental.

This has me more curious.  What is the risk/how good is the return policy?

I have heard rumors of the more costly ones "disappearing" while people are at work. I assume that means the charging bases are a relatively inexpensive part of the equation & that they can be "reprogrammed".

ProDarwin said:

This has me more curious.  What is the risk/how good is the return policy?

I recently did some work with a company that are working with the Air Force to utilize their self-mowing tractors to cut huge pieces of land on bases across the country. 

The best way to think of it and go about it is try to think of it as SAAS. Software as a service. Don't own them but lease them and have a service contract. So if they break or malfunction a nearby tech will handle it. They even report the data straight to the company so you don't even have to submit a service request. 

Also the land mapped out and cut within a pretty tight margin of error. Tighter than I assumed it be. 

I wouldn't do it though. Unless I owned some massive agricultural or commercial property. Its not outrageously expensive though. 

I wish I could remember exact details but that was in August.

It doesn't seem like something I would want to learn from a distance. I second the idea of using it at home and taking it to the rental to mow for you. (at least at first). 

Wow.  I honestly wasn't expecting much.  Surprised at the number of poisitive comments.  
 

Robomower would only work for our front yard here.  
 

Im liking the crowd sourced napalm delivery drones personally.  I really must pick up a copy of the Anarchists cook book one day.  

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

Don't blame me when it inevitably turns on you.

When you figure in total cost and (potential) reliability problems with an unattended robot, I'll bet you would be better off in the long run with a mowing service.

So it looks like I've won this one.  So it's coming down to what's the best lawn tractor from Home Depot.  Any major pluses or minuses for John Deer, Club Cadet, and Troy built in the entry level tractors ($2,300-$2,700ish)?

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

Find a dealer instead of a big box store. 

I will say avoid John Deere, because I have found they're the least user friendly to service. Just my experience. 

I'm buying a Cub Cadet this month for the house. Xt1 LT42. 42 inch deck, 20hp single cylinder kohler, 3 year "bumper to bumper", 3 year frame, lifetime deck warranty. $2200 at the local dealer. Neighbor has had one for a few years, keeps it under a tarp in his yard, I've not seen him do a lick of maintenance in the 2 years I've lived across from him and it just works. Does great on his hills too.

The XT2 is $300-400 more, slightly different deck, and arm rests if you want super comfort. 

Going back through time, I've had 3 cub cadets and 2 Deeres. The 70s cubs were the best, the 95 was pretty good as well. Both Deeres were early 00s, and everything from changing the oil to replacing the belt was just a massive pain in the ass that made everything messy. So I'm hoping a modern Cub is still a good machine.

In reply to RevRico :

Thanks Rev.  Good info on JD Vs CC.  I had assumed that JD was THE NAME, but apparently not. 

From a landlord perspective, I see no major benefits to a tenant-use tractor over the mowbot. Higher short-term purchase cost. Higher long-term operational cost. Longer payback. Greater reliance on (current AND future) tenant responsibility and reliability. Higher risk of misuse, abuse, property damage, and/or injury. Higher liability. Larger space requirements. IMHO the risk/reward is not favorable to taking on that kind of expense on little more than a tenants word.

The only tenant operated option I'd consider would be a basic battery-powered push mower. Something with a short enough payback from even minimal use to supply with the house regardless of whether or not a yard service is used by most tenants, knowing it will be abused if/when ever they do actually use it.

The mowbot is interesting on the face of it, assuming a fully mowbot accessible yard, if more so treating the item as an included service that you as the landlord own, manage, and maintain... However, in my mind it would still be up to you to physically check and ensure operational effectiveness on a regular basis, and regularly performing the basic maintenance like replacing the delicate blades and cleaning out the build-up inside the deck resulting from when it inevitably ends up cutting wet grass. I see the autonomous nature of this giving tenants a complacency that would preclude trusting them with the care and maintenance of the yard and and mowbot itself once implemented. I wouldn't even expect a call from them if it is stolen, escapes due to a broken guide wire, gets stuck somewhere, or otherwise becomes inoperative, for at least a week after the programmed daily mowings stop.

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

So it looks like I've won this one.  So it's coming down to what's the best lawn tractor from Home Depot.  Any major pluses or minuses for John Deer, Club Cadet, and Troy built in the entry level tractors ($2,300-$2,700ish)?

Big, hardcore no.  Having worked for HD in the warranty repair side, just all the hells no.  All of the tractors at the box stores are straight out of a bulk order from Alibaba and clad in slightly different body panels and paint.  Plastic differentials, stamped steel pulley brackets that bend and throw the belt the first time you engage the deck.... just nope.  They are not John Deere, Cub Cadet, or Troy Built at all.  They're usually Jiangsu Lifa or Hongmong Henan.  I'm actually not knocking Chinese products.  Some of them are great, but as we know some are dubious.

Get on FBM and find the nicest riding mower from the 80s you can.  I have an early 70s Bolens that I paid something like $300 at an auction sale and I got a $300 Wheel Horse from the early 80s for my friend.  Bulletproof.

If you look under the back and see stamped steel, skip it.  Unless you see a big chunk of cast iron under there, it's pretty worthless.

Here are some big generalizations:

- Skip the stamped steel/plastic rears
- Skip the belt-driven manual trans and go hydrostat.  I have never seen one fail.
- Larger rear wheel is generally an indication of quality.  Small rear wheel tractors are usually an indication of skimping as much as possible.
- In general, a vertical shaft engine is a way to make it cheaper.  They engineer it like that so that the rotation of the engine is on the same plane as the deck, then they find some way of tapping off the crank for motivation.  A proper lawn tractor has a horizontal shaft engine.  Having said that, the Wheel Horse I got for my friend is a vertical shaft, but still a good bet because it's old.

The new stuff at box stores is just mass-produced yuck.  Starting in 2008 the EPA cracked down on allowable emissions for farm/lawn equipment and the overseas solution was to re-engineer (cheaply and poorly) the carburetors to run very lean.  This, plus their hasty engineering makes them run poorly and need yearly carb adjustments/cleaning.  I know I sound like an old guy screaming "get off my lawn," but the old stuff is built right.  I would take a tractor from the 60s with 10,000 hours on the meter before I got a new box store mower.

I'm interning wih these guys over the summer but it only solves one problem:

https://www.zaptllc.com/

These guys can give you the napalm option, including a drone that shoot fire:

https://throwflame.com/

In reply to Turbo_Rev :

That is to take care of weeds.  Or ground bees.

In reply to Noddaz :

I say why not use it on the entire lawn, if you can?

To those saying buy of FBM, the problem there is asking prices start at $800, not $300, and if one single person would get back to our inquires about their ad, then we probably would have bought one.  Every joke people have made about Craiglist/FBM is true.  Why people advertise things then refuse to get back to you is amazing.

Does the Mowbot just bounce around the perimeter until everything is eventually mowed like the Rumba vacuum? That won't look too good. How about the people that want that fancy angled cut look?

Neighbor down the street has a Huskvarna (spelled wrong for sure) robo mower. Seems to do it's thing ok, never saw it in the street or stuck up against something. Seems to have a big weed whip on the front rather than a regular blade. Sorry, can't ask them for details, they aren't, uuhh... nice folks. (They have a Grand National gathering dust on the garage I'm dying to talk to them about too...)  :(

Areins is another brand of good tractors/equipment to look into. Again, no big box stuff.