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Best Remote Control Mower
Maybe you’re not ready to give up control of your mowing, but you’re sick of pushing that mower around. The Mowrator S1 is a slightly crazy remote control mower that just might be what you need. I thought the S1 sounded like a daft idea, but this remote control lawnmower turned out to be far more fun than I expected. If you loved playing with RC cars in your youth, you’ll get some nostalgic joy from cutting grass with this beast of a mower, and it is oddly satisfying to mow the lawn this way. I tested the Four Wheel Drive model, which can handle varied terrain, but there are also cheaper two-wheel drive models available for smaller, less challenging lawns.
The S1 is incredibly heavy. Seriously, get some help lifting it out of the box. Setup is quick and easy, just screw the wheels on, plug in the battery, and fire up the remote control console. I expected the Mowrator to be slow, but this thing has some serious va-va-voom. It’s fast and responsive, handling much like a giant RC car, and that’s exactly how the control console feels, too, with two joysticks for easy control and a wee touchscreen to tweak settings. With plenty of cutting width and a gearstick to choose your preferred height, it’s quick and easy to mow your lawn. I’m able to drive it through my side gate and along the path to mow my front lawn, too.
On the downside, it is not autonomous. To fire it up, you hold down both shoulder triggers and tap the start button onscreen. Let go of the triggers, and it stops automatically. I had to turn the sonar alerts off, as it was refusing to mow the edges of my lawn, but it does detect obstacles reliably and cuts off for safety. The S1 warns you to be safe every time you start it up, but I have concerns about it being dangerous in the wrong hands. It always stopped when it detected an obstacle during my testing, but sometimes only after it collided with something. It’s heavy, too, so drivers will need to concentrate. While the Mowrator doesn’t allow for the laziness of an automatic mower, I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was to use, and even felt a little disappointed when the job was done. It’s an odd device, and it’s pricey, but for the first time in forever, I’m looking forward to mowing my lawn again.
Specs Max area: 1.12 acres (48,787 square feet) Cutting height: 1.49 to 4.29 inches (38 to 109 mm) Cutting width: 21 inches (53 cm) Max slope: 40 degrees Navigation: Remote Control Noise: 55 to 65 decibels Battery: 145 minutes on a full charge, 90 minutes to recharge
Other Robot Lawn Mowers We Like
Eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 for $1,400: This is another wire-free mower, but instead of relying on satellite navigation, it has a camera system capable of automatically mapping lawns and avoiding any obstacles. It can cover up to 0.2 acres (8,700 square feet), cut from 1 to 3 inches, and handle up to 18-degree slopes. It is also fairly quiet and has GPS tracking, but you must have Wi-Fi coverage in your backyard, or you’ll need a 4G data subscription. We found the setup was lengthy due to a firmware download, but the mapping and the first cut were decent. We’re going to need a little longer to put the E15 through its paces, so it only gets an honorable mention for now, but we are still testing.
Avoid These Mowers
EcoFlow Blade
EcoFlow Blade for £1,849: While it was easy to set up and cut my lawn nicely without the need for any boundary wire, the EcoFlow Blade (6/10, WIRED Review) sometimes struggled with GPS navigation and ended up stuck in a flower bed. It also left an unmowed strip around the edge of my lawn. The object avoidance was solid, and it can be automated in the app, though it occasionally failed to start a scheduled cut for me. EcoFlow seems to have discontinued this model, though it is still on sale in Europe. Probably best to avoid.
Yardcare E400 for $380: Curious about the budget end of the robot mower market, I agreed to try the Yardcare E400, but this mower was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. It’s a boundary wire model, so you must run wire around the area you want mowed. Yardcare suggests it can cover up to 4,300 square feet and cut to between 0.8 and 2.4 inches. The problem is that it gets stuck frequently and struggles to even get on and off its charging station reliably. After trying multiple fixes to no avail and going through customer support, I had to conclude that this model has a serious design flaw.
Do Robot Mowers Work in Any Weather?
Robot mowers and their charging stations usually have an IP rating and can cope with rain, but you should pack up and bring your mower indoors or into the garage during the winter months. Many robot mowers have some kind of rain sensor and will pause mowing when it gets too wet. Some mowers may need to be paused manually. The wheels can churn up your lawn and get caked in mud if robot mowers continue to mow in the rain, especially with larger and heavier models.
How Well Do Robot Mowers Cut?
Mowers of different sizes will have different cutting widths, denoting the width of the strip they are able to cut on each pass. Most also have floating cutting decks that enable you to choose the length of grass you want (perhaps 1 to 3 inches). Many robot mowers seem to struggle with cutting around the edges of a lawn, especially if there’s a wall or fence that prevents them from getting close enough.
It’s common to find an uncut verge around the edge of your lawn, so you might need to occasionally get the string trimmer out. Every robot mower I’ve tested has also struggled to cut the area around the charging station, so I recommend placing it on a deck or paving if possible.
Can I Install a Robot Mower Myself?
Yes, most robot mowers can be installed by anyone, but you might want to set aside an afternoon to work out any snags. Finding the best spot for the receiver for a satellite mower can be tricky. The mapping process can also take a while; usually, it prompts you to remote control your mower around the border you want to set. After the first mow, you should review its performance and make tweaks to ensure it’s covering the full area you want to cut.
How We Test Robot Lawn Mowers
We test each robot lawn mower for at least a month, assessing the ease of setup, the mapping process, automatic scheduling (where available), navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the quality of the final cut, looking at length, uniformity, and watching out for missed patches. Where applicable, we try extra features, tweak settings in the app, and check how the mower handles different weather conditions. We also keep an eye on battery performance and charging time to ensure it aligns with the manufacturer’s claims.
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