Friendly Robotics RL1000 RoboMower 21-Inch Automatic Cordless Electric Lawn Mower and Docking Station
by Friendly Robotics
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List Price: Our Price: $1,986.00 You Save: $513.99 (21%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Lawn & Patio See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Friendly Robotics RL1000 RoboMower 21-Inch Automatic Cordless Electric Lawn Mower and Docking Station
Customer Review: Poorly made to last just passed the warranty period
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased the RL800 in April 2003 from Amazon, hoping to get out of mowing the lawn. I ended up wasting lots of time and money on this useless device instead. My original review for the mower was actually positive. It worked well for the first summer and I didn't mow the lawn once with my push mower. I even recommended it to my coworkers. But the following spring, we got a lot of rain which caused the ground to get saturated. The robomower wheels lost traction in the wet grass and kept getting stuck in the middle of my lawn. I had to go out to push it along at least 5 or 6 times. I would have been better off taking my push mower out and mowing it myself, which is what I did until the ground dried up. Once summer came around, I brought the robomower out hoping it would perform like it did the year before. Wrong again! After less than 2 hours, the battery ran out of steam. The robomower is EXTREMELY slow so 2 hours is nowhere near enough time to completely mow my lawn. And yes I did read the manual on how to properly maintain the battery. I constantly charged it even while not in use. And during the winter if temps fell below 0 degrees, I was instructed to remove the battery and place it inside somewhere dry, which I did. Hoping to salvage use for the robomower, I purchased a second battery and the rapid external charger this year. I manually mowed my lawn with a push mower for the beginning of this year while the ground was too wet for the robomower. Then when it dried up enough, I decided to let the robomower take over. I unleash it on my lawn and 20 minutes later it stops. The robomower was beeping with the error "Check Power" message on the controller. I bring it back in and try charging it, but the error doesn't go away. I plug the power supply into another power outlet on a different circuit breaker and get same error. I put in my second battery and still same error. I end up calling tech support for assistance. Coincidentally, the 2 year warranty just ended in April so I was one month passed it. Their diagnosis was possibly a bad power supply and/or bad controller. When I asked if they could help me fix it, they told me not without getting charged even though I was only a month out of warranty. Keep in mind, I would have found out sooner about the problem if the robomower worked properly when the ground was a little wet. Thanks Friendly Robotics! So don't make the same mistake I made. Just mow your lawn yourself like I do now.Customer Review: Timmy mows our lawn now
Summary: 5 Stars
Timmy (Friendly Robotics RL1000) took over mowing our lawn August of 2005. I haven't mowed a lawn in over a year, 1 and a half growing seasons! I split up my front and back yard with a small gap so Timmy can do the front yard or the back and still make it home to his charging station. (home base is highly recommended!!!) I often start him up at 6pm and he keeps mowing until around 9:30pm and then goes to his little house for a complete re-charge for the next day. I did not choose the scheduled start option because I have two dogs and a 1 year old that leave toys in the yard. Also, Timmy can mow in the rain but grass cuts so much better when it's dry, plus grass clippings don't build up as much in the underside and wheel treads.
Setting up took some time and a bit of experimenting. Especially deciding which trees to block out with the wire and how to keep Timmy in the front or back while still being able to make it home when he's done. I purchased an extra roll of wire at Home Depo, any solid strand 16g or 14g wire will work. I soldered the connections instead of using the special wire nuts. I tried to go without an extra bag of wire stakes thinking I could just get something at Walmart or Home Depot but ended up buying 3 more bags of official stakes later on after an exhaustive search came up empty.
I have had very little trouble with Timmy. I'm good with new gadgets so dealing with little problems isn't too difficult for me. The outdoor power supply did break after only about 4 months of use but I just hooked up the indoor power supply inside and drilled a hole in the garage wall for the wire. I can now tell the blades need replacing after just over 1 year of use (about 5 months total in southern Maine) but that was expected. The battery life has gone from almost 4 hours down to about 3 hours so I plan on replacing those next spring. (I will just install 2 new 12v lead acid batteries in the existing housing and save about $75 on a new official battery pack)
Everyone in the neighborhood talks about Timmy, he's so popular! Mostly people ask about him when I'm outside and they walk by. I have had a few kids ring my door bell asking about him while he was busy at work.
Customer Review: I wish I got a lawnbott instead.
Summary: 4 Stars
I wish I bought the Lawnbott Evolution. The lawnbott appears much faster and configurable than the RL1000. Additionally, the lawnbott seems to do better in smaller spaces. However, I purchased a RL1000 because it was about $500 cheaper than the lawnbott. So, I am stuck with it. So far, I have used the RL1000 about 3-5 times to mow since then. First impressions are that the documention is terrible. I would like to see the documenation on setting up zones improve. There are videos that suppliment the paper manual. These videos should be watched. Without the videos, the documention on zones in the paper manual is incomplete. I thought the lawnmower robot would be smarter than it is. In this respect, most of the robot mowers are pretty dumb. They all seem to require a wire permiter. They all seem to zig zag around the permiter for a specified time. The RL1000 does a good job mowing, but I can mow my lawn with a reel mower in about half the time. If I use the RL1000, it takes up to 3 hours. I only have 40 feet of grass behind my house, 40 feet of grass in front, with 10 feet on each side. The hardest part in setting up the robot was the permiter wire. It was painful with baby trees. I have six newly planted trees in my lawn that I had to create islands around. The islands seem to slow down the mowing speed. Additionally, sewer pipe vents in the front make it very hard for the RL1000 to get in the corners. The RL1000 is very big compared to say the lawnbott. I would only recommend the RL1000 for flat lawns without a lot of trees. However, if you have a tiny spaces for the robot to go around, it might be best to do those manually. Additionally, the RL1000 seems to get disoriented in depression areas.
I read the manual for the lawnbott, and I used it to suppliment the RL1000 manual, which is pretty funny. They all work the same the lawnbott is more expensive, smaller, and quiter. Additionally, it looks more like a toy than a lawnmower. But, the lawnbott is the mower for the geek. The RL1000 is pretty good for the cost. Even though my lawn is small, I ran out of wire. I would recommend purchasing bulk insulated wire if you run out. It is cheaper and serves the same purpose.
Customer Review: Impressive
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this mower to be very impressive.
I have a lot about 100" x 25', generally flat with a mild slope down the length of the yard, and filled with small divits between clumps of grass. I generally don't have many bushes or trees in my property, so the deviations in my wire-line were few. I also have two dogs that commonly use the yard.
The set up was fairly simple; a single perimeter wire layed the groundwork along the fence. It rounds a few bushes and trees along the fence line.
I found the system set-up easy enough to only require a light read of the manual. When I started the mower I hadn't cut the grass in about 2-3 weeks (which is probably not recommended), but the mower cut through the 1' grass length without many problems. While tackling this length of grass it did stall in a few spots because of a lack of traction, so it needed a few nudges to continue. As it cut the lawn, however, the wheels were able to grab better and better traction and soon resolved the grass to the proper length. I don't believe I'll need to fill any of the divits to allow the system to run from here on in without my watching it.
I set it up to cut the grass to max power for every day of the week, however I will probably reduce this because the cut-time is certainly long enough to handle the backyard every few days (beyond 2 hours so far). I would recommend setting up the docking station on a flat stone surface (I'll probably lay cinderblock slabs beneith it later) as the mower will not be able to cut along the edges of the docking station very well.
My dogs at first were curious about it, but the quiet mowing sound wasn't at all intimidating, so they simply sniffed at it a few times and left it alone. Also, with the mowing sound lower than the general street traffic, mowing at any time of day would likely be fine.
Outside of that, my only regret is that I didn't buy this mower earlier in the year. That would have saved me a lot of time. I look forward to reducing my workload in the backyard going forward. All in all, I'm satisfied.
Customer Review: I love to mow when I am not home
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a new house and saw that everyone else in the neighborhood had a riding lawnmower. Having a small yard with not much to mow, in the past, I was not looking forward to spending at least 2 hours a week sitting on my [back] driving around in circles. I started looking for "high speed" riding movers but the cost was astronomical.
(...)
The mower and docking station arrived, from Amazon, in 2 large boxes. Installation and set-up was easily enough and I was "mowing" the front yard the next day. I had the mower set to MAX time but the lawn looked pretty well mowed after about 2 ½ hours. Now in the back yard (much larger area) the grass was long, wet, and has a long slope in it so the mower ran less than 3 hours before it returned to its dock. The lawn looked about 90% done. I was fairly satisfied with that being it is going out again today at 4:00 PM to finish up. "It mows, you don't". Love that!
The only thing I did that took a bit more time for the initial set-up was bury the perimeter wire, in high visibility areas. I did not like looking at the green line. I found this to be quite easy once I taped the "robo ruler" to a lawn edger I already own. I could then easily look down at the ruler and use it as a guide for the 1 inch deep little trench I dug with the edger.
Things that impressed me: There are no "clumps" of grass even when it was mowing during the rain storm. It mows in the rain. :-) It even pulled itself out of a little mud puddle that had formed once it realized it had no more traction in that direction. The speed at which the blades come to a complete stop (< 1 second) if it runs into something while you are manually mowing or you pick up the front.
Negative comments: If you like pretty "lines" in your lawn, this mower is not for you. All your friends and neighbors will ask you questions and/or make fun of you. I suggest you tell them what I tell them, "You do not manually was your clothes. You probably do not hand wash all of your dishes. Why would you WANT to mow your lawn?"