Robot Lawn Mower Vs Ride On Lawn Mower

The fight is on!!! Which is better? A robot lawn mower or a ride on lawn mower.

We are going to look at and compare the following aspects ?

• Slope Performance
• Cost
• Size and Complexity of the Lawn
• Lawn Appearance

Slope Performance

First up the Ride On Lawn Mower has a slope performance of around 15 Degrees. Safety being the main factor here,  tipping a ride on mower can me very dangerous!

The second  issue is a 4 Stroke engine requires constant lubrication and a steep slope can prevent proper lubrication resulting in a seized engine.

Now we have a Robot Lawn Mower with a slope performance of 35 Degrees. No real safety issues if this is exceeded and being battery powered you don’t need to worry about an engine seizing.

Its not all good unfortunately ….. A Robot Mowers area capacity is reduced when the cutting area includes slopes . Like any wheeled vehicle fighting against gravity, traction will become a problem as well if you exceed the machines spec.

I think we can safely say a Robot Lawn Mower has much better slope performance.  The Husqvarna Automower 435 AWD is the model which has the best slope performance.

Cost

There are  lots a variables so we have chosen  2 examples and put the details into the tables below.

One clear winner !   So lets see a how a cheaper ride on lawn mower compares

From this we can see that the real deal breaker is the running costs.  Even if the cost of the ride on lawn mower is less, the running costs are still so much more.

But their is a cost which we haven’t accounted for in our tables……..YOUR TIME !  Think about how much time you will save, we think this is the most important saving a robot lawn mower gives you.

Size and Complexity of the Lawn

Firstly, their is no lawn too big.  More the one ride on can be used and more than one robotic lawn mower can work together.

But for now if we look at having just one machine we can give a better comparison. Robotic Mowers do exist which can mow lawns which up to 30000 m² .  The best selling robotic lawn mower Husqvarna Automower 450x can work on a lawn up to 5000m², which is a fairly large lawn for a homeowner.

The plus side to a ride on lawn mower is you can cut larger lawns with one machine, assuming you have the time.

A ride can also cut complex lawns although you do have a problem when it comes to small intricate areas which the ride on lawn mower cannot fit. This often results in you needing a smaller walk behind mower for these areas, which adds to the cost.

So you can get by with a Ride On lawn mower, people have done it for years.  But now in most cases the better alternative is a robot lawn mower.

A robot lawnmower is much smaller usually around 60cm in width. This is the advantage,  they can cut wide open areas and then also go into the smaller parts of your lawn and cut them as well.

Lawn Appearance

You can immediately tell the difference between a lawn cut with  ride on and and lawn cut with a robot mower.

So here is how you spot a lawn which has been cut using a robot:

1. Grass is always cut to the same height
2. No scalping of the lawn- if your lawns not a bowling green but you like the grass short a ride on mower blades will often hit the ground,  damaging the grass. due to the small width of cut on a robot lawn mower this problem is avoided.
3. no stripes, a robotic lawnmower cant achieve this look.
4. Grass becomes more dense – Find out How ?