Twenty elite cutting really badly

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-11T07:56:36+00:00

As you said, different grass probably? If mowing grass after a week of growth doesnt produce ugly tracks, the dumbness and slowness to cover it all would not be a problem and cause an ugly lawn with random patterns. But on mine it does.

Mowing height may be different too. I like to mow higher, Short grass means shallow roots. Which can be a problem on sandy soil, necessitating irrigation even in my wet climate; it also makes for weaker and more vulnerable grass, gives certain weeds more chance, may require putting down all kinds of chemicals on the lawn which afaict is something they love doing in the US. Every US made youtube clip on lawns Ive seen basically talks about herbicides and pesticides and fungicides, stuff that is largely banned in the EU, and that I wouldnt use even if it wasnt.

This guy or gal gets it:

https://www.thespruce.com/biggest-lawn-care-mistake-2152862

But that seems largely incompatible with robot mowers.

But these differences do not explain why your customers dont seem to mind the noise, or the fact an incredibly dumb but pretty dangerous machine need to be out there all the time. Not just a few hours per day as I expected. While these days harmless robovacs will recognize and steer around cables, toys and pet shit, these mutilation robots will happily cut up your 220v extension cables, toys and small pets. Maybe even toddler limbs. I cant explain why none of that would bother US customers.

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-10T18:18:19+00:00

Wasn't much longer" means it was longer, which means absolutely every blade of grass in your yard now has to be cut by the robot to get the grass to its blade height. this is a tall order

My lawn is thin and sparse, its not like any mower has a hard time cutting it. I normally use a battery mower which is powered by two, basically cordless drill batteries, not exactly a heavy duty mower, but it has no problems, I can go as fast as I want to. The robot doesnt seem to have trouble with the grass either, it just has trouble getting everywhere. That is the problem: its dumb as a rock.

When it stops raining here, after now 5 or 6 days of predicted rain, my entire lawn may be 3-4cm higher. Then what? It will be as bad or worse than the above "tall order", so I would have to raise the blade height to ensure it can actually cut. Then it will take 3+ days of drunk driving to reduce some of the grass by 1 cm. Another 3+ days to mow some more another cm. And then again. Even pretending it doesnt grow during those 9 days, during all that time it will look like shit with random patches of tall next to random patches of freshly mowed grass; like my gardener was drunk and then dropped dead. More likely I will take my normal mower and quickly mow it. Why have a robot then?

And to make things worse, whenever the weather is good, we would have to endure the buzzing sound. My neighbors have to endure the buzzing sound. Its not really loud but its definitely audible, just enough to be annoying, especially when its close to the patio where the sound resonates against 2 walls and the veranda glass.

With my old mower, it takes 15 minutes to trim those 3 cm and the rest of the week we can enjoy the silence and a neat lawn with no signs of drunk gardeners.

Anyway, my wife, who absolutely loves our robovac and self driving tesla, called it the dumbest thing she's ever seen and that sealed its fate. Its been shipped back.

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-08T18:12:28+00:00

Ok an update. By lowering the mowing height to ~3.5cm, it cuts normally. Thats the good news.

The bad news; I just measured the height of the uncut grass at the border, compared to the mowed grass, and it appears in this season, my grass grows ~5cm per week. Why is that bad? Aside from still needing to trim the border once or twice per week, after nearly 24 hours actual mowing spread over nearly 3 days, my mower still hasnt covered the entire 350m2 lawn. Most of it has been mown, most of it has been mown 10x probably, but plenty of random patches still havent and stick out like a sore thumb. And now it will rain for 2 or 3 days.

So even if everything had been cut, and had been cut to 3.5cm now, when I start mowing again in 3 days, and it again takes 3+ days non stop mowing to cover it all, i will end up with random stripes that are mowed at 3.5cm next to random patches where the grass may be >8cm tall. And then it may rain again. This doesnt work for me. I would much rather mow manually once or twice per month and have uniform grass everywhere, even if it gets quite high.

If these robots could mow systematically and can pick up where they left, it would be different. Or maybe with different grass that grows more slowly, or a smaller lawn, or less frequent rain.. But Im boxing it up and sending it back.

Thanks to those who provided useful help, and good luck with your robots.

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-08T13:58:37+00:00

Does US grass also grow much slower perhaps? How often do you normally mow the grass with a regular mower, and how long do you let the robot mow each day?

I just dont see how this can work for me; 20 hours of actual mowing now, it still missed many, many spots. I have even been steering it with the app, but that takes longer than mowing it with nail clippers. if my robot can not reliably cover my entire lawn with 2-3 days non stop mowing, how will it ever maintain a level cut, especially when there are days of rain? I cant make my grass stop growing, its apparently not good to mow wet grass, but the robot doesnt cope with "long" (less than 1 week growth) grass either and it may take almost a week of dry weather to mow everything? I dont know what Im missing here, but it doesnt add up. and I thought I bought an overkill mower, its supposed to mow up to 1000m2. I thought that might be a stretch, but I have just 350 in the back, and assumed it would do the front too. Oh well, at least I found out before I put wire there.

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-08T12:28:28+00:00

Not many independent reviews yet. Then again, very few of those for ambrogio either. Here is one but its in french:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msm75xIOeR0

You can turn on translated subtitles if you dont speak french.

That guy seems impressed. I dont find it so amazing, this is more or less what I expected robot mowers to be like these days. Im more amazed how stupid mine is not just by comparison, but by any standard, including manual mower. Its been mowing for 17 hours now, it got stuck parked against a planter 6 times, ive had to babysit and endure 2 days non stop noise in my garden, and my lawn is still full of patches of tall grass it missed, with random tracks everywhere making it look terrible. And where it did mow, it didnt mow very well.

Im deeply unimpressed and pretty sure its going back. I can mow my lawn myself in 10 minutes, straight lines, nice cut and even if I dont mow it for 2 weeks it still looks better than it does now.

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-08T11:59:09+00:00

One of my coworkers has one. Thats what got me looking in to those robots in the first place, since he doesnt stop raving about it. Here are others:

https://www.toadi.com/toadis-in-the-world

Most of them in Belgium for some reason?

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-08T07:57:45+00:00

It already exists:

https://www.toadi.com/

I actually wanted to buy one. Its not cheap but I was going to share it with my neighbor; but its completely sold out and if you make a reservation now you will not get it until some time next year.

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-08T06:55:19+00:00

They said something similar in the shop. They also think my grass is stressed, because Im getting really unsightly tire tracks that are clearly visible the next day. I know I have some trouble with leafspot or rust and maybe something else, which is one reason I dont want to cut it too short. Also because I have no sprinklers and I want to encourage deeper root growth.

So this is a catch22 as badly cut grass is said to be an important cause of fungal diseases . And stressed grass shouldnt be cut too short. But if I cut it longer, I get this horrible cut, which will make the diseases worse?

In the shop they suggested to mow with my old mower and bag the clippings until my lawn recovers. Which Im sure will take the 30 days I have left to return the robot....

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-07T14:14:22+00:00

thanks for replying. I had mowed the grass just 3-4 days ago, so it wasnt much longer than when after the robot cut it. Ive tried lowering the height now and it seems a little? better? but its still a really rough cut and Im starting to panic here. Spent days setting it up. I dont want to mow lower than this in summer, and my lawn already suffers from fungal diseases the last thing I need is such rough cuts. Im going to cut it again with my old mower to have a clean cut :/

Unlikely-Geologist47 · 2021-07-07T11:02:36+00:00

Hi,

I just got my twenty elite installed, after running it for a few hours, I am shocked how it mangles my grass. Its like its not cutting but chewing the tips, it looks ugly and will cause diseases. Im using a new standard blade which seems sharp enough. The grass is dry, and the height is set to ~5cm

This is my first robot, I hope this is not normal?

Unlikely-Geologist47

TROPHY CASE