Segway’s robot mower spared me from my least favorite chore

I’m positive a few of you will have checked out robo mowers as Roombas in your yard however, sadly, a lot of them require you to put in a boundary wire across the perimeter of your garden. And any product that requires you to dig a trench is the other of what “low effort” means to me. That’s why I used to be focused on attempting Segway’s Navimow i105, its £945 (round $1,200) GPS-equipped mower which eliminates that busywork. And maintaining your garden neat and tidy is a job that’s all busywork.

Ask a gardener and so they’ll let you know the key to an ideal garden is to seed a chunk of flat land after which mow it into submission. Common, militant mowing kills off all the opposite flora, guaranteeing solely grass can develop till all the things appears well-manicured. However that relentless mowing requires lots of time, a luxurious I’ve by no means had. It’s the form of job a robotic mower was born to do, given it might probably scuttle round and trim grass with out you there.

Segway’s i Collection is the corporate’s newest, extra inexpensive providing in comparison with its pricier S Collection. The brand new items have a smaller battery and vary, with the i105 in a position to deal with areas as much as 500 sq. meters. In contrast to some GPS mowers, the i105 is provided with a ahead dealing with HD digital camera with a 180-degree visual field. So whereas it depends on satellites for positioning, it’ll have sufficient sense to cease earlier than it clatters into an impediment. It’s not packing subtle pc imaginative and prescient smarts, but it surely’ll play protected lest it cost right into a pet, inattentive member of the family or prized flower.

I needed to check the Navimow as a result of I’ve no matter you’d name the other of the platonic perfect of a Good Backyard(™). My home sits on the base of a hill, with the backyard constructed into tiers alongside its top, and the garden 1.5 meters above floor degree. There’s a sheer drop down its nearest edge and a foot-long drop alongside the aspect the place the pathway has been minimize into the bottom. It’s a high-stakes check to see how correct the unit’s positioning is, given what would occur if issues went improper. Plus, I’m not green-fingered and my garden is normally overrun with an orgy of Borage that grows sooner than I can minimize it down.

Setup requires you to plant the Navimow i105’s docking station and join it to a mains energy and standalone GPS antenna. As soon as the unit is paired with the app, you’ll use your cellphone as a distant management to drive it across the perimeter of your garden. You’ll additionally rapidly study that what you thought was a flat garden has loads of hidden bumps and dips. Which meant my first few mapping runs left with me a really wonky edge that I needed to preserve tweaking.

You’ll additionally want to offer your garden an excellent mowing earlier than you run the Navimow, as a result of it’s clearly not constructed to clear plenty of unkempt grass. Spare a thought for me, as I used to be testing this throughout a typical British April, the place we get torrential rain and brilliant sunshine in equal measure. And that can give your garden — and the weeds lurking therein — time and alternative to spring again. The unit’s impediment avoidance made it skirt even only a sprightly patch of grass and weeds, leaving me with a patchy minimize that meant I needed to get the lawnmower out once more.

Setup took about half an hour, which didn’t really feel too onerous given there’s a good chunk of stuff to do. Staking the GPS antenna into the bottom, working the cables and locking down the charging station are all simple sufficient. I’m lucky sufficient to don’t have any tall buildings or obstacles blocking my GPS indicators, both. As soon as it was all working, all I needed to do after the preliminary run-around was let it work its magic with out supervision. And, on flat floor in honest climate, Navimow does all you may ask it to do.

Keep in mind that the Navimow may have the identical limitations as some other robotic home support (like a robovac). The chopping blades sit beneath the middle of its physique so it might probably’t do edges until you decide to have the machine trip past its boundary. If you happen to can’t try this, then you definately’ll have to get a weed wacker to trim the unreachable edges of your turf. However I’ll admit, I’m very a lot an edge case in comparison with most folk.

I used to be deeply involved about leaving the Navimow out within the climate, however the firm mentioned its IP66 score for water- and dust-resistance meant I shouldn’t fear. The corporate will sell you a canopy that can sit on top of the charging station to guard it from the weather. You’ll should convey the unit indoors from the tip of fall to the beginning of spring annually, however that’s hardly a shock.

That’s a comparatively minor gripe, nevertheless, and I’ve loved the power to set this factor to expire regularly. As soon as the inclement climate and weed progress subsided, the unit confirmed its price eliminating round 90 p.c of the busywork I might in any other case should do. The very fact I’ve a neat garden that solely wants a fast trim across the edges has been a delight. And I’ve spent extra time within the backyard now than I might in any other case on condition that it’s good by default, fairly than needing a mow.

Essentially, when you have a patch of floor you’d prefer to see develop into a garden and don’t have time to do it your self, check out this. It might not be the set-and-forget answer you may hope for, but it surely’ll cut back the quantity of effort to virtually nothing. And, whereas it prices a grand, if it lasts greater than a few years, it’ll work out cheaper than hiring a gardener to do the identical job.