LawnBott Field Test and Mowing Quality Review
It is fun to discuss the high tech bells and whistles of the LawnBott LB3500, but at the end of the day what matters most is how well it mows the lawn and its ability to do so without your help.
The LawnBott was designed to maintain a “just mowed” appearance all grass types including weeds. Since it can mow daily, the probability of the lawn getting out of hand is very slim. However, in real world situations, sometimes the lawn can get slightly out of hand – especially in climates where there’s lots of rain. Therefore, we decided to test the mower in some more challenging conditions. Here are the results:
High grass: The manufacture recommends not to mow lawns over 4 inches high. That goes for the LawnBott and all other robotic lawn mowers, but in our test the LawnBott LB3500 had no problem mowing grass nearly twice that high. As soon as the blade went over the higher grass, the motors thrust at full throttle and had no problems what so ever. On medium grass the motor would increase at just the right amount of power to get the job done.
Overall the LawnBott LB3500 performed very well on medium and high grass. To be honest, this part of the test didn’t surprise me because the other LawnBott models can handle high grass quite well too. Though it is not recommended to mow high grass, it is nice to know that the LawnBott can handle it.
Twigs & small branches: Most yards with large trees have more than their share of twigs. Therefore, we decided to see how the LawnBott LB3500 would handle twigs, pinecones and small branches. As soon as the blade hit the first twig, the motor speed increased by just the right amount and had no problems chopping them. Again, this part of the test didn’t surprise me because the previous LawnBott models could handle twigs and pine cones very well too. Although the LawnBott can chop twigs and small branches without any problems, if you’re going to mow them on a regular basis, it is a good idea to inspect the blade more frequently than normal. Also because the LawnBott is a lot quieter than gas lawn mowers, the sound of twigs being pulverized can be quite entertaining.
Do not try the following two tests at home:
12-inch+ high grass: To challenge it even further I aimed it at a section of very high grass (actually weed/grass mixture). Much to my surprise the electric motor performed better than I expected. It plowed through the high stuff almost as if it was slicing butter. The mulching quality on 12-inch+ grass wasn’t up to par, but I didn’t see clumps of grass building up either. The mowing motor in the LawnBott LB3500 is more powerful than the previous LawnBott models.
Big Rocks: I have to admit I wasn’t planning on allowing the mower to run over a big rock, but somehow it managed to find one before I picked it up. Much to my surprise it pulverized it quite well. Upon inspecting the blade, there was no significant damage – just a minor nick. Perhaps I was lucky with the blade this time, but we recommend clearing rocks that are within blade reach. Also the mower did not throw any debris more than just a few inches from the mowing deck. Had a gas-powered mower hit the same rock, it would have thrown it several feet and would have been a lot more dangerous.
 Because the mower covers every inch in the yard from several different angles, the final result of the lawn seems to look better than that of traditional lawn mower. Perhaps this is due to the smaller clippings, sharper/thinner blade, varying mowing angles, the fact I did not have to lift a finger to mow or a combination of them all.
The LawnBott doesn’t create wind speed. Therefore it does not blow grass all over the place. This eliminates the need to rake or tidy up the driveway and sidewalk after mowing.
Initially there were some wheel marks on the lawn, but they quickly disappeared. The end result is an evenly mowed yard with no noticeable missed spots. I’m extremely impressed with the cut quality of the LawnBott and I’m unsure how anyone cannot be.
The LawnBott can automatically manage up to 4 different areas of the yard separately. If more areas are needed, some can be combined. For example, the front and side yards can be considered as one area. As an alternative, you can manually place the mower in closed off areas, which is great for fenced or tiered lawns.
The LawnBott automatically leaves the charging base then centers itself on the perimeter wire. It follows the perimeter wire until it reaches the designated area of the yard before it starts mowing inside.
One neat bonus is you do not have to “babysit” the perimeter wire. I placed my hosepipe dispenser about 8 feet behind the dock – just to see what will happen. Sure enough the mower bumped into it, reversed then formed a half circle around the dispenser and into the charging garage it went. It’s great to know you don’t have to “babysit” the perimeter wire for objects, toys and so on.
A new feature that separates the LawnBott LB3500 from the previous models is that can follow the perimeter wire in both directions to access areas of the yard faster.
Another great new feature is that if the LawnBott LB3500 finishes one area before the batteries are low, it’ll automatically move to another area, which is a very smart use of the extra time.
The mower’s LCD displays percentage of its progress. For example, for a yard it hasn’t spent much time in, it will display it’s progress as 0% complete. This is part of the Auto-Programming feature discussed earlier.
We found that the LawnBott LB3500 does an outstanding job at managing each area of the lawn.
Years ago, I thought random mowing will not yield good results for mowing grass. I thought the best way for a machine to mow is with a pattern – like how our Robomower mows. But even the first generation LawnBott proved me to be very wrong. Randomly mowing is truly an effective way to cover every single inch of small, medium, large and very large lawns. Random mowing is also a great to mow lawns with many trees and obstacles – which can sometimes be a problem for the Robomower.
The LawnBott performed so well in our test that we didn’t find any noticeable missed spots at first and second glance. But after closely inspecting the yard, I managed to find a spot the LawnBott LB3500 missed. The LawnBott took care of that spot very next time it went out – almost as if it knew it was there. If you have a large large, do not expect the mower to cover entire lawn in a single run. Since LawnBott can mow twice a day, 7 days a week - the whole lawn will get covered.
 If the LawnBott LB3500 runs across fairly high grass, two things happen. First the blade picks up speed that is noticeable to the ear. Second, the mower will turn into a tight circular spiral until it no longer senses the high grass. In our test this worked extremely well. My only complaint is I found that sometimes the spiral mode ended sooner than I thought it should. However, the mower eventually found those spots in subsequent passes.
Another observation about spiral mode – If you have sections of your yard that grow faster than the rest, the mower will automatically spend more time in these areas due to the spiraling action.
We are very impressed with Smart Spiral mode.
The LawnBott LB3500 is rated to handle 30-degree slopes. Optional spiked wheels can be added to provide extra traction. We tested the mower in slopes at about 32 degrees and didn’t have any problems. In fact, our LawnBott LB3500 was able to climb 40-degree slopes with no problem. As with previous models of LawnBott, the limitation of slopes has to do with the mower not being able to stop quickly enough while traveling downhill. Therefore if your perimeter wire is directly at the bottom of the slope, you do not want to exceed 30 degrees. In our test, the LB3500 performed as advertised, however if you have a fair amount of slopes , we recommend the spiked wheels.
We are extremely impressed with the mowing quality and mowing ability of the LawnBott LB3500.
The LawnBott is truly a lawn mower replacement and is an independent, hard worker that gets the job done. Because it mows frequently, the lawn always look as if it were just mowed.
As with any lawn mower, you will still need to occasionally trim around solid objects with a string trimmer, but areas around sidewalks and driveways will get trimmed if you position the perimeter wire close enough.
|
