LawnBott LB3500 Feature Reviews
The LawnBott LB3500 has numerous safety features. We are proud to say that in Europe the LawnBott has sold over 70,000 LawnBott mowers in the past 8 years with no reported injuries. That is in part because a person does not have to be around the mower while its in operation. Other reasons are the safety mechanisms which have been in place by strict European Safety Standards.
As of April 2008, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has decided to create standards that are even stricter than European standards. The LawnBott LB3500 is the first LawnBott mower to receive approval from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It easily passed their test.
The LB3500 is the first robotic lawn mower to incorporate “touch” sensors. These sensors remind me of touch lamps. For example, when the handle is touched, the blade stops spinning in less than a second. Therefore, before you can lift the mower off the ground, the blade has already stopped turning! When the proximity sensors that surround the mower are touched, the blade stops as well.
In addition to the touch sensors, the LawnBott LB3500 has a tilt sensor. Therefore if the mower was lifted, the blade will stop.
In our test, all safety mechanisms in the LB3500 worked as promised and surpassed our expectations. Of course you would still want to exercise normal safety practices, which include not operating the mower when people (especially children) are present on the lawn. We find that night mowing is a big plus when it comes to that aspect.
In summary, the LawnBott LB3500 robot mower is a lot safer than a traditional lawnmower. Everyday there are hundreds of emergency room visits caused from traditional lawn mowers. By eliminating the human, you dramatically reduce the chances of injury.
The LawnBott LB3500 is the first robotic lawn mower that allows you to control and program it through your Bluetooth compatible cell phone.
Originally I thought setting this up would be just as easy as pairing a set of Bluetooth headphones with my cell phone. Unfortunately, that wasn’t so. First of all, in order for Bluetooth to work with the LawnBott, you need to have a compatible cell phone. The cell phone must not only be Bluetooth compatible, but also will need to support JSR-82 applications and allow Midlet to send Java through Bluetooth. Since most phones do not fall into this category, you probably want to check our list of compatible phones before getting too excited about this feature.
Installing the custom LawnBott application is about as simple as downloading and installing a game for your phone. If you’ve never installed a game or application to your phone, it’s not extremely difficult, but it’s not easy as pie either.
Once setup, Bluetooth works as advertised. You can control the movements of the mower and modify the schedule without bending down to scroll through menus. It’s a nice bonus but definitely not a “must have” feature especially since it only takes two minutes to setup your LawnBott using the mower's interface. However by using Bluetooth, you could modify the working schedule from inside your home given the mower is within rage of your phone's bluetooth capabilities which is about 30 feet for most phones.
The LawnBott Evolution LB3200 comes with a radio frequency remote. However we found that most of these remotes ended up in the garage or in a drawer somewhere rarely (if ever) used. I suspect the same will be the case with Bluetooth once the “newness” wears off. The mower is independent enough to take care of the lawn all by itself.
The LawnBott LB3500 has a built in alarm system. When enabled, the mower will emit a siren when picked up. To shut it off, you must enter the PIN code that was set by the owner. The alarm is not as loud as a car alarm, but it is loud enough to scream attention.
Also, as part of the security system, the LawnBott has a PIN code. When enabled, the mower will require a pin to be entered each time the unit is manually operated. Therefore if the mower is stolen, it will be useless.
From a personal stand point on security: I have been using and selling robotic lawn mowers for over 4 years now. We have not owned a traditional mower in our household in over 4 years. In my personal experience, most people think someone is controlling the mower from inside the house or near by. Therefore, one would not dare attempt to pick it up but it is nice to have the alarm for peace of mind.
Another advantage of the LawnBott is how quiet it mows. It is so quiet; it can run at night without disturbing you or your neighbors. In our test, the LawnBott LB3500 can barely be heard at all standing directly 20 feet away from it.
That is not to say its whisper quiet all the time. The LawnBott LB3500 is louder when the blade is at full throttle for very high grass. Even when the blade motor is at full throttle, we found the LawnBott LB3500 is quiet enough to run at night, next to the bedroom window without disturbing one's sleep. The loudest moments also occur when chopping up twigs – you hear the metal blade is chopping them up.
There is no chance nearby neighbors will be disturbed. Overall the LawnBott is extremely quiet for a lawn mower. We really love the night mowing ability.
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