Husqvarna robot mower gps. Husqvarna Automower: Is a Robotic Lawn Mower the Future of Lawncare

Husqvarna Automower: Is a Robotic Lawn Mower the Future of Lawncare?

Caroline Lubinsky/Family Handyman

The Husqvarna Automower is a robotic lawn mower with GPS-assisted navigation, and our senior editor got up close and personal with it.

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Mowing your lawn takes time, physical labor and money (especially if you choose to hire someone). Not to mention, mowing is miserable when summer temperatures become blistering hot. Let’s be honest; you probably have better things to do (or at least several things you’d rather do) than mow grass—amiright? If you value your time, it might be in the cards to invest in something that does the job for you. Enter the Husqvarna Automower.

What is the Husqvarna Automower?

Caroline Lubinsky/Family Handyman

The Husqvarna Automower automates one of man’s most dreaded tasks: Cutting the grass. Senior Editor Caroline Lubinsky attended the Husqvarna Press Day in North Carolina this year to get up close and personal with Husqvarna’s innovative line of automowers.

Lubinsky spent the Press Day testing Husqvarna’s popular products on a multi-acre farm. “We were able to test their most powerful residential riding mower along with their new Battery Max line (which included a push mower, string trimmer and chainsaw),” she says. And of course, Lubinsky was able to check out the Husqvarna Automower.

“It’s shaped like an oversized Roomba,” says Lubinsky. “The automower dutifully goes out multiple times per day to lop off small pieces of grass rather than going in for one massive, weekly mow. This results in a uber-quiet (almost noiseless) mower that ambles around the yard, constantly keeping your grass in check.”

Think of it as the lawn-care equivalent to the rotisserie oven Ron Popeli used to hype: Simply set it down and forget about it. Okay, maybe don’t actually forget about it (these things are expensive), but you get my drift. You won’t have to stand outside in the blistering heat wasting minutes and energy to mow your lawn.

• 9 residential models and 8 commercial models
• Easy-to-use Automower Connect App
• Cutting height can be adjusted
• GPS navigation
• Detects objects in its path
• Works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home
• Create your own mowing paths and sections within the app
• Adjusts cutting schedule to weather
• Lightweight and can be picked up
• GPS anti-theft tracking
• Can handle hilly terrain
• Bluetooth connectivity
• Extremely quiet
• Pricey
• Blades have to be changed frequently
• Boundary installation is costly and not included in mower price

Caroline Lubinsky/Family Handyman

How to Use the Husqvarna Automower

Caroline Lubinsky/Family Handyman

The Husqvarna Automower 430 XH is designed for medium size yards (up to 0.8 acres, to be exact), and it mows your lawn a little every day while avoiding any obstacles in your yard. The extra-small grass clippings are then recycled into the turf as fertilizer, creating a healthier, greener lawn. When the automower is done for the day, it returns to its charging station to get ready for the next job.

Yes, it’s really that simple. Once the automower is assembled and the boundary installation is complete, it does the rest for you. Husqvarna Automowers with cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity are compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, too. So you can give your robomower voice commands such as start, stop, park and get status updates from your mower.

The Best Amazon User Reviews

Five-star reviewer Philip Martin wishes they would have bought the robot mower sooner. “I wish I’d bought this earlier, the local grass cutting services have become too expensive and they cut way too much off (which isn’t healthy for the grass),” they write. “… I’ve saved about 2-3 hours a week, which is invaluable, in addition to having a healthier lawn.”

Natalie Kilpatrick says, “I live in the city, and this is a wonderful automower for a flat lot. It does a great job at keeping the grass trimmed low and is easy to maintain.”

Verified purchaser Nathan Daniel Bell says, “Wow do I love my automower. It cuts grass that was almost a foot high even though the docs said it wouldn’t… It’s so quiet that you can hear the grass being cut. I never would have known what that sounded like without this mower.”

Bell also notes that they wish they would have had it professionally installed. “I feel like I did an okay job, but it took me several weekends to finish, and I had to rent a powered cable burier to finish in that time,” they write. “My only regret is not getting one sooner.”

Where to Buy the Husqvarna Automower

via merchant

Ready to stop sweating your butt off mowing the lawn every Saturday? Grab the Husqvarna Automower from retailers like Amazon, Lowes or Tractor Supply. Fair warning: You probably won’t know what to do with all your newfound free time.

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Mary Henn, MFA is an Associate Shopping Editor at Family Handyman. She’s also a national award-winning writer and journalist. Her expertise lies in interior design, home decor, gardening and outdoor trends. When she’s not working on the latest content at FHM, you can find her reading poetry or hiking with her dog, Henry.

Husqvarnas 2022 robot lawn mower software allow you to program virtual zones

Are you looking into buying a new robot lawn mower from Husqvarna, or maybe have one of their old models from the premium X lineup? This years software release includes a new map AI system called Automower Intelligent Mapping (AIM) and it makes it possible for you to program virtual zones and set different parameters for different zones. That means you don’t have to use a boundary wire to stop the robot lawn mower from entering a certain area. It also means you can set different cutting heights for different areas of your lawn. You can also control how often a zone should be mowed. If, for example, the front of the garden is in a sunny spot, it may not need to be cut as often as the lawn at the back of your house. Husqvarna will be releasing this software update for free via FOTA (their name for automatic software updates) to the following robotic lawn mowers:

• Husqvarna Automower 535 AWD
• Husqvarna Automower 435X AWD
• Husqvarna Automower 415X
• Husqvarna Automower 405X

As you probably noticed the Husqvarna Automower 430X is not on that list, all though it’s their top consumer robot lawn mower. That is because that robot is still not yet part of the new IPX5 fleet from Husqvarna. Rumours has it they will be moving Automower 430X into the new fleet (which means a more weatherproof chassi, automatic software updates (FOTA support) etc) next year, but nothing has been said officially yet.

What is Automower Intelligent Mapping (AIM)?

Automower Intelligent Mapping is part of the software release for some of Husqvarnas robot lawn mowers 2022. It is a lawn mapping and zone control system based on GPS and measurement data. The robot lawn mower calculates your lawn via AI and data points. When done you can program virtual zones via the Connect app.

The different zones can then be individually controlled. If you want a temporary flower bed in one part of your lawn, for the insects, bees et cetera, then you can program the robot lawn mower to temporarily not enter that area. You don’t have to use a physical boundary wire to stop it from entering, you just program a virtual no go zone.

This new update also means you can see where your boundary wire is situated on your lawn, where your robot lawn mower is out mowing the lawn as of right now, where it has been recently and you can set up different schedules and cutting height for different zones.

Update old Automower with the new AIM software

If you have a Husqvarna Automower 405X, Automower 415X, Automower 435X AWD or Automower 535X AWD you will receive the AIM update during the second quarter of 2022. The update will be sent out automatically.

If you open the Automower Connect app you will get a message if there is an update available. The firmware version for AIM ends with “5.20”.

To check firmware version on your Husqvarna Automower: Open the app – press “My Mowers” – press “Mower details” – see your firmware version.

Does it end with 5.20? If yes, you have the AIM update installed. If no, you will probably receive the update in the coming weeks.

When the update is installed you will want to let your robot lawn mower work for about a week or two in your garden. It collects data during these sessions. When it has enough data for AIM it will notify you about the new AIM functionality and you will be able to program different zones.

What about Husqvarna owned Gardena and their robot lawn mowers?

You might be asking yourself what will happen to the Gardena Smart robot lawn mowers when Husqvarna adds this functionality. Well, Gardena will of course be included. In their case, the new map AI system is named LONA. You can read more about Lona in this article.

Review: iPhone plus GPS means this robot mower can cut straight lines without perimeter wire

Competition has been growing in the autonomous mower market and one interesting new company making a sharp-looking and impressively functional robot mower is Mammotion. Setting itself apart from much of the competition, the Luba AWD ditches the hassle of installing a perimeter wire thanks to a slick iPhone setup and GPSRTK guidance. It also boasts the ability to mow straight lines, handle up to 1.25 acres, and can descend and climb up to 75% slopes.

Six years ago, I tested out the Husqvarna Automower, one of the most popular robot mowers on the market. It was and the current models are still very impressive but one of the main downsides is needing to install perimeter wire (guide wire) to tell the machine its mowing boundaries.

Jeff Lattimer, founder, and CEO of Autmow which specializes in robotic mowing recently reached out to tell me about the new Mammotion Luba and how impressed he’s been with it. Since robot mowers are a totally new experience for many, Autmow makes it seamless to figure out the best robot mower for your property with expert consultation, installation, sales, and support for both residential and commercial customers.

After hearing a bit more about the Luba AWD from Jeff, I was excited to test it out.

Mammotion Luba AWD 5000 specs

• Mow up to 1.25 acres (5,000 square meters)
• IPX6 waterproof
• No perimeter (guide) wire needed thanks to GPS (GNSS) RTK receiver

• Maps to cm-level accuracy thanks to 120-meter-radius RTK signal

I really enjoy Luba’s unique and slick design, it reminds me of an F1 car mixed with a moon rover.

In use

Luba is straightforward to set up with the hardware which includes the charging and RTK reference station (shown above). And getting going with the Mammotion app is mostly smooth too.

After you connect your iPhone with Luba, the mower will run a self-check to make sure the whole system is set up and operating correctly. Now you’re ready to map your yard.

This is the neat part, instead of having to spend potentially hours on laying perimeter wire, you get digital joysticks on iPhone to drive Luba around your boundaries.

I did have a couple of moments where I got a Bluetooth error that delayed the remote Luba control, but that seems to have been fixed with a software update that landed during my few weeks with the robot mower.

One other slight issue, it felt a bit unclear with the app how to add/manage multiple zones, I had to tinker with it a bit before sorting it out. on that below.

Nonetheless, in under 10 minutes, I had my yard mapped and Luba was ready to mow:

For more complex properties, you can add multiple zones and use what Mammotion calls “Channels” to connect different zones. I even set up Luba to do a bit of our neighbor’s backyard shortly after getting it going with ours (I just wish there was a more clear UI for adding additional zones and channels).

Next, you just tap “Mow” and you can manually start it, choose to set a schedule, as well as set your mowing specifics like cutting height, pattern, and more.

The customization options include cutting width, obstacle detection mode (off, 1, or 2), task speed, grid pattern, and more.

Once, up and running, I was quickly impressed with Luba’s precision. If you’re not familiar, many robot mowers use a random mowing pattern within the perimeter wire. The idea is usually to run them up to 5 days a week or so and you don’t notice the places it has mowed so much versus what it hasn’t.

But with Luba, you get beautiful, clean lines:

As you can sort of see above, we have a steeper area of lawn as it moves toward the pond. I was impressed by Luba’s AWD, it didn’t get stuck once even on some of the rougher terrain down there. Keep in mind you’ll probably need to weed-whack edging, in my experience Luba gets about 12 inches from the edges.

One tweak I made after the initial setup was creating a separate mowing zone around our playset that has lots of strange edges and obstacles. That’s nice as a separate zone so Luba doesn’t have to spend more time with all the obstacle avoidance before getting to the open areas of the lawn.

Overall I was impressed with the obstacle-avoidance system when used on level 2. When off or using level 1, it had trouble, particularly with our playset.

Constructive criticism

After a few weeks even though I saw impressive performance overall, I did experience some issues and thought of some constructive feedback.

• The Mammotion app could use some work: It’s not as intuitive as I’d hoped for things like adding multiple zones, saving/editing zones, and more
• Bluetooth bug I mentioned above seems to have been fixed with a software update, but with two software updates I’ve had to try twice each time to get them to install (on the bright side Mammotion is consistently putting out regular updates!)
• I also had an issue a couple of times where Luba would say it is disconnected from my Wi-Fi, but will show as connected – I’ve then had to manually disconnect from my network, power-cycle Luba, and reconnect manually
• Doesn’t have an alarm feature/keypad like Husqvarna and many other robot mowers (uses a physical security key instead)
• Doesn’t have cellular connectivity so if it’s out of range of your Wi-Fi, you won’t get the latest notifications, status, etc. (Luba does have a SIM slot, but the capability isn’t live for now)
• 2.8-inch max cutting height feels low – I usually like to mow at 3.5 or 4 inches – many robot mower competitors offer higher mowing height than 2.8 inches

One last thought, the white design looks really sharp, but it gets dirty fast. That might make some want to clean it often, if not, you’ll need to be ok with it being more of an off-white finish.

Mammotion Luba review wrap-up

Overall, I’ve found the Mammotion Luba AWD 5000 to deliver solid performance with unique and valuable features like perimeter wire-free operation, ability to mow straight lines, capable all-wheel-drive, reliable auto-charging, and more.

While I think there are a number of smaller issues with Luba, it seems like Mammotion can solve almost all of them with software updates like improving the UX of the app, turning on cellular support, offering a theft/tracking solution, and more.

If you’re considering Luba the one thing you’ll want to be sure about is that the max 2.8-inch cutting height is high enough for your needs/preference. If it’s not you’ll want to check out other options.

The Mammotion Luba AWD is available from Autmow, Amazon, and more. If you have any questions, feel free to share in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев or reach out to Autmow, Jeff and his team are super knowledgeable and helpful

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The best robotic lawn mowers for 2023

Like the look of robotic lawn mowers? Browse our pick of the very best, for gardens of all shapes and sizes.

Increasingly popular with UK gardeners, robotic lawn mowers are a welcome, hands-free alternative to traditional petrol and electric lawn mowers. Because a robotic lawn mower is fully automatic, it can be a brilliant option for gardeners who have mobility concerns, are away from home a lot, or simply find mowing a chore. Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries, most mowers are guided by a boundary cable laid around the edge of the lawn, which helps the robotic lawn mower identify where to mow and to avoid flower beds, trees and other obstacles.

While we tested models from a number of different brands, note that all of them offer a range of mowers with varying sizes, capabilities and features.

To compare these robotic models against other types of mowers, see our reviews of the best cordless lawn mowers, the best electric mowers and the best push mowers. And, if you’re looking to give your lawn a bit of TLC, our experts have tested a range of manual and powered aerators and scarifiers. check out the best scarifiers and best aerators reviews. You can also keep edges looking neat with our tests of the best strimmers or pick of the best lawn edging.

Best robotic lawn mowers at a glance

Our expertise

To help you find a robotic lawn mower suitable for your garden, we tested a range of mowers for different size gardens, including gardens with slopes and a complex shape. Each mower is in use for weeks at a time to allow us to assess its battery capacity and cutting proficiency as well as ease of use.

Each mower in our review has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to set up and ease of use, cutting performance, extra features and value for money. Every robotic mower in our round-up below has scored a minimum of four out of five stars, so you can buy with confidence.

The robotic mower industry is constantly evolving, with new developemnts and advances, and we are currently testing a number of the latest models ready to update this review shortly. Please check back soon to see the results of our new review.

Best robotic lawn mowers

Husqvarna Automower 405X

RRP: From £1899.00

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

• Unobtrusive colour
• Easy connectivity
• Clever mowing features
• GPS theft tracking

Awarded a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for features, the Automower 405x boasts a huge range of features that help the mower cut well and make the experience easy for the user. These include, three different start points, switching mowing pattern according to where it’s mowing, such as through a narrow passage, frost guard and weather time that automatically adjusts the height according to the grass growth, and its new Rewilding Zone where you can leave 10% of the lawn aside to grow for pollinators.It’s available to buy as a bare mower, which is then installed by a dealer for an additional cost, or with the installation kit included and you install it yourself. Suitable for smaller gardens 600m2, the mower operates with both a boundary wire and a guide wire and unlike some other mowers, has a more flexible docking station, which doesn’t need a wide, clear space around it. ours was tucked neatly into the side of a hedge. It’s also easy to set up via the intuitive keypad or the impressive Automower Connect app, which allows you to change the schedule, adjust the height of cut, check on the mower’s progress and receive notifications, simply and quickly no matter where you are. As an X model, the mower also has a built in SIM so you have both remote and voice controlled control. Our only confusion with set up was working out the scheduling needed, which took a couple of weeks to establish, and that the height of cut on the app is listed as 1-9, when it cuts between 20mm and 50mm.The mower can cope with 40% slopes, which should suit most gardens. The slope in our test garden has a tendency to get muddy and slippery so at the installer’s advice, we used the spiked Terrain wheels which stop the wheels slipping. Only occasionally did the mower fail to get up the slope and when the weather was really wet we simply removed that zone from the work area. The mower cut consistently well and is very quiet, the only perceptible sound is the whirring of the blades as they cut. It occasionally missed spots on the lawn but overall this is a very easy to use and high performing mower.The Automower 405x is just one in a large range of Husqvarna mowers to suit different size lawns. A host of accessories are also available, including a cover for the docking station and wheel brushes, as well as spare parts, from batteries and blades to wheels. Both the mower and the battery come with a 2 year warranty.

Buy the Husqvarna 405X Automower from Sam Turner, Husqvarna and Red Band