The Hidden Benefits of a Robotic Lawnmower
If you hate yard work, you may have dreamed of having a robot mow your lawn for you, eliminating the need to mow your lawn once or twice a week during the height of your lawn’s growing season. While the prospect of a robotic lawn mower may seem too good to be true, there are new models that can mow your lawn while saving you time, and if you have a large lawn and/or need to mow frequently, fuel costs more money. long-term perspective.
How do robot mowers work?
The basic idea behind a robotic lawnmower is that it will do to your grass what a Roomba does to your indoor floor. While some models operate using a perimeter cable and are set to move until they make contact with it and then turn, eventually covering the entire lawn, newer models such as the Husqvarna Automower (currently 1499 $.99) use GPS and sensors to guide the mower along a planned route. path for your yard. Mowers that use programmable path control for optimal efficiency are more likely to save money in the long run.
Save in the short term on fuel
The main savings when using a robotic lawn mower compared to a traditional lawn mower is the cost of fuel. Because robotic lawnmowers run on batteries that are charged from household electricity, they use much less fuel than lawn mowers or walk-behind tractors. According to a study commissioned by Stihl, robotic lawn mowers performed better than their traditional counterparts when mowing twice a week. According to the study, a traditional lawn mower spends about $25 on fuel to mow once a week during the growing season and $50 to mow twice a week during the growing season; A robotic lawnmower uses about $41 in fuel when mowing twice a week per season.
Save on labor costs
If you are choosing between using a robotic lawnmower or a lawn care service, a robotic lawnmower is undoubtedly the more cost-effective option. Hiring a lawn mowing service costs between $50 and $200 per acre. A robotic lawnmower can mow an acre for an entire mowing season for just $41—a significant savings.
Save on fuel and maintenance costs over the life of your vehicle.
Overall, the long-term savings associated with using a robotic lawn mower are a real benefit. A good robotic lawn mower for your home lawn can cost between $1,000 and $1,500, while a battery-powered push mower costs around $380. So the initial cost difference is significant. But in a study by the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering that compared the total costs of operating several types of lawn mowers over 10 years, a programmable robotic lawn mower for which an optimal path was developed cost less than half the price of its closest competitor. lawnmower. The total operating cost over 10 years of using a robotic lawnmower was about $6,000, while a gas-powered lawnmower cost about $14,000. It’s important to note that the robotic lawnmower, which had a random path without setting an optimal path, was the most expensive lawnmower, costing about $23,000 to operate for 10 years.
Other benefits of robotic mowers
Robotic lawn mowers are cheaper over time than regular lawn mowers if you need to mow frequently. A robot mower is not only cheaper, but it will also save you time (if you usually mow the grass yourself). Robotic lawn mowers are designed to automatically mulch grass clippings back into the yard, making it healthier while also eliminating cutting waste. Because robotic lawnmowers do not burn fossil fuels, they produce fewer emissions than their traditional counterparts. They are also significantly quieter than regular lawn mowers because the blades are smaller and they do not have internal combustion engines.
Disadvantages of robotic lawn mowers
Robotic lawn mowers have a high up-front cost and may not be effective for people who don’t need to mow often. Aside from the cost, they need to connect the charger outdoors where the mower can be docked, so having a place in the yard where you can dock the mower and charger when you’re not home is key. If you live in an area where yard equipment could be a target for thieves, your robot mower will need some kind of housing with an outlet to keep it safe. Robotic lawn mowers often have a limit on the grade they can operate on, so they won’t work in some yards with hills or uneven terrain.
Future prospects
While robotic lawnmowers aren’t ideal for everyone right now due to their price and terrain limitations, as technology advances the price is likely to drop and more efficient, route-optimized lawnmowers are likely to become more affordable. In addition, the development of better sensors and better road equipment will likely allow robotic lawn mowers to navigate increasingly rough terrain. As battery technology improves, the rechargeable batteries used in robotic lawn mowers are also likely to become more efficient and cheaper.