A beautiful lawn is like a beautiful car: everyone wants one, no one wants to take it into the shop for maintenance. Like the beautiful car the beautiful lawn will only stay that way if you perform the necessary upkeep and that means mowing first and foremost. But who has the time or energy today to spend every other Saturday out in the yard with their exhaust-belching, noise-making push mower in hand making sure the lawn get the attention it needs? Sure you can hire a local kid to do the work but kids aren’t really motivated to do that sort of thing these days. That means in all likelihood that you’ll have to hire an expensive landscaping service. Unless of course you take advantage of one of today’s incredible robot lawn mowers like the Worx Landroid.
Worx Landroid First Impressions
When the Worx Landroid is hard at work in the yard it looks like a canister vacuum searching desperately for its lost hose. But any humorous visual associations that might come to mind while watching this technical marvel go about its job are tempered by the fact that it’s remarkably easy to set up and takes care of your 1,000 square meter lawn in remarkably quiet fashion in about an hour. We were impressed by how easy the Landroid is to set up too. Much easier than most other robot lawn mowers. Although there are a few areas where we think it could use a bit of improvement and we’ll get to those below.
Key Features
Before we mention any shortcomings let’s list the things that the Worx Landroid does right because there are quite a few of them.
- Programming – Whether you input directly through the touchpad on the mower or choose to program it remotely using the handy smartphone app that programming is intuitive and fast. Input your entire mowing schedule in just a couple of minutes.
- Quiet operation – The Landroid emits a scant 63 decibels which is less than most other robot mowers and significantly less than push mowers that routinely crank out 90 or even 100 decibels.
- Custom cuts – Set the cut length to anywhere from 20mm to 60mm to get exactly the look and feel that you’re after for your lawn.
- Rain sensor – Like robot lawn mowers costing twice as much the Worx Landroid can sense rain. When it does it returns automatically to the base where it recharges while waiting for the weather to clear.
- Safe navigation – The Landroid can sense when something is in its path and will automatically reroute itself to get around the obstacle whether it be human, animal, manmade or natural.
- Auto stop – If you or anyone else lifts the Landroid off the ground while it’s running it automatically shuts down. There is also a stop button built into the handle in case you ever need it.
- Frequent upgrades – Worx is always looking for ways to improve their robot lawn mowers so when a software update for the Landroid becomes available you can quickly download and install it.
Setup
Some robot lawn mowers seem like they require a degree in computer science to program but not the Landroid. Yes, you’ll need to spend some time laying out the wire boundary (as you will with all robot mowers) but once that is accomplished setting up the Landroid is no big deal. We advise, however, that before you decide your boundary setup is etched in stone that you let the Landroid loose and see how it works. If it doesn’t get stuck and the finished product looks the way you want then great, you have your boundary. Otherwise, tweak the layout and keep doing test runs until everything is working the way you want it to.
Just remember not to lay the boundary wire too close to any fences. Also, push it down far enough so that people playing, working or otherwise engaged in the yard don’t trip over it. Also, make sure the cord from the base to the power source doesn’t cross a section of the yard that will be getting mowed.
Performance
Like most robot mowers the Landroid does not mow your lawn in a series of straight lines that work their way from side to side. Instead it uses its own logic and moves about in seemingly random fashion that has you wondering how much of the yard it’s going to miss. The answer to that question is “none”. Because as random as the movements of the Landroid may seem they actually result in complete coverage and a more satisfying, more aesthetically pleasing final result. Keep in mind that the Landroid does not collect clippings either. Instead it feeds them back into the soil where they can act as fertilizer. Be sure there’s no loose trash on the lawn before you set the Landroid free or you’ll wind up with trash mulch. Also, in spite of promotional claims to the contrary the Landroid does not do a great job on the edges or for that matter, on inclines.
Considerations
The Worx Landroid comes up a bit short in the blade department which is why you’ll likely need to get out the weed whacker and trim the edges manually. The cutting surface is 14 inches in diameter, significantly smaller than the 22 inch cutting diameter of some other robot lawn mowers. That said it’s very light and easy to move around by hand if you need to. It’s also incredibly affordable as robot lawn mowers go; tipping the financial scales at “only” $670 give or take (depending on where you purchase it).
Recommended?
So would we recommend the Worx Landroid? Yes. As long as you’re okay with a few shortcomings like the narrow cutting surface and the fact that it’s not exactly a beast on inclines. It’s affordable compared to other robot mowers, dependable, does a good job of producing a nice even cut with little fuss and it has just enough features to elbow its way into consideration next to far more expensive robot lawn mowers.
Our Rating
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