Should I buy a Ride On Mower or Automower?

There are many factors to be considered when deciding whether to buy a ride on mower or a robotic lawn mower but in many respects the most important factor is cost. Not simply the cost of the machine and installation, but also and arguably more importantly, the cost associated with the time taken to cut the grass.

Whilst many people, me included used to say, “but I enjoy cutting the grass”  to many others it is simply lost time undertaking a routine mowing task when the weather is at its best and you’d rather be doing something more enjoyable like partaking in a sport or simply enjoying a well-earned drink in the garden.

Mowing your lawn with a professionally installed Husqvarna Automower will provide you with these choices as it will take care of the mowing of your lawn thoughout the week at times of your choosing while you get on with your busy life. With a model such as the Automower 535X, being able to cope with the mowing of slopes up to 35 degrees they also provide a safe solution for the mowing of grass on slopes.

Installation of a robotic mower can be undertaken by the homeowner but with many factors to consider, such as where to locate the mower base station / charger and how to navigate paths, slopes trees and garden ponds it is without doubt best to be left to a professional dealer. With the  technical know-how, they can consider all the factors during the installation and so minimising the likelihood of poor performance or operation of the Automower.

How much will an Automower cost?

The answer is not as much as you would think, arguably they are very inexpensive and offer great value for money, but it just depends how you view your own money.

Let us for example assume you own a garden of approximately one acre in size, larger areas can simply be catered for with multiple machines but for now lets stick to one.

A Husqvarna Automower 450x  installed with extra strong cable might cost in the region of £5000- £6,000 depending on the complexity of the garden and it will use approximately £30 of electricity annually.

This investment might initially seem high in relation to the simple task of “cutting the grass”, however let’s consider the alternative ride on lawn mower.  Off you pop down to the filling station most weeks and get your £20 of fuel, possibly transporting this smelly fuel back in your family car.  If you are lucky this takes 30 minutes. Now you’re ready to start mowing, up and down and round and round and before you know it you’ve just lost another hour of your weekend or even more hard-earned cash if you pay a landscaper to cut your grass.

Ride on mowers also need regular maintenance and repairs; issues such as a drive belt failure can soon cost in excess of £100 to repair. If you are not so lucky, and you have to wait for your machine to be collected for repair, then it hits a backlog in the dealer service department before being repaired and retuned you, you could be facing a meadow not a lawn by the time your mower gets returned, taking even more time to return to back to normal and further eating into your leisure time.

Automower issues

These will be minimised by professional dealer installation and the mower being covered by warranty for 3 years if serviced by the dealer. So unless you modify your garden there is VERY little that can be your fault, unlike owning a ride on mower where you may have gone too fast, mowed too low, or hit an object etc.

If the Mower has a problem, you will be notified via an extensive mobile App that allows to fully control your mower, wherever you are in the world. If you are unable to fix it and it needs to go to a dealer it easily fits in the boot of your car, so no missed days at the office waiting for the engineer to arrive. If you need new blades its simple 10-minute job for a novice. – No waiting in for a dealer. In general service costs are typically less than half that of a ride on mower.

So, you’re probably already thinking why don’t I own an Automower?

Risk of Theft

Each year hundreds of ride on mowers are stolen. Very few Automowers are ever stolen and the reason is quite simple, they are pin code protected, many are GPS trackable and they are paired to the station in your garden. All this means your Automower is practically useless to the potential new unsuspecting owner, and it does not stop there! If the new owner contacts a dealer to try and fix their issue, the second it gets plugged in the dealer knows it is a stolen machine as long it has been reported.

Storage Space

Ride on mowers take up a lot of space with many owners investing in a separate building or shed to house it. This is more cost and potentially valuable lost space in your garage or barn. An Automower will stay outside in the garden until winter and then can be hung on an optional wall bracket taking up practically no space in your garage or shed.

Quality of Cut

For ride on mowers the finish of the lawn is dependent on a number of factors including the frequency of cut, the height of cut and the speed it is undertaken and whether you are collecting the clippings, and of course the weather whilst undertaking mowing. A Husqvarna Automower works like a razor shaving small clippings from the grass which decompose within the lawn returning valuable nutrients to the grass. As it mows every day and it maintains a constant height it reduces the risk of weeds and invasive species becoming established in your lawn enabling you to maintain that perfect green lawn.

In summary if you have a busy lifestyle and see value in your leisure time but want to maintain a well cut lawn, then the Husqvarna Automower provides an extremely cost effective, well built, piece of mowing technology that will cut your lawn for you, allowing you sit back and relax and enjoy the beauty of your garden.

Why ‘Automower’?

I have used the term Automower throughout this article as a term to describe what many term robot mowers, robotic lawn mowers or automatic lawnmowers. I have done this deliberately as the Husqvarna Automower is the number one best seller thoughout the world, it works, and why when you’re buying a machine that you want to provide trouble free operation for many years to come in an outside environment would you want save a few pounds on potentially an inferior alternative. If this is what you are looking for then I am sorry GGM Groundscare don’t offer these alternatives, preferring to focus all our expertise on the Husqvarna Automower.