Robotic Lawnmower Maintenance

Preparing outdoor tech for spring

Image Courtesy of Worx

It's spring time! And that means that many of us will be out in our yards getting prepared for a season of gardening, lawn mowing, planting, irrigating, etc.

If you recall, last year I made a pretty big tech purchase that was supposed to simplify my landscaping life. Yep, I'm talking about my robotic lawnmower. It's the Landroid from Worx.

As we prepare for the season of plant life and green grass, I thought it would be good to recap my feelings on owning the robotic lawnmower thus far. And maybe more importantly, just talk through some of the maintenance and prep work I'll need to do to make the most of my automated friend this spring and summer.

The Landroid

First things first. The Landroid is certainly an investment in the longterm health of your lawn and hopefully one that will save you a lot of time over many years. The lawn at our house is limited to a rectangle in the backyard without any trees or potential obstacles. Therefore, the least expensive model of Landroid was all that I needed. It's called the WRX165 if you're curious. And no, I’m not being paid by Worx to write about this.

You can refer back to my initial write-up on how the Landroid works (it’s part of my Starting 5 of Robotic Helpers), but it's pretty straight forward. Just plug it in and run an RF wire around the perimeter of your lawn. Once you're set up, you can connect to your Landroid app and sit back and watch the robot do it's thing.

In case you can't tell by now, it hasn't been exactly smooth sailing with my Landroid. No, there has been far more human assistance needed than I expected when making the purchase. Let's look at the main problems I've had and how I'm planning to fix them this season. After all, Spring is a time for rebirth and optimism! I have plenty of confidence that my Landroid and I will have a long, fruitful relationship. We just need to do some new season maintenance.

The Wire

The dreaded “wire missing” error message

OK, probably the most important thing about having a robot lawn mower is making sure that you’ve properly installed the wire that goes around the perimeter of your lawn. If anything is loose or if the wire breaks at any point, you will have trouble. For the most part, my wire has held up ok. But after the winter of non-stop rain that hit California (at least we're out of the drought!) my wire is in need of some upkeep.

So when your Landroid comes across a spot where the wire has sagged or come up out of the ground, it gets confused. You may see it spinning in circles not unlike a robot vacuum that's getting its bearings. You may also see it just come to a stop randomly with the display saying "mower trapped" or “wire missing” You can see quite clearly that it isn't trapped at all, it's just sitting in the middle of your lawn. This can be extremely frustrating. The whole point of getting a robot lawn mower is to just let it do its thing with no human interference.

Landroid Wire

What is my solution? I'm going to re-install the perimeter wire. It will be a pain in the butt, but starting over is likely easier than trying to assess potential issues along the line. The installation process took me about two hours last time, it should be faster this time as I know what to expect. It requires hammering down little plastic stakes to keep the wire in the ground. You also need to use a cardboard guide ruler that comes with the Landroid to make sure you're placing the wire exactly far enough from any barriers to get a close cut without too many collisions.

The Mud

Again I'll mention the unusual amount of rain that has fallen this winter. While I've tried to keep the Landroid from running during the most obvious wet days (there is a rain sensor that has been hit or miss for me) there have still been times where it seems dry but the little guy manages to find a patch of mud to get stuck in.

Not my lawn, but you get the picture

This problem gets made worse by the issue with the wire. If there is a spot where the mower thinks it's getting stuck, it will move back and forth forcefully creating wheel divots in the muddy lawn. It's not good for anyone. The rugged wheels on the Landroid can easily get caked with mud that doesn't want to come off. Maybe the only thing worse than an overgrown lawn is a lawn that has deep wheel divots all over it...

The Blades and Routine Maintenance

This may seem obvious, but the Landroid doesn't cut as well as it did when I first got it. There are 3 blades that spin on the bottom of the machine need to be replaced. This seems like routine maintanance that I should have expected, but it's not something that's on the top of my to-do list. Getting through a winter of rain and mud also means the Landroid is in need of a good washing. It shouldn't take me too long but it is something I need to plan on doing before getting back on track with regular mowing in the spring and summer.

Cleaning and replacing the Worx blades

That's the other thing I'll mention here. Grass grows year round in California. We don't get the snowy three-month break that lawn mowers in other climates enjoy. It can take its toll on a robotic mower. We've certainly had a lot of rain, and the grass grows even more quickly when that is case. So it's a balance of trying to find dry times to keep the lawn in-check versus just closing up shop for the winter and getting back to it in the spring. Thank goodness I splurged on the ridiculous “garage” accessory to keep my little mower safe from the elements.

Conclusion

I know that robot lawn mower owners are still a pretty small niche. It's basically just the domain of nerds like me and professional stadiums (my wife recently got to see robot lawn mowers in action during a tour at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and was delighted to tell the guide that we had one of those at home, no big deal).

But even if you don't have a Landroid, I'm sure there are things that you're doing to maintain your outdoor space in the Spring. Maybe you have some other outdoor tech that needs upkeep? Automated sprinklers? Outdoor smart lighting? Backyard security cameras that may be coming out of hibernation?

Let's all appreciate the dawn of spring and assess all of our fun gadgets that could need some love as we head into the season of outdoor fun.

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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!

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