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Why didn’t I do this sooner?

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I’ve started using a robot lawnmower. Lawn looks great and overall the thing is 9/10 amazing. Save me so much time as I’m too stubborn to hire a lawn guy.

What are other things folks wish they started doing sooner that gives you back time, health, well-being, $$$, sanity, etc?
Is it completely autonomous? Will it travel from front yard to backyard and do mild inclines? I saw one of our neighbors had one (or rather my kid did and had me come out and observe).

We got a robot vacuum - S1 Eufy. It is light years ahead of the Roomba we had 5 years ago. It does mopping as well. I even impressed my wife with the purchase.
 
Is it completely autonomous? Will it travel from front yard to backyard and do mild inclines? I saw one of our neighbors had one (or rather my kid did and had me come out and observe).

We got a robot vacuum - S1 Eufy. It is light years ahead of the Roomba we had 5 years ago. It does mopping as well. I even impressed my wife with the purchase.

Yup it can do all of that. Pretty steep inclines actually.

Robot vacuums are awesome. How much extra hassle and effort on your part does it take to keep the machine prepped and able to do the mop function?
 
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Getting rid of the lawn. It attracted mosquitos, was a pain to manage, and very resource intensive.
 
If there was one that worked on my lawn I would do it. Lots of trees etc. they don’t work well on large complicated lawns with trees unfortunately. When they make one that does I would definitely be interested.
 
Yup it can do all of that. Pretty steep inclines actually.

Robot vacuums are awesome. How much extra hassle and effort on your part does it take to keep the machine prepped and able to do the mop function?
Mop is easy, it self cleans. I fill clean tank and empty dirty water once a month. They have the soap solution with a proprietary outlet that requires you to buy from them. I thought that would be annoying but it's $30 and we haven't had to replace it yet in 4 months.

I have 3 girls so I do need to remove the hair from the brushes and occasional string-like toys and scrunchies that get stuck. It's otherwise quite good at avoiding objects. Switches from hard floor to to carpet pretty well.
 
Ok. Done. Pulled the trigger on a new Dreame mop/vac.

I have paid to have lawn care done since getting a real job. It’s the first year one of my kid’s is doing it. Since they were at camp last week, I did it myself for the first time in years. I’d pay a lot to have that hour back!

Overall, I still loathe the process of finding people and hiring out projects. I’m picky and cheap, so paying the cost to do something as well as I would do is hard. Rarely do I hire something out and feel good about the job they did.

I turned over a new leaf and paid the painting crew to finish the drywall on my new rental. I usually spend way too much of my time getting this right.
 
Oddly enough, I actually don’t mind cleaning my pool. No one bothers me and I can listen to a podcast and zone out. The robot vacuum I have (5 years old) is terrible. It usually gets stuck on the drain and rarely does much good. I would think the newer tech would translate to pool vacs. Anyone happy with theirs?
 
only downsides with robot lawnmowers - they are expensive and i worry that they will get stolen.


we have used robot pool cleaners for years. we run ours at least once a day during the few months the pool is open. the dolphin nautilus works well. there are others that are rated better but the local pool store does repairs on dolphins and have probably saved me hundreds in free repairs and fixes.
 
only downsides with robot lawnmowers - they are expensive and i worry that they will get stolen.

The price of most of these range from $700-2500 (during frequent sales) depending on your needs. Not super cheap, but if you pay somebody to mow your lawn it's probably not too long for the ROI to work out favorably.

Regarding the robot being stolen, this may be less likely then you think (unless you're storing it unlocked and exposed in your front yard in an urban/suburban area). Many people store them in a garage or another protected way. Mine weights about 50 pounds without easy "grab" points, so it's not something easy to pick up and run off with. In the event it is stolen, it becomes a brick to the robbers and many have ways to track their location.
 

Here’s a quick one of the robot doing its thing


IMG_3357.jpeg
 
I’ve started using a robot lawnmower. Lawn looks great and overall the thing is 9/10 amazing. Save me so much time as I’m too stubborn to hire a lawn guy.

What are other things folks wish they started doing sooner that gives you back time, health, well-being, $$$, sanity, etc?
Can you link the one you recommend? Also, how many acres can it cut?

I enjoy landscaping and find it relaxing so I'm not sure it would be something I would want to give up but it could come in handy when I'm swamped.

The other thing I looked into was a robot snow blower for my lot. Right now I'm plowing it with my truck which is also enjoyable but it'd be cool to get a robot to help out at times.

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Either way, shows the direction the world is moving in
 
Can you link the one you recommend? Also, how many acres can it cut?

I enjoy landscaping and find it relaxing so I'm not sure it would be something I would want to give up but it could come in handy when I'm swamped.

The other thing I looked into was a robot snow blower for my lot. Right now I'm plowing it with my truck which is also enjoyable but it'd be cool to get a robot to help out at times.

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Either way, shows the direction the world is moving in

This is the one I have:


Happy to go into the specifics of why I picked it if that would be helpful.

I’ve had it for about a month and while there are some quirks overall it’s surpassed my expectations.

One thing to keep in mind is that a ton of reviews of these robot lawnmowers are sponsored. And as wild as it sounds…it seems like some of these companies also pay reviewers to trash their competition. I relied a lot on FB and Reddit users feedback.
 
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This is the one I have:


Happy to go into the specifics of why I picked it if that would be helpful.

I’ve had it for about a month and while there are some quirks overall it’s surpassed my expectations.

One thing to keep in mind is that a ton of reviews of these robot lawnmowers are sponsored. And as wild as it sounds…it seems like some of these companies also pay reviewers to trash their competition. I relied a lot on FB and Reddit users feedback.
I'd appreciate that. Can you include:

Does it do 3/4 acre per charge?
How long does it take to do the 3/4 acre?
Does it return to the charging dock before it drains the battery?
65 min to charge? Can it do 2 acres while I'm seeing patients?
Easy blade changes?

I can tell from your vegetation that you're probably midatlantic northeasternish like me so our grass is likely similar. I guess it can handle our vegetation with no problem.
 
I'd appreciate that. Can you include:

Does it do 3/4 acre per charge?

So my biggest patch of yard is only ~1/4 acre and it cuts it without issue. From what I've read I think it would have to recharge at least once to do 3/4 of an acre in one go.

How long does it take to do the 3/4 acre?

It probably takes about 1-2 hours to do the biggest chunk of my yard. So may be 2.5-3x that for 3/4 of an acre.

Does it return to the charging dock before it drains the battery?
Yup. Biggest reason why I chose this one is because of the navigation system. This one is fully-lidar controlled. It can find its way back without any RTK or antenna or wire limitations. Current house has patchy cell service in parts of the yard and we're actively house-hunting for the next place. So this thing will work at the next house no matter what the cell service and tree/building canopy situation is.

65 min to charge?

It doesn't always run it's way fully down before returning to charge, but year from near empty it's about an hour to charge.

Can it do 2 acres while I'm seeing patients?

I think the most you can program it to do is 1.5 acres across different zones. But since that's a software restriction I'm guess there may be ways around that.
These restrictions are dumb and all these companies seem to do it.
Easy blade changes?

Haven't had to change them yet , but from I've seen yes pretty easy and it comes with extra blades.

Importantly, and this was one of the differentiators for me-- this company actively supports DIY battery changes so this thing can hopefully last a really long time.
 
Chicken coop for continuous clean egg supply. Robot vac to save marriage.

The issue I have with robot mowers is that good ones are ~2500-3500. I have 0.5 acres to mow. I pay a service 1200 per year to mow, and edge. So the ROI is 2 years. However, these are new enough that I'm not certain they won't need serious maintenance after 2 years. And if they do, I don't even know if the company will still be in business. I'm positive this is the way of the future (or at least a Tesla Optimus pushing around a cheap push mower), but I will probably wait another year or 2 to see how these age, and which companies look to be sticking around for good.
 
Chicken coop for continuous clean egg supply. Robot vac to save marriage.

The issue I have with robot mowers is that good ones are ~2500-3500. I have 0.5 acres to mow. I pay a service 1200 per year to mow, and edge. So the ROI is 2 years. However, these are new enough that I'm not certain they won't need serious maintenance after 2 years. And if they do, I don't even know if the company will still be in business. I'm positive this is the way of the future (or at least a Tesla Optimus pushing around a cheap push mower), but I will probably wait another year or 2 to see how these age, and which companies look to be sticking around for good.

Definitely some fair points here. I scored mine for a screaming deal by combining various discounts and it came out to like $1500. That said, you can often grab them for low 2s if you are willing to work a bit.

I’ve also learned that the way these robots cut the grass is actually way better for the lawn than a mowing service. The grass becomes way healthier and stronger by only shaving off a little bit with each mow and those little bits then serve as great fertilizer for the yard. The blades on these things are also way sharper than the bigger mowers and so the clean cuts are better for the grass as well. My lawn has never looked better.
 
Is it completely autonomous? Will it travel from front yard to backyard and do mild inclines? I saw one of our neighbors had one (or rather my kid did and had me come out and observe).

We got a robot vacuum - S1 Eufy. It is light years ahead of the Roomba we had 5 years ago. It does mopping as well. I even impressed my wife with the purchase.

It’s saying it was discontinued a few months ago?
 

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