Robomow RS630 Battery Powered Robotic Lawn Mower, Green

I've had my RS630 for about 3 years now; there's a one-star review of the RS630, and everything he says is true; I've had all of the same maintenance issues as the one-star reviewer; in fact, all three wheels have literally fallen off of my RS630 and been replaced with apparently very expensive replacement parts - which have occasionally taken a long time to arrive from the distributor In addition to the issues raised by the other reviewer, I'd like to add that the front wheel is too small to handle the obstacles in my yard, and every 4 to 20 hours of mowing, I have to go get the mower unstuck so it can continue mowing or return to base, almost always because the front wheel got stuck, worked its way down into a hole, and the drive wheels couldn't get enough traction to pull it out. It has even run out of battery on a couple of occasions in the last three years and had to be towed back to base. br>br>So, why am I giving the RS630 four stars instead of one, despite all of these flaws? First, because I'm still using it and expect to keep using it for another three years, and I plan to replace it with another RS630 or a similar automatic mower if it's ever run over by a truck or stolen. The options for my yard would be a $2500 riding mower, which would require far more of my time and similar maintenance costs, or a lawn service, which would have cost more than $1500 per year (and you'd still have to manage those people). )br>br>What does the RS630 have going for it? While neighbors' tractors, riding mowers, and lawn service crews make a lot of noise and dust several hours a week, our Robomow 630 (named "Robie," as in "Robie is stuck again, get him out of the driveway before the bus comes") goes out and mows at night, almost silently, and keeps the grass well-trimmed all the time. ") simply does the job. I can go for a walk around the yard in the cool of the morning to get Robie untangled before returning to base for the day, and that's literally all I have to do to keep the majority of our yard immaculate. Robie is not only less work than mowing and maintaining a riding mower, but he also works tirelessly to keep the grass mowed more evenly than I could ever do with a riding mower. br>br>Laying the perimeter wire in a C shape around the house was the most time-consuming part of our yard. We have about 3/4 acre of mowed land, more than half of which is shaded by trees, so there are a lot of trees to mow around, making the riding mower an even less appealing option. Even though Robie has gotten stuck and dug up the perimeter wire about a half dozen times over the years, I haven't had any problems with wire breaks since that was done. br>br>The rain sensor has never worked properly, which is a major concern because I don't want the mower to go out in the rain and end up submerged in a puddle - That hasn't been a major issue so far, just a source of concern. The old plastic axle splines did break down, but the new aluminum design appears to be far more durable - Unfortunately, I had to spend $300 on new drive motors and wheels, but that's part of the routine maintenance. After about three years, the front wheel simply fell off; replacement was simple, but it took over a month to arrive - After the mower was repaired, it cut through the tall grass with ease, and the yard was back in shape in less than a week. Robie misses the base and runs around the perimeter until his battery dies if the IR base sensor gets dirty. It needs to be cleaned about once every two years. I've also had a couple of other sensor boards die, which took time and money to replace, but not nearly as much time or money as riding around the yard in the heat and noise to get the grass mowed with a riding mower. br>br>In general, I prefer working on the little electric mower when it breaks to riding around the yard in the heat and noise to get the grass mowed with a riding mower. Is there any way to improve it? Yes, it is possible - I'll replace Robie with a better automatic mower that can handle 33,000 square feet of mowed lawn plus dirt, gravel driveway, and a lot of trees with sloped root bases. Robie has the job until then because I don't want it and he's less expensive and, in many ways, easier to deal with than a mowing service.

Dax Jarvis

| Jul 23, 2021

I'm sorry to say, but I'm not impressed with this product; it simply does not work. I was desperate for it to work, and I tried everything I could to make it happen. I'm not sure if I got a bad batch of mowers and parts, or if something is wrong at the Robomow factory, but I don't see how anyone could use this mower with any consistency. My story is as follows: br>br>After weeks of researching models from a variety of competitors, I decided on the RS630 because of its ability to cut to the edge and its large cutting area. The fact that this mower is allegedly used as the primary mower by a commercial robotic lawn service company influenced that decision as well. I reasoned that if this mower is being used commercially and the company has been doing so since 1995, it must be extremely durable. Additionally, the cost was reasonable. point. On a scale of one to ten, I'm at a level two. In Florida, there is a 5 acre lot with about 0. Empire Zoysia grass is planted on 9 acres. My lawn is complicated in that it has a number of narrow paths (approximately 4-foot wide). 5 wide) and the perimeter has numerous radiuses, but it is simple in that the edge is clearly defined with resin lawn edging and there are no obstacles. There are no trees, poles, islands, trampolines, or other structures in the area. My lawn appeared to be an ideal candidate for an automatic lawnmower. br>br>As soon as all of the wire was installed (which took a long time), the problems began. The first issue I ran into was getting the subzone entry points to work properly. Even with Near Wire Follow turned off, everything I tried made the robomower skip them. Because two of the subzones required crossing an asphalt driveway, I was unable to use their recommended subzone type (blocker islands). There was no help in their setup manual. I found a well-documented MTD Products install manual online, but none of their suggested solutions worked. Supporters of Robomow suggested bringing the wires closer together, then further apart. It came in on occasion, but most of the time it didn't. I eventually enquired of another Robomow reseller, who informed me of a different option that no one else had considered. That worked out in the end. My problems seemed to be behind me. I was sorely disappointed with myself. br>Now that I'd gotten everything set up and running, the real problems began to surface. br>Signal Lost Errorsbr>This was the most vexing problem, as the base station's signal was constantly lost with the first mower I received. When this happened, the mower either came to a halt and sat, or it crossed the boundary wire and became stuck. I had to unplug the base station for a few minutes to get it to work again, and other times I had to pull the fuse on the mower to get it to work again. It happened every 2 minutes on some days. Every other mow on the other days. It could last an entire day on occasion. Their customer service team worked tirelessly to resolve the issue. They sent me several parts to install, but none of them worked. When I finally opened the compartment containing the main board, I discovered that it had several manufacturing flaws (solder splashes). Support suggested returning the mower and replacing it after they were informed of this. The second mower helped to reduce the frequency of this problem, but it still happened frequently enough for me to give up and return it. I believe this is due to the length of my perimeter wire, which is well within the manufacturer's stated maximum length of 2,400 feet (1786 feet) and has a resistance of 14 ohms (17. 4 ohms). Their stated limit was 6 ohms. br>Poor Overall Designbr>The mower's software is untrustworthy and poorly designed. I believe it's due to a combination of manufacturing flaws on the main board and poor software design. The sensors and motors themselves appear to be in good working order; the problem is with the way they are controlled. There are too many to list, but here are the most concerning ones:br>br>Poor GSM Communicationbr>The mower uses GSM communication to report its operational history and to report its location in the event of theft (which can only be accessed by a member of their "server team"). That is all there is to it. The GSM capabilities of the first mower were never functional. The second mower was only functional on occasion. The mower cannot be controlled via GSM, so you must be within Bluetooth range to use the app to control or set up the mower. It reports events at the end of a mow session or when it is stopped, but they usually appear several hours to days later. At least 30% of the mow events never showed up, and it doesn t report what zone it mowed so you have no idea what it mowed so you have no You can see which zone was mowed last and which zone will be mowed next if you connect via Bluetooth. Only the date, time, and number of minutes mowed are provided in the GSM event logs. This gave me no assurance that mowing had taken place, nor did it give me any insight into the areas that had been mowed. br>br>Perimeter Travelbr>To get to a subzone, it travels the perimeter wire and stops after a certain distance. To get to subzone 3, it must first travel the entire perimeter, passing through all other subzones, before beginning to mow. When the battery runs out, it jumps on the nearest wire and follows the perimeter wire back to the base station to recharge. Even though the mower stopped 5 feet away from the base station on the left side, it will travel the length of the perimeter to return to the base station, despite the fact that it was only 5 feet away! As a result, because the entire perimeter is constantly being traveled on, tracks become very visible. Traveling to and from subzones consumes a significant amount of battery life. Their Near Wire Follow appeared to be a good theoretical solution because it claims to eliminate tracks by moving the travel path around, but it only works in certain conditions and comes with a lot of limitations. It won't work in zones with narrow paths because it jumps the wires, causing it to never leave the subzone and die trying in my case. When you travel to a subzone, that feature is disabled, but you still get tracks. Other competitors offer a guide wire, which is a MUCH better solution, so I ended up disabling it on all zones because it caused too many problems. br>br>Unintelligent Mowingbr>The mower provides coverage by traveling aimlessly until it reaches the wire, at which point it performs a series of different turns in some sort of order. As a result, it doesn't know where it's been or where it's going. It's functional, but it's inefficient and difficult to observe. It can become stuck in small areas for long periods of time, causing the grass to become stressed from being trampled. Paths that are quite narrow? Forget about it. On one side of a long curved driveway, I have a long radius stretch that ranges from 4 to 8 feet. The width is 8 feet. Because it bounced back and forth so much, the grass has turned yellow in some areas. This mower has a hard time maneuvering through narrow spaces. I read somewhere that they use remote monitoring to improve the efficiency of the mower. That is something I seriously doubt. Maybe they update the mower's software in general, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't make any adjustments based on your lawn's specific characteristics. Their customer service had to ask me for error codes and for me to set up settings for them. The mower simply jumps around randomly for a set amount of time, resulting in small patches of missed cuts across large areas, with some areas being completely missed. Their solution is to mow longer and more frequently in order to increase the chances of cutting that area. Other competitors use GPS data to improve and control mowing, and they can even show you where it went on the app. This mower doesn't have that capability, and it can't even travel in straight lines, which means their intended travel algorithm is likely to be altered. br>br>Instable Operationbr>The mower's software is extremely insecure. Simply navigating the menus in a specific way can cause it to crash. It will work fine for a few minutes after you remove the fuse and restart it. The GSM event reporting stops working, the mower can't drive straight lines, it loses signal, it crosses the perimeter, the battery dies before it reaches the base station, it reports that it's stuck when it's in a perfect area, the Bluetooth starts disconnecting more frequently, and so on. Both the original and replacement mowers necessitated continual maintenance. I live in Florida, and I have a problem with poor rain management. br> It rains at least every other day at 3 p. m. in the summer, and the grass grows like a weed; documentation suggests that the mower stops mowing when it rains, then resumes when the rain stops. That was not the case for me. Mowing does indeed come to a halt, but the app then reports that it has been postponed for anywhere from four to eight weeks. 7 days! My mower was effectively rendered useless as a result of this, as it was unable to break free from its inexorable rain delay. My base station's location aggravated the situation even more by causing my irrigation system to lightly sprinkle the mower at 4 a. m. At 11 a. m. , my lawnmower was supposed to turn on. Even though everything had dried up by that time, mowing had not yet begun. The rain sensitivity was reduced to the lowest setting, but this had no effect. The only workaround was to turn off the rain sensor, but this mower doesn't do well on wet grass, so that isn't a viable option. As a result, the grass grew quickly and the mower was never used to cut it down. Fail. br>br>Poor Edge Mode Designbr>Every time the mower mows, the Edge Mode feature edges the entire perimeter. This wreaked havoc on my lawn, causing it to waste anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of its nutrients. Every mow, it uses 60% of its battery capacity. It edged first every time it mowed, so if the next zone to mow was subzone 3, it would edge the entire perimeter first, reach the base station, and then travel the entire perimeter once more to enter the subzone. The track problem became even worse as a result of this. This feature has a non-traditional appearance. sensical. I can't think of a single scenario in which it would be useful. In a perfect world, this would happen once per mowing cycle (ie: weekly). Every week, I had to disable this feature and manually activate edge mode. br>br>Poor App Capabilitiesbr>Despite the fact that you can start a mowing session and configure certain basic settings relatively easily, the app is extremely limited and leaves a lot to be desired. The main problem is that you can only control the mower via Bluetooth, which means you can't do much remotely except look at an event log that only works occasionally. It's also difficult to get the Bluetooth to work reliably. Even when you're standing right next to the mower, it can take a few minutes to connect. To get the app to work, you must constantly restart it. I was frequently in the middle of configuring something when it disconnected me, despite the fact that I was standing right next to it and the mower was turned off. Competitors provide far more robust configuration options to help you deal with unusual situations and provide far better visibility and control over the mower's operation. To summarize, you're better off walking up to the mower and pressing the buttons, but even that leaves a lot to be desired because even the most basic information, such as battery percentage, is difficult to read. br>br>Conclusionbr>I'm a techie who makes a living writing software and enjoys tinkering with electronics. My only real expectation was that this mower would mow without being watched all of the time. Is it too much to hope for? This was a traumatic experience that has made me wary of robotic mowing in the future. In smaller/simpler lawns, the issues may be obscured. With a property like mines, this mower isn't going to have a chance. The average person will never be able to get this to work. I have serious doubts about the other reviews' veracity. Something might have happened. br>On the plus side, their US support team goes out of their way to assist you, and the majority of technicians are pleasant to work with. Unfortunately, they appear to be undertrained and are ill-equipped to assist you. This product is extremely difficult to support, and there are numerous service settings to experiment with, but few of the support technicians even had a basic understanding of how the mower is supposed to work, let alone the precise impact of any given setting. One of the technicians was extremely knowledgeable, skilled, and eager to assist. But even he had to improvise because he had no clear understanding of the device's inner workings, which was likely due to no fault of his own. Other technicians gave me completely false information that directly contradicted existing documentation. Robomow is based in Israel. I have a feeling that their US operations aren't getting enough factory training. br>I've wasted at least 40 hours of my life trying to figure out how to make this work, scouring through service manuals and third-party documentation for answers. I had to constantly remind myself of the fantasy of sipping a Pina Colada while a robot mowed the lawn, and I had to remind myself that there was no way a commercial lawn company could use this product if it had so many flaws; I couldn't understand how a company that has been making robotic lawn mowers since 1995 could deliver a product with so many flaws; I felt like a beta tester for a Chinese knockoff mower. I wish I could switch to a competitor's product that appears to be better designed, but no other mower will mow my edge and a 1 acre lawn, so I'm stuck with no choice. Even if a robotic mower performs flawlessly, having to weedeat or manually mow my entire perimeter defeats the purpose. After this experience, I'm glad to return to my trusty Walker Mower with a renewed respect for the old ways. Maybe they'll fix these problems one day, but if they've been doing it since 1995 and haven't figured it out yet, they probably won't.

Keira Ewing

| Oct 30, 2021