A Guide for Setting Up A Robot Lawnmower

Last Updated on June 2, 2020 by the staff of TheAllElectricLawn


Many homeowners and property managers are switching to a robot lawnmower to make their lives easier. Robot lawn mowers are quite smart and adjustable. They do a pretty good job of maintaining front or back yards without requiring constant supervision. The prices have also come down significantly, making them pretty easy to operate.

One concern that property owners have with robot lawn mowers is the installation process. Some feel that it can be pretty difficult to set them up initially.

We can reassure you that this is not the case. Installing robot lawnmowers does not require advanced technical knowledge or skills. Most robot lawn mowers available in the market can be set up in a few hours, and you don’t need to supervise them after the first run. In this article, we provide a short guide for setting up a robot lawnmower.

Things to Consider When Setting Up Your Robot Lawn Mower

There are two important things that you should consider before we discuss the installation process.

First, you must research the market to get the most suitable robot lawn mower for your needs. Robot lawn mowers offer specific features that can limit or enhance their performance. Some robot mowers can only cut lawns of a certain size and can’t go above that. Some mowers can only manage slopes of limited gradients. Make sure you read about the model that you are planning to purchase to ensure that it is suitable for your garden.

Second, read the installation manual carefully. The guide we are providing here is fit for a more general purpose. The manual for your robot lawn mower will have specific guidelines and instructions for the features on your lawnmower.

Once you’ve done these two, there are four main steps for installing a robot lawnmower.

1.    Place the Charging Station

The first thing you should do is to either make a sketch of your garden or take a walk around the lawn to determine the best location for the robot’s charging station. The charging station is where the robot mower will automatically move to once its battery is low.

The charging station must be in the range of a power source. Ideally, it should be in the middle of the cutting area with some free space to move around. Put a small cover over the charging station to keep it protected from sunlight and sprinklers.

Charging stations must be placed on grass and cannot be installed on a paved area. This is because a charging station is screwed to the ground by long plastic screws. The perimeter wire must be set up around the charging station in a loop.

If you put the charging station on a pathway, the boundary wire will have to be placed on a paved area, which will look bad and also become a tripping hazard.

2.    Test the Charging Station

Once the charging station is in place, you should test to see if the robot lawn mower is charging up properly. Put the robotic mower in the charging station and let it charge for 5 to 10 minutes.

3.    Lay Down the Boundary Wire

The boundary wire is pegged in a loop around the edge of your lawn. It connects to the charging station at both ends. The wire creates a low voltage electromagnetic signal that is used by the robotic mower to identify the edge of the lawn. It limits the operating area for the device.

The wire comes with special nails enclosed in the package that is used to keep it secured. You can bend the shape of the wire perimeter to create corners or place small islands around flower beds to keep the mower from running into them.

There are two ways to set up the boundary wire. You can peg it to the ground or bury it 2 to 5 cm under the ground if you want to keep it out of view.

Pegging it to the ground is faster and allows you to make adjustments to the wire for the first few runs of the mower. However, keeping the wire over the ground restricts the cutting height of grass blades since you don’t want the mower to accidentally cut the wire.

Burying it just a little under the ground will put the wire out of sight and allow you to cut the grass as short as you want. However, it will become a little difficult to make adjustments to the operating boundaries of the lawnmower.

4.    The Guide Wire

In addition to the boundary wire, another type of guidewire is used to help the robot lawnmower find the far side of the lawn. The purpose of this wire is to help the robot determine where it is on the lawn and find its way back to the charging station when the battery is running low.

For a regular-shaped lawn, the guidewire should finish on the opposite side of the lawn, at the point that is farthest away from the charging station.

It is ideal for determining where you will end the guidewire before installing the perimeter wire on your lawn. This will help you leave a redundant loop of perimeter wire at that point and make it easier to connect the boundary wire and guidewire together.

Connecting Secondary Areas

If your lawn is separated into multiple sections, you can connect them together with the boundary wire. You can do this by running two ends of the boundary wire close together in parallel lines to create a kind of bridge between different sections. Cover the perimeter of the second section, similar to the primary area with the charging station.

Alternatively, you can install a charging station in your second lawn and lay down a boundary wire around its perimeter. You can move your robot lawn mower between the two charging stations every couple of days to keep them trimmed effortlessly.

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