Best Robotic Lawn Mowers of 2025
You’ve already ditched your vacuum for a robot. Is it time to ditch your push lawn mower, too?
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The sweet annual arrival of spring, and summer soon after, is a time characterized by chirping birds, flowering trees, and lawns starting to green again. It welcomes the return of an outdoor chore you may have forgotten about since last season: mowing the lawn.
Some love spending the time outside, with headphones or noise-blocking earmuffs on, breathing in the scent of freshly cut grass. Others prefer to leave the task to a professional, though that comes with an ongoing cost. But robotic lawn mowers (also sometimes called automowers) are a third viable option that can save you time, effort, and money in one convenient product, according to Consumer Reports’ tests.
Performance: After setting up the perimeter wire and guide wire for the Husqvarna Automower 415X to find its way back home to the charging station, the mower was sent out to perform its cutting duties. It mowed for just 36 minutes before it returned to the charging station for an hour, then went back out to finish mowing the rest of the lawn. In total, it took 2 hours and 26 minutes for the mower to finish mowing the lawn, and the results were impressive. The grass in the plot was evenly cut, even though the robot drove through it in a random, disorganized pattern.
From the Husqvarna app, you can view a satellite image of your yard with the mower’s path clearly depicted in the image, but you’ll have to wait up to 15 days for the robot to collect enough data to produce a true map of your space. After a few days running the device on our lawns, the app showed just a 15 percent completion rate of our yard map. Adjusting the blade’s cutting height is easy from the app, and you have a healthy amount of options with nine different settings, but the user manual provides exact cutting height measurements only for the minimum and maximum values. No measurement information is provided in the app, either. The maximum cutting height of 2 inches is below CR’s recommended grass-cutting height of 3 inches.
Safety features: For safety, it comes equipped with an auto-stop function when you lift the device off the ground and a passcode is required before you can access any of the settings on the device’s onboard screen. It lacks guards on the sides of the mower and did not identify any of the obstacles we placed in its path, so it isn’t the most safety feature-packed model. Note that the user manual specifically warns against lifting the mower when it is on.
Setup: The initial setup required a little more sweat and time than our other models, but our tester didn’t think it was too much of a hassle for our small-scale test.
Performance: With a price tag less than two-thirds of the cost of the three other options we considered, this little robot proved to be stiff competition for its pricier foes. It cuts grass in a random pattern, leaving a mostly smooth lawn in its wake with some patches of unmowed grass. The Gardena has no awareness of having completed a mowing session—if you schedule it to work for 3 hours like we did, it will mow and charge, then mow again, until it has been working for the set time. Both times that it returned to the charging station due to low battery—its power was at 39 and 38 percent—it still had plenty of juice to make it back to its base.
Just three grass height options limit the customizability of the Gardena, and to change the height you’ll have to do so manually with tools included with the device. Compared with the other three models, which required no more than four steps to change the blade height, Gardena’s 10-step process is not an easy one. Its maximum cutting height of 1.8 inches is also shorter than the 3-inch minimum grass height recommended by CR’s experts.
Safety features: Like the Husqvarna, you are required to set a passcode to start and stop a session from the mower’s body, and though it has no guards, the blades on the bottom of the device stop working just a few seconds after lifting the model off the ground. There are no “eyes” on this mower either, so expect it to bump into any obstacles it comes across before it backs up and changes direction. Like the Husqvarna and Robomow models, Gardena’s user manual warns against lifting or moving the mower while it is on.
Setup: The initial setup required a little more sweat and time than other models, but our tester didn’t think it was too much of a hassle for our small-scale test.
Performance: The Robomow earned the last place in our evaluations because of one annoying issue. It mowed our lawn for an impressive 102 minutes before it started making its way back to the charging station with just 4 percent of battery charge left. An inch away from the station, it gave out and died, leaving us with the task of lifting and placing it back onto the charger. While this wasn’t a big problem in our controlled and carefully watched test environment, at home this could be a lot more bothersome. You could try to send the mower out for another session and find that it hadn’t been charging since the last time it worked.
After an initial go around the edges of the space, it mowed the center of the yard in a random pattern, evenly cutting our lawn. We noticed that it completed mowing the 25x25-foot plot in just 65 minutes, but because we had set the device to run for 3 hours, it continued driving around the space until its battery was depleted. Nine blade height positions are easily identifiable on the onboard dial used to adjust the grass-cutting height. This is the only mower we tested that provides a maximum cutting height of 4 inches. You can only change this setting directly from the mower’s body, but you can use the app to monitor the mower’s settings, set a mowing schedule, and manually drive the mower.
Safety: A passcode for the onboard controls is optional, but the Robomow is equipped with guards on the sides of the device and, like the others, the blades stop 2 seconds after you lift it off the ground. An accompanying beeping alerts you each time it is lifted. It is important to note that it did slightly run over our evaluator’s foot during testing, though it did not pierce his thick boots (more on safety below). Also like the Gardena and Husqvarna, it does not have any obstacle avoidance capabilities and instead bumps into objects before turning in another direction. Interestingly, it was the only mower to bump into its own charging station as it passed it by.
Setup: Setup was simpler than for the Gardena and Husqvarna, requiring just one wire around the perimeter of the work area.
Another Robotic Lawn Mower We Tested
Photo: Scott Meadows/Consumer Reports Photo: Scott Meadows/Consumer Reports
EcoFlow Blade
Editor’s Note: While this model from EcoFlow was the best performing in our testing, it has since been discontinued by the brand. A brand representative shared with us via email that the company "will continue to provide existing Blade customers with software, technical, and warranty support."
Performance: When the testing of robot lawn mowers was complete, there was no question about which one was the winner. EcoFlow’s futuristic-looking mower takes the cake for having four features that set it apart from the rest of the pack (in addition to being the coolest-looking one). It was the only model that detected larger obstacles like buckets, required no perimeter wires during setup, and mowed in an organized stripe pattern, and has a whopping 23 options for grass-cutting height. Additionally, it could be used to work even after grass-cutting season is over with a separately sold sweeper accessory (fair warning, it isn’t cheap) that picks up leaves and other yard debris as it drives around the yard. We did not test the sweeper.
In our tests, we used the normal speed and it took just 12 minutes to mow a 25x25-foot plot of land, leaving the grass evenly cut and using less than 20 percent of its total battery power. After it was done, it quickly returned to its charging base to await our next command.
Though the EcoFlow did a great job avoiding obvious, large obstacles, we found that smaller ones like the thin posts we used to mark the corners of the test plots were not sensed by the device and it ran right through them. For those who prefer not to control every aspect of their life with an app on their phone, this may not be the best option because the only way to adjust the blade’s cutting height is through the connected app.
Safety features: To prevent injuries, the EcoFlow Blade comes equipped with guards along the sides of the mower and automatically stops the blades within 3 seconds after it is lifted off the ground. A sound alert from the mower begins each time the device is lifted off the ground, too. Note that the user manual specifically warns against lifting the mower while it is in use.
Setup: This model’s setup was the easiest of the four we tested. Just connect the charging base to a power outlet and set up the antenna, then drive the mower like a radio-controlled car around the yard while it creates a map. After just one quick drive around the space, the Blade is ready to mow the lawn in one of three speeds—gentle, normal, or quick.
What to Consider When Shopping for a Robot Lawn Mower
Lawn size and complexity: Even if a robot mower comes equipped with enough wire and other setup materials to cover a 2-acre plot of land, a model with a maximum lawn size of just 1 acre will likely not work very well in a yard of that size. Ditto for very small yards or ones with lots of tight twists and turns. If the robot doesn’t have the space to comfortably travel and turn, it will inevitably miss some spots of grass, leaving your lawn less than ideally mowed.
Safety features: A run-in with a lawn mower at home could be dangerous for adults, children, and pets. The blades at the bottom of the device could cut through shoes like canvas sneakers. Though the blades on a robotic lawn mower are different from the blades on a conventional lawn mower (robotic mowers use straight-edge razor blades), they could still be dangerous.
Some basic safety features to look out for include guards along the sides of the mower, a manual stop button on the mower’s body (all of the models we tested had easy-to-identify stop buttons), and an auto-stop function when the mower is lifted off the ground. Additional features like password protection for the mower’s onboard controls are also helpful and were a feature of all four of the models we tested. Regardless of a device’s included safety features, it is important to keep people and pets out of the yard while these robotic mowers are working.
Setup requirements: Three of the four models we tested required at least an hour’s worth of work to set up. Consider how much time and effort you’re willing to spend to set your model up for the first time, and whether you’d be willing to redo the whole process again should one of the perimeter wires become damaged. Some robot lawn mower owners on the automowers subreddit recommend hiring a professional to install the perimeter wires to avoid any hiccups later in the robot mower’s life. Also make sure you have access to a power outlet for your robot’s charging station in your yard.
As with traditional lawn mowers, you also have to check for branches, rocks, or other small objects on the ground before each session because small debris could be picked up and thrown across the yard and potentially hurt people and pets or cause damage.
How We Evaluated Robotic Lawn Mowers
To evaluate these lawn mowers, CR’s lab tester José Amézquita set up four 25x25-foot plots at our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters and set up each robot mower in its own plot. After completing the setup for all four models according to the instructions in their respective user manuals, he observed the mowers’ movement through its assigned area, making note of their ability to avoid obstacles, how loud they were as they mowed, how well they maneuvered through uneven terrain, and how long they ran before completing the mowing task or running out of battery charge.
Additional tests for ease of using their apps and adjusting the blades at the bottom of the mowers were conducted. To assess the risk of a mower running over someone’s foot, Amézquita measured the gap between the ground and the bottom of the mower and from the edge of the mower to the blades.
Photo: Scott Meadows/Consumer Reports Photo: Scott Meadows/Consumer Reports
Are Robotic Lawn Mowers Worth It?
Hiring a teen from the neighborhood to mow your lawn in the summer will likely run you no more than $20 to $50 per session. That’s an expense that amounts to up to $600 for a summer of weekly mowing. Mowing services from a professional landscaping company are even more costly. The initial cost of a robotic lawn mower is expensive; the models we tested ranged from $650 to $2,650. After that, you may incur additional costs from replacing parts like the blades at the bottom of the device. A robot lawn mower may be a sound investment that can save you money and time spent working on the lawn in the long run, just don’t expect it to be a totally automated experience (more on that below). And they’re a lot quieter than traditional mowers.
Disadvantages of a Robot Lawn Mower
They’re not totally automated. Though robot mowers are a much more automated lawn care tool than push lawn mowers, they do not completely free you from lawn duty. We were surprised to find that because each robotic lawn mower has a maximum grass height they can mow on, one of the first steps in setting up these devices requires users to pre-mow the lawn so that the grass is at a height unique to each model. A few of the models we tested require lawns to be cut to a height shorter than what CR’s experts recommend. Grass cut lower than 3 inches is more likely to be damaged by the sun.
If you set a robot lawn mower to mow on a regular schedule, you probably will have to do this pre-mow just once before running it for the first time. But if you let your grass go for too long, you may find yourself having to pull out your regular ol’ mower more often.
They’re not ideal for yards with clutter or uneven terrain. If you own a robotic vacuum, you know that a home with too much stuff in the way can seriously slow it down. The same concept applies to robot lawn mowers. The more complicated or cluttered a lawn, the higher the chances your mower will get stuck as it makes its way through the yard. That could impact the overall outcome of your robot’s mowing or require your help often to get it unstuck.
Ditto for yards with hilly terrain. In one automowers Reddit community with over 4,000 members, many purported robot lawn mower owners caution against these devices in yards with steep hills. The four models we tested indicate how steep of a slope the mowers can traverse in their respective user manual. As with traditional mowers, another big issue is that you may still need to trim grass around trees, fences, and other objects where the mower won’t reach.
Setup is an involved process. The initial setup of some of these devices is an involved process—not difficult, but time-consuming. If perimeter wires are not buried during setup, they could lift with time, bad weather, or just regular movement by people through your yard, meaning you’ll have to redo the setup process. There’s also the possibility of perimeter wires breaking.
*The figures listed above for mowing time on a fully charged battery are according to each manufacturer.
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