Recently, Timberland Supply helped a homeowner near the Northern Alberta community of Slave Lake set up a Husqvarna Automower 450x on a 1.5 acre lawn. It’s believed to be the largest property in Alberta currently using this advanced robotic mowing system, and is in fact at the upper limits of what the system is capable of handling.
How the Automower 450x Works
The Automower 450x uses GPS navigation along with boundary and guide wires to map which parts of a lawn it has to cut. It has the capability to navigate narrow passages, cut around obstacles, and handle difficult terrain including slopes up to 45%.
The video below does a great job of demonstrating the Automower in action and explaining exactly how the guide wires work.
Unlike a human mower, the Automower doesn’t cut back and forth in lines. It uses a free movement pattern which allows it to more effectively cut every part of a yard. It also leaves the yard looking more carpet-like, without the typical tire marks you’ll see with traditional mowers.
The system can be programmed to only mow during certain times of the day or night, so that it won’t interfere with your use of the yard. It’s so quiet that mowing your yard at night will not disturb your sleep.
When the battery of the mower runs low, it will automatically return to a charging station and recharge before continuing to mow your lawn. This process will continue until the lawn is completely mowed.
Benefits to Your Lawn
After the Automower finishes the initial cut of your yard, going forward it will change the way your grass is cut. Instead of waiting until your grass gets long, it will basically cut your grass on a continuous basis a few centimeters at a time. The very short clippings will be allowed to remain in the yard as fertilizer for your grass.
The impact of this is that you will have a much healthier, better-looking lawn than you would using traditional mowing tactics, which are based on what is convenient for the person mowing the yard rather than what is best for the grass.
Safety and Theft Protection
The idea of a blade-wielding robot roaming freely around your yard might sound dagerous, but the Husqvarna Automower 450x has several features that actually make it even safer than a traditional lawn mower.
First of all, it uses a tiny lightweight blade that is designed to fold away if it encounters a hard object. Second, if the mower is picked up off the ground, the blade immediately stops. Finally, if the mower hits any hard object, it will stop and continue in a different direction.
The mower also uses a PIN number and alarm system to prevent theft. However, since the mower is useless if someone attempts to use it with another charging station besides the one it was installed with, theft is extremely unlikely.
Installation
The Automower 450x does require a bit of setup so that all the boundary and guide wires can be installed correctly. The good news is that you don’t have to worry about any of that–when you purchase an Automower from Timberland Supply, we will come out and set it all up for you–even if you have a massive 1.5 acre yard.
Speaking of which, we’ll be checking back in with our record-holding customer near Slave Lake after a few weeks to make sure his new Automower is doing the job properly. If any tweaks to the system are needed, we’ll take care of those also. After that, he should never have to worry about mowing his grass again!