Knowledgeable’s Ranking
Execs
- No boundary wires
- 4 choices relying on garden dimension
- As much as 45% slope functionality
Cons
- Antenna requires open floor
- 15cm border requirement
- Charging station wants entry to an influence socket
Our Verdict
The Navimow is a implausible technique to preserve your garden trying trim, however you will have a large expanse of open and flat turf to get the very best worth from this mower.
It seems like a horticultural dream: a robotic mower without having for boundary wires you could management out of your sensible cellphone. And it may be… when you have the proper of garden in the proper of place.
There are 4 Navimow fashions out there, for lawns starting from 500m2 to 3000m2. We’re testing the H1500E, which is – as you may guess by its mannequin title – for lawns as much as 1500m2.
Design and construct
- Substantial construct
- Off-road tires
- GPS positioning
- 7.8Ah lithium battery capability
The Navimow is massive.
The field arrived at our testing floor on a pallet, which provides you an concept of the dimensions and weight. The charging base alone is 80cm lengthy by 55cm vast, and the mower itself is 58cm by 46cm by 25cm.
The mower can be heavy, so you might need assistance to manoeuvre and unpack it from the field and set it up in your garden. It’s not a product you may have delivered to your grandmother and anticipate it to unravel her gardening issues.
Each the physique of the charging base and the mower are laborious plastic: black for the charging base, and gunmetal gray with orange accents for the mower. The off-road wheels in the back of the mower, 20cm in diameter, have a chunky rubberised orange tread and good traction.
The highest of the mower boasts a big pink cease button, an LCD display, and three buttons: one to start out mowing, an okay button, and a house button. On this manner, it’s just like the essential operation buttons you may discover on a robotic vacuum. The buttons additionally double up as plus, minus and energy buttons, which you utilize to lock and unlock the mower’s pin code.
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
The Navimow’s USP is that it makes use of GPS positioning to regulate the mower’s actions, relatively than boundary wires. So, naturally, this implies it has an antenna, which is a black transmitter mushroom that matches onto a black, forked, steel pole a metre excessive and wishes to face subsequent to the charging base.
Once more, the lithium battery is substantial at 7.8Ah, which permits this mannequin of the Navimow to cowl a 1500m2 garden dimension.
In app, you’ll be able to schedule the mower for any time in a 24-hour window throughout all the times of the week. It additionally helps you to change on a rain sensor and mechanically dim the sunshine for evening mowing
The Navimow additionally has IPX6 waterproof safety, so it’s protected towards a excessive strain of water, however you’ll be able to’t submerge it totally. In brief, it would face up to heavy rainfall, however gained’t survive if it will get swept up in a flash flood.
Garden suitability
- Distinctive on-line guidelines
- 15cm border requirement
- A number of garden areas require flat corridors
Before you purchase, you could verify that the Navimow will work on your garden. Segway has created a Navimow guidelines on its web site for this function, and we’d strongly advise you undergo it earlier than you determine to buy considered one of its mowers.
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
The guidelines takes about 5 to 10 minutes to finish, and it’ll ask you what your garden appears to be like like, about your borders, how massive your garden is, about surrounding tree and home heights, and about passages between patches of turf. Upon completion, you’re going to get an electronic mail of your outcome, which you should utilize to tell your choice.
Do remember that the Navimow requires 15cm clearance between its outer boundary mow line and a wall, fence, hedge or tall border, so in case your garden extends all the best way to a wall or planted shrub border, you might be more likely to get a 15cm strip of unmown turf across the outskirts of your garden.
You’ll profit from the Navimow greatest in case your garden abuts planted borders with low top foliage on the entrance.
If you wish to use the Navimow to mow completely different lawns, they might want to have a flat hall between them that the mower can use to traverse from one garden to the subsequent. You probably have, as we did, two lawns separated by a cobbled path with stone curbs, it’s not going to work.
Arrange
- Good app instructions
- GPS reception might require charging base location adjustment
- Garden must be 6cm excessive or much less
We’ll be sincere: establishing the Navimow appears to be like daunting. But it surely isn’t an excessive amount of bother when you get began.
The very first thing is to make sure your garden is 6cm excessive or much less; this may imply, paradoxically, that you could mow your garden earlier than you arrange the Navimow. On this respect, you could consider the Navimow as a garden upkeep machine, relatively than one thing that may kind out uncared for grass. You additionally have to clear up any obstacles, equivalent to toys or damaged branches.
You then obtain the app out of your app retailer – Navimow provides a QR code – and arrange your account inside the app.
Subsequent comes the set up of the charging station. You’ll want open floor with 110% skyward open clearance for the antenna, so the station must be on flat floor that’s two metres away from any home, tree, fence or wall on any facet, with affordable entry to an influence level. Segway does provide an influence extension cable, however keep in mind that you could be have to shift the charging station to a different location if reception is poor.
You then set up the GNSS antenna subsequent to the station. It is a easy matter of securing the antenna mushroom into the highest pole half, screwing the underside pole half into the fork, stabbing the fork into the bottom, after which screwing each halves collectively. The antenna cable wants plugging into the again of the charging station, and this makes use of exterior waterproof fittings, like these on exterior fairy lights.
Plug within the charging station and the sunshine on high of the station ought to illuminate blue if the antenna has a robust sign, or yellow if not – during which case, you will have to relocate the station and antenna to a different a part of your garden.
You then activate the mower by putting it into the charging station and utilizing the app to pair the mower to your sensible cellphone. As soon as this happens, you’ll be able to screw the station into your turf and peg down your cables utilizing the equipped screws and pegs.
We have been impressed. The Navimow was so quiet, we didn’t realise it had begun to mow – and it didn’t miss a spot
The app will then take you thru a calibration course of, and you might discover that this requires you progress the bottom to a different spot, even when the Navimow indicator gentle was beforehand inexperienced. The app may also take you thru the Navimow guidelines.
When you’ve set every part up, it’s time to arrange your boundary. You’ll get prompts by the app, however it’s a strategy of transferring the Navimow to a beginning place, fixing the 15cm measure to the mower, after which slowly directing it across the boundary of the plot you want to mow utilizing the arrow keys within the app.
It is advisable stand about 6 metres away from the mower on the again and slowly direct it. You then set your off-limit islands and create channels to different sections of garden.
The ultimate step is to then give it a take a look at run. You’ll have to enter the pin code into the mower LCD display to unlock the gadget.
Efficiency
- Quiet
- In-app slicing top adjustment
- Sensible scheduling
The Navimow is quiet. Segway states 54 dB(A), however it appeared quieter to us and much under the noise stage you’d anticipate from a standard electrical or petrol mower.
By means of the app, you’ll be able to set the slicing top between 3cm to 6cm, and schedule the mower to work at any time in a 24-hour window throughout all the times of the week. The app additionally means that you can change on a rain sensor and set the sunshine to “darkish mode” so the sunshine dims mechanically if mowing at evening.
For our first take a look at, we set the peak to 4cm. The Navimow did its job quietly and properly. It zigzagged its manner throughout the garden in 21cm vast strips and lined 16m2 in roughly quarter-hour. The protection was even and cautious. You possibly can comply with the real-time progress of the Navimow within the smartphone app.
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
One factor to notice is that the Navimow deposits cuttings again onto the garden, so if you would like a clear end, you might need to rake up the cuttings afterwards.
For the second take a look at, we scheduled the Navimow to chop to 3cm at a selected time of day. Once more, we have been impressed. The Navimow was so quiet, we didn’t realise it had begun to mow and it didn’t miss a spot.
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
The mower can’t deal with slopes over 45 levels, however we discovered that wasn’t an issue.
By way of security, there’s a massive pink cease button on high of the mower itself, and a blade sensor that stops the mowers blades spinning when the sensor space is touched.
When the mower has completed, it returns to the charging station and fees mechanically. You possibly can verify the cost stage by the app’s primary web page.
The Navimow additionally boasts an anti-theft characteristic in its Actual Fusion Location System, which implies you get an alert to your cellphone if the mower strikes outdoors of its digital boundary, and its present actual time location.
Equipment
You should buy equipment for the Navimow, together with a VisionFence sensor that enables the Navimow to adapt to extra advanced lawns and keep away from obstacles in a extra clever manner.
There’s additionally an ultrasonic sensor accent that may, once more, assist to keep away from obstacles. You too can purchase a brief fence to guard areas you need the Navimow to keep away from, and an antenna extension equipment, together with an extension cable, if you wish to set up your antenna on a wall or roof.
Worth and availability
We examined the H1500E with the 7.8Ah lithium battery for lawns as much as 1500m2.
Should you want extra protection than this, there’s the H3000E for lawns as much as 3000m2; this mannequin comes with an integral ultrasonic sensor and three years free 4G information.
Should you don’t want a lot protection, there’s the H500E and H800E for lawns of 500m2 and 800m2 respectively. The H500E works utilizing Wi-Fi and has no GPS anti-theft measures.
Should you’re within the UK, go to the Segway Navimow web site, the place you’ll be capable to discover a full listing of native dealerships. There are additionally on-line shopping for choices. FR Jones & Son has your entire vary on its web site: the H500E, the H800E, the H1500E and the H3000E.
Should you’re within the US, you may get a Navimow by way of Indiegogo however you’ll must be fast to get it at its greatest value.
Verdict
The Segway Navimow is an excellent robotic mower. It’s quiet. It does the job properly. You don’t have to fuss with boundary wires. However it’s expensive.
Relying on the place you reside, there are limitations. You probably have a excessive mound of turf outdoors your again door, or tall timber or shrubs sprouting out of your garden, or numerous grassed walkways in-between raised beds, you gained’t get the very best worth out of it.
However when you have a principally flat, largish collection of lawns, open to the sky, with flat corridors between the lawns and low entrance borders, you’ll love the Navimow. You possibly can schedule the mower by the app, and simply neglect about your lawns from Could to October. It’s an exquisite technique to preserve your garden tidy and weed-free.