From battery life to safety: 11 most-asked questions about the Honda Miimo robotic lawnmower answered
A well-manicured lawn is a fundamental feature of our gardens – but achieving it has long been a thorn in the side of gardeners everywhere. Luckily, there’s an intelligent, smart and, let’s be honest, adorable robot helper that can take all of the grunt work out of lawn care. Forget carrying around a traditional mower to and from your shed or pushing around a heavy piece of machine; a robot mower, such as those in the new Honda Miimo range, cuts the faff and the grass. Get one, and the only time you’ll ever need to set foot on your lawn is when you’re enjoying it.
First things first: what exactly is a robotic lawnmower?
You may have encountered those endearing little robotic vacuum cleaners that bustle merrily around people’s homes. You might even have one. Well, a robotic lawnmower is the grass-grazing equivalent, and with Honda Miimo you’ll have heaps of options. The new range is named for the amount of metres it covers, starting with the HRM 1000 – doing (you guessed it) 1,000 sq metres – right up to the HRM 4000 Live. The live function is available on some models, meaning you can monitor and instruct your robotic mower from your smartphone. In other words? Your days of manual mowing could be numbered.
How do I set up and control a Honda Miimo robotic lawnmower?
All you need to get started is a smartphone and an external power source for the Miimo’s charging dock. Oh, and a lawn would be helpful. Once that’s all taken care of, setup is pretty straightforward. But if you’d rather not do it yourself, help is at hand from a trained Miimo specialist – so you can sit back and relax while somebody else does all the hard work for you.
Before a Miimo Mower begins trimming your lawn for the first time, you will need to define Miimo’s working area with the setup wizard. From then on, you’ll be able to keep tabs on its mowing schedules, as well as adjust important settings, including the cutting height on some models, all on the user-friendly and intuitive Mii-monitor app.
I can’t stand the sound of mowing – how loud are these robots?
Miimo mowers produce an unobtrusive 58-60 dB of volume as they go about their business. That’s the decibel equivalent of a casual conversation. Equate that to your typical cordless mower (75 dB) and your average petrol mower (95 dB), and the Miimo practically whispers across your lawn by comparison.
Miimo’s bump sensors mean that it will change direction to avoid any pets it encounters. Photograph: Yevgen Romanenko/Getty Images
Is a robot lawnmower safe around children and pets?
Absolutely. Miimo mowers are packed with safety features. First up, 360-degree bump sensors mean that if it ever encounters an unexpected obstacle – such as a dozing pooch or an unsuspecting foot – it’ll change direction to avoid it. If the aforementioned obstacle was to attempt to lift the Miimo off the floor, its blades would instantly come to a stop. So a Miiimo can work around you and your family while you unwind in the garden – it’ll even take a miss-kicked football to the noggin without flinching.
How’s the battery life?
The HRM 1500 can manage 40 minutes of non-stop mowing before it needs to recharge; while the HRM 4000 Live can spin away for a whopping 90 minutes. For huge spaces, some models also have a fleet that works together. But no matter what, a Miimo will never fall asleep on the job. These intelligent little lawn lovers are always aware of both their battery life and their whereabouts, so when the time comes for a rest, they can pick the most efficient route home and zip back to their charging dock. They then automatically go back to work once they have been charged up – meaning you don’t need to worry about the battery life of your Miimo or setting it back to mow.
My garden is a bit of an assault course with a pond, play equipment, lots of pathways and uneven terrain. Can the Honda Miimo cope?
We know that gardens come in all shapes and sizes, so the Miimo has been designed to navigate both obstacles and uneven terrain. Features include heavy-duty wheels (which come as standard on the HRM 4000 Live and are available as an optional extra on other models), off-roader-style deep treads that come with the heavy-duty wheels, and precision manoeuvring – which allows certain models to tackle narrow spaces. Plus, every model can take gradients of up to 25 degrees in their stride.
Children and play equipment are no problem for Miimo, which will change direction to avoid them. Photograph: Inti St Clair/Getty Images/Tetra images RF
What happens to all those clippings? Do I have to follow this robot around with a rake?
In contrast to a traditional mower that needs constant trips to the compost heap, a Miimo mower’s micro mulching technology allows it to slice and dice grass cuttings with the speed and precision of a Michelin-starred chef, leaving in its wake a fine and evenly distributed dusting of clippings. Not only will you never need to worry about collecting these, you’ll barely even notice they’re there. Better yet, these green clippings act as a natural soil fertiliser. And be sure to remember that cutting little and often contributes to better lawn health.
Do I have to watch it all the time?
Only if you want to! There is something soothing about watching a robotic lawnmower do its thing, but in this case it’s not obligatory. Every Honda Miimo allows you to connect with your robot friend via Bluetooth, but the new Live models make things even easier – with the power of 3G/4G, you can control yours remotely, even via the Amazon Alexa voice assistant. So wherever your Honda Miimo Live is in your garden – and wherever you are on the planet – you can ask for a couple more millimetres off your turf. What’s more, two further security features will give you peace of mind, even if your Honda Miimo is doing its thing out of sight; its anti-theft feature means your robotic lawnmower will automatically shut down and sound an alarm if it’s picked up mid-mow, and will only resume mowing when the owner enters their unique pin, while GPS tracking via the Mii-Monitor app means you’ll have added reassurance that your Honda Miimo is safe and performing well.
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How do I know my robot isn’t going to go rogue and ruin my borders?
Robot lawnmowers are nothing, if not obedient. After you’ve defined your Miimo’s working area during setup and installation, it will never stray, whether your flowerbeds have physical boundaries or merely notional ones. And if there are areas of the garden that you’d rather the Miimo avoids mowing for a defined period of time – for family use, say, or because you’re leaving an area untamed to welcome wildlife and promote biodiversity – you can set ad hoc free zones on a Live model’s display screen or on the app. Using in-built satellite technology, your Miimo will then log and avoid mowing these areas.
How does a robot lawnmower fare in the rain?
While your Miimo itself is no fair weather gardener, mowing the lawn during extreme conditions – such as excessive cold, dry or wet weather – isn’t recommended. For the sake of your lawn’s health – and its aesthetic appeal – the new Live models of Miimo come fitted with Smart Timer controls as standard, which use real-time weather data to send weather-related push notifications to your phone. Using the Miimo app, you can set the best times to mow and avoid mowing in very cold, dry weather, and reduce mowing in wet weather. This helps to save energy, reduce unnecessary wear and protect both your mower and garden. And if you want to be able to use your mower no matter what the weather is like with no hesitation, these clever mowers can be used in all weather conditions, while the HRM 4000 Live can also be cleaned with a hosepipe.
All sounds good … But wouldn’t it be easier to just lay artificial grass?
Fake turf is an environmental and ecological disaster, contributing to the heat island effect – areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas – and stifling biodiversity. If the only thing putting you off a lawn is the time and effort it takes to look after it, Miimo has your back. A one-off investment in a high-tech robot mower buys you countless seasons of a lovely, low-maintenance lawn, without lifting a finger.
Find out more about how the latest Honda Miimo robotic lawnmowers could transform your lawn