Our old Troy-Bilt riding mower shot craps in May with a flat tire and something else wrong with the transmission, so it was time to do some shopping for an alternative. We seriously considered a couple of Babydoll sheep as a replacement, but in the end, I was looking for less work, not more. For about the same price as a brand new riding mower, the top robotic mowers mean less impact to the environment and lower long-term operating costs (I can replace a lot of batteries for what I'm currently paying for gasoline). So it made sense to make the move, and the Husqvarna name weighed heavily on the decision-making process, especially after I watched this documentary about the history of the Automower.
Once the decision was made to go robotic, it came down to a price versus features comparison and I eventually landed on the 415X based on the size of my yard and I liked the security features built into this model that will deter anyone thinking about walking off with our little mower (which we have named Shaun).
Make no mistake, it's a lot of work to install and set up this device, and I just happened to pick the hottest day of the year to start this project. Leveling and installing the charging station took about half of a day but that is mostly because my walkout basement means that the back yard has a lot of slopes, and not much level ground. I also took the opportunity to run conduit and install a new outdoor electrical outlet so we would have a convenient place to plug it in. Laying the boundary wire took about 12 hours for my back yard (which is about one third of an acre). All told, it was basically two full weekends to get the mower up and running.
After it had been working for about a week (mowing around 3 hours per day), I could tell that I needed to expand the mowing schedule. It hasn't helped that we've seen an unusual amount of rain here in July, which means the grass is actually growing faster than I would expect this late in the summer. But Shaun seems to be equal to the task.
I have had a couple of instances where he gets a little confused trying to find his way back to the charging station, so I'm still having to tweak the guide wire and the boundary wire around the charging station. For some more detailed information, check out the short video below, and please comment if you have questions.
[Update June 2024] After two years of experience with the 415X model, I wanted to provide some more thoughts on its performance. Overall, I am dissatisfied with most aspects of owning this mower. When it works, it's a dream. But the times when it doesn't work become longer and more frequent the older the mower gets. Mind you, it's less than two years old as I write this, but I just had to order new front casters ($55) because they completely disintegrated and fell off the front of the mower, causing it to faceplant in the grass and not be able to move itself anymore. Of course, these parts are not available on Husqvarna's web site, so I eventually found them on ebay and it took a week for them to arrive. In the intervening week, the boundary wire was somehow broken (and this is the FOURTH time this season!!), which means I have to spend time (AGAIN) finding the break in the wire (which is over 1000 feet long) and repairing it before I can get the mower actually mowing again. Meanwhile, I'm going to have to pay someone to mow my backyard because the grass is now too tall for the Automower to handle. The boundary wire is incredibly fragile, which makes no sense since it just sits on the ground held in place by plastic stakes that never move. And yet, the wire breaks somehow - twice last summer and four times so far this summer. I don't get it. But I know I'm tired of fixing it. I paid $2000 for this mower in 2022, and it sells for $1600 now. I think this is because they are discontinuing this model in favor of a new product line. But I can't help but feel that I got scammed and I blame Husqvarna, not only for inferior design and engineering, but their simply abysmal customer support and their awful website which is just about impossible to navigate (seriously, you are better off googling everything and just skip trying to find it directly on their site). If you are in the market for a robotic lawnmower, I would strongly recommend you avoid Husqvarna and choose a different company. And choose one that does not use a boundary wire.
