Taking good care of your lawn can be a sweaty chore, especially if you have a large area to maintain. Instead of doing all the chores by yourself, why not invest in a robot lawnmower to do the dirty job for you?
Fortunately, Husqvarna got you covered - they offer a high-end robot lawnmower that can help you maintain your yard. It is one of the smartest mowers in the market today and can cover up to 1.25 acres. Just like a robot vacuum cleaner, the Husqvarna Automower 450x is controlled via a smartphone app so you know the whereabouts of your robot and tell it what to do.
So right now, you might already ask if this robotic lawnmower is worth the investment. Before we can answer that, take a look first at our honest review below to help you decide whether this robot is the right one for you or not.
Bottom Line - Pros and Cons
To give you an overview of the Husqvarna Automower 450x, let’s have a look at its good and not so good sides:
Pros:
- Provides excellent lawn finish
- Quiet operation
- Navigation is highly accurate
- Has anti-theft features
- Can be easily controlled via a smartphone app
- Offers outstanding slope height management
- Can withstand extreme weather conditions
- Pet and child safe
Cons:
- Requires careful installation and involves a lot of tweaking
- Can’t mulch twigs or leaves
- Still requires barricades to mown only the required area
First Impressions: Husqvarna Automower 450x
The Husqvarna Automower 450x is one of the high-end robot mowers you can find in the market today. It uses GPS navigation to map the area you want to take care of, and the robot can handle any slopes up to 24 degrees. And most importantly, it can mow anytime and at any weather conditions. You can set the schedule you want the robot to mown and can be easily recharged within 75 minutes.
Unlike traditional petrol mowers, the Husqvarna is fully autonomous. Surprisingly, the price gap is not even high. Since the robot mower is designed to be independent, it comes with ultrasonic sensors to avoid obstacles. The GSM networking and mapping, as well as the PIN-based security, will help you keep an eye on your robot while it performs its job wherever you are. And it’s not just your ordinary lawnmower, it also comes with an anti-theft system that turns a siren on and sends you a GPS coordinate when a thief tries to run off with the robot.
Over time, the Husqvarna Automower can make your lawn look pristine since it can do light trims daily, leaving no obvious clippings or typical cutting paths. However, you might still expect your robot to get stuck on areas despite placing barriers. And once this happens, be careful not to touch the part near the sharp blades when retrieving it. But the good thing about Husqvarna is that it automatically retracts its slicers once it hits on something so it is still considered safe.
Setting Up the Husqvarna Automower 450x
Installing your Husqvarna Automower 450x for the first time might take you several hours since it will need a lot of tweaking (make sure to follow the manufacturer’s guide when doing this). If you don’t like to do this dirty job, then you can ask for help from a professional with an additional fee.
The first step you need to do when using your Husqvarna is to set barricades to let your robot know where to (and where not to) work. These barricades are composed of green wires you can place on areas where you don’t want the robot to go, such as a fire pit or rock garden. You can also set up the boundaries so that the robot will not go outside the mow zones.
After setting up the boundaries, you can start creating a schedule using the smartphone app. You can program the robot to clean any time of the day or night. It cuts only a small amount of grass for long periods but you can always make it work for many hours, and even during rainy days! Once the robot is low on battery, it automatically returns to its charging unit and continues the work later on. The app provides many features, such as setting up cleaning schedules, setting angles for the mowing path, the desired cutting height, and much more. If you’re not sure about the settings, you can always set it to default and later make adjustments to meet your needs.
Husqvarna Automower 450x Features
Design
Unlike its predecessor, the 430x, the Husqvarna 450x can mow a larger yard and has almost the same outlay as an average petrol mower. The robot uses its own built-in GPS to know where it is currently located and the areas it has already worked on.
However, the robot’s moving pattern is random. It can spin around at different angles when there is a nearby obstacle or it detects a barricade. The 450x has a running speed of 3 km/ hour and a cutting width of 24 cm across the ground. It comes with an app as well as a keypad and LCD display so you can configure the settings such as scheduling, docking, days off, etc.
Perimeter Wire
Smartphone App
Husqvarna’s smartphone app offers a convenient way to monitor, schedule, and configure the zone areas of your robot. Based on reviews, Husqvarna’s app is probably one of the best apps when compared to its competitors. Since it is available both for Android and iOS, you can easily download it and learn its functionality.
The smartphone app features a mowing history as well as the specific mowing times of your robot. You can view in real-time where your robot currently is, which is really helpful if you have a large lawn. You can also view and configure which specific areas need more attention and areas you don’t want the robot to go to. Other features of the mobile app include docking time, the ability to “pause,” days off, weather timer, and more.
Connectivity via 3G/4G Network
Automatic Scheduling
Weather Proof
Zoning Capability
Longer Run Time
As mentioned, the Husqvarna 450x is designed to work on larger lawns. The robot can mow up to four hours on an open lawn in one charge. And when the battery goes down, it automatically docks to the charging station and fully charges up to 90 minutes before it goes on its way again. This means that the 450x has a longer run time while you don’t have to wait all day for the robot to finish charging.
The Husqvarna 450x is fully electric-operated. This means that, unlike your traditional mower, it doesn’t need gas to operate. The Husqvarna 450x is overall environment-friendly and doesn’t produce pollution.
Security and Safety
Up to now, you might think about the safety of a robot mower freely running around your yard with sharp blades. Thanks to its built-in ultrasound collision sensor, the Husqvarna Automower 450x has the capability to avoid collisions or bump into any obstacles on its way. When an obstacle (or perimeter wire) is present, it avoids it (or in some cases, might give a little nudge) as it continues to do its job. This means that the robot is generally safe even when your pets or children are out playing in the yard. When the robot is taken off the ground while it is still mowing, the blades automatically retract. So if you have curious kids at home who might mess with the robot while it’s working, they won’t get injuries from the spinning blades.
Lastly, the robot also features anti-theft security. When someone decides to take it off with them, you can easily track your mower in real-time using the GPS locator. You can also use the PIN code to turn it off when it leaves its work area.
Conclusion
If you need a helping hand to take care of your large lawn, then the Husqvarna 450x is worth the investment. The installation and initial cost might require more time and money compared to your traditional mower, it definitely pays off in the long run. No need to drag out the mower and do the job for hours under the sun. The robot will take good care of everything while you sit back and relax.
We hope you found this guide helpful in purchasing your next robot mower! Don’t forget to share this post with your friends who need help with their lawns!
Hi, I’m Christy, and I’m an electronics engineer by profession. I have taught in a university for 2 years while pursuing my master’s degree in cognitive radio and worked for a company to develop wireless medical devices. Currently, I’m doing research for a doctorate degree in engineering using a wireless sensor network for smart agriculture. I’ve been active in our local IoT community, IoT Cebu, where I participate in conducting talks about Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and DIY home automation using Wi-Fi and ZigBee devices.