Husqvarna Automower 450x – Is It Worth the Investment? [Our HONEST Review]

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

Husqvarna
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmdZHwtk71Q

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

Husqvarna-settingUp
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkcfUdvJpQw

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

Below, we’ve summarized some of the best features of Husqvarna to help you decide whether it’s worth the extra cash or not:

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

Husqvarna-perimeter
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6yGOcW_Uw
Like any other cleaning robots, you need to secure a perimeter wire or barricades on areas where you want your robot to stay out of. The perimeter wires can either be secured with hooks in the grass or buried underground. Husqvarna highly recommends burying the perimeter wires a few inches below the ground which would mean additional work on your part. Burying the wires would keep it safe from most accidental cuts. A broken perimeter wire would be a big problem - your robot won’t be able to detect it and would unintentionally go across the areas you don’t want the robot to go to. Imagine your robot being run over by a car...

Smartphone App

husqvarna-app
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypyjJ7RiUaU

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

The Husqvarna features a built-in GSM module to connect the robot to the internet via the 3G/ 4G network. The GSM module helps your robot stay connected to the internet since it is unlikely that your WiFi can cover a large lawn. However, you do need to purchase a separate SIM card and data package since it doesn’t come free with the robot. You can choose prepaid data or the cheapest data package available since the Husqvarna robot doesn’t need a lot of bandwidth to stay functional.

Automatic Scheduling

The automatic scheduling feature of the Husqvarna mower helps you stay focused on the things that truly matter to you. The robot diligently follows its predefined schedule and can continuously mow your entire lawn at once. If the battery goes down, it automatically goes back to its charging station. Once it is fully charged again, it resumes its work precisely where it left off. Its built-in GPS allows the robot to map your lawn and remember the areas it has finished mowing to avoid revisiting those areas. Husqvarna also comes with a weather timer mode so that it knows when is the best time to mow which helps to save energy, time, and reduce the robot’s wear and tear. 

Weather Proof

The Husqvarna Automower 450x is designed to be weatherproof so that it can still perform any time of the day, rain or shine! However, we all know that mowing during a rainy day will ruin your yard. The good thing is that the Husqvarna is designed with a rain sensor so that it won’t automatically mow the moment it senses a few drops of rain. If you want the robot to continue the work after the rain stops, you can configure this on the robot’s app.

Zoning Capability

Some areas of our yard might need different types of mowing. In this case, you can divide the area into different zones and configure the robot to do specific tasks for each zone. For example, you might want your robot to focus more attention on the front yard or cut the grass shorter at the back of your house. All of these can be easily configured on the app to meet the specific needs of the different areas of your lawn.

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!