Best Robot Lawn Mowers – [List + Buying Guide]

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Robotic lawn mowers are becoming more and more popular. But which one is right for you and your garden?

In this article, we will give you a detailed introduction and reviews to the best robotic lawn mowers on the market and explain what you should bear in mind when buying one so that you can find the best robotic lawn mower for you.

Here are our TOP 3:

• Husqvarna 430X*
• Gardena R80Li*
• Husqvarna 315X*

Husqvarna 430X: The Best Robotic Lawn Mower

The Husqvarna 430X occupies first place among the best robot lawn mowers. It’s no wonder that the best robotic lawn mower comes from Husqvarna – this company produces the most reliable and accurate robotic lawn mowers on the market!

The best robotic lawn mower is consistently rated positively and has all the features you would expect from a good lawn mower robot. It can cover an area of 3200 m² (0.8 acres) and leave it every day in a perfectly mown condition. His navigation system is GPS based, so he always finds his way through your garden and back to his charging station. The app is intuitive to use and offers many possibilities to automate your robotic lawn mower.

Features – Husqvarna 430X

Weather Resistance and Weather Timer

The Husqvarna 430X can withstand even the harshest weather conditions. It has been designed to withstand more than its competitors. It has a robust housing which protects it from rain, cold and even falling objects.

It is not always advisable to keep the robotic lawn mower running in all weathers. In some cases, the robot can even withstand more than your lawn. When it rains very heavily, the ground is softer and lanes can develop that damage the lawn. Although the robot has suitable wheels to drive through the damp, uneven ground, this is not too good for your grass.

But the Husqvarna 430X also has an ingenious solution for this – the weather timer.

This is probably one of the most interesting features of the best robotic lawn mower. Based on the current weather data, the smart robotic lawn mower can adapt its schedule to the weather. If the conditions favor rapid grass growth, it mows more often and less often if the grass grows slowly. He also knows when it has rained very hard and avoids driving onto the lawn shortly afterward.

Adjustable Cutting Height

The cutting height of the 430X can be freely adjusted between 20 and 60 mm (0.8 – 2.4 inches) – at the touch of a button. If you change the cutting height, you should note that at a lower cutting height than before, the next time you mow, the cut length will be higher than normal. If you are aiming for a larger jump of 20 mm, let’s say, you should divide it into smaller intervals so that the grass is cut into smaller pieces and can fertilize the soil better. Otherwise, you’d be spreading brown grass shreds all over the lawn.

Automatic fertilization with very fine grass cuttings is one of the best features of a good robot lawn mower. A daily mowing routine with sharp blades cuts the grass very finely into small pieces. These are so small that they can fall to the ground between the grass and thus fertilize the soil. With traditional lawn mowers, this is not possible at all, because you collect the longer blades of grass and possibly throw them into the garbage or onto the compost. The small grass snippets make the grass healthier, greener and denser. Think about the environment and save chemical fertilizer by using a robotic lawn mower!

Smart Modes

The robotic lawn mower does not just drive stupidly and randomly through the area and mow the lawn. It also has smart modes to mow the lawn more effectively.

For example, there is the Spot Cutting mode, which is particularly suitable for fast-growing areas that require special attention. After you activate the mode, the Husqvarna 430X will mow the site thoroughly in a spiral from the inside out. All you have to do is place it in the heavily overgrown area and activate Spot Cutting mode. Once it has finished its spiral, it will resume its normal activity.

Charging Station

The smart robotic lawn mower has to recharge its lithium-ion battery from time to time. With only one charge it can mow the lawn for more than two hours.

A charge only takes a little more than an hour! If you compare this to other models from other manufacturers, it is really a feature that deserves the first place on our list, as most other robotic lawn mowers need much longer to recharge for such performance.

The secret behind this is the very economical consumption of electrical power. This is evidence of good workmanship and high-quality design and sophisticated system.

Due to this, it is also very environmentally friendly and does not consume nearly as much as a comparable traditional lawn mower. And while we’re on the subject of environmental friendliness, as mentioned above, you don’t need to buy fertilizer anymore because the small grass snippets fertilize the soil.

Husqvarna App

A robotic lawn mower is in principle mainly designed to relieve you of the work of mowing the lawn and give you time for nicer things. With the included Husqvarna app, you can conveniently operate the 430X from anywhere and create schedules.

The app gives you every opportunity to maintain your lawn optimally without sacrificing sweat and nerves. You can use the app to make all the settings that you can do with the Control Panel and even get messages if something goes wrong. You can also take a look at which route the robotic lawn mower is currently driving or where it has already mowed.

Navigation

Husqvarna’s smart robot lawn mower drives your lawn both randomly and with GPS support. Random means that the robotic lawn mower selects a random direction and goes straight until it has reached the limit of its range. Then he turns around again in another random direction and continues mowing.

A lot of robotic lawn mowers only have this random navigation system. This may cause areas of your lawn not to be mowed. With the 430X and also other good models, this random system is supported by a smart tracking of the already mown areas.

The robot knows where it has already come from and avoids the areas that have already been mowed. To optimize this, the 430X also has a GPS sensor, which makes the map it creates of your garden accurate. So he knows exactly where the border of the lawn is and how to get back to his docking stations.

Another great feature of the 430X is the Narrow Passage feature. If you have a garden with very narrow places, the 430X won’t get lost through this feature.

It recognizes these narrow passages independently and calculates the best route to mow this area optimally.

Through the combination of smart navigation systems and a random drive on the lawn, the lawn is evenly pruned and there are no lanes due to repeated stress through always the same driving patterns.

Blades

Three small steel blades are installed under the robotic lawn mower. They are mounted on a large disc that can be tilted. They are not fixed permanently and can still rotate freely. This ensures that they only cut the grass and nothing else.

However, this is not a groundbreaking invention from Husqvarna, as most robotic lawn mowers now use this technology. This makes the robot lawn mower both lighter and safer. In addition, small blades as spare parts are cheaper than a large blade.

Security Features

A mowing robot can become dangerous without a few basic safety features. Like most other robotic lawn mowers, the Husqvarna 430X has the following safety features:

• Password and alarm protection: To prevent everyone from using and adjusting your robotic lawn mower, it is equipped with a PIN and even an alarm system. Not only is someone prevented from stealing it, but children don’t come up with stupid ideas either.
• Inclination sensors: In order to have complete safety against the rotating blades, they are as a first measure so far away from the edge that you cannot reach them from the outside when the mower is standing on the ground. And secondly, the Husqvarna 430X has tilt sensors that immediately turn off the rotating blades when it unexpectedly tilts to the side. That means he stops turning his blade as soon as you lift him up or he falls over.
• Touch sensors: Just like smart vacuum cleaners, most robotic lawn mowers have contact sensors and detect when they have driven against something. The Husqvarna 430X stops turning its blades as soon as it touches something. It turns around and mows in another direction.
• App warnings: As soon as the smart robotic lawn mower notices that something has gone wrong, for example when it is on its side, it sends you a message so that you can help it. It can’t be stolen that easily, because it has a built-in GPS system. If someone steals it, you can use the app to locate it immediately.

Installation

If you prefer to leave the installation to professionals, Amazon offers a handy installation service.

During installation, the perimeter wires and guide wires must be laid in the lawn. The boundary wires prevent the robot lawn mower from driving outside the lawn and the guide wires enable it to orient itself in the garden along the ideal route back to its loading station.

The installation kit with the necessary material like riding land is available in three different sizes: S, M, and L.

The charging station itself must, of course, be connected to the electrical circuit of the house so that the robotic lawn mower can charge its battery. For the charging station, there is also a garage to protect it even better from the rain while it is at the charging station. That’s how you maximize its lifespan.

Once you’ve installed the hardware, you can download the app and complete the setup. You can operate it either via the display on the robotic lawn mower itself or via the app.

The installation of a robotic lawn mower can look a bit complicated at first glance, but the investment is definitely worth it! The invested time you need for the installation, you get out after 2-3 times lawn mowing by the robot again.

For a detailed explanation of the installation, you can watch this official video of Husqvarna:

Pros & Cons: Husqvarna 430X

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Gardena R80Li

This small oval robotic lawn mower is suitable for medium-sized gardens with lawns of up to 800 m². It has a cutting width of 17 cm, recharges itself within 50 minutes at its charging station and can then mow the lawn for over an hour.

The R80Li has swiveling blades that deliver a perfect cut every time. Due to the easy-to-use LCD display on the device, you can very quickly adjust all settings such as the timer or the cutting height without your smartphone. The display is specially designed to be readable in daylight.

Power

Gardena’s automatic lawn mower actually offers a reproducibly excellent cut quality! If you let it drive regularly, you almost get the impression that your lawn no longer grows because it is always cut at the same height.

And the brilliant thing about it is that even this robot lawn mower, like our favorite, the Husqvarna 430X, is extremely quiet with only 58 dB volume. So you’ll never bother your neighbors with him, even at night.

Where it could definitely improve would be its speed. It manages only about 45 m² in one hour. It then has to return to the charging station and, after a new charge of electricity, start again and mow the areas it has left out. The high quality of the Gardena battery is a great advantage. Even if you let it be driven daily and accumulate countless charges every year, the battery hardly suffers at all. But one should expect a high mileage at such a price.

The Gardena R80Li works really hard and can be driven in any weather – even in the heaviest rainstorm it still does its job. The robot can withstand the heaviest rain, but you should be aware that your lawn may suffer.

Even if the Gardena R80Li could drive in the pouring rain and on wet surfaces, you should let it wait it out in such conditions so that it doesn’t harm the lawn when it drives. The problem with wet lawns and robotic lawn mowers is that the wet grass does not fall down as intended between the remaining blades of grass and fertilize the soil, but remains stuck to the blade and mower. This means that the great fertilizing effect is no longer given and the robot mows with reduced efficiency.

The robot was designed to mow your lawn often and cut the grass with its sharp blades into very fine snippets. This saves you chemical fertilizer, as the small pieces of lawn fall onto the ground and fertilize the soil naturally.

Operation, Installation, and Maintenance

You can operate this smart robotic lawn mower even if you are not normally a high tech fan. The menu navigation in the built-in display is very intuitive and easy to understand. The installation is similar to that of other robotic lawn mowers, although somewhat time-consuming, but all the simpler.

Once you have set up the charging station, laid the guide wires and charged it, you can start the robot.

The most time-consuming thing of the whole installation is the laying of the guide wires. The total duration depends on how big your garden is and how many small beds or trees you have spread in the lawn. The installation kit includes a handy ruler with which you can accurately measure the distance between the bed and the guide wire. This ensures that the robot does not drive into your beds but still mows the lawn edge.

For care and maintenance, the following things must be observed and carried out regularly:

• Check the blades and the turntable disc for damage.
• If you need to replace a blade, you should replace them all so that the balance is not affected – similar to car tires.
• The battery has a service life of up to 4 years. You can tell the imminent demise by the fact that the robotic lawn mower rapidly loses range and can suddenly no longer mow your lawn completely.
• Do not use a high-pressure cleaner to wash it. Aggressive cleaning agents are also a no-go.

Cut Quality and Other Features

The Gardena R80Li is perfect for medium-sized gardens. It is also ideal for complex lawns with several obstacles and beds within the lawn.

The cutting quality is hard to beat. Of course, you can also adjust the cutting height individually. With normal lawn mowers, you have traces in the lawn at the end. With this robotic lawn mower, you see nothing after its use except a perfectly even lawn area. His principle of navigation ensures that he doesn’t leave a trace next to the other, but a little more random and chaotic. This, of course, makes it a little slower than you would with a traditional lawnmower, but it also has more time.

But there is one ingenious feature of this Gardena robot lawn mower that makes the R80Li truly smart. It recognizes how fast your lawn grows and adjusts its frequency with that of the lawn mowing. If the lawn grows faster, it mows more often. In phases of rapid growth, it is recommended to run it every day. This ensures that you always have an evenly maintained lawn and an excellent evenly fertilized soil through the smallest possible grass snippets that are cut off.

Of course, you can program this robotic lawn mower and set times in which it should work. If you set it to mow only during your working hours or very early in the morning, you won’t notice it at all when it mows your lawn and you always have a perfect lawn. More automation is not possible!

The automatic lawn mower has a total of four sensors to detect the guide wires in the ground. It runs over the wire exactly 28 centimeters and then turns around. The installation kit includes a handy ruler that allows you to lay the guide wire at this distance.

Safety and Security

With an anti-theft system, you don’t have to worry about someone stealing your robotic lawn mower at night or during the day when you’re not at home. It has a PIN code, an alarm siren and various sensors that strike as soon as it is lifted or otherwise moved involuntarily.

Furthermore, you can always be sure when the robot is doing its job, because it does not start randomly when it wants to, but only when you have programmed it.

When you open its hood for programming, the stop button is automatically pressed. This prevents unintentional startup and associated security risks.

Pros & Cons: Gardena R80Li

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Husqvarna 315X

Like its big brother, the 430X, the Husqvarna 315X makes virtually no noise at all. With its 58 decibels, you can run it at night without disturbing yourself or your neighbors.

And these 58 decibels only occur when the robotic lawn mower hits grass which is still long enough to be cut. However, since it should mow every day of the week, there is not too much for it to cut, so even this low volume hardly occurs.

With its robust exterior, it is also so well protected that you can really leave it outside all week long. It resists even the heaviest rainstorms and is also suitable for regions where it rains very often.

Husqvarna 315X – Features

Programmable Schedules and Weather Timers

Home automation means using smart technology to automate as many annoying everyday activities as possible. And this now also includes lawn mowing.

Because you can program the Husqvarna 315X and tell it when to mow the lawn, you can do something completely different during this time and no longer worry about mowing the lawn.

I still find it a great luxury to come home from work and find a freshly mown lawn every day because my robotic lawn mower did this during my working hours. Although it is often recommended to let the lawnmower run every day, I give it some leisure time on weekends and let it relax in its garage. It also gives pets and children the opportunity to play on the lawn without worrying about them doing something stupid with the lawn mower.

Even if you only let the lawnmower run 5 days a week, the cut grass pieces are so small that they can fertilize the soil by the second day at the latest. They are then so small that they fall down between the blades of grass. That’s how you save chemical fertilizer, by the way.

The ingenious weather timer makes the Husqvarna 315X really smart and is one of the reasons why this robotic lawn mower is on this list.

The weather timer allows the robot lawn mower to adapt to the growth rate of the lawn. So the lawnmower notices how fast your lawn grows and mows the lawn more often and longer if it grows faster, and less often if it grows slower.

Especially when it is unusually dry or humid, the frequency can be very different. After just a few days, the lawn mower will find the right frequency to match the lawn growth rate. The more often you let the Husqvarna 315X drive, the more accurate its assessments become and the better the result.

Guidewire Navigation System

One of the best features of many robotic lawn mowers is that you can define the boundaries of your garden – and so can the Husqvarna 315X. Like other robotic lawn mowers, you can use wires in the ground, called guide wires, to tell it where its boundaries are and where it can’t go.

The Husqvarna 315X has built-in sensors that detect when it is driving over such a wire. If it has run over one of these, it turns around and continues mowing in another direction. So your flower beds are protected from the sharp blades of this robotic lawn mower.

You could say that these wires act as a physical obstacle in the ground. Because even with physical objects, such as a tree or stones, it stops, turns around and continues mowing in another direction. This system is so safe that you can even let your robot drive with a clear conscience if you have a pool in your garden. The robotic lawn mower detects the wire every time and does not run the risk of learning to swim involuntarily.

Automatic Recharging

You don’t even have to worry about recharging the Husqvarna 315X. It immediately turns around and drives to its charging station when it has reached 15% of its battery capacity. And it finds its way back to the charging station in different ways:

1. The charging station emits a signal, which tells the robot lawn mower where it is and takes a direct route back there.
2. The robot searches for the main guidewire leading back to the charging station.
3. And if methods 1 and 2 and did not work, it drives straight on until it finds a perimeter wire and drives along the border until it comes to the charging station.

With these methods, you can be 100% sure that you don’t have to collect the lawnmower somewhere in the evening because it has no juice left. It’ll find his way back to the charging station on its own every time.

Programmable LCD Display

The Husqvarna 315X has an LCD control panel under a protective hood on its top. This allows you to make various settings and program it if you don’t want to use your phone.

When I used it for the first time, I adjusted it once using this LCD panel and then never touched it again for weeks.

The first thing you have to do is deposit a pin code which you have to use to unlock it every time before you can change the settings. As soon as you have done this, you can already set the timer function. You can tell it how many hours a day it should mow the lawn. Since the Husqvarna 315X has the weather timer, you don’t need to adjust the schedule at different seasons, as the smart lawnmower will know by itself how often it needs to mow the lawn. That’s why I always default to 8 hours a day, when I’m out anyway, as its active time.

Blade System

The unusual system of blades on its underside gives the Husqvarna 315X its outstanding cut quality. Three individual blades are mounted on a central turntable. So there is no giant single blade under the lawnmower like in conventional manual lawnmowers.

The smaller blades have the advantage that they are firstly much sharper and secondly cheaper to replace. The disadvantage is that they do not need to be sharpened but replaced (although sharpening is certainly possible although it is not intended). Included in the delivery are already 9 blades, with which you will get along for at least one year.

Installation and Operation

To install the entire system, all you have to do is set up the charging station, supply it with power and lay the boundary wires. It sounds very simple – it is! It’s just a little time-consuming.

Especially the laying of the wires in the ground is very tedious. When laying the wires, you should think carefully about where and how you want to define the edges of your lawn. However, everything is explained in great detail and there is hardly any room to make mistakes.

Once you have laid the wire, it is quite easy to check its function. The entire wire is connected to the charging station, which gives you a light signal to indicate the status of the connection:

• Permanent green light: Everything is good – the signal is received perfectly.
• Flashing green light: The robotic lawn mower is in Eco mode. The wire system is shut down.
• Permanent blue light: Weak signal, e.g. due to rust.
• Flashing blue light: No signal, the circuit must be interrupted somewhere.
• Flashing red light: A fault in the charging station antenna.
• Permanent red light: A fault in the charging station electronics.

Besides the wire that borders your lawn, a guide wire will be laid to show the robot where its charging station is, or where the shortest way to get there is. In general, it can be said that you should place this wire in the middle of the lawn in order to allow the robotic lawn mower as short a distance as possible from anywhere to the guide wire.

Pros & Cons: Husqvarna 315X

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McCulloch ROB 1000

The McCulloch ROB 1000 is ideal for slightly smaller gardens with up to 1,000 m². He can also climb slopes of up to 25 %, which many other models find difficult.

Similar to our number 1, the McCulloch ROB 1000 has many smart features that make it easier for you to use and get the full potential out of this robot.

Like most other robotic lawn mowers, it knows where the lawn is by means of wires laid in the ground. So it won’t leave it and won’t accidentally mow your rose bed or the lawn of your neighbors.

After you’ve laid the wires and set up your charging station, you can download the app and program schedules. Then it will always drive through your garden at your set times, keeping the grass at the perfect height and fertilizing it at the same time. This is probably one of its best qualities. It cuts the grass extremely fast and very small. These small pieces of grass fall through the grass to the ground and fertilize it, like mulching.

Cutting Quality and Performance

The most outstanding feature of the McCulloch ROB 1000 is its performance and the quality of the cut. And it is very quiet with only 57 decibels.

So you can let it run at night without waking up your neighbors or yourself.

In addition, very few robot lawn mowers can compete with its ability to climb hills up to 25% incline. With a fully charged battery, it can mow an area of up to 1000 m² of the lawn. This is by far not as much as our favorite, the Husqvarna 430X with 3200 m², but still more than most other robotic lawn mowers.

The cutting quality is one of the best of all robotic lawn mowers. He mows the lawn so finely to exactly the same height that it can hardly be better. His random-based navigation system allows him to follow the lawn very unsystematically so that no surface is preferred or ruts are created. This makes the lawn look perfectly cut without leaving the typical marks of a lawnmower.

The combination of the 6 cutting surfaces of the blades shreds the cut grass into such small pieces that the soil under the grass is fertilized. Contrary to what you might think, there is no grass on the surface after the robotic lawn mower has mowed. The small scraps fall through the grass on the ground and fertilize it, so you no longer have to use chemical fertilizers.

The cutting height can be adjusted between 2.5 and 5 cm.

Installation and Operation

Automatic lawn mowers save a lot of time. However, their installation is tedious and exhausting. But the initial investment of time and sweat is worth it.

In this model, too, you have to lay the perimeter wire in the ground. This allows the robotic lawn mower to know where the boundaries of your lawn are. Make sure you stay 20 to 30 cm away from the edge. With this distance, it doesn’t go into beds and still mow the edges of the lawn.

You must also find a place for the charging station and supply it with electricity. At the charging station, the robot lawn mower charges up to 50 minutes before it can start again.

For a more detailed explanation of the installation you can watch this official video of McCulloch:

As you would expect from a smart robotic lawn mower, the only active work you have to do after installation is mowing the lawn is programming schedules and other settings.

In addition to schedules, you can also set different cutting heights and set the size of your garden to set optimized schedules point over the app you can also command it to drive directly to its charging station or pause.

Safety Features

The McCulloch ROB 1000 is very small and lightweight. This also makes it easy to carry. However, it is a very stupid idea to try to steal it, because it has an extremely loud alarm siren! And unless you have the PIN to disable it, you have no way to turn it off except to destroy the device entirely.

It is also the best choice if you have pets or if your children or grandchildren like to play in your garden. He basically stops mowing as soon as you touch him. He’s got sensitive tilt sensors that tell him as soon as he’s moved from the outside.

So if a pet or child tips the robotic lawn mower over out of curiosity, the rotating blades stop immediately, so there is no risk of injury. As I said before, you could just let him run at night because he is so quiet, but you can also let him run with a clear conscience during the day when your children are at home. To be honest, even some adult people with normal lawn mowers are more dangerous for children and pets than this robotic lawn mower on its own…

Pros & Cons: McCulloch ROB 1000

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Gardena smart SILENO

The Gardena smart SILENO series is not a single robot lawn mower, but an entire model series. In principle, individual robots have the same features and differ mainly in their reach and maximum lawn area. The smallest of them is 500 m² and the largest 1600 m². There really is something for everyone here!

In addition to this flexible selection of different robots, Gardena SILENO lawnmowers also offer many ingenious features, such as the EasyPassage function, front and rear sensors and a weather resistance that also makes them suitable for rainy regions.

Gardena SILENO – Features

EasyPassage Function

This function is particularly interesting for complex gardens. This makes it much easier for the robotic lawn mower to navigate through narrow passages. Thus there is no danger that it will get lost there or not find the passage at all.

Robotic lawn mowers without this function very rarely hit the narrow entrance of such a passage in their random navigation system, which may mean that the lawn in this passage is not mown or not mown as often as the rest.

Blades

Like all other GARDENA robotic lawn mowers, the robotic lawn mowers of the SILENO series are equipped with a large turntable on the underside, on which 3 razor-sharp blades sit.

These blades are actually so sharp that they can do millimeter work. The quality of the cut cannot be compared to the coarse blades of a manually operated lawn mower. On the other hand, the blades of these robot lawn mowers are precision tools and this is very noticeable in the cutting quality at the end.

As with other robotic lawn mowers with such precise blades, you no longer need to fertilize your lawn when you use a Gardena SILENO robotic lawn mower. The sharp blades cut the grass so finely that it can fall to the ground between the blades of grass and fertilize it. In addition, you will not have any loose grass lying on top of the lawn after mowing.

It is therefore advisable to run the robotic lawn mower on a daily basis so that the snippets it cuts from the lawn are as small as possible.

Adjustable Cutting Height

The cutting height can be continuously adjusted between 20 and 60 mm. At the beginning, you should use the highest settings and work your way slowly to the desired cutting height to keep the cut grass as small as possible.

Navigation System

GARDENA robot lawn mowers have various targeted navigation principles, such as the EasyPassage function or driving back to the charging station. During operation, however, they mainly rely on the random principle. They drive straight on until they reach the edge of the lawn or an obstacle and then turn around in a random direction and continue. The only thing that is taken into account is that areas that have already been mowed several times are less and less likely to be mown.

Through this random navigation, you get a homogeneous result and no lanes or patterns. In addition, you will probably let the lawnmower drive every day, which gives the impression that the lawn is always the same height.

Weather Resistance

The SILENO series of robotic lawn mowers have a sturdy plastic casing to withstand even the most demanding weather conditions.

Gardena has also taken care to ensure that the complete finish of its lawnmowers is robust enough to withstand daily use and the demands of a very long lifespan.

Offroad Mobility

Slopes of up to 34% when driving straight ahead and 15% when turning at the border is no problem for the SILENO robotic lawn mowers. This makes them so suitable for all gardens.

Gardena Smart System

The SILENO robotic lawn mower series is part of the Gardena Smart System. This system is a completely autonomous smart garden maintenance system.

This system allows you to automate many of the most annoying gardening tasks such as regular watering and of course lawn mowing. With a wireless connection between all these devices and Gardena Smart App control, you can even take care of your garden when you’re on holiday at the end of the world.

Take a look at the individual products of the Gardena Smart System.

Gardena Smart App + Gateway

The SILENO series of smart robot lawn mowers come with a gateway that is installed in the garden and simultaneously integrates the lawn mower into an existing Gardena Smart System.

It is also connected to the wifi via the gateway and can be controlled via the Gardena Smart App. You can use the app to set the timer and all other functions of the robotic lawn mower. And that even when you’re not home! So you can convince yourself from everywhere that your lawn is freshly mown when you return home from your holiday.

Security Systems

Lift and Tilt Sensors

With built-in lift and tilt sensors, the SILENO series robotic lawn mowers automatically detect when they are raised or overturned. They then stop mowing immediately and stop the blades abruptly. Thus there is no risk for curious pets or children.

Obstacle Sensors

These robotic lawn mowers react not only to the boundaries of the defined lawn area but also to obstacles in their path. They have sensors that detect when, for example, a tree or stone is in front of them. As soon as they hit an obstacle, they stop immediately and drive a little back and turn around.

PIN & Alarm

Robotic lawn mowers are small, light, valuable and often unobserved. That makes them interesting for thieves. The SILENO robot lawn mowers have a built-in alarm system and PIN release for this purpose. If you want to reprogram it or change other settings, you need the PIN to log in.

Pros & Cons: Gardena smart SILENO

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Worx Landroid Series

Worx has overhauled its complete range of battery-powered lawnmowers with the Landroid range of robotic lawn mowers. The complete series covers lawns from 300 m² to 2000 m².

What stands out about this series is the strong battery and the ability to cut the lawn edge perfectly. This “cut to edge” function of the robotic lawn mowers allows them to mow as close as possible to the edge of the lawn. This means that you do not have to rework after the robot lawn mower yourself with a trimmer.

Their powerful rechargeable battery helps them to achieve a long range while still being small in size. In addition, the batteries within this Worx Landroid lawnmower range are standardized. This allows you to exchange the batteries between the devices and spare parts are easier to get.

In addition, most of these models can be extended with interesting additional devices such as a GPS module. With all these improvements, Worx with its Landroid robotic lawn mower series is currently even ahead of Gardena in terms of features.

Features – Worx Landroid Series

“Cut to Edge” function: The blades of the Worx Landroid robotic lawn mowers are not located in the middle under the robot, but on the right edge of the housing. This means they mow the lawn edge perfectly when they drive their right side along the lawn edge, so you don’t have to rework with a lawn trimmer. The only robot lawn mower in this series that does not have the “Cut to Edge” function is the Worx Landroid S WR130E.

AIA-agile navigation: All robotic lawn mowers of the Worx Landroid series use the smart navigation system AIA. This navigation system optimizes the efficiency and thus the maximum mowable lawn area. The system allows it to find its way better through narrower parts of the garden and, after a collision with an object or the lawn edge, it does not turn around completely but tries to continue in the most efficient direction possible. So it drives over as much unmown area as possible.

Wifi extension: The Landroid robotic lawn mowers are controlled via a wifi connection. However, if your garden is designed in such a way that your wifi does not cover the entire garden, you can equip the robotic lawn mower with a RadioLink module. This module can communicate with your wifi router for up to one kilometer:

Alexa & Google Assistant: An optional voice control module lets you control Worx Landroid robot lawn mowers by voice command. You can then address them with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. So you can also integrate your smart robotic lawn mower into your Smart Home system. The robotic lawn mower also interacts with you and asks you questions as soon as you press the stop button on the device or in the app:

“Find my Landroid” Package: With this package, you can equip your Landroid robot lawn mower with GPS and locate it when it is stolen. You can define a geofence area in which the Landroid robotic lawn mower can stay. If it is removed from this area, you will immediately receive a message. You can then lock the robot and track it via GPS. And the battery does not have to be charged:

Smart avoidance of obstacles: Most robotic lawn mowers have sensors with which they detect trees or other objects and turn around as soon as they collide with them. Landroid robot lawn mowers even have sensors that completely avoid a collision and drive around the obstacle completely:

In addition to these special features, the Worx Landroid robotic lawn mowers also have many of the most common and popular features:

• Avoid hard objects: Instead of destroying the blades on large branches or stones, these robotic lawn mowers simply drive over them. The blades automatically retract when they hit a hard object.
• Fertilizes the ground: Robotic lawn mowers mulch the soil through the tiny snippets that they cut from the grass. That means you don’t need chemical fertilizer anymore.
• Cuts from any direction: Like other robot lawn mowers and many robotic vacuums, Worx Landroid robotic lawn mowers navigate in a random system until the entire lawn area is cut. The end result is a perfectly homogeneously cut lawn.
• Charging on their own: Worx robot lawn mowers find their own way back to the charging station when your battery needs to be recharged.
• Mowing multiple lawns: By cleverly setting the boundary wires, the robotic lawn mower can mow both the lawn in front of and behind your house.
• Security system with alarm: Apart from the ingenious “Find my Landroid” system, there are also a few basic security features. When you lift up the robot lawn mower, a timer runs down with a few seconds in which you have to enter the security PIN. When time runs out, an alarm sounds!
• Control via Smartphone App: One of the biggest innovations of this series is the option to operate the mowers via the smartphone. Just like on the LCD display at sea or on your own, you can create schedules here and send the robotic lawn mower Manuel to work or back to its charging station.

Worx Landroid Installation Tips

The installation of Worx Landroid robot lawn mowers is comparable to that of other manufacturers. You must first lay the perimeter wires and install the charging station before you can run the robotic lawn mower. As always, you can also use the Amazon installation service to save yourself this effort.

Here are a few tips for a smooth installation:

• Lay the perimeter wires underground: After you’ve tried your setup, you should bury the perimeter wires in the lawn. This not only makes your garden look better, but it also eliminates the risk of someone or something getting tangled up in the wire.
• Do not place the perimeter wire too close to walls or fences: Worx recommends a distance of 35 cm between the lawn and fences or walls. If the wire is too close, the robot lawn mower can get stuck.
• The power supply of the charging station: You should not install the power supply of the charging station within the lawn area or the area mowed by the robotic lawn mower. This is quite obvious, but sometimes it is actually forgotten.

Pros & Cons: Worx Landroid Series

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Robotic Lawn Mower Buying Guide

When choosing the right robotic lawn mower, you have to pay attention to many things. Here is a list of the most important features and characteristics of a good robot lawn mower that you should pay attention to when buying:

Safety – Safety always comes first. The best robotic lawn mower should have a safety feature that automatically stops the blades when the robotic lawn mower is raised or knocked over. This aspect is particularly important for households with children, as children are curious by nature and do not understand what a robot lawn mower does when they are young. Once lost from sight, children could end up in life-threatening situations. The same applies to pets. Some dogs never get used to the sight of a robotic lawn mower and react aggressively to it – especially because it is in their territory! With the right safety features and perhaps even a timer that only allows the robot to move when there is no danger, a robot lawn mower can also be used in households with children or pets.

Mowing quality – You don’t buy a robotic lawn mower without a reason. It should cut the lawn evenly and gently. Especially with robot lawn mowers, it is important that you cut the lawn into as small scraps as possible and that you don’t get heaps of brown grass but a beautiful cut lawn that is fertilized by the small pieces of lawn at the same time. If you have to rake behind the robotic lawn mower to collect the cut grass, the robotic lawn mower hasn’t done its job.

Operation – Once you have survived the setup and installation of the robot lawn mower, the operation should be child’s play. In most cases, the installation includes the definition of boundaries, for example by wires in the ground or the setting of the GPS navigation of the robotic lawn mower. After that, you shouldn’t have to do much anymore – it’s a robot after all and should relieve you of work! When we made our selection, we made sure that the installation was both sensible and as simple as possible, and that the subsequent operation was either virtually non-existent or possible from a distance.

Navigation – Depending on which model you choose, your robotic lawn mower will detect where the lawn is either by limiting wires under the ground, GPS or other sensors. No matter which method you choose, it will ensure that it does not mow your beds or get lost somewhere.

Slopes – If you have a lawn that is not completely level, the robot lawn mower will also have to deal with slopes. When you buy a mower, you should, therefore, pay attention to the maximum slope that the robotic lawn mower can cope with.

Networked Smart Home Robotic Lawn Mower vs. Normal Robotic Lawn Mowers – is Smart Home Integration Worth It?

Today, virtually every robotic lawn mower has its own smartphone app and can be controlled via wifi from anywhere in the world. But there are also other features that allow a robotic lawn mower to be properly integrated into a Smart Home System.

Gardena SILENO robot lawn mowers include the Smart Gateway, which allows you to integrate the robotic lawn mower into your Gardena Smart System. In this system, you can integrate various smart Gardena gardening tools such as irrigation systems. So you can manage your entire garden from your smartphone by automatically mowing and watering it.

The Worx Landroid robotic lawn mowers, on the other hand, network via wifi with the Worx AI or artificial intelligence that connects all Worx robotic lawn mowers via the cloud. This AI feeds the robot lawn mowers with various information such as the current weather conditions.

In addition, there are additional modules for the Worx Landroid robotic lawn mowers with which they can be operated by voice command with Alexa or Google Assistant.

No matter which lawn robot you choose from this list, you will end up with an automatically mown lawn anyway. Only the operation and smart features depend on the model. Here it is really a question of taste to what extent you want to automate the robotic lawn mower.

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How We Chose The Best Robotic Lawn Mowers

Quality – A good robot lawn mower should do its job long and reliably. This means not only that it has a good design and is made of high-quality materials, but also that it satisfactorily fulfills its task – mowing the lawn. We set our quality standards for both durability and performance. Especially in the garden, an electrical device that also works autonomously should be able to cope with any outdoor situation. With a high-quality robotic lawn mower of good quality, you will be able to keep your lawn fresh and tidy for a long time without much work of your own.

Price-performance ratio – robotic lawn mowers are generally not really cheap – at least at first glance. If you compare the price with their features and the time and work saved, the potential quickly becomes clear. The price varies depending on the maximum area the robot can mow, its features and the length of the warranty. Due to the size of your lawn, you automatically end up in a certain price segment. Then there is only the question which robots within this segment are trash, far too expensive or exactly right. There are of course models that have unnecessary bells and whistles and are therefore unnecessarily expensive. Therefore we have listed in this article the most useful and reasonable models for each category.

Brand – A very good indicator of good quality is a proven brand. If the company has been active in this sector for a long time and is a big name on the market, this is a good sign that the product is no trash. In this list, we have consciously taken care to present only models of such companies, which are internationally known for their good quality. Each brand in this guide stands for good quality and delivers reliable products. Especially today, when the market is flooded by many imitator companies and no-name products, one can quickly buy something bad and is forced to replace the device after some time and replace it with something better. Poor quality means buying twice!

Customer reviews – Thanks to the Internet, we can easily access the experiences of other customers and incorporate their opinions into our ratings. We have searched the Internet for dozens of product reviews of each model to make our selection. Authentic customer and professional reviews are one of the most valuable resources to evaluate the quality of a product. Even if you try the device yourself, it is still possible that you have caught a particularly good or bad one. Due to the abundance of customer feedback, you can draw a better average value.

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Robotic Lawn Mowers FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

What’s a robot lawn mower? What does a robotic lawn mower do?

A robotic lawn mower is a small robot that mows the lawn! Its sole purpose is to relieve you of the lawnmower’s work.

You don’t have to put your hands on them in any other way. A robotic lawn mower needs no further attention after a single installation and setup. It finds its way through your garden by itself through GPS or other sensors that help it to recognize your lawn.

It regularly cuts the lawn to the perfect height and fertilizes the soil at the same time through the cut blades of grass. So you always have a perfect lawn without a lot of work.

Is manual reworking of the lawn necessary with a robot lawn mower?

Robotic lawn mowers are generally very thorough and precise. Within the first few days, the robotic lawn mower cuts your lawn to a homogeneous length. With some robotic lawn mowers, however, the edges of the lawn around obstacles or at the borders of your lawn may not be cut as perfectly as in the middle.

However, this depends mainly on how carefully you have laid the guide wires. If they are too far away from the edge, the robot does not travel far enough. There are also special models, such as the Worx Landroid series, which are specially designed to mow the lawn edge perfectly for you.

Is it possible to operate a robot lawn mower from a distance?

As in other Smart Home areas, you can operate robotic lawn mowers from a distance with your Smartphone. If the base station or the robot itself is integrated into your wifi, you can even control it from anywhere in the world. If you have not set an automatic schedule, you can activate it from anywhere if necessary. If, for example, you have planned a barbecue evening after work and would like the lawn to look nice, you can order your robotic lawn mower to mow the lawn beforehand from work. Instead of investing time and sweat to mow your lawn like before, you only need to press a button nowadays.

Who are robotic lawn mowers suitable for?

A robot lawn mower is suitable in principle for everyone who wants to save his precious spare time and the traditional lawn mowing does is not exactly his favorite pastime.

A lawn mower robot takes the hard work out of mowing your lawn. Especially in summer, a lawn has to be cut regularly so that it looks good and stays healthy.

Lawn mowing is not one of the most popular activities in the lawn, which makes a robotic lawn mower suitable for everyone. Robotic lawn mowers are particularly suitable for elderly people, pollen allergy sufferers and people with little leisure time.

How loud are robotic lawn mowers?

Compared to traditional lawn mowers, robot lawn mowers are extremely quiet. Typically, robotic lawn mowers are between 57 and 70 dB loud. A petrol lawn mower is about 90 dB and more!

60 dB corresponds approximately to quiet background music or a conversation at normal volume. A robotic lawn mower with 60 decibels and below can mow undisturbed even at night. However, if it becomes louder than 70 decibels, you should limit its mowing times to appropriate times of the day.

How often should a robotic lawn mower mow the lawn?

It is recommended to let a robot lawn mower do its work daily. This will ensure that your lawn looks excellent every day and that the cut blades of grass are as short as possible so that they can serve as fertilizer for the lawn underneath. Of course, you can also let the robot drive less often. Then you have to gain some experience after what time the robotic lawn mower gets difficulties with the length of the lawn.

What do I have to consider before using a robotic lawn mower?

Before you run your lawn robot, you should make sure that there are no flat objects on the lawn. Although every robot lawn mower has sensors with which it senses obstacles and avoids them, this does not work as well for flat objects such as frisbees or badminton rackets. You should therefore always make sure that your lawn is free of such objects so that the lawnmower does not accidentally damage itself and the object. After a strong storm, you should also remove the lawn from fallen branches or other objects such as nuts or acorns.

However, if you are still before the installation, you should check your garden for robotic lawn mower friendliness. Depending on which model you choose, narrow passages and obstacles such as stone edges could be a problem. If you have the option, you should widen the narrowest passages and avoid abrupt edges on the lawn. It is best if the robotic lawn mower can drive a few centimeters over the edge of the lawn without coming across an object. So he can mow the lawn edge perfectly. If the lawn ends directly at a fence or wall, it may not be possible to mow the last few centimeters in front of it, as its blades do not reach to the edge of its housing.

How does a robot lawn mower know where it is? And how does it find its way back to its station?

Robotic lawn mowers are smart small machines. They are either equipped with GPS navigation so that the robotic lawn mower automatically knows where it is and where your lawn ends, or they have detectors that can detect a perimeter wire in the ground.

If you should ever move with your robot lawn mower, you have to remember to train it anew. A friend of mine hadn’t reprogrammed his GPS robotic lawn mower and wondered where it was and found it a few hundred meters down the street on the way to its old residence. He wanted to go back to its old home…

What accessories does a robotic lawn mower need?

Either the robot lawn mower already has everything you need to install it, or you have to buy certain parts, such as the wire that borders your lawn. You must also replace the blades of the robotic lawnmower regularly but at fairly regular intervals.

Why do robotic lawn mowers have such small blades?

In principle, robot lawn mowers have all the time in the world. They drive tirelessly across your lawn all day long. It is also absolutely not bad at their volume if they mow the lawn several hours a day.

Due to its automation, the blade does not have to be as large as with traditional lawnmowers in order to cut as much area as possible at once. Large blades also cause much more noise than the small ones of robotic lawn mowers.

By the small, very sharp blades, it is also possible to cut the lawn so finely that the individual grass snippets fall between the still standing grass blades on the ground and fertilize it so.

Another reason why the blades are kept so small is the total weight of the robotic lawn mower. The heavier the robot lawn mower, the smaller its range. So the compact design benefits the range, volume, cut quality and you get the possibility to fertilize the lawn at the same time.

Are robotic lawn mowers theft-proof?

Robotic lawn mowers are small, valuable and unattended most of the time. This, of course, makes them interesting for thieves. There are many optional security features that prevent theft or allow a stolen robotic lawn mower to be located:

• GPS: Some robot lawn mowers have the option to be located via GPS. As soon as they leave an area defined by you, an alarm sounds. You can also use the GPS to track the lawnmower via geo-tracking so that it can be found more quickly in the event of theft.
• PIN: As with other electrical devices, the operation of most robotic lawn mowers is enabled by a PIN code. If you want to operate it, change its timer or other settings, you must always enter the PIN first. The robotic lawn mower is therefore useless for anyone who does not know the PIN.
• Alarm signal: Many robot lawn mowers also have a built-in alarm siren. This either goes up when you lift it and don’t enter the pin within a certain time, or removes it from its GPS range.

Is a robotic lawn mower water-resistant – can it be used in the rain?

Most robot lawn mowers today are rainproof. With some cheaper devices, it may be that they are not, but have a rain sensor and immediately drive back to their base station – to their “garage” – so as not to get wet. Either way, you don’t have to wait for it to dry to let your robotic lawn mower drive. Normally you should have an automatic daily rhythm anyway, where it doesn’t matter if it rains or not.

Does a rain sensor make sense for a robot lawn mower?

Nowadays, robotic lawn mowers are not only mostly rainproof, but many also have an integrated rain sensor. It lets the lawnmower robot know whether it’s raining or not.

Since it is generally not a good idea to mow the lawn when it rains, the robotic lawn mower automatically returns to the charging station as soon as it starts raining. This not only protects itself but also the lawn. When mowing a wet lawn, the pieces of grass that have been cut off get stuck to the mower and cannot fall to the ground anymore and avoid their fertilizing effect. It could also lead to visible tracks if the robot lawn mower drives its wheels over the wet ground.

Does a robotic lawn mower bypass obstacles?

Yes, as long as they’re big enough. Virtually all robotic lawn mowers have built-in sensors, similar to vacuum robots, which detect obstacles in the path. If a robotic lawn mower has driven against an obstacle, it changes its direction and moves on.

However, this only works up to a certain size of the object. If the objects are smaller, they are simply run over. So it is quite important that you take care that there are no hard, small objects on the lawn like stones or beloved toys of your children or dogs.

Can a robot lawn mower cut its perimeter wire?

This is indeed a frequently asked question. The danger of the robotic lawn mower cutting through the perimeter wire is averted immediately if you lay the wires underground. If you do not want this, you should at least fix the wire on the ground every 30 to 50 cm with a hook in the ground and make sure that it is tight.

Do you have to pick up the grass behind the robotic lawn mower?

Another ingenious advantage of automatic robot lawn mowers is that you don’t have to collect the grass behind them. Through their regular mowing, the grass is cut so finely that the small snippets between the still standing blades of grass fall down to the ground. You can even fertilize it and do without other fertilizers.

The first time you let the robotic lawn mower run, you should set the longest possible cutting length and work your way down slowly. The smaller the intervals between days, the better. This effect also makes it advisable to let the lawnmower robot run as often as possible, preferably daily. This ensures that the lawn is always at a perfect length and the grass cut off is small enough to fall to the ground. The cut grass mulches the lawn and provides it with important nutrients. You save both emptying a grass container and increasing the health of your lawn at the same time.

How long does the battery of a robotic lawn mower last?

Between 30 and 90 minutes, depending on the model. This coupled with the navigation method and its speed defines the maximum area it can mow. In addition, the slope of your lawn plays a role, because the robot naturally slows down with a larger slope and needs more energy.

Are robot lawn mowers safe for pets and children?

Traditional lawn mowers are powerful machines with a giant blade under the hood that can easily cut through thick branches. It is no wonder that many also worry about their robotic lawn mower and fear that it could become dangerous for children and pets as it drives automatically and is not monitored all the time.

Fortunately, however, there are a number of safety measures that prevent injuries from an automatic lawnmower robot:

• The blades are placed in the middle of the robot so that you don’t get hurt when you reach under the robot. However, there are exceptions. The Worx Landroid series features the ingenious Cut the Edge feature to mow lawn edges perfectly. However, this means that their blades are dangerously close to the edge of the housing. These robots are not suitable for small children.
• Robotic lawn mowers have sensors that detect obstacles. If a robotic lawn mower drives towards a sleeping dog or a playing child, it either avoids this obstacle or stops the mowing process as soon as it touches it and turns around.
• All robot lawn mowers presented here have lift and tilt sensors that immediately switch off the robotic lawn mower if it is raised or tilted unintentionally.
• To avoid a possible danger completely, you can also send the robotic lawn mower back to its charging station from your smartphone as soon as your children want to play in the garden or you let your dog into the garden.

Which lawns can robot lawn mowers handle?

In principle, the maximum lawn area a robotic lawn mower can mow is defined by its boundary wire and battery power. The larger the battery, the longer it can mow your lawn without having to drive back to the charging station. It is also important to know how quickly the charging station can recharge the battery to keep the waiting time between mowing operations as short as possible.

In addition, the layout of the garden is also decisive for the range of the robotic lawn mower. If it is rather complex and angled, the robot often mows over the same areas in narrow passages. If the lawn is less complex and ultimately only a large area, the robot lawn mower can efficiently move from one side of the lawn to the other. However, it always depends on the navigation system of the robotic lawn mower. There are navigation systems that actively avoid already mown lawns and concentrate on unmown areas. This increases the effectiveness and thus the range extremely.

There is now a suitable robotic lawn mower for every garden size. From 500 to over 3000 m² there is a suitable robot lawn mower for every garden size in this list.

Do I have to operate a robotic lawn mower with an app?

No, the use of an app is only an optional operating option. Normally a robotic lawn mower has a built-in LCD display on which you can make all the necessary settings.

The app control is just an extra, with which this control can be made even more comfortable. You can use it to make all the settings that you could set on the LCD display – from anywhere. If you notice that it’s starting to rain and your robot lawn mower doesn’t have a rain sensor, you can send it back to its charging station at the push of a button without having to go outside. Or you order it to return to its charging station if your children want to play in the garden.

In principle, the App control system allows the robotic lawn mower to be operated from anywhere in the world. So you can also monitor the activities of your lawnmower robot during your holiday and be so sure that your lawn is perfect when you get home.

What do I do with my robot lawn mower in winter?

In winter the lawn does not grow and does not need to be mowed. So there is no point in running a robotic lawn mower in the cold season.

The best thing you can do is to hibernate him in a dry place sheltered from the weather. Every winter I dismantle the charging station and store it and my robotic lawn mower in my garage.

Disassembly and reassembly are also not stressful at all. All you have to do is return the charging station to its usual place and supply it with electricity.

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Bottom Line

Just like other Smart Home devices, a robotic lawn mower offers you the opportunity to save a lot of time and work in your everyday life. Our lives today are getting more and more complicated and we have less and less time for the beautiful things in life. With a robotic lawnmower, you get a part of this time back and can concentrate on the essentials.

The average garden owner needs about an hour to mow his lawn. And he does this about two and a half times a month. All life long, that’s two complete months spent mowing the lawn! With a smart robotic lawn mower, you can spend this time for more beautiful things like with friends, family, hobbies or on holiday.

We hope that in our guide you have found the right robotic lawn mower for your garden and for yourself and that you have more time for friends, family, and leisure.

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Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
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