LawnMaster OcuMow 18 Autocharging Vision Robot Mower

Introduction

Even without the need to use boundary wire, robot lawn mowers are usually fiddly to set up, and expensive. The LawnMaster OcuMow 18 Autocharging Vision Robot Mower is different, as it needs no wires, no boundary setup and it can spot boundaries automatically.

It’s an update to last year’s OcuMow 16, which was a drop-and-go mower: you charged the battery separately, dropped the mower into your lawn, hit go and then waited until it had finished its job before stopping it manually.

This new model still has that option, but adds a docking station for automatic charging.

Design and Features

• Docking station for self-charging
• Schedule or Drop and Mow modes
• Theft-protection

I’m used to robot lawnmowers taking some time to set up, so the LawnMaster OcuMow 18, which is designed for lawns up to 800m² and slopes of up to 35%, was refreshingly simple to get going. It comes in a very small box (for a lawn mower), which contains a simple docking station.

I just had to clip the two sections together, and lay the base on a flat bit of ground near the lawn, using the provided screws to secure the base into the ground. As the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 doesn’t rely on GPS for navigation, there’s no need to place the docking station somewhere with a clear signal.

I then clipped the charging prong on top, hooked up the power supply, and the docking station was ready to go.

There’s precious little to do with the robot lawn mower either, other than lift it out of the box, using the clever carry-handle on top. This handle can also be used if you want to take the lawn mower to a different area, such as for mowing the front lawn.

Rather than using an integrated battery, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 uses one of LawnMaster’s 24V batteries. This is compatible with other tools in the line-up including the hedge trimmers and cordless lawn mowers.

Slot the battery into the compartment at the back, and push the lawn mower into the charging dock and it’s ready to go, as simple as that.

In fact, at this point I could have just hit the Play button on top of the robot and let it go about its business, using its grass detecting camera and ultrasonic sensors to detect lawn and avoid boundaries.

From box to mowing, then, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 can be ready in minutes, which is way faster than even the quickest GPS lawn mower I’ve tested, the Segway Navimow i105E.

However, before starting it’s worth checking a few things. First, the grass and ultrasonic sensors are designed to cope with certain boundaries only. The camera-based system is designed to spot grass and look for areas that are different, so that means you need borders with clear earth or that have bark chippings on them.

You can also use paving, decking or gravel, provided the boundary is 35cm wide. Any raised barrier (minimum height of 6cm) will also work, and hedges are detected and avoided by the ultrasonic sensors.

That’s a wide range of borders supported, but the detection can cause problems. For example, if your lawn has a path running through it or across it, dividing the lawn into two, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 can’t move from one area to another, and you’ll have to carry it and start a manual cut.

New to this model is the magnetic strip detection sensor. LawnMaster provides two 5m strips of this in the box, which can be laid temporarily or permanently (using the provided clips) around any areas you don’t want the robot to go, such as a pond or a poorly defined border.

Ponds, clearly, have to be blocked off, as the robot will just sink itself; for other areas you’re not sure about, I recommend watching the robot in action and hitting the Stop button if it’s about to run into your prized flower bed, and then lay the magnetic strip in any problem areas.

I don’t recommend this product for anyone with a complicated lawn layout; really, it’s designed for small, simple, well-defined lawns.

It’s then worth checking all of the settings that you want to use. First, there’s heigh-cut adjustment, which is a manual control that goes between 20mm and 80mm, adjustable in 10mm increments.

An electronic adjustment is better, as you can tweak more easily throughout the season, but these tend to be on more expensive models only, such as the Navimow i105E or the Mammotion Luba 2 AWD.

Higher cuts are useful at the start of the season as the grass starts to grow, but you can reduce over the season when you want shorter grass.

Underneath, the robot uses an 18cm wide cutting deck, which has three replaceable razor blades that spin. It’s a relatively small cutting deck, although that’s fine for a small garden.

Before mowing, it’s worth setting up a PIN for the robot, which prevents a thief from using it. By default, once the mower is connected to the dock, it records its GPS location and will lock itself if it’s moved 1km away from the dock.

By default, the mower is set to go out every day between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., mowing until the battery runs out and then charging again before repeating. Realistically, this is going to be too much for a small garden, so there are a couple of options.

First, you can adjust the schedule using the dial and the LCD. It’s a laborious process, but one you’ll most likely only have to do once. Each day has two schedule options (say, morning and evening), although you only need to programme one.

I think it’s best to set the robot to mow every few days, with a working time to suit your garden. Most small gardens can be covered in a couple of hours maximum.

Alternatively, you can use the Drop and Mow mode to manually start a cut, which can be used with the main lawn area (the robot will mow and then return to dock once its battery is flat), or a different area (the robot runs until its battery is flat, and then you have to go and collect it).

There’s a choice of cut modes: random is where the robot moves to a boundary and then turns at a random angle, moving off. Spiral lets the robot move in a spiral from the location you move it too, which is useful for catching any areas it missed while on Random.

There’s a rain sensor built-in. As soon as rain is detected, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 stops mowing and returns to the dock. Once the sensor is dry, the robot will continue after the set delay runs out (the default is two hours, but you can adjust this on the screen).

Performance

• Cuts well
• Good border detection
• Can struggle with rough ground

It’s a little nervewracking setting the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 off for the first time. I’m used to robots with boundary wire or GPS, and have confidence that they’ll only operate within the boundaries that I set. With its camera system, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 is free to roam.

I started without the magnetic tape and found that the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 worked well out of the box. It moved straight up to my freshly dug flower bed, and turned before it ran into the soil.

I was a little scared as the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 moved towards another bed full of plants, but also with some grass growing in it, but the robot managed to avoid the plants and turn away. In the end, I didn’t need to use the magnetic tape to stop the robot from entering my borders.

I also found the OcuMow 18 responsive and quick to react to people walking in front of it. As I moved about, the robot would stop near me and turn away. It should move around larger objects, too, but there’s no vision system for object detection. In fact, the robot ran straight into a seed tray that I’d left on the grass; to be fair, this lawn mower is not designed to intelligently avoid obstacles on the lawn.

Safety features are good. If the robot is picked up or rolled over while working, it will immediately stop. There’s also a large red Stop button at the back, so you can quickly stop the OcuMow 18 if there’s any chance of a dangerous event.

Movement is generally very good, and the chunky wheels at the back help the robot move around even over slightly uneven ground. However, the movement isn’t that smart. At one point, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 ran into a divot and sat there spinning its wheels digging a deeper hole.

I found that the Mammotion Luba 2 AWD managed rough ground better, and was smarter about getting itself out of trouble. Filling in the divot stopped future problems and, as the manual states, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 is really designed for flat, simple lawns.

Cutting quality is very good. The blades efficiently cut grass to the set height, with the clippings mulching down into the lawn to feed it and help new growth. In that regard, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 is as good as other robots that I’ve tested.

Its random-cut mode does mean that it can take a while to hit every patch of lawn, and it can leave small areas uncut after a session. Generally, I found that missed areas would be caught on the next mowing session. Scheduled to run two or three times per week, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 did catch all of the main parts of the lawn.

As with most other robot lawn mowers, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 can’t get close to the edges of the lawn. Nor can it follow a boundary line, instead hitting edges at random angles, turning and backing away.

I found that the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 is almost comically bad at docking when it needs to recharge, either when the battery is running out or after I used the Home button to manually send it home.

First, the lawn mower had to bounce off some edges until it got close to the dock, then it would slowly move forward and just miss the charging prong, having to reverse and try again. Each time, the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 took multiple attempts to dock, although it did do complete the task each time.

I had to use one of our best grass trimmers every week or so to tidy up around the edge of the garden, although the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 did do most of the hard work for me.

I measured the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 at a gentle 52.2dB. That’s quiet enough to have it running while sitting in the garden.

Should you buy it?