Choosing and fit
A robot mower has to do four things in your garden: cover the area, climb the steepest part, get between separate lawns, and find its way round. Every manufacturer publishes a rating for the first two, and the navigation type decides the rest.
Start by measuring your lawn and its steepest slope, then let the chooser match them to the models on sale in the UK. We use the manufacturer's own figures, with the date we checked them, and we add a margin because rated areas assume ideal conditions.
Tools
- Boundary wire or wire-free? DeciderAnswer six questions about your garden and see which navigation suits it: boundary wire, RTK satellite, camera vision, LiDAR or a hybrid, with the reasons and the trade-offs.
- Lawn area calculatorMeasure your lawn in m² from simple shapes or points round the edge, across several zones, minus beds and patios. The figure every robot mower spec is rated against.
- Lawn slope calculator (% and °)Turn a rise and a distance, or a phone spirit-level reading in degrees, into slope % and °, find your steepest section, and check it against a mower's rated maximum.
- Which robot mower fits my lawn?Tell us your lawn's size, zones, steepest slope, narrowest passage and surroundings. We'll show which navigation tech suits it and which UK models are rated to cover it, each with its specs checked date.
Guides
- How to choose a robot mowerChoose a robot lawn mower that fits your garden: measure the lawn, find the steepest slope, count zones and passages, pick the right navigation, then compare rated specs.
- How to measure your lawnHow to measure your lawn's area in m² with a tape measure: split it into simple shapes, measure each zone, take away beds and patios. With a free lawn area calculator.
- Robot mowers for slopesCan a robot mower handle your slope? How to measure it in % and degrees, what manufacturer slope ratings mean, and what to look for on steep or wet banks.
Sources
- BHPS recommends daylight-only robot mowing (British Hedgehog Preservation Society), awaiting check