The old leg-driven rotary mower remains the truly green option... but better yet, let your lawn go to meadow and just cut it back once or twice a season.

Top of the line RoboMow is about $2500 on Amazon.com. I wonder what this one does so much better? And I thought you could get them from under a thousand a year or two ago. Seems the prices are going up with demand.

goats

I don't care if it's solar. It's unnecessary, it's wasteful, it's disgusting. Why is it on Treehugger?

"I don't care if it's solar. It's unnecessary, it's wasteful, it's disgusting. Why is it on Treehugger?"

It's this kind of polarized arguments that make a "us versus them mentality" and do more harm than good.

Push reel mowers are great for small yards, but not everyone has small yard.

It might be wasteful, but far less wasteful than a gas mower!

How can you say this is wasteful? it uses less energy than a 40w light bulb ($20 a year if its on 24 hours aday) , it cuts the same area as you would on a ride on lawn mower that would cost you the same amount of money and you install it and leave it to cut, once its in you dont have to do anything? And most of all the quality of cut is far better than any of the other options in your shed? Without doing anything! There are greener options! You must be some sort of Jackass!

I like the "incandescent unfortunately" comment. As if a 40 watt CFL/refrigerator/hairdryer/ uses less power.

This is great technology and Husqvarna has always made a quality product, except for the gas factor of course. I bought one out of skymall mag. at around 400 dollars(for my elderly moms yard)and it worked real well. T
http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org

Reel push mowers are designed for yards less than 5,000 sq ft. For yards between 5,000 and 20,000 there is this alternative which mainly competes against gas powered push mowers. Which is more green? There are robot mowers designed for even larger yards as well, upwards of 2+ acres for some robot mowers. Anything over half an acre usually gets mowed by a riding lawn mower, or has a lawn care service that comes to do the job. These are both very large polluters in America, and for each yard we can reduce CO2 emissions in, the world will be that much better. 10-20 dollars a year in electricity vs 10-20 dollars a week in gas. Take your pick.

This does not look like it could tackle the hills in my family's yard. Maybe if we had a piece of land without hills or trees then maybe

A lower cost alternative are non-solar robot mowers. Lawnbott prices are from $1,749 - $3,249. 30 degree hills, multiple trees and 2 acre lots aren't an issue for the top of the line LawnBott. The technology has greatly improved over the years.

Robotic lawn mowers are greener than gas mowers. If you have 1/2 acre or larger - with or without trees and hills, you should take a serious look at robotic options.

If your lawn is smaller than 6000 sq ft, stick to the reel mower.

gas mowers are actually one of the most polluting devices on the market

"Testing found that operating a typical gasoline mower with a four-cycle engine produced as much PAH as driving a modern car about 150 km or about 95 miles. (Note 1). This means that unless you drive more than 95 mph, your mower actually produces more pollution per hour than your car!
Another source claims that operating a gas mower for one hour will produce the same pollution as driving a car 1300 miles."

Robot mowers are ecologically friendly. I was so impressed with mine I started selling them.
As time goes on they will improve and ecome even more Green.

I like the solar mower concept. The price needs to come down, other than that, how can you beat it? We have 30 degree hills and run the Lawnbott. I like that our lawn is always mowed. Not to mention the time savings...

Just a thought about how 'green' people-powered mowers are... A hot summer day, and a man pushing his rotary mower about to cut the lawn in an eco-friendly way is going to result in... that's right, cold beverages from the fridge to cool himself down, possibly the air con inside on a little cooler for the same reason, and no doubt a shower afterwards. An automatic mower using hardly any electricity, however, means he can stay in the shade and chill! No need to waste shower water or the electricity to heat it!

Of course a meadow would be more ece-friendly, but how many meadows do you see in suburbia? On the other hand, if, like me, you don't put any kinds of products on your lawn, all you do is mow it (and maybe water it from your own well), and someone points out a way to do that without using much electricity or other fuel, can that be a bad thing?

The guys talking about the Lawnbott's are right. I have hills and trees in my 1/2 acre yard and I haven't mowed for 2 years. The bot does it all. I probably haven't used a gallon of gas in the last two years to maintain my lawn.

We haven't mowed in over 4 years. We gave our gas mower away within months of owning our first robotic lawn mower. Robotic lawn mowers are truly the modern day solution for mowing lawns.

Here's an in-depth review of the LawnBott LB3500 www.lawnbottreview.com

Much of the info applies to all robotic mowers.