SILENO Life 8100 sq ft

The media could not be loaded. This is an extremely convenient little device, if like me you absolutely hate mowing, don’t mind a little setup and prep, and don’t care about a “perfect” lawn.So let me preface this full review with: I absolutely loathe mowing. I tend to avoid it as much as possible and as such my yard frequently gets out of control very quickly in the Florida rain. That being said, this little guy is exactly what someone like me needs, something to make my yard look presentable without all the hours of manual work. And it’s probably the coolest thing I now own.Prep and SetupI definitely suggest watching the YouTube videos from the manufacturer on how to unbox and setup the mower, the included guide was quite lengthy and a little hard to follow but after watching the videos, setup was a breeze. Unboxing everything was also easy, everything was packed and labeled nicely, and I was actually surprised with how compact the mower was.You absolutely need to clear out your yard of any large branches or obstacles that the mower might catch on. I did see it get stuck on some branches that I missed cleaning up.The hardest and lengthiest part of setup is definitely setting up the boundary/guide wire. This process involves outlining your yard with the included wire. These wires connect back to the base station where I’m assuming it then gets power to tell the mower where the boundary limits are. There’s also a guide wire that runs from the base station to the boundary wire where they’re spliced together with an included coupler. If you’re not familiar with cutting and joining wires this might seem a little daunting but honestly after watching the videos it was very straightforward.The biggest thing is to absolutely make sure the wire is firmly in the ground. The instructions give 2 options: One using stakes and the other to bury the wire. I opted to use the stakes, but I made the initial mistake of not using more of them closer together and the mower got tangled in the wire, this was an easy fix by making sure about every 2 feet of wire a stake was put down to hold it down (they included a lot of stakes).Running the mowerAs soon as you power on the mower you go through a simple install wizard to set your preferences and schedule. You also can override the schedule to test it out and let it run. You should definitely watch it the first time to make sure it runs smoothly but after that it’s basically set it and forget it. I don’t know if it could handle large brush, but I had mowed my lawn a few weeks prior, so it didn’t have to work very hard. I watched it go for about 30 minutes before I went back inside where I continually checked on it, it didn't get stuck and after a couple hours made it's way back to the base station to charge up for the day.Setting up the AppThere's another review on here that mentioned not having the Bluetooth model and not being able to use the app, which got me thinking the one I had also didn't have Bluetooth. Turns out all their models have Bluetooth, you just need to have the app open and turn off the mower while it's in the station and turn it back on. It was listed as P0.2 on my phone, I renamed him to 'Fenton'. My Android phone picked it up almost immediately and I was pretty happy with the options, which allows you to better select your schedule or spot mow a specific area where you place it and of course manually start it for a set period.Charging Station CoverThe weather is quite sporadic here in Florida, getting the charging station cover or "Garage" is a nice addition to not have to worry about it. It provides a nice little cover from the extreme heat and the Florida downpours. While the guide says the mower is built for all types of weather, I do recommend getting the cover if you'd like a little more peace of mind. Install takes all of 5 minutes and looks like it's built to last.Final thoughtsThe mower is insanely quiet, I only ever heard the blade when it hit a taller piece of grass. I was also very surprised with how maneuverable it is. I have very soft, leaf ridden soil and so my push mower constantly digs into the always wet soil, and it makes it pretty difficult sometimes to mow. This little guy I guess is light enough that it hasn’t gotten stuck. All that being said, this mower is not a “do it all” type of device, at least not for my yard. I set my boundaries to basically a large open area, I’ll have to touch up the areas where I thought it wouldn’t work very well because of large brush or just obstacles that would get in the way.I would highly recommend this mower to people with very “simple” yard layouts and those who hate mowing. For me it’s extremely convenient having a freshly kept yard without doing any of the work.

I like the design of the mower but it requires lots of manual intervention and check up. The gardena mower only connects to the phone via bluetooth but you will have to always open the app or check on the mower to know what is going on with the mower.Sometimes, the mower has stopped working for hours before I could realize that it needs manual help and sometimes the mower can't find it's way to the charger and the battery ran out so it is stuck somewhere in the lawn (Not sure if there is way to add more guide wires - still looking through the manual for that).The pros of the mower is that is looks prettier than the other mowers in the market and it is very quiet. However, the fact that there is no app notification, and no Wi-Fi connectivity tarnished the experience for me.I would recommend anyone wanting to buy this mower to consider the Worx Landroid which has these additional features for similar price. I could have returned my mower but unfortunately, the return window closed on me before I could make up my mind.To gardena, if the mower supports software update, the mower should be updated to communicate it's operating states to the owner via phone notifications since the mower has a controller app.Also, the mower cuts too low for my lawn which is basically killing my lawn by how low it cuts. The mower's maximum cut height is 2 inches. If your lawn is very thick, your lawn may fair well, but my lawn is not very thick, and the 2 inches max cut height exposes the lawn soil to the scorch of the sun thereby drying it out and in turn causing the lawn to suffer.I am considering going back to my traditional mower to allow my lawn to recover to its somewhat healthy state it was before I started using this mower. Overall, I am not happy with this mover at all, and would appreciate it if I can get my $1000+ back.

Mine, a Gardena SILENO Life 8100sq ft, installed as I expected, having install a robotic mower before. It took me a while to get the perimeter wire correct so that the mower would mow to the edges well, also not surprising, but now is ok.Two things that I disliked (and why only three stars) were:The cut height is very short, 0.78" (2cm)to 2" (5cm). My walk-behind mower will mow twice as high.And that you have to pick it up (and re-enter the code twice--once to move to a zone and once to move it back) to move it to secondary zone. Why doesn't the app have a function to direct the the mower to a different zone? It would be easy & convenient to control the mower by tilting the phone for left, right, forward and reverse, like some drones. My old (Irobot, many years ago) one had that capability with a joystick.You also have to re-enter the code if it gets stuck or *any* issue, why can't I enter the code with the app?

It is expensive and lacks functionality such as wifi, ultrasonic sensors, Lona application, parallel mowing, wire broken detection point, etc. I agree with some of the reviewers.

stakes are not a solid plastic and can break during placement, especially in Rocky soil

this thing only lasted a year and some it is impossible to file a warranty claim on it so it'll be a waste of your money do not buy it.

I really want to write a good review for this product, but I cannot, as I have been unable to reach Gardena support despite multiple attempts, both by email and telephone. At best, all I get is a notification that they will get back to me.While the mower worked as expected (the only things I would change is to increase the maximum height and add Wifi connectivity), the lack of support leaves me with an unusable product and one I can no longer recommend.