Flymo EasiLife

If your 1200R still works well, there's no rush; if it needs a new battery or major repair, the Flymo EasiLife is the natural replacement and improves on it in several ways. Flymo treats the EasiLife as the successor to the Flymo 1200R.

The EasiLife handles steeper lawns, 35% against 25%, and fits through much narrower gaps, 60 cm against 90 cm. It adds a Bluetooth app alongside its keypad and a better IPX5 water rating.

One thing to check before you lift the old wire: whether it can be reused. Flymo doesn't say the two are compatible, so treat the new mower's wire and pegs as the ones to use unless Flymo's customer service confirms otherwise.

No. The Flymo EasiLife talks to the Flymo EasiLife app over Bluetooth only, so your phone has to be near the mower to change a schedule or start a cut. The manual lists Bluetooth and the boundary wire signal as its only radio systems: there's no Wi-Fi and no 4G.

That has an upside. There's no home network to set up, no account tied to a cloud service and no subscription to pay. The mower also has its own small screen and keypad, so you can set everything on the machine if you prefer not to use the app at all.

The trade-off is that you can't check where it is, pause it for a barbecue or get alerts while you're away. If remote control matters, Flymo's Flymo UltraLife can be run from anywhere through the GARDENA smart system, though it needs a GARDENA smart Gateway bought separately.

Yes, within limits: Flymo rates the Flymo EasiLife for slopes of up to 35% inside the mowing area, which is roughly 19 degrees. That is a noticeably steeper rating than the Flymo EasiLife GO, which Flymo gives 25%.

There is an important second figure. The operator's manual sets a much lower limit of 10% along the boundary wire. If the edge of your lawn runs across a bank, the mower can struggle to follow the wire there, so route the wire along the flatter ground and keep it off the steepest part of any slope where you can.

Slope percentages are easy to misjudge by eye. A 35% slope rises 35 cm for every metre you walk forward, which is steeper than most people expect. If you're unsure, measure the rise over a known distance with a spirit level and a tape; our slopes guide shows how.

Grip also matters. Wet grass and loose or mossy patches reduce traction on any small robot mower, so a lawn that sits near the rating may give more trouble in spring and autumn than in a dry summer.

Choose the Flymo EasiLife GO if your lawn is small and fairly flat; choose the Flymo EasiLife if it has real slopes, is a bit bigger, or you want a screen on the mower. Both are boundary-wire robots from the same Flymo family, with the same basic cutting system, so the choice comes down to a few specific differences.

Slope is the biggest one. Flymo rates the GO for 25% and the EasiLife for 35% within the lawn. If any part of your garden is steeper than a gentle incline, that alone points to the EasiLife.

Size comes next. The GO range covers 150–500 m², while the EasiLife runs 200–800 m². The EasiLife also cuts a little longer, up to 50 mm against 45 mm.

Controls differ too. The GO has LED "Push & Go" buttons and relies on the Bluetooth app for anything more; the EasiLife adds a small display and keypad, so you can programme it without a phone. The GO is lighter, at 6.1 kg against 7.3 kg.

Much is shared: the 160 mm cut, 60 cm passage width, bump-only obstacle sensing, no alarm, no Wi-Fi and the same warranty terms. Flymo doesn't publish UK RRPs, so compare the live retailer prices shown on the EasiLife GO and EasiLife pages.

Flymo doesn't publish a fixed replacement interval in the sources we use, so treat it as "when they look worn". The Flymo EasiLife cuts with three small pivoting razor blades on a disc, and like most robot mowers of this design, those blades are cheap consumables rather than parts meant to last years.

Signs that they need changing are ragged or torn grass tips, visible chips or bends in the metal, and the mower seeming to leave tufts it used to cut cleanly. Hitting stones, twigs or toys wears them faster. Always switch the mower off before handling the disc, and wear gloves.

Flymo's warranty treats blades and wheels as consumables, so replacements aren't covered. Flymo's UK site doesn't list robot blade packs with prices, so check retailers, and see our blade guide and blades page for how to fit them.

It can be, as long as you only let it mow in daylight. Hedgehogs are active mainly at night, and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society advises against running robot mowers after dark. The Flymo EasiLife runs to a schedule you set on its keypad or in the Bluetooth app, so the simplest step is to set its working hours to the middle of the day.

The mower's own sensing is basic. Flymo lists collision (bump) sensing plus lift and tilt sensors, which stop the blades if the body is raised or tipped. There's no camera or radar to spot a small animal before contact, so the schedule does most of the work.

A quick look over the lawn before a cut helps, particularly under hedges and around compost heaps where hedgehogs nest. Our hedgehog guide covers schedules, cutting heights and garden layout in more detail.

Pick the size whose rated area sits comfortably above your lawn, ideally by around a fifth, rather than the one that only just matches it. The Flymo EasiLife comes as the 200, 350, 500 and 800, and the number is the lawn area in square metres that Flymo rates it for. Across the range that is 200–800 m².

All four are the same machine. They share the cut width, cutting heights, slope rating and battery, and Flymo's spec sheets differ mainly in rated area, energy use and how much boundary wire and how many pegs are in the box. A bigger model doesn't cut faster: it is set up to run for more hours a week. Flymo also notes a tolerance of about 20% either way on its area figures, which is another reason to leave headroom.

Measure the grass only, not the beds or patio. Our lawn size tool lets you draw your lawn on a map and gives you the area. Lawns with lots of corners, islands or narrow strips take longer to cover than a simple rectangle of the same size, so size up if yours is fiddly.

The 800 is the top of the EasiLife range. If your lawn is bigger than that allows, look at the Flymo UltraLife, which Flymo rates for up to 1,500 m². For small lawns on flatter ground, the lighter Flymo EasiLife GO is the other option.