GARDENA smart SILENO free

Not on its own, going by Gardena's published sensor list. The GARDENA smart SILENO free ships with satellite RTK for positioning and a lift sensor, which stops the blades if the mower is picked up. Gardena sells an Anti-collision Radar as a separate accessory, and it's that add-on which gives the mower a way of sensing objects in its path.

Without the radar, the mower knows where the lawn is but not what's lying on it. Toys, balls, garden hoses and dog bowls need clearing before a mowing session, and so does anything left out overnight. Gardena's UK site doesn't have a product page for the radar, so check with your retailer that it's available and compatible before relying on it.

For hedgehogs, the most reliable protection is the schedule rather than any sensor. The British Hedgehog Preservation Society notes that hedgehogs are active from dusk through the night, so set mowing windows during daylight hours and avoid early mornings and evenings. The smart App lets you choose those windows and pause the mower remotely. Check long grass under hedges yourself before the first cut of the season, as that's where hedgehogs often shelter.

Our hedgehog guide covers schedules in more detail, and if hands-free obstacle avoidance matters to you, the camera-equipped GARDENA smart SILENO sense is the Gardena to look at.

No. Gardena says the GARDENA smart SILENO free has no subscription costs, and it doesn't use a SIM card at all. Instead it gets online through the smart Gateway that comes in the box, which plugs into your router and links to the mower by radio.

Gardena's UK page says an internet connection is needed, so your home broadband effectively replaces the 4G connection that some wire-free rivals use. That keeps running costs down, but it means the Gateway's radio needs to reach the charging station and the lawn. Check where the Gateway can sit before buying.

If you'd prefer a Gardena that carries its own mobile connection, the GARDENA smart SILENO sense has a built-in SIM that Gardena says includes free lifetime data. Our 4G and network RTK guide explains how the different connection methods compare.

Gardena says the GARDENA smart SILENO free can cut close to solid edges such as walls and fences using a feature it calls Trim-to-Edge, but it doesn't claim the same for every kind of border. Expect to trim beside soft flower beds, lawn edging strips and around obstacles by hand, as with most robot mowers.

Gardena doesn't publish a distance in millimetres for how close it gets. The cutting deck uses two discs with three blades each, giving a 220 mm strip. Height runs from 25 mm to 45 mm, which is a narrow range and suits a lawn kept short with frequent cuts.

A mowing strip of paving or brick laid flush with the lawn gives any robot mower a hard edge to follow, which reduces the trimming you'll need. Our blade guide covers blade care and replacement.

Gardena gives two figures, and until it clarifies we'd plan around the lower one. The technical table on the UK page for the GARDENA smart SILENO free lists 35%, both inside the lawn and at the boundary, while the feature list on the same page says slopes of up to 30%.

The gap is about 17° against 19°, which matters only if your steepest bank sits close to the limit. Remember that wet grass reduces grip, so a slope the mower handles in dry weather can become a problem after rain.

Unlike Gardena's wired SILENO models, the free has no separate 10% limit along the edge, because there's no wire for it to slip across. Our slopes guide explains how to measure your gradient.

It depends how much of the lawn is shaded from the sky. The GARDENA smart SILENO free steers by satellite positioning with RTK corrections, and Gardena lists no camera or LiDAR to help when that signal is weak. Open lawns suit it best; a plot boxed in by tall conifers, a large tree canopy or a three-storey house is a harder case.

RTK works by comparing satellite signals with correction data to fix the mower's position to within a few centimetres. When trees, walls or dense hedges block part of the sky, the receiver sees fewer satellites and accuracy drops. In practice that tends to show up along the edges of a lawn and in shaded corners, which are also where the mower is closest to borders and fences.

Some points worth checking before you buy:

• How much of the lawn has open sky overhead, especially near the edges.
• Whether narrow side passages run between the house and a tall fence.
• Whether you're happy to exclude a few difficult spots as no-mow areas in the app.

If your garden is heavily shaded, a mower that combines satellites with a camera may cope better. Gardena's own GARDENA smart SILENO sense does that, though it's rated for a smaller lawn. Our navigation guide explains the differences between RTK, vision and LiDAR systems.

Yes. Gardena's UK site lists all three versions of the GARDENA SILENO+ (the smart 1,600 m² and 2,000 m² sets and the non-smart 2,000 m²) as legacy models, with no buying option and no spec table. Gardena doesn't name a direct replacement.

The awkward part is lawn size. The SILENO+ was rated for up to 2,000 m², and nothing in Gardena's current UK range goes that high. The closest options are:

• The GARDENA smart SILENO free, rated for 1,200 m² and wire-free, using satellite RTK through the smart Gateway.
• The GARDENA SILENO life, a wired mower rated for up to 1,000 m². If you already have a SILENO+ boundary wire in place, it may be reusable.

If your lawn is well over 1,200 m², you'll need to look beyond Gardena. Our large gardens shortlist covers current mowers rated for bigger areas.