LawnMaster robot mowers

LawnMaster robot mowers are sold in the UK by Cleva Europe Ltd, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, which also sells the Vacmaster brand. Cleva gives LawnMaster products a limited two-year manufacturer guarantee covering the appliance, spares and accessories. We found no registration offer that extends it, unlike Flymo or Einhell, which add a third year if you register.

The OcuMow range has three families: the dockless LawnMaster OcuMow 16, the self-docking LawnMaster OcuMow AMB16 and the larger LawnMaster OcuMow 18. All are camera-guided, and Cleva sells them, along with blades, no-go strip and dock shelters, through its own UK online store as well as retailers. Product support is handled through Cleva's UK support pages. See the LawnMaster brand page for current prices.

It's best not to. The LawnMaster OcuMow 16 has no rain sensor, so it won't stop by itself if a shower starts, and it relies on you choosing when to run it. Its body is rated IPX4, which covers splashes rather than prolonged heavy rain.

Wet grass causes other problems too. Clippings clump under the cutting disc, the wheels grip less well, especially on slopes near its 35% rating, and a camera-guided mower can find it harder to read the lawn edge when surfaces are shiny with water.

Because it has no dock and you carry it out for each session, the fix is simple: wait until the grass has dried, and bring the mower back in afterwards rather than leaving it on the lawn.

No. The LawnMaster OcuMow 16 has no docking station at all. LawnMaster sells it as a "drop and mow" robot: you carry it onto the lawn, switch it on, and it mows on its own until the battery runs flat. Then you take the battery out and charge it on the supplied charger, which LawnMaster says takes about an hour.

That makes it closer to a self-driving cordless mower than a typical robot. You don't have to push it, but you do have to be there to start each session, so it can't keep the lawn trimmed on a schedule while you're away. LawnMaster quotes up to four hours' mowing per 4.0 Ah battery, and rates it for 150–300 m² depending on whether you buy one battery or two. The two-battery kit gives you a second run after a manual swap, not a longer run by itself.

There are advantages to having no dock. Nothing needs installing, there's no wire or app, and because you bring it in after use it isn't sitting in the garden for a thief. It also shares its MX 24V battery with LawnMaster's other tools.

If you want a mower that goes out and returns on its own, look at the LawnMaster OcuMow AMB16 or LawnMaster OcuMow 18, which both have auto-charging docks. Our robot vs cordless guide explains the trade-off.

Only if you want to control it from your phone; it doesn't mow any better. LawnMaster sells the LawnMaster OcuMow 18 in two versions, and apart from the app they're the same mower, with the same camera navigation, cut, battery and 800 m² rating. Their RRPs are £499.99–£549.99.

The standard model is set up on the mower's dial and LCD and runs to that schedule on its own. The App version adds Wi-Fi control through the OcuMow App, which LawnMaster describes as optional. That's handy for pausing it or changing the schedule from indoors, but it doesn't add app-drawn no-go zones: both versions use the supplied magnetic strip for areas to avoid. Neither has 4G, GPS theft tracking or a subscription.

Probably not well. The LawnMaster OcuMow 18 finds the edge of the lawn with an HDR camera that recognises grass, and LawnMaster says the lawn needs clearly defined borders for that to work. Paving, gravel or a raised edge give it a clear line; beds with plants spilling over the grass, rough meadow areas or ground cover don't.

There's no perimeter wire to fall back on. The mower uses satellite positioning only to find its way back to the dock, not to know where the lawn stops. For areas it should avoid inside the lawn, LawnMaster supplies 10 m of magnetic no-go strip that you lay on the ground, and more is sold separately. You could in theory run strip along a soft bed edge, but on a lawn with many soft edges that becomes a wire installation by another name.

Slopes near the boundary are a second point to check. LawnMaster rates it for 35% inside the lawn, but only 17% where the lawn meets the boundary strip.

If your lawn is mostly soft-edged, a wired mower such as the Einhell FREELEXO, or a wire-free mower that uses RTK mapping, will handle it more predictably. If you can add a mowing strip of bricks or edging along the beds, the OcuMow 18 becomes a much better fit. Our wired vs wire-free guide compares the approaches.

Only a PIN lock. Both versions of the LawnMaster OcuMow AMB16 ask for a PIN code, which stops someone simply switching it on and using it, but LawnMaster doesn't mention an alarm, and there's no GPS tracking or 4G to locate a stolen mower. The satellite receiver it carries is used to find its way back to the dock, not to track it.

At 6.3 kg–6.5 kg, it's light enough to lift over a fence. The best protection is where you put it: a dock out of sight of the road, a locked side gate, and a note of the serial number. LawnMaster sells a shelter for the charging station, which keeps rain off but doesn't lock. Our security guide lists further steps.

Not automatically, based on what LawnMaster publishes. The LawnMaster OcuMow AMB16 is designed around a single lawn that it can see the edges of, with one self-charging dock. LawnMaster doesn't publish a zone count or describe a way of linking separate lawns, and it has no map for you to join areas together.

Two things work against a front-and-back set-up. The mower recognises grass with its camera and turns back where the lawn ends, so a path or drive between two lawns looks like a boundary rather than a route. And LawnMaster specifies passages of at least 100 cm, wider than many side returns.

The mower is light, at 6.3 kg–6.5 kg, so carrying it to a second lawn is possible, but LawnMaster doesn't describe a drop-and-mow mode for the AMB16 as it does for the LawnMaster OcuMow 18. The OcuMow 18 is the LawnMaster to consider if you want to mow a second lawn by hand-carrying it; LawnMaster says that covers about 100 m² per charge.

The combined area still has to fit the rating of 400–600 m². For gardens with several separate lawns, mowers with app mapping and multi-zone support are usually a better match; our complex gardens guide explains what to look for.