Robot Mowers

Cost to Operate a Robot Mower

People sometimes ask me what expenses are involved with owning a robot mower. Of course these mowers can be rather expensive to buy, but what expenses will you have to operate it after that? One expense is having to buy replacement blades, which typically cost about $10. New blades should last you most of a cutting season. And the only other expense that I can think of is the electricity required to keep the mower battery charged. But how much does that cost?

Monthly electric bills are the product of how much electricity you use and your electric rate. In my area of Virginia, the electric rate is 14 ¢/kWh.

I recently measured the amount of electricity used by my robot mower over the course of a couple of days. I used a kill-a-watt meter and determined the power draw of the robot charging station to be 1.14 kwh over a 2 day period. So for a full month of use, the mower should use 1.14 kwh * 15 = 17.1 kwh. My mower is out cutting the yard 6 days per week for about 4 hours per day.

By the way, the meter is a great way to determine how much electricity any appliance is using. Using the meter, I was able to determine that my old deep freezer is way less efficient (and expensive to use) than the ones they make now.

So, the cost to run the robot mower for a full month should be 17.1 kwh * 14 ¢/kWh = $2.39. This is pretty cheap and nice to know the exact amount. I knew it would be way cheaper (and easier) to own a robot mower vs a traditional gas mower, but I didn’t know how much cheaper.

If you’re considering buying a robot for your lawn, you can use this information to help you decide if robot mowers are worth it or not.

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