Customer Reviews

Factory Reconditioned Toro 30050R iMow Robotic Mower

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I asked for this Imow as a Father's Day gift. Wife was skeptical at first but she went along. It took some time to install the wire boundary for the whole yard but the mower worked quite well. Wife is impressed enough to consider getting one for her dad - maybe next year Father's Day.

The whole box weighs around 100 lbs so be really sure that you want and can use it as shipping to you is free but returning freight won't be.

Before you buy, go get a copy of the user manual from the manufacturer .. and verify that your yard terrain is within specs. Then do some paper layouts of the mowing plots. The thing uses a zigzag pattern to cover the area. You want to avoid bottlenecks/strait-like areas to allow it to traverse the plot. I found it more efficient to break a large block into smaller plots as the zigzags overlap with shorter distance between boundaries. My yard totals about 10000 sq ft with 4 plots. The smallest takes about 40 min., the largest 100 mins. With those work durations, it fully recharges overnight.

It is kind of fun to watch as it follows the boundary wire during the edge mode (very precise turning). The mowing is a triangular zigzag. Not entirely random though, I noticed it seems to track obstacles that it bumps into and maneuvers to avoid that area later on (my firmware is rev 3.2...) In any case, the pattern looks inefficient compared to the path a person would do. Just let the thing work and with enough time the grass becomes even. A couple trial runs and you can determine the correct time for each plot.

On dry days with long enough grass, I let it loose on a plot as I return from work. It is very quiet and can hang out thru dusk and night time w/o risk of West Nile, Eastern Equine Encephalitis and other nice effects of mosquito bites. And holy cow, I get to do other things on the weekend!

Finally, automation gets to the yard! I guess my son will have to do part-time web authoring for spending money in the future...

Well, first off, my wife thought this was crazy. Sometime in the shopping process I did too. I mean, is it *that* hard to mow your own freakin' grass?

I grew up in Florida, where lawnmowing is an ugly chore, in 100% humidity, with sticky, hot grass all over your shoes, legs, etc.
Bad lawnmowing memories.
Now that I needed to buy a lawnmower of my own, I had always wanted to pick up one of those Freindly Robotics robomowers... When I saw Toro private-lable these things, give them a bigger battery, and then the prices kept falling, and then they had the refurbs even cheaper... I thought, heck, why not do it?

Report that I'm pretty pleased. I started the thing in the dusk, so I wouldn't be embarrassed by neighbors seeing this thing eat my flowerbeds, or small children if things went terribly wrong. Ended up with my wife and I with big silly grins as IMOW just ate our grass while we watched it (or tried not to watch it and look cool while the neighbors gawked and found excuses to come over and watch it - we're meeting a lot more neighbors now) The kids like IMOW ("Daddy, IMOW likes to mow ALL BY HIMSELF!") and so do I.
The down side is that there aren't quite enough pegs, especially if you have lots of obstacles that need the guide wire navigated around. The refurb didn't ship with a video or charger, I am assuming Toro will make good on parts if you didn't get everything in the 'open box specials' though.
If you have a relatively flat, square lawn free of lawn gnomes and junk, you are a prime hassle-free IMOW candidate.
Hey, go for it. It's a cool little mower.