TheSegway Navimow i110Nis an alternative to the summer chore we all love to hate—lawn mowing. Instead of a robot vacuum you’re probably familiar with, this is a robot lawnmower. It boasts promising features like app control, AI-assisted mapping, and GPS technology that doesn’t require installing any perimeter wiring. But in real-world use, the expensive device falls flat, hampered by installation issues, problematic navigation, and the inability to properly mow around lawn obstacles.
Segway Navimow i110N
The Segway Navimow i110N is a robotic lawnmower designed to cut lawns of up to 1/4 acre. Instead of needing to use physical perimeter wire around a lawn, the mower uses an AI-enhanced GNSS location system to track where the mower is located. It can identify and avoid more than 20 different types of obstacles while mowing. The mower can climb slopes of up to 16 degrees and is waterproof.
Price and Availability
The Segway Navimow i110N Robot Mower is $1,299 and is available from Amazon, Segway Navimow, and other retailers.
Specifications
What Is the Segway Navimow i110N Robot Mower?
Robot lawnmowers have been available for more than a decade, but the technology was prohibitively expensive with a number of tradeoffs. One of the worst is that many models require you to bury a guide wire around your lawn so the robot won’t tour the neighborhood if it goes off course.
Segway, the same company behind the self-balancing transportation device, is looking to make the technology more affordable and easier to use so more people can enjoy putting their feet up while a robot takes care of hacking away at the grass.
The company’s i Series features two models. One can tackle a lawn of up to 1/8 acre, while the other can mow up to 1/4 acre. I used the more expensive Navimow i110N for larger lawns.
The big draw of the Segway Navimow option is that there is no need for perimeter wiring. It uses the company’s special EFLS navigation. That uses GPS data from both the lawnmower itself and an antenna you’ll have to place somewhere in the yard. A camera and other sensors provide further navigation help.
Installation Takes a Lot of Planning
Don’t expect to be able to spend a few minutes and be up and ready to go. Installing the i110N takes time, patience, and probably a little bit of luck.
The large box with the mower also holds a wide variety of other accessories. Along with the mower is a charging striation and installation kit, GNSS antenna and installation kit, a power supply, and extension cables for both the power supply and antenna.
With all that, you’ll need to plan before getting started. First, the mower dock will need to be somewhat near a power source on the outside of your home. It needs power to charge the mower’s battery.
Then, to find the dock location, you will need to attach the antenna and cable. This was my first major problem with the i110N. The mower won’t work unless it has a strong lock on GPS satellites via the antenna. But there’s no real way of knowing where the antenna will receive an adequate signal until you’ve already installed the charging station.
In my case, I found a place for the charging station and started the setup process using the Navimow app, which is available foriPhoneandAndroid. I then used the app to find a position for the antenna. You’ll do that by remote controlling the robot around your lawn and seeing the results for the best location.
To my surprise, after running the test three times, there was only a very small strip at the other end of my front yard where the antenna could receive a signal. I have one large tree in the yard with maybe 25% shade, but the rest of the yard has a direct view of the sky that’s needed for GPS.
With that information, I had to redo the location of the docking station for the antenna’s extension cord to reach. Even after doing that, I had to wait overnight for the system to recognize a strong signal in both the antenna and mower. The entire process was far from user-friendly, and might be a dealbreaker depending on how much tech knowledge you have.
Segway does offer an optional Antenna Extension Kit to place the antenna on a roof or gutter system, but that didn’t make sense in my situation.
After that is complete, you still have some work to do. Grab your smartphone and open the Navimow app again to map out the actual area where the mower should do its work. The process took me a few tries as you need to be precise as possible, even though it does take a bit of practice to get a handle on the remote control.
Once that step is complete, you’re able to further refine the map. You can create an off-limit zone and customize the direction of the movement, among other things.
A Frustrating Day-to-Day Experience
You’ll connect to the i110N via Bluetooth and the smartphone app. There, you’re able to start a manual mowing session. However, the best way to use the mower is to create a schedule.
Creating a schedule with time periods and which zones to mow is easy. The mower could easily tackle my entire yard without needing to return to charging. The battery is rated for up to 120 minutes on a single charge. Completely charging a dead battery takes a respectable three hours.
You can manually control the cutting height with a knob on the mower adjustable from 2 to 3.6 inches.
After the difficult setup process, I looked forward to creating the schedule and walking out to a nicely mowed lawn. But that road had a few bumps, more precisely inclines.
According to the company, the mower can handle inclines of up to 16 degrees. In my use, it continually failed in a much smaller incline near the docking station. I eventually needed to buy dirt to make the incline small enough for it to overcome.
The mower also had issues with small strips of grass and around a flower bed in my yard. Despite working with the app, I was never able to get the mower to work on a small strip of grass well inside the mapping area; it just completely refused to touch it.
I also have a large flower garden on one side of my yard protected by paver stones. The mower would get no closer than probably two feet from the pavers. Obviously, I didn’t expect it to mow right up against the stones, but it’s disappointing to see a huge overgrown area.
Even though I placed the antenna in the spot recommended by the app, I continued to have issues with the GPS signal. After a few days of working perfectly, I would receive notifications on the app that it couldn’t get a strong enough signal to start the mowing process.
I once again ran the test feature to see the same spot recommended by the app. I would get the same error message every four to five days. I would wait a few hours and the error usually cleared.
While it stumbled somewhat in my use, there are a number of great features of the i110N. Traditional lawnmowers are very loud. Thankfully, the 110N doesn’t have that problem. It operates at around 58db. It was so quiet, I sometimes didn’t know if it was actually working. So there’s no need to worry about waking the neighbors with an early-morning mow session.
The robot can also suspend any mowing schedule in bad weather conditions like rain or extreme heat and cold. The mower is IP66 waterproof and can be cleaned with a simple hose. After a few months of rain and heat, my i110N still looks great and works without any issues.
Along with identifying its location, the mower’s built-in camera can also help avoid objects while working. With help from AI, it can avoid more than 20 types of common objects on your lawn—everything from lights, trampolines, and rocks to pets and people.
I tried out this feature by placing a few items in my yard and was happy to see the mower avoided each one. I even stood in the middle of the yard while the mower was working; it was obviously avoiding me. That’s great to know, especially if you have curious pets or kids in your yard.
Where the mower was able to reach, the grass looked great. The cut grass is automatically mulched back into the yard.
The blades are much smaller than I thought and are easy to switch out. The app will provide recommendations on when to do maintenance, like changing the blades and clean the chassis.
Should You Buy the Segway Navimow i110N Robot Mower?
While I had high hopes that theSegway Navimow i110Ncould help save me money and time outside completing a dirty chore, overall, it fell flat with a wide combination of issues. I’ll head back to paying for a service to take care of my lawn.
Ironically, if you have a small yard with some obstacles and inclines, the mower just isn’t cut out for that work. Instead, the only scenario where the robot lawnmower might work well is in a huge area of grass, with 100 percent clear coverage of the sky and with little or no obstacles and inclines.
If that’s not you, it’s best to save your $1,300 and wait patiently for the robots to get even better.
