John Deere Tango E5 robot lawnmower August 2012

Robot lawnmowers - more time to relax?

John Deere claims its new robotic mower gives a great cut on your lawn while you put your feet up. It mows the grass to a programmable schedule and takes itself back to its charging station when it’s finished. But for the luxury price tag of £2,050, does it really justify the expense?

John Deere Tango E5 robotic lawnmower

You’ll never have to mow your lawn again with this fully automated mower. After the initial programming, it will cut your grass according to your requirements. It’s a compact machine, which John Deere claims can cut up to two large tennis courts of grass on a single charge. At £2,050 this is a luxury machine; you could pay someone to cut your grass for you for a few years for this sort of money.

Would you be tempted to splash out on it, for a truly effort-free lawn? We tried it in a family garden to see how it did.

For more information about other lawnmowers Which? has tested read our full reviews.

 

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Video transcript

This is the new automatic mower from John Deere and I've had it for about a week and a half now, trying it out in my garden. The key features of this mower are, it's a mulching mower so it takes a very fine clip of your lawn and then leaves the clippings on the lawn to mulch into the grass, It goes on, it works a bit like your central heating.

It can go on in the morning; it can go on in the evening. It's completely programmable and you can decide on the schedule that you want it to cover. Tango can deal with any shape of lawn as long as the perimeter wire follows the edge of the lawn, then Tango will cut within that shape. What it can't deal with is steps.

When you first get the Tango mower from John Deere, the guys come round and they put a perimeter wire around your garden. And you can see the perimeter wire here . If you have the lawn mower permanently, they'll sink it under the lawn so that you don't have to see this green wire running right round your lawn.

So I've had Tango for say for about a week and a half. And what you can see is a nice mow up to the perimeter line, and then here you can see the grass and the weeds are starting to grow through. So this is about two and half weeks growth here and you can see that Tango has been doing its job. Okay, when you first get the Tango, it comes with the base unit, the charger unit.

Now I've just got this set up in my garden on a 10-meter cable, but you can have it tucked away in your garden shed and provide a little mower flap for it for it to come out, so you don't actually have to even see the thing. When Tangos mowed your lawn it will automatically home back to its charging station for a charge, or you can tell it, just mow until you'd sense the charge is getting a bit low then Tango will head back and find its charging station.

Now, I've had Tango for, as I say, about a week and a half, and it's doing a really good job on my lawn. It's doing a really good mow. If I had better grass, then I'd most probably get a better finish on it. What I'm really enjoying about the Tango is I really don't have to do anything with it. I've set the program to the timing I want, so I don't even have to see Tango mowing if I don't want to.

One of the other advantages of Tango, is I don't have to worry about cleaning my children's toys off the garden too much. Tango will push most things out of the way, and if he finds something that it can't push out of the way, it just makes a little beep and trundles off and keeps mowing somewhere else.

The downside to this mower is the 2000 pound price tag which is pretty hefty. You can actually pay someone for two, may be three years with that money to come and mow lawn. The other downside with Tango is that it doesn't know when it's raining. so if it does get caught in a shower, it will just keep mowing away.

You can't tell it to stop because it's damaging the grass. Another downside with the Tango mower is that if you like a stripy lawn, the Tango won't give you that. It mows randomly, so it just trundles across your lawn in a random pattern because it doesn't want to leave any wheel marks in your lawn. The other thing about the Tango mower, it doesn't go past its perimeter line, so you will end up, unless your lawn's absolutely ideal for Tango, with some grass that needs trimming.

So you'll still need a grass trimmer and you'll still need to do that job. So, the John Deere Tango, an absolutely fantastic mower, but with such a hefty price tag, it's a real luxury. To read the full review of this mower and hundreds of other mowers, go to Which.co.uk.

 

Tango E5 mows your lawn with no fuss

We tested the mower on a normal family lawn, with lumps and bumps and lots of weeds and moss. We really liked it. Once it was programmed, it didn’t need any other input from us. It can be set to mow up to twice a day (not that this is at all necessary), and at any time of the day. It will only mow within a boundary wire that is run around the edge of your lawn, just under the surface. It can cut up to lawn edges, but just like a normal mower, it leaves longer grass against a vertical edge, such as a wall, so you’ll still need to use your grass trimmer occasionally.


The Tango E5 is a mulching mower so it leaves the grass clippings on your lawn but it also means that it can’t deal with more than a patch or two of longer grass. It also mows in a random pattern, which prevents wheel marks forming on your lawn, but means you can’t get a striped effect. The finish was ok, but not as good as the finish from one of our Best Buy rotary lawnmowers. We expect the cut would be much neater on a better quality lawn.

Tango E5 is quiet and safe

It's much quieter than an electric mower so if it's mowing while you're at home, you'll hardly hear it. It moves quite slowly so it shouldn't alarm any pets; the robin that lives in our family's garden wasn't worried and followed the mower around, picking up the disturbed insects. If any objects like children's toys are left on the lawn, the mower will push them out of the way. If it bumps into anything more solid, it will reverse and mow in a different direction. It has a sensor that tells it if it has been tipped over so if it's picked up, the mowing blades stop immediately. It can be set up in the garden or you can install a 'mower flap' (to be used by the mower as a cat uses a cat flap) and hide it away in your garden shed.

Which? first look verdict

We loved this mower as it's so quiet and really does mow the lawn without any attention from anybody. It can cope with most lawn shapes and sizes and gives an acceptable cut, even on a mossy lawn. The programming is relatively easy to understand and set, but you can't programme it to stop mowing when it rains. The big downside is the £2,050 price tag, although we estimate that it will pay for itself in a few years if you normally pay someone to mow your lawn.

Pros: After the initial programming, the mower does its job and you don't have to worry about it at all

Cons: It can't get around steps, and it will mow even in heavy rain unless you interrupt the programme. However,these are minor niggles compared with the downside of the hefty price tag

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