Bosch’s new electric Rotak lawn mower has an interesting new feature: grass combs. These combs pull in grass at the edge or even a little outside of the deck so the blade can cut it. With the combs, Bosch claims you can cut around flower beds, walls, and paths in one operation, presumably allowing you to skip trimming afterwards.
What you sacrifice with these mowers is cutting width — the largest mower can only cut a swath 43cm (17″) wide. Forget about the smallest mower; it only cuts a 32cm (12.5″) swath. What remains to be seen is whether eliminating trimming makes up for the extra time it would take to cut the lawn with a smaller deck. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do then spend an extra hour cutting the lawn.
Bosch sells several models of their electric Rotak mower, both plug-in and battery powered. The bad news is I can only find these mowers for sale in England. The cheapest plug-in mower will run you £84 or approximately $130 at today’s conversion rates, and go up in price from there. The cheapest Li-ion-driven mower will run you £200 or about $300. It’ll be interesting to see if any other companies copy this “innovation.”
Rotak [Bosch]
Rotak Models [Bosch]
Via Amazon UK
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6 Responses to Bosch Electric Mower Combs Your Grass
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probably only good for small lawns, and if so there are a lot of options out there, including reel mowers.
I love my corded electric. This “innovation” is probably more due to electrics having a lower rpm than gas, which has a tendency (at least on my 5 year old electric) to fray the edges pretty badly. Forcing you to take wider overlaps on what is already (typically) a smaller cutting diameter. Aaron is correct; electric mowers are probably best left to small lawns until the cutting diameter can compete with gas versions.
After my experiences with my Bosch tankless hot water heater (see amazon reviews) they’ll never see another nickle from me. Not the company to buy something innovative from.
what’s innovative about an electric mower? Chris- you don’t really think that the same company that is making tankless heaters is the same making these mowers do you?
I’d love to get a Rotak stateside. Pushing my heavy, lead-acid powered B+D mower up our steep front yard is very difficult. Bosch uses li-ion cells, but alas, these aren’t offered on the US market – at least not officially.
@donutboy, more the idea of giving the company that interrupts my morning showers with a trip to the basement to press a reset button on $2K worth of hot water heater, plumbing, work, and stainless exhaust pipes any more money.