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