# Automower shredding, not cutting at lower height.



## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

I switched this summer from a McLean reel mower to a Husqvarna 430X automower. I have Bermuda 419 tifway with a little KBG here and there as I'm slowly converting to a bluemuda yard. I was cutting at 1 inch until the boundary wires settled below the grass and the mower was doing a nice job at that height. Now that the wires are out of the way I've tried lowering to .8 HOC but the mower shreds the grass more than cuts it. I thought after a couple of cuts it would stop but it hasn't. I can't scalp below an inch so I tried doing a two way verticut but even after that I still get shredding. It leaves a mess on the yard and then I have to get out the old toro rotary and clean it up. I'd like to maintain at .8 or even lower by adding the fairway kit but not sure I can. Any ideas on how to go lower and not shred? I know there are a few automower users out there so any of you had similar issues?


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## Bermuda_Triangle (Sep 20, 2019)

I am ignorant on the auto mowers. But do these units have enough torque to power through thick warm grass?

My yard is hell on an Ego. I would get messy clumps which I would describe as shredded grass.


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## smurg (May 30, 2018)

JSC1964 said:


> I switched this summer from a McLean reel mower to a Husqvarna 430X automower. I have Bermuda 419 tifway with a little KBG here and there as I'm slowly converting to a bluemuda yard. I was cutting at 1 inch until the boundary wires settled below the grass and the mower was doing a nice job at that height. Now that the wires are out of the way I've tried lowering to .8 HOC but the mower shreds the grass more than cuts it. I thought after a couple of cuts it would stop but it hasn't. I can't scalp below an inch so I tried doing a two way verticut but even after that I still get shredding. It leaves a mess on the yard and then I have to get out the old toro rotary and clean it up. I'd like to maintain at .8 or even lower by adding the fairway kit but not sure I can. Any ideas on how to go lower and not shred? I know there are a few automower users out there so any of you had similar issues?


I haven't seen a lot of discussion on automowers here and someone may have some good advice, but I would recommend reaching out to the manufacturer. They may have experience at the lower HOC or if I'm sure they have an engineer that would love to blow some time and money experimenting. Depending on how they busy are, they may have too much time on their hands or too little, but it's worth a shot xD.


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## greg_n_sd (Jul 17, 2019)

Since they are designed to cut daily and not let a lot of growth occur, my guess is they don't have the ability to take off that much material cleanly/easily, particularly on a dense grass.


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

Maybe I should describe it as more like it's pulling up grass rather than cutting at the lower height. It's like I need a reset scale but I don't have another mower that goes below 1 inch anymore. I'm hoping that if I stick with it another few days it will have pulled up everything it can and then I'll get a nice smooth cut.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Photos? Are the blades getting in the dirt? That's pretty low for a rotary style mower.


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

No, it's not hitting dirt. My yard is pretty level. It's more like it gets ahold of the stems and pulls. It leaves pulled up areas and actually pulls some out. It's getting less and less each day so I'm hoping it stops soon.


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

Also while I got you here, what are the chances of getting section for auto mowers on the forum? Maybe under equipment? There's not much information exchange out there for us here in the states. There are some other forums but in other languages as the automower market is bigger in Europe. But it's growing here and now with the addition of a fairway kit the Husqvarna can cut as low as .39 inches!


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

JSC1964 said:


> Also while I got you here, what are the chances of getting section for auto mowers on the forum? Maybe under equipment? There's not much information exchange out there for us here in the states. There are some other forums but in other languages as the automower market is bigger in Europe. But it's growing here and now with the addition of a fairway kit the Husqvarna can cut as low as .39 inches!


We don't have any subforums dedicated to a certain type of equipment, but feel free to start a generic automower discussion thread within the Equipment & Tools subforum. I'm moving this thread there too since it is an equipment topic.


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## UFG8RMIKE (Apr 21, 2019)

A auto reel mower would be sick. My guess is it's too thick and blades not sharp enough, not enough torque.

.


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## TJO (Jul 2, 2018)

I know @HungrySoutherner has one maybe he can chime in I think he's cutting sub 1"

How fresh are your blades?


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

I just changed the blades tonight. They recommend changing them monthly but I think twice a month might be better. There're fairly inexpensive.

I have seen a robotic greens mower but I don't think any are in production yet. There are also some larger rough units for golf courses that are rotary. We have a toro pull behind unit at the course that is rotary and can cut to 1/2 inch, has front and rear rollers and gives an amazing cut.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

JSC1964 said:


> I just changed the blades tonight. They recommend changing them monthly but I think twice a month might be better. There're fairly inexpensive.
> 
> I have seen a robotic greens mower but I don't think any are in production yet. There are also some larger rough units for golf courses that are rotary. We have a toro pull behind unit at the course that is rotary and can cut to 1/2 inch, has front and rear rollers and gives an amazing cut.


I've been running my 450x for almost 2 months now on new sod and I've got the fairway kit installed and I'm mowing at the lowest HOC of 10mm or .39". Technically you can run it in scalp mode by installing the 12.5mm kit and running it at setting 1 and it is actually cutting at .2" but the little mower will be working really hard on bermuda and catching a lot of dirt, but it works when you need to reset the HOC to be mowing at 10mm. Before your started mowing at the .8 setting was your grass already cut down to .75" or were you letting the mower take the HOC down for you? If you were letting the Automower take the HOC down for you then that is your answer on why the grass is being pulled. Its more or less being snagged between the blades and the skid plate. It will workout fine for you, but you probably need to increase the hours the mower is mowing to get it all cut and manage at that HOC. I'm only mowing ~4k sqft with mine in 2 separate areas and I let the mower mow each section for 3hrs a day for a total of 6 hours. Now I barely hear the mower clipping anything even at 10mm. Set the mower up for a few days to just mow 24hrs a day in all areas until its HOC is well set, then you can start backing down. And you are right about the blades, on bermuda during the summer I'd change them every 2 - 3 weeks. Lately mine aren't lasting 1 week but its because of my HOC and all of the sand still in my yard. Hope that helps. Welcome to the robot revolution.


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

I was cutting on setting 2 before going to 1 and .8 HOC. Before the automower I was at 5/8 with a reel mower.

That's interesting about the skid plate. It comes off for the fairway kit so did that stop the pulling for you? What if I just remove the skid plate now? I may add a fairway kit if for nothing else so I can do reset scalps below regular HOC. I have a toro rotary mower with lowest HOC of 1 inch so I thought about trading that for a Honda with .75 HOC.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

JSC1964 said:


> I was cutting on setting 2 before going to 1 and .8 HOC. Before the automower I was at 5/8 with a reel mower.
> 
> That's interesting about the skid plate. It comes off for the fairway kit so did that stop the pulling for you? What if I just remove the skid plate now? I may add a fairway kit if for nothing else so I can do reset scalps below regular HOC. I have a toro rotary mower with lowest HOC of 1 inch so I thought about trading that for a Honda with .75 HOC.


I wouldn't advise taking the skid plate of unless you are going to the fairway kit. One thing that becomes an issue with the fairway kit is that anything in the lawn like leaves or especially pine straw tend to get wrapped up in the blades once you remove that plate. It doesn't effect the blades ability to cut correctly, but what it does is prevent the blades from retracting so they are permanently stuck out with the pinestraw wedged around the blade screw. Why does that matter you might be saying? Well it will definitely scalp easier when the blades hit anything because they don't fold back like normal. It probably also contributes to quicker wear on the blades, but that I'm willing to make that trade off. If you've already begun mowing at .8 with the automower just give it time, if it pulls up so grass thats ok, let it pull it up and cut it. Like I mentioned before if on a daily basis you are still seeing this, you haven't let the mower run enough and it needs more time out in the lawn cutting to reset the HOC. How big is your yard and how long is the mower mowing everyday?


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

It's mowing about 8 to 10 hours a day. I have about 13,000 sq ft of grass. The yard pretty much getS cut once a day. I am seeing almost no pulling this morning from last nights cutting after new blades. I think at this point the work has been done to adjust to .8 HOC. &#129310; Also I went back to using PGR. I sprayed Saturday. I was using it before the automower but stopped figuring the grass was cut daily anyway but now I think tifway looks better with PGR and it might help the mower. Thanks for all the input.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

JSC1964 said:


> It's mowing about 8 to 10 hours a day. I have about 13,000 sq ft of grass. The yard pretty much getS cut once a day. I am seeing almost no pulling this morning from last nights cutting after new blades. I think at this point the work has been done to adjust to .8 HOC. 🤞 Also I went back to using PGR. I sprayed Saturday. I was using it before the automower but stopped figuring the grass was cut daily anyway but now I think tifway looks better with PGR and it might help the mower. Thanks for all the input.


Sounds like strong plan. I plan to get my yard back on low dose PGR when its all grown back in. Its a slow going process though so it probably won't be until August that I'm doing growth regulator. I look forward to hearing more about how your automower experience is. You should start a lawn journal about it.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

JSC1964 said:


> No, it's not hitting dirt. My yard is pretty level. It's more like it gets ahold of the stems and pulls. It leaves pulled up areas and actually pulls some out. It's getting less and less each day so I'm hoping it stops soon.


I wanted to follow back up on this issue. So we finally hit the 90's and my bermuda basically has exploded in growth the last 7 days. There was way to much nitrogen just sitting around in the soil waiting to be do its thing when it was warm. I had only seen the issues you described when I was using the automower to scalp below 10mm (don't ask how I didn't, Husqvarna said it will void the warranty). Anyhow this week what you were experience I suddenly was experiencing and it started happening over night. I reached out to Husqvarna to get some clarity on what was happening. So here is basically how they describe the situation, the automower is designed such that the cutting blades dont cut level relative to the grass but instead roughly 20 degree angle down towards the turf, so that as the blades make contact there is a lifting action on the grass and a cut. With warm season grass if you have steams that have grown long and dense and laid over in the turf, as the blades come through essentially its grooming the turf by lifting the long stems up on the first pass, just like you see in your picture, then on the second pass some time later it will cut them. The constant grooming as it was described, while leaving small little bare areas in the turf at times , will also function as a way to force new growth from underneath increasing total turf density. Husqvarna said you have 2 options on how to approach it with warm season grass 1) when you start seeing this happen you can raise the HOC 1 notch but I was told doing this to soon in the season and you will be chasing it up higher and higher and 2) increase total mowing time during surge growth periods to give the mower more time to "groom" the turf from different directions and to continue thinning things out and sticking with increased mowing times during the warmest parts of the season forcing new plants to come up from rhizomes and stolons to fill in those areas. The other option is to growth regulate and cut nitrogen to keep the individual plants low and tight building density down low, so that its not grooming the long leggy parts of the plant up. I've elected for PGR and increased mowing hours and just letting the mower thin out the turf and see how it does and whether it does actually improve total overall density or not.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

How close do these mow to edges/obstructions?


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

Ware said:


> How close do these mow to edges/obstructions?


It depends on the obstruction within a few inches or if it's a flower bed you can mow right over the edge. It really depends on how you configure it and set the boundary wire


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## JSC1964 (Apr 19, 2019)

To follow up on the pulling or shredding issue, it seems like going back to using PGR on the whole yard has fixed the issue. I'm now getting very few pulls if any and the grass is a darker shade of green.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

JSC1964 said:


> To follow up on the pulling or shredding issue, it seems like going back to using PGR on the whole yard has fixed the issue. I'm now getting very few pulls if any and the grass is a darker shade of green.


Same result. PGR compresses the stem growth which is what seems to be what generates the pulling.


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