Wombat Junior I Lawn Mower

Want to know more about the robotzoo Wombat Junior?

The new robotzoo Wombat Junior robot mower is here! What could be smaller than the Wombat Joey II? The Wombat Junior! It’s a smaller, lighter, simpler and less expensive alternative robot mower for your backyard. No frills, just push a button and it will mow your lawn. After many generations of evolution, the safety, control and sensory features just gets better and better. And the design is still beautiful!

Buffalo grass is is tough, but our robotzoo Wombats are tougher. The mowers will eat buffalo grass for breakfast, tea and dinner. Sloping lawns are not an issue. The mowers will easily manage slopes of up to 28 degrees. A safety feature will shut off the motor when at an angle of 45 degrees, to avoid the risk of the mower tipping over.

What’s so special about the robotzoo Wombat Junior robot mower?

The robotzoo Wombat Junior is the smallest offspring of our Wombat family, whose natural habitat is the suburban backyard. It’s also more compact and simpler than the other Wombats, which makes it a better fit for purpose in smaller yards. It still has the safety feature of three pivoting blades on a spinning rotor, which is just a little narrower than the Wombat Joey II.

The robotzoo Wombat Junior is recommended for areas up to 800 square metres or so. That’s still plenty of lawn!  It carries a smaller and less expensive 2.2 Ah lithium power pack than the larger Wombats. The rechargeable battery allows it to operate for 40 minutes on full charge, before it goes back home to recharge. which takes less than 90 minutes.

What does the robotzoo Wombat Junior have in common with our other Wombat mowers?

When presented with an obstacle, or the boundary wire, all our mowers have virtual wire sensors and bump sensors (side & front) to help them change course. The Wombat Junior doesn’t need a WiFi app remote control, because it’s just going to do a small enclosed area.

But it does have lift sensors, tilt sensors, a rain sensor and, an emergency stop switch as safety features that will shut off the device when activated. Finally, it has the anti-theft password control feature, and like other Wombats, the ability to schedule mowing times.

What do you need to know about robot mower safety?

Safety is a very important consideration when choosing a robotic lawn mower. Especially since these are electrical devices that operate outdoors, have fast moving parts, with sharp blades, and they are moving about autonomously.
The strength of its safety features is why we chose to include Wombat Junior into the robotzoo family in the first place. And we’ve been very happy with that decision ever since.

Electrical Safety?

The AC Adapter or transformer is all important. It must comply with Australian standards, carry the RCM mark, and include the standard 3 pin Australian wall plug. robotzoo is very careful about this point. Heavy fines and jail sentences apply to anyone selling electrical equipment in Australia that is non-compliant with Australian electrical safety standards. And so they should.

Many suppliers, particularly on Ebay, Amazon or Alibaba will ignore these points, either wilfully or out of ignorance. Especially those overseas suppliers selling online who are out of reach of Australian law. There is no protection for Australian consumers who try to save a few dollars buying from these overseas suppliers. And your insurance may be impacted if your electrical equipment is not compliant. So buyers beware!

Device Safety?

robotzoo is very impressed by the safety features designed into the Wombat series of lawn mowers. These features have evolved over many years servicing Europe and meeting the stringent standards set there. There’s an array of sensors that will shut down the device when activated.

The big red emergency stop button is also the highly visible and easily accessible.

Proximity Safety?

A boundary wire is laid out around the cutting area to confine the mowers’ operation. If they step one foot out of this area, they will turn around. If the boundary wire is cut, or the power is interrupted, the mower will stop. There are other models of robotic mowers that say they don’t use a boundary wire, but we think that it is still the best way of making sure the mower doesn’t go rogue.

Blade Safety?

The robotzoo Wombat mowers have the best possible feature when it comes to this. It’s what convinced us to include them in our family of home robots. The cutting blades are not a fixed rotor, which is important. Fixed rotor blades spinning at high RPM can do a lot of damage.

Instead, these mowers use small freely pivoting blades (check the pictures) set around the circumference of the central rotor disk. It’s a clever and safe design. It means that when the blades hit a hard object they will bounce back rather than plough through. Also, there is a skirting guard underneath the mower to prevent objects from probing underneath the mower.