In this review, we’ll discuss my thoughts on the Husqvarna Automower 315X after having it for one year. For those that may need to become more familiar with how Husqvarna Automower works, you must lay out a boundary wire along the entire area. The wiring used is low voltage and similar to what would be used for invisible dog fencing. The lawnmower bounces around the designated area, cutting small amounts of grass at a time.
Husqvarna Automower 315X is different from a traditional lawnmower, where you’ll go back and forth cutting the grass and usually cutting large portions of the blades off the grass each time. The random pattern of the lawnmower causes it to cut the grass in a different direction, which is supposed to help the grass grow. The smaller grass clippings allow them to fall into the ground and break down, adding nutrients to the soil much quicker than regular grass clippings.
Features of Husqvarna Automower 315X
The auto mower line has three different groupings. There is a Bluetooth connection, an X line, and a Professional line. Bluetooth Connect allows you to send commands to your auto mower from your phone over Bluetooth. The X line comes with cellular connectivity, allowing you to send commands and change settings from your phone without being near it.
They also have built-in GPS for better mowing navigation and GPS theft tracking. The X line has six models supporting different features, cutting heights, and areas covered. And lastly, the Professional line is meant for commercial users, such as landscapers, property managers, or fleet owners.
The 315X is rated for roughly 0.4 acres and has a cutting height between 0.8 and 2.4 inches. It has 70 minutes of mow time on a single charge and takes approximately 60 minutes to charge between mowings. The mower itself is really quiet when running. It’s rated for 60 decibels, which is quieter than a lot of fixed air conditioners.
It’s quiet enough that I run mine at night without disturbing anyone, and that way, I have my yard available during the day without having to worry about the lawnmower getting in the way. The only time the mower is noticeable is when the grass is long. Then you’ll hear a distinct cutting sound as the mower cuts the grass. Once the grass is at its maintained height, you’ll no longer notice the sound. Even still, it’s not loud enough to hear over an air conditioner running at night.
Overview of My House
For my installation, I did have my local Husqvarna dealer install the boundary wire for me with a trenching machine. This allowed the wire to be put underground instead of having it stapled down and waiting for the grass to grow over it from my yard.
The most extensive section is my backyard, which has two areas wired off to keep the mower out of it, and that is my pool and garden bed. I have a small passageway where the auto mower charging station is located. My front yard is decent, and then I have a sidewalk separating the front yard and the curbside grass.
I also have a third section on the other side of the house, which the lawnmower uses part of my driveway to get to. At the beginning of my first season with the auto mower, it did have trouble figuring out how to get back to its charger. This was due to it being directly on the other side of a fence. The power of the beacon on the charger is too high, and the boundary wire is too close to the guide wire through the fence passageway.
Because of this, the mower kept getting stuck on the other side of the fence and would go back and forth for several minutes until it finally got through to charge. After moving the boundary wire a bit and changing a few of the settings on the lawnmower, it stopped having the issue and was able to get to the charger, but not before ruining my grass.
I attempted to replant grass there, but it collects more water than other areas because of the location. Thus, I needed help growing grass in the area as my lawnmower would still travel over to return to the charger. I finally got grass to grow in that area this season by planting grass seed before starting the mower for the year.
My Experience on Husqvarna Automower 315X
For my first season with the mower, I did have my grass too high for the mower and, honestly, for my usual cutting preference. Because of this, the first week or so, the mower would only cut for about 30 minutes before charging. With the size and complexity of my yard, I’m close to the upper limits of what the 315X can handle, and with extra long grass, it couldn’t keep up with the regular schedule.
I used my push mower to get the grass to a reasonable level, and after that, the Husqvarna Automower 315X had no problems keeping the grass at the perfect height. I did plan on starting my second season off right
in getting the mower out in time, I ran into similar problems with my grass because of a few issues.
The grass was shorter this time around, so I got caught up quickly, but it did end up leaving a lot of long grass clippings on the top that I did have to collect. But once everything was taken care of, it could keep up just fine for the rest of the season.
Waht I Likes About Husqvarna Automower 315X
The Husqvarna Automower 315X features a single guide wire that the lawnmower uses to determine where to start cutting and guide it to get back to its charger. Some larger models feature two or even three guide wires. While my layout could have used two or probably even a third wire, it wasn’t worth the cost increase to go to a larger mower.
So because of that, my guidewire goes into my backyard through a fence, circles around, comes back through, and then goes out to the front yard. From there, it turns and goes to my driveway. With the guidewire, you can set up different starting points based on the distance of the guidewire and then set a percentage of how often the starting point should be used.
For the 315X, it supports up to three starting points. I also have the option for GPS-assisted navigation, which will use the onboard GPS to map out your mowing area based on where the boundary wires are and your guide wires. It then registers which parts of your yard are mowed and changes its cutting pattern to ensure it covers everything.
It takes a few days to figure everything out, but it works nicely. I noticed recently it was using the guide wire to follow out to the small section of my yard and cross my driveway several times until the area was cut. The feature works well. The GPS is not used for finding the charging base, which is disappointing as it would dramatically reduce search time.
Set up areas within the app for GPS-based locations and the percentages of how often a site should be mowed or even set specific schedules for the different areas. The built-in LED headlights have been a great feature since I run my mower at night, and it does cross the sidewalk in a few places.
It’s nice to know that it will be visible to people walking, and they won’t just fall over it. You can set the headlights to always be on, always be off, evening only, or evening and night. I’m not sure how much they impact mowing time, but it’s nice not to waste extra run time during the day when they aren’t needed.
The lights are also helpful for locating the lawnmower if it runs into trouble at night, which I’ve run into a few times and will be covering shortly with the built-in cellular modem. I can check out my lawnmower anytime and get instant notifications if there are any issues with the mower.
This was helpful last season, as I had horseshoe pits that needed to be appropriately boarded up as I planned on removing them. Because of this, the lawnmower found its way into the holes a few times and got stuck. Being notified it was stuck was helpful, so I could go out and save it with less time being wasted mowing. Now that the horseshoe pits are gone, I haven’t had any issues with it getting stuck anywhere.
The app itself is handy as well. I can change some key settings without going out to the mower. I can track where the mower is, and I can even see statistics about how long it’s mowing the lawn or how much time it’s spending trying to get back to the charger.
With the app, you can have more than one mower, which is nice, and you can pull up the installation and troubleshooting guides right from your phone, which is also helpful. Another use of the cellular modem is integrating the mower into my smart home. This allows me to park my mower if it gets too windy, it rains too much, and the yard is too wet.
Maintenance for the mower is pretty straightforward. I recommend visually inspecting it weekly to ensure it works fine and cleaning off the wheels as needed if there is any buildup. I have the all-terrain kit on mine, which features more rugged wheels and brushes that help keep the wheels clean in the fall.
I clean off the mower and store it in my basement until the following season. Do make sure it’s fully charged before putting it away. I like to change out the blades in the spring if I need to do it right before putting the mower away. Blade replacement is straightforward. You must lay the mow around something soft, line up the screws with the holes, and then unscrew the blade.
Next, you put the new blade in and screw it down. After you repeat the same two steps two more times. Outside of that, there is little else to do for the mower, which is a great advantage over a typical push gas mower or riding mower, on top of not having to pay for gas money. The blades are also pretty cheap, which is excellent, as I expected them to be overpriced.
Problems I Faced using Husqvarna Automower 315X
Over the previous winter, I needed to have part of my lawn dug up to have a new bubbler line run for my house out to the street. Unfortunately, the ground wire was too frozen to preserve the boundary wire around where the work was being done.
So because of that, I assumed I would have to have the boundary wire repaired in the spring, which wasn’t that big of a deal. A few months after that, the sidewalk that the auto mower goes over was ruined and had to be replaced, which meant even more boundary wire would have to be rerun.
The dealer used masonry sealant to cover the wires that ran in the grooves of my sidewalk. This is to protect the wires and prevent anyone from tripping over them. It is something to keep in mind if you plan on getting a robot lawnmower, as you may run into a similar situation after a particular time.
I ran into my second issue this season; one of the drive wheels had seized. I spent some time cleaning around the wheel and taking everything apart as best I could without voiding the warranty, but it still would not budge. So I had to bring it to the dealer, where they took everything apart and discovered that the wheel bearing somehow corroded over.
This issue was something the dealer had never seen before, but they were able to easily order a replacement part and fix it all under warranty. The other side drive wheels were OK, so it may have something to do with where the mower charger is. I plan on either making or buying a house to protect it from the elements better.
I also researched the issue and turned up nothing, so it’s possible I was just unlucky. After I got my mower back, it was ready to go cutting down my tall grass. I manually mowed the lawn a few times to keep it under control, but I left a small section of the grass to grow to see how the auto mower would handle tall grass.
It cut a decent amount of the tall grass, which I was surprised to see. But eventually, the long grass clippings tangled around the cutting disc, causing it to no longer function. This was expected as the auto mower is meant to avoid such a challenge.
This raises the point that you are at the mercy of your local Husqvarna dealer. In contrast, this should be one of many reasons not to consider an auto mower or any robot lawnmower. It’s something to keep in mind if you run into issues; you will need to bring it back to the Husqvarna dealer to have work done on it.
If the closest shop is seven hours away, you may want to see if you have other options. Any warranty work needed would require you to ship your lawnmower, which is very expensive.
The only other downside for me is the inability of the mower to get up against an object to cut the grass. This will leave some areas of grass to grow that require weed whacking. I didn’t know this going into this endeavor, but it is one of the few things I don’t like about it, and others must be aware of this.
If you are considering a robot lawnmower, a model from a different company claims to cut to the edge of things, but I need to see it firsthand to confirm whether it works.
My Verdict on Husqvarna Automower 315X
Overall, I’m happy with the Husqvarna Automower 315X. It’s a great time saver, and it’s nice not to worry about cutting my lawn anymore.
I had to be away from home for several weeks last year, and while the grass didn’t cross my mind then, it was nice to come home to a perfectly maintained lawn minus the edges that needed to be weeded—also, not a fine from the city because my grass was too tall. Without the auto mower, I would’ve to spend close to two hours every time I come to my lawn.
I usually cut my lawn two to three times a week during the rainy season. But because of my robot lawnmower, I have much more free time to do other housework. Connecting my lawnmower to my smart home has also been a great added benefit as that way, the mower is better protected from the environment, such as heavy rain or nasty lightning.
Unless Husqvarna Automower 315X breaks down within an unreasonable timeframe, I see myself staying on this robot lawnmower for a while. If it does break down in an unreasonable timeframe, I don’t think I could ever go back to a traditional push mower or even a riding lawnmower.
One of my favorite weekend activities is just a floater around my pool, listening to my neighbors cut the grass, knowing it’s not something I have to worry about anymore. I’d love your thoughts on robot lawnmowers if you have any opinions or suggestions, so let me know in the discussions below.
Thank you for reading!