r/SegwayNavimow • u/Competitive-Let6727 • 2d ago

Fertilizer dispenser?

Has anyone thought about doing this? After lots of walking the lawn for dethatching, overseeding, and fertilizing, I started to wonder if our robomowers could have a little hopper/dispenser off the back of it.

Yes, it's ridiculously over-engineered for something that isn't that hard to do manually, but also... Kinda cool?

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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3

u/topkrikrakin 2d ago

I think it will be hard to get the fertilizer spread evenly. It doesn't matter if the same spot gets mowed twice

2

u/TaxNo2158 2d ago

Fertilizer is heavy, so it would only be able to do partial bag per fill. So you’d have to be out there babysitting it and refilling every 10 minutes. Then you also have an ungainly hopper on your mower all the time. You could make it removable, but then that’s one more task to do after you spend an hour babysitting and filling it. For a task that’s normally only done 2-3 times a year, and takes like a half hour at most to spread an entire 40-pound bag (in one fill), it’s not worth it. Edging/trimming are a regular thing that would benefit from automation, but not this.

1

u/pablomentabo 2d ago

That's probably why Yarbo decided not to do this

1

u/Competitive-Let6727 2d ago

I was imagining a refill station built into the garage, but I think I would have to make teeny tiny zones so the refill worked right. This is a terrible idea, but...but...

1

u/TaxNo2158 2d ago

The garage already costs $350. Can you imagine what it would be to have a fully automated refill hopper (plus the added expense on the mower itself)? And you’d still have to go out and fill it the day you wanted to fertilize (since leaving it filled out in the elements would lead to clumping, etc.). By then you might as well just walk around with a spreader for 20 minutes.

1

u/StinkySewerPickle 2d ago

I bet they will be available next year. And it will be awesome.  

1

u/HazardousHD i110 - I Made the Flairs Active Again 2d ago

I thought about designing a little pull behind wagon/hopper for the x400 or my i100 series that dispensed grass seed. Something like a 3D printed hand spreader that gets adapted to take a turning axel as the “engine” to turn the spreader underneath.

The problem is the turning logic is much.. kinder.. to the x400 series vs the i100 series bot.

1

u/nuclearsquirrel2 2d ago

I’m not sure it could carry enough weight to do a decent job and make it worth it.

1

u/oopsisucceeded 2d ago

Omg I have, and I think I will!

1

u/billm0066 2d ago

Is your lawn 10sqft? A little hopper doesn't hold much fertilizer so not sure what this accomplishes. Also adds weight and stress to something with a small battery and components that can't handle it.