Rated coverage is the number that decides whether a robot mower keeps up with your lawn or falls permanently behind. It is also the number buyers most often estimate rather than measure.
This guide covers measuring the mowable area properly, converting between the units manufacturers use, and deciding how much headroom to leave.
Measuring the mowable area
Break the lawn into rectangles and triangles, measure each, and add them up. For irregular shapes, an online map measuring tool traced around the grass is accurate enough for sizing.
Exclude everything the mower will never cut: beds, patios, drives, ponds, sheds and gravel. On many properties this removes a third of the apparent area.
Square metres, square feet and acres
One acre is 4,047 m² or 43,560 sq ft. A quarter acre is about 1,012 m², a half acre about 2,023 m².
Manufacturers publish in different units by region, so convert before comparing. A 1,000 m² rating is roughly a quarter acre, not a half.
How much headroom to leave
Aim to buy a mower rated at least 20-30% above your measured area. Rated figures assume good conditions, and spring growth is not a good condition.
Fragmented lawns need more headroom than open ones, because transit between zones consumes working time without cutting anything.
Matching measured area to a model class
Up to about 500 m²: an entry wire-free model such as the Segway Navimow i105N, or a budget wired mower.
Around 1,000-1,600 m²: the Segway Navimow i110N or eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15; up to an acre with no antenna to mount: the WORX Landroid Vision Cloud Robot Mower (WR340).
From 2,000 m² upward, and especially near an acre: the Segway Navimow X430 or Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD 5000, or the wired Husqvarna Automower 430X on shaded ground.
Examples, not rankings
A couple of current products that illustrate this section. Our roundups are where we compare and rank.
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Segway Navimow i105N
An example for a typical suburban lawn
Specified for lawns up to 500 m², using satellite positioning and app-drawn virtual boundaries instead of buried wire.
Segway Navimow X430
An example for around an acre
Four-wheel drive with a published 84% slope rating, specified for lawns up to approximately one acre and rough, undulating ground.
Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD 5000
An example above an acre
Rated to 5,000 m² (about 1.25 acres) with multi-zone mapping, which is where most mid-size models run out of coverage.
Keep reading
Frequently asked questions
Final verdict
Measure the grass rather than the property, convert everything into one unit, then choose a model rated comfortably above the total. Fragmented or fast-growing lawns need more margin than open, slow-growing ones.
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