Sileno City, Sileno Life or Minimo 500? A short guide to Gardena’s robot lawnmowers
13.5.2024
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
Thanks a bunch, Gardena! The robot lawnmowers in our range look almost identical at first glance. And it’s not like their names are a great help, either. Here’s a little assistance.
Finding the right robot lawnmower can be a tricky task involving many questions. What surface area do you want it to mow and are there any slopes involved? What noise levels do you find tolerable? How long or short do you want the mower to cut your grass? These are just a few of the things you need to think about before making a purchase. If you don’t want to spend hours researching, you might go for a brand you know and trust. But even household names won’t necessarily make things easy for their customers. Take Gardena, for example.
The company based in Ulm, Germany, which has been part of the Swedish Husqvarna Group since 2007, currently has several dozen robot lawnmowers featured in the Galaxus range.
Admittedly, this is mainly because we may not have entered all the product data correctly and consistently and failed to check for duplicates. Plus, there are marketplace retailers who occasionally offer the EU version of a Swiss model. These pop up with their very own product ID. Yes, we’re working on it. I’ve linked the seven relevant models in this article.
Sileno – a household name among robot lawnmowers
First up, it’s important to know that Sileno isn’t the name of a specific Gardena robot lawnmower. All their robot lawnmowers are called this. And because their name is somewhat reminiscent of the word «silent», I’d like to be clear about one thing: all Gardena robot lawnmowers are acoustically equal at 57 decibels. Other models are far noisier. Automower models from Husqvarna reach 60 decibels, as does the Indego line from Bosch. In this respect, it makes sense that Gardena has given its robot lawnmowers the surname Sileno.
App control the decisive factor
The Sileno family’s made up of smart and not-so-smart members. If you’re toying with the idea of buying a Gardena model and the surface you want it to mow doesn’t exceed 750 square metres of lawn, there’s one thing you should consider. How do you want to control your mower? There are two possibilities:
- via Bluetooth app
- via Smart app
Bluetooth app
Robot lawnmowers that don’t come with the «smart» prefix (see below), aren’t necessarily stupid. But the options for integrating them into a smart home environment, for example, are limited or non-existent. You control this type of Sileno mower via an app, which can «only» be connected via Bluetooth from a maximum distance of ten metres. In any case, it’s enough to configure the mowing times. And this is often something you only need to do once for the mower to go about its business – no further action required.
The Sileno models with Bluetooth control are available for three different lawn sizes: up to 250, up to 500 or up to 750 square metres. The smaller ones are called Sileno Minimo, sometimes with the suffix 250 or 500; the models in this range designed for larger lawns are called Sileno Life. Unlike its smaller family members, this model can cope with inclines of up to 35 per cent. It also features a display and a cutting width of 22 centimetres instead of the 16 centimetres on the small Minimo models.
Smart app
If you have a larger garden with a lawn surface covering 600 square metres or more, the Minimo models are more interesting. They’re controlled via the Gardena smart app. A «smart gateway» you can integrate into your home Wi-Fi is included. The robot lawnmower connects to it and you can monitor and control it from anywhere through the Gardena app. If you already use a smart home control system from Apple, Google or Amazon, the Gardena system will be compatible with it. So if you feel like bossing someone around, the Sileno mower is at your disposal. Just shout «Start mowing!» at Siri or Alexa and off it goes.
Gardena’s also only included LONA Intelligence in the smart app-controlled models. This technology means robot lawnmower can create a map of the mowing area. Once it’s been created, you can use the app to define different zones you want it to mow at different frequencies, for example. If you want to turn a patch of lawn into a flower meadow, you can define the corresponding area on the map as an exclusion zone for the mower and let flowers grow there.
The two smallest models with smart app control and LONA Intelligence are called Sileno City and designed to trim lawns of up to 400 or 600 square metres, respectively.
For anything over that, the name of the model then changes to «life». This category includes mowers for lawns of up to 750, up to 1000 and even up to 1,500 square metres.
Robot lawnmowers
Returned & Tested
CHF1394.10 currently CHF1653.99 new
Gardena Smart Sileno Life Set
1000 m²
What all Gardena robot lawnmowers do
Now that the most important differences in the Gardena Minimo world have been pointed out, let’s take a look at what all models have in common:
- Cutting height adjustment from 20 mm to 45 or 50 mm (in models from 600 square metres)
- Corridor cut: mowing narrow passages from 60 cm wide between the boundary wires
- Sensor control: mowing time adapted to the grass growth
- Spot cutting: mower moves in a spiral in hard-to-reach areas
- Frost sensor: mowing schedule pauses at low temperatures to protect the lawn
Do you have any questions about the world of Gardena robot lawnmowers? After several hours of studying the product brochures and catalogues, I feel ready to answer just about anything. If you want to read a test report, here’s what I wrote about a Minimo with «smart» functions
Header image: Gardena
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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