Designed for smaller lawns of up to 2,700 square feet, the Gardena Sileno City is the most affordable robotic lawn mower we’ve tested at $799.99. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth for easy scheduling, and is super quiet in operaiton. It did an excellent job of cutting in our tests, and its mobile app is easy to use. Pairing the mower to my phone was tricky, however, and once connected it doesn’t provide you with as many of the features as you get with our Editors’ Choice winner, the $999.99 Worx Landroid M 20V Cordless Robotic Lawn Mower (WR140).
Cutting Specs and Features
Measuring 9.1 by 15.0 by 21.7 inches (HWD) and weighing 16 pounds, the Sileno City is similar in shape and size to the 9.5-by-14.0-19.7-inch, 17-pound Ayi DRM3-600I, but instead of a black and orange design, it sports a two-tone gray finish with blue accents. It’s powered by an internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery that will last up to 65 minutes between charges and uses two 8-inch rear wheels and a single 3-inch front wheel to navigate your property. The front bumper contains sensors that will stop the mower when it comes into contact with any object.
Gardena also offers a model that cuts lawns up to 5,400 square feet for $999.99.
The Sileno uses the same three-blade rotating disc cutting mechanism as on most other robotic mowers. It has a 6.3-inch cutting width and can be adjusted to provide cutting heights of between 0.80 and 2.0 inches, and it can handle lawns with up to a 35% slope. The mower uses the same type of perimeter wire configuration as every other robotic mower we’ve tested, and comes with a base station, a spool of loop wire, stakes for securing the wire and the base station, an owner’s manual, a quick start guide, assorted wire couplers, and a power adapter.
Whereas models such as the Worx Landroid M 20V, the Husqvarna Automower 315X, and the Greenworks Pro Optimow 50H use cellular or Wi-Fi radios to give you control of the mower from anywhere using your phone, the Sileno uses a Bluetooth radio, which means you must be within 30 feet or so to control it with a mobile app. It also lacks the GPS tracking capabilities that you get with the above-mentioned mowers.
The top of the Sileno is home to a control panel, which is hidden behind a flip-up door and an orange stop button. The control panel contains a cutting height dial and a 2-inch screen that displays menu options and the mower status. There’s also a four-way controller and an OK button that’s used to navigate the menus, as well as power, start, menu, and mode buttons. Tap the menu button to access the Schedule screen, where you can create custom work schedules for each day of the week or use the Wizard, which creates a work schedule based on your lawn size and daytime preference.
In the Settings screen, you can a create or edit a PIN code needed to restart the mower after it’s been picked up, enter lawn coverage information, create a starting point for each zone, enable ECO mode, and configure the date, time, and unit of measure.
The Gardena mobile app (for Android and iOS) opens to a screen that lists all of your installed Gardena devices. Tap the mower panel to view its current status (mowing, parked) and its next scheduled run. Here you’ll find buttons to manually start and park the mower and to create a working schedule. You can also select Secondary Area to have the mower work in an area of your choosing: Simply pick the mower up and place it where you want it to work and it will mow that area until the battery is depleted.
Tapping the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen takes you to a Settings screen where you can edit the name of the mower and its PIN code, edit your lawn coverage size, enable an energy-saving ECO mode, and enable the Frost Sensor, which will cancel a scheduled work cycle if it senses that the ground it too cold. Missing in the app is the ability to steer the mower using your phone, a feature you get with the Robomow RS622.
Setting Up and Using the Gardena Sileno City
As is the case with any robotic mower, installing the Sileno City requires laying down and securing perimeter wire that guides the mower and prevents it from wandering off your property. Plan on spending and hour or more (depending on the size and layout of your lawn) on your hands and knees installing the wire, or you can hire a professional to do it for you.
I already had wire installed from previous reviews, so I connected the two perimeter wires to the proper terminals on the base station, slid the mower into the station, and powered it up. I let the mower charge up for about an hour and a half, downloaded the mobile app, and created an account. I was unable to connect my phone to the mower’s Bluetooth radio and had to download new firmware to my computer, connect the laptop to the mower using a USB port on the bottom of the mower, and update the mower’s firmware. When I restarted the mower, I had no trouble connecting to it via Bluetooth.
I used the app’s Schedule Wizard to create a work schedule based on the size of my lawn (1,950 square feet) that had the mower come out at 11:00 a.m. daily for four hours.
The Sileno did a fantastic job of mowing my lawn and following my schedules. After a week of work the grass appeared neat and evenly cut, and the mower never once became stuck or wandered outside of the perimeter. It was extremely quiet, and the collision sensor worked as intended, stopping forward motion whenever the mower made contact with an object in its path.
Light on Features, But Reliable and Affordable
If you’d rather spend your weekends enjoying your lawn instead of working on it, the Gardena Sileno City Robotic Mower can help. At $800, it’s the most affordable model we’ve tested and it did a great job of keeping my lawn looking well manicured in testing. The Scheduling Wizard makes it easy to create work cycles, and the mower’s whisper-quiet electric motor lets you schedule nighttime mowing without having to worry about disturbing your neighbors. That said, this mower lacks many of the bells and whistles that you get with our Editors’ Choice winner, the Worx Landroid M 20V, including Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity, a built-in rain sensor, and push alerts.
