This robotic lawnmower can do almost nothing – and that's a good thing
2-10-2026
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Martin Jungfer
The Bosch Indego is a robotic lawnmower that bucks the trend: it is compact and can barely do anything other than mow. But isn't that exactly what you need for your lawn?
For a few weeks now, my Luba Mini 2 AWD 1000 from Mammotion (here is my review) has had a challenger. When I introduced the two, I thought the Mammotion let out a brief laugh. That laughter has since faded.
Because the Bosch robotic lawnmower has shown its powerful competitor just how easy it is to neatly mow nearly 100 square meters of lawn. Without a charging station. Without an app.
I have tested quite a few robotic lawnmowers, and none were as quick to get into action as the Visimow. Bosch writes: place it down, start it, mow. And that is almost exactly true.
Provided you bought the right version, the one with the battery. The Visimow is available in different variants – including one without a battery. Some negative reviews for the robotic lawnmower in our shop were written by people who bought the version without a battery.
You might be wondering: Why is the Visimow even offered without a battery? That is because the small mower runs on a battery from the Power for all alliance. Eleven brands have currently joined forces there, all of whose devices run on the same batteries. If you have a device from Gardena or Bosch, it is quite possible that you already own such an 18-volt battery.
In that case, you could choose the "naked" version of the Visimow, which is slightly cheaper. Otherwise, make sure you add the Visimow with battery and charger to your shopping cart.
No cables, no station
The Visimow needs a battery, but it doesn't need a boundary wire, and there is no charging station either. It navigates using a built-in camera and ultrasonic sensors. Bosch calls this system "Smartvision".
I can simply place the robotic lawnmower on the lawn, press two buttons in succession, and off it goes. For me, this is possible without risk for a few reasons. My garden meets all the essential requirements for optimal operation:
- The lawn area is clearly defined, whether by curb stones or walls.
- The curb stones and slabs are wide enough; Bosch recommends 35 centimeters, but 30 is sufficient according to my experience.
- Vertical boundaries are high enough to be detected by the ultrasonic sensor.
- For hedges and bushes, the ultrasonic sensor works, so the Visimow turns around instead of driving into the bush.
During several weeks of testing, the device actually never got stuck or fell anywhere. I started it each time with a fully charged battery and let it drive in a random zigzag pattern across the lawn until the battery was empty after a good three and a half hours of operation and I could collect it again. That might be longer than necessary, but it doesn't hurt. And it isn't annoying because it operates pleasantly quietly.
Yes, you read that right: after the work is done, I have to collect the Visimow. It doesn't put itself away because there is no charging station. At least the device has a carrying handle for that. That is practical because it allows me to carry it into the car garage. There, at a power outlet, I also have the charging station for the battery.
Weaknesses with surfaces
I am satisfied with the result that the Visimow delivers with its three-blade disc and 16-centimeter cutting width. But it is not perfect. There are two weaknesses. First: The camera recognizes the cast-iron cover of a manhole in the lawn as an obstacle. The robotic lawnmower could actually drive over it without danger, but it doesn't. If a non-green surface is in its path, it stops at a respectful distance of 20 centimeters in front of it and turns around. The result: Around the cover, there is now a border of tall grass. The Visimow also drives around dried-out patches of lawn. That is not really smart. The Bosch cannot learn this either; the data for object recognition is stored in the software and cannot be changed. I will have to re-seed the brown spots and perhaps lay out a piece of artificial turf on the manhole cover.
The second weakness is the edge cutting. Expensive robotic lawnmowers drive along the edge of the lawn area at the start or end of their work program and mow there specifically. The Visimow does not. It draws its paths randomly crisscross over the lawn. Of course, it reaches the edge, but it by no means catches all the blades of grass there. In my case, there are ten centimeters of lawn edging stones between a boundary wall and the grass area. Nevertheless, another ten centimeters of grass remain untreated because the Visimow stops too early and turns around.
So I have to do some regular follow-up work. Here, the battery alliance makes sense, because of course I do that with a Bosch or Gardena device. Good for their sales.
Mows in circles, recognizes little
When mowing, the Visimow hardly recognizes any obstacles. I tried it with a small ball, a small hand hoe, and a pair of swimming trunks. It ignored everything, pushed the ball in front of it, and drove over the tool and the swimming trunks. The latter fell victim to the blades. Neither the collision nor the ultrasonic sensors worked here.
With walls, palisades, or garden slabs, it works flawlessly. As long as there is daylight. The Visimow has no built-in headlight. That is why it stops its work when night falls. Rain, on the other hand, does not stop the Visimow; it has no sensor for that.
The cutting height varies from 20 to 60 millimeters, which is a completely sufficient variance – for both ornamental and shade lawn fans. If there is a spot on the area that needs to be mowed particularly intensively, the Visimow has a "SpotMow" function. If I press the corresponding button, about two square meters are mowed in a spiral pattern. After that, the device returns to zigzag mode. This is practical, for example, when mowing needs to be done under the ever-popular garden trampolines again. Only: the blades of grass must not be too high then either. Anything that towers higher than 14 centimeters into the sky is recognized by the ultrasonic sensors as an obstacle, and the robot avoids it. In such a case, I can deactivate the sensor.
Could it be a bit more?
I received the Visimow 18V-100 as a test device. This is made for a lawn area of up to 100 square meters. There is also the 200 version, which is designed for, you guessed it, areas up to 200 square meters. The battery is the same, but the 200 has an 18-centimeter cutting width instead of 16, so it manages twelve percent more grass blades per pass. And it comes with a brushless motor, which generally wears out less quickly.
With a price difference of around 80 Swiss francs (as of early October), I recommend the Visimow with the larger cutting width and brushless motor.
In a nutshell
So stupid that it's clever again
The Visimow is a smart idea. It feels like robot mowers are capable of more and more, but are also becoming increasingly complicated. A "dumb" robot mower has its charm. If you don't want to deal with apps, user accounts and logins, Wi-Fi and satellite signals, and also don't want to lay down boundary wire, you should take a look at the Bosch mower. Provided the lawn area is sufficiently safe or you are willing to adapt it here and there. Then you can set the Visimow out in the garden as needed. You don't get the convenience of robot mowers with a charging station; you have to remember to charge the battery yourself.
Pro
- runs very quietly
- recognizes boundaries such as palisades, walls, and slabs well
- Battery can also be used for other devices
- simplest operation and installation
- neat mowing result
Contra
- inefficient random zigzag mowing
- detects small obstacles poorly
- wide edge strip of 20 centimeters
Robot lawnmowers
EUR412,71
Bosch Home & Garden VisiMow 18V-100 battery set
100 m², Without boundary wire
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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