Hand the worst job in your backyard to a machine
We test the expensive machines that take the worst jobs in your backyard. A robotic pool cleaner and a remote control slope mower have almost nothing in common as hardware. They solve the same problem: a job that is miserable, dangerous or both, and a homeowner who would rather buy their way out of it.
What this site is for
These machines cost between one and four thousand dollars. At that price the honest questions are not the ones a manufacturer answers on its own product page: what does it fail at, what does the return actually cost you if it goes wrong, and is the cheaper class of machine genuinely enough. Those are the questions we build pages around.
We are still early. The first guide is live: our comparison of robotic pool cleaners covers what the money actually buys as you climb the range, and answers the automatic versus robotic question that the shops tend to blur. The slope mower side follows. Rather than fill this page with categories that do not exist yet, we would rather it stayed short and true.
How we work
- Every claim is traced to a source we can point at: the manufacturer's own page, a retailer listing, or an independent test publication named in the text.
- Every product gets drawbacks. A page with no drawbacks is a sales page, and we do not publish those.
- Prices carry the date they were checked. When the date gets old our own build refuses to ship the page.
- When we have no affiliate link for a product, we say so on the page instead of hiding it.
How we are paid
Some links to manufacturers are affiliate links, so a purchase made through one can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not take payment for a ranking, a score or a verdict, and we do not run sponsored reviews. The full disclosure explains exactly how it works.