The EasiLife Go 500 is compact and lightweight and uses three pivoting blades for an even cut. Instead of an LED screen, five buttons on the mower control all the basic functions and for everything else, there’s the Flymo EasiLife app. It’s easy enough to install, cutting regular shaped lawns with ease. The mower’s wheels can cope with slopes up to 25% and slightly bumpy terrain, but it’s much happier on flat lawns. Due to the small cutting width of just 16 cm, it’s only really suitable for small gardens up to 500 m². It comes with a two year warranty. We awarded it a BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Best Buy for small lawns.
How is the EasiLife Go 500 robotic mower installed?
You either peg in or dig in a boundary wire to define the lawn size and shape, leaving a gap on the edges where there are hard borders or walls. Make sure to watch the installation videos online before you start as although there’s plenty of useful information in the manual, some important points feel a bit buried in the fine print. The EasiLife Go uses a separate guide wire that sends the mower to distant lawn areas and helps it get back to the docking station once it’s finished mowing. This guide wire needs to connect to the boundary wire at some point, so you need to leave some slack where you want to make the connection. You’ll need to cut the boundary wire to splice in the guide wire, and unless you plan ahead, it’s a tight fit. Connecting the couplers to rejoin the boundary cable can be a bit tricky and requires a decent set of pliers to avoid making a mess. It’s annoying, but if you plan ahead when laying your wires, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Securing the boundary cables to the rear of the charging base uses small plastic connectors that also require the use of a decent pair of pliers. You need to judge the cable lengths correctly to avoid loose wires on the outside of the base. Again, if you take your time during the cable installation phase, it’s not too bad.
Is the EasiLife Go 500 robotic mower easy to programme?
There are five buttons arranged on the top of the mower that can control most of the basic functions. The LED lights display the status of the mower, but it’s not immediately obvious. You need to consult the manual to work out what the flashing and solid lights mean.
The app is basic but easy to understand. You can programme schedules and read error data, but don’t expect advanced functions like edge cutting or an easy way to define multiple lawn areas.
You can program multiple start points along the boundary cable as well. It takes a bit of fiddling around with percentages, but you can set the mower to cut different sections of your garden, including narrow passageways that might otherwise be missed out.
How well does the EasiLife Go 500 robotic mower cut?
Something that stood out during testing was how quiet the mower runs. It operates at just 58dB when cutting, so you won’t wake up your neighbours if you set it to cut early in the morning.
The mowing program is random. Once the robot hits a boundary, it performs a turn and mows at a right angle. This should ensure that every piece of grass is cut, eventually, and at different angles to avoid lines and streaks.
What features does the EasiLife Go 500 robotic mower have?
For the price the mower has a number of features. You can change the cutting height on this mower, but it’s not as simple as some others. Instead of turning a dial or pressing a button in the app, you need to remove the blade disc and reinstall it using a hex key. It’s not a big job, but it’s a lot of effort for a simple adjustment. There's a spot cutting mode for troublesome areas - you just pick up the mower and place it in the area that needs attention, then activate spot cutting mode. The mower spirals out from where you put it down. You can also set the mower to cut in multiple zones as well with the 'Lawn Coverage' function. Using the guide wire to reach the far corners of your garden, you can tell the mower to stop and work on a particular section using percentages. For example, tell the mower to stop at 50% and it will travel halfway along the guide wire before spot cutting there. It takes a bit of trial and error but it’s a useful function. The mower is also capable of measuring outside conditions and changing the automatic mowing schedule to suit seasonal grass growth, and a 'FrostSense' setting ensures the mower stays in the charging dock when the temperatures drop too low. Finally, it also comes with some useful spare connectors, should you damage the boundary cable or want to install another guide wire.
Is the EasiLife Go 500 robotic mower good value for money?
The EasiLife Go is one of the more affordable robotic mowers on the market, but it still cuts the grass well. It’s small, doesn’t weigh much, but can still tackle light slopes and slightly uneven terrain. If you have a smaller garden and you don’t mind installing a guide cable alongside boundary cables, it’s an excellent choice.
Are there other models available?
The range of EasiLife Go mowers include:
EasiLife Go 200 - Cuts up to 200 m²
EasiLife Go 250 - Cuts up to 250 m²
There’s also a range of EasiLife mowers that have a small LED screen on them for more complex “in mower” controls. They also still use an app:
EasiLife 200 - Cuts up to 200 m²
EasiLife 350 - Cuts up to 350 m²
EasiLife 500 - Cuts up to 500 m²
EasiLife 800 - Cuts up to 800 m²
This review was last updated in November 2023. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.
