If you have a relatively small lawn with few, if any, islands, features, or obstacles, the Redkey MCG1000 robot lawn mower is an affordable, if minimally specced, option — if you can get it to work.
We’ve all become accustomed to the idea of little robots that clean our homes, but mowing the lawn is still a relatively new use of the same technology. Many options can cost thousands of dollars on the market, but Redkey has found a way to get their product well under the $1,000 mark.
The Redkey MGC 1000 is a robot lawn mower that can cover a quarter acre of yard space. It mows only within the included 590 feet of boundary wire, and customers can’t add any more than that to a single charging station.
Instead of classic lawn mower blades, the Redkey mower uses small razors attached to a spinning plate to cut grass. This isn’t unusual for robot lawnmower mowers.
If you’re curious about getting help with your yard work from a robot lawn mower, the Redkey MGC1000 is a tough starting point that depends on several factors. Discounts can get its price under $600, but know that a low price comes with some sacrifices.
It sometimes gets the job done, mowing the designated area of lawn, but slowly while leaving a lot of patches. I wanted to like this model more, but several shortcomings and an ultimate failure of the product have me looking at slightly more expensive models with specs that’ll overcome the Redkey’s weaknesses.
I wrote most of this review while the Redkey mower was still somewhat functional, if slow and error prone. The original score was 2.5 as it mostly worked, and we could attribute some of its pain points to my yard shape and size, however, we didn’t publish right away.
Within two weeks, the mower had degraded to being nonfunctional. I’ll get into that at the end of the review.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: design and features
While I’m quite familiar with robot vacuums and mop units, I’ve never interacted with a robot lawn mower. I expected some features would be obvious for such a product, but the low cost of the Redkey MGC1000 cut into that.
The overall design is fine, as it looks a bit like an oddly shaped RC car. The rear wheels are large and drive the unit, while the front wheels can swivel to turn.
The robot lawn mower is plastic and has a simple display on the top. It’s water resistant at IPX6, so it should survive fine outdoors during a rainstorm.
The docking unit is a simple piece of plastic with exposed contacts that the mower drives into to charge. The rear of the unit has two wire terminals to connect the boundary wire.
It needs to be plugged into a standard AC power port, so you’ll need access to an outside outlet or run a wire through a wall. Luckily, I had a hole already drilled to a basement outlet.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: simple controls on the mower’s top
There is a giant red STOP button on top, with three buttons on top to access local controls. However, nearly every action and setting is accessed from the R Home app.
The list of actual features is rather limited. The whole robot is more brute-forced than I expected from a product built in 2025.
Unlike home robot vacuum and mop devices, the Redkey MGC1000 isn’t using LiDAR or navigation features to find its way around. Instead, it is positioning itself based on the boundary wire and basic CTOF (continuous time of flight) sensors.
Basically, it doesn’t “see” obstacles or sense grassy areas or anything like that. The CTOF sensor exists simply to help it orient in a space, and that’s it.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: not only does it not know that weeds are there, it couldn’t cut through it anyway
There is a system for object avoidance, but it only works by running into an object first, then makes a note of it. If it can force itself to drive over an obstacle, like a brick, rock, or decoration, it will.
The mower does remember where it left off if it needs to stop because of rain or to charge. It mows in a crisscross pattern normally, though it can kind of seem rough in action.
The end result is a mowed lawn with some patches of tall grass or weeds missed. Sometimes it bends a plant as it drives over it, so it doesn’t get cut properly.
Thick or moderately tall bits of grass also prove to be a bit of a challenge. If it can’t make it over a section of grass, it’ll give up and go around or just get stuck.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: hills and variations in evenness can lead to missed clumps
It can handle slopes of about 45 degrees. The more slopes you have in your yard, the slower things will get done, but it won’t stop the mower from working as long as it isn’t too steep.
The Redkey robot lawn mower works best if you spot mow thicker or taller patches ahead of time. This should theoretically only need to be done once, as the lawn should be maintained at a certain length by the robot after that.
Scheduling tools are available within the R Home app. Users can also select the mowing height and driving pattern.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: setup
The hardest part of setting up the Redkey mower isn’t even an issue with the product. Laying down a ground wire, whether it’s for this mower or any other, is a time-consuming and laborious task.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: the base station has deep mounting screws
My yard isn’t exactly gigantic, but I share a yard with my mother’s home next door, which makes the total space just over a quarter acre. I tried to incorporate the entire yard into the mowing area, but ended up short by about 50 feet.
So, I excluded my small front yard, which includes two trees that would make annoying obstacles. The entire process of in-staking every few inches along the wire took about three hours.
I turned on the mower for the first time, and it traced around the edge by following the wire, then began mowing after that. I had to adjust a few areas to account for difficult slopes, fences, and other obstacles, but the end result was a mower that worked without interference.
I had hoped the object detection would help it avoid a large island in my Mom’s yard, which is surrounded by bricks. However, the mower would run into the bricks, then proceed to try and climb over them, launching itself into the garden.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: there isn’t much in the way of intelligent features
Poor navigation and weak object detection — along with the mower’s lack of real intelligence — led to the mishap. I ended up having to rework the boundary wire by hand, rerouting it around both the island and a picnic table.
Now, with nothing but grass between the boundary wire, the mower could technically complete the task.
Using the Redkey robot lawn mower
The brute-force nature of the mower and lack of intelligent features are a result of the low price. You get what you pay for.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: two contacts keep the mower charged on the base station
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, as long as the robot does get the job done. My yard proved to be too challenging, as it needs a little help with spot mowing areas it misses or can’t maneuver properly, and you’ll always have to mow around the exterior of the boundary wire.
It mowed a portion of my backyard, charged for about 45 minutes, mowed a bit more in the back, then got started on the front yard, but the battery had depleted again by then. The backyard is a slope, so it is going to take significantly more battery than the front yard.
The whole process takes hours, if not days. But again, it’s outside, quiet, and the result is a mowed yard, if patchy, without any effort beyond the initial setup.
I let the mower run from about 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily so I could keep an eye on it. Managing it this way, it took a few days for it to completely mow the lawn.
At 50% complete, it had technically mowed the lawn once in one direction, then begins mowing the entire lawn again in the other direction.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: mowing a hilly yard takes a lot of time
Even with this pattern, there are patches of grass it misses due to irregularities in the lumpy ground. Though, since it is a bit random, there’s always the chance it could get those patches next time around.
Thicker weeds and grass will need to be manually cut or pulled up. The mower will just push over them, and the blades won’t cut through.
It shouldn’t matter how long it takes as long as it can be done fully autonomously, but it shouldn’t take a week to mow the grass. Again, this could be related to the shape and size of my lawn, and people with simple, flat lawns in the suburbs won’t have any issues.
There were points where I’d go to check on the mower, and the app couldn’t reach it, so I’d go find it stopped in the yard. Nothing trapped it; it just stopped. Not sure what causes this, but if you tell it to continue mowing, it just goes along fine.
Of course, I have to pull out the push mower and weed eater now and then to get where the robot can’t. But, at least I’m not mowing the entire quarter acre of sloped yard.
The R Home app
The app for the Redkey lawn mower is barebones, but it isn’t hard to navigate. Go into the mower, hit start to begin mowing the entire lawn, or hit an ellipsis to start a spot mow function, which mows in a spiral pattern 7 square meters from the robot’s current position.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: the app is limited but easy to use
The cutting height can be set from 30mm to 70mm, but this doesn’t change the height of the chassis, just the cutting blades. Keep that in mind if you’re struggling with a particular bit of tall grass.
The app shows the boundary wire and where the mower is, as long as it has a signal to update its location. Also, the map slowly fills in to show where the mower has been, with some level of accuracy.
Some odd issues
When the robot senses rain or gets a low battery, it returns to the dock to charge. When it docks, it makes a loud beeping noise.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: issues aside, at least it is easy to clean
For whatever reason, this two-chirp sequence plays periodically while the mower is docked. Since it is parked near my bedroom window, I can hear it randomly beep in the middle of the night.
I reached out to Redkey, and they said the only way to stop that from happening is to remove the mower from the charger when not in use. Which, I believe, greatly decreases the convenience of the product.
Also, there doesn’t seem to be any anti-theft systems beyond the ability to set a PIN on the robot itself. It can’t be tracked beyond the Wi-Fi network, and it won’t alarm if moved unexpectedly.
That said, it is useless without the docking station, which is secured rather firmly to the ground, so that could help deter thieves. I have security cameras to help keep an eye on things, but users could always attach an AirTag if they’re worried.
Finally, there isn’t a way to stop a current job and tell the mower to start over. It either has to finish mowing, or you have to perform a factory reset.
You get what you pay for
The Redkey MCG1000 isn’t the best product on the market by any stretch, but it is a more affordable option that you might consider if you have a flat, simple yard with no obstacles. I wish the company could have added more intelligence or LiDAR, even if it cost a bit more.
Redkey robot lawn mower review: a decent feature set at this price
As I said at the top of this review, even after the struggles and patchy mowing, I was set to give this review a 2.5, which suggests the product has its flaws but is still functional.
The mower finished one job mowing and I started a second job at a lower grass cutting setting. It made it about 16% of the way through and things got weird.
The mower went back to the charging station and started remapping the yard, then it randomly stopped along the boundary wire in two specific locations. I pulled up the wire and set it again after finding no creases, flaws, or breaks, factory reset the robot for good measure, and it still won’t finish mapping.
After taking nearly a week to complete one job, poorly, then needing repeat resets and wire fixes, I had to give up. This product just can’t handle my yard.
Your results may vary.
Redkey robot lawn mower review – Pros
- Mostly hands-off scheduled mowing
- Small, quiet mower
- Easy to clean and maintain
- Straightforward, if exhausting, boundary wire setup
Redkey robot lawn mower review – Cons
- Incredibly slow progress that can take days for one job
- Can sometimes stop and need the user to start it again
- Periodic beeping at charging station can’t be turned off
- Once a mowing job starts, it can’t be stopped without a factory reset
- Mower misses patches of grass, can’t cut through thicker weeds
- Tough yards might degrade the mower to the point of non-functionality
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
This rating reflects the issues with the mower, like the inability to start a mowing job over and the incessant beeping. If you’ve got a flat yard with no obstacles, I won’t say don’t buy this mower, but buy knowing that a more challenging yard may defeat this robot.
Where to buy the Redkey robot lawn mower
Buy the Redkey MGC1000 robot lawn mower from Amazon for $594.98. That’s 15% off the regular price, and there’s also a 5% coupon available.
If you’ve got a yard that is a quarter acre or less, the MGC500 is identical in every way; it just has less included boundary wire. Get it for $529.98 from Amazon, which is 16% off.
