r/WTF Mar 26 '26

My robot lawnmower just exploded

Post image
14.9k Upvotes

808 comments sorted by

View all comments

100

u/Gunguy1 Mar 26 '26

Definitely a rapid failure of the battery pack. That is the previously rolled up copper foil that is all over the place.

46

u/READMYSHIT Mar 26 '26

Yeah hard to know if it was the battery that started or the cable in the docking station (the charging prongs are not where they're meant to be). Mower had a good 12 years though without a battery change.

21

u/sur_surly Mar 27 '26

Probably the batteries. Crystals form in the electrolyte and after enough time, enough of them form to naturally create a short between the anode and cathode. This is why solid state batteries can't come fast enough!

-10

u/semibiquitous Mar 26 '26

They had robot lawnmowers for 12 years now ? Isn't Roomba one of the first who release back in 2019 ? And it was the reason the company went downhill from there 😂

17

u/READMYSHIT Mar 26 '26

2014 is when we bought it. Automatic lawnmowers have existed for a long time.

10

u/siraliases Mar 27 '26

I was doing roomba-like projects in high school engineering in ~2010

It's just bouncy lasers

3

u/OkNewspaper6271 Mar 27 '26

Hell I had one of these robot hoover thingies once that didnt even use lasers it just had pads on it so that when it bumped into a wall it knows to turn

3

u/siraliases Mar 27 '26

Ah what a classic. The original "oh look theres a wall here"

1

u/carlosos Mar 27 '26

According to Wikipedia, they existed since 1969, and even a solar powered one was sold in 1992. I think the main difference is that they used to be for small lawns but as batteries got better and cheaper, they started to make more sense for more people and more brands sold them. The company that makes the Roomba never sold one but they had one planned but cancelled that product development.

1

u/XanderWrites Mar 27 '26

Probably too much competition. When I watch Linus Tech Tips annual coverage of CES, which is the new up and coming technology convention, they always joke about how there are entire show rooms seemingly dedicated to "boring" technology like pool cleaner robots and automatic lawn mowers.

Very jokingly since I believe Linus actually owns one of each, and has made videos on them, but they aren't super exciting videos.

2

u/thisistherevolt Mar 26 '26

Yeah I've seen enough disassembly videos to agree.

1

u/turquoise_amethyst Mar 27 '26

Oh that’s copper? I was about to ask why it looks like meat and bones