SILENO city (250 to 600m², basic and smart)
A small, very quiet boundary-wire mower for compact and awkwardly shaped lawns. It copes well with narrow strips and side passages, but laying the wire takes effort and it leaves a strip uncut at the edges.
We re-check daily. Try the manufacturer’s site meanwhile.
The short version
The SILENO city is GARDENA's small-garden mower, sold in sizes from 250m² to 600m². The basic version uses a Bluetooth app, so you control it from nearby. The smart version adds a hub that links it to your home internet and, since 2024, GARDENA's LONA software, which uses satellite positioning to map the lawn and set zones. Both still need a wire pegged round the edge. It sits above the simpler SILENO minimo and below the SILENO life.
What you get is a very quiet mower that finds its way through narrow corridors and into separate bits of lawn. What you give up is modern convenience: it mows in a random pattern, the wire install takes an afternoon, and you'll still need to trim the edges by hand.
GARDENA now lists some older city versions as legacy models, and the range varies by country, so check the exact version and size before you buy.
Our take: Buy it if your lawn is small, split into sections or reached through a narrow side passage, and you'd rather have a quiet mower from an established brand than clever features. If you don't want to lay a wire, GARDENA's own smart SILENO free or the eufy E15 skip it entirely. If your lawn is a simple open rectangle, the cheaper SILENO minimo does the job.
Where it sits in GARDENA’s range
- SILENO minimo 500Simpler, Bluetooth-only entry model
- GARDENA R40LiThe older small-lawn model it replaced
- SILENO city (250 to 600m², basic and smart)This model
- smart SILENO sense 600Newer small-lawn smart model
- smart SILENO life 1000Bigger lawns, same wire approach
- smart SILENO free 1200No boundary wire needed
What reviewers found
Two hands-on reviews cover the same mower in different versions: Techtest with the smart 500 and Expert Reviews with the Set 300. Both liked how it handles awkward layouts, both measured a strip left uncut at the edges, and Expert Reviews found the wire install a chore. More recent German lab tests, summarised by Testberichte.de, were cooler, with Stiftung Warentest and CHIP both grading the smart version satisfactory rather than good.
Expert Reviews, hands-on, May 2021 · Techtest, hands-on, Mar 2020
Good in narrow and awkward spaces
Expert Reviews liked the extra guide wire, which splits an oddly shaped garden into sections and helps the mower reach them, and a corridor setting that stops it bouncing around in narrow strips. You can also tell it how long to spend in up to three areas. Techtest found it noticeably nimbler in tight spots than the R40Li it replaced. For a town garden with a side passage, that's the real reason to choose it over GARDENA's simpler minimo.
Very quiet
GARDENA claims 57dB, per the specifications, and calls it the quietest in its class. Techtest quotes 58dB and compares that with about 79dB for a typical electric push mower, a big difference in how loud it sounds. Expert Reviews didn't comment on noise. If you have close neighbours or want it mowing while you're sitting in the garden, this is one of the strongest reasons to pick it.
The install takes real effort
You have to peg a boundary wire round the lawn and around flower beds, then splice in the guide wire. Expert Reviews said that splicing job is likely to sit outside many people's comfort zone, though you only do it once. Techtest found it ran on its own with very little help once the wires were laid properly. Set aside an afternoon, and get the layout right first time rather than moving pegs later.
Leaves the edges for you
Expert Reviews found a strip of about 10cm left uncut round the lawn, partly because the wire can't follow sharp curves. Techtest measured 10 to 15cm left along walls and listed it as the main drawback. Keep the strimmer. There's no way round this with a wire mower of this design, so if crisp edges matter to you, budget time for trimming every week or two.
Obstacles: bump sensing, mixed results
Expert Reviews says it has no collision detection as such and simply bounces off solid objects. The Stiftung Warentest result listed by Testberichte.de rated its obstacle detection good to very good, but also says it failed the test with a child-sized dummy arm lying on the lawn, and another magazine saw it run over stones and small hedgehog dummies. Keep children and pets off the grass while it runs.
Covers the whole SILENO city family, basic Bluetooth and smart versions. Techtest reviewed the smart city 500 and Expert Reviews the Set 300; neither tested the 2024 LONA software.
Prices
Where to buy the SILENO city (250 to 600m², basic and smart) in United Kingdom
No verified United Kingdom price in the last 7 days. We re-check daily.
We’re still looking for more United Kingdom retailers for this model. Prices shown are read from each seller’s own page.
Before you buy
The questions people ask about this one
Does it need a boundary wire?
Yes. Even the smart version with GARDENA's mapping software uses a wire round the edge, per the specifications, and the smart 500 set comes with 150m of it. Expert Reviews found splicing in the extra guide wire the hardest part. If that puts you off, look at a wire-free model.
Can it handle two lawns or a narrow passage?
This is what it's good at. Expert Reviews found the guide wire and zone settings handled separate areas and awkward shapes, and Notebookcheck reports GARDENA's claim that the corridor mode copes with passages as narrow as 60cm.
How close does it cut to the edge?
Not very. Techtest found 10 to 15cm left at walls and Expert Reviews about 10cm around the lawn edge, because the wire has to sit in from the border. Plan on edging with a strimmer.
Will it cope with my slope?
GARDENA says 35% inside the lawn and 10% along the wire, per the specifications. Techtest noted it was first rated at 25% until a software update raised the limit, and still listed very steep gardens as a poor fit. For a steep bank, look elsewhere.
What happens when it rains?
It keeps mowing. Techtest found it works in rain and on damp grass and can be hosed down to clean. The smart version is rated IPX5 and pauses when it detects frozen ground, per the specifications.
What's the difference between the basic and smart versions?
The basic one uses a Bluetooth app, so you control it from close by. The smart set adds a gateway that links it to your home internet, with GARDENA's LONA mapping, zones and remote control, per the specifications. Neither of the two hands-on reviews, Techtest or Expert Reviews, tested LONA.
Compare with
SILENO minimo 500
GARDENA's simpler small-lawn mower, which Clubic also found compact and very quiet.
It's Bluetooth-only, and Clubic would put it on smaller, simpler lawns than its rating suggests.
smart SILENO sense 600
A newer GARDENA small-lawn smart model, and one owner praised the finish, the app and support after about ten weeks.
Another owner reported missed scheduled starts, repeated stops and trips outside the intended area.
E15 Robot Lawn Mower
No boundary wire at all, and one owner was ready to mow in about ten minutes with automatic mapping.
A long-term owner had a faulty cutting-height mechanism that caused overheating until the mower was replaced.
Full specifications
Figures come from the manufacturer’s product page unless a source is named. A blank means nobody we trust has confirmed it.
Owner reviews
Own a SILENO city (250 to 600m², basic and smart)?
Tell people how it’s held up: cleaning, maintenance, faults and support. Owner reviews are shown separately from expert tests and never mixed into the score.
Sources
Everything cited on this page. Expert scores are shown as the reviewer gave them.
- Expert Reviews: Gardena Sileno City review (Set 300)Hands-on
- Techtest: GARDENA smart SILENO City im Test (smart city 500) · Voll zu empfehlen (highly recommended)Hands-on
- Testberichte.de: Gardena smart Sileno city (600m²): summary of magazine and lab testsNews
- Notebookcheck: Gardena announces new smart SILENO city robot lawn mowerNews
- GARDENA: smart SILENO city 500m² Set (UK)Manufacturer