I tested a robot mower with no boundary wire for a month – here’s my buying advice now

Amazon is at the moment providing the Eufy E15 with a $300 off coupon, making the full $1,500. 

Mowing the grass is usually a bitter capsule for a lot of who could take pleasure in a manicured garden however not essentially the method main as much as it. I sometimes benefit from the time and train I get whereas mowing my garden, however after switching to a robot mower final 12 months, I can truthfully say it has been months since I’ve used a conventional mower.

And similar to there are various kinds of yards, there are various kinds of robotic mowers to take care of them. Mowers sometimes want a boundary wire alongside the perimeter of the grass to remain inside an space, whereas others include an RTK antenna for satellite tv for pc navigation.

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Nevertheless, I have been testing the Eufy E15 Robot Mower, which requires neither of those options, and I have been fairly impressed with the expertise powering it.

No boundary wire

I first noticed the Eufy E15 at CES in January, and as a fan of the model for safety and robotic vacuums, I used to be already trying ahead to testing it.

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However what impressed me essentially the most is that this mower does away with the necessities for boundary wire and antennas, as a substitute counting on a mix of superior sensors, cameras, and synthetic intelligence (AI) algorithms to navigate your yard.

The Eufy E15 robotic mower navigates very similar to a robotic vacuum. This, I consider, is the way forward for robotic mower expertise. Finally, we would like much less invasiveness and extra outcomes from our smart devices. So, having a robotic that autonomously mows your yard with out worrying about inserting an antenna good or burying boundary wire alongside the perimeters of your property is right.

That mentioned, such an environment friendly expertise is neither superior nor inexpensive sufficient to turn out to be the usual.

Struggled to mow my uneven garden

Whereas the Eufy E15’s mapping and impediment avoidance expertise is spectacular, the robotic struggled to mow my garden effectively. My yard is fenced in, however there may be plenty of uneven terrain, a few poorly outlined backyard beds, and a steep hill that results in a wooded space on the again. There’s additionally a big deck beneath which some robotic mowers have been trapped, and bushes alongside the edges of my home.

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My yard is like an impediment course for robotic mowers. Whereas the entrance yard is way less complicated, it is also unfenced, and I did not wish to threat the Eufy E15 touring over to mow my neighbor’s yard, so I set it up out again.

Welp, my flowers

It took the Eufy E15 about two hours to map my total yard, primarily as a result of it maps by touring round and scanning the world. Robotic mowers with a buried wire use that to remain inside a fringe, whereas others that use RTK and GNSS require a well-placed antenna and so that you can remotely steer them round their boundary.

The Eufy E15 makes use of neither of those applied sciences. It makes use of Visible Fusion Sensing and Determination (V-FSD), so it has to bodily journey round your yard to see which areas are grassy and which must be ‘no-go’ zones. Then, the Eufy app saves a map of your yard, and also you’re set to go, similar to a robotic vacuum.

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The Eufy app is identical app you utilize for Eufy Safety cameras, which may be very handy, as I’ve a Eufy safety system at house. Very similar to a robotic vacuum, you possibly can edit the app and set no-go zones, pathways, and grass-cutting zones.

Having the ability to set no-go zones makes it simpler for the robotic to keep away from areas of my yard that are not very effectively outlined, just like the flower beds talked about above and the hill main as much as the woods. With out manually including these digital boundaries, the robotic mowed over the spring progress of my flowers and repeatedly acquired caught on the steep hill.

Sensible sufficient

My uneven yard does finest with an AWD mower just like the Mammotion Luba 2, however this Eufy robotic mower is wise sufficient to seek out dips the place it might get caught to avoid wasting in your map and keep away from them every time it mows. I favor not risking having to rescue it and with the ability to depend on my mower not abandoning bushy areas in my yard.

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The app means that you can customise a lot of the Eufy E15’s mowing skills. You may set path instructions, grass peak, edge spacing, path spacing, journey and blade velocity, schedules, rain detection, and the amount and language for the robotic’s prompts. The Eufy E15 may also be managed with the app like an RC automobile, and you may ring it to seek out it when you possibly can’t bodily see it.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The Eufy E15 robotic mower is ideal for even-terrained, fenced-in yards. That is the proper robotic mower in case you have a easy, comparatively small grassy yard with no steep slopes and a bodily perimeter round it. That is true even when your yard has a paved or concrete patio, bushes, and well-defined backyard beds.

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This mower is wise sufficient to keep away from these obstacles and autonomously mark them as no-go zones within the Eufy app. It is also able to navigating round altering environments, like a pet that crosses in entrance of it, or round toys that weren’t on the yard the day earlier than. It is also confirmed sensible sufficient to keep away from going into the bushes round my house and even beneath the deck, which solely the Mammotion Luba 2 has successfully prevented.