I’ve been using this robot mower for a year, and can’t go back to a manual lawnmower

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Mammotion Luba 2 3000H is on the market for $2,499.
• Constructed to deal with uneven terrain, the Luba 2 is an all-wheel-drive (AWD) dependable robotic mower with a GPS-powered perimeter that’s surprisingly straightforward to arrange. 
• The Mammotion app isn’t very user-friendly and might get buggy after a firmware replace.

Mowing the garden is one among my favourite chores. It lets me deal with an uninterrupted process that satisfies my OCD, with the bonus of finishing my train ring on my Apple Watch. However regardless that it is a chore I take pleasure in, it nonetheless steals a few hours away from my all-too-short weekend.

That is the place the Mammotion Luba 2 is available in. Think about the scene: you’re taking the canine out for a stroll and are available residence to a superbly mowed garden regardless of it being an overgrown mess simply an hour earlier than. Whilst you have been gone, the robotic mower took care of the unruly grass and left a gorgeous checkered sample in its wake. I am comfortable to say that this dream grew to become a actuality with the Luba 2, and though it has its quirks, it handles the chore of garden mowing with effectivity and ease. 

Once I acquired the Mammotion Luba 2 for evaluate, the one wire-free GPS robotic mower I would beforehand used was the EcoFlow Blade. As you’ll be able to learn in that evaluate, organising the Blade was dreadful. It occupied hours of my Sunday afternoon, leading to bickering between my husband and me and repeated explanations to the children that no, we cannot be using the robotic across the yard. 

This time, organising the mower fell to my husband on a day once I wasn’t residence. I deliberate on serving to him with the setup upon my return, however I used to be pleasantly stunned to search out all of it performed once I returned. The truth is, he had nothing however reward for the Mammotion’s straightforward setup, because it was accomplished in below two hours — from unboxing to up and working within the yard.

In distinction, organising the previous robotic mower, the EcoFlow Blade, was a tedious, two-person job as a result of it could not get a ok sign irrespective of the place we positioned the GNSS antenna in our yard. For the Mammotion Luba 2, we hadn’t even put the antenna within the yard—it was nonetheless propped up on the deck—but it was already related to the mower and dealing effective.

We had been so cautious about the place we put the EcoFlow antenna due to the sign points throughout the set up course of, and right here, the Luba 2’s antenna seamlessly related by itself from a random place on the deck. If that does not let you know it is a extra superior RTK-GNSS system, I do not know what does. I will replace my evaluate of the Luba 2 as soon as I set up the pole completely, add the Storage, and do a few months’ price of testing. 

Mapping is straightforward and fairly enjoyable. You simply stroll behind it, steering it round your yard utilizing your smartphone with the Mammotion app as a distant management. After you full the mapping course of, the Luba 2 mows the route independently. The app additionally permits you to give the mower a reputation, so naturally, I named it Andretti because it resembles a System 1 automobile (and likewise so I can ask my husband whether or not Andretti has performed its runs immediately).  

We have been getting loads of rain currently, which has made the grass develop like loopy. This quick development has ensured Andretti’s work is lower out for it and helped me collect many hours of testing over the previous couple of months.

All through testing, I’ve discovered the Mammotion Luba 2 able to navigating uneven terrain with out affecting its map. For instance, when different robotic mowers slide down a slope sideways, it typically disrupts their mapping, and as a substitute of correcting their place, they proceed from an incorrect spot. This ends in missed patches and the mower winding up exterior the protection space. In my testing, the Luba 2 by no means fell sufferer to this glitch. Though it did slide down a number of occasions, it all the time righted its positioning and maintained the identical map. 

Sadly, the Mammotion app is not very intuitive; altering settings would require some menu looking and trial and error. Nevertheless, it’s loaded with options. You need to use the app to vary the mowing sample from stripes to checkered and extra, arrange totally different zones, together with no-go zones for swimming pools or backyard beds, prepare the trail order, and modify the mowing top. 

When mapping, the perimeter you stroll with the Luba 2 is identical that might be adopted when the robotic is out mowing. It is a bit difficult to stroll and steer the robotic in a superbly straight line alongside the perimeter of your property, so I want you might straighten boundary strains within the app after creating the map. 

The Luba 2 proved irreverently constant when mowing alongside the perimeter. I can see the robotic mowing alongside curved strains that I mistakenly made throughout mapping, nevertheless it does it the identical approach each time.

Although the Mammotion Luba 2 seems to be just like the Ferrari of mowers, it does the laps across the garden at its personal tempo. It isn’t gradual in comparison with different robotic mowers, however do not count on it to reside as much as its seems to be and develop into a turbo turf-tamer. 

My Luba 2 drifted from its path six occasions throughout testing. A type of occasions, it ended up in my neighbor’s yard, which is far lower than supreme as they’re very specific about how they mow it, however this seems to have occurred throughout positioning and never when the blades have been engaged, fortunately. One other time, it failed by going below the deck and dropping its sign. It wasn’t ever alleged to go below the deck, however I suppose it was taking a shortcut to the pole place (I’m really sorry about that one). 

It’s also possible to steer the robotic within the app to manually mow over powerful areas the place you suppose it could drift away – that is additionally an excellent characteristic for touching up areas that want it. The Mammotion app additionally provides first-person view (FPV), so you’ll be able to examine the place your robotic is at any time if it will get stranded and you are not there to see it. 

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

I am conscious these GPS-powered robots make errors as this new know-how continues to be being perfected for accuracy, so I usually do not thoughts these hiccups. However I do discover the Mammotion Luba 2 is far much less susceptible to errors than the EcoFlow Blade. I can depend a lot on Andretti following its map that I really feel okay letting it mow the unfenced entrance garden, even the choosy neighbors’ facet, one thing I might by no means let the Blade do. 

Lastly, I really like how quiet the Luba 2 is. One of many strangest issues about having a robotic mower is that it takes care of the garden so quietly that it could escape your discover. Total, I like to recommend the Mammotion Luba 2 for anybody who needs to reclaim a number of hours from the garden on their weekends.