This racecar-looking robot mower mows a gorgeous lawn and is on sale for Black Friday

What is the deal?

The Mammotion Luba 2 3000H has been mowing my garden weekly like a well-oiled machine since July, which makes the present $350 Black Friday low cost even higher. 

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Mammotion Luba 2 3000H is accessible for $2,499, however a present Black Friday low cost brings its value right down to $2,149.
• Constructed to deal with uneven terrain, the Luba 2 is an all-wheel-drive (AWD) robotic mower with a GPS-powered perimeter that’s surprisingly straightforward to arrange. 
• Regardless of its largely constant efficiency, the Luba 2 veered off the map a number of occasions throughout testing. Also, the Mammotion app is just not very user-friendly.

Mowing the garden is one in every of 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 get pleasure from, 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 are taking the canine out for a stroll and are available dwelling to a superbly mowed garden regardless of it being an overgrown mess simply an hour earlier than. When you have been gone, the robotic mower took care of the unruly grass and left a phenomenal checkered sample in its wake. I am pleased 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. 

After I acquired the Mammotion Luba 2 for evaluation, the one wire-free GPS robotic mower I would beforehand used was the EcoFlow Blade. As you’ll be able to learn in that evaluation, 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 youngsters that no, we cannot be driving the robotic across the yard. 

This time, organising the mower fell to my husband on a day after I wasn’t dwelling. I deliberate on serving to him with the setup upon my return, however I used to be pleasantly shocked to seek out all of it performed after I returned. Actually, he had nothing however reward for the Mammotion’s straightforward setup, because it was accomplished in underneath two hours — from unboxing to up and operating 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 adequate 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 advantageous.

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 inform you it is a extra superior RTK-GNSS system, I do not know what does. I will replace my evaluation of the Luba 2 as soon as I set up the pole completely, add the Storage, and do a few months’ value of testing. 

Mapping is simple 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 enables you to give the mower a reputation, so naturally, I named it Andretti because it resembles a Method 1 automotive (and in addition so I can ask my husband whether or not Andretti has performed its runs in the present day).  

We have been getting lots of rain these days, which has made the grass develop like loopy. This quick development has ensured Andretti’s work is reduce 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 an alternative 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 at all times 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 should use the app to alter the mowing sample from stripes to checkered and extra, arrange completely different zones, together with no-go zones for swimming pools or backyard beds, prepare the trail order, and alter the mowing top. 

When mapping, the perimeter you stroll with the Luba 2 is similar that shall 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 possibly can 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, but it surely does it the identical method 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 is not gradual in comparison with different robotic mowers, however do not count on it to dwell as much as its seems to be and change into a turbo turf-tamer. 

My Luba 2 drifted from its path six occasions throughout testing. A kind of occasions, it ended up in my neighbor’s yard, which is way lower than best 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 underneath the deck and shedding its sign. It wasn’t ever imagined to go underneath the deck, however I assume it was taking a shortcut to the pole place (I’m really sorry about that one). 

You can even steer the robotic within the app to manually mow over robust areas the place you assume it could drift away – that is additionally a very good characteristic for touching up areas that want it. The Mammotion app additionally provides first-person view (FPV), so you’ll be able to verify 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 expertise remains to be being perfected for accuracy, so I typically do not thoughts these hiccups. However I do discover the Mammotion Luba 2 is way much less liable to errors than the EcoFlow Blade. I can rely 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 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 may possibly escape your discover. General, I like to recommend the Mammotion Luba 2 for anybody who desires to reclaim a number of hours from the garden on their weekends.