It's been 3 weeks since I took delivery, and I've run it nearly every 3 days just to keep the grass consistent. After over a year of deliberation and research (and getting the grass to grow after a new build), it was time to buy a robot mower. I looked at every robot mower I could find and even watched over the last year as more than one startup failed. Even today, I wonder if the market has "settled", and I think there may still be more robot mower companies than will survive over the next few years, but I am hopeful that ECOVAC is in for the long haul. ECOVAC has a few mower sizes, but for my sized yard the A3000 and the A2500 were the contenders. I opted for the A3000 to avoid the need for the RTK base station or the need to locate the base station where it would be ensured to get the satellites needed – There just wasn't a good out-of-the-way spot with a good sky view and easy access to power (in spite of the generously long power cables). Our lot is a little over one-half acre and flat to gentle slope, and for the purposes of mowing, broken into four areas (see map picture). The front has a narrow strip on the west side that runs alongside the driveway and garage, up to a gate to the back. This gently slopes to the street, but part of it is a cliff to the neighbor’s yard, bordered with a concrete surface about 1 ft wide. The larger part of the front yard is gently sloping to the street with what is effectively a no-curb transition to the street and wraps around the house on the east side. Alongside the house is another gate from front to the backyard, which is fully fenced in. The fourth area is behind the backyard where the city has a large utility right-of-way, which is adjacent to another street. Unlike the front yard, the stretch of yard along this street is about 18-inche wide and about an 18-inch steep drop to the street. Key factors I considered included: lot size – cutting time, 2/4 wheel / tracks, cutting blade type, RTK antenna vs none, other online reviews, and absolutely no perimeter ‘wire’. Out of the box experience ========================= I don't have much to say about the grand opening of a packaging box. From my side, I see no need to praise a super fancy “experience” box that you throw away. That said, everything was well packed and came out easily – even w/o paying attention to the instructions. Assembly was easy as most things were completely obvious, and I only reviewed the guide to ensure I did not miss any important steps. Locating the Docking Station ============================ I had a couple of preferred places to choose from, one with a very convenient electric outlet, but crowding a walkway, and another that wasn't in a walkway but without convenient power. I chose the latter as the walkway is used a lot. And the long power cord (on each side of the power brick) was generously long – so much of it coiled up. The place I chose puts the dock on a concrete pad (so the stakes used to drill into the ground to hold it in place could not be used). I actually haven't done anything yet (after 3 weeks) – but have thought about laying down a bead of silicon caulking to stick the docking station down (see picture). The other aspect about the chosen location – it might not conform to the guide for the open space on 3 sides. But as I've watched it work its docking magic, it always succeeds. Mapping each Area ================= I started with the auto-mapping option. In the fully fenced in area, it might have succeeded just fine, but the grass was quite tall. I had ignored the instructions recommending mapping after mowing the old-fashioned way, which would give the mower a better view of the terrain. With the tall grass, it occasionally wanted to take a diversion around one spot or another. I did try some manual intervention to back it to correct it, but in the end, I just mapped it all manually and I think I came out with a better map. And with three areas that had no clear boundary with the neighbor’s yard, I think I made the right call. The area behind the backyard fence was the next challenge, and I'll admit, I struggled here for a couple of reasons. Taking the second challenge first – setting up a path to this area was a struggle. I guess I didn't practice the path procedure enough to have it work well for me. Back to the first challenge, my concern was about how busy this street is. The steepest part of my yard is also the last stretch alongside the street. I wanted to manually map above that roll-off area (aka 'small cliff') so the mower wouldn't find itself playing frogger in the traffic. I'll just run the weed whacker on that edge from time to time, as grass doesn't even grow there very well. Even my walk-behind often tried to tip over on that edge. There was one other problem – after I mapped the backyard, and the area behind the fence, the app "joined" those two areas. But I wanted them kept separate. I added a boundary where the fence was, but that didn't seem to convince the app that these were two areas, so I added a second boundary nudged over just a tiny bit and then called the narrow strip down the middle a no-go zone. The vision system would have kept it from hitting the fence anyway – so really this was a small inconvenience in the mapping. Mowing Performance ================== But what about the mowing performance? I can say it is doing great! I mentioned the grass was quite tall to begin with and even setting it up to the maximum height, it was still "work". The main area of the backyard required a charge cycle about 1/2 way through it, and because the grass was so tall, it left wind rows. I changed the mowing direction and immediately ran it again, and that helped, knocking down the wind rows. But after the first week of keeping the grass at a shorter height, running it every few days, all evidence of that is gone, and it is doing a fine job. Even the area behind the fence is working well. The first few times I worried about it – so parked a lawn chair where I could just sit back and watch. Cars whizzing by as it drives toward the street, turning where I put the manual boundary. I've begun to trust it well enough to not have to sit and watch. But it does make some odd turns, like it is unsure which way to go – and this isn't so comfortable to watch – and hoping it doesn’t make a bad move and end in the street. Once I got the lawn under control, it mows the full backyard in a single charge. And it mows the two areas in the front on a single charge. I have to open the gate for it to get outside the backyard, and I've usually better things to do that wait on it, so I generally just mow one area at a time, manually starting it. With this usage pattern, it always gets a chance to top off its charge. When it is mowing alongside the fence, it does a great job of hugging it pretty close, dodging out just a hair to swing around each fence post and then tucking back in along the panel sections. Connectivity ============ Some have expressed challenges with Wi-Fi connectivity, but for me, it has surpassed my expectation. My signal isn't very strong at the extremes of my yard, and yet when sitting in the house, I not only see it moving on the phone-app map, but I can pull the video stream too, and it comes out quite clean – until just after dusk when it is quite grainy – but I easily forgive that. I didn't expect that much reach, and that's in all directions around the house, yard, and fence. Cleanup ======= I don't have much to say about this, it is water resistant, and I've hit it with a garden hose both topside and bottom side to keep it clean. With two dogs, the wheels needed a bit of additional attention - but all in all it was easy to clean. What could it do better? ======================== I'd like it to drive into the corners better. It cuts the corners, perhaps so it doesn't have to back up. And some of the corners are not really corners – like a couple of areas bounded on three sides: a fence, the house, and a window well, or another spot between two window wells. Each is an area large enough for it to easily go into, if it backed out. I hope a future firmware update will give it that capability. And in two other corners, one is a 90-degree corner, and the other is even sharper – again if it could go into the corner and back out before making the turn that would reduce the trimming on my part. I'd also like to see it do a better job alongside the patio pavement. In the videos it will overlap the driveway and grass, and that is basically what I want here. But I haven't figured out how to convince it to do so, so it leaves a narrow grass strip. I'd like to see it improve in some turning actions. It is kind of like an indecision when making a 180 turn (see the video). Most of the time it does this well, just a simple turn to run the other direction on the next track. But there are times when it just doesn't seem to know which way to turn, so it turns partway one way and then spins the other way before it figures out how to finish the turn. When that's alongside the street, especially the busy street, it is a bit disconcerting. I'd really like it to make those turns more consistently. Straight lines are quite good, but it's like it 'drifted' a little over several days. Lines that were pretty much perfectly parallel to a fence were later on a few degrees off. The lines were still straight and parallel, so I'm confused on that. I did check how I had it set – and only to change directions weekly and not with any fractional angle. I would like more flexibility in the direction – sure, I can pick just about any direction, but there's two settings I'd like to change – one is in the area alongside the busy street, I'd like to set it to always mow that area parallel to the street – it won't worry me (or passing drivers) so much like when it headed straight for the street. And two, I'd like it to change directions more often than weekly. If each area could have independent settings for direction, change in direction, and how frequently, I think that would take care of this want. Automated gate opening/closing would be a great feature. I also recognize the difficulty of that with different gate styles, sizes, weights, and more. And of prime importance, it cannot let the dogs out. An alternative, in my case, would be automated garage door opening – I have an electric garage door at the front and the back and there’s a clear path between the two. This would have the convenience of the mower dock being in the garage (out of weather etc) and it would take the path it needed. But this doesn’t solve the escaping dog problem. Summary ======= It's only been three weeks since the A3000 appeared at my doorstep, but in that time it has performed very well. I'd say it has exceeded my expectation. This growing season is winding down, so it won't have too many more weeks before I move it into the garage for the winter. I'll need to read about the best practice for winter storage (in the garage, unplugged, ok, or does it need to be plugged in to keep the battery warm and healthy, and since I didn't stake the dock, will I have to map again next spring). I also didn’t get the garage, but I’m thinking of picking one up over the winter. The bottom line – This is a premium mower, but that comes at a premium price. I’ve been watching the market for well over a year, and while I have had only a brief hands-on with one other brand, I’ve read about them all, watched numerous videos, evaluated their yards vs mine, and ultimately, I selected the ECOVACS Goat A3000, and I’m happy with that choice. From my side – recommended.
