This Robotic Lawnmower Fails on All Counts.
The most remarkable thing I’ve learned about robotic lawnmowers is that how the mower works matters. Initially, all of these lawnmowers used underground wires to define boundaries that the robots could not cross. Then RTK (which stands for “real-time kinematic positioning” – essentially GPS with some additional localized data) allowed people to determine the boundary wirelessly by simply guiding the robot around the perimeter of the yard during installation, as long as the robot was within sight of the RTK tower. Now Ecovacs has tried something new with the GOAT GX-600 ($999): The device simply uses LiDAR to determine where to mow and where not to mow. (LiDAR is what robot vacuum cleaners use.)
The problem is that it doesn’t work. Even though I tried the GOAT on several different lawn configurations, I was never able to get it to complete a single run. He could not see the entire lawn, often mowed the same area back and forth over and over again instead of moving into new territory, ignored boundaries such as sidewalks, and refused to cross boundaries that he was supposed to cross, such as walkways. Plus, it got stuck so often (even on flat, freshly cut grass) that it was hard to imagine you’d ever feel confident enough to let the GOAT operate autonomously, which is the whole point of the robot.
At least it’s light here
This is actually the third iteration of GOAT, and while GOAT v1 and v2 appear to be more successful based on previous reviews, neither is available anymore. To its credit, the GX-600 was the simplest robotic lawnmower I’ve tested. The entire charging base is supplied already assembled, just like the robot. No additional parts, wires or RTK towers – you just plug it in and send the robot to explore your lawn. The plastic base and robot were light enough to move around (which I did often).
Problematic connections
It took a few tries to pair the GOAT with the app, but it was still easy enough to do in less than 10 minutes by turning the robot off and on. With most lawnmower apps, you can access a variety of settings from the app’s interface, whether the mower is plugged in or not. With Ecovacs, you can only access these settings when the mower is online. Once this happens, you will be able to connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, although some operations will require Bluetooth. You set up most of the operations on the robot itself, such as adjusting the height of the lawn. In the app, you can set schedules and choose whether the robot will work in automatic or manual mode. Manual mode is code for “remote control,” a feature that’s easier to find in other apps. I regularly had trouble connecting to the robot via Bluetooth, even when it was only 10 feet away, which is a requirement for manual mode. I had to frequently use manual mode on the GOAT to try to move it away from an area it was having problems with, and I struggled to connect and maintain that connection.
Too picky about his interests
Most robotic lawn mowers claim to be able to work on most lawns, limited only by area and slope. GOAT, depending on the display method, differs. Ecovacs has an entire pre-purchase test to help you decide if GOAT is right for you, and there are a few parameters that may rule your lawn out. First, your lawn should be enclosed by a physical boundary, such as a fence or sidewalk. Secondly, it must be essentially continuous – it can only be divided by a single passage less than 1 meter (three feet) wide. Third, any indoor “islands” such as garden beds, raised beds or other obstacles such as garden furniture should have a physical barrier around them that the robot can sense.
Promised features didn’t work
On the first lawn I tried—which was a large expanse of grass with no islands or anything, but sloped, surrounded by fences and sidewalks, and separated by a single 24-inch path—the GOAT never completed a single mowing cycle. The GOAT was able to find the edge of the first half of the lawn and made a few circles around it and then began to mow. Instead of mowing the lawn, he mowed the same strip up and back for almost 20 minutes and then moved only slightly so that he was still getting half of the same strip of lawn. In an hour, he did not have time to clean half the lawn and eventually died on the sidewalk. Since the sidewalk is supposed to be one of the boundaries the robot will respect, I was surprised that it even dared to step onto it, making it a tripping hazard and a prime candidate for theft. At the same time, he refused to cross the 24-inch gap, which was well below the three-foot threshold.
Through slow and painful movements back and forth with support over several days, they first reminded me that the robot can only cross a threshold of already three feet. When I said that it was, they came back and said that the robot couldn’t cross any threshold and I could just pick the robot up, put it back on the other side and send it out to mow. This didn’t work either – the mower gave an error message saying it had moved outside the displayed area, and lifting the mower meant re-entering the PIN on the robot. Worse, in most cases the robot refused to return to the dock. Even when the docking station was placed in exactly the recommended location, the robot returned to the docking station approximately 60% of the time. However, I tried sending the robot every day for a week to see if the situation improved before giving up.
There’s nothing better than a perfect lawn
I then tried out the GOAT in a medium-sized backyard that had a flat and well-kept lawn, no islands and, most importantly, completely surrounded by fencing. When we showed up, he had just been mowed down. I just wanted to see if the GOAT could make one full run. Even on a completely flat surface, the robot’s blades would get stuck every few feet, causing it to stop and report an error. From the app you can “ignore” these errors, so after checking for blockage the first few times, I started ignoring these errors and asking the mower to continue. This only lasted a few inches before another error occurred. I tried moving the robot to a different spot on the lawn to see if that would help, but it didn’t. At least on this lawn, the robot returned to the dock.
On my last attempt, a small, fully fenced 30×15 foot lawn, we experienced the same thing. The GOAT would stop moving along the border and when it started mowing the inside it would miss huge swathes of lawn and often report errors.
Complete failure
I liked the Ecovac robot vacuum cleaners; I trust this brand to produce reliable robots for the home. But I’ve never had an experience like this where every aspect of a product fails. GOAT has yet to accurately mark the boundary for me or mow all the space within the boundary it creates. He is unreliable when returning to the dock and has gone into places he shouldn’t (like sidewalks) more than once. It’s difficult to connect to via Bluetooth, making some features like manual mode unusable, and it can’t navigate a completely flat lawn (and one that’s already mowed!) without reporting constant errors.
Key functions of the robotic lawnmower are missing.
At this point, it’s silly to mention the price ($999) since I haven’t said much to convince you to buy this particular robot. For most lawn robots this is in the mid to lower range and I’d like to try the next GOAT to see how it changes. However, GOAT’s broken features aside, this robot does not include many features important in other models, such as the ability to influence the mowing pattern, support for multiple zones, the ability to see where your robot is on the map or what areas of the map have been beveled and some not. There is a big difference between a robot vacuum cleaner and a robot lawn mower. A robot lost in your living room can’t do much harm. You can stick a vacuum cleaner under the sofa for weeks without anyone stealing it or tripping over it. On the other hand, we need to have a lot of faith that our robots are truly autonomous and will do what they are designed to do, so they won’t become a threat or be vulnerable to theft. Perhaps another mower will convince me that the non-RTK mapping method works, but for now I’m sticking with mowers that allow you to set a boundary and then stick to it. The Mammotion Luba 2 is incredibly durable for large lawns, steep slopes or rough terrain. For small lawns or lawns with small turns and delicate areas, I recommend the Segway Navimow .