Since there has only been discussion and I’ve answered this question a few different times in the last few days across various platforms, I figured I would make this request formally. I searched before hand trying to find this, but didn’t find a formal request. Apologies if I missed it.
Please offer one of the following solutions (or a combination) for correcting the behavior of automatically lowering the cutting height down to full down when the rover auto docks. This behavior is unexpected to the consumer and often leads to damage to the lawn, the cutting discs, or the blade guards when the rover is manually driven off the dock and the cutting discs/blades are in the full down position.
I understand the feature is for ease of maintenance for the mower module, but I personally do not do maintenance on the dock. I do this out in the yard closer to the garden hose. I suspect most people don’t do maintenance on the dock either.
Automatically raise the cutting height to 4 inches (or to the dock pathway setting) when charging is stopped manually.
Add a toggle in app to enable auto lower for maintenance or disable it. Default disabled.
Have a dock cutting height setting for the blades when docked. Default 4 inches.
One day, I manually drove Yarbo off the dock to do some quick grass clean up in an unmapped area of the yard. Drove Yarbo to the spot and turned on the blades. The blades immediately bogged down. Oh no! Is my Yarbo broken? Looked underneath and was shocked to see how low the blades were!
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve scalped my lawn more than once, and when I do maintenance, I drive it to my garage or hose spigot before lowering the blades.
Agree 100%, however allow me propose a 5th option:
Put the blades back to the height they were at when Yarbo arrived at the docking station before it moves to leave the docking stations. (Move by any means. Auto or manual)
This is probably the expected behavior.
It’s smart enough to lower them it is smart enough to raise them back to the original mowing height. And do it before Yarbo moves to leave the charging dock.
#1! I actually had disks break because I didn’t catch they were lowered all the way and my Yarbo crossed over a bump, which caught the disk and snapped it. Or, when Yarbo docks, lower to the lowest settings, when charging is discontinued, raise them back up with the pathway or previous settings. Easy fix!
I would add that personally I always forget to lower blades to min height before turning off, which is a bit of a pain cuz then you have to power back up, wait for bootup, then set blade and power down again. Maybe a MAINTENANCE option that sets everything up for the appropriate module then auto powers down could be cool. Even better would be to set a MAINTENANCE LOCATION WorkPlan, so you could select the option, Core drives to the spot first, then sets itself up and waits for your confirmation, leaving you with a chance to move it around a bit before it shuts down.
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention and for taking the time to share your detailed suggestions. We really appreciate your thoughtful feedback and the effort you put into explaining your experience.
I’ve passed your request along to our product team for review and consideration. Your input is very valuable to us as we continue to improve the user experience.
It’s been awhile so I might be hallucinating…but I think there’s a test clearing function in the app you can run and I believe I ran that and things looked good
