So far, every day that I have had the Yarbo, I have had problems. I ordered the core with the mower during the Father’s Day sale, only to have the pro mower model come out right after the sale ended. After waiting for the right time to buy, it’s a slap in the face to offer an upgrade right after a sale like that. Especially, because the original mower sucks.
The non-pro mower attachment is terrible. It takes at minimum 4 passes to cut the grass to the point where it looks decent. After looking closely, you can tell that the machine pushes the grass over instead of cutting. Most conventional mowers create an upwards draft with their blades that make the blade more efficient at cutting, but not Yarbo. My grass has patches everywhere. The stripes you get after a cut with the Yarbo, go away quickly after your sprinklers come on, and you are left with ugly patches and uneven cuts.
The charge station can work great, but if you get any rocks or grass on it, it won’t charge. I had to clear all the debris that the tracks drag into the pad before it would charge. My Yarbo drained down to 0% and failed to take a charge even after plugging in the cord, because of debris on the pad. I tried everything to get it to charge, but there are no instructions on how to fix this. Eventually I tried holding down the activate button for 10 seconds, and it powered on and started charging. On the power cord, it only charge 3-4% over 30 mins, so I unplugged it and used the controller to dock it.
The track on the right side of my machine stopped working halfway through a cut, in the middle of my yard. I had a warning on the app that something might be stuck in the track, so I removed the track in accordance with the instructions and there was nothing that I could see blocking the track. I can’t seem to get it unstuck. I tried rocking the machine back and forth and it still won’t budge, nothing short of a complete disassembly of the right side hardware will fix this problem. I’m a mechanic and it feels like I will void the warranty if I do that.
The app keeps changing my schedule plan. I set the schedule to start at 5am PST and then reopened the schedule and it reverted to 8am GMT. I kept changing it back, 3-4 times and it still kept reverting to random times. I still don’t know if it’s properly saved.
Do not include gravel in your pathway, or put your dock in a gravel area. The small rock are easily stuck in the track, and the machine loves doing donuts in the rocks because of a “ghosts”. I have to rake my gravel constantly, because the machine keeps digging ruts.
So far, I have had this machine for just over a week, and it’s been nothing but problems. For the price I could have bought multiple really nice zero turn mowers, or even hired the best landscapers in my area to manicure my lawn for the next 5 years. It feels unfinished. Almost like the saying “a polished turd” I’m debating sending it back and getting a complete refund. So far, I don’t know if this was worth the investment. I think, if you are considering buying one, or any of the upcoming attachments, wait to see if they fix the problems first. I’m sure in a couple years the Yarbo will be great, but right now it’s not.