One thing Yarbo does ok with is answering tech replies. Might not always be the fastest of greatest response, but Lymow lack of response is just awe full.
Last week I contacted their support about on going issues with Lymow not charging (poor placement of charging contacts), and other issues with charging and performance and screws coming loose. I got a reply after a few days, that they are going to send a replacement mower. I reply back that I want to do the $500 payment so they send it, and then I return my mower to get the core deposite back. Then silence, nothing for a week. I have sent numerous emails, spammed the hell out of their fb page and nothing till, get this, today a response back that they are going to tell me where to send the $500 deposit in a future response, so basically no response worth a crap.
So take away is things can be worse than they are on this side of the fence. I think I have a 3 year warranty with Lymow, but what good is it?
I watch a lot of other robot mower groups and test another manufacturers mower too. Yarbo’s interaction with their customers is definitely the best in the industry that I’ve seen so far. A lot of the bigger manufacturers don’t respond at all. All the mowers have the same problems and challenges. I see the same complaints and problems in all the groups. But it’s how they handle them is what sets them apart. Yarbo may not always move at the speed the user wants, but they will always make it right. I understand they are resource constrained and I think they are aware of this and working to fix that. That unfortunately takes time to get staffed, trained, and for them to be experienced. When things change so radically with every update, it makes it hard for all the staff to keep up. It’s not necessarily a bad problem to have. It means they are pushing the team to improve the product and meet their promises and customer expectations. Yarbo is always listening and eager to change and adapt. They continue to iterate their products to improve them without discontinuing the product and rereleasing a new one that solves all the previous generations issues. Nor are they stopping software updates and support on the older ones. They’ve committed to support the 24 for at least 5 years, if not longer. They even still support the 23 with the same software updates. So far, it seems like they are keeping up that promise. They keep bringing software improvements and new features to the older models. I don’t think you can say that about a lot of the manufacturers. Robot mowers are still cutting edge tech but they are becoming more mainstream now with a ton of new companies entering the market. It’s going to be interesting when the tech becomes as stable and reliable as a modern day zero turn from one of the big name brands. I don’t think we are too off far from that.
Disappointing to hear that Lymow is still having difficulties with their customer service operation.
I don’t own a Lymow, but have been following them since their beginning. It seems they have been working hard to overcome their initial hardware related issues. Hopefully they can get things in order so they survive as a company.
I think competition in this space is healthy and is needed to push everyone to try harder and to continue to innovate. Yarbo has done well in maintaining their first mover advantage in modular robotics so far. No, they’re not perfect, but the product is completely novel and they’re learning and pivoting direction as they get real world feedback from the end user community.
To mirror what Bryan said, I think Yarbo’s online presence and engagement with the end users is absolutely top notch. I can’t think of another 'bot company with the same level of engagement.
Overall, I think it’s awesome seeing all of the innovation and cool new ideas that the industry has been developing. Robot mowers were pretty much stagnant for a long time. Now there are new features being introduced every time you blink your eyes!
One thing with Lymow is the charging. How does the thing make it to market with the charging contacts under the mower. This thing will not even go back and charge once on it’s own. I have to flip it up and use a cleaner and a paper towel to clean the dried grass goo off the contacts and then manually set it on the charger.
Now they moved the contacts on top but people are still having issues with grass goo and dirt stopping charging.
The rest of the mower is ok. It is smaller and cuts grass, turns easy, doesn’t seem to kill the grass as much as yarbo does. I think my back yard is 11,000 sq ft and it does a good job.
I like tech toys, that is why I purchased it, the real blades are a great thing also for my grass. At the time I did the kickstarter with Lymow there was no idea of yarbo pro. My backyard is fenced in so it is a great place to use it as I don’t have to keep the gate open like I did when using yarbo back there. Noise doesn’t bother me much, but the Lymow is nice that is does not whine like yarbo does.
I have an Apollo on order, if it ever gets here. That will be a interesting setup. I like the belly mount mower, and large tires. The snowblower is what really interested me as it is a larger unit and seems to handle heavy and hard snow better. Seems to turn better also with ground clearance and snow tires for winter use.
I hope Apollo makes it to market. We need another competitor in the ‘heavyweight division’ where Yarbo Y series plays.
The thing that caught my eye the most from them was their huge battery capacity. Something like 2 kWh!! I think that’s a good way to quantify the size and capability of the robot.
One red flag perhaps is that I didn’t see them at CES this year. I would have expected them to be there with a functional prototype.
I would certainly be interested to add another smaller robot mower to my yard, but it will never be a Liemow. The first issue is that they turned their product into the anti-Yarbo. They badmouth and make fun of Yarbo any chance they get, while also stealing any portions of Yarbo that they could. Even the apps use the same terms. They also spend so much time on Yarbo forums trying to knock down Yarbo’s product instead of making theirs better. The result is a warmed over Yarbo-tribute. There are some improvements of course, but it does nothing to differentiate itself so it is already dated technology with a few changes. And for all their complaining, Liemow moved from version 1 to version 2 so fast it even made the fanboys’ heads spin.
Take a look instead at the new Ecovacs A series. It is quite obvious that Ecovacs didn’t sit in a boardroom, dismantling Yarbo and trying to re-do it. The Ecovacs is an entire new kind of design and thought. You wouldn’t even compare the two because they are different kinds of products made for different applications.
I would suggest Mammotion as an alternative for normal sized yards. Of course nothing is perfect, and they have their issues just like everyone else. But I think they have the best overall user experience among all the newcomer robot mower companies.
I haven’t tried the new Luba 3 yet, but my Luba 2 bots and my Yuka bot are still going strong.
Mammotion ≠ Yarbo though. I think the use cases have overlap, but are also different. Both systems provide value in my yard.
Ecovacs is in a different league of mowers, my yard needs a large mower as I mow closer to 5 acres that can grow really fast, yarbo itself could not keep up a few times last year. Between rain and slow charging in the heat, it really hurts yarbo’s max mowing capacity.
Ecovac does look interesting from the limited info I found on it with lidar and a built in trimmer. If they could make a larger version with real blades…
This is the reason why I don’t buy one to test and play with. The trash talk was such a turnoff to the product and it’s a product I still want but won’t give them my money.
You don’t want one. I bought mine during kickstart so way before any bashing. But you seriously do not want one. It has too many issues and no support. The plus may be better but I hear a lot of the same bitching and even a few new problems.
Roborock’s new bots look interesting. They’re four wheel drive, but the front wheels have a nifty motorized steering system that should be more gentle on the grass.
Again, their bots aren’t in the same weight class as Yarbo, but I had a really good first impression playing with them at CES and talking to the lead engineer. if I was a consumer in the market for a bot of that size, they’d be on my short list.