I live in Syracuse, NY - the snowiest city in the country. Would a Yarbo be able to keep up with it?
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Lots of users all over the world in snowy areas are using it fine. Key is to send it out often. Around every 1-2 inches. It doesn’t care about working in middle of the storm.
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I’m in Buffalo. As long as you send it out often as Bryan stated its ok. I had issues trying to clear 2 feet, thats what we had when Yarbo was delivered to me last year, on the sidewalk . It kept getting stuck at the end of the sidewalk. It cleared the driveway just fine.
It does have issues with clearing the end of the driveway after the plow goes by though. I usually have to go out with my Ariens to clear that. It doesn’t do well with the slush/compacted snow/ice chunks that the plow leaves.
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Of course! Yarbo can definitely handle it. The Yarbo Snow Blower is designed to operate outdoors and perform well even in heavy snow conditions.
It features snowfall notifications and an auto-schedule mode, allowing Yarbo to automatically clear unexpected snowfalls—even those that happen overnight—so you can sleep worry-free.
There’s also a “Work Twice” feature that helps deal with big storms by running multiple clearing passes. And for wet or slushy snow, you can switch to the plow blade for better performance.
Yarbo Snow Blower is a reliable choice to get you through the snowy Syracuse winter with ease.
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Let’s be honest here. That is a false statement. It will not clear the berm left by the plow at the end of the driveway most of the time.
If it wet slushy snow Yarbo will struggle with that.
That is true if it can get steady GPS signal, it has cloud connectivity and the snow is not slush.
If its on a schedule it won’t automatically switch between the blower and the plow. That’s a manual process and the plow is a separate purchase.
I think this is partly the reason people get so frustrated with Yarbo. They are promising golden eggs and we end up with Humpty Dumpty.
Here’s my advice. Set true expectations. That way the consumer knows what they are getting into. Making false promises is only going to give Yarbo a bad name.
I’ve brought this up multiple times and Yarbo has yet to comment on it. The snow blower does not honor no snow areas. While it adjusts the chute it doesn’t disengage the auger or its forward motion which causes it to throw snow/ice into the street/traffic, into the garage or at your car.
I like my Yarbo and it assists with my yard maintenance but it is not a carefree experience.
Yarbo does not take care of WNY snow with ease. It helps but it is not the end all solution.
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There is a trick that mostly stops the chute from… becoming a machine gun at oncoming traffic, or the house.
Do the apron as its own area. Make it the entire width of the driveway, and ensure that it’s length is shorter than that. You want to ensure that the width is the “longest edge” of that area. Aim the chute up the driveway for that area. The goal is to have the solver make a path that’s left-right instead of down-and-back. Watching the S1’s aiming behavior, it’ll never point towards the road as it turns as it does that area.
Map the driveway as usual, ensure that it overlaps the apron, completely.
You’ll run the apron before you do the main driveway, and use that cleared apron as the turn-around. Obviously, you want the main driveway to be down-n-back, and when the turn-arounds will take place the chute will be empty.
Add other areas where turn-arounds take place, as needed. Or use side-walks to pre-clear stuff. The idea is to have the chute be empty when turning in a risky area.
Mine did for the last three snow storms here, but nothing competes with a 3foot bank left by a town plow. Or city plow, I’d expect. Especially if they salt.
It will not be a “hands free” or “set and forget” solution. If you want a hobby, you will love this. If you’re a regular at Walts, you will absolutely love this. As a system it mostly works, but you’ll always be adjusting things or monitoring, and always planning for where the cars are, and potentially dealing with the plow bank. If that’s not for you, you’ll want to stick with a gasser or plow truck.
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What is a Walts?
I feel like I need to go there….
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m pretty sure I’m already doing what you suggested but I’ll take another look. Apron is a separate area where its width is longer than it’s length. It does go left to right. I will remap this year and see what I can change. Now that I have more experience with it maybe I can get it to work a little better.
That still doesn’t solve the overall issue though. Cars are sometimes in the driveway, the the garage door is sometimes open, etc. We should be able to setup no-throw zones where it never throws snow. It would be nice to also have a toggle to make NGZs no-throw areas as well. I’d like both options not either or.
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Getting realistic about heavy snow, I think if you monitor the snowfall and send it out as necessary, Yarbo can handle most situations. But I think it’s a mistake with any robot to think you will never need a plan B.
I have a robovac but I also need to use a manual vacuum and mop sometimes. Likewise I used Yarbo in NE Ohio for 90% of snow situations, but I still used a snowblower for certain circumstances, whether it’s waiting for parts, doing the apron, or handling unexpected heavy snow.
This doesn’t mean that Yarbo didn’t save me tons of time, because it did.
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Indeed.
Pretty safe bet that Yarbo isn’t going to handle that one day each year that they get snow in Buffalo, lol. And for that case, you need a plan to find where it ended up, before you hire a payloader.
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LOL, that’s no joke. The other issue I’ve run into is even if you snowblow every hour the accumulation on the sides of the sidewalk don’t get cleared. Over time Yarbo gets stuck backing up. The sidewalk could be clear but have 2 to 4 feet of snow on either side.
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I want to see Yarbo come crashing through that like the kool-aid man! Oh yeah! 
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Just draw a no-go, it’ll happen 
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I ended up including parts of the lawn in order to avoid that stuck-n-reverse when it turns around. I don’t know how well that idea would work over a long term, however.
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I tried that as well. It didn’t work out with the amount of snow we had last year. We already had a few feet by the time I received the unit. I’ll see what happens this year when I can start before the snow gets a chance to pile up.
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OH YEAH…. Definitely can’t go there…