ECOVACS Goat O1000 RTK Robot Lawn Mower, 1/4 Acres Lawn Perimeter Wire Free RTK&Vision Robotic Lawnmower, Automated Mapping, APP Control, 3D Obstacle Avoidance, Zero-Edge Cutting

I once owned a Robomow R500 several years ago, an old perimeter wire robotic mower and loved it. But after repairing breaks in the wire, several battery replacements (lead acid), you learn. What I liked about it was it had three streel blades each about 8in long and angled down. It could cut through really thick tall grass and it had a wide cutting area. I ran that for close to 10years. We named it “Curly” for Moe (mow), Larry and Curly. It eventually went to storage. So my wife gave me permission to buy a new one. So after a lot of looking, I wanted an RTK (hi-fidelity GPS) based model with some AI and computer vision smarts. One that showed up on my radar was the Ecovac GOAT O10000 RTK. It did everything the Mammotion Luba (my first choice), but the O1000 had a more budget friendly price. My biggest concern with the O10000 was the size and robustness of the single blade systems; the small cut size, and the 3 razor disk. After a couple of weeks of use now I can relax some. I’ve replaced the blades set once already but maybe could have gotten a few more cuts; the size of those blades seems to be standardized so no issue. The Ecovac app works well with the GOAT O1000 although it takes a while to learn. For example, I have a Front yard, back yard, behind the garage yard and the side of the house yard. The backyard is enclosed with a chainlink fence. So I needed a path that would connect the front-yard, (sections; I split it into 2 zones seperated by the front sidewalk) and side-yard so I created that joined all of those. One charge will get the the front and another will get will get the back. What is so amazing, is once it’s all mapped out and connected with the path the robot is all automatic. It mows it all in straight lines (you set the angle) and it can be scheduled to do all automatic. It is impressive how well it works. Sharp blades cut nice lawns so the results have been great. The charging takes about 1 1/2-2hr for 100%. So on mowdays (I’m mowing every 2days) I have zone(3)(2)(1) for the morning, then a 2hr rest (charge time), then zone(4) for the last time. It’s amazingly automatic and more or less hassle free. The only hassles I’ve had was the initial setup. In my first attempt, I place the robot under my steps hiding it from the weather… but that was a no-no. The robot itself needs to see clean GPS signals (regardless of the RTK pole). So having the robot base (charger) away from buildings or overhanging structures is important. While it has a generous amount of wire from the charge station to the power transformer, you need an outlet for it. I had one available but still needed a waterproof extension cord from the outlet to the power transformer. It’s all water proof so no problem, leaving everything uncovered. Anyway, once you get it all setup, you use the phone app (android or apple) to map the zones. It has automapping so it uses AI and computer vision to find an walk next to edges. You can manually take over for other operations to direct the mapping and later do manual no-mow zones. Once done, and your zone is done, it’s ready to go. Once you have zones defined, you just setup the paths connecting all you zones and your all set. I have mine doing front and side yards in pass one but it passes through the back gate. If I forget to open the gate, it simply returns to the charger base. If it’s open, it just follows the path right to the front section and goes to town. So I’ve noticed it doesn’t like tall tufts of onion-grass which is common in the “Bluegrass State” and see those as osbsticles. It handles the front yard tree well. I found it could not create a zone for a very narrow strip, it needs about 4ft width to create a zone, but mine was about 2 1/2ft. So you may still need a small mower for trimming and string trimmer. It’s a great machine, and value at sub $1000 at the moment. All and all, I’m already loving the Ecovac Goat O1000 RTK advanced robotic mower. Seriously 5 star.Update: I’ve used now about 30 times and I don’t think I would ever go back. The lawn is looking great an I’ve had very few issues with it. The app software takes a little time to learn how to map your lawn and connect everything with paths. My only frustration the manually steered mode would always disengage the mower left go of the steering button So you would have to stop and re-engage the the mower blades and resume (for example if you loose Bluetooth connectivity in manual mode). I had it get stuck twice at two specific locations in my lawn (which were holes I needed to fill in my lawn). If you have bushes that over hang low to the yard, the robot will assume they are obstacles and not go under them. However, what a time saver.. The front, sides and backyards are all mapped out, and I run the ‘GoatyO’ about every 2 days, first doing the back, then the front and sides. The biggest issue I had was placing the RTK tower and mower in a suitable location, as it needed to be away from the house and have electricity. Both the robot and tower have to see a min of 25 satellites and at first I thought it was just the RTK tower. The other small issue is it cuts the grass shorter than I’m used to. I have it set to it’s max which looks nice. I would also recommend when you do your mapping to cut and edge the grass first so that it has a clear look at the obstacles, like sidewalk edges, fences, garden edging, etc. All and all it’s the best deal going. I don’t ever want to go back. Beats that summer heat.