What is the deal?
The Mammotion Luba 2 3000H has been mowing my garden weekly like a well-oiled machine since July, which makes the present $350 Black Friday low cost even higher.
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Mammotion Luba 2 3000H is out there for $2,499, however a present Black Friday low cost brings its value right down to $2,149.
- Constructed to deal with uneven terrain, the Luba 2 is an all-wheel-drive (AWD) robotic mower with a GPS-powered perimeter that’s surprisingly simple to arrange.
- Regardless of its principally constant efficiency, the Luba 2 veered off the map just a few instances throughout testing. Additionally, the Mammotion app just isn’t very user-friendly.
Mowing the garden is one in every of my favourite chores. It lets me concentrate on an uninterrupted process that satisfies my OCD, with the bonus of finishing my train ring on my Apple Watch. However despite the fact that it is a chore I get pleasure from, it nonetheless steals a few hours away from my all-too-short weekend.
That is the place the Mammotion Luba 2 is available in. Think about the scene: you are taking the canine out for a stroll and are available house to a superbly mowed garden regardless of it being an overgrown mess simply an hour earlier than. When you had been gone, the robotic mower took care of the unruly grass and left a gorgeous checkered sample in its wake. I am joyful to say that this dream grew to become a actuality with the Luba 2, and though it has its quirks, it handles the chore of garden mowing with effectivity and ease.
Once I obtained the Mammotion Luba 2 for assessment, the one wire-free GPS robotic mower I might beforehand used was the EcoFlow Blade. As you may learn in that assessment, establishing the Blade was dreadful. It occupied hours of my Sunday afternoon, leading to bickering between my husband and me and repeated explanations to the youngsters that no, we cannot be using the robotic across the yard.
This time, establishing the mower fell to my husband on a day once I wasn’t house. I deliberate on serving to him with the setup upon my return, however I used to be pleasantly shocked to seek out all of it executed once I returned. In truth, he had nothing however reward for the Mammotion’s simple setup, because it was accomplished in below two hours — from unboxing to up and operating within the yard.
In distinction, establishing the previous robotic mower, the EcoFlow Blade, was a tedious, two-person job as a result of it could not get a adequate sign irrespective of the place we positioned the GNSS antenna in our yard. For the Mammotion Luba 2, we hadn’t even put the antenna within the yard—it was nonetheless propped up on the deck—but it was already related to the mower and dealing effective.
We had been so cautious about the place we put the EcoFlow antenna due to the sign points in the course of the set up course of, and right here, the Luba 2’s antenna seamlessly related by itself from a random place on the deck. If that does not inform you it is a extra superior RTK-GNSS system, I do not know what does. I will replace my assessment of the Luba 2 as soon as I set up the pole completely, add the Storage, and do a few months’ price of testing.
Mapping is straightforward and fairly enjoyable. You simply stroll behind it, steering it round your yard utilizing your smartphone with the Mammotion app as a distant management. After you full the mapping course of, the Luba 2 mows the route independently. The app additionally permits you to give the mower a reputation, so naturally, I named it Andretti because it resembles a Method 1 automotive (and likewise so I can ask my husband whether or not Andretti has executed its runs at the moment).
We have been getting numerous rain recently, which has made the grass develop like loopy. This quick development has ensured Andretti’s work is reduce out for it and helped me collect many hours of testing over the previous couple of months.
All through testing, I’ve discovered the Mammotion Luba 2 able to navigating uneven terrain with out affecting its map. For instance, when different robotic mowers slide down a slope sideways, it usually disrupts their mapping, and as an alternative of correcting their place, they proceed from an incorrect spot. This leads to missed patches and the mower winding up outdoors the protection space. In my testing, the Luba 2 by no means fell sufferer to this glitch. Though it did slide down just a few instances, it all the time righted its positioning and maintained the identical map.
Sadly, the Mammotion app is not very intuitive; altering settings would require some menu searching and trial and error. Nevertheless, it’s loaded with options. You should use the app to vary the mowing sample from stripes to checkered and extra, arrange completely different zones, together with no-go zones for swimming pools or backyard beds, organize the trail order, and alter the mowing top.
When mapping, the perimeter you stroll with the Luba 2 is identical that might be adopted when the robotic is out mowing. It is a bit difficult to stroll and steer the robotic in a superbly straight line alongside the perimeter of your property, so I want you would straighten boundary traces within the app after creating the map.
The Luba 2 proved irreverently constant when mowing alongside the perimeter. I can see the robotic mowing alongside curved traces that I mistakenly made throughout mapping, however it does it the identical method each time.
Although the Mammotion Luba 2 appears just like the Ferrari of mowers, it does the laps across the garden at its personal tempo. It isn’t sluggish in comparison with different robotic mowers, however do not anticipate it to stay as much as its appears and turn out to be a turbo turf-tamer.
My Luba 2 drifted from its path six instances throughout testing. A type of instances, it ended up in my neighbor’s yard, which is far lower than ultimate as they’re very specific about how they mow it, however this seems to have occurred throughout positioning and never when the blades had been engaged, fortunately. One other time, it failed by going below the deck and dropping its sign. It wasn’t ever purported to go below the deck, however I suppose it was taking a shortcut to the pole place (I’m really sorry about that one).
It’s also possible to steer the robotic within the app to manually mow over powerful areas the place you assume it might drift away – that is additionally a superb function for touching up areas that want it. The Mammotion app additionally provides first-person view (FPV), so you may test the place your robotic is at any time if it will get stranded and you are not there to see it.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
I am conscious these GPS-powered robots make errors as this new expertise continues to be being perfected for accuracy, so I typically do not thoughts these hiccups. However I do discover the Mammotion Luba 2 is far much less susceptible to errors than the EcoFlow Blade. I can depend a lot on Andretti following its map that I really feel okay letting it mow the unfenced entrance garden, even the choosy neighbors’ aspect, one thing I might by no means let the Blade do.
Lastly, I like how quiet the Luba 2 is. One of many strangest issues about having a robotic mower is that it takes care of the garden so quietly that it could escape your discover. General, I like to recommend the Mammotion Luba 2 for anybody who desires to reclaim just a few hours from the garden on their weekends.
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