Anker’s lifestyle brand Eufy has swallowed up a large portion Now, its eyes are set on your yard. The company has been sharing details of its first two robot lawn mowers since the beginning of the year and now they are ready to start selling them. Eufy’s E15 and E18 are designed to automate one of the most boring jobs around a home if you can pay. I was testing the E15 in the last few weeks before my retail debut today and I was impressed.
Early robot mowers needed a boundary line to tell them where they were allowed to mow. However, if you end up moving, digging trenches on the lawn is time-consuming, expensive and undesirable. It prompts companies to move to other methods such as GPS or RTK (real-time kinematics) for navigation. However, Eufy is leveraging its computer vision proprietary technology to reduce fussy lawns, calling its technology “visually complete autonomous driving” or VFSD. Yes, I know. Anker says using a camera has many benefits for GP, such as more reliable mowing and better avoiding obstacles.
The E15 is able to cover up to 800 square meters of lawns, while the E18 will conquer the land up to 1200 square meters. If you assume like me the difference between the two is battery size, you’re going to misunderstand – both have the same 4,200mAh battery, but the E18 has more onboard memory to accommodate larger map sizes. Otherwise, they are the same machine, with adjustable cutting heights between 25-75mm, maximum climb of 18 degrees and a combined GPS/4G anti-theft system. One feature I really prefer is the garage (the charging station for lawn mowers) with rain covers, which means that if you are out there, there is increasing concern and the weather suddenly becomes a little intense. Not required, as the hardware is rated IPX6, enough to withstand the cleaning with hose.
As long as your lawn is well mowed, you can install the E15 without pain, with less than 3.5 inches of grass. All you need to do is secure the garage in place with some heavy floor screws, connect it to the power supply, and then connect it to the Wi-Fi of the house. Then all you need to do is send it to one or both map runs to make it understand your space.
My lawn was cut into the hills and had a sunken path that dropped 1.5 meters at one end, which was a problem. Since it maps visually, I chose to take care of the lawn mower in the process to make sure it doesn’t throw itself into the gap. I also have a small lean wood shed with a green roof (at the bottom of the divide) that I think is easy for computer vision systems to mistake grass, so I want to keep an eye on it. Once it made too much theft progress on that roof, I stopped, sent the E15 back to the garage, and established a distance area in the app before finishing the work.
However, once done, the E15 is easily placed in the rest of the space and ensures it is well close to the path without crossing. From there, you are doing all the attention in the application. You can set the cutting height to as low as 25mm or up to 75mm, and you can also set the movement and cutting speed of the device – if you are pressed, you can use more power. Also, you can arrange mowing and if the device detects rain or is too wet on the grass, it will return to the foundation until everything is dry.
One of my features is that this is the first machine I’ve come across, which allows you to set the cutting direction for the stripes. This is not to say that most of my Robomowers’ messy mowing has problems in itself, but that I always thought striped lawns were ideal. While the unit won’t have the kind of over-manipulated, inch-perfect stripes you’ll find at the tennis club, you can at least see the contrast.
Another benefit of the remote control is that if it does have problems and you are not at home, you can activate remote control mode. Not only can you access the camera feed, but you can trigger the screen controls to navigate from any tricky points you might be stuck in.
It’s fun, but something I didn’t notice, but my in-laws did it when they visited, which was the shock of the E15. When I ran the hardware to satisfy their curiosity, they were confused that the incident was spreading almost no noise on the lawn. Of course, it’s an uplifting feeling, especially if you choose to set this up early in the morning for a scheduled decor – it’s quiet and even the ants may not complain.
All in all, I like the package Eufy offers, and it even addresses some of my concerns about its computer vision system. If I had grip, it wasn’t about the electronics series at all, but more about this kind of product. First, robot lawn mowers may not get every square inch of the lawn, especially when some of your edges are cracked deep in the neighbors like mine. This means you still need to occasionally use weed bragging to mow the boundaries of the turf.
And, I still only like more control over the initial mapping phase to eliminate certain trials and errors. I’m hoping there is a system that allows me to use my phone as a tool to track the outer edges of the space by myself to set some basic expectations. Of course, the hardware still has to do everything it can to make sure it can get where I need it, but it can save us some busy work for both of us.
Eufy E15 (800 m²) and E18 (1,200 m²) are available for ordering today from Eufy and Amazon. The E15 will get you to send back $1,599, while the E18 will cost $1,999.
