As a family of five with three young children who spend most of their time playing in the yard on our acre of land, the Yarbo robot lawn mower seemed like a no-brainer for us.
Marketed as an all-season yard master, the Yarbo is engineered for massive lawns like ours and capable of mowing up to a whopping 6.2 acres with a 38.4Ah battery and a 20-inch cutting width. It promises professional-level precision and AI-powered navigation. I’ll admit — it sounded incredible. A single robot that could mow the entire lawn? Sign me up.
On paper, it’s the future of lawn care. But in reality, at least for us, it felt more like a full-time tech project just to set up and the overall cutting left us reaching for gas mower once again.
Setup: a steep learning curve
If you’re hoping for a robot mower you can unbox and start using immediately, the Yarbo isn’t that. To be fair, no robot lawnmowers I've reviewed have ever been quick to set up. But this thing is a tank, sturdy and seriously heavy. As a petite woman, I couldn’t have set it up alone, and I doubt many people could. Seniors or users looking for convenience should plan on having help right from the start.
You’ll want to use the QR code on the box to help with setup. And keep in mind that patience is key. Getting the Yarbo Pro to actually work takes time, persistence, a good Wi-Fi signal, and for us, an entire weekend.
We spent the better part of a Saturday setting up its RTK base station, calibrating GPS, mapping the yard and adjusting mowing zones in the app. It wasn’t complicated in the technical sense — just tedious. You have to get the base station positioned perfectly with a clear line of sight, or the mower loses its bearings.
The Yarbo can connect wirelessly to your router, but we - like others - had trouble with this approach, so we ended up using an ethernet cable. For us, this meant opening our bedroom window a crack to let the cable through; not ideal.
For us, it felt like more setup than it was worth. While Yarbo promises “effortless large area mowing,” the reality is that it takes real effort just to get there.
It took so long to set up, we actually had to mow in the meantime. It was frustrating to say the least.
Power and performance
It took a few weekends to set up because we have three kids and a busy schedule to juggle – the whole reason a mower like this is useful.
Once it was up and running, though, the Yarbo’s power is undeniable. The Yarbo Pro’s 20-inch cutting width and adjustable height (1.2 to 4 inches) deliver a clean, even cut across wide lawns. It tackled tall grass and uneven ground with ease, covering our acre of land with ease.
The real standout is its traction. The patented all-terrain tracks let it handle hills up to a 70% slope — far steeper than most robot mowers can manage. It climbed our backyard incline like it was nothing.
And thanks to its advanced navigation — a combo of RTK GPS, six HD cameras and two ultrasonic radars — Yarbo can detect obstacles and auto-adjust its path. It rarely collided with anything, even when navigating around trees, the pool, trampoline, playhouse and swing set.
Unlike other robot mowers I’ve tested, the Yarbo Pro uses some seriously awesome blades. Known as dual cutting discs, each one is outfitted with multiple razor-type blades and comes with spare blades included — 40 in total, which was seriously impressive. Yet, despite those impressive blades, I felt completely comfortable with the robot around my kids. They are not exposed and the AI helps the Yarbo stay aware of obstacles, including humans and pets in the way. Plus, the headlights at night, are a huge bonus.
Yarbo claims the Pro version supports SK85 high‑carbon steel straight mulching blades as well as a reinforced 5‑razor‑blade disc option. These materials and designs aim to enhance durability, improve cut quality and support true mulching performance even in tougher grass.
You’ll definitely want to maintain the blades to avoid them getting overly dull, as this will degrade the quality of the cut. But in the month or so that we tested, the blades stayed sharp. The mowing job was amazing and well worth the effort of the time-consuming setup.
So yes, it’s powerful. It’s a dream machine when you can leave it to work while you go about your day. But all that power comes at a cost.
The modular dream
One of Yarbo’s biggest selling points is its modular design. In theory, you can swap out the mowing unit for a leaf blower or snow blower, making it useful year-round. That’s impressive, and something I’d be interested in trying to help eliminate shed clutter.
But keep in mind: those extra modules aren’t included. They’re sold separately, and together, they can push the system’s cost into the $6,000–$8,000 range.
For someone managing acres of property or a tech enthusiast who loves fine-tuning hardware, that might feel justified. For the average homeowner? It’s a hard pitch.
Remote control and smart scheduling
Through Yarbo’s app, you can map up to 100 mowing areas (much more than we needed), set no-go zones (this is helpful if you have a chicken coop, a pool, a garden or other areas to restrict), or even take manual control like a remote-control car (seriously fun!). That flexibility is impressive — but it also adds to the complexity.
We liked the idea of commanding it from anywhere, but half the time we just wanted it to mow without fuss. Between calibration, app connectivity, Wi-Fi issues and battery management, it didn’t always feel “smart.” Sometimes, simple really is better.
For example, we don’t have an outlet in our shed, so to charge it, we had to drag it to the garage, unplug any other power tools, hoverboards or ebikes charging. Again, this thing is a tank so it was very difficult for me to move. Controlling manually with the app can be tricky.
Price vs. practicality
At nearly $4,000 for just the mower configuration, Yarbo Pro is a serious investment. You could buy a premium riding mower for less — and use it the same day you bring it home.
Yes, Yarbo offers cutting-edge engineering, a rugged build, and the kind of AI navigation you’d expect on a self-driving car. But the question becomes: do you need all that just to cut grass? For us, the answer was no.
As someone who tests all things AI and smart for a living, this just wasn’t worth the hours of setup.
The bottom line
The Yarbo Pro is an ambitious, futuristic robot mower that can truly handle anything you throw at it — big lawns, steep slopes even multiple seasons. It’s powerful, precise and impressively built.
But it’s also expensive, complicated and time-consuming to set up. My husband and I left the experience more exhausted than amazed.
If you have several acres of land, a strong Wi-Fi connection, and the patience to fine-tune a robot with military-level navigation, the Yarbo Pro might blow you away.
But if you just want your grass cut without turning your weekend into hours of trial and error, you might be happier sticking with a traditional mower, or even a less expensive robot lawnmower.
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