- VERDICT
The Ecovacs Robotics GOAT G1 can keep your lawn manicured without you lifting a finger – it is easy to set up and run and will save you time and the cost of hiring a gardener to do the work for you.
For many, mowing their lawn is a chore that’s right up there with vacuuming their carpets and mopping their floors. And it’s no coincidence then that ECOVACS ROBOTICS has extended its expertise from inside the house to the yard with the new GOAT G1 robot lawn mower.
The robot can do for your lawn what the other ECOVACS products can do for your carpets and hard floors inside your house.
Tech Guide has taken a hands-on look at the GOAT G1 from ECOVACS which was surprisingly easy to set up.
The idea of the GOAT G1 is to go out and keep your lawn trimmed and looking good rather than cutting long grass every couple of weeks like you would with a regular lawn mower.
In fact, ECOVACS says if your grass is 6cm or higher you will need to do a regular mow before putting the GOAT G1.
And that’s exactly what we had to do for our review.
Cutting the grass to the level you want is what you need to do so the GOAT G1 will keep it at this length without you having to lift a finger.
And for the record, ECOVACS named it the GOAT G1 – not to mean Greatest of All Time – but after the animal which happens like eating grass.
It was a straightforward setup which began with placing the charging station in an area of your yard which had plenty of space around it but near a power source.
The ECOVACS app steered us easily through the process which included linking to our wi-fi and even performing a firmware upgrade.
Next, we had to connect the two beacons which serve as boundary guides for the GOAT G1 in the yard.
Unlike other robot mowers, there was no need to run a boundary wire around the circumference of the lawn.
This often requires you to dig shallow trenches and hammer in the wiring with stakes.
The app presents various yard shapes and sizes and, if you can match your yard to one of these, it does make setup even faster.
Part of the process was to drive the GOAT G1 using the app like a remote control car around the edge of your lawn to map the mowing area.
You can see within the app as the map of your yard is being built – in much the same way that any Ecovacs Deebot would map your floor plan.
It also does this for the same reason, to establish the most efficient mowing path.
ECOVACS has taken a lot of the technology from its robot vacuums and brought it to the GOAT G1.
One of those technologies is obstacle avoidance with its AIVI 3D technology and a 150-degree fisheye camera which can not only detect objects in its path but navigate around them.
It can see objects as small as three centimetres which could include hoses pets, rocks and toys.
If you have dogs, we can’t tell you whether the GOAT G1 will be able to detect their poo as an obstacle so it might be an idea to clean up after them before you deploy the GOAT G1.
We tested the obstacle avoidance for our review by putting a rolled up hose in the G1’s path. It stopped short and went around it.
But a word of warning if the hose isn’t coiled high enough, there’s a chance the GOAT G1 will run right over it and damage it.
During setup, the app took note of the size of our yard after it was mapped and came up with a suggested schedule for the GOAT G1 which we gladly accepted.
It goes out three times a week and maintains the lawn as if we’ve employed a professional gardener.
And there are no trimmings to dispose of. The GOAT mulches the clippings as it cuts and puts it back into the grass.
And if it gets low on power halfway through your mow, it will simply return to the charging station to top up the battery and return at precisely the spot where it left off.
The app gives you plenty of control as well as giving you the ability to provide a view of the location of the lawnmower through the built in cameras.
The mower can also capture and mark the location of a person on the map and send it to you as a notification. So not only is it mowing your lawn it’s also a security camera on wheels.
Speaking of wheels, the goat G1 can easily get around your lawn and even go over paths and short dividers that separate some yard into different levels.
The GOAT G1 isn’t cheap – it’s priced at $2999.
But if your time is valuable, it will soon pay itself off.
And if you normally hire a gardener to keep your lawn looking good it might work out as a good investment.
VERDICT
The ECOVACS ROBOTICS GOAT G1 can keep your lawn manicured without you lifting a finger – it is easy to set up and run and will save you time and the cost of hiring a gardener to do the work for you.
