I've had the opportunity to test many of the best robot vacuum cleaners, but I've always been adjacent to their outdoor sibling, the robot lawnmowers, that these bots are similar in everything from size to scanning technology. This feels especially familiar with how they avoid obstacles and map your garden. Many robotic lawnmowers share the smart features found in the best roomba, such as cleaning suggestions and automatic generation of weekly trim schedules. 

If you say to anyone who likes a robot vacuum cleaner review, you may see me as if I shot a dog. A friend of mine once compared the prospect of taking notes about how robots come and go to see the paint dry. But for me, there's an ASMR-like aspect to seeing the machine suck up the mess and assign a cleaning score to it. The visual results of the robot lawnmower could hurt that OCD itch to see how effective the robot is, and always intrigued me My dilemma was not having a garden to test 1.

So, you can imagine the hype I had when I had the opportunity to move back to the suburbs of Long Island — complete in the garden I immediately called 3 robotic lawnmowers and tested them with the Ecovacs GOAT GX-600 arriving first. This bot is quite a departure from the nearly two decades old artisan ride-on lawnmower I grew up using. See how the robotic lawnmower compares to the traditional lawnmower experience in addition to how the experience was different from the expectations I had come in

I was off guard when my new robotic lawnmower arrived in a single rectangular box. Its compact package was on par with the robot vacuum cleaner I received for testing. Heavy, indeed. But in size, this robotic lawn mower will be much smaller than the average push or ride-on model. 

The photo below shows that the goat setup is not beyond the dainty decorative bird bath. My immediate impression was that there was no way in hell this little bot could work on my 4800 square foot garden. Alongside our craftsmen, this bot is less than 8/1 of the size of the ride-on lawnmower I'm used to. 

Ecovacs installed a 22cm floating blade disc system on the robot lawn mower that lifts it up and down to avoid damage from small stones and uneven terrain. This blade is controlled by a manual dial on the front of the goat robot and switches between 0.25cm increments 3 and 6cm lengths for exact cuts, while it rotates at a sharp and rapid 2300 RPM, but the bot takes a sweet time cutting compared to the larger sharper blades of an actual mower.

It demands that this small size allow it to fit in tight corners like gaps around my hot tub or window wells around my basement windows, the size of a conventional lawn mower and a stiffer turning radius swing wide and attack at right angles. In addition, the robot model is used as a fertilizer because it is short, since it does not need to collect clippings.

The small overall size and small blades lack the power of my big old school gas lawnmower, and it takes time to tackle the garden with less speed and coverage. Our gas-powered craftsmen are workhorses that are quick and complete but require excessive maintenance. Now that I'm running a robotic lawnmower through border mapping and full cut, it's nice not to have to run maintenance or try to reach for gas. I can simply tap the app button to send it and see it work from my bedroom window.

The Ecovac material states that the goat is supposed to take a U-shaped path, but I think the goat starts mowing along the outer perimeter of the edge of my garden, and like a large blunt razor blade diagonally, it gets the job done with an occasional stray. Through 2 test runs, it was caught once on a bed of thicker, longer green dandelions and clover. It's not bad at all, as I expected it to fail frequently on tall grass. The quick extruding got the bot moving past them and mowing them in return.

Most of the time, the goat goes out on its own, unless you send it from the app before you have the company. You do not need to stand around and babysit it. I adjusted that dial to just 3.5cm for a nice short buzz. Its easy-to-use app and solid performance make it easy to use by anyone even if you're not tech savvy. 

I did not have to make any adjustments to my outdoor living space. That means literally snapping the base together, plug it in and pump out the robot vacuum within enough of opening it. I simply dropped the goat into my fenced yard and made sure its base ran vertically along the edge of my fence for detection purposes. 

ECOVACS SmartEdge technology leverages the latest visual recognition technology to automatically detect lawn boundaries based on color, texture, etc., eliminating the need for manual configuration.

Goat's AIVI3D depth-sensing obstacle avoidance technology detected borders and objects accurately, with the Start and okay buttons to kick off the "Press & mow" settings that I easily pick up and work a lot like a 'clean' bot. It skipped my garden hose handle and some branches. It is not necessary to move the border or clean the garden before each cleaning (although it is recommended).

I was very impressed by the way it straddled the line between my flower bed and grass. It knew to avoid soaking in bed and did for the most part. It doesn't mean it was perfect, but I managed to get out of some deep drops by slowly but strongly approaching the flat end of the slope and crawling back into my grass.

The Ecovacs Home app proposes lawn mowing and automatically generates a trimming schedule based on the size of the garden. This ensures that your yard looks consistently fresh with almost no time or energy set from your end. Plus it pays itself over time if you consider the cost of hiring a landscaper. 

Robotic lawnmowers are smart enough to pick up where they left off when they need to charge, and cut the need for gas, which is a big plus. No problem when I'm at work, but on average I only mow 10% of my garden at a time and return to the base. A full yard trim will be an affair throughout the day.

If you actively use your garden for activities, this can be annoying if the kids want to run. On the other hand, this brings an advantage that I didn't expect. I can run this machine and clean it up after dark because of how quiet it is. The overall sound is much lower than in gas and electric models.

For expensive gadgets, I'm a bit surprised by the minimal security features that these bots ship with. I am interested in leaving the robot lawn mower free in the garden without a fence, because you can easily walk and pick up these with a handle. Ecovac's goat announces loudly that it will be picked up repeatedly and will only work with the PIN code system. 

It doesn't stop someone from taking it — after it's stolen, it just becomes a paperweight for them. I would think there would be some sort of built-in tracker, security mode, or even a basic alarm siren. I would be wary of using this somewhere open like my parents' fenced-in property because everyone can see it from the street and nab it within seconds.

Robotic lawnmowers can absolutely save time and effort if you have an almost flat garden with open space. In price and performance, I think it might still be too niche for most homes and have some requirements. This is a great start that works well and is completely hands-off, but it's always recharged for a run and if you're a perfectionist, there are some tricks.

Ideally, we'd like to see a more powerful robotic lawnmower, but we can understand why some people are wary of large, automated, bladed machines hanging around the garden. Indeed, the goat shredded some of the pipe partitions between my grass and the rock pieces surrounding my fish pond. It would be scary to imagine how more power or a larger blade would tear the garden. 

If you have a lot of mowing, it is better to use a traditional lawn mower to mow an entire large garden. The gas-powered mower provides more vitality and cuts much faster while still providing extensive run-time if you need it. But if you have a clear lawn that you want to maintain, the slow but consistent running of the robot mower is provided.