Yarbo – the ultimate yard robot
Alright, so you’ve seen those slick robot lawnmowers, the ones that promise to do all the work while you sip lemonade. But what if you could get a robot that also blows leaves and plows snow? Enter Yarbo. This thing shows up in a surprising number of big boxes, and you might initially think, “Oh boy, here we go.” But honestly, everything’s so well-labeled with solid instructions that getting it from zero to operational isn’t the monumental task you might expect. The biggest hurdle in the initial setup is finding a good spot to hardwire its antenna on your property.
The Leaf Blower Attachment
My first experience with the blower attachment was… memorable. Yarbo went straight for my trash cans and just started shoving them around the driveway. Honestly, it was pretty funny but it also highlights a key point: the Yarbo, at least with the blower, doesn’t do object detection yet. So, you’ve gotta be mindful of its path.
Once I cleared its way, though, the blower really impressed me. It quite nicely cleared my driveway. We’re talking serious power here – enough to neatly blow landscaping rocks right back into the hardscape. I even used it a few times in the winter to clear small branches and leaves from the grass, and it handled that just fine. My one bit of feedback? It starts moving a little too early after each turn, not waiting for the blower to fully spool up. This means it misses the very first bit of each edge. And it’s a bit odd that it only blows in one direction; it makes a lot of unnecessary round trips in its path planning by not just going forward and back.
The Mowing Attachment: OCD Approved, Mostly
When it comes to mowing, the Yarbo works really well and is extremely quiet. It lays down those perfect mow lines, consistently, as often as you tell it to. My inner OCD truly appreciates that. Getting it dialed in takes a bit of tinkering with the Yarbo app’s map settings, but once you’ve got it, it reliably follows those tight paths you set to get to your various lawn sections, which is great. A small wish here would be a mowing mode that does two passes in opposing directions in one go, just for that extra pristine look and perhaps that will come in a future update.
In my situation, I’ve got a gate to the backyard, so I have to open it to let the Yarbo through. When it’s done, it tends to just push up against the closed gate trying to get back to its dock and gets itself stuck. It’d be awesome if you could detail in the map there’s a gate and have Yarbo wait at a specific point, sending you a notification to open it.
Despite all my fine-tuning efforts, it still misses a little bit of grass in certain corners or edge areas. But honestly, it’s not a huge deal – a quick pass with an edger cleans that up easily. Another big plus with Yarbo is ditching the grass clippings. Since it mows so frequently, the tiny little shavings either blow away or just decompose right back into the lawn.
The Snow Plow Attachment: Surprisingly Capable
Now, the snow plow. For my 2200 sq/ft concrete driveway, this thing works surprisingly well. Once you get the blade height tuned to just barely scrape the concrete, it clears a decent amount of heavy snow quite neatly. The Yarbo itself is quite heavy, and that really makes it a capable snow plow. It’s tough to say what’s more enjoyable: watching the Yarbo clear your driveway from your warm house, or watching your neighbors watch your Yarbo clear your driveway in utter amazement.
Since I got the Yarbo towards the end of winter, I didn’t get enough snow to really test the snow thrower, so stay tuned for a future review on that.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the most impressive aspect of the Yarbo has to be the battery life. I swear, this thing could probably mow my 3300+ sq/ft of grass a dozen times before running completely out of power. The over-the-air software updates are also a huge win – seriously, keep ’em coming. And the wireless charging dock works really reliably. In all my testing, the Yarbo has always managed to make its way home, dock, and charge without a hitch.
After about four months with the Yarbo, it’s clear this is a seriously capable machine, especially as a mower and a snow plow. While it still has some room to grow with object detection, reminiscent of an early build of Tesla’s FSD, the great news is these are purely software refinements. The hardware is sold. With those continuous OTA updates, I’m genuinely optimistic that the Yarbo will only get smarter and more polished over time. This thing is already a beast, and it’s only going to get better.
Learn more at Yarbo.com
Aaron Drabeck
Utah Channel 3