Eufy E15 robot lawn mower review: quiet, smart, wire free and well worth a gander

If you’ve been put off from committing to a robot lawn mower because it required complicated installation of a perimeter wire and a degree in IT, you’ll be pleased to learn that those days are well and truly behind us. Though you can still purchase wired robot mowers from a number of manufacturers, they pale in comparison to the very latest range of models that use RTK GPS, high resolution cameras and LiDAR to navigate any shape of lawn while cutting it in beautifully straight lines that look like the centre court at Wimbledon.

We have one such model here from the house of Eufy (a subsidiary of Anker) and it’s arguably the smartest and easiest-to-use robot lawn mower currently on the market. It’s called the E15 and it will mow your lawn in perfect parallel stripes using its sophisticated AI-controlled Full Vision Self Driving camera while avoiding obstacles as small as a tennis ball.

It is, to all intents and purposes, the closest model yet to the way a robot vacuum cleaner works and therefore a suitable robot mower for even the most Luddite of users. Let’s take a look at the Eufy E15 in more detail.

Eufy E15 review: price and availability

In the UK, the Eufy E15 retails at £1,499 and is available direct from Eufy or Amazon. If you live in the USA, you can head straight to the Eufy store where the E15 retails at $1,799. If, however, you have a much larger 1,200 m² lawn, perhaps try the US-only E18 model which retails at a more lofty $1,999.99.

Eufy E15 review: set up

The Eufy E15 gains a single star right from the off because it’s the only model I’ve reviewed to come with a covered base station. That’s a huge bonus because a roof not only protects the robot’s electronics and battery from the heat of the summer sun, it also keeps it dry (even though its IPX6 waterproof) and free from bird droppings, tree sap and other natural detritus.

Set up is a breeze (about 15 minutes), mostly because there is no RTK GPS antennae to install. In fact, all the box contains is the robot, the charging base with integral roof, about 8m of mains cabling, a bunch of nylon ground screws for installing the charging base and a steel Allen key.

After you’ve taken it out of the box, find a suitable spot for the charging base (the manual will point you in the right direction here), plug it into the mains, turn the robot over and flick the switch to ‘on’. Now pop the mower on its base (the E15 comes with an integral carry handle) and launch the Eufy app, which is the same one you would use for any of Eufy’s excellent range of best security cameras.

If you haven’t already got a Eufy account, now’s the time to create one. Next, tap the + sign on top right of the app screen and select your mower (there are two, the E15 we’re reviewing here and the US-only E18 which is equipped with a larger battery for much bigger lawns). Apart from connecting it to your WiFi for general updates and complete operational access, that’s about it – you are now ready to send the E15 on its very first automatic mapping run.

Mapping with most RTK GPS-based robot mowers (bar the latest upgraded versions of the Mammotion LUBA 2 and its stable mate, the YUKA) requires steering them around the perimeter of a lawn like an RC car, but this model does it all on its own by very gingerly discerning the different textures between grass and border plants and cataloging any permanent obstacles like trees and garden furniture.

I was frankly amazed at how accurately it mapped my 165m² of lawn, even with unkempt borders that could have been grass or green plants. I’d day the mapping process took about 15 minutes in all, and although the E15 also mapped an earthy section with a few scattered grass shoots, I was easily able to add a no-zone in the app, just like any robot vacuum cleaner.

If you’re looking for a robot lawn mower that is extremely easy to set up and even easier to use, I can’t think of a better model to recommend. In fact it’s so simple I have trouble understanding how it does it all.

Eufy E15 review: design and features

The Eufy E15 is one of two models designed for different sized lawns. The E15 is suitable for lawns up to 800m² (larger than most British swards) while its stablemate, the E18, is designed for much larger lawns up to 1,200 m². Both models share the same body dimensions (60.3 × 39.4 × 31.8cm) but the E18 has a larger battery capacity. However, only the E15 model is available in the UK while USA buyers have a choice of both.

From a design point of view, I wouldn’t say that the Eufy E15 is an especially pretty looker. With its tall body and uniformly grey exterior, it kind of looks like a 1970s Star Wars-inspired robot character. Put another way, it doesn’t hold a candle to Mammotion’s similarly-sized LUBA 2 Mini which was clearly modelled on an F1 car. But, hey, looks aren’t everything, especially when the product itself is so well refined.

Eufy has eschewed the common RTK GPS method of navigation and equipped its bot with a binocular camera system called V-FSD. In essence, the E15’s navigation system utilises Eufy's TrueVision technology, which includes dual 3D stereo cameras combined with semantic AI for fully autonomous operation. This arrangement allows the mower to map your lawn in real-time while eliminating the need for any boundary wires or indeed any RTK stations.

Like many robot mowers of this nature, the camera can also be used to stream high-resolution visuals to the app while it’s mowing or when manually driving the robot, RC car-style, around the garden. However, one small drawback with a camera system like this is that the E15 can’t mow beyond sunset. But I don’t think this is a deal breaker because usually the best time to mow is in the early evening before the sun sets and dew begins to form.

Heading to the top rear of the unit, there’s a battery gauge, a rain sensor and four weatherproof buttons for start/pause, home, on/off and ‘enter’, but you’ll hardly ever use these because almost all commands are carried out via the accompanying Eufy app. Like all robot mowers with fast spinning blades, there’s also a big red emergency stop button on top which you will also rarely need to use because the E15’s camera system is rock solid when it comes to obstacle avoidance, at least for items larger than a table tennis ball.

Let’s go below and take a look at the cutting system. The majority of robot mowers I’ve tested have had cutting decks of between 18 and 20cm though the Mammotion LUBA 2 bucks this trend by having an extra large 40cm cutting diameter. True to form, this model has a 20cm cutting width (or 20.3cm to be more precise). However, its spinning disc has just three rotating razor-like blades attached instead of the normal four to six. Mind, I haven’t noticed any stark differences in cut quality between the E15 and the new Mammotion LUBA Mini which comes with six blades.

Thankfully, like all good lawnbots, the Eufy E15 features automatic cutting height adjustment – from 25mm to 75mm in 5mm increments – and this is a major plus because I’ve found that 35mm is the sweet spot for my typical British rye grass lawn.

The Eufy E15 is equipped with paddle-treaded 20cm wheels on the rear and a large castor-style wheel at the front. This gives the mower excellent traction in most conditions and allows it to take tight turns without tearing the lawn. Its maximum slope gradient, meanwhile, is 40% (18°) which is marginally better than other similarly styled two-wheel drive models on the market.

Eufy E15 review: navigation performance

The E15 uses its dual camera system to not only locate the boundaries of a lawn during set up, but also for its general navigation and obstacle avoidance. When cutting, it moves up and down the lawn in systematic fashion, creating perfectly straight lines in the process. This is groundbreaking stuff because most robot mowers up until just recently would cut lawns in a totally haphazard fashion leaving ugly crisscross patterns all over the lawn, at least until the grass had settled a day or two later. By contrast, this model and its nearest competitors perform in a completely logical manner that doesn’t flummox the user with erratic behaviour patterns.

I’m hoping that Eufy includes a manual mapping update in the future for users with rough borders that the E15 may or may not include in its initial mapping run. That said, if there are any cockups in the mapping, you can draw ‘no-go’ zones, virtual barriers and ‘must mow’ zones in the app, though currently you can only draw square or rectangular shapes (Eufy intends to introduce polygonal shapes in a future update).

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This model is very adept at dodging obstacles from about the size of a tennis ball

However, as this image illustrates, it won't detect a ping-pong ball and may therefore ride over most dog droppings

Most robot mowers are adept at obstacle avoidance but the E15 seems to be a bit better than most. While there is no option to adjust the sensitivity of its obstacle avoidance system, its default setting avoided all obstacles in my test bar a small pong-pong ball which it rode over and sliced in two. Hence I wouldn’t rely on it to dodge any dog mess, so if you have any pooches at home, make sure to clean up the garden first or you’ll have their deposits embedded deep into the robot’s heavily treaded wheels. And, believe me, that’s no fun.

For users with more than one lawn, the E15 will happily cut several zones in succession. Say you have a front and rear lawn, simply map both lawns and set a virtual passageway between them using the mower and the app. As long as there are no obstacles like stairs, gates or sections too narrow for the robot to negotiate, it will cut Lawn A before proceeding to Lawn B. It will then trundle back to its charging base for a recharge (about 100 minutes).

In general, I’ve been exceedingly impressed by how well this robot mower has navigated my lawn. It has never got lost, never not found its charging base and never run over any item larger than a tennis ball. It just works – and silently, too.

Eufy E15 review: cutting performance

All mowers guided by RTK GPS, LiDAR or dual cameras like the E15 cut a lawn in ruler-straight parallel lines that leave a lovely striped effect in their wake. While I prefer the wider 40cm tract of the Mammotion's LUBA 2, I think the E15’s stripes still look pretty swanky – and you will, too, once you’ve let it loose on your sward.

The Eufy app makes it very easy to select from a range of mower settings, including grass height in 5mm increments, edge spacing at borders (from minus 15cm to 15cm), three levels of path spacing (i.e. the gap between each pass, from 8cm to 12cm), three travel speeds (slow, standard, fast), three blade speeds (the slower, the finer the cut) and an ingeniously simple path direction setting that can be adjusted using your fingers to orientate the direction of the mower while viewed on the map.

However, I’m still confused by the scheduling function which requires a start time as well as an end time. How are we expected to know an end time when we don’t know how long the mower will take to perform the task? Answers on a postcard, please.

I should also reiterate that, because this model uses a camera to navigate with no headlight on board, it is incapable of mowing beyond sunset. If you really need a robot to to mow in the dark, opt for an RTK GPS model with a headlight instead.

Regarding the E15’s cut quality, its three spinning razor blades do a sterling job of snipping off the tops of grass stems so they fall back to the soil where they feed the lawn with lots of lovely nitrogen. It also leaves an excellent striped finish that never fails to impress.

However, while it will perform a border cut, there will be times when you will still need to tidy up some edges with a grass strimmer, especially the area around the charging station. You will also need to free the blades of trapped grass from time to time and replace them at least once a year. Other than that, it’s a plain-sailing experience from beginning to end.

Eufy E15 review: Security

Like most modern home devices, when you get your robot mower you’ll be required to bind it to your WiFi system and email address. Without access to this, the robot is rendered useless to any light-fingered thief. However, the Eufy E15 also has an extra security measure that will sound an alert on the robot while sending the owner a notification if it’s ever removed from its usual work area.

Eufy E15 review: verdict

If you have a relatively flat lawn with no slopes beyond 18˚ in gradient, the Eufy E15 is a cracking choice that keeps any standard sward looking immaculate. It’s one of the easiest of any current robot mowers to set up and use, and its jargon-free app is a breath of fresh air. Unreservedly recommended.