Anker’s eufy E15 robot lawn mower has made keeping my backyard tidy an automated dream

There is a legitimate cool factor to the E15 robot lawn mower from Anker sub-brand eufy. I am the envy of my neighbors, at least the ones that handle lawn care.

After testing dozens of robot vacuum cleaners for inside the house, I can’t deny that automated lawn care has been the dream for my backyard, and the eufy E15 delivers.

In a simplified sense, the eufy E15 is a larger robot vacuum, but it’s made to chop grass. Instead of focusing on walls, it recognizes lawn edges to establish a boundary. It accurately and safely identifies obstacles and is safe around humans and animals. Best of all, it uses a similar base station strategy for total autonomy.

The eufy E15 robot mower is not a heavy-duty lawncare tool. Instead, this is the tool you allow to run frequently in between your major lawn care efforts. In my case, I had to use the old gas mower to knock down the first spring growth. My gas mower also has a collection bag, to suck up the remaining leaves and twigs that slipped through the forks of my rake. Once cleaned up, the E15 was able to safely map and begin mowing.

Unlike your big mower, the E15 is equipped with a spinning disk of small cutting blades. These sharp blades are perfect for a clean cut of grass blades, but I would avoid hitting pine cones or twigs.

The drive motor is tough enough to handle uneven ground. In fact, I’ve put my base station in my shed, so the bot has a ramp it must navigate to get to and from its home. No problem. To quantify that, the E15 can handle up to a 40% grade, that’s an 18° slope.

With a decent waterproof rating, eufy intends for the base station to be located outdoors. This allows the bot to launch into your yard at any time. As mentioned, I chose to put the base station in the shed. I’ve done myself a disservice here, as now I must go open a door before the E15 can mow my lawn. You can set an automated schedule in the eufy app, but I’ll have to use the manual controls in the app, or on the device, to initiate grass trimming.

Let me be clear, if you have a tidy, mostly flat, and clean-edged yard with grass that is between 25-75mm in height, then the E15 is the ideal solution for you. Those in need of a serious cutting, and those with difficult grass edging might have some concerns.

On the list of negatives, the E15 does not have a collection bag. Whatever it cuts simply falls to the ground. This isn’t a problem for frequent trimmings, but will require follow-up cleaning if you let the grass grow too much between cuts. The cutting blades, as mentioned, are fairly small. They actually look like heavy-duty razor blades from your dad’s old razor. Good for normal grass, but will not easily survive a rock strike or larger twigs.

I’d like to call attention to the blade placement. The blade is inset a fair distance from the edge of the bot, which means that the wheels need to roll right up into your flowers in order to trim the grass to the edge. There’s logic to this placement to help reduce blade strikes on other objects, but those with actual borders on the edge will have to come back through with an edge trimmer.

Speaking of edges, I had a hard time mapping my space. The internal sensors are fantastic at identifying some grass edging, but they refused to recognize one of my flower beds and my rocky dry creek bed. I had to lay out sticks to prevent the bot from running over my flowers, and more sticks to stop it from getting stuck on the rocks. I found it weird that it had no issue with other sections of the exact same garden and creek bed, but those few locations were a pain.

Once mapped, you can modify the space to block the bot from mowing or navigating through certain places, but you have to get a successful automated map locked in before you can modify.

From there, give yourself some time. My lawn space is almost exactly 300 square meters, that’s about 3,230 sqft. The first time I asked the E15 to mow, it was on track to take about four hours to complete. It even had to stop in the middle to top up the battery. I see the value in establishing an automated routine.

What really matters, however, is that my yard looks amazing. You can control the direction the E15 mows in by spinning the lines on the map; I chose a complementary angle. The grass is consistently trimmed, has nice lines, and shows no signs of being abused or trampled by the mower’s wheels.

I also really like that eufy included a rain sensor. It’s just not a good idea to mow wet grass. That said, the rain sensor is to detect falling water, if the sky is clear but the grass is soaked, consider taking some manual control until things dry up.

Did I mention that the eufy E15 is quiet? That was one of the first things that stood out to me, and perhaps the biggest unexpected benefit of this mower. The spinning disk cutter design of this grass trimmer is virtually silent. It’s not that you can’t hear it running, it does produce about 56dB of sound, but the birds rustling the feed around my bird feeder make more noise than this bot. The inclusion of an LED light makes it possible to run in the dark, and it is quiet enough that it won’t wake you.

The E15 mower requires some maintenance to keep it in top running order, but it is not as tough as your gas or electric mower. eufy recommends changing out the cutting blades every 1-2 months, and, more importantly, it suggests keeping the machine as clean as possible. You can use the garden hose to blast away any dirt or mud or just brush it off.

It suggests keeping the camera sensors as clean as possible to ensure accurate navigation and prevent the rain sensor from getting blocked. Otherwise, regularly grease the omni-wheel pivot point, and you should be good to go. However, the documents make it clear that the cleaner this bot remains, the more likely it is to operate as intended in the long term.

There are not many competitors in the robot lawn mower market. I like what I’m seeing from the line of Mammotion machines, and we’re eager to put the Segway and EcoFlow mowers to the test. Some tool brands are getting in on the fun, including Greenworks and Worx. The real competition comes from one of the older commercial lawn mower brands, Husqvarna. At a glance, Husqvarna has over 25 different robot mower options.

I’m happy to report that the eufy E15 offers top-tier features compared to the competition. Accurate navigation, especially without the need for a boundary wire, is as premium as it gets at this time. The E15’s consistent and tight travel pattern leaves professional-looking lines in your grass.

Under the hood, a spinning disk with small blades is the most common cutter configuration. However, while the 3-wheel configuration on the eufy E15 is also a common design, it is the cause for the only time I’ve had to rescue this bot. That single front wheel fell into a small hole in the yard. Being high-centered, the large rear drive wheels simply spun in place. Had this been a four-wheel configuration like the Greenworks, Segway, and Husqvarna bots, it is more likely it would have navigated the uneven terrain.

I expect there will be many breakthroughs and new innovations in the robot lawn mower market over the next couple of years, but the eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15, with a starting price of $1,599.99, is an excellent contender for a first-gen device.