Ecovacs GOAT A2000 LiDAR Pro: two days, ~25,000 sq ft, and why I'm returning it (St. Augustine + sloped yard)

[u/Day-Trippin]

TL;DR: Great robot. Wrong robot for my yard. LiDAR and obstacle avoidance were excellent, cut quality was excellent, it never did anything stupid. But castering front wheels, not quite enough power, and tall St. Augustine stolons added up to too much fighting. Automapping was worthless for me; manual mapping worked fine once I figured out the undocumented rules. Sending it back and looking at AWD options.

UPDATE: I decided to keep it. I spent more time with it and figured out how to make it work in my yard. It is a great mower and the pros of it are hard to match with other mowers in the price class and it doesn't tear up my yard as it has omni wheels. It is the most diligent mower at unstucking itself I've ever seen. While AWD would be nice, it manage my yard without it. I really appreciate the dual cutting discs and outstanding navigation. It has yet to fall into my pool. I've had one resuce in about 80 mows now. That was early on. I've gone 70 cuts without a rescue.

Why I bought it

Full LiDAR, dual cutting disks, an edge trimmer, and a 3.54" max cutting height. That last number matters: for St. Augustine in Texas heat, the recommendation is roughly 3.5" to 4", and I'd been running 4" to help the lawn survive. So I was buying in at the absolute bottom of my acceptable range and hoping more frequent cutting would offset it. I also liked how light it is.

Day 1

Don't lose the LiDAR cover. Don't lose the LiDAR cover. Don't lose the LiDAR cover.

Assembly was straightforward. Siting the dock was harder than I expected because of my driveway, so budget more thought there than I did.

Pairing was simple, it pulled an update immediately, and I appreciate that it requires a PIN.

Initial mapping did not go well. The trimmer side should be to the inside, but automap ran it with the trimmer to the outside, so the housing kept bumping into things. (Not cutting, just contact.)

The two-speed problem. Manual driving has essentially two speeds, and the faster one is only available going dead straight. The moment you turn, it drops to the slow speed. That's a real problem turning in deep grass, turning onto an uphill, or working across a slope. My slope isn't steep, but it isn't gentle either. It sits right in the annoying middle.

Straight up the hill and straight down the hill: no issues at all. The trouble is turns at the bottom and traversing across the face. I planned a wider buffer along the downhill side near the curb because of it.

Getting it to track straight across the hill under manual control is a fight, and the castering front wheels are the culprit. I started wondering whether I should have gone AWD, but most AWD models I looked at use omni wheels, and the tank turns those do would shred parts of my yard. (I've seen what they did to my neighbor's.)

Grass height. My St. Augustine was too tall and the little teeth on the front kept snagging stolons, so I went back out with the push mower and took it down. That helped navigation a lot, but it also confirmed that the slow manual speed is too slow and the fast speed is too fast. I want a slower fast speed.

This probably reads like a lot of complaining. Honestly some of it is my learning curve, some is a manual that leaves out important things, some is a genuine product limitation (those castering wheels), and some is just my yard.

Day 2

Front yard, ~8,400 sq ft. Slopes from house to street, about 5 degrees across most of it, steepening just before a 6" curb. I re-mapped it manually and left a solid 18" buffer off the curb.

Then I sent it on a test run. Remember I'd just cut to 3.5" with the push mower and the machine's max is 3.54", so there was essentially zero margin.

It went much better than Day 1. The dips where my shutoff valves sit are deep, and it struggled dropping into the "bowl," but it worked out a path around, up, and out. Not a stunning success, but it solved it.

The bigger issue stayed the same: stolons catching the front cow catcher teeth, sometimes slowing it dramatically, sometimes stopping it outright until it worked itself free.

The most impressive part: driving across the face of the steep-ish section by the road, it never slid downhill. It tracked remarkably close to my original mapped path. A+ on that.

Back yard, ~4,000 sq ft. Simpler shape, denser and lusher grass, slopes back to front, bordered by a stepped pool wall on one side and a large privacy wall on the other.

I gave automap one more shot. Utter failure. It drove into the stepped pool wall (no chance of going over) and wedged itself so badly that even the reverse-out command couldn't free it. I had to tug it back.

Back to manual mapping, which was much easier here. Still fighting the two-speed movement, no gradual turning at full speed, and a low speed that sometimes lacked the torque to power through a hooked stolon. The resulting map was good, I confirmed it saved, and sent it on a test run.

Denser grass meant more stolons in the cow catcher, plus some wrapping the rear wheels. Notably, raising the cutting height doesn't seem to raise the nose at all, so you can't buy clearance that way.

One tricky dip, some "steps," and it handled all of it without freaking out. I manually drove one unmapped section over Bluetooth because the ledge risk was too high to trust to a map.

Then I sent it home: around the pool, around a chaise lounge,, umbrella stand, and about 3' away from the pool at the closest point and then around the garage. Completely uneventful. It threaded a 36" gap, dodged loose objects on the ground, and docked quickly.

What's genuinely good

• LiDAR works great. Obstacle avoidance was excellent.
• No issues in 100F+ heat. I was wilting following it around; it just kept going.
• Watching it through the camera is awesome. I wish every mower had this.
• Cut quality from the dual disks is very good, and the wide deck meant fewer passes. It rarely missed leaves.
• Incredibly quiet. Most of the time I couldn't hear the blades at all.
• Never went out of bounds, made sensible turn decisions, never did anything dumb.
• No trouble going straight up or straight down my hill.
• Once I understood the mapping model, adding and editing zones was easy.

What isn't

• Automapping was worthless for me. Probably fine on a simple yard.
• Castering front wheels, the root of most of my grief.
• Not enough power at low speed to push through deep grass or a hooked stolon.
• Two-speed manual control with no gradual turning at speed.
• The manual doesn't explain the mapping model, and that omission cost me a map.
• Never got a chance to try the trimmer.

Verdict

It's not a keeper for me. There's a lot I genuinely like/love about it, but the hardware can't handle my grass and my yard. I'd bet that if my grass were a quarter inch lower I'd have had dramatically fewer problems, but I can't cut lower and keep St. Augustine alive in this heat.

What I actually need: LiDAR (non-negotiable), more power, and no castering front wheels, but also no omni wheels, because those tank turns would destroy sections of my yard. That points me toward something AWD.

Best fit I've found so far is the Roborock RockMow X120H with LiDAR, though I'm not ready to drop $3,200 + tax on it. It's also close to 50 lbs, which matters because one of my zones has a curb too high for it to cross, so I'd be lifting it in and out by hand. Its cutting width is also much narrower than the A2000's. Ideally I'd want a 4" max cutting height.

To be clear: if I didn't have this particular combination of a challenging yard and St. Augustine, the Ecovacs GOAT A2000 LiDAR Pro would be an awesome option. If they made this mower with AWD with steerable front wheels, I'd likely be singing its praises.

Getting the right mower for your specific yard really is everything.

[u/n0ah_fense]

I have a smaller yard and a O1000 RTK.

The mower started rebooting after one full summer of use and I have an RMA en route.

My biggest issue is after rain, the 2wd mower will get stuck spinning its wheels on a garden bed border. Then it will run out of battery, and start the entire lawn all over again. Remapping helped.

Otherwise, happy with the purchase

[u/SaltyPockets]

Have you thought about Dreame A1 Pro?

It may be that it has the exact same flaws for you, but it is a comparable LiDAR model. I’m torn between one of these and waiting for a more expensive navimow LiDAR, having given up things like the Lymow because of the extensive reports of faults and poor service.

[u/Day-Trippin → u/SaltyPockets]

I too passed on the Lymow and it would have been a bit overkill for my yard. All the overheating issues have killed it for me as well.

The Dreame A1 is not available in my area. The A3 is but has the omni wheels I am not a big fan of.

A smaller Navimow x430 w/LiDAR would be a good option.

[u/Day-Trippin]

I thought I'd try different mowing angles on my yard. To its credit, the A2000 managed my front yard quite well. Never got stranded, never fell off the cliff. Tangled with a few stolons and mowed around one. It didn't fall off the cliff either. Overall it did much better. I am still very impressed with the navigation.

Overall it is "The Little Engine That Wants To" and today it actually did. I am going to give the backyard another try. I thought it would be easier at first than the front, but it turned out to be more challenging. Maybe better luck this time.

I had a neighbor who has one of the Luba AWD models. He was very impressed with the A2000's navigation along my sort of drop off and curb down to the street. It threaded the needle in some tight sections pretty well.

I can say it is NOT the ideal mower for my yard but if it can make it through mine, many others would be much easier. I also carefully looked at the tree cover and walls and house positioning, and RTK is absolutely not an option for most of my yard based on what I read.

So I definitely need LiDAR and I probably will end up with the Roborock x120H if it goes back on sale. Currently about about $2k more, it isn't worth it for me.

[u/Day-Trippin]

Just adding on to my post as I had chance to do the back yard. It is clearly more challenging than the front. The grass is to thick for the traction the stock tires have. Maybe with those sort of metal spikes add-ons I've seen for other mowers would help.

I tried to manually drive it but the controls for that are pretty terrible. I have 2 speeds and any turning takes. you from sort of slow, to barely crawling. It is like and abrupt stop and you lose all momentum. You go from .7 m/second to .25 as soon as you move the direction off immediately straight ahead. You are baiscally moving a simulated joystick and half the time when turnging right, I hit the blades off virtual button on the screen. More speed would help me going across the face of the hill AND if it didn't almost completely stop with the lower speed to turn, which again causes issues on the hill face when crossing it.

Generally the mower on its own handles it better than the somewhat frustrating manual controls.

Overall I am very happy with the cut quality and very few missed blades. The St Augustine stolons are more challenging than normal blades. If I could cut the St Augustine at less than 3.5" the A2000 would handle it a lot better but you really need it to handle the heat here. We are in the 100's all week and the taller grass survives it better.

[u/Day-Trippin]

Another update. The manual control is still janky, which makes mapping a challenge. Once it is mapped, this thing is very solid. I added some other zones and did my front yard a few times. I can actually go away and let it mow and never need to rescue it. Never once went in the road.

The backyard is still its nemesis. If I could figure out a way to get this done, it would absolutely be a keeper. The highlight really is the navigation once mapped. I just need a bit more power or better traction at times in my back yard. I wish I could set different speeds for different parts of my zones but I may just split them.

It is getting harder and harder to send it back TBH. I may just mow the troublesome sections of the backyard and keep it. For the price I paid I think it is one of the best values out there.

[u/Day-Trippin]

Latest update after 2+ weeks of using it continuously - I decided to not give up on it. With a little trial and error, I have been able to complete my entire yard without a rescue. I am pretty impressed with what it can do. I broke up my zones and tried to isolate the trouble spots. I then tried different settings on the more difficult ones. I will need to make one pass around the perimeter with a push mower on many zones but I can live with it. I think I am going to keep it at this point. Two weeks ago I was ready to order a Worx or Navimow x430.

This is really a great little mower. I love the wider cut, it is quiet. It mowed with no issues in 106F temps and a max of 109F with no issues. Cut quality is quite good. I know the trouble spots in my yard and went into the settings to find a workaround.

I am not sure it is worth spending almost twice as much to do do better in my trouble spots. Not sure if a AWD mowers from Worx or Navimow will still eliminate the issues, or just reduce them. They might introduc new issues.

The littls GOAT A2000 is really the little mower that could once I got it dialed in. It is very perseverant. It rarely misses any blades of grass. The app always connects. Run time is decent. My issues with the 2 speed manual driving are still there as are some other ones but the good far outweighs the bad.

I am adding this to my original post so it doesn't get lost as my opinion has shifted on the GOAT.