Yarbo Review: 17 Months, 12 Tickets, Zero Working Seasons
Honest Yarbo review from a 2-year owner: 17 months, 12 support tickets, 129 emails, two hardware replacements, and zero complete seasons of unattended operation. The detailed timeline and evidence are below — read this before you spend ~$7,000 on a Yarbo.
Why This Yarbo Review Exists
I pre-ordered the Yarbo in May 2024 after watching the polished marketing videos. The unit arrived in early December 2024. In the 17 months since, I've opened 12 support tickets, exchanged 129 emails with Yarbo, had a full Core replacement, had a snow-blower module replacement, and have not yet completed a single full season of unattended operation.
This isn't a sponsored review or marketing fluff. It's a factual record of what actually happened, with dates pulled from my support correspondence. Where Yarbo support helped, I say so. Where the product or the company let me down, I say that too.
I'm writing this because I would want to read it before spending ~$7,000.
Yarbo Review: The Good, The Bad, and The Reality
To be fair: there are real strengths here. None of them have been enough to make the product actually work as advertised over my 17 months of ownership.
Yarbo Hardware Feels Solid and Durable
The Yarbo doesn't feel like a toy - it's built to last. Stands up to weather well and I'm not concerned about leaving it outside year-round.
Yarbo's Modular Design is Very Clever
Swapping between Yarbo's mower, snowblower, and leaf blower attachments is genuinely easy. The modular system lets you add new modules as they're released without feeling left behind.
Yarbo Support Staff Are Patient and Polite
Across 12 tickets and 129 emails, the people on the other end of support have consistently apologized, escalated, and arranged free replacement parts and modules. The frustration in this review isn't with them — it's with a product that keeps failing in the same ways regardless of who's helping.
Consistent Yarbo Updates (Double-Edged)
Regular firmware updates show they're actively developing. Though many are "duh" features that should have existed from day one, they badly need this rapid development.
Yarbo is Really Fun When It Works
Having the Yarbo follow you around the yard or watching it work autonomously is genuinely satisfying. When it's working properly, it feels great.
Bottom line on the positives:
I want to be fair — these are real. The hardware is well-built, the modular concept is genuinely good, and Yarbo support has been kind through every ticket. But none of that changes the fundamental problem documented in the rest of this page: the product doesn't reliably do the thing I bought it to do.
Yarbo "Autonomous" is Generous Marketing
Multiple cameras that seem unable to do basic obstacle detection. Yarbo needed a hotfix to avoid driving under cars - something I expected to work from day one.
Yarbo Lawnmower Performance is Wimpy
Too many clippings? Storm debris? Wet grass? Any of these stops the Yarbo dead. Feels built for Arizona golf courses, not real homes with weather.
Yarbo Snow Performance is Terrible
Yarbo constantly gets stuck on my gravel driveway, even in light snow. I spend more time rescuing it than it saves me.
Yarbo GPS Issues Despite Clear Skies — On Both Cores
4 acres, clear skies, charging station 6ft from the house, Data Center mounted 30ft up with a fiber connection. The original Core dropped GPS regularly at the end of the driveway. Yarbo replaced the Core in July 2025. The replacement unit drops GPS in the same place. Cellular failover, despite being marketed as the safety net, has never reliably engaged.
My Yarbo Experience: By the Numbers
A chronological record of the operational problems I've hit with my Yarbo across two snow seasons and two attempted mowing seasons. Pulled directly from my support correspondence so the dates and counts are accurate, not approximate.
17 Months of Yarbo Ownership, By the Numbers
A ~$7,000 autonomous robot system. Two seasons of attempted use. This is what those seasons actually looked like:
12 support tickets
129 emails exchanged with Yarbo support over 17 months
2 hardware replacements
Full Core swap (July 2025) and snow-blower module swap (January 2026)
12+ weeks of downtime
Conservative estimate of "device not usable" across the 17 months
Summer 2025: lost
Firmware lockup + Core replacement consumed the prime mowing window
Summer 2026: broken at start
Mower module won't engage blades; right camera offline; unresolved as of writing
Zero complete seasons
No full mowing or snow season completed without intervention since arrival
Every entry below is dated from the actual support thread it generated.
April 2026 • Ongoing
Switched back to the mower module for the new season. Right camera reports disconnected and won't recover through reseating or power-cycling. The rover follows the mowing path but the blades never engage — it just drives over tall grass without cutting. End/Recharge buttons in the app become unresponsive mid-job. Right camera replacement initiated; remote diagnosis blocked because Yarbo's backend reported the wrong module attached. Currently unresolved.
March 2026 • n/a
A package arrived with zero notice or explanation. After I asked, Yarbo confirmed it was a kit of small contact springs for the module connectors, intended to prevent recurring overcurrent on a different module. The fix itself was fine — but I had to email support to find out what was sitting in my driveway.
January 2026 • ~3 weeks of diagnosis + ship + install
Snow-blower module threw auger-overcurrent within minutes of starting, even with light, loose snow. Backend log access stalled on a serial-number mismatch between what the app showed and what Yarbo's backend had on file. R&D eventually traced it to an internal cable; a replacement module shipped under Advanced Replacement and resolved the auger fault. Track slippage on snow remained unresolved.
December 2025 • Recurring
Brought the replacement Core out for snow duty and immediately hit the same end-of-driveway GPS loss as the original unit. PPVS tuning improved one run; cellular failover, despite being marketed as the safety net, has never reliably engaged when the rover loses HaLow.
July 2025 • 3 weeks down → full Core replacement
On July 4 the rover entered a firmware update state it never exited, stuck on v3.1.47. Ten days of reboot scripts and tier-one replies got nowhere. After a video diagnosis call, Yarbo dispatched a full replacement Core. By the time it arrived, the summer was effectively over and the lawn never got the season I bought the unit for.
May 2025 • ~2 weeks downtime
Discs broke on the first mowing runs of the season. The reorder needed a follow-up to actually ship, and when the box arrived only one of three discs ordered was inside. A second shipment had to be arranged.
May 2025 • ~1 week downtime
While returning to the dock, the rover drove under a parked delivery truck and sheared off both antennas. Six cameras did not detect the truck. Yarbo shipped replacement antennas within a week at no charge — fast turnaround, but the incident raises the obvious question of what the cameras are actually doing.
February 2025 • ~8 weeks to fulfill
An antenna snapped off in a winter storm. Reordered the part on Feb 6, heard nothing for six weeks, had to ping support twice, watched a tow hitch ship first by mistake. Tracking finally appeared in early April — most of the late-winter snow season already gone.
December 2024 • ~2 weeks downtime
Five days after Christmas the rover lost RTK lock with snow on the ground and never recovered on its own. Yarbo identified a Data Center software issue but couldn't push a fix; the unit sat dead through multiple snow events while I shoveled by hand.
December 2024 • Permanent
Pre-ordered in May 2024 expecting summer delivery; the unit arrived in early December. Yarbo confirmed the 30-day return window starts at activation or April 30 automatically, whichever comes first. That meant the lawn mower — the main reason for the ~$7,000 purchase — couldn't be tested until weeks after the return window had closed.
December 2024 • 17 months and counting
Across 12 tickets and 129 emails, Yarbo support has consistently apologized, escalated, and shipped replacement parts and modules at no charge. The frustration in this review isn't with the people on the other end of the email — it's that the same failure modes keep returning after every replacement, and that the diagnostic burden falls on me, often outside in winter weather.
The Reality Check
These aren't isolated incidents - they represent fundamental issues with the Yarbo's autonomous capabilities. While the hardware feels solid, the software and real-world performance don't match the marketing promises. Each of these issues required constant intervention, defeating the purpose of an autonomous robot.
My Property Layout - For Context
To help you understand my situation and validate that my expectations aren't unreasonable, here's what I'm working with:
This isn't a golf course in Arizona - it's a typical family property with normal weather and reasonable complexity. The Yarbo should handle this setup without constant intervention.
Additional Yarbo Frustrations (In Detail)
Here are some Yarbo issues I've encountered which are upsetting, but might be more specific to me and when I purchased it. Regardless, I think it helps tell the whole story. If you're considering a Yarbo purchase, these are the examples of situations you might face as well.
Yarbo just released a new "Pro" lawnmower module that supposedly fixes the problems with the original Yarbo mower. The idea that I should buy another Yarbo module when I haven't even completed one mowing season with the existing one is infuriating.
Yes, the Yarbo Pro looks like it might solve some issues, but why should I invest more money in a Yarbo product that didn't work as advertised in the first place?
The Yarbo return policy was a big factor in my purchase decision. I was assured returning the Yarbo would be easy if it didn't meet expectations. But here's what actually happened with my Yarbo order:
- • Ordered Yarbo in May 2024, told it would ship in late summer
- • Yarbo shipping pushed to September, then even farther
- • Actually received the Yarbo in early December
- • 30-day return window starts at activation OR April 30 automatically — whichever comes first (Yarbo confirmed this in writing)
- • Only had the snowblower module to test, didn't receive our first snow until after the window
- • Couldn't test the lawn mower (my main reason for buying) until late spring — well after the auto-start of warranty
- • Returns require freight shipping it back. This isn't an Amazon-style return.
- • Effectively stuck with Yarbo from the moment the unit was activated
I carefully mapped Yarbo edges around trees, fences, etc. My expectation: the Yarbo would follow the path I drove and mow those areas. Reality: Yarbo stays much farther out and doesn't get close to perimeters.
I'm told to map "over" areas for tighter Yarbo mowing, but you can't do that with physical impediments like fences. Result: I still need a string trimmer for large areas of my complicated yard.
It's always unclear what the Yarbo is doing. My family watches the Yarbo mow paths, then sit there backing up and adjusting repeatedly before continuing. Why? No idea. The lack of transparency in Yarbo's decision-making is frustrating.
I've double-checked all iOS settings - Yarbo notifications SHOULD work. But frequently I find the Yarbo just sitting in the yard, upset about some "obstacle" (usually not actually an obstacle).
I have to manually check the Yarbo app, back it up 2 feet, and tell it to start again. Then the Yarbo continues happily. This is not autonomous Yarbo operation.
As a lifelong gamer, I should love the Yarbo controller. Instead, it's clunky, error-prone, and unintuitive. You have to memorize Yarbo button combinations with no visual guide.
I end up using my phone to control the Yarbo instead, which is miserable in winter. At minimum, Yarbo should have included decals showing key functions.
There's no single Yarbo user manual that's consistently updated. Instead, you get a collection of miscellaneous Yarbo knowledge base articles with no connection to each other. Finding Yarbo answers is a treasure hunt.
Update: Yarbo just released a wiki that is linked from their support page, which aims to bring more of this into one place. It remains to be seen, but this might solve some of my documentation frustrations.
When the Yarbo fails, debugging it is my job. I'm routinely asked to enable "record issue" mode, run a job, screenshot the error, take a video, then disable record-issue — often while the rover is stuck in snow or the app is timing out. Yarbo's own backend frequently shows the device offline when the app says it's online, blocking diagnosis until the discrepancy is sorted.
For a $7,000 connected product, there should be a one-tap in-app bug report — a "rage shake" that bundles up logs, the app state, and a description and ships it to support. Instead, every escalation is a multi-day email exchange where I'm the data collector.
Yarbo's answer to HaLow signal loss at the edge of my property is "enable 4G — it'll take over automatically." In practice, in 17 months of trying, I have never been able to confirm a successful auto-failover. When the rover hits the end of the driveway and loses HaLow, it goes offline. The app times out before I can even reach the diagnostic page that would tell me whether cellular handoff actually engaged.
This eliminates the entire premise of an autonomous unit that can self-recover when nobody's home.
Yarbo has, to their credit, replaced both the Core unit (July 2025, after a firmware lockup) and the snow-blower module (January 2026, after recurring auger overcurrent). Both replacements were free and arrived reasonably quickly.
But the GPS drops at the end of my driveway? Same on the replacement Core. The cellular failover that doesn't engage? Same. The diagnostic loop where the app and the backend disagree about whether the device is online? Same. The systemic issues are not in the hardware. Replacing the hardware just resets the clock.
Frequently Asked Questions About Yarbo
What Yarbo Should Focus On
I want the Yarbo product to succeed. Here's what I think would make the biggest difference for future Yarbo customers.
Fix the Yarbo camera system, GPS reliability, and obstacle detection. If I have to manually intervene multiple times per Yarbo session, it's not autonomous. The fact that a Yarbo hotfix was needed to prevent it from driving under cars shows how basic the Yarbo problems are.
The Yarbo lawnmower needs to handle normal yard debris, wet grass, and typical weather conditions. If you encounter yard debris, use one of the 6 cameras to maneuver around it. The Yarbo snow blower needs to work on gravel driveways without getting stuck every few minutes. Build Yarbo for real homes, not perfect conditions.
Stop releasing Yarbo "Pro" modules that fix problems the original Yarbo should have solved, or at least create a more reasonable upgrade path for existing customers. Fix the existing Yarbo product before asking customers to buy more Yarbo modules. Stop creating unrealistic marketing videos that don't reflect the reality of the Yarbo.