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There are more robot lawn mower brands these days than seem necessary. Mammotion has been in the game for a while now, though—garnering decent reviews—and has been expanding, even adding robot pool cleaners to its lineup. So I thought it was high time to check out one of the brand’s top models, the all-wheel-drive Luba 3 3000H, a robot lawn mower that features some of the latest navigation and sensor technology, plus a few extras that took me by pleasant surprise.
Out of the box, this robot looks more like a race car than a lawn mower, with a set of four wheels that are tricked out with deep treads, especially on the front. But what stands out are the features on top of the unit, including a 360-degree light detection and ranging (LiDAR) dome sensor and a set of dual cameras that are a part of its Tri-Fusion positioning system that uses a combination of laser vision, light detection and ranging, and real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS to map out the yard and avoid obstacles.
Automated Setup That Needs a Helping Hand
Setting up a robot mower is the most important and time-consuming part of owning one, and it can go easily or be hard, depending on how well the manufacturer designs the software. I recently had a good experience with a robot mower from Husqvarna, so I was curious to see how Mammotion stacked up. In comparison, I found some advantages and disadvantages.
The major advantage is an automated setup mode that Mammotion offers, but Husqvarna does not. After you pair the robot with the mobile app, you select this feature and the robot gets to work, using all of its navigation technology to map out the perimeter of your yard, as well as any permanent obstacles like garden beds and trees. This saves you from tracing out these areas yourself, though it’s mainly meant for properties with simple boundaries and only a few obstacles. For more complicated yards, Mammotion recommends manual mapping.
My experience using the automated setting was mixed. At first, I was impressed with how well the Luba got to work determining the boundary of the yard. I physically watched it correctly plot even the uneven lines bordering a large pile of logs from a recently felled tree. It also correctly mapped out two garden beds and even somehow avoided a patch of bare ground where grass was not growing (due to a recently removed playset). It was cool.
But it was not perfect. Once the robot believed that mapping was complete, I noticed that it completely ignored the part of the yard that wrapped around the right side of the house, even though there was no identifiable boundary to stop it. It also struggled to recognize some raised roots that run along one side of the yard as obstacles to avoid.
To fix both of these problems, I used the mobile app to add the missed section manually and establish virtual fence lines to make sure it avoided the other section. The process also took nearly an hour to complete, which was 30 minutes longer than the manual process with the Husqvarna robot for the same yard.
Because of this, I thought it might have been quicker to manually create the map with the Luba 3, but I would’ve been mistaken. When adding the side yard manually, I discovered one glaring problem—manual control is difficult to use. With the Husqvarna, driving the mower manually was easy, using simple arrow controls in the app. But the driving interface in Luba’s app was confusing. It uses two visual circles and the touch screen’s haptics to initiate acceleration and directional movement in a combination I found impossible to get the hang of quickly.
Even after some practice, I gave up trying to maintain a straight line. Later on in testing, I found an alternative interface in the app that made it a bit easier to control, but even so, I developed a newfound appreciation for the automated mode.
Fast and Agile Mowing
As I mentioned, this is a sporty-looking robot mower, and it lives up to the look. When I first started up the Luba 3, I noticed it was speedier than other models I’ve seen, especially when it was moving about without the cutting blades activated. The all-wheel drive and the treaded wheels help it climb slopes with no problem. It’s also helpful in getting it unstuck if one of the wheels gets caught by something the obstacle vision missed. My hills aren’t all that steep, but I feel pretty confident the Luba 3 could climb the advertised 38.6-degree slopes. AWD can also help it make turns more gently by distributing the torque among all the wheels, helping to prevent accidental streaks in the grass.
Its cutting performance was also good. Like most other robot mowers, this doesn’t use traditional mower blades; it uses small razor-like blades that spin on a disc. But the Luba 3 features two of these discs with six blades each, for a total of 12. I’m not sure how much of an advantage this is. I didn’t see a huge difference in cut quality compared to the Husqvarna, which only has three blades. However, two discs provide a wide cutting path of around 15 inches, so the Luba 3 was able to cut the lawn faster with fewer passes. Overall, I was pleased with the results.
Another common trait among robot mowers is that the clippings left behind are small, similar to the mulching mode of walk-behind mowers. For this reason, it's best to run this mower two, maybe even three times per week. If the grass does get a bit long, the blade speed can be increased to help chop through it (I tested it at the medium [default] speed), and the cutting height can also be set between 2.2 and 4 inches.
Overall, as I sat back and watched the Luba 3 do its thing, I was impressed with how methodical it was, cutting the perimeter twice and then setting forth to cut the rest of the lawn in even, back-and-forth paths. All in all, it took around 1 hour and 50 minutes to finish the job with battery power left to spare. The yard I cut is around a half acre, and the model I tested is rated to cut up to 0.75 acres, so I think that specification can be trusted.
You can also spend more on a model with a battery that can last for up to 1.25 acres or less on a model that mows up to 0.27 acres. You can also buy a version that includes a protective covering to keep heavy rain from pouring down on it directly. The Luba 3 is waterproof and there’s a really cool rain sensor on top that will cease operation and return the base station when the skies open up, but extra protection never hurts.
I’d Give the App a B+
The mobile app for any robot lawn mower is integral to everyday operation. It’s where you set schedules, edit maps, adjust boundaries and work paths, and select different options, such as cutting heights and patterns, including straight or diagonal checkerboards. It’s also where you can monitor or operate the mower remotely.
Overall, Mammotion’s app is pretty good. Pretty quickly, I was able to set up my preferred mower settings and dug deep on those, too, such as setting it to cut the perimeters more than once (up to four times) to ensure a neat look.
It’s great for remote operation, too. After several days of rain, I was able to initiate an unscheduled mowing session and monitor the robot’s progress from over 20 miles away. I was even able to see what the robot sees by tapping into its camera feed. That might seem gimmicky, but it's useful for checking local weather conditions or getting a bird's-eye view if an obstacle is impeding progress.
But not everything is intuitive. While the scheduler worked well, it was not intuitive for repeated events you want to run every week—it took me several searches through the manual to figure it out. It would be great if they opted to use a calendar-based model, but alas, no. Automation is the prime purpose of any robot mower, so I think this feature still needs some work, as do the manual operation difficulties I mentioned previously.
The Final Verdict
I think Mammotion has done a good job creating a robot lawn mower that is smart, efficient, and competent. Plus, features like automated mapping and a rain sensor are great features not found on all robot mowers. While I think the company needs to refine and simplify manual operations and scheduling, the issues I had can be overcome with a bit of extra effort by the end user.
The overall performance and feature sets of this robot are robust, and I think anyone looking to outsource the job of mowing the lawn to an automaton is going to be pretty pleased with the Mammotion Luba 3 AWD robot lawn mower.
