Eufy C15 Robotic Lawn Mower Review

Design and features

• There are no RTK stations to set
• Practical roof at the filling station
• The 4G module has a separate cost

A small and nimble robotic lawnmower, the C15 weighs just under 11 kg. It is driven by a pair of large spiked wheels at the back, which it also relies on for steering. The hidden front wheels are plain shopping cart style. This means that this robot is only useful on flat terrain. It can cope with slopes of up to 18°, but is much more suitable for flat lawns.

Eufy’s C15 robotic lawnmower is immediately impressive because it does not require a cumbersome RTK station. It resides in a neat roofed charging dock. This helps make this bright white robot a little cleaner between cuts.

Something I don’t like about white robotic lawnmowers is that dust and dirt quickly appear. Within a few days it looked like the C15 needed cleaning. It’s not dangerous, but a black or gray robot will hide the dirt better.

There are only a few buttons on the robot. The big red emergency stop and basic soft touch function buttons can send it out or return it to the dock for charging, even when you don’t have your phone with you.

It uses AI-enhanced cameras to navigate the garden instead of an RTK station, just like the previous model, the Eufy Lawnbot E15. The cameras monitor the edge of the lawn and any obstacles. As a purely vision-based robot, it cannot operate in low-light conditions. However, this is a good thing as contact with nocturnal wildlife should be avoided.

The data connection is purely Wi-Fi, unless you separate it for the 4G module. Together with two years of data traffic, the 4G option allows you to operate the robot outside of Wi-Fi range. This is an extra cost that also unlocks the C15’s anti-theft package. It’s a shame that this security feature is kept behind a paywall, but Eufy isn’t the first brand to take this approach.

With a cutting height range of 20-60 mm, this robot can mow nice short lawns. Manually controlled mowing height adjustment with the dial on the top of the robot is simple, but it is not possible to mow lawn zones of different heights. The cutting width is a modest 18 cm, but the robot easily gets into tight corners and obstacles.

Integrated into Eufy’s powerful all-in-one app, you can control everything from the Omni E35 Robot Vacuum to the Video Doorbell Dual from one place. It’s a clean and easy-to-use app with enough customization to keep things interesting.

Something Eufy has added is the remote control function. Unlike some robotic lawnmowers, you can dial into the camera on the front of the C15. What’s more, it can be remotely controlled via the application from anywhere with an internet connection. It turns this small lawnmower into a useful home security tool. Did you go out and think you left the back window open? Take the C15 for a spin to check.

Performance

• Clean, parallel cutting lines
• Obstacle avoidance is excellent
• The edges still need to be trimmed

For many people, the thing that puts off robotic lawnmowers is that you have to deal with a complicated setup process. What makes the Eufy C15 an effective drop and go robot is that it is incredibly easy to set up.

Since I didn’t have to deal with a cumbersome RTK station, I simply took the robot out of its box, turned on the garage, and connected the robot to the app. I didn’t have to drive around or fiddle with maps before I got to work.

As with my experience with the Eufy Lawnbot E15, getting started is easy. The point is that there is also a “map and mow” function. As it sounds, it doesn’t even wait until you’ve mapped the entire lawn before getting to work.

The auto-mapping feature was equally impressive. The C15 went around the lawn, spun a few times, and produced a decent map of my test garden in about 15 minutes. While it wasn’t as fast as a LiDAR-enabled robot like the Sunseeker Elite X4, it was accurate around flower borders and under trees.

Editing the map was easy. Adding standard no-go zones and paths to lawns is also easy. The “must trim” function was also useful, allowing me to ignore patches of weeds that the on-board cameras mistook for flowers.

Due to the severe lack of rain in my part of England this summer, the Eufy C15 did not cut as much grass as I would have liked. However, it did a good job with the grass over several weeks.

By default, it cuts parallel strips, the robot is oriented in the direction of the dock. It kept to the lanes nicely and swerved only to avoid obstacles like thrown balls on the grass. I changed the shear pattern to alternating angled strips to ensure a full cut.

Like the similarly priced (but more off-road) Mammotion Luba Mini AWD, the C15 doesn’t just reach the end of the lawn. Instead, he performs a three-point turn that would impress most driving instructors. This helps prevent the grass from tearing up at the edge of the lawn and looks good too.

Having zipped around the garden quite a bit, I tried different travel and blade speeds and it worked flawlessly on the flat. However, like other two-wheel-drive robots, it struggled to navigate a slope and got stuck in a hole in the lawn. If you have a rough garden, the C15 will struggle. The 18° tilt ability works, but only if you hit it head on. I have yet to find a two-wheel drive robotic lawnmower that can handle going over a slope.

Like most robots with vision-based navigation systems, the C15 has a fairly wide berth at the edges of the lawn. Although its circumference is adjustable, it maintains a safety buffer of approximately 10 cm. This meant I still had to trim the edges of the lawn and the obstacles for a less messy finish.

The robot designed to mow only 500 m² is not suitable for huge lawns. And since it lacks automatic height adjustment, it cannot cut zones of different heights. However, the quality of the cut was excellent.

The robot struggled a few times as it returned to the charging station, causing an alarming wheel spin on the smooth plastic. I put the dock on a very slight slope, but I didn’t feel it was enough to stop it coming back.

I tried the remote control function and the image quality through the app was decent, although there was a bit of lag when driving the mower. Also, the Wi-Fi connection didn’t quite reach the bottom of my test garden. It didn’t affect mowing, but I couldn’t remotely control it at the end of the lawn. For this I have to spend another £99 for the 4G dongle.

Should I buy it?