YARBO SNOWBOT Snow Blower Robot Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ม.ค. 2022
- SNOWBOT is the world's FIRST ROBOT SNOWBLOWER! Like Roomba for your Driveway. But is it up to the job? See how it worked for me & my thoughts on this groundbreaking Snowblower powered by a battery.
Snowbot loaned me with his machine at no charge. No commissions, scripts or requirements were part of this video.
Check me out on Instagram for great photos and more project updates
/ silvercymbal
Disclaimer:
Due to factors beyond the control of Silver Cymbal, I cannot guarantee against improper use or unauthorized modifications of this information. Silver Cymbal assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. Use this information at your own risk. Silver Cymbal recommends safe practices when working on machines and or with tools seen or implied in this video. Due to factors beyond the control of Silver Cymbal, no information contained in this video shall create any expressed or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage, or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or from the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user and not Silver Cymbal.
Snowbot S1 Pro Review
Yarbo S1 - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
*Update: There are multiple reasons I would avoid this company & never buy this product* - I have repeatedly offered these guys a second chance, free review. Every request has been ignored - Instead they are working with channels that don't review equipment, all sponsored of course to be sure of the outcome.
😂 you're going to see that racing down the street by May! Seriously though, that was a great donation!
That's so great of you to donate it ! If any one can tweak that machine, its the up and coming builders of tomorrow!!!
Thanks for this review. I was looking forward to seeing this snowbot clear some driveways, but you've shown me a much more realistic picture of what it's capable of. Thanks for showing us the reality, warts and all.
I such high hopes. Lets hope the next version is actually practical to use.
Hey someone is using your logo for spam on TH-cam!
Wow, this thing is horrible! Thank you for the honest review!
In my neighbor hood the automated snow removing system is the neighbor kid looking to make a few bucks. Pretty reliable and doesn't get paid until the job is done. Imagine that.
I can't remember the last time I saw a kid shovel snow, never mind for money, when we were young blah, blah, blah
In my neighborhood I’m the “automated snow removal system “ the “kid” at 45 years old shoveling and snow blowing. No one in my neighborhood wants to leave their house to do anything like the good old days. Lol
In my neighborhood it’s 20 and 30
Year old Latin men. They are out after ever storm.
They still make them?
16 you old grandson lives here, talks a lot about wanting to "bulk up", but only helped a bit shoveling snow once of ten times this winter. Bring on the bot.
Thanks for the honest review. It wasn't a great sign from the beginning that you had to be on turbo mode to get anything on a relatively light day
yeah not even sure why non turbo mode is offered ... maybe incase you have the light fluffy flakes thats just really light blowing snow can be more efficient in weak mode and then stay in high torque mode for actually moving the real stuff actually if going for the high rpm version a heavy flywheel to store the energy once spun up like a battlebot could then hammer the ice to chunks shredding and throwing it further by rocking back n forth into the target snow giving time to spin up between hammerings
That snow actually appeared relatively wet/heavy
I get suspicious if a channel is anyways singing praises of products. It feels like the channel is just for sponsors. Honest and accurate reviews will always be appreciated!
While I don’t get snow, this is entertaining nonetheless
Thank you! The snow is fun for the kids, but I am not sure I would miss it too much.
My Toro 4 stroke single stage would self propel faster than I could walk if I tipped it forward by lifting the handle slightly, the rotating rubber snow blades would grab the driveway and propel the unit forward. It’s not that heavy either. I’m a small (unfit) guy and can carry it up the stairs to clear a large deck in the back of the house. So snowblowers don’t need to be ‘heavy’ to do a good job.
All you really need is a single stage for about 80% of snowstorms, for the other 20% you might have to hit it twice to get good results! I have 2 Honda snowblowers, a single stage one i purchased like 10 years ago and this past summer i purchased a 2 stage Honda (20+ year: old) with the track drive for 200 bucks what a steal almost zero rust dude had a heated garage and cleaned after each use, i still use the single stage more often but when that huge storm comes the big Honda is great!
With my 30 year old toro ccr2000 I need to speed walk to keep pace with it. The more snow falls the further it throws it. Suzuki power ❤️
My neighbors all have small single stage. I have a big two stage.
For the average snowfall of 5" or less, the single stages seem to perform better and faster and are easier to wield. We also have slab driveways, and the single stage adapts much better whereas my 2 stage will leave areas unevenly cleared at the slab gaps.
I'm impressed with those little guys
You must get less snow than me lol
4 strokes are garbage. Give me the old 2 stroke
Thanks for giving us the truth on this snow blower robot. I’d hate to be the one who wasted money on purchasing it. Seemed like a great idea, but poorly executed.
Lol. This thing is a joke. They’re trying to defend its usefulness, but all their videos show it “working” in 1” of snow. Better off buying a li-on leaf blower to quickly move the dustings of snow this thing can handle.
@@yarboglobal you couldn’t even move a small 2 inch pile of snow and you think it would handle the blizzard that just came through?
@@yarboglobal I love the idea but it would never work for me unless it was a 2 stage and had a self charge dock and knew to clear snow ever 3 inches or so. I tend to deal with wet snow more than light dry snow.
Great review. I for the life of me cant understand how crap like this ever makes it to the marketplace. This last storm was the lightest and fluffiest snow in recent memory.
@@andrewmaher5743 No doubt! I have a Massey ferguson ride em with a 42' blower and it can barely keep up with the snow we get! You would need 3 dozen of them things and even still, the way it comes down, they would be frozen in place till spring! Would just be like a few dozen lil speed bumps till then! lol Would have to hire a security guard to watch them, so you wouldnt lose them, ppl be out there at 4 am trying to chip it out of the ice to sell it for beer! No thanks! lol
A leaf blower would have done better.
It made it to marketplace because they ran out of money designing it and had to screw over those who bought one so they could continue development. What a deceptive thing to do, its clear this thing needs development. I would guess a device like this would need to weigh a minimum of at least 500 pounds to get any kind of real traction.
@@andrewmaher5743 , people that are like yourself are ironically the ones that are not contributing to the human gene pool.
I think that the size of the device is not the issue, but, rather, how it is constructed. I am convinced that a good snowplow needs to function less like a conventional snowplow and to function, at least in its first part, anyway, like a vacuum cleaner, as ice that would be sucked into the machine could then be immediately transported to the blower part of the snowplow. However, after that step and device are both done, a trio of devices could be used, namely, a laser that goes across the sidewalk, or area that is covered in ice, or a device that is a bunch of ice hammers and blades that alternate hitting the sidewalk, though I think that the laser ice removal device would be easier to build, and, after the ice is removed, it could be heated with a device that functions like a drying function of a dishwasher, and the third device can completely dry off the area to the point where there is not even the option to have black ice on the area that the snow and ice were removed from in the first place.
You know with the boomers retiring every day and the younger workforce happy to work from home, these types of machines are going to be critical for our aging population. While this little machine might not be the answer to this problem, I'm glad they are working on these robot machines to make them better. Great honest review!
What an ignorant comment
@@RustyShackelford_ you wanna plow the snow for them cuz I dont
@@UncleFjester woah seems like somebody didn't eat their grape nuts this morning.
Shut up boomer!
Lazy Little Bastards
I'm super glad to see an honest review. I know people that get free things from companies to review in their videos. Not that I want someones product to fail but it's good to e honest about it when they do
Looks like there could be potential also looks like a single stage blower which we're never made to move a lot of snow a little more weight a two-stage auger and impeller maybe couple studs on the tracks could be onto something there I just no removal for a living I still think it'll be a while before I'm replaced you'll definitely need a smooth flat concrete or asphalt driveway to be effective few more years I don't think it'll be putting me out of a job just yet All in all pretty cool
As soon as you introduced it, I knew it was a failure, and for all the reasons you mentioned. We had our first substantial snow in two years this weekend (22 inches), and my old Toro 622 had problems with the depth. Even though the snow was light and fluffy, it still took 5 hours to clear the driveway. I really had to wrangle with the machine (which was still considerably better than just shoveling!). A robot machine would have just died. Period. Thank you for panning the technology!
I understand the "depth" issue, however...just thinking out loud here:
What if these (future design) "roblowers" were trained to learn the perimeter AND they are sent out DURING the storm?
By this I mean: Why wait until the storm is over?
(Future thinking here)
As soon as the local weather station reports at least 1" (or 25.4mm) of snow has fallen...my "RoBlower" (my made up name...don't steal it! :) is sent out to start cleaning the driveway.
Maybe it keeps snowing?
Ok...it goes back and does it again after getting the signal...
Running out of watts?
It gets sent to the recharge station.
It keeps repeating this until the storm is done.
* By having my RoBlower go out in multiple passes, it mitigates the depth issue. *
R Rad,
I don't deny the technology is not here (yet) but there were a LOT of people around the world trying to make an airplane...they all made mistakes...and some people actually made it work.
:)
If you go to the website for the robot, it is not designed to snowblow 2 feet of snow. If you use the app and program it correctly, it’s fully autonomous and supposed to go out multiple times during the storm and do a little at a time, so your driveways stays clear. I’m not saying this particular model works, but it’s a good idea and I’m sure they’ll be in use in the next few years.
Oh man! Maybe they need to get 2 or 3 stage options. Shame that it didn’t work out in the end.
I was very bummed out by this, they may figure it out in the end but it would have to be a lot heavier I think to make it work.
@@SilverCymbal am I correct in that they are still beta testing these? Like, they aren’t for sale yet, right?
@@TheLawngineer What they told me is that you can order a S1 and they will ship it to you for $2600 I believe, but they will give you the S2 for free when it comes out. So its production but still kind of in development
2-3 stage would be too heavy.
@@yarboglobal I think it’s a great idea to send out units like this to test out and collect feedback to develop a better product! Thanks for the response! Looking forward to seeing how the final product comes along. It’s exciting to see the robotic technology being used this way.
First i love the honest review, that gives your other reviews so much legitimacy, although i would never consider a robot to do snow blowing or even cut my grass, heck i returned my roomba vacuum because it wasn’t good enough! There is somethings a robot just can’t do! Keep up the good work!
*Thanks for this review. I was looking forward to seeing this snowbot clear some driveways, but you've shown me a much more realistic picture of what it's capable of. Thanks for showing us the reality, warts and all.*
I think the best case for this type of machine is to
Repeatedly clean your driveway as it actively snowing.
exactly, it wasn't given a chance to function in its designed manner, like a roomba that runs all the time on a schedule so it starts clearing as the snow stars falling so it only has to deal with tiny layers of snow at a time and just continuously clears
@@coreysuffield The issue with having it continuously run is you can't, It will run for only 1 hour and 30 minutes before losing all of it's battery and then having to recharge for 2 hours which you have to do your self a roomba will go and recharge it's self while this cannot. and in those 2 hours you may get more snow than this thing can handle.
Thanks! When I saw the size of it, I wondered how it could possibly handle the 01/29/22 MA blizzard. Hope you post the next version & it performs better.
Definitely not moving snow here in mass
I can't believe how clueless the designers of this are about basic physics. I'd like to see a bot that can just operate my Ariens Deluxe 30.
Yes, when dealing with a lot of snow, size, mass and power are king when it comes to making it easier.
Performed as I would have expected
It's great that there are companies out there trying to bring new tech to market. It is unfortunate that this is a bust but it's still cool to see. Thank you for the honest review, your viewers appreciate it!
Snowthrowing is a very physical activity, either through an operator on the handles, or mounted to a tractor or skid steer. My two stage Toro HD weighs over 250lbs, and it still sometimes requires a little muscle on my part when the snow gets serious.
And forget about wet snow, or if any leaves get burried
Or like what we got in Ohio with a layer of ice under the snow, I had to pull out a metal hoe to get the job done
"I'm going to use the included remote" *Pulls out a gaming controller*
Well back to the drawing board for the makers of snowbot !!!!!!
The main problem seemed to be ground clearance issues with the undercarriage getting hung up on snow. When you look at a conventional tracked snow blower, there's up to 4 to 5 inches of clearance between the rear chassis and the ground. The company should look at the spacing of modern military tanks as an example of chassis spacing and clearances.
Thanks for sharing. Cool video! I guess this robot will be great in the future with some improvements. I guess they also need to make it much larger, to be able to fight against the snow. This little fellow is to small. I'm from northern Europe, and I have experienced 1-2 m of snow. So, you need some heavy equipment to move that. Looking forward to V2.
Thanks for the honest review!
Damn? Guess Ill have to keep using my Toro Powerclear 21”!
I do my house (driveway and sidewalk), three other houses and a walking path near us.
The Toro is very good (in 7th year with it) but I find I have to slightly lift the handle for the built-in Scraper to really cut to the asphalt or concrete.
Wish this version worked.
Appreciate all of your Reviews. Will be enjoyable having the best lawn in the neighborhood with little effort again by just following your previous Videos (aeration, seeding, fertilizing, watering) plus my adding bug removal (Grub-Ex) and Scott’s Fungicide regularly applied.
Be well.
Keep up the great honest reviews!
Thank you for honest reviews! The reason I watch!
Thanks for honest review. I'm looking for a remote controlled snowplow/ blower as I'm physically challenged and have to hire someone to plow my little sidewalk and driveway. I hope someone will develop a better one.
Great review SC.
It needs an over size traction tire....triangular shape probably. Geofencing would be best instead of those poles. R&D dept needs to go back to the drawing board...
@@yarboglobal I am excited to see it. Can't wait..
I was rooting for it to do at least a little better than that. Too bad. Maybe it could be used to fetch the mail lol.
Thanks for your review! Always detailed and honest! Good filming of it too.
Me too, I was so excited for this one and I have hope that the company may do more with it, they are nice folks but the performance is what it is so maybe they will figure it out for the S2 model
Wow that's so interesting to watch. Thanks for sharing
Interesting idea. I just saw a review of the Ryobi electric snow blower. It takes 4 40v batteries and I don't think it lasts more than 30 minutes but boy, does it move snow. Ryobi needs to automate that thing.
My neighbor had that unit and he says it goes for over and hour and he does his driveway and sidewalk. Which are both small. I was thinking of getting one for my deck.
@@mtadams2009 Good to know. Thanks.
My buddy had on and I drove him around and they did 5 decent size driveways. They have different ones. I think the smallest is like 16 inch wide and then the big ass there’s like 24 or something like that. This one took two batteries. The size of the batteries also dictate how long it last for. I think he said that they were seven amp hour batteries. The batteries alone were like 700.00. I was actually really impressed.
Exciting! To bad it did not work well, but that is how I feel about my electric snowblower that I walk behind it’s only good for about half the snow fall. When it works it works well. Hope they stick with it. Thanks for an honest review!
Pretty awesome you can control it wirelessly, also with a little design tweaking I can see this thing working as intended.
Yes, design tweaking, like it being able to actually move in snow!! 😂
I sent this to my dad that is 84 and still shovels his driveway (Spokane, Wa) and he laughed pretty hard.
Oh dear lord. This was a sad story. I was really hoping this works. Thanks for the review.
I have ordered one long time ago and it's taking for ever to reach me.
Just for testing purposes you could have put something really heavy on top to see if it improves traction.
I live in Canada and love automation, if they can figure how to make one work, would be awesome!
I totally agree. But this thing is garbage.
I was hoping for a glowing review since that is an awesome idea. But although I'm sad it didn't work, I'm glad you gave it an honest review. Maybe someday.
Me too, I was extremely let down. I knew there would be issues but the performance was so frustrating it was a bad surprise
this was not an honest review, he never set up the beacons, and just ran it in the worst possible conditions, "see it just doesn't" after being placed in conditions it was never designed for and only ran it with the controller like a manually operated snow plow "see not as good as a real snow plow" when that is literally not what it is
Great channel, always interesting information.
I appreciate that a lot thank you
Great review , awesome idea if it could work.
The man who created it is now making snowbot into yarbot with various attachments.. and when I looked most of the stuff shown looks very artificial and poorly at that... im in the facebook group.. and now when I look here it looks the same and same movement.. I was suspicious of it and im truly grateful I found your review. Thank you!! ❤️
Thank you for the nice note. I have been watching Yarbo, Toadi, Luba & Novabot very closely & the companies behind them. The claims for Yarbo unit are absolutely ridiculous, imo. It mows, blows, tows and people are led to believe they will never do yard work again when they couldn't even get snow removal right. I will be releasing another video shortly about what is happening with these devices and to avoid the kickstarter/inidigo variety. One thing is for sure, until a REAL ipartial demo is provided the rest is all trick shots, clever editing and CGI. As I said before, if the unit is real send me one and I will be the first to offer a free, featured video to show it off and help them sell it.
I was happy to see so much snow specifically for this video!
thanks for posting this video. I figured this wouldn't work that effectvely. And the price for the Unit and the Snow Blower attachment is around $6,000 ! Forget it.
next place for this snowbot:
The box is locked, the lights are on, its robot fighting time🤣
You’d think whoever made this thing had tested it at least once in real snow. I believe the manufacturer is using you to test it for the first time.
I live in Canada and we get lots of snow. There is no real snow. It can come down light and fluffy like feathers or crazy thick and slushy, or any variation in-between. My ego snow blower works good on the fluffy light stuff, excellent on the stuff in the middle but would struggle with that really heavy snow you showed in the video.
Plan ahead and get an in ground meeting system. I did mine myself and it cost me less than $2,500 not counting the concrete that was already going to be put down. I used pex pipes and a propane instant water heater. I knew before building a house that I didn't want to plow or shovel snow. I run it before the show starts so you don't get snow to stick to show off to the neighbors. The snow will over run the system in a blizzard but catch back up when the snow slows
Always awesome info thanks again brother
We get 10 plus inches of snow. I will stick to my 2 stage snowblower. Thanks for sharing. 😎
Not ready for prime time. But thanks for the review!
Great addition to a Miami home!
I can see it now... the unit goes haywire... you run up and kick the stop button only for it to reply "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. " :-)
Needs studs or tires. Need more PSI on the contact patch. Tracks sound like a great idea but with little weight they slip. Plus those treads are probably hard rubber. Cutting some sipes in the treads might make them more pliable to grip.
Sorry this wasn't a success for you but I appreciate you posting it if only to help us see what things are considered during a test. I'm in South Texas so hopefully we won't ever need one of these (looking at you winter storm of 2021) but still, it's always good to learn a thing or two.
Sheesh you could move more snow then that with a robot lawnmower 😆😆😆
It makes you wonder if the company tested it in actual snow.
I saw this on another channel. They were blowing about 2” of powder snow. I knew it wouldn’t push through that wet heavy stuff. I’ll stick with my Kubota tractor. In 15 years it’s never failed me.
I'll stick to using my children as child labor
@@TheRandompaint how do you do that? We have two teenage grandchildren living next door. You can’t get them to leave the house.
Just need to attach a seat to it and try again 😆
I like my Cub Cadet 3x. It throws quite far and has a great auger system. Not sure what kind of lithium batteries they use, but most freeze in temperatures below zero.
Well,it was fun to watch but I'll stick with my Ego 2 stage 😂
This product will eventually be produced to perfection. There is definitely a market for it. The elderly and the handicap. You do not have to move alot of snow to get a heart attack. Many people, in shape, and not overweight have experienced heart attacks from moving a mere 3 inches of snow. You do not realize it, but you put a tremendous amount stress on your heart shoveling in the cold. Believe it or not when they get this machine right, it will save countless lives, and no one will realize it.
Awesome work Big lk 👍 stay safe stay connected 🥰💯👍
Haha. I love your videos. That was entertaining. I would love one of those for my driveway but maybe by version 20 it will work in MN. Do you think it would throw wood chips? I have a bunch of wood chips down that I wanted to move. Maybe it would vacuum those up and shoot it into a wheel barrow or trailer for me? #videoidea
Nice concept
Nice concept.
Exactly what I thought would happen when you showed us this machine in the first video. Something's are better the old fashion way.
The first test was about 3 weeks ago and I really thought it was a fluke or something but after this weekend, I have no doubts that its not ready for prime time.
Try one or two sand bags on top. The lithium batteries are too light.
Few years back, girl in 1/2 ton pickup with bald all season tires in back was stuck in the snow on side street. I suggested need weight over rear axle. It only required 4 adults standing on the bumper holding the tail gate. She drove out to the main street like a Sunday drive without a concern in the world. Yah! traction works everytime.
Just from a quick glance, I think this thing could use some decent wear shoes on the sides with a good approach angle. It seems like it is getting hung up on a sharp angle that is too low to the ground. Ego has a well-reviewed two stage blower that seems like it would be a better platform to build off of.
What if you have stairs to shovel snow off of, or ice to remove from either the steps or sidewalks that you are using the Snowbot on, out of curiosity?
Don’t feel bad for Snowbot, even my John Deere 318 with the 54” snowplow blade didn’t do well in Saturdays Nor’Easter…. Probably if they load it up with heavy LiFePO4 batteries, it would have enough power and weight to do better
Put some lug tires on your 318 and you will get her done
Wait till summer maybe it will mow some grass. lol
Damn you might be on to something! Imagine if they put a dethatcher kit on the front, it would probably do great for that.
@@SilverCymbal I was thinking an old push mower with the spinning blades it's almost the same.
@@SilverCymbal oh don't forget my royalties.
I could really use it. 😁
Thanks for the honest review. I’m not sure I’d buy one even if it did work, but your video was informative nonetheless
Ty for honest information
I was hoping this would be awesome and I could run it from our southern USA home. Probably will get there eventually .
Thanks for posting this, I was going to purchase the 3 in 1 model they currently advertise and was skeptical of the performance. Kids in my neighborhood like to move their fingers not there bodies:)
Their entire new campaign has been a failure. They promised everyone a delivery in November, last month. They showed pictures of it being boxed up and people bought into this. Nothing was delivered, the usual BS lockdown excuse, shipping issues, all after no communications for a month. Now they say the machine has problems and will be shipped far into the future. But of course they continue to take orders. I would stay as far away from this company as possible.
Cool idea.
This is amazing! Been following these guys for a bit now.
I can actually see this thing work if you leave it out there blowing back and forth as soon as you see couple inches on the ground. The trick with something like this is since it is doing all the work just leave the thing outside blowing continuously and swap the battery whenever it runs out.
I can see thieves just waiting to snag this thing, and sell the battery.
Agreed, it hasto be running before it piles up too much
Great advise
These last few snow falls I've needed to get a running start into the snow with my Toro and I'm 255 lbs. No way this little bot is going to do anything as you have certainly demonstrated 😂
As an idea, it has merit. I say the biggest problems are the weight distribution (center of gravity would probably work better slightly more forward ) and battery technology not being able to deliver enough power.
A solution in search of a problem.
Not at all.
It's just a luxury item.
People who can afford this can afford to just pay someone to come and shovel their property for them.
Or if they're poor they can just shovel it themselves.
It's the story about a little snowbot that thought he could, but couldn't.
I have a 250 foot long, horseshoe, concrete driveway that had a sharp incline (my house is 18' above street level). The former owner installed a heating system under the driveway, but it never worked correctly. I would love to buy a Snowbot or anything similiar that works and will solve my winter-time driveway headaches.
No snowblower robot in the world can handle the length and grade of your driveway. Stop being cheap and Hire a reputable snow removal person and your winter headache will be gone.
@@buzrash Maybe you didnt hear the news; however, the Wright Brothers built a contraption that can actually fly. Also, man has walked on the moon. Mark my words, if a consumer need exists for something, an inovative person(s) will build it. BTW, I am not cheap. I currently own a very expensive and powerful skidsteer to clear my driveway (if you don't know what that is, look it up). However, I am always looking for the next great idea, especially one that involves reducing wintertime work.
22 winters of homeownership and I still prefer the shovel over any blower. My driveway is 2-lane average length, but it's kinda steep. Any machine I put on it struggled to do anything and I went right back to the shovel that takes less effort and time.
I'm pretty sure you are in the extreme minority. :-) It also sounds like your snow blower needed some tire chains.
@@eosjoe565 the slope of driveway isn't conducive for a blower unless maybe some big ass commercial blower that takes up entirely too much room to be used like 3 hours per year.
For what that is able to do, you might as well just drive over it.
Looks like fun to operate though 👍🏻
Off to a great start though!
Chris,
I think all of your loyal viewers saw this one coming! You did yeoman's work spending your time on this mickey mouse toy (in its current confuration - see necessary improvements at the end). As a man who uses much heavier snow handling equipment in your videos, I suspect even you thought the unit wouldn't be up to the job going of withstanding rigorous testing in the aftermath of a nor’easter. The company wasted your valuable time by not having tested their unit before hand in any snowfall taller than 1" or heavier than dry powder. That being said, let me flesh out some details either you or other viewers may not have considered.
I live a few towns over from you, so I too got clobbered with 2' of snow from the recent nor'easter. The archaeology of the snowstorm is as follows: we had warm weather and rain preceding the storm so the ground was wet as the storm picked up strength, then as the mercury fell we got a layer of slush accumulation as wet, concrete-like snow fell coating the ground, (and the trees and power lines, coating them like glue, weighing them down, accumulating further snow load as the storm proceeded, which would not have happened had we had light powder snow throughout the entire storm, hence the incredible tree and power line damage) and as temperatures plunged further into double and then single digits, dry powder snow characterized most of the remainder of the storm. So, what does that have to do with the SnowBot? The storm left the absolute worst type of snow load to clear for any snow blowing machine that was not designed for, and therefore lacked complete dominance over, those conditions. I have a 1,650lb (fully loaded with me, weights, quick hitch, blower, etc), 22hp, John Deere 445 with a hydraulically actuated 2-stage, 54” auger that was even struggling to get a footing initially clearing a working area. So when I saw your video promo, I got out the popcorn, chuffed, and said, “Well, this ought to be entertaining!” And sure enough, you arrived at the same pre-conceived conclusion as your viewers had. Here’s how it went for me.
For starters, you man-handle-shove open your basement door because it has 2’ of snow (plus more from drifting) pressing against it. So now what? You are facing a 2+ foot thick wall of snow, and you have yet to trundle out to where you keep your snow blower. That is probably higher than the SnowBot itself. So already this testing session is an exercise in futility. However, to give the unit a fighting chance, you think you might shovel off the top 18” of powder, leaving 6” of powder to clear on the ground - not too difficult you think. But wait, remember, there is a layer of slush on the ground beneath the powder. The unit will therefore get no traction and of course will not be able to “snow blow” the liquid concrete-like slush. So to give the unit another fighting chance, you clear what you can of the insulating dry powder from the top of the snow load, wait for the slush to freeze, and now the unit can ride along the hard, irregular frozen slush surface clearing away the light powder. You can see where this analysis is going: if you must do so much work for the machine, you might as well clear everything by shovel yourself. And this doesn’t even consider the affect single digit temperatures have on the battery duration. From any objective standpoint then, this unit was outclassed in my hypothetical analysis, and even in your SilverCymbal test operating the unit across a practically already-cleared driveway.
So, is the unit junk? For clearing the snowy remains of a nor’easter, probably/maybe. But wait, not so fast. If the storm had laid down ONLY dry powder, and you had set up the electronic marker stakes ahead of time, maybe you could have deployed the unit on an automatic schedule once an hour overnight (since we were getting 2-3” powder per hour at the height of the fury, I think the unit could have dealt with that) so the unit would have had a fighting chance.
An important configuration element you may not have mentioned is whether the unit can programmatically change chute direction. This is critical, and probably a show stopper if it cannot. You need to understand the wind direction before programming the unit. My heavy duty machine can throw a rooster tail of snow 25’ in the air, however, throwing powder against the 30+ mph winds we experienced is kind of like shoveling fleas across a barn yard - all the dry powder will blow back across the driveway if you aim the chute upwind, as I quickly found out.
Another configuration element is recharging. Having seen your driveway in your videos (VERY long), that unit would probably only clear a fraction of your area on one charge, so does the unit have the ability to sense low battery voltage and “come home” to a docking station to automatically recharge? If so, you would need to factor in recharging time when setting up the automatic program to calculate if the unit can afford down time for recharging in its efforts to keep up with 2-3” of snowfall per hour. To finish out the charging discussion, this unit should be stored in a warm location. If you doubt this, check the face plate on any battery and compare the “cranking amps” to the “cold cranking amps” to see how quickly cold temperatures degrade battery performance. So this introduces a further problem - how many of us have a “heated doghouse” or a swinging door in a garage through which this unit can travel to get inside to its charging station (plus the obstacle avoidance camera would probably not want to drive the unit through a swinging door unintended). So the practical considerations are these: either the unit is stored inside forcing you to get up in the middle of the night multiple times to “let it outside” to snow blow, meaning the automatic programming is now much less so, or the unit is stored outside, somehow protected from snowfall so it can reattach to the charging station, but suffering battery duration issues from the cold.
So to sum up, the unit would probably work on exclusively dry powder on a modest length driveway if the snow is never given a chance to accumulate over a few inches and/or you wake up in the morning with clear skies and all you have to do is a one-time pass clearing off 2-3” of snow.
Improvements for the machine? You betcha - weight, weight, and more weight. All else being equal, weight equals traction. To increase duration and traction, I’d say that unit needs at least several hundred more pounds of batteries. This would bring it up to 320lbs (given you said it weighs 120 lbs as it now stands). This puts it on the heavy side of a high end self propelled gas snow blower, which is much more appropriate for New England storms. To keep the unit functional for people in milder climates with less aggressive snowfalls, the add-on battery packs could be modular and optional. It needs a programmable override on the obstacle avoidance camera for maneuvering in tight quarters.
I might be in over-length, over-analysis territory by now, but as someone who had to clear the snow using a high powered, heavy duty, hydraulically, actuated 2-stage snow blower and found even that challenging, I think I’m qualified. I hope this helps, and I hope we can start a discussion of these points and others to generate some feedback to the company, whose product is clearly an alpha-release, not yet ready for prime time, but still seems like a good enough idea under controlled conditions if it can tweaked.
Would a broom robot work better to constantly clean an area during a snow. While checking on other jobs
put some sandbags on it to help with the weight, maybe towards the front
Good info here.
You Rock! Thank you
the way I see it, a path in the snow is an invitation to my door... don't want any of that! neat video though.
I think that since it's automatic you could send it out during the storm several times. Charge. Release.. charge release. And so on so it would only have to deal with a few inches each time. It almost looks like the blower chute is clogged up on yours.
Might faster to just wait until spring for it to melt! LOL.
What a shame. Appreciate this review, as always! Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
They need to enter the snowbot in a few battlebot competitions to make it more robust and aggressive.
I wonder if the snow/ice studs in the track would lessen the traction issue.