Yarbo robotic snow blower review: A yard crawler for all seasons

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$4,999.00

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Yarbo's modular yard robot was a hit at CES in Las Vegas in January 2025, but I have to say I was skeptical about the concept. Once I had the opportunity to test the new machine with the snow blower attachment, one of the many accessories that can be attached to this crawler, I changed my mind.

The Yarbo kit arrived in three large boxes and installing the machine was a project. This is not difficult at all thanks to the clear operating instructions. You get all the tools you need and each one is labeled, including the hex keys. Big!

Specifications

• Manufacturer: Yarbo
• Equipment: Yarbo Core, snowblower module, battery, docking station, accessories)
• Weight: 134 lb (61 kg) (Yarbo Core, without snow blower)
• Battery: 36 V, 38.4 mAh
• Operating temperature range: -11.2 degrees F to 113 F (-24 to 45 C)
• Insulation: IPX4 (i.e. not tested for dust ingress, protected from water splashed from any direction)
• Towing capacity:

Control it using your smartphone or Yarbo handheld remote.

After a couple of hours, the RTK antenna is installed on the facade of the house, the base station is fixed and the car is ready for testing. On my first trip to Västerbotten, a province in northeastern Sweden, I didn't have time to do much more than assemble a kit and manually operate a snowblower. You can control it with your mobile phone or with the included handheld remote control that looks like it belongs on a gaming console. The idea, of course, is that you schedule your snow removal to save time and also save your back.

It is very easy to control it through your mobile phone, because the Yarbo application is exemplary. But beyond navigating the car, there's a lot to keep an eye on. In several steps, you can set the power level of the snow blower motor itself, as well as the digging depth and the angle at which it should throw the snow removed. It's not so good if you're throwing ice and maybe some gravel into your car or in front of your house. The snow blower is powerful and on par with the best battery-powered snow blowers I've tried, so it has no problem throwing snow (and ice chunks) 7 to 8 meters (7.6 to 8.7 yards).

On my second trip, I had more time to really test what Yarbaugh could do. The best thing, of course, would be to set up the car at the beginning of winter, and not when half a meter of snow has thawed and then frozen again. In terms of snow on the ground, conditions were simply not optimal.

Studded tracks are an indispensable thing in winter

The first thing I did that I failed to do in the first part of the test was switch to studded tracks. Without them, the Yarbo Core simply slides along the icy surface. However, this is a fairly simple project and one that the robot can handle much better. It was incredible to see him maneuver on the icy high edges.

The Yarbo Core charges either while standing on the charging pad or using the included AC charger. The included 36V battery fully charges in about 3 hours, but when it's cold outside it needs to warm up for 20-30 minutes before you can start charging the battery. A full charge lasts up to 4 hours according to the specifications. During this time, the robot has cleared large areas, so the operating time of the snowblower should not be an issue unless you have large areas to cover.

On paper, Yarbo should be able to handle up to 125,000 square meters (149,499 square yards); but of course it depends on the job. The area I was working on was only 700 to 800 square meters (837 to 957 square yards) and consisted of a large driveway and section of road. During the two test periods, the robot had no problems navigating, only needing a little help to get to the charging pad once.

It's easy to schedule automatic snow removal with the Yarbo app. If you've ever installed a robotic lawn mower without boundary wires, you're familiar with the concept. You drive your car around the edges of the area you are mapping and can mark off-limits areas as you do so. It is also important to indicate in which direction the snow should be pushed. This is easiest to do after you've created your initial map. You can then schedule when you want the snow blower to run. You can also set it to clear snow only after snowfalls.

There are also some other smart features, including Smart Vision, which allows you to look through the robot's built-in cameras while the robot is working. Another important feature is that the machine recognizes obstacles, including people. As soon as I approached the snow blower, it would say “person detected” and pause until I was a safe distance—about 4–5 meters (13–16 feet)—from the robot.

This robot can also pull a trailer

Of course, it is difficult to judge the reliability of such a machine after a few days of testing, but the first impression is that this is a really high-quality machine with stable software. You probably won't buy a Yarbo Core just for its winter utility (Yarbo offers scraper ($59) and snow plow blade ($159) as optional add-ons). If you have a Core, you can choose between two sizes of lawn mower modules and a trimmer module for cutting grass in the spring and summer, and a blower module for clearing leaves in the fall.

I think this robot will do a great job mowing lawns, at least it won't have any problems moving around. You can also tow up to 500 pounds with a hitch installed by selecting Yarbo Back Mount for $149 increases that load capacity to 3,500 pounds (with a 200-pound tongue weight). Finally, if you live on a large plot of land, you can program it to patrol as a security robot.

The Yarbo Core and snow blower attachment are crazy expensive, but it's definitely one of the coolest products I've tried.

This article originally appeared in our sister publication. M3 and was translated and localized from Swedish.

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