Wireless Robot Lawn Mover: Ecovacs GOAT A2500 Review

Back in the day humans used goats to keep grass clipped. Today… we still do. Meet the ECOVACS GOAT A2500 RTK. This automated robot lawn mower is made to help you enjoy the beauty of a lawn, without the work—and in a huge leap for backyard kind—Without the need for running boundary wire! And to boot, it runs completely silently, and it’ll mow in perfect rows.

Wireless Robot Lawn Mover: Ecovacs GOAT A3500 Review

In this post, I’m going to spend two weeks with the ECOVACS GOAT A2500. I’ll take you through what it’s like to set up, and how you mark out your lawn if you don’t use boundary wire. I’ll take a look at the different settings and options for this robot lawnmower and show you exactly how it works. I’ll wrap things up with both the pros and the cons and let you know if I think this device might be right for you.

I would like to say thank you to ECOVACS for becoming an ongoing sponsor of the channel this year. While the company is paying for my time, it has not told me what I have to say and what I can’t say, and I got to test the lawnmower out as I wanted to. So you can consider these thoughts on my own.

ECOVACS has truly made a name for itself in the crowded market of robot vacuum mops. I gave the last four ECOVACS products perfect review scores as they have enough quality features and capabilities that outweigh their premium price tags and large base stations. Clearly ECOVACS has the technology and full understanding when it comes to cleaning all kinds of indoor rooms.

But can ECOVACS score some outdoor victories too? Back in September 2023, ECOVACS launched the company’s first fully-automated robot lawn mower strangely called the GOAT. This was a bold move by ECOVACS because the robot lawn mower market is crowded with some other brands you might not be familiar with if you never purchased a lawn mower before. To give some examples, I reviewed the Husqvarna Automower 415X more than a year ago and checked out the RoboUP lawn mower at CES 2024. But this 2025, mainstream brands like Eufy are creeping into the lawn mower market and ECOVACS looks set to expand the GOAT to more countries. I finally had my chance to try the GOAT and put it through its paces.

Watch the FULL Video Review of Ecovacs Goat A2500

Unboxing: Ecovacs GOAT A2500

I received the A2500 model, designed to cut up to 5/8 acre, 27,000 square feet, or 2,500 Square meters. In other words… A really big lawn.
The first piece is out of the box are both menacing and mysterious. A spiky triad, and 2 metal posts.
Next stop is the top piece of the base station. Then it’s time to meet our GOAT… the robot is quite large and you might want a hand to get it out of the box.

Underneath the robot is a box of components, cables and connections which will dig into in a moment. Finally at the very bottom is the base tray for the robot.
With everything laid out here some of the components might look mysterious, but in essence what you have is 3 sets of components: the robot, base station, and the cylinder, poles and spikes make up what’s called an RTK Reference Station.

RTK reference station

I’ll pause here for just a second because these components are still unique and new enough to us average consumers that a crash course will be handy.

RTK stands for Real-Time Kinematic , and an RTK reference station is basically a GPS receiver that transmits real-time data about the location of your robot.

This allows the robot to know precisely where it is so it can cut your lawn in very straight even rows, unlike many other robot lawnmowers which are stuck doing random bumps and loops inside a wired boundary.

Assembly and set up

If you haven’t already done so, download and log into or sign up for the ECOVACS app. The app is going to walk you through the rest of the set up process, and it will help you place your components.

You have two things to take into account when you’re doing your set up: first is the location of the base station, and the second is the position of the RTK station post.

For the RTK station, connect the two poles to the metal stakes. To place it, you need an open area at least 6 feet away from buildings and not under trees or overhangs; it needs a clear view of the sky. But you need to take that location into account when you’re placing the base Station to some extent because they are wired together.

Fortunately the app will test the signal and let you know if it’s clear, or you need to move it. Lastly, connect the cable from the RTK Station to the base.

The two parts of the base station simply click together. It probably goes without saying but you will need to keep the base station within reach of a plug. You’ve got about 10 meters/33 feet of cord here which helps.

With the base station, it also needs to be a clear and accessible area where the robot can come and go. You need approximately 6 1/2 feet on either side and along the back of the base.

I was able to place mine on a sandy area adjacent to the grass, but you could certainly place this somewhere right on your lawn as well.
With both the RTK station and the base in place you can use the included pegs or screws to secure the base plate to the ground.

Mapping

The last step before you can have a freshly trimmed lawn is to map your yard.

There are two ways to go about this and which one you choose will depend on your yard. If you have a fairly flat yard without a lot of obstacles, narrow areas or drop offs, you can use what’s called automatic mapping.

The other option is manual mapping and I chose this option because we do have an area of the lawn that does have about a 3 to 4 inch drop where some edging was removed.

The great thing about manual mapping though is that it’s easy and can be done in a couple of minutes.

What you’ll do is enable the mapping function and the app will give you a joystick. You’ll use the joystick to drive your robot along the edges of the yard, while you follow behind, maintaining a local Bluetooth connection for this task. This is fairly easy to do if a bit unfamiliar. You’ll also tell the app when you are leaving the base station and when you arrive so it always knows how to get your goat home. Because my lawn is largely rectangular this was quite easy to do. This might be a little fiddlier with more organically shaped lawns.

How well does Ecovacs Goat cut grass?

When you’re ready to have your lawn cut, you have a few different options. You can simply tap the app and send the robot out anytime you want. You can also schedule daily or weekly cuttings.

I am a huge fan of having ECOVACS GOAT A2500 cut the lawn overnight, every other day. Because the lawnmower runs completely silently it’s not going to disturb me or any of my neighbors. Take a listen… The goat is actually a ninja. You could take a nap right next to this thing and never hear a peep.

The bot moves pretty quickly as well. Officially, the mowing Speed is 2.3 feet or 0.7 M per second, or 400㎡/h* or 4,300 Square feet per hour. That translates to it being able to cut my entire lawn in about

If I flip the robot over you can see a little better how it works. On this model, two spinning blade arrays with three blades each mulch down the lawn. Which brings me to another great feature of a robot like this, and that’s that you never have to rake up grass clippings. Because the robot is only clipping small amounts from the lawn, these are easily absorbed and composted back into your lawn. So that probably goes without saying that you won’t be able to use it to cut extremely tall grass.

Another really great feature I want to call out here is that it will cut your lawn in perfect rows. Older lawn robots without cameras and recognition technology are forced to simply bump their way around your yard in a random pattern, and only constant outings keep the whole lawn clipped.

But with ECOVACS GOAT A2500, the robot can position itself exactly on the map and cut out perfect rows every time. In fact it will even reverse the row direction every other week to keep from developing ruts

Cutting height & Slope

When it comes to the specifics, the goat can cut grass from 1.2-3.6 inches tall, and it’s adjustable to your preference.
And if you have a hilly lawn, this is the ideal bought for you. With its big chunky back tires with plenty of grip, it can easily manage up to a 50% grade or 27 degree slope.

Edge mowing

The GOAT is also able to get right up to edges. To some extent this will rely on you mapping your lawn carefully at the outset, but it’s also assisted by a 3D camera with AI recognition, that can help it see where it’s going. You can also enable something called cross boundary mowing where the robot will straddle the map boundary to further get the edges of the lawn trim

Obstacle avoidance

The recognition tech also makes it pretty remarkable at avoiding obstacles. The camera can help it spot things like a wayward hose, dog toy, or other obstacle, as you can see in my full video review.

It will also divert if it detects a person or a pet in its path, and while it nudged the end of my shoe, it turned right around and moved away.

No-go zones

I noted earlier I have a small drop off on my lawn. It did trip up the robot a handful of times. I decided to set a no go zone for this edge simply to keep it out of trouble.

To do this you’ll essentially use the joystick and walk the robot over to the area you want to block off. Roll the robot around that area, and then save it. It’s easy, and extremely helpful to keep the GOAT from getting stuck.

Zones

Depending on the complexity of your yard, you can divide your space up into different zones that can be cut at different times.

IPX6 Waterproof

Sadly one of the things most robot lawn mowers can’t identify is dog poop. That means you might occasionally need to hose off your robot. GOAT A2500 is IPX6 waterproof, meaning you can rinse it with water from the hose, but it wouldn’t be recommended to use a high pressure garden nozzle.

Security

There are a couple of features that work together to ensure your mower stays on your property and if it is potentially stolen, that you could find it.

First off, you can set a PIN code to make any changes on the device or to start it from the mower’s keypad.

If someone does lift up the mower to potentially carry it off, the GOAT A2500 is going to sound the alarm… and same thing if the mower is brought outside of your virtual boundary; alarms will go off.

The alarm isn’t overly loud, but it is enough to draw attention and perhaps make a thief think twice. Plus, once it sounds it takes a few minutes to shut it off, a further deterrent.

Finally, location tracking will always show the mower’s current location.

Can GOAT cut multiple unconnected areas?

You might be wondering if goat can cut multiple lawn areas. The answer is it depends on how they are separated. If there is no physical barrier, and something like a pathway connecting those two areas, the mower can map the entire space as one and then you can later divide into what are called zones. Then you can schedule cutting when you want on each of the zones.

If there is no way to get between those areas, so for example if you have a fenced front and backyard and might want to carry GOAT over to the other area, sadly, you can’t, because it does not currently support storing two separate maps.

But I will say… Many of Ecovacs robot vacuums now have the ability to store multiple maps, so perhaps this is a technology that could be added via a firmware update later.

Charging

The great thing about this robot is that it has a strong battery life and takes only about 45 minutes to recharge.
Because it will always return to its base station where it’s going to get a full charge, it should be ready to cut your lawn at a moment’s notice.

Overall Thoughts: ECOVACS GOAT A2500 RTK

Overall, I can’t believe what a huge leap forward ECOVACS GOAT A2500 is for robot lawnmowers. It essentially makes this technology extremely easy to deploy in almost any yard, because it removes one of the biggest barriers, which is the need to dig and bury boundary wire.

That alone is reason enough for me to want this machine, but let’s go over the pros and the cons so you can see if it might work for you.

On the pro side, this robot lawnmower could not be easier to set up and get working in your yard. The super easy walk behind mapping takes just minutes. The robot does an outstanding job at cutting the lawn, for a few reasons.
It’s powerful with very Efficient Mowing that cuts your lawn in neat rows, and it’s spinning dual blade discs underneath do a fast job.
It operates completely silently, meaning you can cut the lawn overnight when it’s not being used. It also has adjustable cutting height, and cuts your lawn in nice tidy rows.

It’s waterproof and washable in case it gets into some dirt. Plus with AI Vision and 3D LIDAR navigation, it can avoid obstacles on its own, cut right up to the edges of your lawn, and it has the ability to cut over 5/8 of an acre, so it can handle even some of the largest lawns. This is a truly remarkable robot lawnmower that is about to make older robot lawnmower technology obsolete.

But what are the potential downsides? I suppose for some people it could be finding a suitable location where the base station can access the lawn, while the RTK station can view the sky for connected GPS navigation.

The other potential downside could be the price, but I will take note the price of this product category has been coming down every year.

Ecovacs GOAT A2500 sells for about $1999 USD and is available from ECOVACS’ website and from Amazon.

In short, I can’t believe what an amazing robot lawnmower this is and it’s been an absolute dream for cutting my lawn. I can definitely recommend it for you.
You can also check out a couple other products I’ve reviewed that make me a huge fan of ECOVACS brand— and why I’m so grateful for them as an ongoing sponsor of my channel. The company makes truly great products that you can check out here on the blog.