Ride On Electric Mowers

Groundpounder

Groundpounder

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I’ve got this ancient John Deere mower that I keep expecting to grenade itself every time I fire it up, but somehow it’s still hanging on. It’s a nightmare to start, it’s louder than a DC‑8 on takeoff, and sharpening the blades is basically a full‑body workout. Pretty sure this is its last summer whether it blows up or not.
I’ve been doing some homework, and it looks like electric lawn equipment has finally hit the point where it’s actually a legit option. The idea of never dealing with oil changes, gas cans, or smelling like exhaust afterward sounds amazing. Ryobi and Ego seem to be the big names in the game.
Anyone have experience with either of them, or other brands I should check out? I’ve only got about 3/4 of an acre and it’s mostly flat. I just need something that can tow a little utility cart without complaining.
 
Battery power tools have come a long way. I appreciate the advantages of not having to deal with internal combustion engines with occasional use trimmers and such. Ride on mowers with battery power doesn't appear to be a mature product though. Certainly I'm not seeing them used commercially.

Amazon has reviews of a few battery power ride on mowers. They seem to be well reviewed.
Personally I would choose a slightly used commercial grade gas mower over a battery power mower. The commercial grade mowers are just much higher quality construction. They are mature products with a bunch of parts options for wear items such as spindles.
 
I came very, very close to buying one. I have a little over 2 acres, about an acre of which requires mowing. I was strongly considering the Ryobi mower, partly based on a considerable discount (I think $2000 off MSRP) and the fact that I'm already invested in the Ryobi ecosystem. I passed and ended up buying a regular gas-powered tractor based on three major items: overall expense, utility (able to pull a reasonably heavy trailer), and stability/steering on hills, since most of my property is on a slope, parts of which are fairly steep.

I own a Ryobi push mower and it is absolutely fantastic. Worked like a charm at two previous properties with much smaller yards. I would love to go battery-powered for a ride mower too, but I don't think the expense and battery performance are quite there yet over gas-powered alternatives.
 
18 years ago I bought a B&D electric push mower (20" cut). It worked well but was a bit too small for our yards. I bought a cheap Bowlens gas mower a couple months into that growing season. They are both still going strong. I still use the 20" B&D every week for trimming close to gardens, trees, etc. It is working fine and still on the original batteries.

I have also replaced my gas string trimmer and gas leaf blower with EGO (brand) tools. They are wonderful lawn/yard tools - no problems and amazing battery life.
 
Have an ego push mower and i love it. It has me looking at the riders but reviews seem mixed. Waiting on maybe one more iteration
 
Groundpounder said:
I’ve been doing some homework, and it looks like electric lawn equipment has finally hit the point where it’s actually a legit option. The idea of never dealing with oil changes, gas cans, or smelling like exhaust afterward sounds amazing. Ryobi and Ego seem to be the big names in the game.
Anyone have experience with either of them, or other brands I should check out? I’ve only got about 3/4 of an acre and it’s mostly flat. I just need something that can tow a little utility cart without complaining.
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Not yet... But my neighbor has 2 acres and a 42" Ryobi and seems happy with it. He's kept the Ryobi a lot longer than he kept his previous one, which was a brand-new Toro.

I wish I would have caught the Home Depot fire sale. Those were gone in about a day, and I think cost less than the batteries alone would have. :o

I am in a similar situation as you, with an old, cantankerous, LOUD Simplicity (new muffler for it is over $700!). I use it for lawn mowing, leaf removal, and snow blowing plus towing small trailers around the yard. I have been eyeing the JD 1 series SCUT for a while as there's some stuff I could do if I had a front end loader and a 3-point hitch. I had been holding out for someone to come out with a good electric subcompact utility tractor so I could meet the mission of the Simplicity and do those new things. John Deere showed a "1RE" electric 1 series in late 2019 but they still haven't made it into a real product. They also just recently finally refreshed the 1 series, but there's no electric option. And the diesels last long enough that finding one with a dead engine and doing a conversion isn't a great option either.

Now that I'm on an 8/6 schedule and away enough to make it necessary, I've got a plow service for the driveway, so now an electric zero turn would be a possibility. I currently have a 60" deck, so I don't want to go below 54".

GreenWorks has a 60" electric zero turn for $7599, with 4.32kWh of batteries that claims up to 2.5 acres and 75 minutes (and then in the photos it says 4.4 acres, and in the video says 3.5 acres). Color me a bit skeptical, it's possible but hard to mow my 2 acres in 75 minutes, even though they claim the "industry's fastest cutting speed" at 8 mph (!). It's got my interest, though, despite the proprietary charger that takes 4 hours. I really wish someone would use J1772 or NACS. It does have a utility dump bed in the back which is a nice feature.

However, I've also gotten very interested in the Yarbo, a robotic lawn mower with additional attachments for things like snowblowing, leaf blowing, and trimming. It has a "follow me" mode and tow hitch so that you can get it to tow things around the yard for you. It says it can handle 6 acres, which I assume it does by charging itself in the middle as necessary, but if I don't have to be there to babysit it, I don't care if it needs to do that. And it's cheaper, $4999 for the mower and $6099 with the snowblower as well.
 
We had a Greenworks battery push mower a few years back, and I guess it worked as expected (battery life back then wasn't all that great). The problem was the Greenworks customer support is abysmal. Not only did I have problems with the mower, but also a defective electric pressure washer I bought. I probably won't buy an electric mower again (I've got a service now, life is too short), but my wife likes to use the pressure washer but the current one is not a Greenworks and I dobut I'll ever go near them again.
 
I have an ego walk behind, as well as the string-trimmer/hedge trimmer tool, and a ego blower too
They've been great....except I've had two batteries go bad.... that's ok, it's going to happen
but the issue is that replacements are very expensive!
The last time I looked at them, the ego riders take a lot of batteries.
 
With Teslas technology coming up, they could make an autonomous mower, then have one of their robots trimming at the same time. Could be had for a little less than $250,000. Could also be set up to do your neighbors yard, so you could rent it out. I feel sorry for the future neighborhood kids that wont have the experience of being able to mow yards in the summer for spending money.
 
Mikey52 said:
With Teslas technology coming up, they could make an autonomous mower, then have one of their robots trimming at the same time. Could be had for a little less than $250,000. Could also be set up to do your neighbors yard, so you could rent it out. I feel sorry for the future neighborhood kids that wont have the experience of being able to mow yards in the summer for spending money.
Click to expand...

nah, the kids will make plenty of money retrieving the runaway mowing bots.
 
Mikey52 said:
With Teslas technology coming up, they could make an autonomous mower, then have one of their robots trimming at the same time. Could be had for a little less than $250,000. Could also be set up to do your neighbors yard, so you could rent it out. I feel sorry for the future neighborhood kids that wont have the experience of being able to mow yards in the summer for spending money.
Click to expand...
Bots are already in use. I'm pretty sure I saw robot lawnmowers recently at KLNC.
 
Gary Ward said:
Here's an electric ride on zero turn for sale.
What caught my eye is the owner says he can cut his one acre yard with 2-3 charges.
2-3 charges? That seems like it would take 2 days to cut your yard?
Wonder why he is selling?
https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/grd/d/union-ego-56v-electric-riding-lawnmower/7918443183.html
Click to expand...
based on how dirty that thing is, my best is that he mows when his grass is long and wet. Neither of those are things that help for better range.

This has been proven to me with my ego walk behind. My lawn is zoysia so it grows thick....and if I let it get long or try to go when it's wet, I won't get nearly as far...(maybe half?)
but for more normal conditions I can go just about as far as I want to with two batteries...one larger and one a bit smaller. By then I'm ready for a break anyway.
 
I'm on my second riding mower, I think the first lasted about 14 years. 54" MTD hydrostatic drive, not zero turn, nothing special. It seems to me that there's a huge advantage to the robot mower for electric. Because before the riding mower, I'd use a gas push mower and it would take about 5-6 hours to do the lawn. With the riding mower it's a little less than an hour. But it's a difference from about 4HP to 24HP to do that. If it's a robot, who cares if it takes 5 hours? Smaller mower, energy draw is over a longer period of time, so it should be less expensive and easier to store. With an electric riding mower you're carrying around a lot of power and weight for something you don't use all that often.
 
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