Electric Lawnmowers

[ElectricTundra]

Massive thumbs down on Echo Cordless mower and yard tools. I purchased a mower, blower and extra battery in July of 2016 so not quite 2 years of ownership and, given this is MN, a bit under 11 months of actual use.

All 3 original batteries have been replaced and now the replacements have been. Interestingly, given the high failure rate, I've never been asked to return a battery or charger for analysis, even when I've offered. This leads me to believe that my replacement frequency is not at all unique and that they have a quite widespread and known reliability problem.

Two of the replacement batteries are also all black (no Echo orange strip) and don't run as long as the originals so I'm guessing that these are older or reconditioned.

After being a life long Echo customer this will likely be the end of the line.

 

[Elektron]

What are you talking about? Have you actually used one? I'm on my second season with my Mean Green and it is a fantastic machine. I have a full 2 acres of grass to mow (not a 2-acre lot) including a roadside ditch and it handles it. The blades are beat to crap as I have a gravel driveway, tons of trees (I'm too lazy to pick up sticks before mowing), and when mowing the ditch sometimes I bury a blade into the side of the street or into dirt but aside from a huge racket when I do that the machine works great. In fact I think the system with independent motors really helps in those situations as there's less rotating mass if you hit something hard.

I don't see how the Mean Green is any more niche than a Tesla. As I said I have a ton of trees and therefore really benefit from a ZTR. My ICE mower was a tractor style and mowing around the trees was a painful, multi-step process. It's effortless with the Mean Green.

I agree that shipping the entire unit would be a problem but nothing has gone wrong so far (which is more than I can say about my Teslas). If something did go wrong I would hope that I could work w/ them to diagnose over the phone and then they would ship just the parts I would need. When you look under the seat it's a very simple machine - shouldn't be difficult to swap out modules if something did go wrong. Prior to the sale they were very responsive and answered all of my questions.

This is crazy and perfect at the same time. I’m 3 weeks in to owning my new MS 75D and i love it, i will never own another ICE vehicle again! I was mowing yesterday on my 8 yo slow as hell, beat the s*** out of you cub cadet lawn tractor when i stopped and thought wouldn’t it be awesome if they made a zero turn lithium powered riding mower. I have been thinking about pulling the trigger on a new gas one this year. A quick hopeful google search for electric riding mowers and your post popped up! This mower seems to be exactly what i would want. I mow about 2 acres weekly. What are the specs on yours and do you have any advice for me on buying one? Any input is appreciated. Now that i know this mower exists, I’m not going to be able to ICE mower!!!

 

[strider]

This is crazy and perfect at the same time. I’m 3 weeks in to owning my new MS 75D and i love it, i will never own another ICE vehicle again! I was mowing yesterday on my 8 yo slow as hell, beat the s*** out of you cub cadet lawn tractor when i stopped and thought wouldn’t it be awesome if they made a zero turn lithium powered riding mower. I have been thinking about pulling the trigger on a new gas one this year. A quick hopeful google search for electric riding mowers and your post popped up! This mower seems to be exactly what i would want. I mow about 2 acres weekly. What are the specs on yours and do you have any advice for me on buying one? Any input is appreciated. Now that i know this mower exists, I’m not going to be able to ICE mower!!!

Hi Elektron! I have a ton of trees and some small hills, so I went with the 48" deck. You can get a 52" deck for the same price if you want a larger mowing area.

The standard battery is sufficient for my ~2 acres of grass. I typically finish with 1 out of 10 bars of charge remaining. If you run it all the way down it'll go into a drive-only mode to get you back to the house. I have never had this happen.

I bought the Solar Canopy option. In addition to providing shade while you mow it will add to your run time and allows you to get the 30% Federal Solar tax credit against the cost of the battery and Solar Canopy (which more than pays for itself - It's a $1,599 option that gives you a $2,159 tax credit). I have so many trees I'm not sure how much run time it actually adds for me (Mean Green says 30 mins if in constant sunshine) but I need the shade and the tax credit made it a no-brainer. I also added the Monster Mode for $80 which gives you an 8.5mph top speed. You can't effectively mow at that speed (there's a switch to move between Cut and Drive modes - Cut mode simply limits top speed) so I wouldn't buy it again. The standard 120V charger is plenty as, like you, I'm only mowing weekly. I have power in my shop but if you park in an unpowered building the 200W solar panel and charge controller is an interesting idea to put on top on the roof and trickle charge the mower during the week.

There are no dealers near me so I bought mine direct. For you there's a dealer in Cincinnati and also the factory is only ~80 miles away from you (Hamilton, OH).

NXR-48/52

They have a referral program that I'd love to participate in if you don't mind PM'ing me your name and e-mail address.

 

[Elektron]

Hi Elektron! I have a ton of trees and some small hills, so I went with the 48" deck. You can get a 52" deck for the same price if you want a larger mowing area.

The standard battery is sufficient for my ~2 acres of grass. I typically finish with 1 out of 10 bars of charge remaining. If you run it all the way down it'll go into a drive-only mode to get you back to the house. I have never had this happen.

I bought the Solar Canopy option. In addition to providing shade while you mow it will add to your run time and allows you to get the 30% Federal Solar tax credit against the cost of the battery and Solar Canopy (which more than pays for itself - It's a $1,599 option that gives you a $2,159 tax credit). I have so many trees I'm not sure how much run time it actually adds for me (Mean Green says 30 mins if in constant sunshine) but I need the shade and the tax credit made it a no-brainer. I also added the Monster Mode for $80 which gives you an 8.5mph top speed. You can't effectively mow at that speed (there's a switch to move between Cut and Drive modes - Cut mode simply limits top speed) so I wouldn't buy it again. The standard 120V charger is plenty as, like you, I'm only mowing weekly. I have power in my shop but if you park in an unpowered building the 200W solar panel and charge controller is an interesting idea to put on top on the roof and trickle charge the mower during the week.

There are no dealers near me so I bought mine direct. For you there's a dealer in Cincinnati and also the factory is only ~80 miles away from you (Hamilton, OH).

NXR-48/52

They have a referral program that I'd love to participate in if you don't mind PM'ing me your name and e-mail address.

Great info!
I will PM you, thanks!

 

[USMC_Mustang]

Has this one been mentioned before? Just ran across it when searching for electric riding mowers again. Looks like a good candidate to me. It's not Lithium Ion, and the deck is a little small, but otherwise it's looking pretty attractive to me. Biggest complaint in reviews is rough ride, but that doesn't scare me; my butt can take it.

Ryobi 38 in. Battery Electric Riding Lawn Mower-RY48110 - The Home Depot

I've been using one all summer and love it. I can verify the rough ride, but a comfortable seat cushion solved that.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I'm trying to convince my parents to get that Ryobi one. he uses a push now, but is getting older. and they only have 1/4 acre.

 

[israndy]

Hilarious, I didn't look carefully at first and assumed those two messages were from the same author. Quite different avatars but the color scheme was close enough my peripheral vision didn't catch the difference.

-Randy

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

that's not nearly as close as the guy who uses Scrat holding a Tesla badge... I like it, but I'm not going to steal someone else's avatar.

I picked mine after seeing Ice Age 1 in college.
Like Scrat, $hit never goes right for me... so I thought I'd embrace my Saber Toothed Squirrel...

 

[Skotty]

I've been using one all summer and love it. I can verify the rough ride, but a comfortable seat cushion solved that.

I bought one this year. I wish the mower motors were a little more powerful, but otherwise I'm completely happy with it so far. It runs even longer than I thought it would (at least with new batteries; also, I bought the larger battery version). I could do without the loud beeping on backup.

 

[RFernatt]

I use the EGO Power 21" mower and it works very well for my needs, although I have a fairly small yard

Same here. Good machine over a season and a half so far. I have the EGO trimmer and leaf blower also and they all work well for my suburban yard.

I did change the mower over to the high lift blade this year and do feel that it cuts better at a small battery life penalty.

 

[GOVA]

I have EGO tools - mower, chain saw, trimmers, 2 leaf blowers. I've used those since 2015 without any problems. Highly recommended.

 

[ElectricTundra]

Those that have EGO, have you had any battery problems? Original batteries still working well?

 

[JRP3]

A friend of mine who has the EGO push mower had a battery go bad early on, replaced under warranty.

 

[RFernatt]

Those that have EGO, have you had any battery problems? Original batteries still working well?

My Ego tools and three batteries have went through a couple seasons so far and are fine, FWIW.

 

[Sparrow]

Only had my Ego tools, 21" self propelled mower, back pack blower, hedge trimmer, string trimmer and edger for 6 months. I have 2 of the large 7.5Ah batteries and one of the small 2.5ah batteries with the fast charger and have no issues so far.

 

[GOVA]

Those that have EGO, have you had any battery problems? Original batteries still working well?

I have two 4.0 Ah from 2015 and one 5.0 Ah from 2016. All have worked well w/out any issues.

 

[arcus]

I have EGO tools - mower, chain saw, trimmers, 2 leaf blowers. I've used those since 2015 without any problems. Highly recommended.

Same here, except for one tool (chainsaw) added this year due to good deal on 5Ah battery included in a combo. All original batteries are still going strong.

 

[hcsharp]

Those that have EGO, have you had any battery problems? Original batteries still working well?

We have an EGO 4 ah that is 4 yrs old and still going strong. It came with our lawn mower and has been used quite a bit. We also have a 2.5 ah and a 5ah that are 2 yrs old. All the tools and batteries are doing well.

 

[RFernatt]

My Ego tools and three batteries have went through a couple seasons so far and are fine, FWIW.

To add more detail, I have two 2.5Ah batteries and one 5Ah battery.

 

[TOCNYS_Joe]

I've got the Lowes Kobalt battery-powered lawnmower. Handles my 1/2 acre yard just fine - just need an extra battery to switch to when the first drains. about 3/4 of the way through. I originally tried an all mechanical push mower, but that was just not practical at all.