Lithium Mowers

 Right now, this is mostly for my own future reference.

For five+ years, I've been using two models of Black and Decker 40v mowers with good results.  Though the batteries are much shorter lived than they should be.

About 2019, I bought a very pricey 18hp Kubota diesel mower with belly mower and front end loader.  Though useful for many tasks, I have not been happy with it.  May expound on this later.

About 2020, I bought a 38" Ryobi rider which I thought had a lithium battery.  Bad on me for poor shopping; it had 4 75ah AGM 12v lead batteries.  Which were just crap.  The Ryobi has quite a few other problems that make it unreliable.  The blades are WAYto easy to bend.   If you hit a mound of dirt while mowing and a blade hits the dirt in the right way, the blade digs in, stalls, and the momentum of the mower may cause the blade to bend double.  Also, the blades tend to slip on the motor shaft.   After ~10 applications, the tires finally have enough sealant to not go flat very often.

When it became clear that the Ryobi was going to spend long periods of time waiting for repair, I bought a VERY pricey 42" Cub Cadet Zero Turn Radius 48v lithium mower.  I think it was about $4k.  The Ryobi was about $3k.  That was "out of the frying pan and into the fire".  I have never had a more troublesome lithium powered vehicle.  The mower refused to charge at all when temperatures are above about 95 deg F.  I fear the battery did not survive our ~20 deg winter temperatures; it has not run this year.

Both Cub Cadet and Ryobi provide TERRIBLE customer service.  When in warranty, Ryobi seems to provide service out of Dallas.  Tractor Supply sells Cub Cadet but they know nothing of getting repairs done.

The Ryobi is back in service after about two years or so of very intermittent service.  I had four 12v lithium batteries (100+ ah Valence brand) installed and I first used it today, 5/11/2023.  It has an hour meter which read 130 after the battery swap.  First use was an hour or so and it worked ok though mow quality is poor.  In high grass, you can not go slow enough to get an even cut across the width.  That, due to having two blades that do not overlap; three blade mowers are unlikely to have that problem.  The lithium battery gives a mowing time of around two hours and has MUCH better power.  The blade motors are much more resistant to stalling.  With the lead battery, one would stall a blade, have to back up, and toggle power to blades.  Very tedious mowing.

Since reviews (wish I had done more research before buying) say the lead battery is unlikely to last more than a year.  Mine had less than one year worth of use.  That was NOT a case of running the battery all the way down between charges; I very rarely ran it below 50%.  That was the indication given by the very crappy state of charge display.  Ryobi seems to believe that $600 worth of battery each and every year is reasonable.  That reminds me of Nissan.  Nissan swears up and down that about 20k miles on a Leaf battery is "normal" and not subject to warranty replacement.