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So, last year around this time of the year (APR 2022), at the beginning of the mowing season, I sold my gas powered zero-turn, and bought the EGO 42" mower. About six months earlier (about OCT 2021), I bought Ego's snow thrower. I bought both of these from Lowe's. Both of these products get a non-recommendation from me, mainly because of the battery issues (replacement price) noted below.
I like the mower, but the potential for being a money pit once the batteries start going on me, is not something I'm looking forward to. So, once I get it back from having the control arm fixed (and the one bad battery replaced or repaired), I may put it up for sale, and go back to being an ICE tractor owner.... the ZT's are fun, but for the extra money, I think I will put it into a nice plain old yard tractor. If the bucket and backhoe weren't in the way, I would buy a belly mower for the Kubota.
I think the public may have wised up to the "EV thing", as I didn't see as many Ego ZT's sitting outside of Lowe's this year, as I did last year....
The Zero-Turn
Would I Recommend: NOThe 42 inch ZT is priced at $5,500. I was expecting the ZT to be delivered in a box, needing assembly. However, it was 95% complete when it was dropped off. I luckily have a Kubota tractor with a set of forks to offload the thing.
After finishing the assembly, I checked the battery level, and it was about 85% from the factory - not too bad. Eager to see what it could do, we took a quick cruise thru the manual, and started the thing up. You plug the "key" in, and push the ON button, which you have to hold down for about 5 seconds. The display, shown above, does a quick self-test, and checks the battery level, and displays it as a percentage of the charge.
The seat is interlocked with the motors, so if you "get up", the motors will stop.
The NO recommendations for both of these machines stems from the battery issues, and in the case of the snow thrower, the lack of throwing power except in the lightest of snows.
Over the winter, the batteries, which were at 100% when I put the ZT away in October, were at 85% come March. I don't have anything to compare it too, so I don't know if that 15% loss is good or bad.
Now that both the Ego and Ryobi EV ZT's have been around for a few seasons, the Ryobi seems to be garnering more praise as the better buy, although, it is $500 more, at $6,000.
ON THE POSITIVE SIDE:
- This ZT is is fun to "drive" (my previous gas powered one were OK)....
- It is more responsive....
- It is MUCH quieter!....
- Headlights are on all the time....
- When backing up, the rear facing lights flash....
- You CAN step on the deck when getting on and off, my Toro didn't want you to....
- Easy access to the battery compartment, and easy in and out for the batteries....
- No oil to worry about, and no messy fuel to fill (especially with the sh--ty gas cans we have nowadays) and store somewhere - no fire hazard....
On the negative side....
- It can get bogged down easily in thicker, more overgrown grass....
- The algorithm for operating the blades is slow to respond, so they are constantly hunting RPM's when you chomp thru even a small patch of grass....
- Do something stupid, and the computer chip just shuts the ZT down, sometimes requiring a re-boot....
- The control arms are not matched well for straight line running, so you have to throttle back with one if you're driving in the street....
- The LCD display can be hard to see in the sunlight.... (but heck, that's almost anything these days, cars included)....
- Only ONE key provided....
The Snow Thrower
Would I Recommend: NOAdmittedly, the one year we did have snow around here, there were only three snowfalls - and none of them were really deep, the deepest one we had about 6 inches. That snowfall was not too dry, not too wet, and the thrower managed to throw the stuff about 15 feet away. The other two snowfalls, one was lighter, and one was heavier, more wet. With the heavier snow, it managed to throw the stuff about 8-10 feet away. With the lighter stuff, maybe 20-25 feet. Compared to the Ariens I have, it didn't do as good a job.
I DO like the arrangement of the controls, and they are logically laid out, and easy to operate. The headlight is actually bright enough to see with in the dark!
The machine comes with a 2 battery charger and two 7.5amp batteries.
The snow thrower should come with 10 amp batteries instead of 7.5amp batteries, I think it would perform a little better with the bigger ones being able to supply more current when the snow gets deeper.
Problems....
About halfway thru last years mowing season, one of the six batteries died. It just quit. No life at all from the built in level monitor. No life when installed in the mower. No life when the charger is connected. I suspect the internal fuse blew, but have not taken the thing apart yet.
Towards the end of the season, I noticed that the mower started driving funny, and figured out that the damper for the left control arm was not doing -anything-. There are several complications with this problem. For one, the left control arm moves around at will, there is nothing to prevent vibrations from building up, and then that side of the mower starts oscillating. If you're sitting on a hill or incline, the control arm can move in the "downhill" direction, and start moving by itself with no input from me. Anyway you go, it's not really safe. Need to get it fixed.
To make things worse, there is no easy way to get the fairing off the mower, so I can't easily get "under there" to see what's going on. Is it the damper that went bad? Or did a bolt fall out. Dunno, yet. BUT IT SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED, BOTTOM LINE.
About the second week of this season (2023), I noticed the battery charge seemed to be going down faster than it did last year. When I pulled it in for a charge, I noticed I had lost a second battery - this time, it appears to be a problem with either the built in charger, or the battery pack itself. And so it goes, f--k me.
At $500 per 10A battery, it will cost you almost half the price of the mower to replace all 4 batteries - double f--k me! It's not worth it. I have already decided, if I keep the mower, to replace the battery compartment with a custom build, and put 5 car batteries in the thing - it will cost about the same as one 10 amp battery!!! OR, for $2400, I can go buy just about any medium priced ICE powered lawn tractor.
I love electric tech, but manufacturers are really screwing us for the privilege of having "an EV". Owning one is just not an economically feasible endeavor, and too boot, because the power is not coming from solar, wind, or hydro power in most places, they are not as green as we would all like, for we are just displacing the greenhouse gas emissions to another location.....
Another issue.... Now that the batteries have a years worth of service on them, I can't get them dang batteries to charge up to 100% ?????
To illustrate Just how expensive the Ego line of tools is, let's take their 18" chainsaw. The 2023 price for the chainsaw ALONE, is $280, WITHOUT THE BATTERY!!! The recommended battery, the 5 amp version, will set you back another $300, for a total of almost $600. I can buy two Stihl chainsaws for that price, and when I run out of fuel, I don't have to wait for hours to get back into -whatever it was that I was doing- while the battery is charging. Oh yeah, I could buy a second battery, and not have to wait, but is spending ANOTHER 300 bucks worth your time? Or, you can buy the chainsaw packaged with two 5A batteries for $530. SO it looks like if you need spare batteries, by something like the chainsaw package, and throw away the chainsaw!!!! :-)
For this chainsaw package, you really got to be in love with the EV movement at almost 800 bucks!
Ego Offerings (2023 season)
Closest Competitor: Ryobi Zero-Turn
Why should the joystick be such a revolutionary idea? Wheelchairs have been using them for decades!!! And if you think the Ego batteries are expensive, buckle yourself in for the wild ride folks, these replacements are 900 bucks a pop! And how about chopping 500 bucks off the price, and you keep the "free" 40 volt shit :-)
For an extra GRAND, they'll throw in an extra 90V AND 40V battery.... wheeeeeee.... bend over :-) :-)
I got into a discussion the other day with a friend of mine, and he wasn't sure if using two motors was any cheaper than using one motor and a differential. Given the complexity of the mechanical differential, the extra number of parts, and more shit to fail, I don't see how going the one motor route would be to anyone's advantage.
Another friend of mine, who was looking for an EV ZT was turned off by the high replacement battery price, and said he could go buy two pretty nice ICE tractors (or "cheap") zero-turns for roughly the same price - it's like getting a spare tractor for free!!! :-) :-)
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I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page. This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads. Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted. Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it!
By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.
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Last Modified 27-Apr-2023