I bought an Ego Z6 battery ride on mower a couple of weeks ago. I needed a new mower as the old Husqvarna petrol engine is reaching the end of its life. About 12 acres (5 hectares) of grass on my property needs to be maintained, some in orchards and gardens for looks, snake control and convenience. The rest for pasture management for horses and weed and fire control. I require a mower that is agile enough to get around fruit trees and produces a nice lawn but also has the power to get through heavy grass that need not look so good.
Before we get into it, I should point out to those who haven’t had a ride-on before that it is the sustained power delivered to the blades and the weight of grass that determines how fast you mow, not the maximum speed nor the width of the deck - unless the wider deck has more power. What you can mow and the speed, with any kind of mower, depends on the length, thickness and water content of the grass.
I thought that a battery mower would be better than a new ICE because;
- The fumes from the petrol motor upset my asthma.
- The maintenance should be less, as the Husky needs fuel, oil, lubrication, filters, belts and, being all mechanical, it has many moving parts that wear and need replacement or adjustment outside of the motor. A battery mower needs re-charging but almost no other maintenance (other than cleaning) for the motors or anything else. I hate changing belts or worse taking the Husky to pay somebody to do it.
- I expect the price of fuel to keep going up for an ICE but with some management I can charge the batteries from my solar array mostly at a rather low marginal cost.
I have not kept a ledger but my guess is the all-up running cost of the Husky is close to $1,000 PA.
The replacement search was not very fruitful as there are few powerful ride-on battery mowers in Oz. In an ideal world I would wait another two or three years before this purchase but that was not possible.
We have seen that BEV cars are still rather expensive now so I expected the mower to be the same. The Ego isn’t cheap, in round figures $10,000 including a sunshade and standard four batteries. A replacement for the Husky that has similar capability would be about $13,000 with no sunshade.
So how does it compare? The Husky is 4WD and articulated which is good on slopes and rarely gets bogged. It gets around the trees just fine and having the deck at the front it is easy to push in and mow under trees and shrubs. The Ego is zero turn which means it is (at most) two-wheel drive and if trying to turn only one may be driving so it is not so good on slopes or soft ground.
The Husky is nominally 15HP and the Ego 23 HP. With the ICE that is the measured power of the motor, what gets to the wheels or deck is less. Ego don’t say how they measure, it could be the aggregate power of all four motors going flat out – or something else. The Ego has similar power to the Husky at the deck by my estimating at its standard power but more in high power mode. There are four levels of power for the deck, at the top level it burns through charge right quick. It goes surprisingly well in heavy conditions. If you push the Ego too hard the blades stop, that is it saves itself from damage. It also has an overheating protection on the motors and batteries. If you push the Husky too hard you stall the motor or burn your belts.
The Ego is more comfortable and faster. Why does a mower have ‘sports’ mode? I don’t use it and I don’t know why you would want to. You sure don’t want to have those blades going while at top speed. They both have drink cups! Yea! And the Ego will charge your phone. The Husky is steadier on a slope and has better grip in soft conditions. I may be pulling the Ego out of soft spots with the car or the Husky.
How about range I hear you thinking. The Husky will go for 4 or 5 hours on a full tank, far longer than most people would sit on it. The Ego, it is claimed, will cut up to 2 acres on a charge (with 4 batteries) - when you read the fine print it says ‘under light conditions’. The conditions would have to be very light, short dry grass on a smooth level area with no obstacles. I haven’t tested it but I suppose the claim could be true. More important is that those conditions are rarely if ever found. This is rather like the claims of car makers about fuel economy without any standards. In my situation after about an hour I have had enough and so I recharge me and the mower. I think it would probably go two hours in light-moderate conditions.
The batteries recharge from almost zero to 100% in about 90 minutes. Battery management is simple and useful. You have several gauges to show remaining charge and you can run them down from 100% to about 5% and recharge straight way without doing any harm. At about 5% it goes into limp-home mode and turns off the blades so, unless you are a very long way from home, you can get back to recharge without pushing. There are guarantees on the machine and the batteries.
As I can choose when I mow and for how long the range limit is no big deal to me. I am intending to buy two more batteries (it has room for 6) to extend the range further which will be another $1,000 or so. If you needed to do an 8 hour day on it that would not be possible even on 6 batteries and in the lightest conditions. In principle you could have several sets of batteries and spare chargers and swap them over (which is very easy) but this does not seem cost effective or desirable to me.
Would I recommend it? Yes, if it suits you. To start with spending such a sum is only required if you have big areas to mow. You can get cheaper ICE ride on mowers but they will not be as agile as zero turn or articulated and often would be less powerful. I think in the long run the maintenance costs and fuel costs will make the comparison of total cost over the life of the machine much in favour of the electric but we will have to wait and see how long the batteries last and if there are any expensive repairs not mentioned.
If you would find stopping to recharge annoying or your work would not permit it then this is not for you. The machine is well designed and seems well made, there are a few frivolities (phone charger) but overall it is down to business with few moving parts and few channels and cavities to fill with dry grass and cause problems.
An aside is that Ego appear to me practising resale price maintenance. The price is the same at all outlets and is AFAIK not negotiable. The vendor where I bought it says that is a ruling from Ego. Resale price maintenance is illegal unless an exemption is approved or the Miele system is used to get around it. If Choice are to do a review I suggest that the issue is investigated as I cannot find any exemption.
