Ryobi battery riding lawn mower

[jamis]

Just an update after one year of use.  I mow 8,000 sq. ft. of lawn and occasionally a 16,000 sq. ft. lawn with my RM480e mower.  Electricity cost to recharge the batteries is less than $0.10.  I have mowed 40 times so far and the blades are still sharp.  I did have one battery fail due to a failed cell that caused that battery to be unable to handle any load.  Ryobi replaced the battery under warranty in two days.  The batteries slide out on a tray.  Maintenance on this machine is minimal and consists of lubricating the steering mechanism occasionally.  The powder coated frame and deck are easy to keep clean. The headlights are bright enough to actually mow at night and it’s quiet enough that you could without bothering the neighbor’s.  

[Bigmikez]

Thanks for the update bro that’s awesome news!

[lionround]

I have one of these and love it.  I have 4 acres, but most of it is wooded so I only mow about 1 acre.

 

I do have a question.  I have not figured out how to engage the parking brake.  Can anyone who has figured this out please explain.

 

Thanks.

[jamis]

You have to depress the brake pedal ALL the way down and while holding it down, pull up on the red handle on the side of the steering column. You should hear a click of engagement.  In this doesn’t work, the brakes can be adjusted per the instructions in the maintenance section of the operation manual. Hope this helps.  I just passed 50 mows and also love it.  

[Rob L]

On 2/18/2019 at 12:13 PM, Kayakerbob said:

Here is the snow plow,.it works great, but to keep it quiet (stealth mode), I inserted a 5/16” thick hard plastic in between the blade and their wear plate. Their wear plate is a 1/4” thick x 2” painted steel plate, and I figured that would make a lot of noise plowing early in the mornings, I haven’t woke up any neighbors yet! 

 

 

 

KayakerBob: Do you still have the plow?  How does it work?  I just bought the mower and wanted to get the plow, but it appears it has been discontinued.  Any idea where I could buy one?  Wanna sell yours? ;)

[jamis]

Rob L.:  KayakerBob still has his and has it mounted for the second winter of plowing.  He's working on making it easier to swing the angle of the blade from the seat.  HD had an issue with listing the plow, but that has been fixed and it is available now

[Tools & Stuff]

Don't need it in this part of the world BUT that plow looks really cool!

[LX8]

The snow plow has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Does any body know where to get one? I need to ship it to Canada. Any feedback from users? Does it do a reasonable job of top dressing lawn?

Thanks.

[jamis]

On 2/8/2020 at 9:37 AM, LX8 said:

The snow plow has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Does any body know where to get one? I need to ship it to Canada. Any feedback from users? Does it do a reasonable job of top dressing lawn?

Thanks.

Sorry for the late reply, but the snow plow is back in stock at HD for $329 and free shipping.  The manufacturer made a change to the plow lift handle to make it easier to raise/lower the blade without having to get up off of the seat and stopping the unit.   Don't know about moving dirt, but it should work with loose dirt.  I wouldn't use it like a bull dozer to break compacted ground. 

[Andy404]

Anyone found alternative battery replacement? I'm looking to upgrade from 75ah to 100. Also my current set is only half way since OP didnt condition properly

 

[MarkTer]

So I bought a riding mower last spring. The first year of use was amazing. For the winter I packed it into my garage and left it on the charger. 
 

about a month back I was doing some organization in my garage and I unplugged the mower. Forgot to plug it back in. Fast forward to this past weekend and I got the mower out of the garage. Turned on the key and nothing. Plugged it into the charger and again nothing. Turns out the battery’s were under 50% and would not take a charge. So I disconnected all the battery’s and charged them individually to 10v. This worked as the regular charger started working again. So I charged it up to full power. 
 

‘’today I put the key in. Turned it on. And power shows as fully charged. Put the mower in forward. Stepped on the pedal and nothing happened. Put it in reverse. Nothing. Turned on lights. Nothing. Tried to engage blades. Nothing. The aux jack has no power either. But it’s still showing full charge on the display. 
 

anyone have any thoughts. My attempts to contact ryobi gave me nothing but try to charge it longer or buy new batteries. Both make no sense. Looking for some help. Thanks. 

[jamis]

MarkTer:  To properly test the batteries:

1.  Pull them out of the mower.

2. Disconnect all wiring between the batteries and the mower.

3. Individually charge each battery with a separate automotive style charger, preferably one with a deep cycle setting.

4. Load test each battery.  I took mine to a local battery shop for this.

5. Once the failing battery is identified, replace it.  HD has them back in stock now with free shipping to your home. 

Sorry for the slow response, I sometimes forget to visit here. 

[jamis]

On 3/21/2020 at 2:54 PM, Andy404 said:

Anyone found alternative battery replacement? I'm looking to upgrade from 75ah to 100. Also my current set is only half way since OP didnt condition properly

 

HD has them back in stock now with free shipping to your home. 

[jamis]

Last month, Ryobi brought another battery electric riding mower.  This one is a 30” 50 Ahr. model.  $2,399.00 and on sale today for $1,999.00.  Pretty much the same features as the bigger ones, except no cruise control, USB charging port, and phone slot.

[Kensi_Ko]

Hey guys looking for the zero turn model. I was wondering if we can replace the batteries with lithium
https://www.amazon.com/Ampere-Time-LiFePO4-Applications-Warranty/dp/B084DB36KW/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=12V+LiFePO4&qid=1590833279&sr=8-11

Envoyé de mon Power_6 en utilisant Tapatalk

[PaulNY]

Hello, 

 

I have a Ryobi ZT480e that I bought last year. It s a fantastic mower and well worth the price. In the first year I more than paid for it in comparison to what I paid a landscaping company the year before.

 

Almost from the beginning I have had an issue with the battery. Note: I fully charged it before I used it the first time. I mow once a week and keep the mower plugged in whenever it is not in use. When I get ready to mow, I check the battery level. Since it has been charging all week, it should be at 100%. This isn't the case. The battery will show 70% charge. I discovered if I unplugged it. waited a minute, and then plugged it back in for 10 minutes the battery would then show 100% charge. I called Ryobi about the problem, but their response was that it shouldn't be happening and the representative I spoke with did not believe me. She stated they had never heard of the problem before.

 

I mow roughly  3 1/2-4 acres. I have to do it with two charges. I will mow in the morning. Plug in the mower for a few hours and then mow in the afternoon. I have been using the battery down to 10% on the morning mow (I now realize I should not do this as I read the article from mycountryacre.com about not taking the battery down to less than 20%).

 

Anyone else have a similar issue with the batteries or have suggestions? Thanks for your input. 

[jamis]

Paul: Sorry I haven’t replied earlier.  I’m a bit wrapped up in supporting the HD Q&A web pages for the Ryobi riding mowers.  Both the ZT480s & RM480s have questionable instrumentation.  There are a multitude of questions on the HD web pages for the different models of the ZT about the instrumentation.  My RM and my neighbor’s RM both have issues with the Battery Level Meter and the hour meter. The BLM is rather erratic and the hour meter is off by 6% on my mower.  The ZTs have numerous instances of mis-reporting the charge percentage. People have eve had the meter replaced under warranty and still have the problem.  My neighbor and I have taken to installing small volt meters on our machines at the charging port.  I record the pack voltage when I take it off the charger to mow and I record the voltage when I’m done using it right before putting it on the charger. The bottom two contacts of the charging port are the positive and negative for the pack. I also record the starting and ending times with my cell phone. I invested $30 in a recording watt meter to record the amount of electricity it takes for each use. I record the hour meter and the number of bars out on the BLM (% on the ZT meter). This all goes into a spreadsheet so I can track any performance trends of the batteries. The beginning voltage should be 51 - 52 volts regardless of what the % meter reads.  You definitely should not be doing “boost charging” as this will shorten the lifespan of the batteries. Also, the controllers/processors limit the routine depth of discharge (DOD) of the pack to about 36 volts.  This is about 30% and the battery manufacturer states this should allow the batteries to deliver 1,500 to 1,700 charge cycles.  Therefore, when the percentage meter on the ZTs reads 50%, it means that you’ve used 50% of the usable charge of 15 volts (51 volts down to 36 volts). The electronics will shut the entire system down when the pack voltage drops below 36 volts.

[CW36]

I received replacement batteries due to them not fully charging after under a year of use. I had some issues with connecting the new batteries and the manual is less than helpful when it comes to that part. Is anyone willing to give detailed instructions on hooking up 4 new replacement batteries. I am just looking for the order of hook up at the terminals along with other connections to the batteries that must be made. I originally went by the manual instructions, but it was 1-2 sentences that did not provide much clarity. I could also not find a video online anywhere.... I'm glad I had protective gear.

 

I have the RY48ZTR75, but it takes the same 75ah batteries  (Leoch model LPC12-75) that the RY48110-1A takes. Both have the 4 battery setup, and the 100ah versions of both those are the exact same.

 

Also, the terminals for the replacement batteries look to be a golden-brass color, while the original batteries are definitely a silver (potentially lead alloy or coated copper).

[jamis]

Hopefully you took pictures of the original wiring before you dismantled things. Don’t know if this helps.

[chall]

On 6/7/2020 at 9:37 AM, PaulNY said:

Hello, 

 

I have a Ryobi ZT480e that I bought last year. It s a fantastic mower and well worth the price. In the first year I more than paid for it in comparison to what I paid a landscaping company the year before.

 

Almost from the beginning I have had an issue with the battery. Note: I fully charged it before I used it the first time. I mow once a week and keep the mower plugged in whenever it is not in use. When I get ready to mow, I check the battery level. Since it has been charging all week, it should be at 100%. This isn't the case. The battery will show 70% charge. I discovered if I unplugged it. waited a minute, and then plugged it back in for 10 minutes the battery would then show 100% charge. I called Ryobi about the problem, but their response was that it shouldn't be happening and the representative I spoke with did not believe me. She stated they had never heard of the problem before.

 

I mow roughly  3 1/2-4 acres. I have to do it with two charges. I will mow in the morning. Plug in the mower for a few hours and then mow in the afternoon. I have been using the battery down to 10% on the morning mow (I now realize I should not do this as I read the article from mycountryacre.com about not taking the battery down to less than 20%).

 

Anyone else have a similar issue with the batteries or have suggestions? Thanks for your input. 

We have the exact problem with ours - have you gotten any suggestions that worked?

[jamis]

The instrumentation on the ZT480s (and the RM480s) has been reported by many to be inaccurate and misleading.  The Battery Level Meter on my mower is erratic in its reporting and the hour meter is off by 6%. The hour meter even reset itself to zero last summer.  I do some extra steps to monitor the battery performance so I know how healthy the pack is.

1. I measure the pack voltage before and after mowing. I use a volt meter to read the voltage at the charging port.

2. I bought a $30 recording watt meter to measure how much it takes to recharge the pack each time the charger does a charge.  
3. May be extreme, but I put this all into a spreadsheet to track usage trends.

Ryobi’s battery check method is to pull the batteries, disconnect all pack wiring, charge each battery individually with a separate charger, and load test each.  I took mine to a local battery shop for the testing.

Boost charging is NOT recommended for SLA batteries as it can promote sulfication in the cells and shorten battery life. Always fully charge the pack when you charge the mower.  Reduced run time is usually due to one of the four batteries having a weak cell.  Eventually, the battery will fail entirely and the system will then refuse to charge the pack.  The electronics limit battery drain down to 36 volts to prolong the life span of the pack.

[jamis]

Well, my RM480e just passed two years of ownership and the machine still runs like new.  The electric experience has been wonderful.  The mower costs less than $0.21 per hour to run.  A seven month winter storage costs $0.91 for the entire period.  Electric cost for the first two years has been $15.44 total.  87E10 has averaged $2.20 per gallon here.  I have mowed for 59 hours in the two years and my neighbors 42” Toro Timecutter burns a gallon of gas per hour.  You can do the math to see the cost savings the electric mower gives, not to mention there are no fluids, filters, or belts to maintain for the electric mower.  I did buy a second set of blades ($25) to have on hand should I need to swap out the ones in use, but the blades stay sharp all through the mowing season.  I also made a fold up tailgate to haul a trash can for yard work as I don’t have room to store a dump cart.

[Eric - TIA]

That's awesome.  Love seeing the long term use

[jamis]

Another picture of the new folding tailgate.

[jamis]

I’ve been investigating replacement batteries for the RM480 & ZT480 mowers and have found some group 24 (75 Ahr.) and group 31 (100 Ahr.) SLA/AGM, deep cycle, 12 volt batteries.  While these other batteries fit and might work in the Ryobi mowers, one rather large difference stands out.  The Leoch LPC12-xxx batteries have a much longer lifespan.  That is, installed in the Ryobi system, they will handle many more charge cycles than the the other brands.  The LPC12-xxx batteries should give 1,500 to 1,700 charges.  The Duracell Premium AGM batteries are rated at 850 charge cycles at the maximum routine depth of discharge the Ryobi system uses. The Duracell also costs more than the Leoch.  HD has been out of these batteries for many months.  OSI Batteries has them for a bit more than HD lists them, but far less than what Ryobi is listing them for.  Also, some of the other batteries only have a 3 month warranty if used in Battery Electric Vehicles while the LPC12s have a one year warranty. Hope this helps someone in the future.