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jamis

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jamis last won the day on May 27 2023

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    Jim
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    Maumee, OH

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  1. Sorry to hear of your bad luck with the MM batteries. I replaced the Leoch 75 ahr. batteries with Mighty Max 100 ahr. batteries after 58 months. After 25 mows, many over an hour and a half, the pack is still performing like new. The BLM is off with percent and bars out.No matter how much I mow it always shows 100% and no bars out. My neighbor with a RM480ex and MM 100 ahr. batteries mows at least twice what I do and his batteries are still performing well.
  2. I have done over two dozen uses with the new batteries and the larger ahr. batteries are proving to be an improvement over the original 75 ahr. units. The lowered DOD is showing up. The cost per hour is also dropping. It used to cost $0.10-$0.11 to mow my lawn and now it costs $0.07-$0.08. I know it's a small difference, but it will add up.
  3. As I stated earlier, I replaced the OEM 75 ahr. batteries with Mighty Max 100 ahr. batteries. After 58 months, 160 hours of run time, and 2,082 charge cycles, the run time was down to about 45 minutes on a full charge. One of the four other RM480 owners on my street that replaced his batteries last fall is associated with the local amateur ham radio club and he gave his old batteries to a member to use as battery backup storage with his solar array. I offered my old batteries to the club also and they are now part of someone's UPS system. The four old batteries were load tested by my neighbor and sure enough one of them was not able to hold a charge under his 100 ahr. tester. This is typical when these mowers lose their run time capability. Since my batteries were almost five years old, had over 2,000 charges (Leoch stated they should do 1,500-1,700), and had saved $685 in gas and maintenance costs; I went ahead and replaced all of them rather than just the one weak battery.
  4. When I have finished mowing, I use my 190 mph Ryobi leaf blower to blow off the deck. I blow directly into the deck motors and I also remove the battery cover under the seat and blow down around all of of spaces inside the covers. When I pulled the battery tray to replace the OEM batteries, there was almost no detris inside the mower.
  5. Six mows after replacing the original Leoch 75 ahr. batteries with the Mighty Max 100 ahr. batteries and no issues at all. Charger and BLM operate as they always have, even with the button mod. BLM bars are all on after a charge, but all mows are less than 10%. It's drought conditions here right now and mowing is very light. Biggest change is the Depth Of Discharge. OEM lifetime average DOD was 10.18% (my average usage was 42 minutes). The DOD with the MM is currently 7.08%. Lower routine DOD translates to longer lifespans in SLA/AGM batteries. I wish I had spent the extra $200 for the RM480ex when I bought the mower 58 months ago. Speaking of $$$, if you are interested in Mighty Max replacement batteries, contact MM directly.
  6. Electric tools require a different perspective than gas platforms. When I started with cordless tools, I learned that multiple batteries and chargers are a necessity. In the nineties, I had two chargers and six batteries. Now with lithium, I'm down to five batteries and a single rapid charger. My OPE is 40 volts and I have seven batteries (3-4 ahr., 2-6 ahr. & 2-7.5 ahr.) and two fan cooled rapid chargers. With that arrangement, I can run things non-stop. It costs $0.02 to charge a 7.5 ahr. battery and two of them will run the snowblower for an hour and half. The rapid chargers charge at the rate of an ahr. every 10 minutes, so you need to plan pack usage if you want to run non- stop. My first 18 volt lithium pack lasted 13 years in regular usage with the other packs.
  7. Had a good operational cost comparison yesterday. Neighbor behind me has a 42" Toro Timecutter 0turn and the neighbor next door has a Gravely 34" 0turn. All of our lawns are 10,000 sq.ft. and we all spend about a half hour mowing. The V-twin ICE engines in the Toro & Gravely burn a gallon of gas an hour when mowing. 87E10 here is $3.69/ga., so the neighbors spend a $1.85 to mow their lawns. $1.85 likely isn't a big expense to mow your lawn and folks likely don't look at what it costs to run a lawn mower. My RM480 costs $0.06 @ my electric rate to mow the same sized lawn. Add in the cost of maintenance for an ICE mower that the RM480 doesn't have, and it's easy to see why my RM480 saved enough in 54 months to pay for a new set of 100 ahr. batteries. Oh yeah, the Toro cost $3,400 new and the Gravely cost $7,995 new. I paid $2,499 for my RM480e new.
  8. The four Mighty Max ML100-12 batteries arrived on 05/11/2023. I checked the voltages on all. They varied between 12.63 and 12.73 volts. I ran two charge cycles on each, one on deep cycle and one on normal automatic. Then I installed them. Charged voltages were all within a tenth of a volt. It took about 3 1/2 hours, start to finish. No issues, nor modifications to the tray. I did add some additional foam padding between the batteries and between the battery ends and the adjustable stops. The performance is better than the 75 ahr. batteries and the cost per hour is dropping, as is the DOD. In hindsight, I wish I had spent the extra $200 for a RM480ex when I bought the mower five years ago. The first mow was heavy cutting and lasted an hour, no bars, 100% left on the meter, 1.9 volts used, and 1860 watts used to recharge. My neighbor is friends with some ham radio operators and one of them is taking the old Leoch LPC12-75 batteries to use as a battery backup setup with his solar array for his radio.
  9. Installed 4 Mighty Max ML100-12 batteries in place of the original Leoch LPC12-75 batteries. Run time had decreased this year to about 40 minutes. The originals did 152 hours of run time, 234 mows, 2,090 charges, and a lifetime Depth Of Discharge of 10.9%. The mower has saved $685 in gas and maintenance. This was enough to pay for the new 100 ahr. batteries, which makes the mower a RM480ex now. So my guestimate five years ago played out correctly.
  10. 57 months, 229 mows, 152 hours, 2,083 charge cycles and the gas & maintenance savings have paid for a new set of 100 ahr. batteries.
  11. My 57 month old, 75 ahr. mower has 228 uses, 152 hours, 2,083 charge cycles, and a lifetime routine Depth Of Discharge of 10.23%. My last mow only made it 32 minutes to deck motor shutdown. I haven't tested the original batteries yet, but I'll bet one is beginning to be unable to hold a charge under load. I used it today to haul 7 cu.ft. carts full of old mulch a mile away for dumping and the six trips only used .2 of a volt and no bars or percentage on the meter. 260 watts to recharge to 53 volts. Monday, I'm going to order four Mighty Max ML100-12 batteries as the mower has now saved enough in gas and maintenance to pay for them.
  12. My original LPC12-75 batteries just had their 2,078th charge cycle, 150 hours of run time, and are over 56 months old. Mowed today for 32 minutes and used no bars on the BLM. Only used the Delta Q SC-48 charger to charge these batteries. Mower has saved $630 in gas and maintenance and new 100 ahr. batteries will cost $720.
  13. Ryobi has announced two new 80 volt riders. A 42" & 46" cut with 10 ga. fabricated decks. The look like front engine ICE mowers with the three battery packs in where the engine would be. $4,999 & $5,499. My 54 month old RM480e is about to pass 1,700 charge cycles on the original batteries.
  14. My mower is in its fifth winter storage and has 145 hours of use with a total of 447 charges including winter storage. As the batteries have aged, they self discharge faster than when they were new. This winter, they are doing an average of 97 watts per day to maintain the packs in charges of 10-20 watts per charge. The batteries have always used more and more charges each winter storage as they have aged. This is the reason Ryobi states to always have the mower on the charger when not in use. If the pack voltage falls below 36 volts, the charger logic will not charge the pack. When spring comes and regular mowing resumes, the batteries have always resumed their ability to hold a charge for a week or more. By then, they are being subjected to the routine DOD and behave like they originally did.
  15. The neighbor that replaced the original Leoch LPC12-100 batteries with the Mighty Max 100 ahr. equivalents discovered the battery cases are slightly smaller than the Leoch 100 ahr. cases. He had to make up wood spacers to get the clamps to hold them tight. Also, the rope handles interfere with the hold down clamp frame and plastic covers. The new batteries power the mower great though. Just something to be aware of if you go with the MM option.
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