jamis

FWIW: My 44 month old RM480e has had 325 charges, including winter storage, and is performing pretty much like did when new.

Early on, the conventional wisdom was that the SLA/AGM batteries needed to be conditioned prior to regular use. Subsequently, it was determined that the Ryobi system didn't allow the batteries to be discharged more than 30% Depth Of Discharge and therefore conditioning was not needed since the DOD was so small. Conditioning is needed if the batteries are routinely discharged beyond 50% or so. The battery manufacturer (Leoch) also verified this.

Sorry for the delay in responding. I think you need to pull the batteries, disconnect them from each other, and individually charge them with a 12 volt automotive type charger. This will restore the batteries to a level of charge that the mower charger can deal with. The system won't charge things if the pack voltage is below 36 volts.

87E10 is $3.699/gal. here. That makes my 43 month old RM480e 14.5 times less expensive to run than a comparable ICE powered mower.

Nothing, I don't think it will charge with the switch on. No error beeps?

The batteries in my mower have developed a new storage maintenance charge cycle. The first winter, they charged about once a month at about 1,000 watts each. The second winter, it was every two weeks for about 750 watts each charge. Last winter, it was once a week for About 600 watts. This fourth winter, it has become daily for an average of 80 watts in 10 watt charges. I don't know why the batteries are self discharging faster, but they ran under load like new this last mowing season. I even got a 2 1/2 hour run on the 2 hour limit. So far this winter storage period of 9 weeks has cost $0.65 in electricity. That's shaping up to be similar to previous winter storage periods. The pack has 125 hours of use on them with 225 charges total.

I have now put 5 hours on this machine. I have used it for multiple snow falls and it has performed flawlessly. It even has chewed through the snow plow humps at the ends of the driveways with ease. A pair of 6 ahr. batteries lasted for 45 min. running on high speed. A pair of 7.5 ahr. HP batteries ran for 75 min. on high speed and had two bars out. The two rapid chargers I have recharged the 6 ahr. packs in 60 min. and will recharge the 7.5 ahr. packs in 75 min. The machine is incredibly quiet. I measured it at 60 dB running at high auger speed. I cleared one neighbor's driveway and they didn't hear anything. Oh yeah, it costs me $0.035 to fully charge one of the 7.5 ahr. batteries. At lot less than what it costs to run my Toro two stroke snowblower and a lot quieter too. The 11" wheels make it easy to maneuver over irregularities.

32 degrees, 2.5 inches of snowfall overnight, and it all melted by the time I got up in the morning. Maybe having the new machine prevents the need to use it?

The machine was delivered yesterday evening and the box looked pretty rough. However, the packaging inside was very robust and the machine unpacked with no damage. Assembly was simple and took all of ten minutes with a #1 phillips screwdriver. Both 7.5 ahr. batteries charged fine in 75 min. each, costing $0.035 to charge each. Everything ran as advertised. The headlight lit up a space twice as wide as the machine and about 40' in front in total darkness. The old Toro CCR1000 has been stored away and all that remains is a snowfall.

OK, the snowblower made it from SC to Perrysburg, OH in two days. It's a nine hour drive on interstate highways. Perrysburg is the town next to Maumee, a distance of 3 miles. However, today, the parcel left Perrysburg bound for Oak Park, MI some 76 miles away. Gotta love it.

FedEx screwed up on the first shipment. Second attempt is on its way.

The snowblower went from Anderson, SC to Charlotte, NC & back to Anderson, SC in 2 days via FedEx. I guessed something was amiss when FedEx showed 2 day ground shipping from SC to NWOH. Ryobi is figuring out what happened. Fortunately, snow is not predicted here for some time.

My snowblower has just shipped from Ryobi's HQ in SC. Unfortunately, it is shipping via FEDEX. The local FEDEX distribution center has a 90,000 parcel backlog and has been taking weeks to clear it, so who knows when it will actually arrive.

Just found an import site that showed over 1,200 of these being offloaded it Tacoma, WA in September. Shouldn't be long now, even with the U.S. supply chain issues.

Yes, Ryobi discontinued the old NiCad One+ packs. I had six of them and had all of them rebuilt by a local battery shop when they failed before the LiOn One+ packs came out. I have five of these new packs, including two 6 ahr. packs. I still have four of the old black NiCad chargers languishing in the shop unused. I have about two dozen old blue/yellow One+ tools that I use all the time with the newer batteries. Ryobi has a hefty investment in the 18 volt One+ system and is replacing the various One+ tools with Brushless motored versions to enhance performance. I have gone to their 40 volt brushless system for outdoor lawn care tools. Waiting for the new 40 volt Whisper Series snowblower to be released.

I went to the Ryobi 40 volt attachment capable string trimmer last year to replace a 12 year old Troybilt 4 stroke attachment capable string trimmer. I have TrimmerPlus and Expand-It attachments dating back to the '90s. The new trimmer head works wonderfully. I tilled my garden yesterday with it and my 4 ahr. and 6 ahr. batteries.

The Windsor Ontario HD has these in stock. Shouldn't be long now for U.S. availability.

Eric: I researched the Mighty Max batteries and it appears they would be a proper substitute for the Leoch. They have a similar lifespan of the Leoch LPC12s. Been hoping someone would try a set in a Ryobi to see if they would work. Looks like you have a load tester source now.

No, the old NiCad chargers will not charge the LiOn batteries. The hyper green chargers are labeled dual chemistry chargers and they can charge the old NiCad battery packs as well as the new Lithium One+ packs

My RM480e has been through three winters in my unheated garage and the temperature has gotten below freezing a few times with no issues. After 216 charge cycles, the batteries are performing like new. My mower is plugged into the charger all the time. I live in NWOH. I have read of one person who has used a large battery blanket to keep his mower warm in Canada.

I will be getting a RY408100VNM snowblower when they become available in a few weeks. This brand new model is a single stage, 21" wide, battery powered by two 7.5 ahr. sequential batteries machine. It will replace my 21 year old Toro S2000 two stroke unit and free me from all gas powered lawn tools. Can't wait for the snow to fly.

Just finished data analysis of my mower after 108 hours of use. Cost to run it has risen from $0.22 per hour when new to $0.24 per hour. Most of this is due to much more sq.ft. being mowed. When new, I was regularly mowing 10,000 sq.ft and this year I have been regularly mowing 26,000 sq.ft. The deeper DOD has driven the wattage to recharge each time up. The batteries have had 212 charge cycles including storage maintenance charges.

Pretty sure they are flat plate. The only spiral cell AGMs I know of are the Optima batteries, but I haven't stayed at a Holiday Inn Express lately.

No, they didn't. I offered, but he said it's what they do, so no charge. Also didn't charge me for taking the dead battery in for recycling despite I didn't buy one from them (Ryobi warranty replacement). They do charge to take in lithium batteries due to the cost of recycling them. However, I've been buying car batteries from them since the '90s.

The local battery shop I used had a "Lester" load tester. They are pricey at $550, which is why I took my batteries there for testing.