[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

kayakerbob plowed my drive and all of the sidewalks on the street today with his RM480ex and the new front mounted plow from HD.  Did a pretty good job and you didn’t hear him at all.  Good way to condition those new batteries,

[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

Here's the most comprehensive article I've found on battery care for electric riding mowers.  Wish the manufacturer had put something like this in the owner's manual.

https://mycountryacre.com/5-ultimate-electric-riding-mower-battery-care-tips

[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

4 hours ago, Kayakerbob said:

How do you “condition” these batteries?

Just wash them with bleach to get all of the pond scum off.  Sorry, couldn’t resist.  To finish SLA/AGM batteries, don’t discharge them more than 30% for the first 10 - 20 uses.  As they become conditioned, you will see fewer battery level bars turn off for a give time of usage until the usage stabilizes.  When I first started using my RM 480, 2 bars would turn off after about an hour of mowing.  Two bars is less than 30% of the total charge (each bar is 10%).  After a few mowings, only one bar would turn off.  Later, no bars would go out after mowing for nearly an hour.  It stabilized at that point and I considered that the batteries had been properly conditioned.  Take a look at the RM480 article at MyCountryAcre.com and visit BatteryUniversity.com for more information on SLA/AGM batteries.  Unfortunately, Ryobi doesn’t say anything about this in the Operator’s Manual and I’ve seen a few users complain about premature battery failure or shortened capacity life.  Don’f Forget to show us your snow blade when you get it.

[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

The neighbor two doors down took delivery of his RM480ex (100 Ahr model) today.  He also bought the newly announced 42" front mounted snow blade for it, but that won't be delivered for a few days yet.  

[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

Sorry, but I just discovered that I mis-spoke about the Husqi mower.  It,s a 36 volt 125 Ah pack and has a run time of 90 minutes.  Price is $4,000. Still a bunch more than the RM480s.  It also has a smaller deck width than the RM480.

[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

7 hours ago, method said:

That's cool! Never seen anything like it here, other than the husqvarna electric mower which looks like it has a tow pack full of batteries?

 

 

Yeah, the Husqi does tow it's battery pack behind it in an articulated design.  It's a 12 volt 100 Ah pack.  Here's where the Ryobi design comes up as an advantage.  The Husqi runs for an hour and costs about $5,000 US while the Ryobi design runs for 2 (or 2.5) hours on a charge and costs nearly half as much.  Actually the RM480 is the only electric rider on the market that sells for under $5,000 and runs for two or more hours.  The ones that do run longer are the Mean Green mowers and those have price tags way up there. 

[Ryobi battery riding lawn mower]

I know this is an old topic, but I bought one of these mowers in August and it is well worth the price.  I had to drive 45 miles to the nearest HD that had one on the floor to see what it was all about, but compared to the other small riders, it was worth the drive.  The design and engineering is stout and it cuts as well as the 21" Honda walk behind it replaced.  Compared to my neighbor's $3,400 42" Toro Timecutter, it was a steal.  After I had properly conditioned the batteries, I can mow for almost an hour and use less than 10% of the charge.  It costs me less than $0.06 worth of electricity to recharge the pack.  The pack consists of four 12 volt 75 Ah Sealed Lead Acid/Absorbent Glass Mat batteries in series and they should last between 5 and 10 years depending on usage.  The gas/oil/filters/belts/and engine maintenance savings will pay for a total battery replacement in about 4 years.  Oh yeah, it's really quiet.  They just brought out a front mounted snow plow attachment for this mower.   I made the tail gate to haul a trash can for yard work.