Ego Z6 Zero Turn - Thorough Review 

After 70 hours runtime, it developed a drive motor fault that took weeks to diagnose (mower in the shop). Finally, with my persistent calling to EGO, they decided the issue could not be resolved. So they sent a new replacement. Overall, I lost confidence in EGOs ability to resolve these unknown problems quickly and decided to sell my replacement mower on eBay. I doubt I will buy another electric riding mower for a few more years.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes thank you, I’ve read some other people having the same issues with EGO not diagnosing problems quick enough.

I have 2 mowers. Both developed faults and could not be diagnosed by local dealer so ended up having to replace . Warranty v good tho.

@@lisa8369 every person on RU-vid I have asked this question to have all responded with the same problems. As much as I want to try the new Z6 with the steering wheel out, I’m hesitant they haven’t resolved these problems yet.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapesthank you for the honest review. I get people want to sell these and don’t say the cons. My sister has a e mower and won’t finish the job. It’s a good idea but still a toy I think. Since u own a business I saw the disgust when u had to wait two hrs and still had a lawn to complete and it was mid afternoon.

Excellent! And thanks for the compliment on the setup. If you happen to have a direct connection with the mulch kit and bagging setup I would definitely be interested in reviewing them as soon as possible. Same for high lift blades.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes Yes, the both just arrived. Getting to stores (or DC's now). I'll connect you with our team.

An electric zero turn is my dream machine. Just bought Ego's blower and trimmer separately so I could have two batteries. Trying to decide between the Z6 and CC's ZT1 42E because I really don't want to go gas

@@Hermulus Its really an amazing machine. Best of all you can use the two batteries you have an add on as many as you need if you need to cut more than 2-3 acres.

@@joeturoff9241 When will the Z6 be available at Ace? Unfortunately I don't live close enough to a Lowe's to get delivery. 😒

Might as well install a Tesla Battery 🔋 Wall as well!

Literally what I went to post. Solar charge, then while driving you can charge it up. Plus once you get 2, more 10ah, or I'd get the lawn mower/blower/trimmer with 10ah,5ah,and 2.5 ah. Then keep them charged for free via solar

You can get high output alternators that put out 250amps that’s sufficient enough to fully charge in one hour…

@@harrypalms9491 that's the way to go. Solar would be like filling a bucket with an eyedropper for these high voltage batteries.

@@wincrasher2007 If you had 2-3 full size panels, you could power the turbo charger, charging a 10A battery in under an hour. An alternator would be slightly more practical, except it would only work while driving.... or idling. Realistically it would be best to just buy extra batteries to last a full day.

Well said

hey Jimmy, I'm thinking about getting one, the 42" and I have about 2 acres to mow, do you think this will do the task? I went to a dealer the other day and the sales guy there didn't give me a good review he said it wouldn't cut my 2 acres but of course he was trying to sell me his brand :) ... anyways just wanted to get your opinion on this please.

@@Davix0311 + I measured my area on GIS. Ihave 11 hours on the mower. I cut about 1.3 acres. Lots of bushes trees and other obstacles. At the end of cutting I usually have about 20 to 25% left. I run 4 10 amp hour batteries plus a 2.5 and a 5 amp hour battery. The other batteries come from my pole saw and 650 cfm leaf blower (which I use afterwards for cleanup) I use the middle speed setting and the low speed blade setting. Nice how if the blades get loaded then the machine applies more power. The nice thing is that the charge time is about an hour onboard the mower with the included charger. I don't think youll be able to do it with just the 4 batteries that come with the mower. So you may have to stop and charge. It really depends on your yard, the grass height/type, wet/dry, blade sharpness and temperature. Hope my info helps in your decision making process.

Wow that’s great!

How much was it?

@@twentyfive2life686 iT was $6,99.of plus tax. And worth every penny of it. I wish they would make a 34” snow blower that used the 6 - 12ah batteries

let me know when your ego batteries quit... i pray for you, great equipment while it lasts but no more 5yr old equipment... i see the future lol

If u get the extra 2 batteries let us know how long it last

@@vanderumd11 even if the battery/s die at 5 years, you still save money buying new ones compared to the fuel and maintenance cost of a petrol over 5 years.

@@liamcooper6721 the batteries are $160 each. The cost of electric to charge them. .. the cost isn't much different.

@@vanderumd11 the cost to charge... 54V @ 10Ahr is 540W, right? that's 5-8 cents a charge. Over 6 batteries, 30-48 cents, less if you don't run them flat, every time you mow. You will use way more that $1 of fuel so it doesn't even come close. the more often you mow the bigger this gap gets because the electric system can run the blade at an independent speed to the drive wheels unlike petrol zero turns

How did you get yours already? I’ve been going to every Lowe’s and Ace Hardware trying to find one

I ordered it through lowes. If u go on lowes u can have them notify u when its in stock.

How much grass are you cutting in Upstate NY Nathan? I travel to Roscoe alot for fishing. Beautiful up there

Around 2 acres. I have mowed twice so far. Had 10 percent battery left then 7 percent left the second time. Thats using the 4 10amh batteries.

@@nathandingman6846 looks like a great machine. Good luck with it

This is exactly why most people should go with the ego brand. I should've discussed this point which is huge. Thanks for mentioning this!

This is a great idea! I didn't know you could buy just the Nexus portable station by itself.

Great comment, Ego should definitely offer recycling and refurbished batteries. If you have a company and pay taxes then you can write off the purchase of new batteries and use that as a deduction which in a way makes them either free or cheap. I stocked up on batteries from acme tools. Acme actually sells refurbished ego products and they always have good deals. The best way I have found was to get refurbished backpack blowers. They come with a 5ah battery and when you buy 2 refurbished items they usually have a deal that gives you 10% off. This makes it about $350 for 2 5ah batteries instead of $500. You'll have spare blowers or you can sell them without the batteries of course and reduce your battery cost even further. If you could sell the blowers for $100 each then your 2 5ah batteries cost you just $150 or so.

my company has swallowed $3300 in ego batteries

What about a third party that rebuilds the batteries? All of these batteries are just generic cells in a fancy package.

There is some time lost changing and charging. But you don't need to buy gas, oil, air filters, or do any maintenance. In the end, it is likely similar cost, maybe even cheaper to use electric, not even counting time going to gas station constantly, and other maintenance. It would be nice to have a recycling program though.

i agree the runtime is not good enough but buying more batteries solves that issue but batteries dont last that long, maybe 4 or so years, before needing to be replaced and they are too expensive. its like buying a brand new mower every 4 years but instead of the joy have getting a new mower you are only getting batteries. plus in my area theft is an issue and it is far too easy to walk away with a $1400 battery not to mention the batteries are fairly fragile and can be easily damaged. speaking of lithium batteries... with the environmental impact they have on the planet you may as well use gas mowers anyway. the pros are there but are they worth it? im not sure because people that go ev are never honest about the cons. what are the pros? well marketing for one and being able to charge higher prices because people just love the whole go green stuff. less maintenance? sure but the cost of that convenience is not worth it. when it comes to business roi is more important than convenience. quieter? yes but there is only about a 20db difference which is certainly beneficial in the morning and at night. ive personally gotten complaints from neighbors mowing at 9am. not to mention trimming 100's of bushes on a hot day all day long for weeks at a time with the machine not only screaming at you the whole time but also blowing hot exhaust at or around you is not fun. to the point of contention... it costs more money than its worth to recycle lithium batteries so expecting some sort of kick back for turning in used batteries when they are more likely to start charging you for it, if it wouldnt end up just deterring recycling altogether, would be more likely. not to mention with this whole ukraine thing and russia banning us from importing nickel you can expect lithium batteries to get even more expensive. so the real problem is that this whole lithium battery thing is not sustainable and will be relatively short lived because of fact that they require rare finite precious metals that are environmentally costly to extract and refine then the process of recycling and reusing those materials is even more costly.

Thank you!

If you register your batteries they have a 5 year warranty. Edit, for residential use

Thanks for watching! I have had zero issues with any of my 6 batteries. I also have 8 similar Stihl batteries with zero issues as well. I’ve had hand tool battery failures from DeWalt, but none since 2018. It seems the newer technology is much much better. I’ve used customer service for a faulty Power Station. After a few troubleshooting steps they swapped it out under warranty and were a pleasure to work with.

I love Stihl products as well

I'm considering the RMA510, since I'm already into the AP battery platform. Do you have it and, if so, how well does it bag clippings?

@@jmljml5065 It seemed to do fine. No real complaints about it.

Thank you and thanks for watching!

They won't get the irony lol

Thanks for watching!

This one is for personal use as well. I used it on some landscape customer’s lawns for the video. It wouldn’t work well for full time mowing crews due to battery needs.

Thank you

I would just buy extra batteries....

@@TheAaronReynolds why though? 2kw onboard is enough to charge anything and run many power tools. They make 3600w inverters too but they're expensive. Inverters are easier to find than 10AH ego batteries too.

@@hithere7382 what's the cost of the 2k inverter? Is the inverter charging separate batteries, or only charging the mower directly? Any idea how long it would take to charge the 6x10ah batteries? Lastly, does it get it's power from the vehicle alternator...and is the alternator designed for that load? All questions I am not sure of, where as just buying additional batteries makes that selection process simple.

@@TheAaronReynolds it is so you can plug the ego onboard charger on when the engine is running. You want an ambulance alternator. It charges 6 batteries in a little under 3 hours from dead. It wouldn't be dead though unless a really big lot. They also make 750w single charger you could use that to top off spares. You'd need a bigger than 2kw inverter to do that with the 1600w unit that comes with the ZT6.

Great discussion! Thanks for watching!

Great stuff!

Brilliant idea

Now that they released the solar charging adapter for the nexus power station I’m hoping to have a totally independent system with two solar panels on my trailer hoping to do a video once I get my setup where I want it to be.

That's awesome! Do you charge at customer's houses or just back at the shop?

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes if your truck isn't a BEV get a 2kw or larger inverter and run the 1.6kw charger with it between yards.

Yes , no crap !

Sounds like you’re off to a good start! Best of luck with it.

Thank you I bought more batteries but yea that charger would help

$1000 plus tax. We have the 10mah here in Florida. I have the 6 yr old 21”. I sharpen the blade every time I use it. I use a diamond stone. USB-C is gonna change too. How about $32,000 for the Gravley electric unit. 12 acres per charge. What do you think?

@@botakbishop1441 using a gas powered Honda generator to charge your battery powered lawnmower! 🤔😂😂

@@botakbishop1441 what’s the point lol. I rather have gas mower to begin with

@@botakbishop1441 that’s the stupidest idea I have ever heard, just get gas zero turn at this case lol

We are moving away from lawn maintenance and into landscape design and installation. So didn't want to have such an expensive asset anymore.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes you can do both depends on how busy you are with landscaping crap.

@@hithere7382 the sun is HOT... customers can suck

@@vanderumd11 how does that have any bearing on what I said?

Glad it helped 👍

Yes I use a Stihl RMA 510 as my smaller mower to get in tight spaces. Absolutely love that to ol and also all the other Stihll battery hand tools!

Excellent! Thank you

Awesome will do! I'm glad my humble little video helped you make your big decision! I'll keep you posted as soon as I can get my hands on those other items as well.

Hahahaha what a loser

Hover mower? Those john deers last long!

Thank you for the feedback. I’d love to have the resources to do a thorough comparison of them for you but I do not. Maybe someone will do one sometime soon!

6 x 10ah

The mower comes with 4 - 10 Ah batteries

I would love that capability. The most cost effective way I can see to do this is just purchasing additional ego batteries and using them instead of buying inverters, solar panels, marine batteries, etc. I'm definitely open to all ideas!

Or they could buy a hybrid F150 with the pro power package and the truck can charge the mower.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes how far are your lawns from one another though? One inverter and some wires is all you need if the distance is ok. And some connectors and heat shrink

@@kdrapertrucker you have to order a black one to get the 7kw generator one

Thank you for the kind words! And I hope that works out for you!

How long does it take to charge the Ryobi from 0 to 100%?

It's supposed to mow 3 acres with 6 10ah batteries as is. Just have to buy the two extra 10ah batteries to do it

Ryobi uses lead acid batteries, not lithium ion so overall battery life will probably not be as good as you have to be more careful with how you charge/discharge them.

Neither the Ryobi 125AH or the Ego with 6*10AH cuts 3 acres in realistic conditions. 2 acres are what most can expect. It will also be bad for the battery lifetime to run them to zero. More so for the Ryobi since they use LA batteries. But the Ryobi will fit a 16s Lifepo4 310Ah setup that will give the mower 4-6 hours runtime. Will cost around $2200. The Lifepo4 cells can charge at 1C so if you happen to have a 310Ah 56v charger, you can charge them in an hour 😅 The patent for these Lifepo4 cells ends this year, so the price will probably go down. The max Ah per cell will also go up with some producers mentioning they will hit 450Ah in 2022. Then the mower would have 5.5-8 hours runtime. And electric busses (they use the same cells) will probably need to start renewing their cells, selling off 80% good cells for a bargine. On the other hand, you can't use these batteries on your string trimmer or push mower like you can with the Ego...

Competition is a good thing! Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching 👍

Yes, I’m getting this question often. I will do a review soon. Unfortunately I’m actually working through two issues with customer service right now. So I’ll wait until it’s all finished to complete the update video. One issue is likely charger failure. A new charger was shipped immediately at no cost to me. The other is potential drive motor or drive motor control issue/failure. I get a call from a local service company today to see about next steps.

Repair &/or servicing is a big question for me. Obviously Lowes and Ace are not capable nor set up for repairs, and according to Ego’s own website, the nearest listed service center is 90 miles away. Very interested in your thoughts and results!

Exactly

Nice!

Ego is releasing a high lift blade option and I have no doubts that will lift leaves better than the mean green by far. Mean greens blades were absolutely flat. Even the stock blades on the ego come with a mulching curve to them. So I think the stock blades lift and cut better than the mean green stock blades.

I'm looking at the Z6 and need to install solar panels on my shipping container where I plan to store it. Any ideas?

Solar charging is unbelievably slow and would make almost zero impact on my daily performance. Thanks for watching!

Amazon sells trickle charger/maintainers that I use for a dump trailer. Work great!

charge time on one battery is like 4 hours i think from fully dead to fully charged. there are rapid chargers that can do it in 1.5 hours which is much better. that would bring down required batteries for a full day of mowing from 30 batteries to just 18. but as he pointed out solar is too slow and the roi to install such a solar system would end up being about the same as just bringing 30 batteries with you anyway.

Yes definitely. I usually leave it on setting #2 and only bump it up to three or four when the grass gets thick. I feel like setting to is an optimal setting for good quality cut in most conditions even in thick grass as long as it's not too tall.

Subscribe and stay tuned for a detailed video of the truck setup soon. Best of luck with the business launch. Much of my inspiration came from Florida Turf Pros and Quiet Lawns. Check out their videos as well.

Thanks for watching and for the compliment. I’m in the process of creating a one-year follow up video. I still love it, but am in the warranty repair process now. My mower was perfect for around 15 months and has two issues appear at the same time. One is a charging issue and the other is something causing the drive wheel motors to fault. I think the two are related. Ego CS has been great to work with, but the repair shop doesn’t seem to know how to resolve the issue. They replaced the LCD display panel during their first attempt. I mowed 3 minutes and got the exact same faults again and the charging issue was not resolved. So I took the mower back the very next day…it still cuts and drives, but faults every few minutes requiring me to reset the faults by setting the handlebars to park and then back again. Annoying. Luckily I have other chargers as well. I can mow 1 acre comfortably with 6x 10amp batteries. I would imagine the bigger unit should require more energy and cover less ground, but I haven’t check it’s specs at all. Hope that covered your questions and good luck.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes If I understand, you do commercial cutting, right? And can only cut 1 acre before charging? I hope I'm reading that wrong because that seems like you'd be spending a lot of time charging batteries. 1 acre isn't that much.

@@TopFitnessStrategies we do not do commercial mowing any longer. This is my personal mower. Was using a few client’s lawns for the video.

You can mix and match.

Thanks for watching 👍

Let me see what this coming spring brings as far as making a video…but it cuts well on all the yards I’ve mowed. Thanks for watching!

Battery technology gets better every year. Maintaining the correct charge, temperatures, etc is a tricky part of it right now. Bummer your battery went out. I hope battery longevity is a priority for Ego. Thanks for watching!

Yes for sure! Thanks for watching!

Absolutely

I would clean the deck every now and then. Depends on how much you mow and the mowing conditions, wet or dry. But the cleaner the deck is, the better it cuts.

Me too. And yes it is very likely they did resolve those issues. The customer service handling during the issue was also troublesome. I hope your 2022 model fares well and lasts forever. Thanks for commenting. Best wishes to you.

I don't maintain enough mowing clients to justify such an investment. Our company has transitioned more into landscaping and water features. I do maintain a few mowing clients however.

I bought it directly from Lowe's. A local store near me had one in stock somehow, so I grabbed it.

I ordered mine. It came completely assembled. Was delivered in 12 days.

Ok awesome

No assembly at all.

I'm around 27 hours on the machine right now. Runs just like it was brand new. The deck does bounce if you're going fast over roots or bumps. It has no effect on mowing or on the wear and tear on the machine. It just makes a little noise, which is apparent on all mowers, you just can't hear it on gas mowers because of the gas engine noise. The same is true with string trimmers using electric power. You hear way more noises that you might not be used to, like the string trimming slapping the fences.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes excellent! Thanks for taking your time to reply :) I guess I’m buying the Z6 whenever I can find it available :)

@@SavedByTheWord Just remember to keep air in the tires and sharpen the blade every 10 hours or so! That's it! You're going to love it

We are primarily fescue around my area, so haven't tried. But I do have a Bermuda client and it cuts great.

Thank you for the idea

It does as well as any mower on hills. I prefer to keep it in control mode for better control in tricky areas. Also the farther back you keep your seat the better traction the rear tires get. Sometimes I'll slide my seat back if I'm losing traction just temporarily and then slide it back to where I like it.

Thanks for that feedback. We are definitely learning and improving each time. Your input helps!

It's still reduces the use of gas and air pollution. The batteries can be used for several years and then recycled. More recycling companies are getting the equipment to recycle these every day which makes lithium ion a very reasonable option until new battery technology comes out which will be soon.

@@quietgreenlandscapingllc8331 It does not though when you take into account the amount that is produced when making the batteries and mining the lithium. Gas 4 stroke motors that go on riders will never produce the amount of pollution through the life and use of the machine that happens in 1 day of lithium battery manufacturing and mining. They did the science on this already. the study they did was on full sized vehicles vs lithium battery packed equivalents as well as small engines. Large and small modern gas motors with proper muffler systems ran from the day they are started to the day the motor locks up without stopping in between pollute at far less of a rate than one battery pack produces in manufacturing and give a carbon footprint 3 X that of the running gas motor. Making lithium batteries is terrible for the environment. You will never hear this made mainstream because without batteries the powers that be have 0 other ideas.

@@jesusoftheapes no the study found in the long run EVs are better. Plus it's the early stages of EVs. It will get better

@@johnfears8814 no that is not what the study showed . The study said you would have to drive your auto for 137 years before it leveled.

@@jesusoftheapes link your article. I call complete BS on thatthere is no way it's that bad. Esp since it is so different from the one I have seen

Thank you for the idea

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes Any Time!

We don’t mow commercially with that mower. Solar is unbelievably slow. Extra batteries or charging with an inverter might work.

Haven’t tried those yet. Might have to!

Agreed.

Thanks for the suggestion. We don't do enough mowing to need to charge on the fly, but if we did, that would be great.

It does really well on hills. As well as any mower can. The limiting factor is physics. If you're concerned with it driving too much torque to the rear tires and thrusting the mower backwards, I would definitely tell you that's not going to happen. To ease your worries you can easily put it in control mode which dampens the response to the drive wheels. I drive with it and control mode all the time anyway.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes Can you do a video showing how steep of grades it’ll do? My only reservation on buying one is my nasty hill in my yard. My Craftsman lawn tractor does it OK, but would love to go electric.

I've gotten a lot of questions like this, so I'll try to do another video when I get some more time and answer questions like that and do a little demo for you.

@@CleanEarthWaterscapes Thank you! There's a video on YT about the Ryobi almost killing the driver. Got me a little paranoid on electric ZTRs and my yard. Really wish it had a rollover protection system option.

For sure. We don’t mow commercially with that mower, just putting it through the ringer for you guys 👍