This is the Ryobi 54″ all-electric zero-turn riding mower, and it might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever reviewed on this site.
Main features
- 54 inches ultra-wide cutting deck
- 48 volts triple brushless cutting motors
- 115 amp hours battery that cuts up to three and a half acres on a single charge
Package
This is like the Tesla of lawnmowers; let me show you some favorite features and why we think an electric mower like this isn’t just a perfect fit for large acreage, but also it could be a good fit for small and medium-sized yards, starting with a quick unboxing and assembly the mowers delivered to me on an SS truck mine was a little sideways on the metal pallet. Still, more on that in a second assembly was actually pretty straightforward, which I always appreciate wasn’t too much required in the package also includes a wall-mountable charger hitch for the back spare keys and a few tools.
First up is to connect the main battery terminals.
Next, I attach the plush seat with two bolts in those a tight squeeze, but I finally got it in connecting the seat safety switch cable screw on the drive levers; there are a couple of bolts that allow for desire till ends that was basically it now funny enough the hardest step for me was driving the mower off the pallets since it was on there crooked. That metal base was bent and jacked up. If I went forward or backward, I was at risk of damaging my blades even with it fully raised.
So after a few failed attempts, my buddy read came over and helped me lift it up and off the pallet. Now the mower weighs about 800 pounds. It’s built like a beast; after some final unwrapping, we’re all set to go. Here are my favorite features and key specs of this lawnmower. First, the all-electric zero-turn looks and feels like the future of mowers. Second, it’s almost silent when driving around and barely quiet when cutting.
Now it’s not too quiet like it’s weak motors or anything; the very first time I turned on the blades say it kind of sounds like a hovercraft is taking off. The concept is to never again fill up tanks with smelly gas, gross fumes, no changing of belts, oil, spark plugs, filters, or any of that junk; plug it into a standard 120-volt outlet charge, then zoom off is so dang sweet. The design is awesome. I love the bright real green with matte black, and those dual LED bars up front are super slick and bright in total.
There are five high-powered brushless motors, two for the rear wheels for independent drive and that turning on a dime radius, then there are three more brushless motors for those triple cutting motors and covering that massive 54-inch wide deck. I’m coming from a push mower in my yard that used to take what felt like a really long time and hard work.
I can now do the front section in like five minutes, the side and maybe five-ish minutes in the back in like five minutes. And I’m rounding up here; it could probably be done even faster. I like to go a bit slower for that clean, thorough cut, which by the way, the mower leaves these beautiful professional pristine cuts that I’ve never been able to accomplish before. Basically, the grass cut looks amazing, and it’s quiet, clean, and super-efficient and saves me a lot of time each week. And this doesn’t even mention the effortless and fun mo and experience.
The seat
The seat is very plush and comfy, nicely bound in that seat suspension. It’s adjustable forward and backward, even includes folding armrests. There are two cupholders, two storage compartments, a USB port to charge your devices and gadgets on the go. Maybe for a Bluetooth speaker or charge your phone on the right-hand side is a nice control panel with a power switch and keen LED headlights, low-speed drive, and low-speed cut buttons, both of which can extend your battery range if you’d prefer.
LCD
I also like the LCD for battery percentage and hours meter; there’s a 12 position deck height adjustment from one and a half-inch up to four and a half inches, plus a little autostop plug comes attached. Now I’m cutting that thick Bermuda grass down here, and I like to cut it pretty low, usually around one and a half or one and three quarters. It comes out looking so nice afterward.
Speed
Now let’s talk about speed. The max speeds are rated at seven miles per hour which, in my research, a lot of top-tier commercial zero turns cap at that same speed, maybe eight miles per hour on a few, but those are even more expensive with massively loud gas engines. Now I’m not sure if you’ve ever been on a riding mower, but seven mph is actually really Zippy. It makes cutting so effortless and fun and from small yards to even those larger lines.
It rips through with cutting both myself and my friends who have tried it have been so incredibly impressed, especially since it’s electric and quiet and fast than exact in those control bars at the beginning of the season, I went over to my neighbor’s yard and here was the cutting experience. So I’ve got the zero turn to fully charged up 100%. I’m here at my buddy’s house three-quarters of an acre. We’ve got six-inch plus dead grass from wintertime. It’s the thick stuff. We’re going to do that low scalping, see how it cuts through it, and then see how long that battery lasts. Let’s get into it. And Safety First, check it out. We’re at 100% for proof battery indicator fully charged.
All right, this thing is so fast, this stuff crazy thick. It was ripping through it like butter way easier than I thought it would; well done, Ryobi, this thing is a monster. It handled it pretty well, man. That was That was impressive. That was crazy. It’s kind of hard to control when you’re just ripping the straight lines on all the bumps. But I mean, look at how this stuff is. It’s chopping through all of these deaths. And it’s going all the way down.
It’s honestly pretty quiet, especially as it’s trudging through all this thick stuff; those motors, they’re peeling through pretty good, he’s not too far away. Motors are on. That’s not very loud. Okay, so we have about three-quarters of the rear done on this massive backyard, and battery life says about 70% left. Now that is really impressive. Suppose it’s true, not sure how accurate it is. But let’s go ahead and finish it up and see what it ends up at at the end of the whole guy.
One full-charged Battery
So we just finished three-quarters of an acre. This is the scalping cut. So most of the time, the deck was down to one and three quarters; maybe two, I’ll show you, is super low. It was cutting through some thick stuff. We started 100%. And now we finished at 30% quick update better jumped back up to 40% from 30. So there you go. So again, I’m not exactly sure how accurate this thing is. But let’s give it the benefit of the doubt; it was able to do this whole thing again, mulching cut, which only happens once a year. I’m happy that the battery lasts the whole thing. Now when you’re doing an easier cut, for sure, battery life is going to last way longer.
Overall though, it’s a blast to ride super effortlessly, with great precision in the controls. It’s fast at the top speed, I grew up driving a ride on a standard mower cutting about an acre lot, and while those have some benefits, now that I’ve experienced zero-turn, it’s no wonder that these are top tier lawnmowers. Even in a smaller yard like my own, having the ability to have such precision and freedom, and maneuverability. It allows me to ride the edge super tight. And then, at the end of those cornrow lines, whip 180 degrees around, back and forth back and forth. It is so sweet and efficient.
Conclusion
So it’s perfect for those tight little spaces plus those massive yards with long lines. That’s it super fast. That’s why I think it has the best of both worlds. So when I go out and cut my lawn on a fully charged battery at the end of the cut job, I’m left at maybe 90 or 85% battery life; left is that massive 115 amp hours battery, it should last for a really long time. And even if you have those bigger lots, as they say, it can cut up to three and a half acres on a full charge. Of course, that all depends on your grass height and such, but I could see it as an excellent option. The mower comes with a three-year warranty, and the leech batteries have a one-year warranty.
Now I understand why but I’d love to see that battery warranty extended farther out. I’m not sure how many years these will last, but on the bright side, they look pretty easy to replace, and even the pricing wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Now the only wishlist item I could think of is I’d love to see a mulching plug for that side; you may be included with the mower or maybe an optional bagging system add-on. Now it’s not truly needed as I’ve experienced the more rips and chews through even the thick stuff. And that’s shooting out very finely cut grass.
