Ego zero steer mower review

[ArlyA]

We just received a zero turn mower yesterday as seen in these pics. I operated it for 20ft while this young fellow did for 1/2 an hour in practice since the grass has minimal growth.. We have ill elderly parents and leaving town for an undetermined amount of time and Andrew will be in charge of mowing while we are away. He needed this practice time. He LOVED it ! Note the determined tongue out in the lowest photo.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Is Andrew a neighbors kid? It's wonderful you've got someone you can rely on to take care of the place while you're out, and that you've invited him to be a part of the process.

Now, obviously the kid is going to enjoy anything he can operate, it's all new and fun; what is YOUR opinion on it thus far? I see you went with the bars over the wheel, any particular reason why?

Congratulations on the new mower, and it's great to see you've got someone you can trust to take care of the place while you and the missus are out taking care of her parents.

 

[ArlyA]

That is the 13yo who lives just down the street and helps often. The kids are home schooled and mom struggles to get him to do his homework, but when he needs to go do something like mowing, its done ASAP!

I didn't like the reversing setup on the one with a steering wheel. May have been fine but I liked "tried and true" setup. He did struggle in the backing up process. Will I?

 

[WinterDeere]

I've used the Ego 52", as my cousin bought one a few years back, and I took the chance to try it while visiting them. Here's my observations, versus my 2007'ish 60" Deere 757 ZTrak:

1. Mowing without that obligatory 25 hp Kawasaki V-twin used on nearly ever Z-Turn I've ever used, is very nice. It's not totally silent, the blades themselves make noise, but it is so much quieter.
2. The blades are direct-drive motors, no belts to fail. This also contributes to the quite operation, as even non-slipping belts make vibration and hum.
3. Blade speed can vary with travel speed, which is so cool. Great way to save energy and extend battery life, as you don't need max blade speed at slower ground speed.
4. The Ego is heavy. They did what they could to lighten it up, but I didn't like some of those compromises. For example, the mower deck is extremely thin, not the usual 7-gauge deck shared by most commercial mowers, and I expect it will rust through much quicker, if not kept very dry and clean.
5. Rear tires are too narrow to support the heavy machine on soft ground. IIRC, it weighs as much or more than my commercial 60", but has little skinny rear tires that leave ground depressions in soft ground (early spring / late fall), and completely sink when hitting saturated ground.
6. Ground speed was okay. Every owner of these seems to want to talk about how quick they are, but they're actually very substantially slower than a gas mower. I think my cousin's had a top speed of 9 mph or less, versus 11 mph for most gassers. That may not sound huge, but it's 20% - 25% faster!

Overall, I liked it, but obviously not enough to switch from my commercial 60" gasser. If I were buying new today, and I only had ~2 acres of ground that never got wet or saturated, it'd probably be a reasonable choice. But if you have soft/wet ground, or 4+ acres, I'd probably stick with something having better ground speed, less weight, and wider tires. I also think the mower deck thickness could be an issue, both WRT rust-thru and potentially clumsy drivers.

 

[ArlyA]

My last two gas mowers there engines failed or at least were loosing to much engine oil. On the Honda powered one, the jug seal failed and we spend $800 to fix that and it was never right after that. 100% waste of $$. Side note, both our Honda autos there engines were loosing oil after 100,000 miles. (Did use recommended oils and mileages)

So far on this Ego, seems I need to lessen all the tires PSI also ordered two aftermarket 9amp hour batteries for it.

 

[shooterdon]

Every machine comes with compromises. I appreciate the post by WinterDeere.

I have 2 acres to cut, and I have no wet spots to deal with. I have so many trees and other stuff that "top speed" is not a criteria I would value much. So I am an ideal candidate for the Ego ZT.

The reduced noise would not matter to me, but I see the benefits of no belts and no engine maintenance. I have rocks in areas I mow intermittently. I had to replace the spindle on my old Husqvarna rider from hitting a rock and it was cheap ($25). Cost of a spindle for the Bad Boy is $60 on Amazon. Might be $200 for the Ego spindle/motor unit? So not a huge deal IMO.

The flimsier deck is a concern.

One thing I am relatively sure about is the Bad Boy will last the rest of my life. I have had it for just under 3 years and have 50 hours on it. With a conservative estimate of 600 hours life on the engine/hydros, it will last over 30 years. That is the unknown with the Ego.

I have never had a battery powered anything last more than 10 years. The off-brand batteries are $225 ea. and the brand name ones are close to $600 ea. I would need 4 of them. No idea about the longevity of the spindle and drive motors.

I mulch leaves in the fall and the ICE powered machines handle that. I have seen complaints about the Ego wrt to cutting "tall" grass. Not being able to mulch efficiently is a deal killer for me. I am surrounded by trees.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

He did struggle in the backing up process. Will I?

You will be fine. Like anything else, there is a learning curve. On typical zero turns there is less lever throw in reverse so inputs get exaggerated.

 

[MossRoad]

We just received a zero turn mower yesterday as seen in these pics. I operated it for 20ft while this young fellow did for 1/2 an hour in practice since the grass has minimal growth.. We have ill elderly parents and leaving town for an undetermined amount of time and Andrew will be in charge of mowing while we are away. He needed this practice time. He LOVED it ! Note the determined tongue out in the lowest photo.
View attachment 868051View attachment 868052View attachment 868053

Good luck with it. Give it a summer and let's hear you review. My neighbor still loves his.

 

[ArlyA]

You will be fine. Like anything else, there is a learning curve. On typical zero turns there is less lever throw in reverse so inputs get exaggerated.

The controls have three settings, kind of an advantage to the electric motor drive system. I didn't get in on all the conversation but i believe the shop guy left it in the mid sensitivity setting.

 

[WinterDeere]

So far on this Ego, seems I need to lessen all the tires PSI also ordered two aftermarket 9amp hour batteries for it.

Just be careful about deck height variation, if running lower pressure in the tires. In fact, this is how I usually notice that my tires need checking, I start to see the effects of the deck dipping into the cut in hard stops/starts/turns, at the end of each pass. It's fine in the straight-aways, you'll notice it first in the turns, where down-pressure on the outer tire is peaked.

As to longevity, my cousin has had his since "pre-COVID", which is how my memory seems to file all things nowadays, and he still loves it. I think the thinner deck will be a 10-20 year issue, but that may not be a huge problem, if that's the anticipated lifetime of other major components.

So many of us buy big commercial gasser zero turns, knowing they will easily do many thousands of hours in commercial use, and thinking they'll last 20-30 years at our 60 - 100 hours per year usage. But then plastic and rubber components begin to fail due to age, and we find the replacement part cost climbing with years out of production... so maybe Ego is the only one really doing it right. Their price point makes mower replacement less painful, than a 60" Deere or Exmark commercial unit.