Ryobi Riding Lawn Mower - Year 3!

Hello! The start up of my Ryobi Riding Lawn Mower on year 3 of owning it. So far so good. Based on comments and such, I am not a heavy user of the mower, and last summer was super dry there was probably a month or two I did not cut at all. So that may impact my experience versus other people.

[@datarite4955]

I'm also on year 3 with my Ryobi 54" ZTR!
Bought the Ryobi ZT540e on August 2021. Advertised to mow up to 3.5 acres/charge, which sounds like a good match to mow my 7-acre homesite.
A full battery charge would operate the mower for very close to 2 hours and 10 minutes to reach a 5% remaining charge level. It took 4 overnight charging cycles for the mower to cut 7 acres.
Mowing continued about weekly until sometime in November and resumed the next March. From November until March, the mower was kept plugged to the battery charger. During that time period, the mower had light duties used as a yard tractor towing a light-weight trailer each week to carry two garbage cans down the 600 foot drive for weekly curbside trash pickup,
During 2022 and 2023, the mowing time per battery charge continued to decrease. Especially when the mowing season started around March 2023 when battery charge life decreased greatly to 45 minutes.
Ryobi offered to replace the batteries even though my mower was a few months past the 1-year battery warranty. New replacement batteries were shipped and installed by Ryobi at my home.
That brought the battery charge life back to 2 hours per charge. After November 2023, mowing season ended and the mower and batteries were maintained as done the previous year. As stated earlier, a battery charge lasted only 45 minutes.
Today I installed a 48 volt 100 amp hour FeLiPO4 battery system to replace the mower’s lead-acid batteries. The battery system in enclosed and sealed in a plastic box (21"x11"x9") with electrical connectors used to connect the the two battery cables from the mower. Using the two useful grip handles of the box, I easily lifted the 87 pound battery system onto the emptied battery tray of the mower. The two battery cables from the mower were connected. An elastic cord is used to secure the battery system enclosure to the battery tray. Charged to 100% battery charge using a 50-amp LiFePO4 charger (bought separately), the mower then operated for just more than two hours and reports 6% capacity left. LiFePO4 batteries can be charged about 4 or 5 times faster than lead-acid batteries. A LiFePO4 100-hour battery can be charged as quickly as one hour at 100 amps although charging at no more than 50 amps is suggested for longest battery lifespan.
I expected that the new batteries would provide about 4 hours of mower operation. I’ll keep working with this to see if something like four hours can happen.
The mower’s original battery charge gauge reports 226 hours of usage.

[@bggrhmmr]

I have the 42”, 100ah version of that mower. My battery gauge would do the same thing as yours - turn the key off and on and you’re back at 40%. It’s not a quality gauge.
Got about 3 yrs. out of the batteries in mine. Replaced with a 48v lithium ion battery and it’s a world of difference. Replaced the gauge as well.

[@ashugart]

Funny, me and my buddies were just talking about this, since they are outlawing gas movers in California. Is teh battery built into the mover? I think we were under the impression that it used 4 of the rechargable bateries that they use on their tools.

[@goddom]

This one does not use the same batteries as the tools. It uses 4 scooter batteries which are lead acid based. A bit ago I roughly priced the replacement batteries at just over $200/ea so to refresh the whole thing will be $800.