Are you thinking about an electric riding mower? Then I have a yarn to spin for you, and some advice.

During the beginning of the pandemic my gas powered riding mower, a mid-1990's John Deere died. I've got about a half acre of lawn to mow, and a couple acres of field with paths in it. Decided that the future is electric and started researching electric riding mowers. Watched all the youtube videos, read reviews, and to be honest it was all lacking. Most reviews seem to be influencers paid to hype a product. You are in luck, because I have vast experience with all of the products listed in the title. The short version is that the freight carriers kept damaging things in transit, so I got to use the products while I waited for them to pick them back up (the Cub Cadet arrived with cosmetic damage three times, the Ryobi ZTR100 once, and the Ryobi RM300 I returned because it is so underpowered that you should own it unless you have a flat 1/4 acre yard). The EGO is the last thing I purchased, I picked it up at the store so it wasn't damaged, and I've kept it. Here are my honest thoughts.

- The Cub Cadet ZT1-42E - By far the best built frame, by far the WORST driving experience. Twitchy, jumpy, horrible control, annoying noises, and an overall poor experience mowing. They took the ZT frame (for gas models) and slapped a lithium ion battery pack on it (good) with some really poorly designed/implemented motors (bad). If they had spent some more time/money on the control software for the wheel motors this would have been a clear winner, but since you spend your time with a mower driving it, the controls are a big deal. I talked with Cub Cadet at length on the phone, on several occasions, and they claim that this is how it is meant to be. Having used a product with better controls (the EGO) I now know that the cub cadet just had a poor acceleration curve that made the thing jumpy and hard to control. Maybe they've updated it to not suck since I drove around the three different iterations I drove for dozens of hours, but for upwards of $4000, I wouldn't touch this thing if it hasn't improved. If you are listening Cub Cadet, TEST YOUR PRODUCTS BEFORE YOU SELL THEM! The future is electric, but not if you make such a shitty product.

- Next up was the Ryobi 48 ZTR100. I loved this thing, the deck especially was a BEAST. Really solidly built, not as jumpy as the Cub, and had incredible traction. The one downside is that it uses lead acid batteries, so when they are drained it takes all night to recharge. This is a fatal flaw, unless you only mow a small lawn and don't need to use it again quickly, in which case this thing was great. I am often towing around a dump cart with compost or mulch, as well as mowing, so having a dead battery without the ability to quickly charge while I take a water break meant that while I liked this MUCH more than the Cub Cadet meant that after returning this due to damage in transit, I didn't go back to it.

- The Ryobi RM300. Not sure what I was thinking. Ok fine, I was thinking I'd save some money. The motors are massively underpowered, it could barely drive up across my property (which is on a slight incline). Started the process to return it within an hour of getting it off the pallet. Might be OK on a small flat lot, but no dice if you have a larger property.

- The EGO ZT6. This is the most expensive electric riding mower before you get into the commercial range (Mean Green, Gravely etc). It set me back $5500, which is probably why I waited to get it). It is the mower I've decided to keep, which says something after over 40 hours of use on the others. Much like with electric cars, the thing that EGO has figured out is that this is a piece of technology. The ability to dial in your desired level of control (the sensitivity of the acceleration) and speed of the mower blades is incredible. If you are mowing close to sensitive plants etc you can use control mode, if you want to do hot laps around the yard like you're Max Verstappen in F1 you can put it in transit mode and zoom zoom zoom. Comes with four 100ah EGO batteries, with slots for two additional batteries. If you are mowing on max blade speed cutting really tall wet grass you are gonna run the batteries down before you cut two acres. The silver lining is that they are lithium ion, and the charger works quickly. After a snack break the mower is good to go again. I am rarely cutting tall wet grass on full blade speed. More often than not I'm pulling a trailer of wood chips around to mulch things, and doing this it'll go all day. Mowing at 2 out of 4 bars blade speed I can do all my lawn and paths without running all the way down. I also love that it has really nice LED lights for driving when it is getting dark, by far the best of the mowers mentioned.

There you have it, my honest thoughts. Save your money and get the EGO if you can, the Ryobi ZTR100 if you don't need it to charge quick or want the bells and whistles, and run away from the Cub Cadet unless you can test drive it and they've fixed their control issues.

I'm sure the technology will keep improving, but it is so much nicer not having a loud gas engine that I'm happy to be an early adopter. No fumes, don't need ear protection, charging it is cheap compared with using gas.

Happy to answer peoples questions if you have any, happy mowing out there!