Did you know Ryobi made a lawn mower? If not, don’t worry about it or even feel bad. Most people have no clue. Most people think they just make power tools. Well to my amazement, not only do they make a quality tool that is affordable, but they also make a pretty good lawn mower. If you haven’t checked out our lawn mower head to head competition, I would suggest taking a quick peak to see how a variety of cordless lawn mowers performed. However if you would rather pass and just check out the Ryobi Cordless Lawn Mower, then by all means, keep reading.
Over the last 5 years, battery powered lawn mowers have become more popular. The idea of mowing your grass without the loud noise of a roaring motor or the pain of dealing with gas products is finally here, which brings us to the Ryobi 40V. The Ryobi Cordless Lawn Mower 40V has the least amounts of volts we tested this week. So does this mean it’s the weakest or the shortest running? No, not at all. For all the mowers we tested this week, we ran a 40V, a 56v and 58v (both the 56V and 58V are the same volts even though the numbers are different) and we also tested two 80V mowers.
Ryobi Cordless Lawn Mower Overview
Ryobi built this lawn mower around a brushless motor that uses a 40V battery platform to cut your yard. Just because it’s a 40V, don’t freak out because Ryobi did something that is pretty cool with this motor. Ryobi designed this system with a load sensing technology which means it doesn’t always run at full speed. If the mower detects that you are cutting higher grass and it needs the power, it will quickly ramp up and allow you to cut through the tough stuff. This is one reason the 40V can perform like higher volts with run time. Another plus to this system is Ryobi uses a 5 Ah battery. While some manufacturers decided to use a 2 or even a 4Ah battery, the 5 Ah battery will give you more power and more run time, a huge plus. Ryobi decided to give this a 20″ deck which is average in the industry. Some companies have decided to use a 21″ deck, but how much does that extra inch really mean on a small yard? While the mower will either bag or mulch, it does not offer a side discharge, but let’s be real, who really uses a side discharge? In regards to operation, Ryobi did this right. There is a single push button starting feature. A user just has to press the button and pull back on a lever and then they are off to the races.
Raising and lowering the unit is also a snap. There is a single lever on the side of the mower that will raise or lower all the wheels at the same time. No more messing around with individual wheel adjustments. Storing the unit is one of the best we have seen. The handle has a telescopic slide system where you can open up two levers and push the handle bar down. You can also pull two small knobs at the base of the handle and fold it over the unit to store on the wall or under a bench. Are you someone who likes to wait for the heat to die down and mow at dusk? The Ryobi cordless lawn mower is built with two LED lights to help shed some light. One thing to note is you can store an extra battery in the compartment. This is something that really didn’t excite me, but for some it’s a great option. Just remember if you run out of juice on your battery, you will still have to switch the batteries. I guess it just saves a trip to the garage. Still not enough? How about a 5 year warranty to make you feel more safe about your purchase?
Ryobi Cordless Lawn Mower Thoughts
Overall I really do like this mower. In fact, this came in at number 2 on our head to head with a final rating of 373 out of 400. We love the hard plastic deck to lower the weight of the unit. Ryobi did a great job by reinforcing the sides of the deck to help protect it for the long haul. The mower performed great with a great cut and nice bagging. The unit rolls pretty nice and is easy on the back. You can buy this unit as a bare bone or a kit which includes the charger and one battery. The handle and the unit as a whole feel like a quality mower. One thing to note is some people did complain about having an issue with the battery or starter, but this seems to be only a select batch of mowers with this issue. From research it seems like this is an issue that has been fixed. If you are looking for a quality mower, that isn’t loud and is well built, it’s hard to beat the price tag of $349.
