RYOBI 80 Volt 42" Zero Turn Mower Review

This 31 HP ZTR has a cutting height 1-½” - 4-½”, a Joystick Control, Four 21” cross-cut blades, comfortable seat, and a Touch Screen Control Panel
The Control panel, located on the left side of the mower, is easy to navigate. It has a bright LED screen and 5 intuitive buttons to operate. The buttons include:
1. Driving Speed
2. LED Lights
3. Battery Life
4. Bluetooth Connectivity
5. Blade Speed
The RYOBI has three-speed settings. Low, Medium, and High. It has a max speed of 8 mph.
The touch of a button switches the speed and can be done while in motion. This Shift-on-the-go transmission is a simple and convenient way to adjust the speed and power of the mower.
It’s recommended to start at low speed and work your way up to higher speeds as you become more comfortable.
The Max speed is 8 mph, Medium is 6 mph, and low at 4 mph. On all of our run-time tests, we cut at low speed.
The zero-turn mower is also equipped with 2 bright LED headlights we found them effective for cutting during dusk hours.
The battery life indicator shows the total battery life left on all batteries installed on the mower.
The middle bars show the life of the 80V batteries and the sides will indicate the percentage left on the additional 40V batteries if you have them installed.
If you hit the battery life button twice it will show you the number of hours left before you should conduct a check of your blade sharpness and condition. Ryobi sets the hours at 25 hours of cutting.
Bluetooth connectivity requires the Ryobi Riding Mower app. With the App, you can monitor the run-time, battery level, and charge status, and adjust blade and drive speeds.
The blade speed is similar to the drive speed and has low, medium, and high. All our testing was done at high blade speed.
Right Side Settings
On the right side of the mower just behind the operating joystick, there are 4 features on this control panel.
1. Clear Chute Bagger
2. Blade Engage Knob
3. On/Off key
4. Covered USB Port
The clear bagger chute is a cool feature. When the bagger boost button is depressed a 700 CFM gust facilitates the removal of grass clumps and blockages.
Without this feature, you would have to stop the mower, shut it down, and manually clean the chute if it becomes clogged.
The blade engage knob is located on the right side of the mower, directly behind the joystick.
You pull the knob up to engage, and down to disengage the blades. Once turned on the blades have a small ramp-up stage but almost immediately shut off when you push the knob in.
All the RYOBI 80v Electric Zero Turn mowers come with keys to turn the mower on and off and are required to operate the mower. The ZT mower came with three sets of keys.
There is a waterproof covered 5-volt, 2 Amp, USB-A port for easy charging of your mobile devices while operating the mower.
The mower key needs to be in the ON position for the USB port to work. There is an additional covered USB-A port in the right rear battery compartment.
There are 3 additional storage compartments on the Ryobi, 1 is under the driver's seat and has 2 slotted cellphone compartments, and the other in the rear battery compartment.
The compartment under the seat is shallow and does not offer much storage. We store our USB cord and the manuals in this compartment.
The rear compartment is larger and can fit larger items such as a pair of pruning snips. The second USB-A port is in this compartment, making phone storage an option.
iDrive Joystick Control

The Ryobi operates only on 80v suitcase-style battery packs and requires one battery to operate. The zero-turn mower will not operate on 40v batteries, even if you have four of them on board.
The mower comes with two 80v suit-case-style batteries but can hold three in total. Additionally, there are spots to add four 40v batteries to boost run time.
The mower draws power from the larger 80v batteries, automatically balancing the load between them. The 40v batteries extend runtime by adding additional energy as the 80v batteries get low.
Battery Charging
There are a few options for charging the 80v batteries on the Z42Li with the provided wall mounting charger. You can charge the 80v batteries one of two ways.
• Charging Port
• Individual Battery Charging
Charging Port
At the rear of the mower is a charging port that can be attached to the charger plug and will charge the batteries sequentially while inside the mower.
Individual Charging for 8oV Batteries
If you do not have a dedicated 20-amp circuit to use the charging plug you can charge one battery at a time, by inserting the charging port directly into each battery.
In order to charge the additional 40V batteries, you must remove them and charge them individually with a 40V charger.
Bagger Accessory | Sold Separately
The bagger for this mower is sold separately, as an accessory, at Home Depot for $599.00.

This machine costs $6,999.00.