EGO Lawn Mowers
I love my battery powered hand tools (DeWalt) and have to admit I was pretty late to the party in terms of switching from corded tools to battery powered tools.
But before every jumps on the battery powered lawn mower band wagon and goes head over heels about EGO, let me share my experience. I was one of the first people in our neighborhood to get a battery powered lawn mower.
I bought an EGO battery powered lawn mower at Home Depot on June 30, 2019. I liked it. I didn't love it. But I liked it. I figured out what it could do and could do. It was fine for regular mowing. Don’t try to mow long or wet grass with it though (not a problem for me because I don't ignore my lawn like that.) The initial cuts left a lot to be desired so I bought one of the extra high lift blades. The stock blade the EGO mower comes with isn't very good. Also, an EGO mower isn't my first choice of tool for mowing or vacuuming up leaves in the Fall. But for weekly mowing, the EGO mower was fine and it was great to be able to mow without wearing heavy ear protection. You can't to wear a sun hat when you have big 3M ear protection (the ones that look like headphones) over your ears.
The EGO mower lasted 13-2/3 months, until August 19, 2020. (I know that because I keep a spreadsheet so I can keep track of when I have mowed the lawn.) The 13-2/3 month lifetime included winter when the mower was idle and just being stored. I used the mower 14 times in 2019 and 18 times in 2020 for a total of 32 uses of about an hour each time. On August 19, 2020, the EGO mower would not turn on. I searched online for information and tips but there was very little information available regarding servicing and repairs. When I was first considering a battery powered mower, I had a suspicion it would come to this one day. That is why I bought the mower with one battery instead of two. I wasn't willing to spend the extra $250 to get the second battery.
I called my local Home Depot but our Home Depot does not answer the telephone. I know, other Home Depots do answer the phone and your Home Depot probably does. But mine does not. It is fairly well known around here that (1) our Home Depot does not answer the phone, (2) the store manager can never be reached and (3) the WiFi exists but only has an internet connection half the time. Even the store employees acknowledge #3. Now if I need to call a store, I call Home Depots which are 70-90 miles away.
So I called EGO itself. No answer. I finally decided to read the writing on the wall and I just threw the damn thing away. Trashed it and moved on
About 6 months ago I was speaking with a department manager at our Home Depot about another question and I told him about my crappy EGO experience. He was quick to tell me that Home Depot no longer carried EGO (I guess HD actually dropped EGO several years ago; I was just the last to know.). He said one of the reasons for dropping EGO was the number of customer complaints HD received about poor customer service at EGO.
After I did some reading online about HD's dropping EGO, my impression was that HD dropped EGO less because of customer service issues and more because HD wanted to focus on and promote it's own brand of battery powered lawn mower instead of promoting EGO's line. And for all I know, EGO maybe dropped HD instead of HD dropping EGO. I didn't think to ask the department manager about where a customer was supposed to get service for the battery powered lawn mowers that HD now sells. He did mention a local business that he understood serviced battery powered lawn mowers. But when I checked that business's website (it was an automotive repair business) there was nothing on the website that suggested that they serviced anything other than cars and trucks. I would think that if a business did service battery powered lawn mowers it would mention it on it's website. Otherwise, why bother servicing that type of equipment?
So my word to the wise is before you spend $500 (I am sure the cost is more now) on a battery powered lawn mower, think through your purchase and product selection very carefully. Find out where you are going to be able to get service someday when you need service. Don't pretend that your battery powered lawn mower is never, ever, not ever (tip of the hat to Clark Howard) going to need service. (I'm not talking about just getting the blade sharpened.) Don’t just rely on the word of someone working at Home Depot or some other big box store. The big box store where you bought the equipment isn't going to service anything you might purchase there and many private equipment repair businesses in my area seem to want to avoid working on any equipment that wasn't purchased from them. Most people on this forum would probably know more about the battery powered lawn mower than any sales person at a big box store. Is EGO going to start answering their telephones when you call and possibly help you? How long will it take to get the item repaired and what will you have to do to facilitate the repairs. Are you going to have to box up the mower (did you even save the box?), ship it off to some repair center, and wait 6 months or more for it to be repaired and returned to you? How are you going to mow your lawn in the meantime ("meantime" probably being the rest of the year)?
Buying a fancy and deluxe battery powered flashlight for $30 and finding out after several weeks that it is a piece of crap is one thing. But losing $500 on a battery powered lawn mower is another matter. The older I get and the more lawn mowers I own the more I think the advice of a friend of my wife's is correct. This lady is pretty savvy with cars. She told me she buys the least expensive lawn mower she can find. I'm not sure she cares if it is new or used. Then she runs it until it dies and just starts over with another one. But she has a pretty flat yard. Those of us with some hills or slopes might need a mower with a self-propelled feature.
I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade. I think battery powered lawn mowers are the wave of the future. We can debate how far off that future is or whether it is even right now. I am just saying that you need to have your eyes wide open and do some research before you decide to buy a battery powered lawn mower. For all of you who have had a battery powered lawn mower for many years and have had absolutely no problems whatsoever, congratulations! I am extremely jealous. My experience with an EGO mower was the complete opposite of your experience. Every product is going to have its problems at times. Maybe a few of them will be complete lemons. But if the manufacturer won't stand behind their products, I'll spend my money on something else.
They don't work well, don't last, and it's frequently just an exercise in frustration to use them.
