Customer Reviews for Cub Cadet Ultima ZT1 42 in. 56-Volt MAX 60 Ah Battery Lithium-Ion Electric Drive Zero Turn Riding Lawn Mower

Absolute worst purchase I’ve ever made. When I read the bad reviews, I thought to myself, “what a bunch of snowflakes, I bet you get use to it pretty quick!” I have a Tesla solar roof and this mower just made sense… until I mowed. I live on an acre and a half and it doesn’t do it in one charge. I can live with that. But the drivability is like if you decided that while castrating a bull you would strap a mower deck to its belly and steer it by pulling on its ears. You’d run into less crap in a demo derby. The worst part is lying to my wife and telling her it’s an excellent purchase and I don’t regret it. I love the idea, I tried to love the mower, I’d rather cut the yard with scissors. Please, don’t be like me, I know it looks awesome but just ran as fast and as far from this suicide machine as you can.

I have waited until after I have mowed my two lawns a few times before writing this review. I echo the complaints of others regarding the sensitivity of the controls. It is really hard to steer. I am getting better at it, though. I think it helps that I never had a ZT before, so I did not have old muscle memory to unlearn. Now, for most situations on my lawn, I can steer properly without thinking. Learning to park it in my enclosed trailer without banging the sides felt like a major accomplishment. So, while the steering controls can be mostly learned with effort, this is something Cub Cadet really needs to improve. I have had no problems with charging. I have not seen an error code of any kind. I usually have about 35% charge remaining after mowing my mostly flat 0.70 acre lawn. The first time I used it, I had to drive slowly because of the steering and I went over some areas a second time while I learned the blade setting that I wanted, but I still finished the lawn more quickly than with my old mower. It is fast enough. All-in-all I like the mower and I am not tempted to go back to using my old one.

Love this machine. Charge lasts a little more than 2 hours and does charge back up fast. Only downside was the delivery. Machine arrived wrapped up in layers of plastic wrapping and within a wooden box. Some disassembly was required to get the machine separated from the box. Machine required some disassembly and reassembly before it could be driven off the wooden skid. Turned into a day long ordeal; with the help of, and to the amusement of, a couple of curious neighbors. Might not have been as urgent if the delivery person hadn't dropped it right in front of my garage. Anyway; I've logged more than 12 hours on the machine. Steering is responsive and easy. Have used a number of Cub Cadet, and other brands' attachments and all is well. Best of all; no gas, no oil, no fumes, and minimal noise (blades make a little racket when engaged.)

So I researched this mower, sounded good as long as you take care of it. I visited 6 Home Depot stores looking at them but each had this mower sitting out in the rain. I asked each store why they were outside since there own web site says” don’t mow in the rain or get it wet or rinse it off” and was told we don’t have room to store inside. One store said yes buy it return it next day cause it will brake and we will send it back. So my plan was to order a “ New one” from factory si it would not be in rain. The day before it was to arrive I called the store I ordered from and was told my mower was coming from a local Home Deot so not new from factory. When it arrived I charged as per instructions 4 hours. I had my wife test it out for a couple minutes then I tried it out very touchy steering. I proceeded to mow a little patch and headed to the back yard and it stopped with code e108. I took turned it off took key out thinking it might reset. Put key back in got code e108, e113, e114, e115, e116. So I consulted my owners manual codes only go to e109 battery fault. I called cub cadet customer service and talked to a tech and was informed there might be a control module problem and the first thing they asked “Did you get it wet? I asked about other codes each was connection error on each of the four motors so total failure. I had to push it back to garage (didn’t want it to get wet lol) I have had this mower 5 hours got 18 minutes use out of it. Cub cadet said return it as there were no repair facilities near me. Home Depot picking it up next week. Don’t buy this mower maybe in a couple years when they work out problems. Note. Veterans check what your store policy is about 10% off , my area Jacksonville Fl has a limit of $50. Discount on purchase , maybe cause it’s a military town. I went 50 miles away no limit on purchase discount full 10% on this mower. FYI

Item was DOA. Cub Cadet support doesn't pick up the phone when you need them most. Local dealers aren't allowed to repair them.

Impossible to control or even drive a straight line. Dangerous to drive near anything valuable. My son had the same problem. I returned it Home Depot was awesome with delivery and pick up and notifications.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Bought the ZT1 42E about 6 weeks ago and it is a no compromise zero turn, I cut about an acre on 1/2 a charge. I chose to buy a battery powered system from a world class US lawn mower manufacturer. Love the system and the no fuss. Hop and go.

I REALLY want to like this mower. I like everything about it except for the controls. It’s VERY difficult to control the steering!

I've now had this mower for almost two months - been using it on almost weekly basis. No problems with charging. Batteries last per specs - while new, I'm sure. Straight driving has plenty of speed/power. Here are the negatives so far: 1) Mowing deck could use a bit more power. Sometimes it binds down in the grass on my property. I live next to a swamp, so the grass gets tall, thick and juicy pretty quickly. 2) Turning controls, especially at low speeds and small turn radius, result in jerky motion and quite a bit of noise/creaking. 3) This week I took off the blades, to sharpen them - one of the knobs that holds the blade onto the cast mounting head chipped off, probably due to an impact with a branch. I'll need to replace this part eventually.

Good for mostly wide open cutting. Switch to turtle in tight areas.

I gave this machine one star and I can not recommend it to anyone at this time. The assembly was easy as the manual had ample instruction for this procedure. The problem that I encountered was a very limited amount of information on error codes, which can be numerous. The ZT1 42e worked well at the start and for the first mowing. The second mowing was good, but had an error code of E103 that I reset using the instructions in the manual. The third mowing was more of a problem. The machine shut down with error codes of E108 and E113 alternating that would not reset using the limited instructions in the manual. The manual said to contact technical services at Cub Cadet by phone. The day this happened was Saturday and Cub Cadet or the service centers were only open on Monday thru Friday. I pushed the machine into my garage and tried it again after 4 hours and the codes reset and the machine worked fine. I contacted Cub Cadet on Monday to find the cause of this shut down. They said the code E108 is a VCM code much as a check engine light in your auto. The Code E113 is a loose or poor connection to the left drive motor. The automatic reset is unexplained. This will be a good machine, but it needs a very descriptive manual at the present time to help an owner iron the bugs out.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Received the ZT1 42E in spring. Cut looks better than the guy I paid last year to handle it so far. Read the instructions, spend some time getting to know it. Be gentle with the height knob. Treat the machine with respect and it works perfectly well within manufacturer specs for terrain, etc. I live on an acre with slopes, some short and steep. I have obstacles like large tree roots, a pond, and landscaping beds. Mower has no issues in dry conditions. The back end will slide on slopes if grass is damp. Battery life is excellent. I'm able to mow the entire property and still have 40% left, and I like to go slow. Mow faster like the pros and battery lasts longer (less blade motor time which is most of the battery draw). Cut is great. I am mulching with stock blades and a cover. No issues. Cuts well in eco, best at full speed. Controls: READ. THE. INSTRUCTIONS. before you get mad at it. It has safety features that can frustrate otherwise. I find it works best with the turtle speed off and fluid inputs.

Excellent mower, as advertised. Shipping it to my home was an odyssey however. Advice about arrival day kept shifting from day to day. Ended up being several days late. Also, getting it out of the crate is not easy! But the mower is a pleasure to use.

I purchased this mower 3 weeks ago, have mowed 4 times now, and it makes me sick thinking about the money I wasted on this. I did the calibration (good luck even unloading it if you don't), checked tire pressure, and looked over any user serviceable adjustments I can find. If your yard is a perfectly flat square with no obstacles, you might actually be pretty impressed by this. If you have a fence or anything around the perimeter, be prepared to hit it a bunch or push mow that last foot. And if you have any trees or even the slightest grade change, be prepared to hate every minute of being on the mower. The controls are twitchy. It's almost as if the computer has a delay between the input from the sticks and the output to the drive motors. From a dead stop, you can carefully ease in to the sticks and have some degree of control. But once it's moving, good luck. That said, with time I've gotten a lot better at dealing with the "twitch". The bigger issue is it doesn't seem like the motors have any sort of deceleration capabilities. What I mean is if you're going along with both sticks full forward, and ease off on one side to slow it down and thus make it turn in that direction, it doesn't. You can almost get to where one stick is full on neutral with the other full forward, and it barrels along darn near straight. On a real zero turn you'd be sitting with one tire stopped driving in a circle. To make matters worse, as soon as the computer sees 1% of reverse the thing violently stops and reverses the wheel that had been freewheeling forward all along, leaving a nice scar in your yard and making it near impossible to drive around trees and obstacles. This issue is especially evident going downhill, as noted in many other reviews, it just kinda wanders in whatever direction gravity decides to pull it, right up to the point that you pull the stick back enough that it sees reverse input. Queue the whiplash and big dirt scar as one wheel grinds to a halt and suddenly reverses. I want to love this mower. The seat is comfy, it looks nice, it's quiet. I whole hardheartedly believe electric is a future. This is just an awful implementation. The guys that tested this either have never mowed before in their life, or tested it on a perfectly flat yard. And it wouldn't be hard to fix. Regenerative braking might provide enough drag, or they could've maybe used servo motors, or even just cleverly actuated mechanical brakes. Anything to make stick input directly correlate to motor rpm, and make it so when you pull back on a stick the corresponding wheel slows down. Maybe it can be fixed with a software update, I don't know if the hardware is actually capable or not. I did call customer service. Their advice was calibrate again (*rolls eyes*). They did mention adjusting the brakes, which do in fact come on when you pull to neutral, but maybe there's a fix there. I'll reach out to the local dealer and ask, but I don't have high hopes after reading all these other reviews. Bottom line, this thing isn't ready for an average yard. I do hope they fix it, and if there's any way to update models already in service when they do, I'll gladly circle back and edit this review if I can. But for now, I would not recommend this mower to anyone that doesn't hate their yard and their Saturdays.

I have plenty of zero turn mower experience and have never operated a mower that was this difficult to control. The two main drive motors seemed to fight against each other when making turns and it kept slinging the front end quickly in one direction nearly causing me to run into several objects. It would not drive straight and at slow speeds it was nearly uncontrollable. I performed the calibration steps and it did not make a difference. Ended up returning it the same day and purchased the Ego ZTR from Lowe’s. Overall the build quality and features of the Cub were really good, however, controllability issues were the deal breaker. The Ego steers like butter and even though it is $500 more than the Cub, it is completely worth it and has more features too.

You have no off unit charging capability. So, unlike competitors, you can't have batteries charging while you work. Once you run out of juice, you have a 4hour wait to get a full charge. You should have modular batteries that are easy to remove and replace. Also, why did you reduce the tire size for the electric unit? Bigger tires and more batteries would make this nearly perfect. The steering is crazy because you did not take time to study throttle linearity, but I understand this is not a Tesla. Just a couple of improvements and you have a planet friendly, neighbor loving machine.

This thing has smaller wheels than it's gas driven brother. The steering is incredibly difficult. I am a very good 10yr zero turn guy. I can cut right next to the most gentle plants typically. This thing is very dangerous even for an experienced driver. I understand electric motors have torque, but the uneven steering is extremely annoying. push both handles forward and you MIGHT go straight. Definitely for wide open areas where straight lines are not important. Never move this thing with anyone or anything near you. Wanted this so bad, but unfortunately will have to stick to gas and return it. back to Gas, belts, oil, and all the stink that comes with it:(

This is the second one that breaks down within one month. The first one I was able to return to Homedepot after Cub Cadet couldn’t help me. Now I have a wrench sign and machine wouldn’t start. This is such a poor craftsmanship, period. Would never recommend a cub cadet product to any one. Very disappointed to say the least. Now I can’t talk to service department because they are closed on the weekends when almost everyone cuts their grass!!!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I bought my ZT142 E 2 days ago. I got home and got it 100% charged I went to cut for about 15 minutes and the blades turned off I tried everything nothing worked, loaded it on the trailer try to get in the blade started up for a second then I got a code E235 took it back the next day went to grab another one loaded up on my trailer and before I could even finish tying it down I had a code come up on it, took it off got another one this one seems to do fine. got it home cut my lawn cut the lawn at the gym and still had 55% and that was a good one and a half acres.

I really wanted to like this mower but the controls are extremely jerky at low speeds making it almost impossible to mow around objects you don't want to damage. It is also hard to keep it going straight having to seesaw back and forth to stay on your mow lines. The positives are that it seems fairly well built and the battery life is good. Unfortunately, the glaring control issue completely negates the main benefits of a ZTR so it had to get returned.

I bought this a few weeks ago, over all I am very satisfied with it however there are a few things that need to happen before you start. First take the included tool on the right hand side and make the handle bars completely even by adjusting the handles with the knob and finishing the fine tuning on the nuts ( this will really help any issues pushing too far one way or another.) Second go to YouTube and follow their calibration procedure for the arm sensors. This was absolutely critical in getting my experience from horrific to adequate it was a complete 180. Once they are fully calibrated they work alright, you can get yourself into a feed back loop when going top speed and making minor adjustments (causing more and more left and right motion) and you have to put it in turtle mode when mowing on uneven or bumpy terrain otherwise it's not gonna be easy to mow straight. Lastly when in turtle you can achieve decent precision but if you are used to a hydrostatic mower don't expect it to be the same. Being a computer engineer, I think cub cadet just needs to make some calibrations to the firm ware to dampen the arm inputs as speed ramps up and on initial arm input so beginning and top of movement range. Other than that I am completely satisfied with my mower, oh I almost forgot I mow about an acre and end with 45-50% battery without using the energy saver. Cub cadet feel free to reach out if you need someone to test new firmware updates. Also you should look into implementing mowing analysis based off required electric current going to the motors for the blades and overall statistics for each mow ( it would be a fun way for the public to compare each mow while you can get good diagnostic data for how the product is doing and make improvements via firmware updates)

Delivery was on time and intact. Easy assembly. My only problem is the touchiness of the controls. Even in “Turtle “ mode a wrong reaction can get you in trouble. Of this is my first experience with a Zero Turn mower so it could be the same with a gasoline powered unit. The cut is good and on “Eco” setting I can get three cuts on one charge. I have a little under an acre of property.

I really wanted to like this thing, but unfortunately it is just not suited to my needs. Specifically the control system needs work. When the mower is operated at normal driving or mowing speeds it is fine. The problem is operating it at low speeds such as tight maneuvers around an obstacle or parking the machine next to anything that you don't want smashed. The reason is that the electric motors don't engage until enough power is available to give the machine a significant lurch and the result is that a normal reaction is to overcompensate in the reverse direction. Is it possible to get through a learning curve and operate this mower effectively? Yes, I believe so. The problem for me is that I would not be the only one operating it and I happen to need to park it near my cars. The amount of damage that would have been caused in order to overcome the learning curve was just too much of a concern so my mower was returned. I believe that with proper tuning, this behavior will be corrected in the future. Whether that can be done via some sort of update or just improvements in the design, I don't know.

I liked the idea of not having to change oil, with less maintenance because of being battery operates. After testing this one, I found it very unstable on hills. Because the front wheels not having any torque power to push or pull, it’s impossible to use on hills. With only having the back wheels pushing, the front wheels just roll freely. It is quiet, not crazy about the zero turn with steering, easy to charge, but I rather have total control of all my lawn mowers wheel. I am going back to my CUB CADET with a steering wheel for train manageability. I also like the way you can get closer around shrubs and trees. For flat yards, it would be great. Just not safe for hills, because it could roll over, and have to go back up the hill backwards for traction. This is my 2nd Cub Cadet, I left it with the house I sold, before I retired. Cub Caset makes a great product, never had any problems after all those years. Any Cub Cadet mower, makes lawn cutting a breeze.

Easy to learn to use, for one who never drove a riding mower. Battery power lasts as long as I do, before needing recharge. Great product.

It's taking a bit to get used to . I think I need to sharpen the blades. Leaving a bit uncut. Overall seems good so far.

The machine is exceptionally well built, very powerful, and made of quality materials. However, it is very difficult to control the speed and direction of the mower. The controls seem to be too sensitive and require constant attention.

Steering response sucks everything else great

I have driven zero turn mowers before but this thing is so different. If you turn a gas mower up to its highest RPM and then try to trim around a small tree, this is what this mower is like even in turtle and eco modes. Very jerky turning left to right. Otherwise great. Quiet, and good features such as the USB port, lights, and the easy ability to change mower height.