Customer Reviews for RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 21 in. Cordless Battery Walk Behind Self-Propelled Lawn Mower with (2) 6.0 Ah Batteries and Charger

I loved using the mower when it worked, but unfortunately it died and I had to take it to a repair shop which was a horrible experience. It was over an hour from my house. A month later they said they fixed it so I drove back up and brought it home only to find that it didn’t work. Ryobi let me mail it back but I had to find a box big enough for this mower. Long story short, Ryobi reviews team helped me get a new mower, but without them I would be out of luck.

I bought this mower in 2021, and was happy until this year when one of the batteries died (just past warranty of course), and refuses to recharge. Replacing it would cost about $300, and if they both go I would have to spend $600. For the cost of one battery, I could buy a new corded electric lawnmower! If I have to buy new batteries every three years, this option gets very expensive indeed! Otherwise, the mower cuts as it should.

I’ve had this mower for 2 years. It worked ok but the batteries didn’t last long. Last week while cutting perfectly dry grass it caught on fire out of nowhere. I’ve read some other reviews where this happened to others.

Writing this review 2.5 years later, I can say I regret my purchase of this mower. Between fighting the battery life, lack of ability of cutting moist grass (even simple dew), and the batteries over heating quickly - I'm done with electric mowers. We had this unit catch fire within 5 minutes of starting to mow the lawn this week. The first battery flashed like it needed to cool down, so we switched the circuit key to the second battery. The moment we restarted the mower it caught fire.

Had it 4 years, with no issues and yesterday it started smoking and caught on fire. The fire department and hazmat had to come out to remove the melted battery from lawn mower. I googled it, and apparently several people have had the same issues with this exact mower.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I’ve had Ryobi 40v lawn tools for about 8 years now, finally decided to try a mower since I wanted a self Propelled unit and they are priced very similarly. Best decision I’ve made in a while, this thing is awesome!! Gets the job done nicely, stores very conveniently, and helps me get my steps in with little effort!! Great Purchase!!

Before purchasing a Ryobi lawn mower, check that you have a service center near you that will actually service the mowers. I purchased 1.5 years ago. About two weeks ago the blades stopped turning. The light and self propelled action worked fine. The nearest service center that would service them was 3 hrs away, I opened it up to see if I could find the issue. There was a melted connector between the motor and control board. I have to pay to ship it to Ryobi or drive 3 hours to get it fixed.

I have a 1/4 acre lot, about 1/5 of an acre of mowable lawn and it takes a total of 36 amp hours to mow my 1/5 of an acre. You can see the picture I have attached, that is what two 6 amp hour batteries got me before dying, probably around 1,000 square feet of lawn mowed before two 6 amp hour batteries died, really bad. Takes 2 - 3 days to mow my 1/5 of an acre lot which I would do with my gas mower in about 1 hour. If you have a town house its okay, otherwise dont waste your time.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This is my first battery powered mower. I replaced a high end 163cc gasoline self propelled mower with this unit. I have been more than impressed with the power of this mower. The simplicity of use and operator interface is exceptional. All aspects of the mower are highly engineered and so far, all function as designed. Battery life is outstanding. I can do my entire yard using approximately 75% of one battery. The fast charger included fully recharges in about 1 hour. I’m impressed.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] At 78 years old I have owned many lawn mowers. The Ryobi is the best I have used . They stand behind their products when you need them.

Great lawnmower. Had it for 3 weeks and used 3x. Great cut; long battery time (on one battery - 45-60 min). Fast recharge capability. Best decision in buying this lawnmower. Highly recommended!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Bought about 1 month ago and even though have only mowed twice I can confidently say this is the quietest mower I’ve used. Cuts nicely, battery hasn’t needed a change yet and can literally mow early in the am if wanted. It’s that quiet

I have now had this for approximately 1month. Assembly is easy. It’s light weight. Easy to operate. I have a 15,000sqft lot. This 70 yr old uses 1.5 batteries to mow this lot. My younger sister-in-law uses 1 battery to mow the entire lot. Bagging is pathetic. When I mow with gas mower I retrieve 3 30 gallon cans of clippings with this mower I get less than 1. The cut is not as even as my gas mower. “Wiping” down this is time consuming and negates oil and filter changes, gas runs, etc.

On year two with this mower and was using it heavy today. Mowing 4-5” grass and on about the 5th battery mowing. While walking I noticed smoke and smelled plastic burning. I ran to the house to get a fire extinguisher, knowing that batteries can explode. By the time I got back to the back of the mower had flames coming up from the engine. Needless to say this mower is toast only two years old

After 3 years this mower shut off and caught fire while mowing. The fire came from within the unit and not from the battery. Be aware that this is not the only case and this product should be considered for a recall. I've reported it the CPSC (id:4758052) and see multiple other users with this same model and issue on reddit (Search for RY401014 fire reddit). Custom service has not responded, they're suppose to contact me back. That was 2 weeks ago. Very disappointed.

I received the RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 21 in. Cordless Battery Walk Behind Self Propelled Lawn Mower with 2 6.0 Ah Batteries and Charger about a little over a week ago while I was out of town. However,I’ve managed to use it 3 times and I am undecided on its performance. The batteries have lasted longer each time I use it. It takes about 1.5 to mow my 15,000sqft lawn. It does not give a good even cut like my Craftsman sp 7.5hp gas mower does. I think that is because it is light weight and my yard is rather bumpy, kind of like there are golf balls buried under the surface. Therefore it bounces around a bit. Wiping it down clean with a damp cloth takes a lot of time. I just have to decide if I can adjust to these annoyances. service/ shipping was good/fast arriving early.

I returned this mower after two cuts. The description says the battery's are good for up to 70 minutes. Ideal for 3/4 of an acre. I have a corner lot. I have .23 of an acre + 3 ditches. Also minus the house and shed. It takes me 45 minutes to cut the lawn. I cut the lawn with the side shoot open and I got 30minutes on the first battery. Thought that was decent. The second battery I got about 20. I tried cutting some heavy grass. Afterwards I couldn't get the battery to charge because it was too warm. This was a red flag. The second cut was exactly a week of growth, and I decided to try the mulching. The grass was a bit thick, but nothing crazy. The battery lasted 12 minutes. And was too warm to charge.. the second battery also died close to 15 minutes. And because the first battery was too warm to charge I was dead in the water. I wanted to try battery, I wanted to be green. Just batteries aren't reliable enough yet, in my opinion. The pros: the machine ran nice, cut well, I liked the triggers for the self propel. Really easy to store. The machine has a lot of positives, it's just the unreliability of batteries that got me. I'm still going to give this 3/5 stars. Because even though the battery was inefficient for my needs, it was still a hard decision to return. It was a nice machine.

Bought this three years ago. If you have a small town house it might work ok. Any larger and you spend more time charging batteries and waiting around than mowing the grass. One of the batteries we got with it was defective and only lasted 15 minutes. Finally gave in and wasted another $250 on a 3rd battery. Still run out of battery before we finish mowing when rotating the three. We switched to electric so my wife and teens wouldn't have to mix gas, we wanted a safer experience. Imagine our surprise when it caught fire this week. Nothing like smoke and flames to make you feel safe. I love ryobi 18+ hand tools, I will never buy another 40v tool and deeply regret wasting $1000 on this piece of junk.

I read the reviews about this issue but since they were a few years old I figured Ryobi must have fixed it by now. Nope. Bought this on Saturday, used it today, returning it today. Come on Ryobi, just make the blade one inch smaller and problem fixed. I love my many Ryobi tools but this is very sad and probably dangerous

I was a lil worried about not having enough power to cut my yard, a little under an acre. But I didn’t realize it’s only using one battery, so I ended up having enough to almost cut my yard twice. If anything changes I’ll write an update, my Honda mower use to be the best I’ve ever owned, if this continues, this will be my new favorite.

So far, so good. I have used my mower several times already and it works great. It comes fully assembled and is easy to just lift the handle, charge the batteries and go. It is also easy to adjust the mowing height. I can get through my entire lawn (1/5 acre) on one battery. I love how it stores in the garage. At age 72 I am finding the self-propel feature really nice. My old gas mower (which still works) was getting difficult to push around and I know I won't miss the maintenance on it that I always performed myself. Time will tell how it ends up holding up, but I do have confidence in it as I LOVE my other Ryobi tools that have been "at work" for many years already.

Every 40v Ryobi lawnmower suffers from the same basic engineering design flaw, but fortunately is easy to fix. The issue is lack of heat dissipation & the fact the encasement traps heat. This leads to batteries overheating far more frequently & reducing the lifespan of batteries. To fix this design flaw, remove the top of battery encasement. [See pic] You’ll extend the life of your mower & batteries, plus it’ll seem more powerful unit as it’ll be more efficient operating in a cooler environment.

Pickup was great Home Depot associate help me load it in my Jeep! Was nice enough to make make sure flat cart was dry before putting box on it. I love my electric mower, only uses 1 battery for my lawn.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Had the mower for a little over a month. It’s everything I wanted and more. I never realized how much my gas mower made me smell like gas. The self propelled is fairly quick and easy to speed up or down. I cut grass that was about 4”-5” tall and cut down to about 2” with no problem.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I just purchased this mower and have only used it once. So far, so good. I got my entire back mowed and only used 1/2 of the battery while using the self-propel feature most of the time. My gas mower still works but it was not self-propelled and at my age (72) it was getting harder to mow my 1/5 acre lot. It came fully assembled, just flip up the handle and you are pretty much good to go. I don't bag my clippings so I do use the mulching plug and that was easy to install and appears to work very nice. My lawn is very un-even and it appears that the mower pretty much takes that in stride. I do mow high usually, and my old mower didn't mow high enough but this mower has plenty of adaptability when it comes to height adjustment. Time will tell how well the mower holds up and it did take a little time to get used to.

I was a bit skeptical about buying a battery operated mower but so glad I did. I have a lot of ryobi tools so this is just one more ryobi tool in my arsenal. It is quite, starts so easy and mows just as good as my old gas push mower. I have a small area to mow so I decided to buy a push mower. So glad I went with ryobi. They make great hand tools and now push mowers. No more having to stop to run and get gas. I just make sure the two monster batteries are charged and off i go.

Shortly after getting it, a bolt near the blade went missing. I contacted Ryobi on 8/9/22, about the warranty asking to ship me a new bolt. I worked with Brandon. On 8/25/22 he ordered what he thought was the right bolt. I contacted him again on 9/1/22 and 10/17/22 to let him know that this was the wrong bolt. He responded on 10/17/22 saying he has forwarded my issue to tech and promised to get back to me. I never heard back. I wrote to him again on 4/16/23, 5/3/23, and 6/6/23. Nothing back. Sad

Writing this review after my first use — Pros: Pre-assembled, great battery life, very user friendly Con: One of the rear tires fell off during the first use and was difficult to get lined up and reattached. Fingers crossed that it’s good to go now, but annoyed by the inconvenience at this price point.

My Toro 163cc 21”gas powered mower finally died after 8 years on Easter. Since I’m already heavily invested into Ryobi Tools, I decided to buy one of their battery powered mowers. It superseded my expectations! It was more powerful than my gas mower and didn’t bog down while scalping and bagging dormant Bermuda grass. I was able to cut my 8,000 sqft lawn a lot faster, and I only used one of the two 6ah batteries!