Ego Power+ ZT4204E-L

A Good Start to the Big Electrics – Collected one of these last July, and asked the store that it be left in its original boxing. Thought it'd be fun to fully assemble the thing ourselves. Well packaged within a very robust metal cage, which had considerable transit damage in one spot, but in testimony to its durability the mower was unharmed. Lots of bling with/on it. A bit of a chore to remove all the hardware, but the assembly process itself was a breeze, and Ego provided a neat package with the two keys and some tools beautifully presented.

There is a pair of odd deep scuff marks emblazoned into the plastic behind the seat - one on each side. Not sure what did this as neither align with any of the packing parts. Given their symmetry it almost seems like there may have been an issue with the moldings at the factory. No matter, they have zero impact in the mowers' functioning. See photos.

Owners manual well written but the format was half the book comprised of ticked or crossed numbered diagrams, and the rest with the text that referenced the diagrams. A bit tedious because there's LOTS of diagrams and lots of text, and it's not an easy thing to cross reference the correct diagram with the textual reference.

The mower itself - well built and presented in Ego's customary green/grey/black livery, brilliant display/electronics, several drive/blade speed options and three separate performance modes. Comes packed with 4 of the grotesquely expensive proprietary 10A batteries, with slots to accept a further 2 ... hence the Z6 nomenclature. Very nice wall mounted charger which never gets particularly hot to the touch, even when charging all six batteries in warm ambient temperatures. Charger draws around 1600 watts when all batteries are deployed, from memory. Charging flap is on the left side, and the plug feels assured in its connection. Can't rightly recall the charge time for 6 batteries, and naturally it'll depend on how low they were when put on charge. Work on +/- 3 hours.

Battery compartment is protected by a transparent green lid which tilts upwards/forwards on a gas assist strut and a secure latch ... nice. There's a closing oddments container on the left console incorporating a USB outlet ... perfect for phone or whatever.

If you time your purchase right you will get some goodies from Ego - in our case a free 10A battery, and we scored another one thanks to the store's loyalty points which by good chance the purchase of the mower tipped us over the line to collect. So we were able to fill every slot to really test this things' capabilities.

Operation is reasonably intuitive, particularly if you've used zero turns before. We have a mighty fine Spartan 54", so it took no time at all once we'd mastered Ego's little intricacies. One simply pops the key into its ample slot, then press the power button. At this point the main display lights up - cool ... almost like a jet fighter's, showing state of charge, number of batteries inserted and into which slots, drive mode and speed, blade speed, hour meter and an energy usage scale.

Usefully there's also a remaining power display shown in the same format as that on each battery in the centre of the deck at foot level so that state of charge is readily at hand without having to twist to check the main display at the drivers' right hip. This display also has a centre light which glows green when parameters to allow the mower to begin work have been met.

To move off you take off the foot brake - which illuminates that centre light in the charge display on the deck, and move the drive handles inwards, and you're good to go. Eerie silence as the drive motors propel the mower out of the garage, with low speed control on the concrete totally precise.

To engage the blades, lift the red pull up switch beside the key/power button. The blades perform a soft start and hum methodically at the rate at which they were set. Cut is damned good, with the speed increments of both blades and drive well sorted. if either side strikes some particularly tough grass it will detect the imbalance and initiate a short surge to allow the affected side to "catch up". Nifty!

Seat is reasonably comfy, but the mower does bounce a little, and the drive handles have foam/rubberised grips to keep the fatigue down.

There is very little maintenance required for the mower. No plugs, filters or belts. But what we thought was odd is that at 50 hours we're supposed to "check the grease in the cutting motors flanges" ... god knows how, and how we're supposed to know if it's correct or not!! I remember seeing a lively debate on a US forum about whether this grease ever has to be changed or replenished ... the consensus was "NO" ... because the book doesn't say to. So this is an area of uncertainty.

At first I was very unimpressed with the low speed precision around the likes of fruit trees, but I'd completely forgotten about the drive mode selector until my son, who only ever uses "sports" mode reminded me. So I tried it in "control" mode and the situation was greatly improved. Sports mode is like an electric train!! I tend to use standard nose mostly.

Main points regarding performance: The book says never to use the mower on slopes. Well it's hard to avoid slopes, and there is a little undulation on our rural block. Believe me ... the book is right. This mower is a horrendous performer on slopes. Despite all the care in the world it will suddenly veer off track and go sideways, particularly on a downward angle of attack ... it's almost as if manual control is suddenly disabled and the mower tries to auto correct ... causing sudden complete loss of control. I have no clue whether the mower is equipped with some form of computer over-ride, but thats certainly the unnerving sensation one gets. Perhaps it's a function of poor tyre selection, or maybe it's a combination of factors, but it's a real letdown. It will happily cruise UP a gentle lawn slope we have, but when going DOWN under intense control the drive wheels seem to lock and the mower enters an almost comical slide down with the direction largely determined by which wheel, occasionally reversing feebly under full reverse on the handles, happens to get a moment of grip. A thrilling, if heart stopping experience. So this is a BIG negative for us. This mower does this relentlessly in areas where the Spartan simply keeps doing what you're very carefully and deliberately telling it to.

Whilst the blade speeds can be cheerfully changed "on the fly" to allow rapid response to changing grass heights/types (big tick), for some very bizarre reason the drive speeds can't! The book says this is a "safety feature". The book doesn't explain why drive speed selection being disabled unless one comes to a complete stop and opens the drive bars IS a safety issue... but the blade speeds being able to be adjusted willy nilly on the fly ISN'T!! So this is big bad number two. For heavens sake Ego - keep it consistent. Make BOTH either adjustable on the fly or neither! But preferably both. We live in a world where overzealous "safety" stuff is beginning to compromise otherwise brilliantly designed equipment.

Despite anything in the forwards direction being brilliant, reverse is a little odd. It seems to be governed right back ... and for whatever reason traction can be compromised. This seems particularly noticeable on the right side. Again I'm not sure whether this is by design, or whether weight distribution or poor tyre choice is at play. Some work needed here Ego ... we get that it's a zero turn, but in our application we have to go backwards - quite a bit.

Occasionally the mower drive will suddenly just stop in the middle of otherwise completely normal operation. The middle light on the deck power indicator extinguishes, and the handles need to be closed, and then reopened again before the light re-illuminates indicating return to normal operation. We are at a loss to find any trigger for this ... it's almost like the thing simply needs a random "re-boot".

Our Spartan has an extremely useful pedal arrangement where the deck can be instantly raised, and then lowered again back to the set position if say, you suddenly see a large stick or rock directly in front while mowing. We really miss this feature on the Ego, and sincerely hope that evolving design updates will include something similar.

Having said that though, the mower is tough - more so than we though it would be. It can damn near mix it with the Spartan. We've found ourselves confidently sending it out into more testing country usually reserved for the Spartan or the slasher, but it just takes it all in its stride. It's significantly heavier with its 6 batteries than the Spartan, yet feels only half its weight. It has a seat suspension adjustment damper that's actually quite good, that LED main display knocks your socks off. The LED lights - which incidentally present as constantly-on daylight running lights, or switch selectable surround lighting - are actually extremely effective, and they go to a bright flash sequence when in reverse (crazy cool at night time ... like, alien spaceship cool!!). It's OK on power - like it or not this aspect is totally subjective based upon terrain, slope, weight of driver, set parameters, grass conditions, and probably half a dozen other variables, so my assessment will be completely different from yours; but the fact that it can be run on as few as just one battery - at a pinch - or as many as 6 is a uniquely flexible system.

I don't know if it's designed this way, because there's nothing about it in the manual, but I'm suspecting this machine has regenerative braking! When one is going downhill in drive mode, a tiny "recycling" symbol comes on, and I swear once or twice we've seen the power level come up a point or two under these circumstances ... Hard to rate this mower... It's the first we've had where the entire family can happily hop on and ride it, and you could almost get away without hearing protection at a pinch, although we still use muffs out of habit ... you'd really only ever need it if the blades are working hard, or in the higher speed ranges. It does a magnificent job where the country is flat... but it's hopeless to the point of being downright dangerous on even slight slopes. BUT it does say to avoid slopes in the manual. It's much hardier than we thought it would be too. And if you like flying by night you're gonna LOVE those lights! It's just a screaming shame that the batteries are so shamefully expensive ... and for some reason nobody can adequately explain why they have a 5 year warranty in USA ... but only 3 here!!

We'll rate it at 4 stars, with the caveat being that this assumes a FLAT ground environment.