![]() The Ego is powerful, fun to operate, and cuts so well-it's difficult to find anything to complain about. The slowest speed is a leisurely pace (.9 mph), the top speed requires a comfortably-fast walk. Move the dial forward with your left or right thumb to increase speed. ![]() We found the Ego's dial-adjusted speed control (the company calls it Touch Drive) to be simple and intuitive. It's difficult for us to assess these, since what one person finds comfortable someone else may not. With decades of mower testing behind us, we've seen just about every type of drive control imaginable. That strikes us as plausible, particularly on level ground, in mulching mode. With a 10-Ah battery, the manufacturer estimates run time as 75 minutes. Given that the Ego's motor and drive system are both quite efficient, enabling it to accomplish nearly 1500 square feet of mowed surface per amp hour of battery capacity, that would translate to nearly 15,000 square feet of mowed surface with such a large battery. You can easily do better than that with a larger battery such as the company's 10-Ah, a whopper of a power pack. The brand recommends a battery with a minimum of 7.5 Ah of capacity, and that’s what we used to arrive at the cut area you see below. Since this model is sold without a battery and charger, it’s up to you how much battery to put in it. The combination of the spring-loaded adjustment and one of the better speed-control mechanisms we’ve seen–a simple dial that you rotate forward and back. To make it even easier to use, it has single-lever deck height adjustment with a large T-shaped handle. Like many battery mowers today, the Ego is equipped with an all-plastic deck that will never rust, and a tilt-forward handle that also telescopically adjusts to suit the user’s height. If that's you, the Ego is probably a good fit for you. Although we spend most of our time testing mowers in mulch mode, we recognize that bagging is particularly important to people who have a lot of foot traffic in parts of the yard and want to prevent grass clippings from getting dragged into the house, garage or onto patios. Its bag will fill more quickly than you might think. ![]() You have to be aware of that when operating this mower. This mower is also an excellent bagger, gathering pounds more grass per square foot of test area than most mowers. We attribute that cut quality to the X-shaped blade (a design developed decades ago on Honda's gas engine mowers) and to the smooth and unobstructed deck surface surrounding the blade. Even when the mower is used in mulching mode, we did not find clumps of accumulated clippings after the mower was finished (it's important to specify here that these tests were performed on dry grass). Healthy grass looks like velvet after it has been mowed with the EGO. Several features allowed the Ego to clinch Best Overall, no small achievement in our mower tests. Our test results are shown below, followed by more specifics on how we test. We put in that effort to help you find an electric lawn mower that’s a good fit for you, in terms of power, bagging ability, cut cleanliness and ease of operation. In the process we walked somewhere in the range of 9 to 10 miles testing these mowers. Prior to that we had already run the mowers through a preliminary test–we didn’t even bother to measure that test area. The measured-area and bagging test required mowing approximately 85,000 square feet of turf. As in past years, we took the latest crop of battery-powered mowers and put them through a multi-day, multi-phase test. We’ve been testing electric lawn mowers since it came into being and this spring was no exception. We’re diehard gas engine users here, but even we have to state the obvious: battery mowers are great yard-care tools and a perfect fit for many homeowners. Many people, especially those with small yards (roughly 5,000 to 8,000 square feet of grass to cut) who can handle the job in 40 minutes to an hour find that not only can they cut their lawn with battery-powered mowers, but that they can also do their trimming and blow the surfaces clean with battery-powered tools. And, almost certainly, if you buy a spare battery or two, you'll have more than enough capability to handle your lawn's requirements for the duration of the cutting season. Our tests are proving conclusively that more of these lawn mowers cut a larger area than previous machines. Battery mower technology is evolving and improving even as you read this. If you’re among the thousands of homeowners in the process of switching from a gas engine mower to one powered by a battery, this is the season to make your move.
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