I haven't heard of a ton of feedback on the new Ego 30 inch (1300 series) mower and wanted to share my initial thoughts after my first mow with it for anyone considering it.
A little background, I am coming from a Toro Timemaster. I bought it used probably 8 years ago or so. It has been a great mower when it runs, but has constantly given me problems over the last few seasons. I've had to replace the carb, all the belts, stop button, pulley, starter coil, and probably more that isn't coming to mind. I've been telling myself I would jump ship when Ego dropped their 30 inch model, but would wait until the Toro shit itself again. Lo and behold the Timemaster decided to crap out very early into the season here, so it was time.
Unboxing and setting up the Ego was insanely quick. Other than charging the batteries and throwing them in, there wasn't really much else to assemble. Rolling the Ego while dead was way way easier than the Timemaster. After getting the batteries charged up it was time to take it on the maiden voyage!
For reference, my yard is Tall Fescue, I am in zone 6, and the grass was dry and sitting about 4 inches tall. Height of cut for today would be 3 inches. The 30 Ego has the heights listed on the mower, going up to 5 inches in 1/2 inch increments, which is way better than the Timemaster where heights are listed by letters. As far as I could tell, the listed height for 3 inches seemed correct. I mowed with the mulch plug, as that is how I roll most of the time. Standard blades (I am not sure if Ego even offers alternative blades for this yet).
In retrospect, I should have started with the back yard. Getting use to the Ego vs the Timemaster took a little time. One thing that Toro does super well is the Personal Pace system. Setting the ego self propel knob and figuring out the speeds and getting use to the button placement on either side took some time. So my first pass was a bit less controlled than I would have liked. Getting around the trees and corners felt a bit more difficult than the Timemaster, but a lot of that is just getting use to a new mower. So I ended up going over the front a second time in another direction. Also, this is more of a me problem than anything, but it felt like the Ego was easier to truly mow the 30 inch path, I realized my passes were 2-3 inches wider than the previous passes from the Timemaster. So for good measure I went over the front yard one more time before heading to the back yard.
My backyard is much bigger than the front yard and more or less a big rectangle with limited obstructions other than a playset. This is where the 30 inches really comes in handy. My backyard is on a slight decline. Going up the hill I used low level self propel and worked well. Down the hill no self propel, and the weight of the mower really allowed for it to cruise. Once again my passes were a bit wider than the Timemaster, so that was nice.
Overall my yard is right around 13500 sq ft of grass. With me going over the front yard three times, my total cut was just shy of 17000 sq ft. The dual 6 amp batteries started to flash red when I was about 2/3 of the way through my back yard. In normal circumstances I would switch batteries out when they started to flash red, but for this test I wanted to see how far they got me. Ultimately, they died on me when I had about 5% of my back yard left. So I would estimate the batteries made it about 16000 sq ft which I found to be pretty solid! I timed my mowing and the batteries died at 58 minutes and 30 seconds, and the total mow was an hour and 30 seconds. With this. I believe the batteries have the capability of completing my 13500 sq ft lawn on a regular day.
As far as cut quality, it seemed right on par with the TImemaster. No mohawks, seemingly no missed blades from what i could tell, and the mower felt just as powerful. The mulching seemed fantastic, I didn't identify any giant clumps of grass or anything like that. The deck was really pretty clean post-mow and using the blower made it look almost as good as new. But I will reiterate that this mow was in pretty good conditions, dry grass, and not trying to take a considerable amount off. We are getting rain off and on over the next few days, so I am curious to see how the mower does in less than ideal conditions.
Overall, I am super happy with how it turned out. The only thing I found myself missing was the Personal Pace from Toro, but I think I will get use to it. There were a few times as I was turning the mower around that I accidently engaged the self propel button which was annoying, but I have years of muscle memory built up from using the Toro, and imagine I will adapt to this after a few mows. I noted a very minor delay in engaging the self propel and it actually starting, probably half a second. Also possible that releasing the self propel and it stopping was half a second.
Happy to answer any questions if anyone else is considering this mower! I've also attached a couple photos of the lawn post-mow if that helps anyone. The front picture was right after the mow, the back picture was from the following morning. It is a work in progress! I think I may next look at DIYing a striper to step up my game a bit 🙂
by steveholtbluth
2 Comments
Great review!! Thanks for this!
Amazing! I was already sold on the Ego 30”. Now I’m dead set. I can’t believe it can cut up to 5 inches!!! Oh and sharpen those mower blade.