What Is The Most Reliable Electric Riding Lawn Mower In 2025?

As you might guess, the House Digest team spends a lot of time assessing the pros and cons of various riding lawn mowers. Along with reviewing performance and prices, we try to answer common questions. Like how long a riding mower might last and tips for making it go the extra mile. Recently, it occurred to us that there were lots of best reports, such as the best riding mowers under $3000, but one key aspect, reliability, may not get the attention it deserves. In this article, we're focusing on electric riding lawn mowers because they should prove more reliable than their gas-powered rivals. Our top pick is the John Deere Z370R 42-Inch ZTrak Zero-Turn Electric Riding Mower.

So what's so reliable about electric riding mowers? They are easier to look after, which can only enhance the reliability quotient. They don't have fuel systems that can go defunct. They usually have durable direct drive via gears and shafts, whereas gas-powered models have belts that wear out and need to be replaced. Gas motor spark plugs and fuel filters need to be changed every year, and eventually, piston rings will wear out. A properly maintained gas-powered riding lawn mower ought to be reliable, but for homeowners who lack the necessary DIY skills, repairs and maintenance can be expensive. Even for those with the confidence to tackle it themselves, small mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.

Independent surveys rank John Deere as the most popular lawn mower brand in the US, which, to a large extent, reflects the reliability of their mowers. However, while this supports our choice, we also considered every other leading electric riding lawn mower brand currently available. The machine that came out on top is the John Deere Z370R, which comes with a 5-year warranty that includes 200 hours on the battery. It gets 4.6 stars at Home Depot and 4.5 at Lowe's. While this isn't a reflection of reliability alone, it does speak to high overall satisfaction. 

Reliable operation is an expectation with all electric riding mowers, and reviews back this up. It is also praised for its low maintenance. Importantly, many felt they could rely on the battery lasting as long as expected. "There is plenty of charge to mow the nearly 2 acres that I mow," said one reviewer. Others made similar comments. When we checked the few 1- and 2-star ratings, none of the complaints related to breakdowns or failures. Other models in the John Deere Z300 range offer similar levels of reliability.

There are two other electric riding lawn mowers worthy of mention: the EGO POWER+ T6 and the Ryobi 80V HP. Both have competitive prices and feature sets. They also offer the advantage that their batteries can be used in other lawn and garden equipment, not just mowers.

As we've said, there are lots of reviews that talk about which is the best electric riding mower, but while these can be valuable for an overall view, reliability usually only gets a passing mention. For this article we first researched independent reviews to see what experts had to say. We looked for common problems. In addition to the three brands already mentioned, we checked Greenworks, Toro, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, Troy-Built, and Craftsman.

There were more than two dozen models to choose from in all, so we used that information to narrow down our choices to the top three manufacturers. We then checked each model at major retailers to get customer feedback on real-world reliability. Using star ratings alone was too general. We had to dig down into individual comments to find those that said more than just that a particular electric lawn mower was quiet or cut well.