RYOBI 40V Mower Review: I Got 35 Minutes, Not 40

I bought the RY401180 with my own money, timed the battery on a real hill, and found a handling quirk nobody warns you about.

By Jeremy Moon · Reviewed 2026 · Tested at home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzIvMh3Urrc

This RYOBI 40V self-propelled mower review comes with an unusual admission: I didn't need a new mower. My old RYOBI push mower ran for six years and it's still going. I replaced it because I wanted to know what self-propelled actually felt like, and I paid for it myself.

Which matters, because it means I owe nobody a kind word. RYOBI make three claims about the RY401180. Power equivalent to a 150cc gas engine. Around $400 at Home Depot. Forty minutes of runtime.

Two of those three hold up. Here's the one that doesn't, plus a handling quirk I've not seen mentioned anywhere else.

The battery runtime claim, actually timed

The box says 40 minutes. I got about 35. That was mowing thick grass with a hill in the back yard, which is realistic rather than generous.

Thirty-five minutes still finished my lawn with charge to spare. But I'm under half an acre, which is exactly the size RYOBI built this for. If your grass is thick or wet, expect less than 35, not more.

A $400 mower that needs a $199 second battery is a $600 mower. Do that maths before you buy, not after.

The real price of a bigger lawn

Here's where the runtime number stops being trivia and starts costing money. A spare 6Ah battery runs about $199 at Home Depot. So the honest pricing works like this:

1. Under half an acre: $400, one battery, one pass, done. This is the mower's sweet spot and it's excellent value.

2. Around half an acre with thick grass: you'll be watching the charge indicator. Doable, occasionally annoying.

3. Over half an acre: you need a second battery. That's $600 all-in, and you're stopping mid-lawn to swap. At that point buy a riding mower and stop pretending.

The self-propelled quirk nobody warns you about

The self-propel is the entire reason to buy this over the cheaper push model, and it is worth every cent. Six years of pushing will do that to you. The speed is variable and I run it about halfway up. It will go considerably faster.

It wants to pull up

This is the thing I didn't read anywhere before I bought it. With the drive engaged, the mower has a tendency to want to pull up at the front.

It isn't dangerous and you adapt inside ten minutes. But it does change how you handle the machine, particularly starting off, and I'd rather you heard it from me than discovered it on your own lawn. Nobody warned me.

Easy enough that my nine-year-old does it

Tommy is nine, and mowing is his job. The whole operation is: press the start button, pull back the bar to start the blades, then pull the drive bars and off it goes.

There's also a safety key. Pull it out and the mower will not run at all. If you have kids who are interested in mowing the lawn without asking you first, that's the feature that matters most in this entire review.

And on a hill, self-propel is the difference between a nine-year-old finishing the job and a nine-year-old giving up halfway through it.

Specs

Model RYOBI RY401180, 40V HP Brushless 20" self-propelled

Price at testing ~$400 at Home Depot. Spare 6Ah battery ~$199

Motor Brushless. RYOBI claim 150cc gas equivalent

Battery 40V 6Ah lithium, charger claims ~60 min

Runtime claimed 40 minutes

Runtime I measured ~35 minutes, thick grass with a hill

Deck 20", plastic

Height adjust 7-position single-point, 1.5" to 4"

Modes 3-in-1: mulch, bag, side discharge

Weight ~50 lbs

Lawn size Up to half an acre

Ecosystem Shares batteries with 85+ RYOBI 40V tools

Warranty 5 years mower, 3 years battery

The charger claim is the one that surprised me

RYOBI say roughly an hour to charge. I have another RYOBI charger and it takes several hours, so I went in sceptical. This one is genuinely faster, and if you're running a single battery on a lawn that needs two passes, that difference is the whole difference.

What I liked

✦  The self-propel earns the price on its own. If you're deciding between push and self-propelled, get the self-propelled.

✦  The power is real. The brushless motor has genuine torque and tall grass didn't bog it down.

✦  Quiet enough to mow early. No fumes, no engine roar, no ear protection, no waking the neighbours.

✦  The onboard spare-battery compartment. Small thing, big deal. Your second battery rides with you instead of sitting in the garage.

✦  No gas, no oil, no spark plugs. Charge it and mow. My last RYOBI ran six years on that principle.

✦  The battery ecosystem. Over 85 tools share the pack. My chainsaw uses the same one.

✦  It folds flat. Genuinely useful if it lives in a shed, like mine does.

✦  Five-year warranty on the mower, three on the battery. That's a solid package at this price.

What I didn't

✦  35 minutes, not 40. Fine for my lawn, not fine for a big one, and the fix costs $199.

✦  The deck is plastic. It feels solid and I've had no issue, but I can't tell you how it looks in six years. Metal is metal.

✦  It wants to pull up under drive. Minor, learnable, real.

✦  The bag fills fast. On a bigger lawn you'll empty it more than once. I mulch, so it doesn't affect me.

✦  The deck traps moisture. Clean it or it corrodes. Same as plenty of gas decks, just don't ignore it.

✦  Warranty complaints exist. I haven't needed mine, but enough owners report friction with RYOBI's process that I'd keep the receipt somewhere safe.

Who should buy the RYOBI 40V self-propelled mower?

Buy it if

You have half an acre or less and you're sick of gas. At around $400 it undercuts EGO and Greenworks while doing the same job, and if you already own RYOBI 40V tools then the battery you own makes it cheaper still. That ecosystem is the quiet argument here, and it's a strong one.

Skip it if

Your lawn is bigger than half an acre, or your grass is consistently thick and wet. You'll buy a second battery, you'll stop mid-lawn to swap it, and you'll resent both. That isn't a flaw in the mower. It's just not what this mower is for.

Six years with the push model and now this one, and the honest summary is that RYOBI build a mower that lasts. It isn't perfect. Nothing is. But it's the one I'd buy again, and I did.

Got one already, or sticking with gas? Tell me in the comments. And if you want the full unboxing and the self-propel test, that's what the video above is for.