Storing an electric riding mower over winter

Our walk-behind storage guide is about lifting and standing a mower on end. Neither applies here. A 456 lb zero turn is a space problem and a 24 lb robot is not, and the only thing the two have in common is the part that cares most about winter: the battery.

The short answer

The published weights, and what they rule out

The packs are the part that cares

Here is the honest position, and it is the same one we reach on every battery page: nobody publishes what you want to know.

What follows from that is caution rather than a recipe: if the packs come out and you have somewhere temperature-stable to put them, use it. Check your own manual for the manufacturer's instruction, because it is the only authority that exists here. Our winter platform page covers the cold-performance side and battery life the longevity side.

Where it goes matters more than what you do to it

For a walk-behind, storage is a question of technique — fold it, stand it up, hang it. For a 410 to 456 lb machine none of that applies, and the decision is made before winter by whether you have somewhere to put it.

The robot is a different job entirely

At 24 lb for the Navimow and 33.7 lb for the Automower 450XH, a robot can simply come indoors, and doing so removes every question this page raises. What comes with it:

1. The dock and its power supply, which is the part that sits outdoors all year and is worth bringing in on a wire-free system where it is not anchoring a perimeter.
2. The blades. Robot razor blades are consumables; end of season is when to look at them, because no maker publishes a replacement interval to schedule against.
3. A clean before storage. Grass packed under a robot chassis holds moisture against it for five months.
4. The app boundary. A wire-free machine keeps its map digitally, so there is nothing physical to preserve — one of the quieter advantages of the format.

The end-of-season routine

1. Clear the deck underside. Five months of packed clippings against steel is how a deck rusts — see poly vs steel decks.
2. Get it off bare ground. A slab, boards or gravel rather than soil, so moisture is not wicking up into the machine all winter.
3. Take the packs out if they come out, and store them somewhere that does not swing between freezing and warm.
4. Check the blades before you put it away, not in April when you want to mow — see when to sharpen and replace blades.
5. Bring the robot and its dock indoors. At 24 to 34 lb there is no reason not to, and it removes every winter question at once.

The whole-shed version of this list is in the winter yard tool checklist, and the servicing side in riding mower maintenance.

The machines this applies to

The CrossoverZ is the only riding machine in our registry that publishes a weight with batteries fitted, which is the figure that decides whether your floor and your ramp are up to it.

#ad Check the Greenworks 60V 42" CrossoverZ Zero Turn (CRZ4262) price on Amazon — how we're funded.

The EGO Z6 publishes 410 lb without batteries and a bay that takes up to six packs, so the winter job includes deciding where six 56V batteries live.

#ad Check the EGO Power+ Z6 42" Zero Turn ZT4204L price on Amazon — how we're funded.

The Navimow is the easy case: 24 lb, carried indoors, done.

#ad Check the Segway Navimow i105N Robot Mower price on Amazon — how we're funded.

Getting it out again

Half the value of a storage routine is that spring is uneventful. Three checks before the first cut:

1. Charge the packs and watch the runtime. A pack that does noticeably less than its published claim has aged, and better to find out in March than in June.
2. Look at the blades before the first pass, which is the one interval every Clemson calendar agrees on — sharpen before the season starts.
3. Check the deck underside for rust that started over winter, particularly on a steel deck stored somewhere humid.

The servicing detail is in riding mower maintenance, and the whole-kit version in the maintenance schedule.

What we cannot tell you

We have not stored any of these machines. No maker in our registry publishes a battery storage temperature range, a storage state of charge, a stored footprint for a riding machine, or a cold-weather derating figure for any pack. RYOBI publishes no weight for the ZR3 at all. Everything above that is not a published specification is general caution, and your own manual outranks it.