[B. White]

Family members have 8 to 10k zero turn mowers. I've not seen a digital gage on one yet... Of course I pay them to cut mine or use the tractor. One gallon per hour and the gage works...

I went with a Bad Boy commercial during covid when nothing was available and my old JD zero turn was on its last leg. I was already fed up with the JD after having to separate the frame to do a cable repair. Mechanical gauge for fuel. Hours are tracked on a separate little LCD hour meter. I have some steep road banks and needed some extra weight and ROPS anyway, plus I was looking at ease of future maintenance and how much deck I was getting for my $. If my part time gig goes away I can always cut to make some income. I almost never fill it up above 3/4 and can cut a few hours.

I would not pay that much for a known faulty gauge. Fill it up and see how long it takes to run out. Worst case you'll be toting a gas can. Track your maintenance hours on paper like we used to do.