Electric outboard - my expensive mistake

[Daydream believer]

I bought the motor in Jan 2011. It is a 1003 model. In their advertising Torqeedo showed the motor being thrown in the water, recovered and run to show that it was waterproof. To me this was a deal clincher as if it had not been fully waterproof I would not have bought it.

There was your first mistake right there.
My mate's Seagull outboard fell off the back of his dinghy, so he waited for the tide to go out & recovered it. Took it home, cleaned it up & it started
BUT who would go out & buy a Seagull?

 

[lustyd]

My mate's Seagull outboard fell off the back of his dinghy, so he waited for the tide to go out & recovered it. Took it home, cleaned it up & it started

And I bet it ran at least as well as before ?

 

[Daydream believer]

And I bet it ran at least as well as before ?

My father bought my 40+ when I was 12 years old & It still messes me about 63 years later. I would not change it for the world.
We have a love hate relationship

 

[Tranona]

- i didn’t realise it was a problem.
- my ‘repair’ didn’t make matters worse
- they were rude

I’m surprised anyone could think they have been reasonable. But I won’t argue in this forum about it. I made my case for anyone considering buying one.
Ultimately that plug is weak and a design flaw in my opinion. So much so that I’m not interested in buying a replacement battery.

You buy an expensive product, find a fault on delivery, bodge it, use the product for 10 months and then complain that the maker will not fix it. Common sense (and the law) says that if you find a fault with a product you must give the supplier an opportunity to repair or replace it - by your own account you did not.

Therefore not surprised that the maker will not repair it. Where are they being rude? Seems a restrained reply to me - although I wonder what prompted the paragraph about social media. Not something that would normally be included when rejecting a claim.

 

[Greenheart]

The ‘battery plug’ (picture attached)

Am I alone in not being able to see it?

I think if a supposedly 100% waterproof plug-socket was conspicuously not sealed or sealable by design, I'd have protested its inadequacy to the vendor or manufacturer without delay.

But it seems rare to hear of quality issues in respect of Torqeedo.

The social media comment in the company's reply is a little weird - like some speedily-added pre-emptive legal caveat at the end of an advertisement...

...but presumably since you have now raised the case on social media, we may now expect a representative of the company to hurry in, deflecting criticism.

Then again, this thread had been firmly buried for eight years till this morning, so perhaps they won't worry.

 

[dunedin]

You buy an expensive product, find a fault on delivery, bodge it, use the product for 10 months and then complain that the maker will not fix it. Common sense (and the law) says that if you find a fault with a product you must give the supplier an opportunity to repair or replace it - by your own account you did not.

Therefore not surprised that the maker will not repair it. Where are they being rude? Seems a restrained reply to me - although I wonder what prompted the paragraph about social media. Not something that would normally be included when rejecting a claim.

Perhaps the OP threatened to post his experience on social media to try to get them to fix it?

PS. Presumably if purchased in the UK the OP’s claim for repair and issues over service would be related to the retailer, it the manufacturer.

 

[Tranona]

Perhaps the OP threatened to post his experience on social media to try to get them to fix it?

PS. Presumably if purchased in the UK the OP’s claim for repair and issues over service would be related to the retailer, it the manufacturer.

As usual a one sided post raises more questions than answers. under the Consumer Rights act his first point of contact is the retailer and he can seek either a repair or replacement - or even reject it IF he had not messed with it and acted promptly. However from what he says he is claiming on the manufacturer's warranty which often exceeds the rights under the Act, plus of course they could also offer "goodwill" payment or repair but he does not meet their warranty conditions.

He has now actually joined an appropriate forum presumably with the explicit aim of putting his side of the story. Does not seem a good strategy if the objective is to get his motor repaired!

 

[Baboon]

Looking back on this thread, and being much more experienced than I was back then, it makes me realise what a bunch of nasty jobsworths the repliers were.

I have since used an epropulsion for a few years without issue. The connector corroded and was fixed by the after sales department quickly and without issue. Superb service in comparison.

The point of the original thread was to badmouth Torqueedo publicly for their bad product and worse service. And to humbly suggest everyone stats away from them.
And after using the epropulsion for years, I stand by that the Torqueedo is bad quality. My attempt at a fix was used to justify not helping me in anyway, but it wasn't my fix that caused the issue on the first place. And I still believe the chipboard could have been replaced to fix the issue. But the aftersales team didn't want to repair because they don’t have the skills to. There is a reason they are made abroad.

 

[fredrussell]

I have a Torqeedo T800. I’m pretty sure it’s the first production model they ever made. 15 years old and still running well. I ‘re-celled’ a spare battery for it but the original still has approx 3/4 of its battery capacity which is pretty impressive I reckon.

 

[Tranona]

Looking back on this thread, and being much more experienced than I was back then, it makes me realise what a bunch of nasty jobsworths the repliers were.

I have since used an epropulsion for a few years without issue. The connector corroded and was fixed by the after sales department quickly and without issue. Superb service in comparison.

The point of the original thread was to badmouth Torqueedo publicly for their bad product and worse service. And to humbly suggest everyone stats away from them.
And after using the epropulsion for years, I stand by that the Torqueedo is bad quality. My attempt at a fix was used to justify not helping me in anyway, but it wasn't my fix that caused the issue on the first place. And I still believe the chipboard could have been replaced to fix the issue. But the aftersales team didn't want to repair because they don’t have the skills to. There is a reason they are made abroad.

Perhaps you should not post on an open forum if you object to robust responses that point out how you stand in law. The whole point of the CRA is to provide a framework for dealing with defective products so it makes sense to follow it.

You made a repair to a new product yourself without giving the maker (or the retailer) an opportunity to effect the repair or replacement. Hardly surprising they reject your later claim under their warranty for damage resulting from your repair as a claim under CRA would almost certainly fail as well. Their response was also robust and maybe reflects your approach.

Good lesson for others - don't mess with new expensive products if you think there is a fault - it may come back to bite you.

 

[dunedin]

Looking back on this thread, and being much more experienced than I was back then, i…..….

So are you the OP Mainsail1 under a new forum identity?

 

[Tranona]

So are you the OP Mainsail1 under a new forum identity?

Don't thinks so as the Torqeedo scenarios referred to are very different and over 10 years apart.

 

[Cerebus]

It really is not difficult to waterproof electronics that are not submerged in operation (such as submersible cameras).

A simple spray of two products I own would suffice I believe and I am not commercial.

Surely commercial can do better? It is a shame they skimp.

 

[Greenheart]

I'm sure I read an account (probably in this vicinity) of a Torqueedo powering a tender which sank under its occupants in the Caribbean, and could be seen through the clear shallow water, still powering away for the full duration of its battery life. It definitely didn't sound like they're prone to leaks.
.

 

[migs]

Our Torqeedo once spent a night under water in the River Yealm.

One morning we found the dinghy flipped upside down with the engine attached (it must have been flipped by a Yealm williwaw). I thought the outboard would be scrap, but when we turned the dinghy right-side up, the Torqeedo worked perfectly (try that with a petrol outboard). That was two years ago, and it still works fine. It's now fifteen years old (although on its second battery), and has been worked hard, yet has never missed a beat...

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Our Torqeedo once spent a night under water in the River Yealm.

One morning we found the dinghy flipped upside down with the engine attached (it must have been flipped by a Yealm williwaw). I thought the outboard would be scrap, but when we turned the dinghy right-side up, the Torqeedo worked perfectly (try that with a petrol outboard). That was two years ago, and it still works fine. It's now fifteen years old (although on its second battery), and has been worked hard, yet has never missed a beat...

The old Seagulls would survive a tide underwater!

 

[ashtead]

So is there any published views on merits of epropulsion versus Torquuedo ? Do the sub £1k makes survive ?