EPropulsion Elite not turning on

[ylop]

I bought one of these last summer. It’s worked well but not been used hard. It was stored indoors partially charged over winter as per their instructions. I brought it out last night and the display behaved normally, showing state of charge. I plugged in to the proper mains charger and left it overnight. This morning the display doesn’t turn on, there are no beeps etc.

Anyone else experienced this? Is there some sort of reset procedure? Is there a known fault?

I will be going to chandlery I bought it from this afternoon to discuss their refund policy for what appear to be defective goods but wondered if anyone else had relevant experience.

 

[Greenheart]

What was the chandlery's verdict / offer?

 

[PetiteFleur]

Hmm - I've also got one that I bought locally at a reduced price but not used it yet - got it out earlier today as I'm going to our boat tomorrow as it's being launched. When tested it took a couple of minutes before I got it working and I assumed it was my fault...

 

[ylop]

What was the chandlery's verdict / offer?

Initial response was "[our engineer] isn't in till Monday so leave it with us". But after some discussion, they accepted that it was dead and the engineer was not going to have a magic solution for dead so they could save me a return trip by just giving me a new one.

They haven't called me today to say "you're an idiot, we need the new one back" so I assume there is a fault. The new one confrimed for me that the charger is red when charging and green when fully charged -- the dead one was showing green when the display was dead.

Hopefully the new one lasts more than 9 months.

 

[nestawayboats]

It's a "long press" to turn an ePropulsion eLite on, possibly longer than you might think. A few seconds can seem like a lot. But a "short press" should illuminate the display and show battery percentage, so if nothing at all showed on the display when the button was pressed for any length of time then something was wrong.

There is certainly no established problem with eLites that I'm aware of, and we've sold a lot of them over the last year or so. If anything I'm expecting, and the evidence so far suggests, the eLite will be even more reliable than other electric outboards (already very reliable, much more reliable than petrols), due to having no exposed battery connectors to get dirty or corrode.

The solution on electric outboards with connectors is regular (every couple of months) use of electrical contact spray, or WD40 does most of the job.

Electric outboards in general are far less problematic than petrol ones, but no product in all of human history is 100% perfect.

And since it's new season getting it out of the garage time it may be worth reminding... With the eLite's bigger relation, the ePropulsion Spirit 1.0 or PLUS or EVO, the battery deliberately "goes to sleep" after a few weeks and into a very long lasting protected mode. To wake it up you need to connect it to a charger, not necessarily charge it fully but connect it to a charger (mains or 12V) for a few seconds. That can be a pain in the backside if you don't have a charger and/or supply to connect it to, but the alternative is a battery that eventually runs itself so flat, even when not used, it can't be recovered (which can eventually happen to batteries from at least two of the significant rivals).

Ian
Nestaway Boats Ltd

 

[Boathook]

And since it's new season getting it out of the garage time it may be worth reminding... With the eLite's bigger relation, the ePropulsion Spirit 1.0 or PLUS or EVO, the battery deliberately "goes to sleep" after a few weeks and into a very long lasting protected mode. To wake it up you need to connect it to a charger, not necessarily charge it fully but connect it to a charger (mains or 12V) for a few seconds. That can be a pain in the backside if you don't have a charger and/or supply to connect it to, but the alternative is a battery that eventually runs itself so flat, even when not used, it can't be recovered (which can eventually happen to batteries from at least two of the significant rivals).

Ian
Nestaway Boats Ltd

As I found out with mine a few weeks ago.
Battery appeared dead so connected up to charger for an hour. Put back onto the motor unit and it was 3/4 charged.

I then read the instruction manual .................................

 

[DJE]

If all else fails .......................... read the instructions!