ePropulsion experience

[Longob]

Hi,

We have an ePropulsion 1.0 plus on our dinghy. We love it. It is quiet and responsive. Our challenge is battery capacity and charging. In smooth, calm waters the battery can take you a decent distance running at 200 - 300 watts. But, in a chop you have to run at 300 - 500 watts and you see the time left drop. It hasn’t stranded us, but since we don’t know for sure how long the battery actually lasts as against the display, we are hesitant to take it any significant distance when there is any chop. So, I am interested in what other users have experienced.

Our outboard came with the 120 volt charger which works great on shore. However, when using it on board via our true sine wave inverter the charger got quite warm and ultimately killed my 3000 watt inverter. We purchased the 12 volt charger, which is fine but very slow. I have a new inverter but am hesitant to use it with the faster charger since inverters aren’t inexpensive. So, would like to hear from others who have used the 120 volt charger on their inverter.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Can't help with your question but how long does the 12v charger take?
I'm toying with the idea of one but would use mainly 12v.

 

[Longob]

Hi, We had the battery more than half drained. It took almost 24 hours. The “12volt” charger can also be fed from a solar panel which should provide higher voltage and shorten the charge time significantly. I’m just not willing to divert my panels from my house batteries to charge the dinghy battery.

 

[alandalus11]

We bought our ePropulsion last August and range anxiety was one of our main issues being new to electric. The first thing we did was to have a play up and down the river outside our marina to see how far we could actually go and how long the charge would last. Deliberately went against tide and conditions at time was a chop. Going at 600 watt we managed to get 5 miles with only half the battery used up. Range anxiety is now not an issue. Charging at 12 volts on boat took about 4 hours to replenish half empty battery. I am very impressed with the outboard and for the price paid compared to its rivals it's a very good outboard.

 

[[2574]]

Hi,

We have an ePropulsion 1.0 plus on our dinghy. We love it. It is quiet and responsive. Our challenge is battery capacity and charging. In smooth, calm waters the battery can take you a decent distance running at 200 - 300 watts. But, in a chop you have to run at 300 - 500 watts and you see the time left drop. It hasn’t stranded us, but since we don’t know for sure how long the battery actually lasts as against the display, we are hesitant to take it any significant distance when there is any chop. So, I am interested in what other users have experienced.

Our outboard came with the 120 volt charger which works great on shore. However, when using it on board via our true sine wave inverter the charger got quite warm and ultimately killed my 3000 watt inverter. We purchased the 12 volt charger, which is fine but very slow. I have a new inverter but am hesitant to use it with the faster charger since inverters aren’t inexpensive. So, would like to hear from others who have used the 120 volt charger on their inverter.

I’m perplexed by the 120v charger comment. Are you in the US? Or are you referring to the voltage the battery is charged at? If you plugged a 120v appliance in to a 240v inverter then I’m not surprised there were issues. We charge our eprop battery with the mains (240v) charger directly from our Victron 3kw/240v inverter without problems.

 

[Longob]

We bought our ePropulsion last August and range anxiety was one of our main issues being new to electric. The first thing we did was to have a play up and down the river outside our marina to see how far we could actually go and how long the charge would last. Deliberately went against tide and conditions at time was a chop. Going at 600 watt we managed to get 5 miles with only half the battery used up. Range anxiety is now not an issue. Charging at 12 volts on boat took about 4 hours to replenish half empty battery. I am very impressed with the outboard and for the price paid compared to its rivals it's a very good outboard.

We bought our ePropulsion last August and range anxiety was one of our main issues being new to electric. The first thing we did was to have a play up and down the river outside our marina to see how far we could actually go and how long the charge would last. Deliberately went against tide and conditions at time was a chop. Going at 600 watt we managed to get 5 miles with only half the battery used up. Range anxiety is now not an issue. Charging at 12 volts on boat took about 4 hours to replenish half empty battery. I am very impressed with the outboard and for the price paid compared to its rivals it's a very good outboard.

Hi. Your experience is very interesting. Can you tell me about how long it took to go the 5 miles?

 

[Longob]

I’m perplexed by the 120v charger comment. Are you in the US? Or are you referring to the voltage the battery is charged at? If you plugged a 120v appliance in to a 240v inverter then I’m not surprised there were issues. We charge our eprop battery with the mains (240v) charger directly from our Victron 3kw/240v inverter without problems.

Hi, the inverter was a 120V AC pure sine wave inverter in the US. I had it for 5 years and never had a problem with it running the microwave, vacuum, various battery chargers, tools …. This was the first time, and unfortunately, the last time I had a problem with it. I have replaced the inverter, but am very hesitant to use the 120 V ePropulsion charger on it.

 

[asteven221]

I bought an ePropulsion last year and have used it quite a bit. I think it's brilliant and would not go back to a petrol outboard. It is the perfect replacement for a 2.5hp outboard to power a tender. Range isn't an issue for the short trips ashore and back and the charge lasts for many such trips. Lasts for ages actually. There are numerous advantages over a small 2.5hp petrol outboard, with only two disadvantages I can think of. 1. They are quite expensive and 2. I keep thinking that someone might steal it. To minimise the theft aspect, I padlock the battery to the motor and run a long cable from the motor to a cleat on the jetty - assuming there is one. That is a pain, but at £1800 it is attractive to criminals and I don't want it to vanish.

Once you forget about what it cost and the theft concern, it is all advantages. Goodbye to pull chords, weight, engine oil, gear oil, petrol, storage hassles, dirt, servicing, transportation hassles, spark plug, starting hassles, noise, smoke. I am sure there are more, but that's what springs to mind.

 

[harvey38]

I see quite a lot of these electric outboards marketed as Short Shaft, are they the equivalent to an I/C standard shaft?

I'm toying with getting one for use on a 2.5m tender, I think a shorty will be fine (easier to stow) but I'm a tad confused by the measurements.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Has anyone considered trying to run one on one of the much cheaper mountain bike 48v batteries as a backup in case of running out of charge? If viable £200 is a huge beer token saving over genuine spare battery even if only enough to get you back, it would make the prospect of carrying a spare much more viable financially.
They do say they'll run from an external 48v source.

 

[alandalus11]

Hi. Your experience is very interesting. Can you tell me about how long it took to go the 5 miles?

Took a tad over an hour round trip as there were times when we took it up to the maximum watts and times when we dropped the speed back.

I see quite a lot of these electric outboards marketed as Short Shaft, are they the equivalent to an I/C standard shaft?
I'm toying with getting one for use on a 2.5m tender, I think a shorty will be fine (easier to stow) but I'm a tad confused by the measurements.

I have a Honwave 2.5m tender and the short is fine for that. but not sure how deep your transom is.

 

[Elessar]

Has anyone considered trying to run one on one of the much cheaper mountain bike 48v batteries as a backup in case of running out of charge? If viable £200 is a huge beer token saving over genuine spare battery even if only enough to get you back, it would make the prospect of carrying a spare much more viable financially.
They do say they'll run from an external 48v source.

If you can’t read the display and run out then oars will get you back. Why over complicate things.

 

[Longob]

I believe you void your warranty by using a battery that is not ePropulsion. I wouldn’t go there.

 

[Longob]

Took a tad over an hour round trip as there were times when we took it up to the maximum watts and times when we dropped the speed back.



I have a Honwave 2.5m tender and the short is fine for that. but not sure how deep your transom is.

Took a tad over an hour round trip as there were times when we took it up to the maximum watts and times when we dropped the speed back.



I have a Honwave 2.5m tender and the short is fine for that. but not sure how deep your transom is.

Thanks for the time information. We are going to be tracking discharge rates and recharge on the 12 volt charger much more closely for awhile to see if we have comparable performance. It doesn’t seem like we do, but we’ll see.

 

[snowbird30ds]

I believe you void your warranty by using a battery that is not ePropulsion. I wouldn’t go there.

The advertising bumph I've seen just says external 48v battery abd the lead shown in accessories is just eye terminals so why should it void a warranty, 48v is 48v, do you speak from reading warranty terms or blind assumption?

 

[Longob]

I believed I had seen a void statemen. But, it does not void your warranty. ,You lose the communications between an ePropulsion battery and the motor. But, you don’t void the warranty.

 

[snowbird30ds]

I believed I had seen a void statemen. But, it does not void your warranty. ,You lose the communications between an ePropulsion battery and the motor. But, you don’t void the warranty.

That's how I understood it, gotta be a cheap backup for use lazy gits.

 

[Longob]

I’d love to hear how using a standard 48volt battery works for you. For example, does the loss of the communications feedback make an impact on your confidence in the range you have still available.

 

[snowbird30ds]

If you have already run out of battery power in the main battery it would be a bit late for range anxiety so comms not relevant, any extra power to help get somewhere safe would be a benefit.
I'm thinking for fairly long excursions beyond bridges I can't get under on the broads and such, or the trip up to blythburgh from southwold or a pootle round hamford water when moored in titchmarsh on a nice day, rowing takes the fun out of a pleasure trip.
I have a perfectly good 2.5 suzuki but SWMBO has been suffering from headaches since a head injury and has to wear ear defenders in the dinghy for more than a short trip at the moment, something silent would be worth having but it's a lot of cash to spend based on guesswork and a second battery is silly money.

 

[MarkP1]

I've just bought one of these and used it for the first time two days ago on a 2.3m dinghy going from Christchurch to The Beach House at Muddeford. I used GPS on my phone. I went 2.7 miles on the way because I was playing around a bit and 1.88 on the way back. Average speed on the way out was 3.3mph and on the way back 2.9mph. On the way out the tide was slightly with me. On the way back the tide was slightly against me and I used close to full power some of the time to see what the battery did. Duration out was 1 hour, return duration 42 minutes. At the end I had used about 30% of battery. I absolutely love it. Almost silent and very easy to operate. I actually found less range anxiety than with petrol as the range is more than adequate for my needs and I can see exactly how much is left as opposed to running out and floating around topping up from a can. I agree aboout the anxiety of having it stolen. I got a bracket that fits over the transom clamps so it couldn't be removed from the dinghy but I think a chain or two may well be required.