At about 5:00 in the video the narrator indicates that the Elco has an impeller for water cooling the motor at the top of the motor. He indicates that this is a maintenance item and all the other motors are virtually maintenance free because they are pod motors with the motor in the water which provides direct water cooling. The statement about them being virtually maintenance free is incorrect. With the motor in a pod in the water, there is a shaft seal that prevents water intrusion into the pod which would short the motor out. This seal wears over time due to friction. Eprop indicates in their manual the seal should be replaced annually if I recall correctly. Torqueedo hints at maintenance of this seal but doesn't really spell it out in the manual, at least not that I could find. I have not researched any of the other motors and can not speak to their shaft seal maintenance. The Elco having the motor out of the water comes at the cost of a loss of efficiency of about 3% because there is a bevel gear to turn the drive shaft from vertical to horizontal. The pod motors are generally direct drive. However the pod motor are a large object immediately in front of the prop which induces more drag than the smaller bevel gear housing for the Elco. This drag is probably results in an efficiency loss of 1-2%. Elco trades efficiency for reliability. If the impeller fails, the motor stops receiving cooling water and the operator realizes that there has been a failure, the motor can probably be run at reduced output without overheating and damaging the motor. In the event of shaft seal failure of a pod motor, the motor will short out and not run at all. It may or may not be permanently damaged.
I've owned the newport and used it probably 5 times. The honest reason I went with it was: 1) there is a lake near me that only allows electric, and 2) it was the cheapest. Initially I was impressed with it for the price. The battery seemed to be lasting a long time in my view. Recently I had a couple issues. The charger wires which hook onto the battery got wet and basically ruined. I contacted them and it was pretty annoying. It was a back and forth where it seemed like the person responding was always new and kept asking the same questions I just asked. This took so much of my time it enraged me and eventually I left a bad review based on this. This triggered them to finally respond and send me a new charger wire. Still not happy about this as it was just a $25 part and they wasted a lot of my time. The other issue I had was I took it out once and at the dock it said the battery was fully charged. After getting about 200 yards from the dock the charge suddenly completely depleted. Luckily I had enough juice to get back. This has only happened once and I'm not sure why but it definitely has me scared to get too far from the dock or to take it out on larger lakes.
Appreciate the reviews, we live in interesting times where I feel like we are on the verge of some good things. So I finally got to test out the NT300 on my Old Town Sportsman 154 last weekend. I have to say, I was honestly amazed at what this thing could do. Not only did we get up to 6.6mph (fully loaded with my wife and dog) but we traveled roughly 5 miles at 50-60% throttle going about 4.5-5mph and still had 3/5 bars showing on the battery meter once at rest after getting back to the boat launch. Reasons I chose this motor over the others: it weighs 26lbs making it super portable. Having the batteries mid-ship makes a huge difference on my Old Town. The fact that you don't have to use proprietary batteries is also huge on this platform - you can add other 36v in parallel or build your own battery setup. Here's my take on range/speed: NONE of these motors should be run at WOT because you WILL kill the battery. I run on a 5 mile long reservoir in central MD (boat launch is smack in the middle). I don't need to do 7mph nor do I want to. 4.5-5mph is plenty for me (50-60%) and the bigger picture is I'm not burning up the 40lb Minn Kota trolling motor I was using to get me from point a to point b. The fact is I have the power there if I need it. Like say if a storm creeps in I know I can get back to the launch but for general use half throttle is perfect. These are not intended to go fast as you stated but they are meant to propel and this one certainly does that as I was throwing a wake for the first time from my boat. Newport was kind enough to upgrade me to the 50 amp hour battery since the 30 was sold out, I got lucky there but again you can always run other batteries in parallel and double your amp hours. I'd rather have the power when I need it. I can't do an honest ranking because I haven't demoed any of the others, but I would say that Epropulsion is out in front for sure. They put a lot of time in thought into their motor. I just couldn't justify spending an extra $1,000 for a battery that floats and extra range. So far I've had no issues with this motor but I will give honest feedback if I do. Have to say Newport's customer service has been nothing but top notch since I placed the order back in March! I plan to do my own review in the coming weeks with my GoPro and other cameras, first time making a video. Thanks again for your review. It's certainly helpful for the people that are trying to decide and pull the trigger!
I run one of their trolling motors, the Newport, and specifically for a kayak on my canoe and it’s very quiet and with the batteries I’ve chosen because of the weight factor as long as I run on a low setting, I could pretty much run for a long long time, but like all this that I’m learning from you if you run these full speed, you don’t have any battery life so for me as long as I’m just trolling around it’s fine and then just bring the extra battery to get home. Thank you for doing this it’s a big insight to me it tells me that, I’m just as well off with the regular trolling motor for the price. It’s funny I can almost paddle as fast as I can run with the motor and that’s a big thing to.
The reason some companies make dorky claims about power is to take advantage of the mistake in customers minds that bigger motors should cost more. That is how ICE motors have been priced. Electric motors should be most heavily scrutinized for range (at needed thrust), weight and lifespan. You can buy double the power in an electric motor for 20% more money, but double the range costs double the money. Buying an electric outboard that only works with a proprietary battery is absolutely a mistake. Batteries will continue to get better and cheaper while there is absolutely no reason to beleive a company will pass those saving on to you. By my values the E-prop wins this and it isn't even close. -light and small with equivalent thrust -works with 3rd party batteries -offers compelling battery package with super convenient features at the price of cheap 3rd party -trounces the competition int the most importance metric -range! -even has a unique propeller protection
Great overview! Those of us on Team 3rd-Party Battery don't want display screens on the motor, since a lithium capacity readout can only be accurate if the screen's chip has pre-programmed the battery's capacity, so it'll give wrong information if you plug in a different capacity than the factory pack. Instead of integrating a screen that can only work with the proprietary battery, I wish they'd bring the price down and leave the screen out, assuming we're all going to buy our own battery monitors.
@@TinyBoatNation It's not feasible for the most part... they can design their circuit board to accurately display state of charge as long as they know the capacity upfront, but as soon as you plug in a different capacity, their display will begin reading wrong because their circuit board has no way to communicate with the 3rd-party battery to find out its capacity. Batteries don't have a communication port most of the time. The motor manufacturer certainly could just count the number of amps charged and discharged over a few cycles to guess capacity, but that's not a reliable way to update the monitor either, since a boater can discharge anything from 1% to 100% each time, and the circuit board wouldn't have any way to differentiate or even to tell if it's the same battery each time. So it's just impossible for a monitor to accurately display state of charge for all batteries unless it gives the customer the ability to reprogram it with new capacity settings. If they have programmability as a feature, I'd be impressed, but I doubt they do because it would encourage customers to purchase 3rd-party batteries more often, which I think they want to avoid.
@@eagleray1 Their tiller handle allows you to specify the amp hour capacity of the external third party battery and from there it will do rudimentary coulomb counting to calculate the state of charge. This is what most devices do anyway since the discharge voltage curve is so flat for lithium, however you won't know if the pack is out of balance and one or more cells are dangerously low compared to the rest. This isn't the best way...but better than nothing. I think we are very lucky that they "allow" it to work with third party batteries. When I first saw the external battery cable for the spirit 1.0 I assumed it would require the BMS communication cable. I bought 6 ego 12ah batteries off of ebay and stuffed them into a pelican case. :) Total cost was about $330 for each battery, $60 for a used 1520, and another $100 in wiring fuses, diodes, etc.
@@grantstockly I'm impressed they allow capacity programming. That is much appreciated, but I wouldn't call us lucky for it. I'd call it basic extensibility that should be expected of all manufacturers. Imagine if you bought a Mac and then found out you couldn't copy your PC files onto it because it used a different file type. That was once a thing, but the entire tech industry accepted the customer's expectation of basic extensibility a long time ago. Companies across multiple industries, including motor brands, battery brands, power tool brands, etc., haven't figured out how important basic extensibility is with batteries yet, but it sounds like ePropulsion is an exception. Regarding 3rd-party options, EGO would be the one option that's just as expensive as buying a drastically overpriced proprietary ePropulsion pack. One of the most important reasons for basic extensibility is competitive pricing. The cheapest option to DIY a 1276WH li-ion pack would be less than $300 total ($220 in recycled cells, $30 BMS, $10 of marine-grade Ancor cable, $40 buffer for the enclosure).
Which one is the most efficient and long lasting at trolling speeds of 2-3mph and also which one does have the finer RPM adjustments? I don't care about max speeds and whatnot, only trolling speeds, as I'd like to know if they're a viable option to replacing a trolling motor or not.
@@will903 Because I do not have the real estate to put it in my boat at the bow, and a trolling motor isn't quick enough to go from point A to point B where I fish. It would take me 5 minutes or so with a 55#, whereas those electric outboards would be much quicker, and could still allow me to troll. My boat is weighty, a 55# is not enough to power it, and I refuse to go above 12V as LiPo4 is way too expensive here, and a dual (or more) 12V battery setup to bring it to 24V, 36V or 48V in some cases for trolling motors is WAY too costly AND heavy. Plus, at that point, I'd rather have a dedicated all-rounder electric outboard for the few lakes I go that require an electric outboard since 2020. We all have our preferences and there's a few reasons other than these that I didn't mention and won't mention, just like I could ask a bass fisherman "Why do you have 4 or 5 sonars? just get one big one instead and splitscreen it!". I see a lot of anglers with 2+ sonars, just their setup alone in sonars is worth more than my entire boat+trailer+outboard. Just to give you an idea, a decent 12V battery, 100Ah (or close to that, depending on manufacturers) costs around 300-400$ here, so 2 batteries would be 800$, 4 batteries would be about 2000$ with taxes for a 24V 200Ah setup, which is SOMETIMES necessary around here due to the way the lakes I fish are setup (12-15mph winds creates waves over 2 foot high, theres some very small "rapids", etc...)
@@will903 Also, as a sidenote, most of the lakes I used to fish are now 4 strokes or electrics only... so, why would I waste thousands on a 4 strokes if I could spend 2 or 3 thousands on an electrical that will someday become the "norm" almost everywhere around here? heh... I'll keep my 2 stroke on hand because theres 2 places I fish that will most likely never become 4stroke or electric only (way too big for electric only, and they wouldnt be able to restrict 2 strokes, as they are over 50% of the boats on the lake... a.k.a. wakeboard, tires, etc...)
The latest models from Elco have Bluetooth connectivity. They look like traditional outboards because they're sourcing their cases from the same manufacturer as Yamaha and Tohatsu. Which means third party add-ons fit. I just finished rigging a standard cable steering system to my EP9.9. It does have an impeller, and it "pees". You do need to change oil and replace the impeller. Torqeedo and EPropulsion, though, need their seals replaced regularly, or they'll fail and water will get into the motor.
I’m thinking about getting an Elco. Currently I have a Honda 50 hp outboard on 18 ft pontoon. Do you think it would be an easy switch? How fast mph can you go with the 9.9?
@@sadaftracy9972 Mine is a sailboat, I'm using the Elcos as auxiliaries. It isn't going to be fast, no matter what I do. Gets me in and out of harbor fine, though.
Thank you so much for making this video ! I’ve been in the market for over a month ready to pull the trigger on an e-outboard for one of my long distance adventure skiffs. The problem I have run into is I have tech questions I need answered and after 3 straight weeks , calls, emails, social media , etc… I have recieved ZERO responses / info back from manufacturers and / or retailers. It breaks my heart to “dis” these companies but the truth is the truth. I’m left literally Motorless for a skiff I’ve built and disenchanted would be an absolute understatement. If these companies and retailers are going to launch these motors and make them available, they’ve gotta get their stuff together. CUSTOMER SERVICE RULES, and 4 of these 5 brands AND retailers FAILED. Cheers to a great informative video. Perhaps you’d be a good resource for some of my gritty tech questions? Pretty please! PS. TBN was one of the first places I reached out to for purchasing and tech info. HELP!
If you contact our main shop in Georgia, we can give you Tech questions at least on the spirit. We can’t speak for the others. Sorry to hear you’re having such terrible customer service problems with the others.
Thank you. I’ve actually called the (404) area code phone number / Extension 3 multiple times and always no answer/vm is full. I’ve also tried the “contact us” type form with no luck.
@@diywaterworld Please give TBN another chance. :) They were busy when I tried contacting them too, but they are amazing. Nick talked through everything with me and made sure I was happy. They have also extended their free shipping option into the season as well. I can't wait for the Spirit 1.0 I ordered to arrive. :)
I've spoken to Torqeedo asking general questions several times and have always heard back from them, although it's been a couple years. The Torqeedo service center in CT got back to me when my 10+ year Travel 1003 needed work. They also fixed it with in a few days of dropping it off.
@@TinyBoatNation If I was you, I would wait for next year. Troqueedo will have a new one. Also, check Motoskiff, the lightest one so far. Should be available next year as well.
I just purchased the Newport and so far I’m pleased with it, gotta do some tweaking in moving weight around, but I also went with lithium batteries that were from a different company
Let us know how you like it after more us. Which battery did you buy for it? 3rd party batteries are available for it? How heavy are they and what did they sell for? Also, how do you get a readout of battery life if not using a battery made by Newport?
Im building a new electric pontoon. Curious what range you are getting and what battery you used. Sounds to me like the biggest complaint in this video should have been about the battery the newport used, and not the motor itself.
I have a lot of Makita 18v XLT tools, and a couple - like the hedge trimmer - that use two 18v batteries in series to make 36v. I have seen Makita XLT-formatted "Battery Docks" online for less than $15 ea. They are just a snap-in holder for Makita XLT batteries with electrical leads that allow you to use the battery as source of 18v DC power. It seems me that two of these holders in series could power the Newport. The whole setup: two holders and a half-dozen spares could be installed in a tidy waterproof box. It might not make sense for most people but I have two Makita 6 Ah batteries and six Makita 5 Ah batteries, so I am very much wedded to that platform.
Great review. Thank you. Have a Torqeedo 1103CL. And, wasn’t impressed with range. Been wondering if I would have been better off with a Honda, Merc., or Tohatsu gas powered 5 or 6 HP outboard. When I watch that battery falling so quickly at full speed on a breezy day on the Currituck Sound, it just makes me nervous about possibly having to paddle home in the wind. Your review was helpful. But, I still can’t make up my mind. Any tips or suggestions from you would be much appreciated. Thanks again for a very thorough review of the best electric options out there.
There is no comparison between the range of a gas motor or a high tech lithium motor. But if you prefer such a motor as I do, you have to live with less range. You can always buy an extra battery, but they are pricey. Solar panels are also available if you have a boat with room to place one. I generally get about a 10 mile range on the Torqeedo 915 battery, but I have to go at slower speeds some of the time to get that. But more often the range I need is closer to 5 or 6 miles back & fourth, and it's fine for that. I'm not comfortable with the idea of keeping a gas motor in my sedan. I use my boat for sight seeing exclusively. At some locations I'd like to visit require the range of gas or a 2nd battery if I really want to go to them, but there are plenty of places I'm able to visit with what I have, but I wouldn't be able to visit some of them with the limited power of a trolling motor, which is why I upgraded.
I purchased a "used" Torqeedo Travel 1003s 9 years ago that was 2-3 years old. It broke last year, and I just had it fixed. Torqeedo came out with a truly unique product and is the industry leader in these type of motors, originally with zero competition. With their competitors today, you have to wonder if 12 years later you will still be able to buy a replacement battery or have them serviced. I have an official Torqeedo repair center an hour away from me. I tend to think there are more of them than the others, but check what is near you as all products will eventually need servicing. Torqeedo is by far the more widely distributed and far more in circulation. Torqeedo motors and parts such as batteries, propellers, magnets, shear pins and many other parts are sold locally to me at several different places. I'm not sure I could find any places in the region that sell ePropultion or other competitors. Torqeedo tells me the motors should be serviced every 5 years, and I assume the same from the others. Most of my bill ($530) was for standard servicing replacing various parts they suggested, plus the plastic propeller had broken ($100 of the bill). They said there was no visible corrosion on the motor and that the expensive pylon/s looked fine. I used it in salt water some of the time, always rinse after use and try to take the motor on a lake with in a couple days after salt water use to clear out any salt more thoroughly. I don't think any of these motors should be primarily used in salt water and certainly people have shown both Torqeedo & ePropultion motors rotted out from salt water. And if your going to do so, at the very least setup a tank or something to run them in fresh water after each salt water use if you want them to last. Ownership of these kind of motors is not just about the initial purchase, but also about the ability to get them serviced and buy various replacement parts with the least amount of hassle. And also how much you trust the company. I tend to have more trust in Torqeedo than I do of the Chinese ePropultion who more or less directly copied the motor, but only sells it a little cheaper. I'd welcome a much cheaper knockoff. The Newport motor at $1000 is cheaper, but the included Torqeedo battery is also $1000 (for the newer 915 battery). Newport does not appear to offers a light weight battery like the ones Torqeedo & ePropultion does, and the batteries they offer are similarly priced in the $1000 or so price range but much heavier and more awkward to carry like a car battery or deep cycle battery form factor. I do like the idea their motor is cheaper, but it ends up about 1/3 cheaper or so but less convenient because of the battery. Perhaps fine if you have a docked boat and can charge it at the dock. I completely pack my inflatable and all accessories every use to fit in my car's trunk. if I had one of the other motors I tend to think getting it fixed would be more difficult and required to mail it for sure.And the batteries on these require more complex and more expensive shipping methods, and if your battery isn't also looked at, how do you know if it's not your problem? I think there is certainly room for this kind of technology to come out far cheaper from a new company, but I feel if the price isn't way cheaper, I'm gonna go with the real thing. Do you buy Coca-Cola or Sam's Choice? At least Sam's Choice is a tiny fraction the price of Coke, and not just a little cheaper. I feel the same when buying "knockoff" products.
You are wrong that Elco doesn’t have a digital readout. They offer a “dash app” that tells you speed (MPH, KPH, or knots), RPMs, and remaining battery charge (graphically and numerically) as well as volts, amps, and watts.
Great review. I miss the relation between the electric engines and the boat size. Like what is maximum size of boat these can be used with.? Maybe havo two of them on a large boat.?
I get 5.2 to 5.5 mph at 75% throttle on my 15 foot pontoon. The last 25% of the throttle on my Ray motor is useless as it just blows the water apart. Like Tiny Boat says, it works, not safety issues, it just wont go anywhere fast.
When a motor is a full speed you won't be able to calculate range accurately, the torqeedo and the others are just guesses, this happens with gas, electric
I love my Newport. I have the NK180 kayak motor, and works awesome. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the NT300 from Newport. Their costumer service is second to none. You actually get to talk to someone, and not have to go through 3 or 5 different people say like Mercury!!
Good video! I have a 16 foot high side Clakacraft drift boat I use to float rivers and fish lakes. Depending on the body of water I run one or two 55 pound thrust Motorguide stern mount trolling motors and use two 12V, 100AH Lipo4 batteries. This provides me with redundant motors and batteries in the event of battery or motor failure. Full throttle I am at about 4-4.5 MPH and allows me to run up stream on slower moving rivers. Each motor draws around 45 Amps at full throttle so I am probably running around 1.5HP with the dual motors. It would be interesting to try a 3HP electric...
Very interesting perspective. It's always interesting to hear what others think. Myself, we've had the Torqeedo for over six years and it's been running flawlessly. Granted we are pushing only a 10' dinghy, but I do use it extensively for fishing. I have two batteries and swap them around when I get back to our sailboat where we charge them from solar (that's been great). At the time we bought the Torqeedo, I think the ePropulsion was just new and had not much of a reputation, so we went with the tried an true of German engineering. ;) The size/weight or need of an external battery for the others would be a deal breaker for me.
I can recommend NV for sure...Im happy over here with my NV55 for 150$ that pushes my fully loaded canoe 4.5 mph for over 6 hours with two 100ah lipos.
Gimmicks galore. Call me old school and cheap, but at the end of the day it's wattage that matters and it takes 750 watts to make 1hp regardless of it being a 12V, 48V or even a 600V motor. So that 1300 watt motor is really only 1.75hp. The sweet spot for range seems to be in the 150 to 250 watt speed settings, with 400-500 watts being the sweet spot for more speed without killing the range too badly. A 12 Volt 50 Amp motor makes 600 watts and any of the ones with brushless motors are variable speed. That's 2 hours of run time on a single 12v 100 AMP Hour battery WOT. A 12V battery also makes powering LED NAV lights and accessories much easier which might be an important consideration. Normal deep cycle batteries don't have panache like these lithium ones do and yes they do weigh 55 pounds instead of 20-25 pounds to have equal capacity. Unless you're in a lightweight canoe or kayak where handling is paramount, deep cycle batteries have several major advantages. They're ¼ the price, can use the same 120V charger as your car, can be completely recycled (all batteries only last so long😟) and deep cycle batteries don't tend to result in an up close fireworks display should they ever short out inside like lithium ion batteries.⚡😨 What I'd rather see is a good 12V 50 amp (600 watts) model with a nice flared rudder-like shaft below the water line like the Merc instead of a just a simple metal or composite tube, a clean head design like the NT and a price under $500. A couple of 90-100 amp hour ($150 each) deep cycle batteries, one wired near the motor to keep the required 8ga wire length minimized, and the spare for just in case or for longer trips (bonus that it can be placed where its best for balance - the bow for instance), a nice battery box, and maybe a cheap small 10-15 pound troller ($200) stashed away onboard as a backup. Why spend several thousand to go 4-5mph when $1000 could do it with full redundancy and without the headaches of proprietary batteries?😎
5hp at 24v is 160A most budget lifepo4 batteries don't like draw over 1c so more like 200Ah. 5hp is 3.84kw. For me I'd want something in the 5-8hp range and a 2hrs at full power so take the peek power and multiple by 2x for battery needed for the 6kw mercury that's a 14kwhr battery at 48v that's 250Ahr. I have a diy built outboard using a efoil system on a 72v power system that crushes all of this with 3x 6kw packs. Over 16hp of peak with 7-8hp rms output. FYI 1hp = 768w this is a know standard.
for reference, I have a Haswing Protruar G 3HP and a 24V 100Ah battery running it, and with a mixed amount of throttle up and down from "first click" to highest output over 4 hours it didn't drop a single bar of power on the meter on top of the control head. I built a "center console" out of this, a Bass Pro Shop Pond Prowler 8, a cable helm system, and the midsection steering assembly from a dead gas motor with this and even with two people in the boat it performed great. I get a little over 5mph according to GPS at highest throttle. (video of tooling around in it in my channel)
The reason that the Newport battery monitor is wrong when the motor is running is because the system is using battery voltage to estimate remaining capacity. Battery voltage always drops under load and recovers under no load. The better method is to use a coulomb counter to determine the remaining capacity and to ignore battery voltage. However, Using a coulomb counter on 3rd party batteries is a little bit tricky because the system doesn't know the state of charge of the battery when it is connected. The user would have to input this info or it would have to come from the BMS.
As always I enjoy your episodes. Some things that interest me about your reviews is the batteries. Did you test all these motors with the same standard battery, voltage, wattage, and Amp hour capacity? If yes great!! If not could you please outline the differences in battery capacity? I run my Newport NT300 for over an hour full throttle continuously and have 40-60% depending on conditions of battery life left. I am willing to pay for you to fly up to my area and test my NT 300 and evaluate its performance on a much larger boat. Lets do what's right for the electric outboard community and provide the most accurate true scientific assessment of these motors. Please do not take this as an attack on your content, I only want to achieve clarity on the facts of performance. LOVE your Channel and what it has achieved for the fishing community.
That epropulsion seems like the best buy in everything I have looked at. In terms of design and styling the Mercury wins. I’m not a fan of Torqeedo products since friends and I owned and used some of them like the model 403 & 1103. Wouldn’t even consider EP-5 due to not having digital read out.
What didn't your friends like about the Torqeedo's? I love my Torqeedo 1003s, and it's over t 10 years now. I just had it repaired recently, and fortunately there is a Torqeedo service center in my area. I doubt there is one for ePropulsion. I'm less trusting of the Chinese Torqeedo Travel "knock off" by ePropulsion. We'll see if people can buy batteries or get their motors serviced in 10 years. So many hi-tech products of this sort are here today, gone tomorrow. The least they could have done is made them a lot cheaper, then there would have been more of a reason to consider them over Torqeedo. All they did was steal the design from Torqeedo which was totally unique, make it quieter and a couple other fair insignificant changes, and ultimately raise the cost of this kind of product when the price should have been a lot less as a knock off. The Newport motor is cheaper, but I don't see any comparable highly portable lithium batteries to that of Torqeedo or ePropultion available. Ultimately any motor will need servicing eventually, and the ability to get that done from a trusting place and without shipping is important part of the consideration of buying a motor. Sure the Chinese can rip off just about anything.....but do you trust them when they do so?
I’m getting a WILDERNESS SYSTEMS Recon 120 HD Sit-On-Top Pedal Drive Kayak. Has a sorry of transom. I think the EPropulsion is the best choice. Thoughts?
Buyer beware.I had my motor of two years and only used it in the summer time for a total motor use of 20hr. Then my epropulsion spirit 1 plus motor stopped giving thrust to the motor/propeller and I had to be towed back to shore. And the warrenty is 2 years not 5 and the company's customer service is non exsistant .
I have a 21 ft sailboat which weighs 2400 lbs but with me and my stuff and guests lets say 3400 lbs. The Epropulsion looks like it can get me out to the sailing grounds and back to dock. 20min each way. If the elements are rough I sail. if no wind then I can use the motor but i have to be close to the dock that's the biggest problem.
Range depends on the amp hours capacity of the battery used, and the power consumption of the motor (more power is better, you might need it some time!). But I can't believe you didn't compare the batteries. BTW if you have lower volts, then you use thicker cables to handle the increased current, the resistance will be the same as the wire thickness compensates for it, but you don't get less power. So 24V uses half the amount of current than a 12V motor, but then you have to connect 2 12V batteries in series to get 24V that's double the amount of batteries. The only thing you save with higher voltage is in copper wire.
To get 5 HP from 24 V would require about 155 Amps. Just sayin. Even though Li batteries are getting lighter, hanging it over the back of the transom is the worst place to put it.
There is a lot more to come next year. So, I will wait to buy one. Torqueedo will have a new one as well as MotoSkiff which is going to be very exciting ! I was very disappointed with the Mercury. Too hevay to start with and too expensive for what it is !
I'm leaning towards newports battery being junk and advertised as superior , Nt300 closed throttle to wide open throttle if the motor peaks at 40amps to the terminals. and IF the cells newport offers can output only 27amp hours (90%) of it's claimed advertised output of 30a before bms kicks in, which is common in chinese lifepo4s. The newport battery realistically will only run for 30-40 minutes on a full charge. which I'm think explains why you have such bad run times. Newport is slapping a high price logo on junky batteries.
Alright I came back to comment this, My clamp on amp meter read a continuous 35.3 amps at the terminal while traveling up-stream full throttle on a 16ft scanoe. light bymself. I think my theory was correct, Newports battery is not adequate enough to run this motor for an hour at full throttle. 27amps / 35amps = 0.77 of an hour of run time with newports battery, full throttle. AT BEST. once newports battery cycles run down and the battery has been used for a year or so. dang you'll be looking at 30 minutes of full throttle.
I think Newport has released an entire new line of batteries since this video, all these early batteries were labeled "prototypes" and now the new batteries include integrated Bluetooth monitoring . They might have stepped up their battery game .
Newport is by far my favourite. I dont want to pay 3x times the amount of money for Batteries. And it looks like shiit if there is a Battery on top of the Motor. The Mercury is just unnecessary humongous.... However they really should change the battery percentage calculation. Based on drwan ampere instead of the voltage. Discharge curve of lifepo4 is too flat.
I have a Ray Electric Outboard. Would have been cool to include it in this review. They have been in business since 1974 and I believe the pre date Torquedo.
@@JosephMBoyer They are. Where they differ is that there is a DC motor up top connected to a fully functioning lower unit like a gas motor. Most of these motors have the electronics under the water. Ray motors do not.
It's exciting to see such options for electric outboards, I favor the motor above the waterline with a water cooled block. However it seems manufacturing is easier with the motor submerged as new outboards are so. Love the competition to see what the future holds
With the Newport Vessels NT300 motor, all I see is cinematic slow motion cool guy videos. No technical videos from the Newport Vessels channel. I've been following E-Propulsion for a couple of years and searched all I could. I found a number of articles/videos/shows that they've appeared in, including the founder himself. Maybe that's Newports scheme, "you can be kewl too, buy our stuff..."
Torqeedo is by far the easiest to find information on. They've been out for more than a dozen years, they are far more widely distributed and far more of these motors in circulation to hear from other users.
this was the worst review of engines, at the end you admit to be a 'fan boy' of Mercury and thus rate it higher. You clearly sandbag the Newport which based on the actual data you share should be #2 behind ePropulsion. And the Mercury should have been #5 - again based on your data. super annoyed at you for wasting my time.
Torqeedo seals need to be replaced every 2 yrs or $1500 lower unit has to be totally replaced. Definitely not maintenance free. And I use a china battery on it with the dying torqeedo one. China one shows volts not % left.
Elco is a mistake. I have a 9.9 on a 1444 Jon boat, and it’s equivalent to a 3-4 hp gas. It looked like a whirlpool behind the transom until I modified a small hydrofoil to make it fit. Had to move up from 7 to 9 pitch to avoid ventilation problems. And I can’t go WOT because the motor will draw too many amps and cut out. Customer service is non-existent (they never reply) and you can’t get the motor serviced anywhere. You might be curious about Elco’s 50 hp, but you’ll break the bank on batteries and weight down the boat. I wasted thousands on this junk. Plus you might think it’s cool that it looks like a gas motor until you go on electric only makes and start drawing negative attention because people think you’re running gas. It’s loud. Lastly, the clamps didn’t fit over my transom, so I had to add a narrower jack plate. Annoying.
Out of all of the quality, performance specs, and daily running and user experience comparison to get so hung up on apperance and packaging seems really odd. Almost like you didn't actually use any of them and just went off of the comments of others and pictures. Not impressed.
I have an epropulsion aswell and agree but mine will not even go against the current in a lake! It is so frustrating that the company does ignore their customer's and are only interest in sale and not service! What a waste on time and money!
At about 5:00 in the video the narrator indicates that the Elco has an impeller for water cooling the motor at the top of the motor. He indicates that this is a maintenance item and all the other motors are virtually maintenance free because they are pod motors with the motor in the water which provides direct water cooling.
The statement about them being virtually maintenance free is incorrect. With the motor in a pod in the water, there is a shaft seal that prevents water intrusion into the pod which would short the motor out. This seal wears over time due to friction. Eprop indicates in their manual the seal should be replaced annually if I recall correctly. Torqueedo hints at maintenance of this seal but doesn't really spell it out in the manual, at least not that I could find. I have not researched any of the other motors and can not speak to their shaft seal maintenance.
The Elco having the motor out of the water comes at the cost of a loss of efficiency of about 3% because there is a bevel gear to turn the drive shaft from vertical to horizontal. The pod motors are generally direct drive. However the pod motor are a large object immediately in front of the prop which induces more drag than the smaller bevel gear housing for the Elco. This drag is probably results in an efficiency loss of 1-2%.
Elco trades efficiency for reliability. If the impeller fails, the motor stops receiving cooling water and the operator realizes that there has been a failure, the motor can probably be run at reduced output without overheating and damaging the motor.
In the event of shaft seal failure of a pod motor, the motor will short out and not run at all. It may or may not be permanently damaged.
I've owned the newport and used it probably 5 times. The honest reason I went with it was: 1) there is a lake near me that only allows electric, and 2) it was the cheapest. Initially I was impressed with it for the price. The battery seemed to be lasting a long time in my view. Recently I had a couple issues. The charger wires which hook onto the battery got wet and basically ruined. I contacted them and it was pretty annoying. It was a back and forth where it seemed like the person responding was always new and kept asking the same questions I just asked. This took so much of my time it enraged me and eventually I left a bad review based on this. This triggered them to finally respond and send me a new charger wire. Still not happy about this as it was just a $25 part and they wasted a lot of my time. The other issue I had was I took it out once and at the dock it said the battery was fully charged. After getting about 200 yards from the dock the charge suddenly completely depleted. Luckily I had enough juice to get back. This has only happened once and I'm not sure why but it definitely has me scared to get too far from the dock or to take it out on larger lakes.
Good to hear another perspective. Thanks!
Always check your batteries with a meter before leaving
@@jimmyg3855are you saying read CCAs before each outing ? If it's necessary it's necessary but that's a lot
@@adamnorton748 read the volts DC and use a battery chart to check your actual capacity ie. 13.8 v is aprox x capacity 13.1 v is aprox x capacity.
Appreciate the reviews, we live in interesting times where I feel like we are on the verge of some good things.
So I finally got to test out the NT300 on my Old Town Sportsman 154 last weekend. I have to say, I was honestly amazed at what this thing could do. Not only did we get up to 6.6mph (fully loaded with my wife and dog) but we traveled roughly 5 miles at 50-60% throttle going about 4.5-5mph and still had 3/5 bars showing on the battery meter once at rest after getting back to the boat launch.
Reasons I chose this motor over the others:
it weighs 26lbs making it super portable.
Having the batteries mid-ship makes a huge difference on my Old Town.
The fact that you don't have to use proprietary batteries is also huge on this platform - you can add other 36v in parallel or build your own battery setup.
Here's my take on range/speed: NONE of these motors should be run at WOT because you WILL kill the battery. I run on a 5 mile long reservoir in central MD (boat launch is smack in the middle). I don't need to do 7mph nor do I want to. 4.5-5mph is plenty for me (50-60%) and the bigger picture is I'm not burning up the 40lb Minn Kota trolling motor I was using to get me from point a to point b. The fact is I have the power there if I need it. Like say if a storm creeps in I know I can get back to the launch but for general use half throttle is perfect. These are not intended to go fast as you stated but they are meant to propel and this one certainly does that as I was throwing a wake for the first time from my boat.
Newport was kind enough to upgrade me to the 50 amp hour battery since the 30 was sold out, I got lucky there but again you can always run other batteries in parallel and double your amp hours. I'd rather have the power when I need it.
I can't do an honest ranking because I haven't demoed any of the others, but I would say that Epropulsion is out in front for sure. They put a lot of time in thought into their motor. I just couldn't justify spending an extra $1,000 for a battery that floats and extra range.
So far I've had no issues with this motor but I will give honest feedback if I do. Have to say Newport's customer service has been nothing but top notch since I placed the order back in March!
I plan to do my own review in the coming weeks with my GoPro and other cameras, first time making a video.
Thanks again for your review. It's certainly helpful for the people that are trying to decide and pull the trigger!
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Great review! Thank you for saving me so much time, money, and effort!
This is a very useful video comparing the latest small electric motors. Very thorough. Thank you.
No prob
I run one of their trolling motors, the Newport, and specifically for a kayak on my canoe and it’s very quiet and with the batteries I’ve chosen because of the weight factor as long as I run on a low setting, I could pretty much run for a long long time, but like all this that I’m learning from you if you run these full speed, you don’t have any battery life so for me as long as I’m just trolling around it’s fine and then just bring the extra battery to get home. Thank you for doing this it’s a big insight to me it tells me that, I’m just as well off with the regular trolling motor for the price. It’s funny I can almost paddle as fast as I can run with the motor and that’s a big thing to.
The reason some companies make dorky claims about power is to take advantage of the mistake in customers minds that bigger motors should cost more. That is how ICE motors have been priced. Electric motors should be most heavily scrutinized for range (at needed thrust), weight and lifespan.
You can buy double the power in an electric motor for 20% more money, but double the range costs double the money.
Buying an electric outboard that only works with a proprietary battery is absolutely a mistake. Batteries will continue to get better and cheaper while there is absolutely no reason to beleive a company will pass those saving on to you.
By my values the E-prop wins this and it isn't even close.
-light and small with equivalent thrust
-works with 3rd party batteries
-offers compelling battery package with super convenient features at the price of cheap 3rd party
-trounces the competition int the most importance metric -range!
-even has a unique propeller protection
Great job on this presentation!. Could you tell me if the Spirt tilts ups and holds well for beach launches of a Kayak?
Thank you Excellent informative video just what we needed
I like these 48v systems. I want to find a way to use I ebike batteries for this. Between the bikes I have 4 48v batteries about 600wh each.
Nice overview of these leading brands! Thank you
Great overview! Those of us on Team 3rd-Party Battery don't want display screens on the motor, since a lithium capacity readout can only be accurate if the screen's chip has pre-programmed the battery's capacity, so it'll give wrong information if you plug in a different capacity than the factory pack. Instead of integrating a screen that can only work with the proprietary battery, I wish they'd bring the price down and leave the screen out, assuming we're all going to buy our own battery monitors.
There should be universal Lithium algorithms out there. I think they have found a way to do that now.
@@TinyBoatNation It's not feasible for the most part... they can design their circuit board to accurately display state of charge as long as they know the capacity upfront, but as soon as you plug in a different capacity, their display will begin reading wrong because their circuit board has no way to communicate with the 3rd-party battery to find out its capacity. Batteries don't have a communication port most of the time. The motor manufacturer certainly could just count the number of amps charged and discharged over a few cycles to guess capacity, but that's not a reliable way to update the monitor either, since a boater can discharge anything from 1% to 100% each time, and the circuit board wouldn't have any way to differentiate or even to tell if it's the same battery each time. So it's just impossible for a monitor to accurately display state of charge for all batteries unless it gives the customer the ability to reprogram it with new capacity settings. If they have programmability as a feature, I'd be impressed, but I doubt they do because it would encourage customers to purchase 3rd-party batteries more often, which I think they want to avoid.
@@eagleray1 Their tiller handle allows you to specify the amp hour capacity of the external third party battery and from there it will do rudimentary coulomb counting to calculate the state of charge. This is what most devices do anyway since the discharge voltage curve is so flat for lithium, however you won't know if the pack is out of balance and one or more cells are dangerously low compared to the rest. This isn't the best way...but better than nothing. I think we are very lucky that they "allow" it to work with third party batteries. When I first saw the external battery cable for the spirit 1.0 I assumed it would require the BMS communication cable. I bought 6 ego 12ah batteries off of ebay and stuffed them into a pelican case. :) Total cost was about $330 for each battery, $60 for a used 1520, and another $100 in wiring fuses, diodes, etc.
@@grantstockly I'm impressed they allow capacity programming. That is much appreciated, but I wouldn't call us lucky for it. I'd call it basic extensibility that should be expected of all manufacturers. Imagine if you bought a Mac and then found out you couldn't copy your PC files onto it because it used a different file type. That was once a thing, but the entire tech industry accepted the customer's expectation of basic extensibility a long time ago. Companies across multiple industries, including motor brands, battery brands, power tool brands, etc., haven't figured out how important basic extensibility is with batteries yet, but it sounds like ePropulsion is an exception. Regarding 3rd-party options, EGO would be the one option that's just as expensive as buying a drastically overpriced proprietary ePropulsion pack. One of the most important reasons for basic extensibility is competitive pricing. The cheapest option to DIY a 1276WH li-ion pack would be less than $300 total ($220 in recycled cells, $30 BMS, $10 of marine-grade Ancor cable, $40 buffer for the enclosure).
Great video!! Any new thoughts for August 2024. A new winner?? Keep up the great work!!
Which one is the most efficient and long lasting at trolling speeds of 2-3mph and also which one does have the finer RPM adjustments? I don't care about max speeds and whatnot, only trolling speeds, as I'd like to know if they're a viable option to replacing a trolling motor or not.
Why would you spend thousands on an electric outboard if your goal is trolling? Just get a trolling motor.
@@will903 Because I do not have the real estate to put it in my boat at the bow, and a trolling motor isn't quick enough to go from point A to point B where I fish. It would take me 5 minutes or so with a 55#, whereas those electric outboards would be much quicker, and could still allow me to troll. My boat is weighty, a 55# is not enough to power it, and I refuse to go above 12V as LiPo4 is way too expensive here, and a dual (or more) 12V battery setup to bring it to 24V, 36V or 48V in some cases for trolling motors is WAY too costly AND heavy. Plus, at that point, I'd rather have a dedicated all-rounder electric outboard for the few lakes I go that require an electric outboard since 2020. We all have our preferences and there's a few reasons other than these that I didn't mention and won't mention, just like I could ask a bass fisherman "Why do you have 4 or 5 sonars? just get one big one instead and splitscreen it!". I see a lot of anglers with 2+ sonars, just their setup alone in sonars is worth more than my entire boat+trailer+outboard. Just to give you an idea, a decent 12V battery, 100Ah (or close to that, depending on manufacturers) costs around 300-400$ here, so 2 batteries would be 800$, 4 batteries would be about 2000$ with taxes for a 24V 200Ah setup, which is SOMETIMES necessary around here due to the way the lakes I fish are setup (12-15mph winds creates waves over 2 foot high, theres some very small "rapids", etc...)
@@will903 Also, as a sidenote, most of the lakes I used to fish are now 4 strokes or electrics only... so, why would I waste thousands on a 4 strokes if I could spend 2 or 3 thousands on an electrical that will someday become the "norm" almost everywhere around here? heh... I'll keep my 2 stroke on hand because theres 2 places I fish that will most likely never become 4stroke or electric only (way too big for electric only, and they wouldnt be able to restrict 2 strokes, as they are over 50% of the boats on the lake... a.k.a. wakeboard, tires, etc...)
The latest models from Elco have Bluetooth connectivity.
They look like traditional outboards because they're sourcing their cases from the same manufacturer as Yamaha and Tohatsu.
Which means third party add-ons fit. I just finished rigging a standard cable steering system to my EP9.9.
It does have an impeller, and it "pees". You do need to change oil and replace the impeller.
Torqeedo and EPropulsion, though, need their seals replaced regularly, or they'll fail and water will get into the motor.
I’m thinking about getting an Elco. Currently I have a Honda 50 hp outboard on 18 ft pontoon. Do you think it would be an easy switch? How fast mph can you go with the 9.9?
@@sadaftracy9972 Mine is a sailboat, I'm using the Elcos as auxiliaries. It isn't going to be fast, no matter what I do.
Gets me in and out of harbor fine, though.
Thank you so much for making this video ! I’ve been in the market for over a month ready to pull the trigger on an e-outboard for one of my long distance adventure skiffs.
The problem I have run into is I have tech questions I need answered and after 3 straight weeks , calls, emails, social media , etc… I have recieved ZERO responses / info back from manufacturers and / or retailers. It breaks my heart to “dis” these companies but the truth is the truth. I’m left literally Motorless for a skiff I’ve built and disenchanted would be an absolute understatement. If these companies and retailers are going to launch these motors and make them available, they’ve gotta get their stuff together. CUSTOMER SERVICE RULES, and 4 of these 5 brands AND retailers FAILED.
Cheers to a great informative video. Perhaps you’d be a good resource for some of my gritty tech questions? Pretty please!
PS. TBN was one of the first places I reached out to for purchasing and tech info. HELP!
If you contact our main shop in Georgia, we can give you Tech questions at least on the spirit. We can’t speak for the others. Sorry to hear you’re having such terrible customer service problems with the others.
Thank you. I’ve actually called the (404) area code phone number / Extension 3 multiple times and always no answer/vm is full. I’ve also tried the “contact us” type form with no luck.
@@diywaterworld Please give TBN another chance. :) They were busy when I tried contacting them too, but they are amazing. Nick talked through everything with me and made sure I was happy. They have also extended their free shipping option into the season as well. I can't wait for the Spirit 1.0 I ordered to arrive. :)
I've spoken to Torqeedo asking general questions several times and have always heard back from them, although it's been a couple years.
The Torqeedo service center in CT got back to me when my 10+ year Travel 1003 needed work. They also fixed it with in a few days of dropping it off.
@@TinyBoatNation If I was you, I would wait for next year. Troqueedo will have a new one. Also, check Motoskiff, the lightest one so far. Should be available next year as well.
What are those 2 Legs on the boat for lack of others word on each side of the motor and what are they for?
I just purchased the Newport and so far I’m pleased with it, gotta do some tweaking in moving weight around, but I also went with lithium batteries that were from a different company
Let us know how you like it after more us.
Which battery did you buy for it? 3rd party batteries are available for it? How heavy are they and what did they sell for?
Also, how do you get a readout of battery life if not using a battery made by Newport?
Im building a new electric pontoon. Curious what range you are getting and what battery you used. Sounds to me like the biggest complaint in this video should have been about the battery the newport used, and not the motor itself.
I have a lot of Makita 18v XLT tools, and a couple - like the hedge trimmer - that use two 18v batteries in series to make 36v. I have seen Makita XLT-formatted "Battery Docks" online for less than $15 ea. They are just a snap-in holder for Makita XLT batteries with electrical leads that allow you to use the battery as source of 18v DC power. It seems me that two of these holders in series could power the Newport. The whole setup: two holders and a half-dozen spares could be installed in a tidy waterproof box. It might not make sense for most people but I have two Makita 6 Ah batteries and six Makita 5 Ah batteries, so I am very much wedded to that platform.
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Great review. Thank you. Have a Torqeedo 1103CL. And, wasn’t impressed with range. Been wondering if I would have been better off with a Honda, Merc., or Tohatsu gas powered 5 or 6 HP outboard. When I watch that battery falling so quickly at full speed on a breezy day on the Currituck Sound, it just makes me nervous about possibly having to paddle home in the wind. Your review was helpful. But, I still can’t make up my mind. Any tips or suggestions from you would be much appreciated. Thanks again for a very thorough review of the best electric options out there.
There is no comparison between the range of a gas motor or a high tech lithium motor. But if you prefer such a motor as I do, you have to live with less range. You can always buy an extra battery, but they are pricey. Solar panels are also available if you have a boat with room to place one.
I generally get about a 10 mile range on the Torqeedo 915 battery, but I have to go at slower speeds some of the time to get that. But more often the range I need is closer to 5 or 6 miles back & fourth, and it's fine for that. I'm not comfortable with the idea of keeping a gas motor in my sedan. I use my boat for sight seeing exclusively. At some locations I'd like to visit require the range of gas or a 2nd battery if I really want to go to them, but there are plenty of places I'm able to visit with what I have, but I wouldn't be able to visit some of them with the limited power of a trolling motor, which is why I upgraded.
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I purchased a "used" Torqeedo Travel 1003s 9 years ago that was 2-3 years old.
It broke last year, and I just had it fixed.
Torqeedo came out with a truly unique product and is the industry leader in these type of motors, originally with zero competition. With their competitors today, you have to wonder if 12 years later you will still be able to buy a replacement battery or have them serviced.
I have an official Torqeedo repair center an hour away from me. I tend to think there are more of them than the others, but check what is near you as all products will eventually need servicing.
Torqeedo is by far the more widely distributed and far more in circulation. Torqeedo motors and parts such as batteries, propellers, magnets, shear pins and many other parts are sold locally to me at several different places. I'm not sure I could find any places in the region that sell ePropultion or other competitors.
Torqeedo tells me the motors should be serviced every 5 years, and I assume the same from the others. Most of my bill ($530) was for standard servicing replacing various parts they suggested, plus the plastic propeller had broken ($100 of the bill). They said there was no visible corrosion on the motor and that the expensive pylon/s looked fine. I used it in salt water some of the time, always rinse after use and try to take the motor on a lake with in a couple days after salt water use to clear out any salt more thoroughly. I don't think any of these motors should be primarily used in salt water and certainly people have shown both Torqeedo & ePropultion motors rotted out from salt water. And if your going to do so, at the very least setup a tank or something to run them in fresh water after each salt water use if you want them to last.
Ownership of these kind of motors is not just about the initial purchase, but also about the ability to get them serviced and buy various replacement parts with the least amount of hassle. And also how much you trust the company. I tend to have more trust in Torqeedo than I do of the Chinese ePropultion who more or less directly copied the motor, but only sells it a little cheaper. I'd welcome a much cheaper knockoff. The Newport motor at $1000 is cheaper, but the included Torqeedo battery is also $1000 (for the newer 915 battery).
Newport does not appear to offers a light weight battery like the ones Torqeedo & ePropultion does, and the batteries they offer are similarly priced in the $1000 or so price range but much heavier and more awkward to carry like a car battery or deep cycle battery form factor. I do like the idea their motor is cheaper, but it ends up about 1/3 cheaper or so but less convenient because of the battery. Perhaps fine if you have a docked boat and can charge it at the dock. I completely pack my inflatable and all accessories every use to fit in my car's trunk.
if I had one of the other motors I tend to think getting it fixed would be more difficult and required to mail it for sure.And the batteries on these require more complex and more expensive shipping methods, and if your battery isn't also looked at, how do you know if it's not your problem?
I think there is certainly room for this kind of technology to come out far cheaper from a new company, but I feel if the price isn't way cheaper, I'm gonna go with the real thing. Do you buy Coca-Cola or Sam's Choice? At least Sam's Choice is a tiny fraction the price of Coke, and not just a little cheaper. I feel the same when buying "knockoff" products.
Very well said. This is the reason I just picked up a Torqeedo 1103C.
You are wrong that Elco doesn’t have a digital readout. They offer a “dash app” that tells you speed (MPH, KPH, or knots), RPMs, and remaining battery charge (graphically and numerically) as well as volts, amps, and watts.
Great review. I miss the relation between the electric engines and the boat size. Like what is maximum size of boat these can be used with.? Maybe havo two of them on a large boat.?
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Do any of these motors kick up if hitting an object? I run a lot of shallow Rocky rivers
The Epropulsion Spirit 1.0 Plus allows for this. You can set it up so the shaft pivots on a pin.
Do you have any safety concerns? On putting a smaller engine on a larger jon boat. Something like a 9.9 on a 17-20 ft roughneck
Nope. It just won’t go very fast.
I get 5.2 to 5.5 mph at 75% throttle on my 15 foot pontoon. The last 25% of the throttle on my Ray motor is useless as it just blows the water apart. Like Tiny Boat says, it works, not safety issues, it just wont go anywhere fast.
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if you are powering a canoe, it's nice to have the battery up front so you don't need a bucket of water in the bow for ballast.
Im running a haswing protraur 65lb brushless on a roundabout watercraft and it pushes me about 6mph
When a motor is a full speed you won't be able to calculate range accurately, the torqeedo and the others are just guesses, this happens with gas, electric
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Nice roundup, thanks.
Thanks for watching!
I love my Newport. I have the NK180 kayak motor, and works awesome. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the NT300 from Newport. Their costumer service is second to none. You actually get to talk to someone, and not have to go through 3 or 5 different people say like Mercury!!
The Newport is not a bad motor. They fixed a lot of things recently with it and it’s pretty powerful.
Good video! I have a 16 foot high side Clakacraft drift boat I use to float rivers and fish lakes. Depending on the body of water I run one or two 55 pound thrust Motorguide stern mount trolling motors and use two 12V, 100AH Lipo4 batteries. This provides me with redundant motors and batteries in the event of battery or motor failure. Full throttle I am at about 4-4.5 MPH and allows me to run up stream on slower moving rivers. Each motor draws around 45 Amps at full throttle so I am probably running around 1.5HP with the dual motors. It would be interesting to try a 3HP electric...
Very interesting perspective. It's always interesting to hear what others think. Myself, we've had the Torqeedo for over six years and it's been running flawlessly. Granted we are pushing only a 10' dinghy, but I do use it extensively for fishing. I have two batteries and swap them around when I get back to our sailboat where we charge them from solar (that's been great). At the time we bought the Torqeedo, I think the ePropulsion was just new and had not much of a reputation, so we went with the tried an true of German engineering. ;)
The size/weight or need of an external battery for the others would be a deal breaker for me.
You dont have to use their batt . U can use a step down or up converter to power the tourqeedo
I can recommend NV for sure...Im happy over here with my NV55 for 150$ that pushes my fully loaded canoe 4.5 mph for over 6 hours with two 100ah lipos.
Gimmicks galore. Call me old school and cheap, but at the end of the day it's wattage that matters and it takes 750 watts to make 1hp regardless of it being a 12V, 48V or even a 600V motor. So that 1300 watt motor is really only 1.75hp. The sweet spot for range seems to be in the 150 to 250 watt speed settings, with 400-500 watts being the sweet spot for more speed without killing the range too badly. A 12 Volt 50 Amp motor makes 600 watts and any of the ones with brushless motors are variable speed. That's 2 hours of run time on a single 12v 100 AMP Hour battery WOT. A 12V battery also makes powering LED NAV lights and accessories much easier which might be an important consideration.
Normal deep cycle batteries don't have panache like these lithium ones do and yes they do weigh 55 pounds instead of 20-25 pounds to have equal capacity. Unless you're in a lightweight canoe or kayak where handling is paramount, deep cycle batteries have several major advantages. They're ¼ the price, can use the same 120V charger as your car, can be completely recycled (all batteries only last so long😟) and deep cycle batteries don't tend to result in an up close fireworks display should they ever short out inside like lithium ion batteries.⚡😨
What I'd rather see is a good 12V 50 amp (600 watts) model with a nice flared rudder-like shaft below the water line like the Merc instead of a just a simple metal or composite tube, a clean head design like the NT and a price under $500. A couple of 90-100 amp hour ($150 each) deep cycle batteries, one wired near the motor to keep the required 8ga wire length minimized, and the spare for just in case or for longer trips (bonus that it can be placed where its best for balance - the bow for instance), a nice battery box, and maybe a cheap small 10-15 pound troller ($200) stashed away onboard as a backup. Why spend several thousand to go 4-5mph when $1000 could do it with full redundancy and without the headaches of proprietary batteries?😎
You can quote those stats, but if you pair them against each other back to back, on the same boat, the performance is there in plain sight.
Good info. Thanks for that!
You bet!
Thank you ….well done!
5hp at 24v is 160A most budget lifepo4 batteries don't like draw over 1c so more like 200Ah.
5hp is 3.84kw.
For me I'd want something in the 5-8hp range and a 2hrs at full power so take the peek power and multiple by 2x for battery needed for the 6kw mercury that's a 14kwhr battery at 48v that's 250Ahr.
I have a diy built outboard using a efoil system on a 72v power system that crushes all of this with 3x 6kw packs.
Over 16hp of peak with 7-8hp rms output.
FYI 1hp = 768w this is a know standard.
for reference, I have a Haswing Protruar G 3HP and a 24V 100Ah battery running it, and with a mixed amount of throttle up and down from "first click" to highest output over 4 hours it didn't drop a single bar of power on the meter on top of the control head. I built a "center console" out of this, a Bass Pro Shop Pond Prowler 8, a cable helm system, and the midsection steering assembly from a dead gas motor with this and even with two people in the boat it performed great. I get a little over 5mph according to GPS at highest throttle. (video of tooling around in it in my channel)
buy j88 sóar eltric sail boat 2 hous 9.5 kñots 2²,5 nm toopßoerd
One question you should answer is how many full charges can you do for each battery
Idk. I go about 10 km offshore. Just seems like the batteries required for trips like this on a small boat are too cumbersome. Interesting though.
Mercury Avator 7.5e or Torqeedo Travel xp?
The reason that the Newport battery monitor is wrong when the motor is running is because the system is using battery voltage to estimate remaining capacity. Battery voltage always drops under load and recovers under no load. The better method is to use a coulomb counter to determine the remaining capacity and to ignore battery voltage. However, Using a coulomb counter on 3rd party batteries is a little bit tricky because the system doesn't know the state of charge of the battery when it is connected. The user would have to input this info or it would have to come from the BMS.
Awesome review Mike!
Great review!
As always I enjoy your episodes. Some things that interest me about your reviews is the batteries. Did you test all these motors with the same standard battery, voltage, wattage, and Amp hour capacity? If yes great!! If not could you please outline the differences in battery capacity? I run my Newport NT300 for over an hour full throttle continuously and have 40-60% depending on conditions of battery life left. I am willing to pay for you to fly up to my area and test my NT 300 and evaluate its performance on a much larger boat. Lets do what's right for the electric outboard community and provide the most accurate true scientific assessment of these motors. Please do not take this as an attack on your content, I only want to achieve clarity on the facts of performance. LOVE your Channel and what it has achieved for the fishing community.
Run it at wide-open throttle until it about dies. Publish a video of how long that took and be honest with your findings.
@@TinyBoatNation Will do!!
Did this get published?@@ShaneFlintOutdoors
That epropulsion seems like the best buy in everything I have looked at. In terms of design and styling the Mercury wins. I’m not a fan of Torqeedo products since friends and I owned and used some of them like the model 403 & 1103. Wouldn’t even consider EP-5 due to not having digital read out.
Facts.
What didn't your friends like about the Torqeedo's? I love my Torqeedo 1003s, and it's over t 10 years now. I just had it repaired recently, and fortunately there is a Torqeedo service center in my area. I doubt there is one for ePropulsion.
I'm less trusting of the Chinese Torqeedo Travel "knock off" by ePropulsion. We'll see if people can buy batteries or get their motors serviced in 10 years. So many hi-tech products of this sort are here today, gone tomorrow. The least they could have done is made them a lot cheaper, then there would have been more of a reason to consider them over Torqeedo. All they did was steal the design from Torqeedo which was totally unique, make it quieter and a couple other fair insignificant changes, and ultimately raise the cost of this kind of product when the price should have been a lot less as a knock off.
The Newport motor is cheaper, but I don't see any comparable highly portable lithium batteries to that of Torqeedo or ePropultion available.
Ultimately any motor will need servicing eventually, and the ability to get that done from a trusting place and without shipping is important part of the consideration of buying a motor. Sure the Chinese can rip off just about anything.....but do you trust them when they do so?
I’m getting a WILDERNESS SYSTEMS
Recon 120 HD Sit-On-Top Pedal Drive Kayak. Has a sorry of transom. I think the EPropulsion is the best choice. Thoughts?
Buyer beware.I had my motor of two years and only used it in the summer time for a total motor use of 20hr. Then my epropulsion spirit 1 plus motor stopped giving thrust to the motor/propeller and I had to be towed back to shore. And the warrenty is 2 years not 5 and the company's customer service is non exsistant .
I have a 21 ft sailboat which weighs 2400 lbs but with me and my stuff and guests lets say 3400 lbs. The Epropulsion looks like it can get me out to the sailing grounds and back to dock. 20min each way.
If the elements are rough I sail. if no wind then I can use the motor but i have to be close to the dock that's the biggest problem.
They have solar
Range depends on the amp hours capacity of the battery used, and the power consumption of the motor (more power is better, you might need it some time!). But I can't believe you didn't compare the batteries. BTW if you have lower volts, then you use thicker cables to handle the increased current, the resistance will be the same as the wire thickness compensates for it, but you don't get less power. So 24V uses half the amount of current than a 12V motor, but then you have to connect 2 12V batteries in series to get 24V that's double the amount of batteries. The only thing you save with higher voltage is in copper wire.
We do same thzing with salsa and chips. No lie
To get 5 HP from 24 V would require about 155 Amps. Just sayin.
Even though Li batteries are getting lighter, hanging it over the back of the transom is the worst place to put it.
I know.
wróbg
There is a lot more to come next year. So, I will wait to buy one. Torqueedo will have a new one as well as MotoSkiff which is going to be very exciting ! I was very disappointed with the Mercury. Too hevay to start with and too expensive for what it is !
Suzuki is supposed to have one in 2024 and several more between then and 2030.
Next time consider the displacement speed of the hull compared to motor power.
Looks like I’ll be sticking with my 65lb thrust trolling motor.
I'm leaning towards newports battery being junk and advertised as superior , Nt300 closed throttle to wide open throttle if the motor peaks at 40amps to the terminals. and IF the cells newport offers can output only 27amp hours (90%) of it's claimed advertised output of 30a before bms kicks in, which is common in chinese lifepo4s. The newport battery realistically will only run for 30-40 minutes on a full charge. which I'm think explains why you have such bad run times. Newport is slapping a high price logo on junky batteries.
Alright I came back to comment this, My clamp on amp meter read a continuous 35.3 amps at the terminal while traveling up-stream full throttle on a 16ft scanoe. light bymself. I think my theory was correct, Newports battery is not adequate enough to run this motor for an hour at full throttle. 27amps / 35amps = 0.77 of an hour of run time with newports battery, full throttle. AT BEST. once newports battery cycles run down and the battery has been used for a year or so. dang you'll be looking at 30 minutes of full throttle.
I think Newport has released an entire new line of batteries since this video, all these early batteries were labeled "prototypes" and now the new batteries include integrated Bluetooth monitoring . They might have stepped up their battery game .
Newport is by far my favourite. I dont want to pay 3x times the amount of money for Batteries.
And it looks like shiit if there is a Battery on top of the Motor.
The Mercury is just unnecessary humongous....
However they really should change the battery percentage calculation. Based on drwan ampere instead of the voltage. Discharge curve of lifepo4 is too flat.
I have a Ray Electric Outboard. Would have been cool to include it in this review. They have been in business since 1974 and I believe the pre date Torquedo.
the price?
@@JosephMBoyer $7800. I posted this prior to checking current pricing. They used to be $4500 for the lowest go.
they look nice tho
@@JosephMBoyer They are. Where they differ is that there is a DC motor up top connected to a fully functioning lower unit like a gas motor. Most of these motors have the electronics under the water. Ray motors do not.
It's exciting to see such options for electric outboards, I favor the motor above the waterline with a water cooled block. However it seems manufacturing is easier with the motor submerged as new outboards are so. Love the competition to see what the future holds
With the Newport Vessels NT300 motor, all I see is cinematic slow motion cool guy videos. No technical videos from the Newport Vessels channel. I've been following E-Propulsion for a couple of years and searched all I could. I found a number of articles/videos/shows that they've appeared in, including the founder himself. Maybe that's Newports scheme, "you can be kewl too, buy our stuff..."
Walmart
Torqeedo is by far the easiest to find information on. They've been out for more than a dozen years, they are far more widely distributed and far more of these motors in circulation to hear from other users.
Wow! Did know there were that many electric motors for boats.👍👍👍👍
There are actually more, but a lot of them are exclusive to EU
@@TinyBoatNation wow, didn’t know that.
Torqeedo invented this concept, but there are competitors now. I'm not convinced the others are worth considering so far though.
The NT300s trim was easily off by like ~35° 😑
The merc doesnt even seem usable until they release the 35e
Great and honest comparison. Technology is evolving indeed, but I'll stick to gas for the foreseeable future.
Respect.
I like the Nt300 for the price of 999. but it's going up to 1200 soon. I dont think it's worth the 1200.
I agree
@@TinyBoatNation especially without the prop stopping like u did with your hand.. that and the cable is janky. for 1200 is a pass
Yeah they tripping on the price on them motors thats crazy
The Mercury is too strong for your small boat. Once at hullspeed you are
only waisting the extra propulsion it can generate with its 3-blade screw.
Listen the " LOOK " IS REALLY something you should not be worried about . Great video tho 1st one i see go into deep study about the motors . Thanks 🙏
In the world of engineering, 746 watts = 1hp.
yes
33.6V is obviously 8s, charged to 4.2v. might be unsual but definitly not unique
Newport NT 300 is now $999.00 with LiTime 50 ah lithium battery $369.00. End of review.🤣
this was the worst review of engines, at the end you admit to be a 'fan boy' of Mercury and thus rate it higher. You clearly sandbag the Newport which based on the actual data you share should be #2 behind ePropulsion. And the Mercury should have been #5 - again based on your data. super annoyed at you for wasting my time.
Tell us you're a Newport fan without telling us.
I am a person wanting to get my first electric engine for my dinghy. I have no affiliations or prior preferences. @@TinyBoatNation
Torqeedo seals need to be replaced every 2 yrs or $1500 lower unit has to be totally replaced. Definitely not maintenance free.
And I use a china battery on it with the dying torqeedo one. China one shows volts not % left.
They need a weedless prop
Elco is a mistake. I have a 9.9 on a 1444 Jon boat, and it’s equivalent to a 3-4 hp gas. It looked like a whirlpool behind the transom until I modified a small hydrofoil to make it fit. Had to move up from 7 to 9 pitch to avoid ventilation problems. And I can’t go WOT because the motor will draw too many amps and cut out. Customer service is non-existent (they never reply) and you can’t get the motor serviced anywhere. You might be curious about Elco’s 50 hp, but you’ll break the bank on batteries and weight down the boat. I wasted thousands on this junk. Plus you might think it’s cool that it looks like a gas motor until you go on electric only makes and start drawing negative attention because people think you’re running gas. It’s loud. Lastly, the clamps didn’t fit over my transom, so I had to add a narrower jack plate. Annoying.
After the BS they pulled on me with a warranty clame I'll never buy a Newport vessels item again!
Out of all of the quality, performance specs, and daily running and user experience comparison to get so hung up on apperance and packaging seems really odd. Almost like you didn't actually use any of them and just went off of the comments of others and pictures. Not impressed.
I have the E propulsion and it's very poor quality ..
These motors are only good enough for lakes they won't go against a sea currant.
I have an epropulsion aswell and agree but mine will not even go against the current in a lake! It is so frustrating that the company does ignore their customer's and are only interest in sale and not service! What a waste on time and money!
Decals are wimpy looking
I'm glad you focused on what really mattered.