Torqeedo Electric Motors

[Richard Scott]

Further to the discussion on this motor in the Builder's thread, there is a good comparison piece on electric outboard motors, including the Torqeedo, in PBO this month (August # 488).

The Torqeedo seems to win hands down, but also benefits from being installed with an external battery as well as the built in battery.

[Matt Newland]

Yes, We read the article too. The only things I dont like about the torqeedo is cost, the noise (due to the gearbox, which helps the prop be more efficient) and the size of the prop, which might make it a little awkward in one of our wells.
We are keeping our eye on the electric outboard market though. One that PBO did not review is a new outboard from Korea, not yet in the shops. We are thinking of getting one and will let you know what its like.
If anyone has any experience of the torqeedo, then please let us know here!
Regards,
Matt

[Dave Hanlon]

Some comments on my experience with the Torqueedo in combination with the S17. The news is good and bad:


+ves

The travel 800 (the larger of the two foldable outboards) pushes the S17 (ply/epoxy) quite happily. I dont have a GPS and havnt measured her speed but Im pretty certain she gets up to her hull speed without too much effort. The manufacturers claim that she delivers the equivalent of 2HP at the screw and I think that's about right.


The ease of operation is fantastic. The unit is very light (just 12kg including battery, 8kg without)so shes incredibly easy to manipulate. The prop is indeed large but I have no problem getting the unit into position. The fact that you only have to deal with 8kg more than makes up for any awkwardness due to the large prop. However, I did cut the hole to suit the torqueedo and I don't know how this compares to the SB built boats but I definately kept the size of the hole to a minimum. Once shes in the well you click the battery in place, twist the grip and your away. Having forward and reverse gears is a real advantage w.r.t. a conventional sub-4HP OBM in my view. My wife has in fact just told me to type "its so easy to use even the wfe can use it". Also, the unit pulls as hard in reverse as in forward gears. As for the noise: come on Matt lets be fair, theres a bit of gear noise, its definately not silent, but next to, even an idling 2HP petrol motor the result is blisfully silent. My wife and I hold a normal conversation whilst listening to the occupants of other boats a hundred meters away shout at each other across the 1.5m beam of their boats!

-ves:

The LiMa cells are fantastically light, have an incredibly high charge density but... they are just too low in capacity to deliver the range we need. That said we do need to motor quite some way to open water, if you just want to get from a mooring to the start line then it's probbaly fine. At full crank I recon we get about 20mins per cell. At 3km/h I recon we get about 1.5-2hrs per cell depending on wind etc.

The geometry of the bracket is not quite right for the S17 well. The plastic bracket is quite chunky. There is a long distance between the shaft and the pivot point. As a consequence, when you tilt the motor she describes a longer arc than a conventionl OBM. No matter what I do I can't tip the motor such that the rudder/tiler isn't fouled. Again this might be a function of my home-build hole size but I realy hate the idea of cutting an even bigger hole. The head unit is quite high. This results in fouling the tiller when tilted such the motor is clear of the rudder.

To date, braking on the motor hasn't been a great success. As stated the bracket is a rather long affair. As a result I think the thing is a bit sloppy. I have to drop the shaft to the lowest position to place the prop such that shes doesnt foul the rudder (by the way we fix the motor and steer using the s17 tiller). Throwing the throttle into reverse when underway (I think) results in the shaft arcing to aft and the prop sometimes catches the rudder. The plastic prop takes quite a beating when confronted with the ply rudder. Again, perhaps being bolder when cutting the hole would have given more play but a stiffer bracket would defiately be beneficial.


The worst part of the story to date:

After sales service appears non-existant. For the price paid (Matt is right the system is expensive) I would expect better. For the resons of limited range discussed above I purchased a second LiMa cell (€500 a piece). My spare cell doesn't hold charge. It should be covered in the warraty but Ive been waiting two weeks for a response from Torqueedo. I'm not best pleased, it seems a bit shoddy to be honest. The season is slipping away!

All-in-all: The the design is great, the performance is also impressive, but I'm yet to be convinced that in combination with the s17 the result is what I would hope to achieve. I'll spend some more time trying to optimise the set-up so the last chapter isnt writen but whatever the outcome I will certainly need more battery power. I think in this respect that PBO is correct, a conventional lead acid cell would offer significant improvment (two cells for the 800 since its rated at 24-30V)but Im not sure this is an option for my model. I bought my unit at the close of 2006 whilst the lead-acid adaptor is a new option for the 801 introduced in 20007. I hope the adaptor also fits the old model but can't get confirmation. During my discussion with Torqueedo in Novemner 2006 they didn't volunteer that this option would be available just a month or two later. I can aprreciate they may have wanted to make a sale but again I think this is shoddy!