ePropulsion eLite Review | which is best: eLite, Spirit or Petrol outboard?

[@waterboy8999]

I'm extremely happy with my Spirit, bought after your extensive test in Venice. Its far easier to "fuel" up than the petrol outboard I'd had for 15 years. Love it!

[@philipwright7186]

Worth pointing out there are two European alternatives to this - the Temo and Remigo. I think the latter was the first to use this design form. They're both double the power of the eLite and about double the weight, but lighter than the Spirit and I'd say easier to handle. The Temo I believe has a removable battery so you could have a spare as backup. Something Yachting Monthly pointed out is that because of their design, they still act as a rudder even if the prop isn't spinning. Having said all that I really like the look of the eLite, a good option if you don't have masses of spare battery capacity onboard but still a very useful device in it's own right. And a lot cheaper than any of the others.

[@warrenthorp]

You had me there for a while. I was about to buy the spirit. Then during your vid I was thinking ‘hmmmm, maybe the elite’. Then at the last moment….back to the Spirit! Very useful review. Thank you.

[@jerrycooke6511]

He did go back to the Spirit but really unsure why. In his read more and in the vid the Eilte has a slightly lower range and speed. So why not the Elite? I missed something I guess.

[@milesbuckhurst504]

A good review. And I think a good assessment. I have a epropulsiom spirit for my little dinghy and a thrustme kicker, which is very similar to the unit you reviewed. I’m on a buoy in a Norwegian fjord. So the 4 kg Kicker is my go to and we tend to anchor close enough to shore to use that as a daily runner, because it is easy. The spirit is good for longer distances. But the Kicker has the same power and top speed. But much shorter running time if used at full power. But very quick to charge. So I do in fact prefer my Kicker. As you say - different usage situations call for different equipment.

[@montyspearo]

Good review. In regards to planing with petrol, longer boats need less power. Checkout True Kit Tactician video planing 2 up with 3.3hp.

[@ShaneEngelman]

My Spirit Evo’s battery went up in smoke in Tahiti in July. I’ve been waiting for ePropulsion support to ship an RMA, but they can’t air freight those batteries. I’m hoping for them to send me an eLite as the replacement. I had to buy a 3.3hp 2-stroke and the eLite would be a good backup.

[@rainfinger]

Great video from Aruba, seeing boats that were in Curacao.

[@svfairisle]

You need one to add to you all electric old hippie status Rauf!

[@rainfinger]

@@svfairisle Oh I forgot to ask, how does one charge the eLite and Spirit? Is it generator, solar or EcoFlow.

[@svfairisle]

@@rainfinger We charge it by solar usually, but you can charge them with anything

[@MistaEmPe]

Thx for the review

[@AndrewWedekind]

Another interesting technical episode, thank you. If you don't mind answering a couple of questions about a previously reviewed item which I am currently considering buying, the Fendertex fender, what model and what number of fenders, did you select for Fair Isle?

[@svfairisle]

Hi Andrew, we have 4 of the cylindrical and 2 ballon fenders, I can’t remember the exact size- model and we’re on our way to Annapolis now so I can’t check the paperwork on the boat. We kept two of our original fenders and one balloon fender so we do have fenders we can just pull out quickly in an emergency like someone dragging onto us. We haven’t been to the dock much since getting them in Portugal so they haven’t had much use. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been useful as for the Atlantic crossing and the whole season cruising the Caribbean we have been free of the annoyance of having loads of fenders hanging around being a PITA. We blew them up and deployed them in Aruba a few days ago as the boat is now on the dock while we travel to the boat show. Ten minutes of work blowing them up is a very good equation to be free of them the rest of the time.

[@AndrewWedekind]

@@svfairisle Thanks for your quick reply Steve. Fendertex recommend 4 x C84s (380mm x 800mm) for boats up to 50' but your boat, like my Island Packet, is quite a bit heavier than today's cruisers, so you may have been upgraded to a larger fender, which was why I was interested to know what you settled on.

[@GuySkellenger]

Great vid. I am really conflicted between the 2 with range being the issue. What would put me over the edge for the Elite (I prefer its design), can I adapt a 48v E-bike battery and use it as a back-up power source (nice and small)? As I understand it, the Spirit can be adapted for additional nonproprietary 48v batteries. but the standard battery is enough for me. The design of the Elite is great and its competitors like the Thrustme has a back-up attachable battery. the Remigo and Temo are the same design but 2+ the size and price. I have seen a number of videos where 48v E-Bike batteries are used in this fashion, but on cheap Amazon Eletric outboards as the primary power source

[@courcheval]

Can you slide a spare battery in like with the Nemo?

[@svfairisle]

No it’s all one unit

[@ooweesaler]

I fancy electric but just not enough range. We use dinghy at least twice a day. We have only 640w of solar and can't charge enough stuff now so not for us. I would appreciate ideas you have for keeping spray out of the dinghy 😉

[@svfairisle]

Yould be surprised at the range you can get, just can’t do it quickly! The spray issue is a big thing in the Caribbean because of the constant strong wind there’s always a heavy chop and with flat bottomed dinghy it creates a big vertical splash as you move which then gets blown across the dinghy. It really wasn’t a thing in the Mediterranean, can only remember getting slightly splashed once or twice but in the Caribbean we have to take spare clothes in a dry bag if we want to go somewhere and not be wet! If we were spending another season in the Caribbean I think I would buy a larger hard bottomed dinghy.

[@oldmansailing]

Thanks for that. I did wonder if it was any good.

[@svfairisle]

I think you’re doing a sterling job rowing though John. I’ve ordered some of your health supplement, maybe I’ll get the oars out too!

[@WilliamBell-t8k]

Do you have security concerns when you go ashore using the Spirit? If so, how do you ensure it doesn't 'walk'? Bill

[@svfairisle]

You can lock it just like any other outboard. The Spirit has the clamps that can be liked ( although the holes are a bit small, I just lock one to the metal bar behind it. With the elite there’s no point locking the clamp like other motors, no slots to do it anyway, as it detaches at the pivot pin, but there’s an eye at the top next to the display we just use the normal wire and a padlock straight to there. And of course you have the added advantage over a petrol outboard that the kill cord magnet is needed to actually run the motor so you can take it with you and avoid people being able to motor the dinghy away unless they happened to have a magnet the right shape with them

[@artsmith103]

The wattages from the little one shocked me. I power a 27 lb-ft motor with 55ah AGM for trolling a small lake. For battery sake i try to stay between 8-12 amps, less than 150W. Just a little faster than paddling.

[@svfairisle]

It’s more than just a trolling motor. I think to get an average small dinghy with two people up to hull speed (3-4 knots)should take maybe 400w, obviously depending on many things. You can power along at more than twice that with the Spirit but all that extra power will probably only earn you another knot tops. The real game chat will be when someone comes up with an electric outboard that gets two people on the plane

[@artsmith103]

@@svfairisle Thanks, I understand. The little motor/battery combo delivering 300-600W is shocking to me. Do you know what WattHr rating of the battery is?

[@AndrewJillings]

Just hyporthetically, if you wanted the power of the Spirit but could only lift the eLite, could you mount two eLites side by side? How hard would it be to build a bar that connected both tillers, and to connect the kill cords so you could pull both at once, but what about throttle control? It would certainly be useful to someone to lift two light engines rather than one heavy one.

[@svfairisle]

I don’t think that would really work. But in a way it’s not an issue as with the Spirit you just split the battery from the motor when you mount and dismount it. The foot of the Spirit is a bit heavier than the whole eLite, but not much.

[@michaelepollard1]

Can i ask if you have a short or long shaft with the spirit. I bought a long shaft for my 21 foot sailboat but was thinking of also using it on yhe dingy i have. Afraid it might be too long.

[@svfairisle]

We have the short, could have gone extra short with our flat bottomed dinghy but I always think a touch of extra drag is better than cavitation

[@kodiak7]

This is the tech corner ive been waiting for. (Electric vs petrol) I’m leaning towards torqeedo 1600w for my 3m tender)

[@colinchambers3433]

Torqeedo has a list of 21 things that can fail, my first one lasted three years. My first investment was £2K pounds . so I bought a second one. Big mistake , second cuts out.?My 1965, seagull is now back on my transom. (Reliability reliability, reliability)

[@svfairisle]

I stayed away from Torquedo, they had a bad reputation when I first got the eProp. They also had a very annoying whine with the gearbox models. I thought they may have improved reliability when they went direct drive like the eProp, but maybe not!

[@RudyBosselaers]

Do you think you could use this motor as a rudder on a sailing dinghy like dinghyGo ?

[@RudyBosselaers]

A foldable propeller would be nice while using it as a rudder

[@svfairisle]

No, I don’t think it’s deep enough. We have the clamp all the way up on our flat bottomed dinghy and it’s about right. So anything larger with a v bottom / keel will mean it’s barely in the water unless the transom is weirdly low.

[@svfairisle]

Just had a look at the DinghyGo though and it looks really cool, do you have one?

[@RudyBosselaers]

No not yet but i’m considering it. What holds me back is you can’t put a motor on when the rudder is used while sailing reducing the possibilities to use it as a tender. It’s either sailing or motoring not both. The versatility would increase a lot if you could combine rudder and motor … The transom of a dinghygo is about as high as your dinghy i think, it might be possible …

[@svfairisle]

@@RudyBosselaers is there not space to clamp the eLite next to the rudder? It shouldn’t make much difference with a motor like this if it’s not central and if it gets in the way of swinging the rudder while sailing it’s just a push button to lift in & off so you could have it inside while sailing

[@lenwhatever4187]

"It's cheap" Um no. I think the trolling motor works just fine at half the price (motor plus battery, plus higher pitch prop). The dinghy gets hull speed with no problem and the range at full power is double using just half the charge of a 100AH battery. Both trolling motor and battery are light enough my wife feels comfortable handing them to me over the edge of our boat. Anyway, thank you for the review. I think it is good to showcase electric motors. Assuming 3.5Kts (3.8 if you are picky) for an electric motor (hull speed), what does the 9.8hp give you on the same hull? I expect even on a plane it is not much more than 10kts. Is it really worth it? I am sure the elite will have some good uses (like the canoe you mentioned where finding space for e battery is....) and the spirit looks good for those with deeper pockets than mine.

[@artsmith103]

Are you saying extended range for same ah with steeper pitch blade?

[@svfairisle]

As I said in the video we are more than happy with the Spirit as our outboard and have been for the 3 years we used it in the Med. We are glad to have the 9.8 Tohatsu as an alternative for some of the long trips we have found ourselves having to do in the Caribbean but sure we could do without it and because of the hassle of getting it on and off will probably barely use it now we have the Spirit up and running.

[@lenwhatever4187]

@@artsmith103 The steeper pitch prop does not extend the range of a trolling motor, it helps take a motor meant for a 16 to 20 ft fishing boat and get the most out of it for use as a dinghy outboard for a boat the weights about a quarter as much. I would have to do a speed/current testing with both to answer if one will give better range than another. The range difference comes from the bigger battery which is still less than 30 pounds. SO my comment is that a trolling motor with a bigger Lifepo4 Lithium battery and even an extra prop is still only half the price of the eLite for a similar performance but more range (the eLite is rated 45min and we get well over two hours). Even with the original prop our dinghy goes pretty close to hull speed of 3.5 kts and that last .5 kt can take 4 to 10 times the power... so close means within .5 kts. The eLite does make sense for some things or some people. It would be good in a boat were space is tight and a battery and cables would be a problem or for someone who found choosing a motor and battery separate difficult or someone who just wants an all in one unit.... but you pay extra for that. Is it worth it? not in my case.

[@artsmith103]

@@lenwhatever4187 That was explained more clearly. Yes, 100ah is going to extend range vs smaller by stressing battery less plus of course more Ah. The weight doesn't bother you because you're using LiFePO4. Your only disadvantage is 12V, the eMotor is probably 40V. Benefits of bigger battery is why I have 55ah vs 35ah. I use lead so 100ah in the dinghy is kind of prohibitive.

[@simonsezz2293]

I think you guys are going to need a bigger boat for all the stuff you have….

[@HAL_NOVEMILA]

I very much dislike the idea of having an integrated battery...

[@4437RR]

I wonder why?

[@HAL_NOVEMILA]

@@4437RR All batteries eventually go bad, and much sooner than the rest of the hardware in the motor, having it integrated in the device it means that at some point I'll have to either replace it (even though it could otherwise work) or pay for an expensive repair... Also batteries are slow to charge, with an integrated battery I cannot use the device while it's charging, with an external battery I can keep one spare and swap it when necessary negating one of the main downsides of electric propulsion, and If I need more range than what one battery could provide I can bring the spare (or even multiple ones) along. And did I mention that batteries can swell and catch fire? ...If a separate battery catches fire I throw it overboard, if the same happens to an integrated one my expensive electric motor is destroyed.

[@4437RR]

@@HAL_NOVEMILA All valid concerns. I wasn't aware the battery was not removable in this model. I have no more knowledge about this product other than that in the video.

[@artsmith103]

All correct but half price and smaller are the upside.

[@svfairisle]

Yes I agree that ideally having a battery that could be swapped out it it went bad would be a good idea. However I would want that to be just the ability to do it as a maintenance thing using tools. I’ve tried to find out if this is possible and I don’t think it is. The reason I don’t think it should be a slot in and out set up is the the connector will eventually fail. It’s what happened to my Spirit motor, one of the pins broke off. Also the battery they use is a Lifepo4 so should survive a huge amount of cycles before it loses appreciable capacity

[@johnobrien403]

You should have know not to discard the "engine cutoff" it's there to save lives a prop on a electric power can do a lot of damage to someone,

[@svfairisle]

Don’t be ridiculous