What things are important when choosing an electric motor?
We give you a brief overview of the choice of the right electric motor for your boat. Depending on the boat, engine type and desired travel time, there are many different aspects to consider. An electric motor is not the same as an electric motor. Besides, not every boat is the same. We hope you enjoy reading! Please write to us with your questions and suggestions about the article.
10 tips for buying an electric motor
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Disclaimer
Disclaimer: Of course, not all aspects are always important for every boater. Some points are mandatory for you and some you do not need at all. The article is about the points we noticed while searching for the perfect e-motor for our own boat. In some points we were quite disappointed, so we want to help other boaters.
.1. is there a personal contact person?
From my own experience, familiarizing yourself with the subject of electric boat drives takes a very long time. For the basics you should plan at least a few days and of course bring a little technical know-how about motors and boats. If you have the time and the leisure, it is certainly fun and you can learn a lot.
When we were looking for an electric motor, we actually just wanted to know which electric motor with which battery and which charger we can take. Done. Preferably, we would have done that on Amazon or Check24 or a digital consultant within a few minutes behind us. Our goal was simply a silent, clean and efficient e-motor.
The first question you should ask: Do you want to discuss your requirements for the electric motor for your boat together with a personal contact or read up on the subject yourself? We would have clearly opted for the personal contact, as we ourselves had far too little experience with boat motors.
First we saw electric motors in many online stores and the first challenge was the accessibility and the appropriate medium. Some do not offer telephone consultation and can only be reached by email. In a personal conversation is much better to determine which motor really fits best, so many stores out of the selection.
Not only the stores, but also some manufacturers have been hard to reach by mail or phone or have not responded to mails.
Tip 1: Get an impression of whether your contact person is easy to reach.
We attach great importance to a personal contact and are therefore available 24/7 for you. You can contact us by mail, phone, callback request or even personally at trade shows. If necessary, we will of course also visit you on site to get a better picture. In addition, you can learn all the details about electric boat engines from us and even find the right solution yourself in our digital consultation.
2. Is professional advice given to you?
On our way to the first electric motor, we got advice from 10 different companies and ended up with 11 opinions. We had to find the golden mean from the different aspects. Not that easy.
What distinguishes high-quality advice? We thought it couldn't be that difficult. All electric motors are similar and we just have to find out the performance. However, there are many more factors involved: boat type, weight, length, salt or freshwater, flow speed, travel time, frequency and type of engine and a few more.
If we had bought the proposed boat engine immediately after the first consultation, we would probably have been very disappointed. In some consultations, the dimensioning of our requirements was not even right. Especially since the consultations are usually not carried out in the level of detail. Often three to four questions are asked and then only about any products.
Tip 2: Pay attention to how well the needs analysis is carried out and how well your contact person is listening.
greenboatsolutions: We wanted to develop a new consulting standard and make it freely available and take all aspects into account as best as possible. We are constantly working on improving it and mapping it digitally and personally. In our digital advisory tool, you will find all relevant points and descriptions, why it may be important for you and what there is to consider.
3. are power and battery capacity optimally designed for your boat?
The most important aspects of the advice include the power of the engine and the battery capacity. Especially the size of the battery also has a great impact on the total price of the package. We calculate the power based on the weight, the type of boat and the area of use. The battery capacity is then determined based on the engine and the desired driving time.
Also here, there were often different values in the consultations of the manufacturers or dealers. Some would have let us go for the 3 ton houseboat with a 3 kW engine. In the end, we opted for better maneuverability and a 6 kW motor.
It also went differently: some manufacturers have, without batting an eyelash, a motor with 11 or 15 kW brought into play. In our opinion, completely oversized, especially since we also did not want to drive with the boat on the Rhine at greater current.
Also with the driving time and thus the size of the battery, there were some deviations, which were of course also due to the engine. Sometimes it can be worthwhile to consider a second offer. What you should consider is that the contacts often simply want to make more profit by selling more or larger drives.
Tip 3: Inform yourself with several or use an independent tool such as our digital advice.
That's why we provide you the product finder yes online free - currently without registration. Simply so that you get a rough direction. Then no one can turn you for a 2 ton boat a 11 kW engine, although 6 kW would be enough loosely to bring the boat to the hull speed. We are already working in the background on further improvements like an automatically calculated driving curve. However, a personal consultation is better, because we can not calculate everything 100% perfect with a few inputs of course.
.4. does your contact have a neutral overview of all 500+ engines?
You now have a good overview of how much power and capacity you need for your boat. Perfect! Continue by looking out the individual manufacturers or suppliers and look at the motors and batteries.
Easier said than done. There are more than 500 different e-boat motors from more than 20 manufacturers. We also had to find out and the research turned into several days. Honestly, we have not found a contact person who knows every supplier on the market and can assess which engines work how well.
On our pages on the individual engines you will find all the information available to us. You can inform yourself extensively and in the long term, we will also provide you with videos, customer reviews and data from test series here. There is still a lot of work ahead of us and we are happy about any support.
Tip 4: Take your time to get an insight about the variety of engines and compare them.
greenboatsolutions: Our goal is to unite all over 400 engines from more than 20 manufacturers on our platform and thus offer a transparent comparison option. Interested parties for electric boat engines can get all the information free of charge, compare prices and find the right contact person directly. We are working on further improving this offer for you.
5. are you offered different alternatives from several manufacturers?
The manufacturers of course only advise on their own engines and most stores or dealers carry only one manufacturer. This is then a working solution, but very likely not the best.
So you should ask yourself how good the proposal from the dealer is. Had we taken the first best solution for our houseboat, we would have easily spent 10,000€ more than necessary. So you can save tidy money.
What would have helped us then? We would have liked a contact person who would do all the research for us and offer only the best complete systems. At the same time, we're real money-savers - we honestly wouldn't have paid anything for a consultation. We would have liked a win-win situation, where the seller provides perfect advice and at the same time does not cost more than the manufacturer.
Tip 5: Take advantage of our service and save money on the purchase. Same price as the manufacturer. No hidden costs. We receive a small commission from the manufacturer. Win-win for both sides.
6. is there extensive information?
Many manufacturers are massively lacking information. Product info, reports from customers, driving curves, etc.. Not everything that glitters is gold. Also the representation the representation of advantages and disadvantages leaves much to be desired. We did not even(!) noticed that something negative was reported about individual engines.
We would have liked a kind of Check24, where in addition to the advantages is also clearly visible, what there is to consider and where some models have their disadvantages. You should know that as potential customers in advance, after all. On the website it is not easy to present obvious disadvantages.
Therefore our tip 6: Especially for larger systems you should get advice.
On our website, by the way, you can download everything available in addition to the product information: Data sheets, instructions, technical drawings, etc.
7. do you compare the products well?
Electric boat drives are honestly quite difficult to compare. The motors and batteries look the same from the outside. It is difficult to judge which products are really better or worse.
In the first step, we put the numbers, data and facts together clearly to make a comparison at all possible. This works best in the overview with the various complete packages or with the individual products themselves.
After all, in a personal consultation we can report on our experiences with the engines. Hardly any manufacturer offers test drives, depending on the size of the motor, you should definitely consider this.
Tip 7: Subscribe to our channel "E-Bootsmotoren TV" and activate the bell to see the latest tests and comparisons.
8. is an individual solution possible for you?
Each boat is a thing in itself and the wishes of the boat owners are also very individual. This is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. Most manufacturers focus on products that fit many boat owners. For special cases, however, there are only a few good contacts.
It becomes more complicated, for example, with a double motorization, a special installation situation or complex systems for houseboats with solar and the most diverse consumers. For individual requirements, we have special contacts who can cover all areas.
Tip 8: Anyone who has special plans needs a special contact.
Your boat. Our drive. - That is our motto and we try to make everything possible.
9. installation of e-motor into the boat
The perfect motor has been found, but what happens next? Who will take care of installing the e-motor in the boat? With outboard motors, this is a relaxed matter up to a certain size. The installation at the stern is straightforward and can usually be done by yourself.
What happens with larger built-in machines and pod motors? Some boat owners also install the drive themselves in the boat. It is easiest if you already have a boat builder on site. However, many do not have a permanent partner for such conversions or the boat builder has not yet installed an e-drive. In addition, companies in the field can often hardly save themselves from orders.
We are happy to help at the point in the search for a local partner. With many in the industry we have also already gained experience. For technical questions, we take over the direct exchange with the shipyard. Fortunately, an e-motor needs very little service besides installation, as the motors are usually maintenance-free. So you save time and money in the long run.
Tip 9: Find a partner for the installation early.
10. are warranty and spare parts available?
The electric motor runs and runs and runs. But what happens when you need spare parts? At grounding can quickly times a propeller broken. Almost all manufacturers have permanently all spare parts in stock and can send them within a short time.
Generally, there are very rarely warranty cases with electric motors. Very few dealers have many spare parts in stock. Therefore, it is not so important to have a regional dealer. The spare parts will come directly to you by mail anyway. The situation is similar for a warranty case of smaller engines. The engine will be returned and repaired or you will be sent a new one. Only for larger systems, a regional contact for installation is recommended.
The warranty looks quite similar for all manufacturers. Two years warranty for private users and one year in the commercial sector. For lithium batteries, some manufacturers now have 5(!) Years warranty. In our opinion, these are a quality promise that can be seen.
Tip 10: Pay attention not only to the price, but also to warranty and possible spare parts.
Conclusion on the purchase of electric boat motors
Last but not least, almost all manufacturers and dealers provide good advice on their own products. Slightly fewer also calculate an individual complete package or create various offers for you.
If independent and high-quality advice is important to you, you can use our advice tool, or our comparison options in good conscience. Of course, we recommend our personal consultation to you. See you soon!
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