Torqeedo 1003 quality

[zedpassway]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Buy a MinnKota saltwater electric outboard and you are money and performance ahead.

fyi: $3000 pLUS AT LEAST $1500 FOR THE BATTERY SYSTEM.

TORQEEDO: 3800 including the battery system

if you have the money, the battery won't count one way or another.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by zedpassway

fyi: $3000 pLUS AT LEAST $1500 FOR THE BATTERY SYSTEM.

TORQEEDO: 3800 including the battery system

if you have the money, the battery won't count one way or another.

I don't know where you got your pricing numbers but the minkota riptide 112lb unit is just a bit under 900. Which leaves you about 2900 to get a battery system to power the motor. A couple good 6 volt batteries (200 ah) are less than 300 bucks. Heck even a couple hundred ah of lithium are cheaper than the 2900 you have available. Minn Kota Riptide T/112

[zedpassway]

Originally Posted by newhaul

I don't know where you got your pricing numbers but the minkota riptide 112lb unit is just a bit under 900. Which leaves you about 2900 to get a battery system to power the motor. A couple good 6 volt batteries (200 ah) are less than 300 bucks. Heck even a couple hundred ah of lithium are cheaper than the 2900 you have available. Minn Kota Riptide T/112

The riptide is a trolling motor. As such it is no comparison to either the 1003 or the bigger Torqeedos. It requires 12 volt heavy lead batteries which can only be discharged to 50% or they die. The riptide requires 36 volts so a couple of 6 volt batteries won't work.

And yes you can buy some put together lithium combination, but lithiums are dangerous without multiple electronic configurations to keep from over charging etc.

The thrust is way way different. The 1003 would blow it out of the water.

I understand that you have an axe to grind, but in any product on the market there will always be some that are defective. Everyone I know loves them. My own experience with Customer Service was exemplary. Of course if one buys it in the south seas and is far far away from any place to get service, then that's a different story.

As a marine service provider you should know this stuff, so I suspect that you sell Minn Kota, and don't sell Torqeedo.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by zedpassway

The riptide is a trolling motor. As such it is no comparison to either the 1003 or the bigger Torqeedos. It requires 12 volt heavy lead batteries which can only be discharged to 50% or they die. The riptide requires 36 volts so a couple of 6 volt batteries won't work.

And yes you can buy some put together lithium combination, but lithiums are dangerous without multiple electronic configurations to keep from over charging etc.

The thrust is way way different. The 1003 would blow it out of the water.

I understand that you have an axe to grind, but in any product on the market there will always be some that are defective. Everyone I know loves them. My own experience with Customer Service was exemplary. Of course if one buys it in the south seas and is far far away from any place to get service, then that's a different story.

As a marine service provider you should know this stuff, so I suspect that you sell Minn Kota, and don't sell Torqeedo.

Actully there are many boats around here happily using the riptide but I have yet to see one happy with the torqueedo . I am a shipwright I don't sell any products I repair boats and do work on real engines. The only time I use an electric motor is fishing on small lakes.
I suspect just from what you keep posting you are a torqeedo dealer yourself. If so you should fully disclose.

[zedpassway]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Actully there are many boats around here happily using the riptide but I have yet to see one happy with the torqueedo . I am a shipwright I don't sell any products I repair boats and do work on real engines. The only time I use an electric motor is fishing on small lakes.
I suspect just from what you keep posting you are a torqeedo dealer yourself. If so you should fully disclose.

I am not a torqeedo dealer. I am a torqeedo owner who uses it on a 19 foot sailboat in a bay in northern Maine, USA, in a 3-4 knot tide.

I have no problems with the unit. It works great. However, when I need to go long distances, pulling a dinghy, against the wind and against the tide, I don't use my torqeedo. I use my 6 hp Tohatsu. I get about 2.5 hours at 3 knots on one battery. or about 40 minutes at 55 minutes at 4.2 knots.

While I can't speak for everyone, I have never met anyone who isn't a dealer of a competing product who doesn't just love their Torqeedo---as long as they are using it appropriately.

[jkleins]

I love mine as well. No dealer or affiliation. Just satisfied customer.

Jim

[svjohngalt]

I've had mine for over 3 years and it works great. I do like it a lot. that said, we use it on a 8ft pram and rarely go fuel "throttle" because my little pram just won't go that fast. I do not see an issue with the salt (we are in Southwest Florida, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas). Our purchase was mainly because I no longer wanted to carry gas, didn't want to lug around a car battery, and wanted something easy to lower to the dinghy. It meets all these requirements and it will work off a solar panel.

Thanks
George

[Kamaloha]

Originally Posted by zedpassway

I am not a torqeedo dealer.
While I can't speak for everyone, I have never met anyone who isn't a dealer of a competing product who doesn't just love their Torqeedo---as long as they are using it appropriately.

Um, please go back to the original post (OK, I haven't actually met you, although I've sailed in your bay several times)...

I'm not a dealer of anything, I had very high hopes for my motor, it died a very early death due to normal usage (it really OUGHT to be able to run three minutes at full throttle, don't you think?), and I was very displeased with the arrogant attitude of the company when trying to get it repaired.

If you've never had to repair yours... of course you'll have had a different experience.

To put a closure on this story, I just can't stand to throw anything away so I did ultimately pay and have the motor repaired after I got back to the USA, with a request that they send me the parts they replaced so I could see what the failure mechanism was. I'm an engineer and I have pretty good idea of how to do a failure analysis. They did what I asked, and it's pretty clear the original motor was underdesigned; a thin main shaft in the motor armature (about 2mm, same as a Caframo fan!) bent under the full torque I put on the motor, causing the armature to drag against the magnets. I didn't disassemble the repaired motor to see how the new design fixed the problem, as I didn't want to compromise any seals, but I'll bet they use a heavier shaft now.

I'll mention that I have had two other failures with the motor. The flip tab which holds the motor out of the water when not in use had frozen in place d/t dissimilar metal corrosion between the aluminum frame and the SS bolt. They replaced both the arm and the frame at the same time as the motor. Finally, the control screen crazed and cracked in sunlight, allowing water to intrude on the tiller arm and rust out the on/off button. I fixed that one myself by disassembling the tiller arm, replacing the button from one I had in my spares stock (I was in Panama at the time) and resealing the cracked screen with clear packing tape. That is still working.

If you own one of these, I highly recommend that you use "bulb grease" (non-hardening silicone grease available at any auto parts store) on all the connections you make and break. Every Torqeedo I see (including the salesman's sample motor at the Newport Boat Show) has green corroded contacts, which will eventually fail. I use the grease and mine has not corroded. I also have a custom rain cover that I put on the motor when it's hanging on the rail.

[seandepagnier]

I got a hold of a broken torqeedo and the company refused to provide any instructions for repair. The windings had burned out which should be impossible. They use outrunners which are difficult to cool without airflow. Maybe just their electronics are faulty, who knows. They used a sensored controller which is not even needed, but just costs more and is less efficient than sensorless.


The battery lacked any sort of cell balancing circuit. Maybe the newer models have fixed this.

After disassembling, I found the motor was equivilant to a $30 brushless outrunner motor. It could easily be replaced. The gearbox was a 2 stage planetary gear gox with 14:1 reduction. This is more expensive than the motor.

The motor gearbox and controller (not battery) cost about $100 to build. They should not charge more than $400 for it; a 4x markup is greedy but within reason.

Better to build your own. You can actually build for your application. Using their motor is a compromise and you will get much less than the stated 45% efficiency unless you are pushing a canoe.

[Kamaloha]

Thanks, that is very interesting. FWIW they told me the same thing, that it could only be repaired by the factory, warranty or not, and did not / would not sell parts (even to someone in Panama). I asked them to send me parts as I would have been happy to repair it myself.

I'd be VERY interested to know if you found a replacement motor somewhere else. It's not like any motor I'd ever seen (rather fatter and shorter armature, and that oh-so-tiny main shaft).

If I can locate it you are welcome to my used parts, perhaps you can use the armature on your shaft somehow.