Can't say enough about my Evinrude Etec 15HO. Best money I have spent on the boat yet! Its a heavy motor (185lbs compared to 120lbs for a 9.9 fourstroke) BUT everything about it makes for the best kicker on the market. Fuel economy is the best there is! (I can fill up to the brim in the morning, run out of Burwell at 48mph with the 150HO to 50', troll all day, blow back in and top up the tank again and it has never cost me more than $8 worth of fuel for the day!!!
Uses next to no oil (last year I put 89hrs on it and used 2/3rds of a liter!!!
Clean and doesn't smell
Fires up instantly even in the freezing cold (last day on the water last year was on Quinte on boxing day and the air temps were -8....fired up and purred like a kitten for 20 minutes at the dock while my buddy tried starting his brand new 9.9 Pro Kicker and when it did it took a while just to get warm enough to keep running!
Has a built in RPM control switch which bumps up or takes away 50rpm at a time which is a great feature
The best thing it about it is it has the highest amp output of all the kickers out there! It puts out 56amps with 15 dedicated to run the motor (41 amps that can go to the battery for charging!!!) At idle it puts out 7amps which on my 19foot lund pushes me at .8mph. it makes 15amps at 1500rpm and ramps up quickly from there and max amp output is at 3600rpm. Average trolling rpm for my boat of 2-3mph is 1600-2500rpm so its pumping the amps! I actually run a MinnKota DC charger that moves the charge from the starting battery up to my bow mount batteries. I run the kicker for propulsion and my Xi5 for steering. On a 10hr day on the water running at 40% prop speed on the Xi5 I am down only 10% (AC charger is on for less than an hour when I get home)
Cost wise, I put it on last year and it was $3800 and it has 10yrs warranty
