5 September 20235:58423 views on YouTubeWatch on YouTube
Charging eFoil batteries at the water rather than hauling them home is a huge convenience, right up until you notice how warm the box gets with two chargers running in it. Heat is the thing that quietly kills lithium packs, so this episode is about fixing that with the cheapest possible energy source.
Read this part first: it is not solar charging
The episode is refreshingly direct about the thing you may have searched for. This does not charge eFoil batteries from solar. Doing that would take a serious array, far more panel than fits on a wooded lakeside property, and pretending otherwise would be clickbait. The solar panel here powers two small cooling fans and nothing else. If you came looking for an off grid charging solution, that answer is given in the first minute rather than at the end.
How the cooling is set up
The kit is a 20W solar powered fan with two IPX7 rated waterproof fans, which matters because the whole thing lives outdoors. The layout is the obvious one and the right one: cooler air drawn in low, warm air pushed out high, so the cabinet gets a continuous flow through it rather than a pocket of hot air sitting on top of the packs. A fairing goes over the openings to keep rain out. The panel is producing enough to spin both fans even sitting in shade, which is the main reason this works at all on a tree covered lot. Flame retardant material goes in alongside the batteries as well, which is sensible in any enclosed charging space.
Why temperature is the whole point
The reasoning behind the build is stated plainly: keeping batteries cool is how you make them last. That extends to habit as well as hardware. Take a ten to fifteen minute break after a ride before plugging a pack in, rather than putting a hot battery straight onto a charger, and keep it as cool as you can while it charges. Neither of those costs anything, and they matter more than any accessory you can buy.
A gripe about charger design
One complaint lands squarely on the chargers themselves. The status lights and the sockets are both on the back, and the cords are short enough that you cannot route them where they need to go and still see the lights at the same time. Hanging the units vertically is the only workaround suggested. The build ends as a trial rather than a verdict: run it for a week with the two oldest packs, the ones nearest the end of warranty, and watch the temperatures inside.
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