How to Charge Electric Surfboards While Traveling?

We are often asked how to charge Electric Powered Surfboard batteries. This isn't a problem at home because the battery charger just needs to be powered from a 110 or 220 volt connection. But can you charge it on the go?

Charging the battery at the house connection is no problem, even across the globe, as branded manufacturers offer chargers that can handle input voltages from 100 to 230 volts. But what do you do when you're traveling in an RV or boat and don't have a house connection available? To find out, we first looked at the performance data for the eFoil and Jetboard power supplies.

Power consumption of the power supply unit

While most Electric Surfboard manufacturers use fast chargers with a charging time of about two hours, some manufacturers offer so-called standard chargers with charging times of up to six hours. Of course, standard chargers require less power, sometimes as little as 700 watts. Fast chargers, on the other hand, require 1,200 to 3,000 watts of power.

If you want to charge multiple Electric Hydrofoil Surfboard batteries at the same time, just increase the wattage. To be on the safe side, you should always leave a little space above so that it doesn't overheat or the fuse stop charging.

Charging on board

The situation on board is similar. The batteries used here are very similar to those found in cars or trucks. It's a different story if your yacht has its own petrol or diesel generator. These devices typically provide between 2 and 50kW of power. So here it is possible to charge the battery. Small marine diesels start at around €5,000.

Charging with mobile generator

So-called power banks are cheaper. Not only can these be operated on a boat, next to a mobile home or car, but pretty much anywhere. There are gas, petrol and diesel units with outputs ranging from a few hundred to 10kW. More powerful models are not only more expensive, but most importantly heavier. With the 5000 watt model charging two Electric Jet Surfboard batteries simultaneously, 100kg can fit together, which is no longer very mobile. In comparison, the smaller model with 2,000 watts weighs around 25kg. You should also pay attention to the amount of noise your device makes. Generators cost between €500 and €2,000.

Charging in the car

The following problems are not uncommon. Can I use a car battery to charge my battery? In short, most cars have a 12-volt battery with a capacity between 28 and 120 amp hours (Ah). 36Ah batteries are usually installed in small cars, while larger batteries are installed in, for example, large diesel vehicles with automatic start-stop function. Let's take a large battery of 100Ah as an example. 100 amp hours means the battery can supply a charging current of 33 amps for 3 hours. Current equals capacity divided by time. In this case, 100Ah divided by 3 hours equals 33 amps.

Now you can easily calculate power in watts. 12 volts times 33 amps equals 396 watts. As you can see, you're nowhere near the power you need from your power supply. Not even a second battery or one 24 volt battery, or even two 24 volt batteries is enough. In particular, it is doubtful whether the battery can withstand such a high charging current for a long time. Finally you want to start your car too, don't you?

Once we're able to test the generator on an RV trip in the spring, we'll add our experience here.

Charging at mobile power station

Of course, there are also mobile power stations based on lithium-ion. It's like a big mobile power bank. But on the one hand, there's not enough power here, and they're quite expensive. So charging a battery with a battery doesn't seem to make much sense. You're better off investing your money in extra eFoil Electric Surfboard batteries. This saves you a charge cycle and you can use the battery right away. On board, a power station charged by solar modules can support the built-in generator. In our view, a Li-ion-based standalone model makes little sense.

We look forward to your feedback, recommendations and further questions in our forum. Especially if you know of other solutions or can recommend an alternative to your Honda alternator, we would love to hear your feedback. We haven't bought a Honda yet, and if there's something better, we'd love to change our minds.