Hi! I have a new lift5 and the battery recently died - no response and all LEDs dark no matter what I do. It happened after I updated firmware in my charger and battery, but not sure if that’s the cause. They’re sending me a replacement battery and told me to E-waste it, but it seems like such a waste! So, anyone have tips on troubleshooting a lift5 battery or other uses / ways to repurpose it? Seems dangerous to mess with a giant lithium ion battery if you don’t know what you’re doing (which I don’t), but hate to waste a $3k battery if it’s just a firmware or electronics issue.
Hi Bkarsin, where are you based? If you in the UK I would be very interested in tearing the battery apart.
From my understandig, the battery is potted with something like epoxy, indeed rendering it as e-waste.
Unfortunately I’m on the other side of the planet (Hawaii) and I assume shipping would be super slow and expensive.
I wish I was there! Shipping with cells inside would be more expensive I imagine.
I may be able to walk you though opening it up if you put some close up pics on here.
Potting can be removed. While the cells and BMS may be useless, the case may be useful.
Agreed. But either way, I’m not 100% sure it is potted. Although, potting would be the safest method of waterproofing with a battery that is constantly exposed to water. If it’s done with epoxy, I wish you good luck.
I don’t think I’m up to remove the potting or anything. Lithium ion batteries are pretty volatile. Just posted here to see if anyone has ideas to try and save it or reset the electronics or something.
Maybe I’ll see if any local recycling orgs want it…
The way I see it, BMS of your battery is valuable. I am not sure if you are able to extract it and if it is in a good condition. With Lift BMS you can interface a third party battery with your board. Lift ownership is expensive because design and build quality are poor. You should not have bought it in the first place.
What alternative do you recommend? Flightboard?
I’m new to efoil and just wanted to get into foiling with a very limited amount of free time. Lift seemed way nicer than a waydoo, so I went with that.
Agreed the build quality isn’t great, especially for the cost. But its premium materials at least and when it works, it’s a pretty nice system.
Yes — the key phrase really is “when it works.”
I’ve joined the Facebook groups for Lift, Waydoo, and Flite, and the pattern is hard to miss. Lift and Waydoo owners seem to be dealing with a lot of technical issues, while Flite users appear to have fewer problems overall.
I own a Lift 3 myself. It works, but the underlying predicament is obvious. Following the advice from people in this group, I’m now running a third‑party setup: an ECS eBox with a compatible receiver, plus a third‑party battery and hand controller.
Lift did improve, but previous season, was a hell for most users as no one received any spares (there weren’t any available). They underestimated the warranty claims coming their way, and had many supply chain issues. Many folks were left with a dead board for the whole season, either the notorious ebox, or a battery which was bricked, depleted, and could not be opened without having to “saw” it open.
I’m not a big fan of their board. I’m not an engineer, but they over complicate things, while fliteboard keeps it a bit more simple and accessible.
I never understood why they ditched the “latch” board design. Not a fan of having a huge lithium battery being exposed to water constantly. With Fliteboard, you both have waterproofing at the mast, latch, and the battery is waterproof itself too. Opening a latch, hooking up 2 wires, shouldn’t be that much extra work compared to the LCS system.
Having “quick connects” only makes things more fragile, and too complicated, and far from what I would consider, robust. The LCS is like finding a solution, for a non-existing problem.
In my honest opinion, Fliteboard makes a better board, as it’s easier to repair. Even their batteries can be opened and repaired if needed. And don’t forget, Brunswick owns the company, so low chance of them going out of business randomly.
1 Like
The quick connect system is one thing that sold me on the lift5, but I now see it makes it more fragile.
After I first got it, after 5 sessions the wiring separated from the mast and it took them about 3 months to get it fixed. Got it back and after 3 more sessions the battery died. They did send me a new battery pretty quickly, so the customer service has improved at least.
2 Likes
Cool! Rebuilding a lift to a Vesc system is definitely appealing.
If nobody is interested I can take a look in to the pack. I can send you a pre-paid label.
They ditched the latch board design because it’s overcomplicated and heavy. Yes it’s a broad solution, but I’ve had one and it was the first board I sold. It was 6kg heavier than my DIY efoil for just the board.
Waydo has more than proved there’s no reason for a hatch. It just adds unnecessary weight.
Lifts best move was switching to this design. They just have the common mass production teething problems that when 10 testers that take better care of products test it nothing happens. Then when you scale to 1000+ there’s a bunch that will go out of their way to destroy gear.
Lift should ditch an active BMS though. It very clearly destroys a lot of their batteries.