I am wondering too… So far no issues after two years but it is on my paddle. I am building a board and the boxes will go inside the foam board for better protection
I cannot fit the vesc in the other box with all the batteries. Moreover the vesc is watercooled and I am afraid of leaks. All the connectors from the vesc that I don’t need have been removed and their wires were sealed in a silicon tube with silicon. The switch is a reed contact and the receiver is in the battery box
I received my Foildrive+ today and feel little bit intimidated by the DIY build and look of it.
What is DIY community opinion on the safety of FoilDrive?
As you can see the battery is sitting inside this plastic box
There is nothing between salty water and the open battery except a tiny rubber seal. How risky is it if it leaks?
What do you think of general safety of the battery they use?
Should I consider putting whole box into another waterproof foldable bag or it will block the signal and not necessary? Can it be at risk of overheating if placed in secondary waterproof bag/box?
Thank you!
The foildrive is just a cheap diy kit. Many builders of this group could create something much better and safer than this, especially given they crazy price they charge for it. IMO its ok if you build it for you and you know what you’re playing with, but thats it…
When i mentioned in my local foiling chat that i built one, a couple of guys approached me to see if we could create a product and sell it. I rejected the idea, i would not dare sell (dozens?) unsealed batteries like these, some of which will eventually be exposed saltwater, to people with no basic knowledge of the dangers involved… what will happen if a house catches fire cos a wet battery ignited while being charged?
I agree. I also couldn’t believe the price of it. It’s almost 5k here in nz. You could easily build one for under 1k! I mean even if it was 2k that would be a 100% markup.
Probably it’s the insurance for all the potentially burned houses 
Thank you for responses, that’s concerning. What happens if battery box leaks in the salty water while using? Does it make sense putting whole box into secondary bag/box or it will block signal/overheat?
My knowledge in batteries is very limited, but found this in the news.
If water found a way inside the battery, I’d discard it
Are you guys saying it because someone trying to make money off DIY setup or you genuinly thinking it’s a bad product? I have read other forums about Foil Drive and don’t see so much negativity. Just trying to get objective opinion of components and safety, not of the fact who makes how much profit on it…
Look at the lacroix vortex thread, other than the company trying to patent absurd things, noone is complaining. They even use the same batteries, motor and remote most guys use here and are not shy to say it.
Also look at the price of the thing and what you get for it. This is what i’d expect for the price.
Back to foildrive, leaving aside the crazy cost and extreme DIY nature of the thing, the biggest issue with the foildrive is safety, both in and out of the water. No dead man mechanism, no sealed battery (you brought this up actually!) . I trust this toy to play myself, but i would not give it to a friend unless he has some experience with batteries and that he promises he’ll dispose the battery if compromised. You simply cannot ask that from customers, specially if they paid that absurd amount of money for it.
Thank you for replies. What you are saying total amount of components including battery in Foildrive is under 1000 usd and all are 3rd party components?
lacroix vortex - I asked them before but seems they don’t have a folding prop yet, so not sure how to use this thing in the wave until they release one soon. Also for their price we can buy a full real efoil like waydoo / sifly which already included the whole board.
Just merely getting a battery wet is not cause for major concern, submerging a battery in water for hours or days is a different story. It would depend on the situation. Furthermore there is a large difference between open cell batteries that can easily dry off and encased battery packs, that once they get water in them will stay wet for a long time. Coat your battery with corrosion x just to be on the safe side and you should definitely be fine if some water gets in the box during use.
You will find the more complicated the setup the more issues. Most issues occur with vesc programming and current limits, bms problems, etc. Most that are running a simple setup with a standard esc, no bms (using a hobby balancing charger) and no other current limiting add ons do not have any problems.
I have been running a basic setup with over 130 hrs in the saltwater without a single issue. No overheat issues even in the Florida summer. My recommendation is to keep it simple.
This is not to say that I recommend selling a product without these features, only referencing people on the forum building their own setup that are willing to accept some risk.
If you think getting a battery wet in salt water is of no consequence. I hope you have good house insurance. You should not be spreading this as something that’s ok 🥲. If your understanding of battery building is good and you’re OK with rebuilding and cleaning the cells after saltwater ingress then sure it’s no problem but most people will just have a build up of salt between the cells and heatshrink/kapton tape and nek minnit - 
. Corrosion X will not save you, it may hide the problem for longer but the salt,water and humidity will always win in the end. As mentioned if you’re diy have the knowledge and are ok with the risk then all good. I have nothing against foil drive - its just at that price at minimum the battery could be enclosed in a waterproof enclosure of its own with in the enclosure. Imo the end result will be tighter laws around our sport and will ruin it for all of us in the long run. I know mistakes happen but we should try minimize the risk as much as possible.
What is your evidence that a battery that gets salt water on it and then is appropriately cleaned and dried will have a catastropic failure and needs to be thrown out? I might also point out that this forum is about building e foils yourself. I am assuming people here have basic skills such as battery maintenance and can clean their battery and redo the shrink wrap on it if needed after water gets on it. Have you used corrosion x? How could it hide the problem, it’s a transparent coating. By all means throw out your battery for no reason if you’re convinced your house will go up in flames. Furthermore, I only store such batteries and cells in fire proof containers and areas of my house.
You do you my man. I’m not going to argue with you 
Yes, you have to be very careful about making sure the seal is clean each time you close it. I accidentally got about an ounce of water in mine because the small antenna had folded over the seal when closed and allowed a leak. The good news is that the ESC and remote receiver are both waterproof so you won’t fry the board if you get it wet. Luckily my battery stayed dry but lesson learned. If you look at the lip of the box you can see that it is not very tall and there is not much room for error. You couldn’t put the unit into a bigger box because the remote antenna would not communicate and the ESC heatsink on the bottom of the box relies on water to help cool it down. The biggest issue just seems to be when you have multiple batteries and you are changing them on the beach you have to be real careful. You can put some good tape over the ends of the battery to make it more sealed in the event of a leak. I love mine. I kind of appreciate the fact that it is a bunch of DYI parts thrown together because when something breaks I am just going to replace it myself for cheap once the warranty is up. Pretty easy to make the 21700 battery packs as well. One tip, use the cruise control feature (which defaults at 36%) to get back out to the lineup as much as you can and just juice it to catch a wave and you can really max out the battery time. Enjoy.
I have a foil drive assist plus and it seems like you have come the closest to duplicating it. I believe the only difference between the assist and assist plus is that they went from a 6S battery to 8S. Not sure if it is a different ESC as I have never seen one of the regular assists. Curious if you have any experience with an ESC that would work with 8S? Also, I don’t know much about ESC’s but the BMS that is on the assist plus battery is a Daly 8S Lithium ion with a 15 amp discharge rate. Does this mean that an ESC of 150 amps is not necessary if the BMS is limiting the discharge to 15 amp? One other question, did you buy a stock 6384 motor and chop the shaft off or do they make a model already flush? Thanks for all the info. I have disected my assist plus and am trying to make another one so let me know if you have any questions about their unit.
Hi, would love to know which VESC is being used in the Foil Drive Assist + if you have one in pieces.
Thanks
I dont have evidence, but i doubt that some did this test with 1000s of batteries to see the failure ratio after “!ppropriately cleaned” . Just 1/1000 would be unnaceptable for me. What i do know is that the submerged batteries caught fire as shown in the news, so ill stick to the safe side.
Besides an assist pack is worth 100€ in batteries, so its not a big deal in the overall cost of a foiling setup.
They use the bsm for charging only
As for the 6384, yes, standard one. Search the forum for wet outrunner, lots of builds here
