Integrel®, feedback after 3,5 years

As an early adopter, and given my very positive comments in the past, I thought it is my duty to inform others also about some issues we had during the recent months, and my experiences with support etc. No, unfortunately, our system stayed not trouble free, although I can tell you now already that we don’t regret having the Integrel. But knowing a few things could have made the process of solving the issues easier.

Let me start with what happened 10 months ago (June 2022):

At the end of our passage from Hawaii to BC, we ran out of Diesel. For several days we had to limit our motoring hours, and our battery bank went low too during these days. Lack of sunshine ment also that charging was done mostly by the Watt&Sea, with very limited input from solar, but enough to keep us going. After fuelling up in BC, and motoring the inside passage to Prince Rupert, we had to reboot the Integrel system several times. Still the system didn’t register the rpm of the engine, and consequently didn’t start to charge the batteries. In close contact with support, we checked everything, but everything seemed normal. Conclusion, a firmware update should solve the issue.

Support would send us an emergency software update to bypass the rpm detection, but therefore we needed a good internet connection. Not possible in the remote places we were cruising (no, we didn’t have a Starlink yet). And then support sent a message that there was a chance that it would cause the system to get stuck in an update loop, anyhow, so better continu on solar and hydrogenerator in the mean time. In other words, better wait for a place with 4G before doing a software update.

The days afterwards, we did send pictures and info of our installation, and support checked quite some things. Conclusion: As our system was an early installation (we were one of the first to order it), it needed to be replaced. Updating wasn’t possible. Disappointing after a lifetime of 2,5 years, but we had no choice. So we asked to ship the new controller and sensors asap to Prince Rupert. The next day we received a message from support that they would ship it ‘free of charge’. A much appreciated message !!

Additionally, since our batteries weren’t in balance anymore, we also had to rebalance them. Here the first lesson came in: To correct the voltage of individual batteries, you need a charger for 24V, which we didn’t have and couldn’t buy in Prince Rupert. Also, as our boat has an 220V inverter, I preferred a 220V -> 24V as this gives the possibility to charge using the inverter on the 48V batterie bank; That type of charger was even more difficult to buy in the 110V Americas. We ended up ordering one in Europe… Support sent us the instructions.

Mid July, the new controller arrived, and I started to install it immediately. Installation of the controller was straight forward. But the wire connectors are too large for the sensors to glide over. And we do not carry a pressure tool for this size of wire. I ended up to shave the wire connectors with my angle grinder. Finally we installed the software update, support sent us, and started the system and stared the engine. Batteries were charging again !

But some important issues remained: The batteries continued to charge out of balance, and some settings were not correct: at 53V we got already a 0% indication, although without low battery warning and still a green dot … Or low battery shut down but still 54.8V. Also bulk and float targets were not correct anymore. And here comes the second lesson for those cruising with an Integrel like us: you need to have a Windows computer and a usb-A to usb-C cable for connecting to the Integrel controller. We are Apple users ;-(. After weeks asking around in marinas, we couldn’t find anybody who had a windows computer and agreed to lend his computer for downloading software etc… No offence, I absolutely understand it, I would also hesitate if a stranger came to ask it. In the end I decided to order a computer. By the time we had it on the boat, it was already November. With the help of support, I could install and run the Integrel configurator, and I was finally able to connect to the system, make a pdf of all the settings, and sent it to support.

After another week, I got a message from support that my battery bank needed to be rewired. They asked if I knew a marine electrician where I was located (Vancouver Island). I needed also 2 more sensors that were shipped to me. I will skip details, because some things went wrong here and we left our boat for 3 months while returning to Belgium.

Once back on the boat in March, we got the battery bank rewired (instead of 2x 3 Torqeedo 24V batteries, it is now wired 3x 2 batteries, each with its own sensor). A quite expensive modification of the original setup, and this time at our own expense, which was a painful and unexpected misunderstanding.

And we are now April 2023, and once again, it seems that all this was not enough to get it all working correctly. Only one of the three 48V banks is reading out correctly. Hardware has been checked and is correct, it must be software. But the most recent firmware (v.2) turns out to be not compatible with my Torqeedo batteries. Integrel IT-team is now considering writing a dedicated firmware.

This is getting really frustrating, especially because both the type of batteries, and the whole setup and installation was done by Integrel. All of these changes has been expensive already, for both us and Integrel, and several times we hoped that it would bring us the final solution, but once again this hope was dashed.

The positive thing is, that our batteries are charging, and that Integrel Support hasn’t given up. I can imagine that, when they see a new message coming in from me, some raise their eyebrows in desperation. Because I experience that the communication with support is getting less responsive. But we do hope that we can add a message soon, that we are completely happy with our Integrel system again. Because we didn’t lose our enthusiasm for the Integrel as such. It is charging our batteries as we speak.