Max Power thruster review: what they publish, who it suits

The short answer

What they publish

Max Power was founded in 1987 in Mandelieu, France, and its thrusters have been built near Milan since 2011. It is now a Lalizas company. Our database holds 40 of its units, from a 66 lb tunnel unit to a 992 lb one, with stern pods that bolt on from outside the transom. The maker publishes no price. Its own list names 10 US dealers.

Our database holds every electric unit on the maker's tunnel and retractable pages:

• the CT range;
• the ignition-protected versions, for gasoline boats;
• the ECO proportional range;
• the stern pods;
• the electric retractables, VIP 150, VIP 250, their ECO versions and the Compact Retract (added 12 October 2026).

The six hydraulic tunnel units, the hydraulic VIP retractables and the R series are on the maker's site and not in our database, which holds electric units only.

The list below is the database by type and series, with a line on what each series adds and the run-time rule its documents give. An ignition-protected build, another leg or another voltage sits under the model it is built on. Open a type to see its models; every name opens that model’s page.

What they publish about the system

Sources: the CT100/CT125 manual (July 2024), the selection charts, the FAQ, and the warranty conditions. The site pages are the About page, the Global Network and retired models pages, the tunnel and retractable listings. The product pages are the CT 25, CT 35, CT35-IP, CT 60, CT 100, CT 125, CT 300, ECO 90, stern pod CT 45, stern pod CT 80, CT HYD 225 and VIP 150.

Three minutes in the manual, unlimited on the ECO page

Open the CT100/CT125 manual at "Tests" and the rule is there with a number: "The maximum continuous operating runtime corresponds to S2-3mn norm. However, this can be affected by the ambient temperature."

Two sections on, under "Operation", it says: "Maximum running time: 2-3 min (depending on ambient temperature)."

S2A motor rating from the electrical standards: the motor can run at full power for the stated number of minutes from cold, then must rest. "S2 - 4 min." means four minutes. is the motor rating that says how long a motor may run from cold at full load. No docking holds the button down for three minutes.

When it gets hot. A thermal switch in the motor protects it. When it trips, the panel beeps and the green light flashes. The manual says "there are 10 seconds of actual thruster use before the unit automatically shuts down". It then stays off until the motor has cooled.

When it switches itself off. Left alone for 30 minutes, the system switches itself off. That figure is from the manual for serials 42250 to 83327. The product page carries a second manual for units from 83338, and there the figure is 10 minutes.

The panel also holds a delay between left and right thrust "to avoid rapid direction changes". The manual does not say how long.

A chart by windage, and the band that merges it

Max Power is one of two makers reviewed here whose sizing chart asks about windage before length. Lewmar's force factor guide is the other. Max Power's selection chart has three rows, each with boats drawn beside it:

• "Heavy displacement, High windage", with a trawler;
• "Medium displacement, Medium windage", with a flybridge cruiser and a sailboat;
• "Light displacement, Light windage", with a sportsboat and a light sailboat.

The page gives its own reason: "For a boat of any given length, the area it offers to a direct side wind can vary from one design to another. The underwater shape & total weight can also differ greatly." Each model is a bar across a boat-length axis, and the bar moves as the row changes.

Read across the CT100's row. On a heavy, high-windage boat the chart gives it 31 to 40 ft. On a light, low-windage one it gives 39 to 50. The product page says 32 to 51 ft, which is the chart's three rows laid end to end.

Our calculator on the same rows. We sized the CT100 at the top of each row with our size calculator, the tool here that works out the thrust a boat needs, for a tunnelA tube bored straight through the hull below the waterline, with a propeller in the middle of it. It is the conventional thruster. Fitting one is mostly a labor job rather than a hardware one. unit steering in a 15 knot breeze:

• At 40 ft on a trawler, the unit needs about 105 lb. The CT100's 231 lb steers her at about 22 knots.
• At 48 ft on a sailboat, the figure is about 150 lb, and the unit steers her at about 19 knots.
• At 50 ft on an express cruiser, the figure is about 103 lb, and the unit steers her at about 23 knots. Our calculator treats an express cruiser as medium windage, where the maker's chart puts it in the light row.

All of that is our arithmetic on their chart. The calculator does the same sum for your own boat.

Two current figures, a cable table and a battery

The manual is specific about the electrical side, and it disagrees with itself. Section 7 says the performance data "is measured with an approx. consumption of 680A and 11V for the CT100, or 430A and 22V for the CT125, at the motor's connections."

Section 8, the next section, gives the same two units a "Maximum Amperage" of 550 A and 330 A. The measured figures sit 24% and 30% above them (our division).

The fuse. The manual sizes it "on the basis of the cable sections in the circuit and NOT the amperage drawn by the appliance". That gives a 315 A ceramic or 400 A ANL for the CT100, and 200 or 225 for the CT125. The wiring page explains why a slow fuse can sit below a motor's draw.

That table shows two things.

The manual's own instruction is to measure the voltage at the motor in use. It says to expect "approx. 10.5V for 12V models". The product pages say the units "are designed to run at 10.75V on 12V units".

The battery. The manual asks for "maintenance-free 'starting' type batteries, with high CCA outputs. For example: Exide Maxxima 900, 12V, capacity 55Ah / starting current 800CCA."

The manual for units from 83338 adds a total after the same example: "with 2000 CCA maximum total output (120 Ah needed for 10 min/day)".

One owner wrote to the maker about her 2009 Sun Odyssey 44i, whose factory pair had "failed twice in 2.5 years". She posted the reply: "The battery specs required for 10minutes operation of the thruster per day" are 2400 CCA and 150 Ah in parallel, or 1200 CCA and 100 Ah in series-parallel.

Battery chemistry. The FAQ adds the rule: "Standard on/off DC thrusters are designed to operate with lead-acid, AGM, gel, or similar kind of batteries. Li-ion or LiFePO4 batteries will cause rapid deterioration of the Max Power equipment (electric motor, relay, control box, transmission, etc) if they are not specified correctly." The ECO range is the exception, "designed to operate with Li-ion or LiFePO4 batteries". Our battery page puts the makers' figures side by side.

What it drills

A tunnelA tube bored straight through the hull below the waterline, with a propeller in the middle of it. It is the conventional thruster. Fitting one is mostly a labor job rather than a hardware one. through the bow. The tube goes through both sides of the bow below the waterline. Across the range it measures 110, 125, 185, 250, 300, 315 or 400 mm.

How deep, and how far forward. The manual's positioning rule is in millimeters rather than diameters: "The minimum acceptable tunnel position is 139 mm below the waterline". Ideally there is 185 mm from the waterline to the top of the tube. The manual also says: "The tunnel must be installed as far forward as possible."

A unit fitted higher than that "will lead to a progressive loss of performance." The product pages add the condition the thrust figure is measured under: "at an immersion depth of one tunnel's diameter, in a tunnel no longer than twice the tunnel's diameter, and this within a variation of + / - 6%."

A sealed drive leg. The drive leg is the maker's own argument for the brand. It is a composite gearlegThe underwater part of a thruster: the housing in the tunnel that holds the gears and the propeller. The motor sits above it, inside the boat. "pre-filled with oil and sealed for life" that "does not require an anode". It "must not be disassembled, even partially (this would void the warranty)".

A brushedSmall carbon blocks inside a motor that press on the spinning part and carry the current into it. They wear down, they shed dust, and they are the usual reason an old thruster motor stops. motor. The maintenance section says to "Remove the motor and clean out dust from the motor-brushes with compressed air". It also says to grease the shaft against calcium once a year.

Stern pods and gasoline boats. The stern pods bolt on from outside: "Stern Pod units can be installed entirely from the outside of the transom". The housing is "ignition protected (ISO 8846)". The ignition-protected tunnel units seal every electrical part so fuel fumes cannot reach a spark, for gasoline boats.

The warranty, and who may touch it

The website and the manual give different terms. The website's Warranty Conditions say the units are "guaranteed to be free from defective workmanship, components and materials under normal usage conditions for a period of three (3) years from the date of purchase".

The manual in the box, dated July 2024, says "for a period of two (2) years from the date of purchase by the End User". It then adds: "Register your purchase within 3 months from the purchase date, to receive free extended warranty coverage by 1 year (3 years' total warranty coverage)."

What it covers. Year one covers "All parts and up to two hours of labour" for repairs in the field. In years two and three the factory's testing, diagnosis, repairs and replacements are still free, and the field labor is yours. Normal wear on "engine, oil seals, relay contacts" is excluded.

What it leaves to you. The exclusions are the usual ones, plus two that matter on a boat. "Cost of hauling the boat" and "Cost of travel to and from the job site" are the owner's. So is "Damage due to water".

Who is authorized in the US. The maker's Global Network page lists 10 entries: Lalizas/Alexander L.L.C. (Houston, TX), Ec Ruff Marine Inc (Fort Lauderdale, FL), New England Boatworks Inc. (Portsmouth, RI), Florida Rigging & Hydraulics Inc (Riviera Beach, FL), YachtAid Marine (Miami, FL), Jamestown Boat Yard (Jamestown, RI), U marine USA (Sarasota, FL), Line Six Services (Mullica Hill, NJ), Basin Marine (Newport Beach, CA), Kompletely Kustom Marine (Savage, MD). It also lists Rekord Marine Enterp. Ltd. in Vancouver, BC.

If it fails. The manual's advice is to "Contact your dealer/installer to report the problem". You get a Repair Authorization Number through them. The manual also asks: "IF POSSIBLE: PLEASE TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS".

What owners report

The reports come from Beneteau and Jeanneau owners in Britain and the US, 2015 to 2024, on units the builder chose. No thread we read carries an ECO or a stern pod.

• The heat sensor. A CT100 owner wrote in 2016: "Pressing the two switches now gives 5 beeps and 5 flashes of the green LED. No power to the bow thruster." A year on, the same owner reported: "My problem was a faulty temperature sensor. I removed the old one, cut the wires and soldered the replacement in place". The owner called it "An easy DIY fix for less than £20". On a Beneteau 41 in 2022, another owner advised: "If the thruster works with the yellow wires disconnected, it is the sensor that has gone bad". The sensor is a "$25" part that "fails to a closed circuit rather than an open circuit". A 2021 Oceanis 40 had the sensor and a master battery switch "open circuit in both positions" together.
• The relayA small electrical switch that a low current closes so a bigger current can flow. A thruster panel works the motor through one, and a relay that sticks closed keeps the motor running. Relay, solenoid and contactor are three names for this one part.. A 2007 Beneteau 40's CT 80 "would turn it self off (from the standby mode) without any warning, sometimes after 20 seconds, sometimes after 3 minutes". The owner had already replaced the switch and priced a relay module at "about $400 or so". A 2008 Oceanis 40's owner in 2022 traced power to a relay's pins 30 and 86 and none on 87.
• Growth. The same Oceanis in 2023: "The tunnel and the propellers were full of barnacles". The owner wrote that the boat had "lost quite a bit of power on the bow thruster". Antifouling had set in the propeller's set screw. The fix, in the owner's words: "A 90-degree angled pick worked fine".
• Age. A unit "approximately 15 years old" in 2024 was working to starboard "once every 4 or 5 attempts". The replies pointed at the joystick contacts and the motor contactor.
• Batteries. The 44i's pair "failed twice in 2.5 years". The maker emailed the owner a spec, and two owners on the same forum settled on paired Optima AGMs at 800 CCA each.

Strengths and limitations

Of the limitations, 5 are findings from reading the maker's documents against each other. The rest are owners' accounts.

Who it is for

Good fit if

• You own a Beneteau or Jeanneau sailboat from the late 2000s or the 2010s. You may have a CT in the bow already, and this page puts its manual, its warranty and the heat sensor in one place.
• You want a plain brushed tunnelA tube bored straight through the hull below the waterline, with a propeller in the middle of it. It is the conventional thruster. Fitting one is mostly a labor job rather than a hardware one. unit with a sealed composite leg and a clear manual.
• You want a sizing chart that asks about windageThe area of the boat the wind can push on: the hull sides, the cabin, the mast and rigging, or the canopy. A tall, boxy boat has a lot of it, and wind force does not care how slowly you are moving. before it asks about length.
• Your boat runs lithium batteries. The ECO range is the maker's proportional thrusterA thruster with a controller between the battery and the motor, so the joystick sets how hard it pushes rather than just on or off. The motor and the mounting are the same. Only the control differs. for a lithium boat.
• You want a unit that goes on from outside the hull. The stern pod is the one Max Power unit that does.

Look elsewhere if

• You want a published price. The maker publishes none, so a quote is the only figure you will have.
• You cannot take the boat out of the water. The job needs her hauled out.
• You plan to clean the brushes yourself each year. The manual says all maintenance is for authorized personnel, and the warranty excludes damage from unauthorized repairs. The authorized US dealers are listed in the warranty section above.

To see a tunnel unit against the other routes at your boat's length, read the sailboat guide or the trawler guide.

What it costs

The maker publishes no price. One US online dealer, Marinedeal, lists the electric range with a "List Price", a "Price" and a "You save" on every row. We read those figures in a real browser on 15 September 2026.

Of our 40 Max Power rows, 24 now carry those prices with that date. So those units appear in the thruster finder, our free tool that matches a thruster to your boat, and in the cost tables like any other priced unit.

The other 16 rows have no price anywhere we have read. They are the five ECO tunnel units, three of the retractables (the VIP 150 ECO, the VIP 250 and the VIP 250 ECO), the three 48 V tunnel units, the CT225 (bronze leg), the CT25, the CT300 (24 V), the CT325 (aluminum leg) and the CT550 (three-phase).

A second dealer, WMJ Marine, listed the CT100-IP the same day at $4,237.00 under a $6,755.53 list, "No Tunnel, Controller, or Cable Included". That is 50% above Marinedeal's standard CT100. On 12 October 2026, Marinedeal listed the other ignition-protected units at the same prices WMJ shows, and those are the figures on their rows, so all four now carry a price.

Check a pod's thrust before you order. The stern pod manual, dated January 2010, and the product pages do not agree on every pod's thrust: the CT45 stern pod is 40 kg (88 lb) in the manual and 99 lb on its page.

Our database and the rows above carry the page's figure, the current one, and the pod's note on the row says so. Ask the dealer which document the unit you are quoted was rated under.

Installed, the record is bare. The owners we read all got the unit with the boat, and none posted a fitting invoice. The parts figures on record are a heat sensor at £20 and $25, and a relay module at "about $400 or so".

A tunnel install at a yard sits on top of any figure above. The cost page has the labor bands by boat length.

What the tables get wrong

Each of these is the kind of figure you might copy into a quote.

• The CT HYD 225. Its page prints the composite leg as "200(kg) / 441(lbs)". It prints the bronze one as "220(kgs) / 441(lbs)". In fact 220 kg is 485 lb (our arithmetic).
• The CT60. The page's 24 V unit is "71(kg) / 158.4(lbs)", where 71 kg is 157 lb. Our database carries the conversion.
• The ECO 150. It makes 145 kg on its own page.
• The CT1000. The hydraulic page prints two ratings, "Light Duty 1200 kgf" and "Heavy Duty 1000 kgf". The lighter duty carries the bigger figure, and the page does not say which duty your boat is.
• The same unit, two bands. The CT35 page says "between 17'-31'". The CT35-IP page, the same 35 kg motor and leg in a sealed housing, says "17' to 34'".
• A fuse for another unit. The CT35 page's spare parts list names a "Fuse CT80 24V 125A" for a 12 V unit.
• Retired names still on sale. The retired-models page lists 20 model names over 25 rows. Among them are 6 CT HYD part numbers under 3 names that are still on sale.

Videos

Two of Max Power’s own videos, from its YouTube channel: the ECO proportional tunnel units explained, and a short reel of the range. They are the maker’s pitch. Watch them for what the units look like, and take the claims (unlimited runtime among them) to the run-time section above.

Play the video: MAX POWER ECO Proportional Thrusters It loads from YouTube when you tap.

Play the video: Max Power Hero Products It loads from YouTube when you tap.

Questions to ask before you order

Most of these are answered in the manual or on the chart. Get each answer for your own boat in writing before the tunnelA tube bored straight through the hull below the waterline, with a propeller in the middle of it. It is the conventional thruster. Fitting one is mostly a labor job rather than a hardware one. is cut.

• Which row of the selection chart is my boat on? The product page's band is the three rows merged; the chart moves a model by up to 14 ft between the heavy and the light row. Take our 15 knot figure in with you.
• What is the price? The maker prints none. Ask for the unit, the tunnel, the panel and the cable as separate lines, and compare with the dealer ladder above.
• Which current figure is the cable sized on? The manual has 550 A and 680 A for the CT100 in neighboring sections. Ask which one the installer used, and for a total run over 5 m on the 12 V CT100, whether it is two cables per leg.
• What battery, and how far from the unit? The manual's example is 55 Ah / 800 CCA. The maker's support told one owner 2400 CCA / 150 Ah. Use lead-acid, AGM or gel on a standard unit, and lithium only on an ECO.
• Standard or ECO? Three minutes by the manual against "Unlimited runtime (until the battery runs out)" on the ECO page, a proportional joystick, and lithium allowed. No ECO owner report yet.
• Who is the authorized service center, and how far away? The warranty excludes damage from repairs elsewhere, and the manual wants all maintenance by "qualified and authorized personnel". The maker's US list is in the warranty section above.
• Is the warranty registered? Within 3 months, or the manual's two years stand where the website says three.
• Where is the heat sensor, and what does it cost? The one fault owners report three times, at "$25" a part.