Thruster reviews: check each maker's own numbers before you buy
A product page and an installation manual have different jobs, and they do not always agree with each other. These reviews read both. Here are nine of them, covering ten makers: the 230 thrusters in the compare list, plus 5 water-jet units from Jet Thruster. Each one is read from the maker's own installation manual, its product pages and the dealers that carry it, all on a dated day. Every figure sits beside the document it came from.
Every maker gets the same checks, listed below. Where a unit falls short, the review says so.
To put models from different makers next to each other, use the compare page. It lists every tunnel, retractable and external unit, and shows up to four side by side.
To browse by maker instead, every thruster on this site lists each model with its thrust and price, linked to its own page.
The short answer
- External thrusters: Sleipner review, Sideshift review, DockStar review, Max Power review, and Yacht Thruster review.
- Tunnel thrusters: VETUS review, Sleipner review, Lewmar review, Quick review, and Max Power review.
- Retractable thrusters: VETUS review, Sleipner review, Lewmar review, Quick review, and Max Power review.
- Water jet thrusters: Jet Thruster review.
- Not sure which type your boat takes? A review will not tell you which thruster to buy. Your boat decides that, and the thruster finder, our free tool that matches a thruster to your boat, works it out from your answers.
The reviews
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VETUS thruster review
Run time per model, the length chart beside our sizing, dealer prices, owner reports.
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Sleipner (Side-Power) review
Why thrust is rated at 10.5 volts, run time by series, prices, and owner reports.
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Sideshift thruster review
The range as published, the thrust figure Sideshift does not print, and owner reports.
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Lewmar thruster review
The chandlery-shelf range: the warranty’s fine print, run time, three store prices, owner reports.
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DockStar Smart Thruster review
What DockStar publishes, what owners report, the bow-and-stern pair, and my own install.
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Quick thruster review
The Beneteau and Jeanneau factory unit: run limit, sizing bands, US prices, owner reports.
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Max Power thruster review
The Italian tunnel range: run limit, the windage chart, one dealer’s prices, owner reports.
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Yacht Thruster and ezDrive review
The through-hull pod and the wake-boat unit, published specs, prices, and the one warranty case.
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Jet Thruster review
The Dutch water-jet system: four sizes, three holes, the batteries, and euro prices explained.
Which review to open, by mounting type
Some makers build one kind of thruster and some build two or three. If you already know whether your boat takes a tunnel, a retractable or an external unit, this table shows which reviews cover it.
The model counts are what this site holds for each maker.
| Review | Makers | Mounting types | Models in the database |
|---|---|---|---|
| VETUS review | VETUS | tunnel, retractable | 47 |
| Sleipner review | Sleipner Side-Power | tunnel, retractable, external | 92 |
| Sideshift review | Sideshift | external | 18 |
| Lewmar review | Lewmar | tunnel, retractable | 12 |
| DockStar review | DockStar | external | 4 |
| Quick review | Quick | tunnel, retractable | 10 |
| Max Power review | Max Power | tunnel, retractable, external | 40 |
| Yacht Thruster review | Yacht Thruster and ezDrive | external | 7 |
| Jet Thruster review | Jet Thruster | water jet | 5 |
What every review checks
Every review tells you what the maker publishes, where its own documents disagree, what owners have reported, and what each dealer listed on the day it was read.
The same questions go to every maker, so you can read two reviews side by side. Each one looks for:
- How long the unit may run before it must rest, from the installation manual.
- The thrust figure, and the voltage it was measured at.
- The battery the maker asks for, in the maker's own units.
- The warranty, and what voids it.
- The boat lengths the maker names for each model, and whether its dealers say the same.
- The price at each dealer that lists it, read on a dated day and kept with that date.
- Where two of the maker's own documents disagree, both figures, side by side.
Owner reports from the forums appear on a review as what one owner said, with the forum and the date. A thread holds plenty of opinions and very few invoices, so a report is never treated as a price.