New Mercury outboards

b_arrington

b_arrington

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Feb 21, 2007
3,475
Setauket, NY
Boat Info
Back Cove 37
AB Ventus 9VL
Engines
Cummins QSC 8.3 600
TL;dr: thoughts on current small (15 HP) Mercury EFI outboards?

I'm thinking about upgrading the '98 Envinrude 15 hp 2 stroke on the RIB. The weights of current 4 stroke outboards have come down and the availability of EFI in an outboard is very appealing.

I'm looking at 15 HP models. The current Mercury one has some very nice features: centered, highly adjustable tiller, tiller-mounted shifter, simple oil changes, fresh water flush port. And EFI means no carburetor rebuilds.

All that said, I want something reliable for my dingy. Any one have experience with reliability of the small Mercury outboards?
 
Brad,

I seem to recall that all outboards below something like 25hp are all built by Tohatsu. Thing is I can’t remember if this was just for two cycle engines. We just got a 6HP Yamaha with the new zodiac alu rib we bought at the boat show anyways, so what do I know?
 
Henry Boyd said:
Brad,

I seem to recall that all outboards below something like 25hp are all built by Tohatsu. Thing is I can’t remember if this was just for two cycle engines. We just got a 6HP Yamaha with the new zodiac alu rib we bought at the boat show anyways, so what do I know?
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Yes, the smaller Mercuries are made by Tohatsu. Some of the features I like are unique to Mercury, though.
 
b_arrington said:
TL;dr: thoughts on current small (15 HP) Mercury EFI outboards?

I'm thinking about upgrading the '98 Envinrude 15 hp 2 stroke on the RIB. The weights of current 4 stroke outboards have come down and the availability of EFI in an outboard is very appealing.

I'm looking at 15 HP models. The current Mercury one has some very nice features: centered, highly adjustable tiller, tiller-mounted shifter, simple oil changes, fresh water flush port. And EFI means no carburetor rebuilds.

All that said, I want something reliable for my dingy. Any one have experience with reliability of the small Mercury outboards?
Click to expand...
Brad,
I upgraded from a Mercury 9.9 to the new Mercury 15 EFI when they first came out 2 summers ago. I went with the Mercury instead of the Tohatsu because I liked the new tiller design which is unique to Mercury . It was a little more money but not that much. I have had no problems with it in the two summers. I’ve always had Mercury dinghy motors starting with a 4hp,6hp,9.9hp and now the 15EFI all on a variety of dinghys. I also have a 115 Mercury on my 16’ Whaler.....all have been good.

Rick
 
These EFI's have been doing very well for us. There's been no common issues or "gotcha's" to worry about. Pretty solid little machines. They pretty much "just work".
 
Lazy Daze said:
These EFI's have been doing very well for us. There's been no common issues or "gotcha's" to worry about. Pretty solid little machines. They pretty much "just work".
Click to expand...
Awesome, thanks for the feedback. Something that "just works" is exactly what I want.

I have a shop manual and have done quite a bit of maintenance on my Evinrude, but it's a 1998 and getting a bit tired. It uses a ton of gas, too. At the end of last season it was stalling constantly; I found the plugs were pretty badly wet fouled so I need to troubleshoot that problem. I'm getting a little weary of carb rebuild and the associated baselining. My kids use this for exploring with the dingy so I want something reliable for them.
 
Brad, the only "caution" that I would mention is that, like all small engines, it doesn't take much gunk or old fuel to foul things up. This is likely something you're already quite familiar with and it's nothing that's really "new". But always use some type of fuel additive like Startron (Merc has their own version, if you prefer that) and... USE IT ALOT! :) Honestly, the best thing for these little guys is to use them!

It has a nice fuel/water separator/filter on it so you don't really need another fuel filter... but it certainly wouldn't hurt to put one of those little inline fuel filters in the gas line - sort of a "pre-filter". It's usually easy enough to keep your gas clean when you're dealing with a portable tank - but those inline filters are super inexpensive.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Brad, the only "caution" that I would mention is that, like all small engines, it doesn't take much gunk or old fuel to foul things up. This is likely something you're already quite familiar with and it's nothing that's really "new". But always use some type of fuel additive like Startron (Merc has their own version, if you prefer that) and... USE IT ALOT! :) Honestly, the best thing for these little guys is to use them!

It has a nice fuel/water separator/filter on it so you don't really need another fuel filter... but it certainly wouldn't hurt to put one of those little inline fuel filters in the gas line - sort of a "pre-filter". It's usually easy enough to keep your gas clean when you're dealing with a portable tank - but those inline filters are super inexpensive.
Click to expand...
Indeed, I'm quite religious about clean fuel. I always dose with some StarTron and Stabil with each fill up.

I like the idea of an in-line file filter too. It's good to know the Mercury has a fuel filter on it; my current motor doesn't really have one. It's just a fine mesh screen on the fuel pump, and the system doesn't have room to add one.
 
Well, I picked up the new outboard today. Heading back from Defender on the ferry. Taking the ferry to Connecticut was a lot less than the truck shipping costs! Plus I get to be out on the water for a bit.

image.jpg


Now I just need to sell the 15 hp 2 stroke Evinrude.
 
I just picked up a Merc 25 jet. They had a 5 year warranty promotion running till the end of March. Going to mount it on a Solar 420 tunnelled inflatable.
 
I have the Tohatsu 9.9 EFI with electric start. (same engine, different ECM). it is outstanding. Bonus points - you can swap out the ECM and upgrade it later to 20 HP.
 
Sweet - you're gonna love it, Brad. Just remember not to start it a second time - they're so quiet!
 
bobeast said:
I have the Tohatsu 9.9 EFI with electric start. (same engine, different ECM). it is outstanding. Bonus points - you can swap out the ECM and upgrade it later to 20 HP.
Click to expand...
That might be a bit hard to do, Bob... considering the 20HP is a totally different engine/bigger displacement and all :)
 
Lazy Daze said:
That might be a bit hard to do, Bob... considering the 20HP is a totally different engine/bigger displacement and all :)
Click to expand...

The Tohatsu 9.9, 15, and 20 (4S EFI), are all the same engine with different ECMs and Throttle body feeds. If the Mercury 20 is of a different displacement, they may have broken ranks with Tohatsu.
 
bobeast said:
I have the Tohatsu 9.9 EFI with electric start. (same engine, different ECM). it is outstanding. Bonus points - you can swap out the ECM and upgrade it later to 20 HP.
Click to expand...
bobeast said:
The Tohatsu 9.9, 15, and 20 (4S EFI), are all the same engine with different ECMs and Throttle body feeds. If the Mercury 20 is of a different displacement, they may have broken ranks with Tohatsu.
Click to expand...
The Mercury 15 and 20 have the same design and specs except for the hp. The 9.9 looks quite a bit different, at least externally.
 
For what it's worth - i have a 1991 Johnson 15hp 2 stroke. Starts at the first pull every time. Runs like a champ. Replace the plugs every few years - just because. Use marina fuel to keep the ethanol out of the hoses. I looked at new 4 strokes, but until this one gives up the ghost, I’m good!
7E537224-8727-42DE-9004-7F83FCF9FC78.jpeg
 
Stick with the 2 strokes as long as you can.
I’ve got a 9.9 mercury 4 stroke that I bought brand new 3 years ago and then put 1 hour on it.
Still under extended warranty too.
Nice little motor, but way too heavy for what I wanted it for, so I stopped using it.
Been wanting to sell it for 3 years but my son keeps stopping me. He tells me that “we might want it some day”.
It’s been sitting in my shed in my way for almost 3 years.
One of these days I’m going to sell it without telling him and see how long it takes him to notice it’s gone.
 
JVM225 said:
Stick with the 2 strokes as long as you can.
I’ve got a 9.9 mercury 4 stroke that I bought brand new 3 years ago and then put 1 hour on it.
Still under extended warranty too.
Nice little motor, but way too heavy for what I wanted it for, so I stopped using it.
Been wanting to sell it for 3 years but my son keeps stopping me. He tells me that “we might want it some day”.
It’s been sitting in my shed in my way for almost 3 years.
One of these days I’m going to sell it without telling him and see how long it takes him to notice it’s gone.
Click to expand...
Well, it’s too late for me. I already got the new Mercury, and sold the Evinrude today.

I feel pretty good about where it went. A couple boys earned $3000 by mowing lawns and turning in collected bottles. They bought themselves a 12 foot inflatable and my motor to go with it. Shows what you get with some hard work.
 
b_arrington said:
Well, it’s too late for me. I already got the new Mercury, and sold the Evinrude today.

I feel pretty good about where it went. A couple boys earned $3000 by mowing lawns and turning in collected bottles. They bought themselves a 12 foot inflatable and my motor to go with it. Shows what you get with some hard work.
Click to expand...

Love hearing stories like that.

I decided that for the way we boat and how I want to store and use a dinghy that I’m better off with a small lightweight slat floor roll up and a small lightweight 2 stroke.
There would only be a few times a year I would use it at all, and when I do take it with me I’ll be moving it on and off my swim platform from my dock property by myself.
That’s why I want to keep it as light as possible.
I sold the brand new 10’ 6” solid floor inflatable I bought when I bought the motor already.
Muscling the 125 lb boat, then the 92 lb motor between my dock and swim platform by myself wasn’t fun.
I initially thought about installing a winch on my dock to help with the task, but I don’t use a dinghy enough to justify all of that.
 
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