UHI Electric Mini Excavator Review Good for a Small Farm?
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- Опубликовано: 12 апр 2023
- The UHI Electric Mini Excavator. Is it a good choice for a small farm? This week I put the little UHI E12 through it's paces, find it's limits and explore the future of electric plant.
UHI E12 www.unitedheavyindustries.com...
Unedited raw footage of operation, warts and all, with a novice operator for those who are more mechanically minded • UHI E12 Real Time
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2 big advantages I can think of: I don’t have an oil refinery at home but I do have electricity on tap, secondly little ones can get involved without getting tinnitus
Tim, it looks the business for people like me. I have an 80hp tractor with the backhoe set up. But to get that on and off to attach the slasher is nearly a day's labor. The satisfaction of pulling that stump must have been tremendous, Cheers, 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What a little ripper! 😅😅
Thanks Tim, great review. The big machines aren't always so handy, too bulky for some areas, especially around houses and multiple shed areas, can be very restricting. Will definitely check them out.
Have a great day from down South.
good show. this has commercial potential for inside enclosed spaces. no fumes.
Great for landscaping of suburban homes
As it would fit through side gates and narrow paths.
Love it. I would love to someday install a remote control platform onto a machine like this bad boy!
Looks like good kit, silly problems to find on a sales item though. Two things seem obvious ways to improve it: a back-up battery, or the facility to have a second regular one bolted on somewhere convenient; and a trickle-feed from panels on the canopy to the back up - that would almost guarantee you never get stuck somewhere when it starts to get dark. 👍
Yep, apparently that's coming on a new model soon. Hopefully I will get a look at it.
Agreed!
I am kind of weird where I'd literally have a wood gasifier powering a generator (to charge a spare battery)so that it could just run off the stuff I clear with the tractor/digger (btw track ter is correct) lol
What? It's perfect recycling in my opinion
Excellent bit o kit
That’s looks like a good little machine
Would love to get one to dig out under neath my house ( about 250T of dirt to move) without having a diesel and or petrol engine for fumes etc
Thanks Tim, very interesting. I didn't know that such a machine even existed. I'm going to see if they're available here in Italy.
This Electric Excavator sounds good! Maybe, I won't have to deal with my children's complaints about the smell of oil and diesel on me after working with it
Hi mate thanks for all the work you do with these videos, I have been thinking about one of these electric vehicles for the Farm, they have their limitations i get that but i think they could have some potential with some modifications. Diesel is great, but i think with some tinkering with these it could be quite fun. being wholly electric might make theft a little harder also.
That was great I'ld like see a video on the uhi 75 or 100 tractor
Great video Tim. I agree, handy to have such a machine. I would want a heavier machine, as I need to be able to lift more and not tip over. The quality of these machines is a concern though. Holes not drilled correctly and no quick connectors is bad, what else did they not do properly? The overall lack of safety features could make it dangerous to operate, as not everybody is as savvy with such equipment (or kids that might get the key and play with it).
They’ve got a new model coming out later this year. Be interesting to see if any of the issues have been resolved. Great little tool though!
@Farm Learning with Tim Thompson - Nah, you got me wrong, I didn't think you were trying to be misleading, I was merely disappointed that the review didn't actually give enough time to the actual operation aspects of the machine, the actual things we buy it to do.
It's clear that you are not aware of the debates that rage on RUclips over these Chinese mini diggers amongst those of us who own them and those "outsiders" who don't (and I can't blame you for that), hence many of the well known issues that surround them are not approached in your review which is a shame for some of us because many who already have diesel chinese ones have been eagerly awaiting some youtube videos of owner operators using the electric ones so that we can make judgements on how the Chinese electric versions compare to the diesel ones for our (widely) varying uses and whether the latest updates have dealt with any of the known chinese digger issues.
Yes, your video comes across as a nice upbeat segment in a lifestyle program which makes it eminently viewable for the casual viewer and that means means that you are helping lots of people decide whether they like the actual concept of electric small plant.
That said, some of us who actually use/buy the chinese machinery crave more from an actual excavator review (I was led here by youtube only because I was looking at excavator videos) - we are the people who will actually watch thirty seconds of actual digging, grading, augering and lifting at real time speed so that we can get a handle on the pro's and con's of the way the various machines out there operate in use.
You are dead right that the chinese tiny-diggers are not "commercial" machines, at least not in the sense of day-in day-out earthmoving contractors or as dry hire, that's just the nature of them and the way they are set up, they are simply not comfortable to operate for long hours every day like a Kubota or CAT and they are not robust enough for the abuse that commercial users tend to mete out.
On the other hand they are cheap and brilliant for those of us who have small properties and only dig on occasion and also want to use them to lift things, carry things around (I carried a 12 cylinder engine out of a shed and loaded it into the tray of my mate's ute last week, using my 1.2t UHI excavator turned out to be the easiest and quickest way I've ever done this job), they have a thousand uses (many of which are short duration and spur of the moment tasks where hire is not an option).
Your points regrading pre-delivery are well made. I know that when my diesel UME 1.2 tonner was delivered it already had the quick hitch fitted, all the bolts were tight and various other things checked. Maybe your delivery was a rush job? Maybe UHI are letting their guard down? Either way, the things you mentioned having to use a file for should have already been attended to before it got to you.
One word of warning - the lack of lockouts you mentioned does not only mean the machine controls will operate when you step off the machine while it's still running. If it's like most other Chinese micro diggers, the controls will also operate when the machine is switched off, meaning that if you leave it parked with the boom and stick up in the air and accidentally hit that boom-down lever, the boom will fling itself towards the ground or towards anything underneath it with the full force of its weight under gravity. Park em with the bucket resting on solid ground always.
No worries mate. I’ll upload some unedited footage of operation later this weekend and provide the link as a response here. Happy to help when I can. Yes, no lockouts = frightening.
I would love to have one
You and me both mate.
Would it be hard to swap the battery out mid day? I feel that would be a point which could drive people away or make them nervous, a jerry can of fuel gets you an extra 5 hours of work.. if you can do a quick change on a battery then it would be a big win
Great point. I’ll try and find out for the future
Apparently there is an upgrade to the machine coming in six months time that will allow this. I'll keep my eyes open for a review. This model it would be too difficult. Cheers.
@@FarmLearningTim thanks for looking into that👍. Hmm so I might have to wait a few months before buying 😁. It definitely looks like a good investment for weekend work and converting to a small fencing machine to help out customers on the weekend. Thanks Tim!
What about on slopes did you try using it on any decent grade? With the back hoe on my small tractor I can level it using the feet, but it is slow and annoying to move from place to place as you have to turn the tractor off, swing the seat around, move the tractor, turn it off again, swing the seat then start digging again.
Hey mate. I don't have what I'd call decent slopes at my place, so no. Due to the 1200 X 900 footprint I'd ve very cautious operating on "Decent" (hills that are hard to stand on sideways) slopes. Cheers.
The normal UME12 versions will drop the blade about 350mm and with a distance from rear drive cog centreline to blade of 1200mm that means it'll be able to level up on a grade of about one in three and a half which is reasonable. One good thing about the UME12 series is that they have double skinned/hollow blades which gives a bit more surface area on the bottom edge to provide support. You do still need fairly solid ground under the blade to level up on - otherwise the blade can vibrate deeper into the ground as you operate and you'll tend to sink slowly at that end as you work and not be level any more..
@@davejaguar6532 Thanks mate appreciated!
G'day Tim, another great review. How easily interchangeable is the battery? A second battery if readily interchangeable would certainly alleviate the work time issue.
Apparently that’s coming with a new model in about 6 months time
@Farm Learning with Tim Thompson forgive me if you mentioned it in the video but did the travel speed match the sticker?
@@QuentinCarter1975 It's slow dude.
no pilot controls ??
I’ve got a uhi loader and the biggest downfall for me is the lack of hydraulic filters or transmission filters …….. wonder if the excavator has a hydraulic filter , especially with the dirt entry comments,
Most of these micro's (incl all the other UME's I've seen) have a filter inside the hydraulic oil tank on the suction line to the pump. I would definitely recommend fitting quick connects for the auxilliary lines, keeping crap out of the oil is critical on these machines. "The Tree Change Farmer" has a youtube video on how to do this on a UME12s which is similar.
@@davejaguar6532 yeah the suction screen isn’t a viable filter . Just stops large objects. Hyd pumps running low tolerance won’t handle much debris. Or every major manufacturer wouldn’t bother fitting return filters to machines. Because they all have suction screens
@@yohahnboogaloo8158 Return line filters are a bit of a problem for these, the one cylinder versions have room for fitting an external filter (some youtubers have done it) but the three cylinder ones have precious little space left. You've also got to be careful with fitting small external return line filters on these because the case drains (additional internal over pressure bypass) for the swivel joint, the slew motor and (for those with ones with case drains fitted) the travel motors, are plumbed into the return line in various places and you need to be very careful not to create back pressure on those and small (ie small enough to fit in the limited space here) external return line filters can create back pressure (hence why big excavators have enormous return filters in wells at the top of the tanks).
In regard to the suction filters in these, they have a very large surface area (ie as big as a Z9 car filter) to help eliminate cavitation through clogging and I'm led to believe they are 10 micron so "large objects" is relative, ten micron is one one hundredth of a millimetre.
@@davejaguar6532 that’s my point . Needs filter fitted to suit application. Should have been done at design stage .
If you have to change your hydraulic oil everytime you clean the screen . That gets expensive. For the at worst 50 dollar filter every 500 operating hours . To me it seems to design without filters it’s designed to last past warranty.
@@yohahnboogaloo8158 I changed the filter and hydraulic oil in my UME12s at 70 hours, ended up I couldn't bring myself to wait for 1000hrs like the book said. I figured 70 hours was long enough to get all the run-in stuff accumulated in the tank and what I saw in there indicated to me that the filter and magnet installed at the factory was doing a better than expected job of keeping the crap in the tank and not sending it through to the pump. I flushed every skerrick of old oil out of the entire system so I didn't mix old with new (which took quite a lot of work to do but I'm obsessive) and I didn't "clean the screen", I simply fitted a new filter unit and seal cos at 19 bucks for new it wasn't worth even trying to re-use the old.
I'm going to change the hydraulic oil and filter again when it's done another 250hrs cos I figure that at $19 for filter and $99 for 20L of Komatsu iso46 it's cheap insurance (plus it'll take a year or so to get the next 250 hours up). I'll also re-measure pressure and flow to see if the pump has lost any of its oomph.
Sure, you're totally right that these are design limitations on these cheapest of Chinese micro-diggers (there are lots of limitations in fact) but that's part of the reason they are laying at the cheapest end of the excavator market and most owners learn to accommodate those limitations. Some of us make many modifications (like I've done to modify and tame hydraulic flow etc) to them to bring them up closer in operation ability to better higher price machines - that's part of the fun of owning them (and lets be realistic, the great majority of us who've paid less than twenty grand for a chinese digger are not in it for business but in it for convenience and a bit of fun, at least that's what my wife said about me and my toys......................
Theres plenty of stick pullers out there but not many good operators 😁
Looks good , I just hate for it to be to far away from an electric socket for more than 6hours
Stand by…. They’re coming out with a replaceable battery model. Like a big power drill….
Its a good Machine to work insite a House in closed Rooms ,without Waste Gases !
Wondering about the batteries and cost to replace them? And is it a big job. Looks the part but just the life of them 🤔
Can't say on that machine. But in general easy but heavy to replace. Batteries are developing quickly, so by the time you need to replace them they will be cheaper and hold more energy.
At 9:05 Tim mentions a 50% discharge cutout, most likely the supplied battery pack is AGM. So 50% depth of discharge for 600 cycles, or 30% depth of discharge for 1500 cycles at best until you are at 60% of design capacity.
In real terms this means that you could run the machine flat (to the 50% limit) 4 days a week for 3 years until you see less runtime, or run it down 30% 4 days a week for 6-7 years to the same end. There is nothing stopping the machine from operating for 20 years at a reduced runtime.
In the current market you could replace this pack with it's equivalent in LiFePO4, 100Ah (100% depth of discharge to 2000+ cycles), for about $2000AUD. Or double the factory runtime while incurring no additional space requirement with a 200ah pack. There are temperature and other considerations to make for LiFePO4, but these are included in that estimate. LiFePO4 is mostly superior to AGM in these respects anyway.
At the point that the supplied pack requires replacement LiFePO4 will either be exceedingly cheap or superseded with something like AL-S. If I am incorrect about the factory supplied battery type and they are in fact lithium based, you can at least double that estimate.
There is potential for upgrades and solar additions, etc. I'd love to put a 360 camera system and remote control system on this, an automatic tool swap mechanism, etc. Imagine it self driving and augering a fence line via way points.
Hmm, a lot of talking about the machine but precious little vision of the excavator actually doing all of those tasks you mentioned. The tiny amount of actual operating vision that was included was sped up which means potential buyers can't tell how smoothly and accurately the machine operates and that means that two of the BIG questions that potential buyers of Chinese micro excavators at this cheap end of the market usually want answered went un-resolved. You mentioned that the specs say it can go six hours on a charge, did you find that in actual use that sort of figure was attainable when using it for digging/grading/augering?
Hello. I tried to make the video as watchable as possible, so that's why I sped up the footage. People don't watch anything that dosen't change every 15-20 seconds and watching me fumble around slowly is not good vision..... This was 3 hours of video compressed into 10 minutes with change. Your comment seems to indicate that I was trying to mislead you? I certainly made a point of showing what I thought were some awful QC issues around hydraulics and the auger.... So I guess I'm a bit confused by that. Yes, it's at the cheap end of the market AND it's electric, which is the devil to some. The charge claim is probably on the lighter side of operation. Heavy use I'd think it was more around 5 hours. But this is NOT a commercial machine (as I also went to great pains to point out) so for most people in the hobby market it's probably sufficient.
Added a link to raw footage in the description of the video for you. Excuse the dodgy operating please. Click on it and it will take you to an unlisted video that is unedited for speed. Aaaand very boring.....
@@FarmLearningTim Thank you for that. Boring, dodgy or not, I reckon it's easy for the viewer to "fast forward" at the click of a mouse past any bit they don't like. Looking at your footage it does seem that this version seems to operate a bit smoother in the hands of a beginner than a lot of other Chinese micro excavators we see and that's an encouraging thing.
@@davejaguar6532 Glad to help. I'll try to include a "Dave Jaguar" link in future videos as unfortunately viewers don't fast forward, they click off and watch another one the second the Dopamine stops flowing. Then my channel recommendations die and I get NO views. I've got sponsors who now only want 30 second videos. How the hell I can teachn anyone anything in 30 seconds is completely beyond me.
@@FarmLearningTim Yes, that seems to be the way of the world nowadays - everyone wants their information in a "soundbite", no wonder so many people know so little about what goes on, they don't "do" complexity.
I was curious about this. Considering a purchase.
But after calling the dealer 10 times and going to voicemail everytime doesn't fill me with confidence...
Comment and let me know if anyone has actually spoken to this company.
Though I would give them a bit of leeway with this, as they may be getting smashed with calls.
They should have a better ivr (phone system) that doesn't throw you to voicemail after 20 seconds
Just got a text back from them asking if they can call me back later.
Pretty quick response. See how things go...
They called me back, has additional delivery cost (yet to find out what that is), and the batteries are not lithium (also wasn't able tot ell me the battery type, will report back when I find out).
Got the delivery quote. Very reasonable imo.
And they clarified that the batteries ARE lithium. The sales person was confused earlier on.
Many dismiss electric vehicles/machines as they see the first generation, see the issues and make up their minds. We have seen how quickly electric cars have moved on and are continuing to rapidly out do ICE (anyone that doubts that should see Tesla's next generation vehicle that will be built in Mexico, OEM's are trying to catch up with the last generation). The potential for electric machines is massive but will take time as larger markets are where the development cash is been spent. I often work around and with heavy machinery, although am no operator and see how much better they could be. One of these is road brooms, just about every time I've used one of these some issue occurs. These have three separate parts in essence to operate them, the electric side, the diesel engine and the hydraulics, a more complicated machine has more failure points. Making these electric only would be a quite simple to design, charging from the wheels would mean only a small battery would be required (later when the truck is electric use it's batteries), so cost to buy and more importantly reliability/maintenance costs would be far less.
The change over is coming and although been an early adopter of a new technology can be frustrating and at first costly it's a worth while investment to make. If you want to be more profitable medium to long term get in now, if not you maybe competing soon with a company that has cut it's "fuel" cost by two thirds along with it's servicing/mechanic costs.
For machines that go home every night electric might have its place. But the majority of machines around here would need to be charged by generator. So you pay more for the machine, have to buy a big generator as well and then run the generator all night burning diesel instead of just burning the diesel in the machine during the day. If charging with a diesel generator how much less diesel will that use, any? There might be a limited demand for electric, but I suspect not much?
@@avid6186 As always one solution doesn't fit all problems. We have to bring the energy required to many of our machines as well. Can be done with removable batteries. Although honestly as these machines will probably be the last to go electric many things would have changed. The major one been self driving cars/machines. I was driving a roller yesterday, a very simple operation that Tesla's FSD with minor modification could handle today. Even a grader could be built to do it's work with minimal human input and far better. Once this happens it gets far easier. I often work up in the hills but electricity isn't normally that far off.
It's very interesting to see how the technology around electrification/renewables is moving so fast. Adoption curves show there are laggards and places that a certain tech doesn't suit but in the end it's not far off a 100% when the economics are the driver.
I reached out to them. They couldn't recall the battery type, other than saying its certainly not lithium.
I'll report back when they give me an answer. Guessing lead acid.
They clarified that the batteries ARE lithium. The sales person was confused earlier on apparently.
Looks like the q/c was out to lunch lol chineseium quality Just proves that they will try to copy anything cheaply and try not to have any warranty comebacks 😂😂 But it’s one of those “ nice to have tools”
Well like all technology it has to start somewhere. For my business it wouldn’t be practical but give it time for more R and D and better production and I can see electric having its place. But of course it has its limits. Not having any foot pedals for auxiliary would be annoying. That blade lever in that position is hella annoying. Not having a removable canopy limits it. But probably good enough for a land owner, but if you were only going to use it once every few months wouldn’t you be better off dry hiring one for a few hundred a day over spending 20k and being stuck with a deteriorating battery and machine? Not sure how a Chinese electric machine would resell for 10 years from now.
im of the opinion the chinese electronics would get ditched within the year and an ICE being strapped in. probably has all the bolt holes and mounts ready.
no more than a quickly slapped together kit, with no thought for say... hydraulics have a terrible loss? why not use linear actuators rather than rams?
i see abut 80% of its battery power going to simply drive a hydraulic pump, wasting heat as its bypassing, wasting power in fluid friction, wasting power everywhere...
batteries dont give a damn if you throw more motors on them until you drag too much current... but as you probably are aware, no matter how big the engine on hydraulics... the pump becomes the limit, and the more you try to drive from that pump, the less work you can do... cant slew and extend and curl at full speed at the same time...
whereas when the engines too small you just go real slow or stall. whats the pressure limited to?
only downside is you need voltage to keep cable sizes down and when you pop an electric line, the fluid aint so easily wiped off... go low voltages and the currents and losses in wire becomes the drawback...
if this was a mining vehicle and need the power but couldnt deal with the safety of a 2kv power line? they run hydraulics because of that reason. the machine might have a cable out the back but in that case, hydraulic machinery still makes more sense.
this case... ditch the hydro.
im not a fan of these e-mowers popping up now, but notice they dont use belts or hydro motors unlike their ICE counterparts. they were designed for the power source rather than a quickly cobbled together kit strapped on instead of an ICE.
lol. though my mowers sitting out in the paddock with a carb full of water. sigh. cant win?
I'd really hate to hear what a battery cost for that... After 5 years if you treat the battery well it's done...😮
Standard 12 volt lead acid. Shown in video
Hydraulic fluid change on 1000 hours? Even expensive yanmar and kubota last for 2000 to 3000 hours only. Then need to rebuild pumps, cylinders, arm pivot points, all oil leaks. By your logic you only change oil twice. That oil is 20$ per change when you buy oil in bulk package. Change oil when you see it changes color. It wears out additives
Not my logic. Manufacturer recommended.
@@FarmLearningTim I think it's a typo with one 0 more. 100h seems reasonable. First oil change at 50h but my local dealer says 20h even better. Could you do close up on electric motor and battery types? Electric is good indoor. Many small excavators are used indoors for demolition. Some have external diesel power packs but oil hose runs behind excavator is not too comfortable. I'm looking to make ventilation hose to suck exhaust outside
Found this via Facebook actually. Depending on actual price and also adding a very simple relay and seat cut out switch and a switchable reverse beeper and flashing light? But those things wouldn't be very difficult to fit anyway?
Reverse beepers fucking drive me bonkers when they aren't needed. Unecessary noise distracting you whilst you are trying to work FFS! Lol
I've been trying to preach the silence is better to motorbike riders that don't want to hear it? When you can hear your rear wheel breaking traction you far better control.. Likewise when you can hear everything going on around you, you are more aware your workspace? You aren't woops I broke through a pipe? Maybe? Who knows? Your got better chance and precise control when you can hear better?
And then there's me that would want to inclose the cabin and put in sound system so I can sing while I'm working and sound like I'm in the shower or some shit? Accoustic or some shit? And stuff I'm a bit of a tech nerd so I'd definitely DIY a Peltier electric air con for shots n giggles?
Edit. If we are going to fantasise though may as well fit some big lamps cause stuff it who's going to hear you? May as well work through the night when it's cool and not even wake anyone up? Lol stuff working in the heat. PS I love it this time of year being on the cool weather stuff the heat 🖕
Very handy but it sounds awful and seems sluggish. Interesting though - there hasn’t really been a hobby digger around before. Why not.
Just the sound of the hydraulic pump that's normally drowned out by the sound of a diesel. And it's as fast as you want it. I was going for delicate...
i hate saying it but hydraulics seems like someone hasnt thought this through fully.
like, um... there is a MASSIVE loss driving a hydraulic pump, to move fluid around under pressure, when you can basically look at electricity as the fluid under pressure... its already under pressure, and ready to do work. why the HELL would you convert it with a 10-20% efficiency into a different form?
ummm... give it linear actuators, get a bit more advanced on the "industrial robot" concept, as harmonic drives and the like become far cheaper and readily available...
sorry. hydraulics... on an electric... it doesnt make any sense. not at the small scale of this. like, yeah... if you needed 200Kw worth of flow for each ram, sure... oil beats electricity for that application. but it isnt a mining vehicle, its a little yard worker.
this isnt planned for efficiency, or effectiveness, it isnt designed for its power source. its just a plain old excavator with an electric motor and some batteries strapped in with an "eco" sticker slapped on. greenie points for brown nosing. but fundamentally flawed. its for posing.
sure, it works, but man... its just hypocrisy in action. or... iunno. capitalism? jump in and make money while the goings good! who cares about long term! money money money! all it is. someone got the bright idea that the eco warriors would be all over the idea and just strapped a BLDC on to it.
yeah, and my experience of chinese battery powered things? leave it in the shed for 3 months. good luck if it does more than beep at you when you come back to bury that dead horse...
personally, i would leave it out in the middle of the paddock under a tarp where nothing can catch on fire..
.
at least my diesel can sit out in the paddock for 3 months with no air filter or tarp and it still starts first go. and smells like fish n chips rather than "magic brown smoke"...
yknow, on more thought... robotic arms. if a company that was building them factory robots actually put their mind to this, the thing would be effin brilliant... but i stand my ground. hydraulics on something this size is stupidity at its finest.
"I hate saying it" hahaha, come on buddy, you feel better now right? You liked it eh?
Seriously, though thanks for your input and opinion.
@@FarmLearningTim lol. yeah, i loved saying it ;)
as an excavator, does well.
as electric... could be better.
at least it would be an easy refit to ICE.
@@paradiselost9946 Can get same excavator for a couple grand less with a diesel.
I think you're being far too generous in your opinion. You'd be far better off hiring a unit by a reputable brand for a weekend than buying that chinesium.
Your comments that ripper pulling out big stumps.
Nothing bigger then 25mm roots come out with the ripper and the Augar takes ages to dig a hole in clay to 700mm you must be a UHI stooge pretending to be a farmer.
I was very disappointed with the UHI E12.
I stand by my review. I literally videoed what I did with it. Yes the big stump took a while, but it dug it out. As for stooge, I don't insult people back. Too many idiots in the world already.