Have you checked for any parasitic amp draw? Just a thought
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I bought an AGM battery 2 years ago and now it's dropping down to under 12 volts with only after only an hour of fishing. So while checking the battery, I decided to check my battery charger. No voltage output from the leads to the cranking battery. Just great, had to order a new charger but I did run the boat quite a bit after turning all electronics off Saturday so the battery shows fully charged on my load tester. Here's the deal... I can fish for one hour with my LS, Helix 10 and Solix 12 on and the voltage on the batteries drops down below 12 volts. These are the exact same issues I had with the lead acid battery that I replaced with the current AGM.
On the load tester that I have you are supposed to hold the switch down for 10 seconds. That engages a heating element of sorts. It got hot and the batteries amps didn't drop. I then waited about 30 seconds and load tested it again. This time I held the switch engaged for about 20 seconds. The element was glowing red. It looked like a branding iron. The amperage didn't drop.
So, if my battery load tests good, why is it draining so fast?
If my battery is bad, I'm considering replacing it with a Lithium. If any of you are running Lithium batteries, how large would I need to power the 3 afore mentioned units and crank my battery? I'm either going to do that, or replace it with a cheap Lead Acid battery and just swap them every year.
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Have you checked for any parasitic amp draw? Just a thought
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FurFlyin LIKED above post
What is the total amp draw from your 2 fish findwer units. Sounds like something is drawimg more power than it is supposed to be.
The love for fishing is one of the best gifts you can pass alongFurFlyin LIKED above post
I have not checked that yet, but plan to do so tomorrow since I have all the wires disconnected. I'm going to ohm each wire to see if there's a short to the hull.
I can wire a boat, but I'm no electrician. How do I check for amp draw? I have a clamp on meter so I can use that if all you do to check that is just hook it around the battery cable to see if anything is pulling power while everything is off.
125ah ionic. Give this man a call. He will answer all your questions. IONIC LITHIUM BATTERIES FOR BASS BOATS - Drewcraft LLC
You can get a 100ah but for 78 more dollars get the 125ah. Whatever lithium battery you go with, make sure it's deep cycle.
Don't know about the amp thingy........
2018 G3 Sportsman 17
2018 Yamaha F90 four stroke
Ultra 106sv bow/console
Livescope Terrova 24v Ionic lithium batteriesFurFlyin LIKED above post
Those finders do draw a ton of amps that I’ve found,,,definately be wise to run a separate battery for just electronics and 1 for starting battery, can’t tell you how many times my motor battery dropped below 12 volts trying to run just my helix mega 10 alone……always had a set of jumpers in case this happened a d wouldn’t start my boat,,,,just jumped off my trolling batteries….
2018 G3 Sportsman 17
2018 Yamaha F90 four stroke
Ultra 106sv bow/console
Livescope Terrova 24v Ionic lithium batteriesFurFlyin LIKED above post
What you are checking with that tester is essentially the cranking amps, which is not what you are looking for in a deep cycle battery. Reserve capacity is what matters in your situation. To measure that, you would need to place a specific amp load on the battery, and see how long it takes for the battery to discharge. Then compare that to the amp-hour rating of the battery. A 10 amp load should go for 10 hours or so on a 100ah battery (10x10=100). A battery can provide the cranking amps but not have the reserve capacity and vice versa.
In your case I think it would be wise to run a separate house battery for all of your electronics and pumps, and then a cheap lead acid starting battery that only cranks the motor. If you have an outboard with a pretty good charging system, you could then use an isolator to charge the house battery on the fly, or rely on your onboard charger between trips.
Those 10/12" units plus your LS are drawing a lot of power.
FurFlyin LIKED above post