Hobie Bait Tank 6Volt Battery Question
 

I've been having some Hobie livewell issues the last three times I headed out. After replacing the switch I thought I had everything fixed, but it died again. The pump seems to work just fine, but dies after some time, and sometime being about 5 hours.
Which leads me to believe it is the battery.
When fully charged and allowed to rest for a day, the standing voltage is 6.2volts. I believe this is too low.
If you have a few minutes, could you check the standing voltage on your fully charged 6volt battery with a meter and let me know what the reading is? Trying not to waste $$ on a battery if that's not the issue, but your findings will confirm or debunk my theory. Thanks so much.
Chris

Just get a fawking battery already. The tank only has three parts motor, switch, battery. You checked the motor and bypassed the switch. What else could it be :D

It could also be your charger, so check the output voltage. You should have a higher voltage reading on a fully charged battery. My LiFePo 4 batteries charge at 7.3 volts.

I spent all my $$ on wadershttp://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/i...ons/icon10.gifhttp://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/i...ons/icon10.gifhttp://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/i...ons/icon10.gif
That's probably going to boil down to it. Check that voltage for me when you get homehttp://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/i...ons/icon14.gif

I'll check the hobie charger as well. Thanks Greg.http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/i...cons/icon7.gif

Does your motor rattle? The last issue that I had with my bait tank battery going dead sooner than expected was actually because of a bad pump motor/impeller.

Originally, I thought my issue was with the battery so I bought a new 6volt battery on Ebay, gave it a full charge, rigged my bait tank to a bucket of water and let it run, the battery died in under 5hours. After trying it another two times I figured that I was sent a bad/old battery so picked up a second one from OEX, charged it, tested it, 5hrs later..............same thing happened.

Could I have picked up two bad batteries?

I don't recall who it was that told me (I believe it was Tony) but he mentioned that he had a similar problem. He had asked if my motor was making any noise, I said YES, he said REPLACE IT, I did, that fixed my problem. Its hard to imagine that a bad impeller motor could cause this problem but it can and it will. I'm not saying that's your problem but its something to consider.

I replaced the motor back in 2013, the two batteries that I bought and motor have been running flawlessly since I replaced the motor.

Once you start draining it completely dead, you damage the charging capacity.

I just noticed yesterday, that OEX sells a switch now, to help limit the usage of the battery. I

http://www.kayakfishingsupplies.com/...-Switch/Detail

:the_finger:

6.2 is too low for full charge standing voltage. Try putting it under load and testing it with meter again. Then run the pump for a couple hours with water and test again with battery disconnected, should still be over 6

Thank you, thank you thank you!http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/i...cons/icon7.gif
That's around what I figured, but everyone on the interweb thinks they are a battery expert, so lots of false information out there.:you_rock:

Walmart
 

I found the replacement cartridge at Walmart for $12, just about to head down and pick one up. Thanks so much for the information.

If its an old battery just go get yourself a new one, do like Tony says and QUIT F**KING AROUND WITH THAT SH%T!!!

If the new battery doesn't fix the problem move onto the next item, the motor. If it was the motor that had the problem and not the battery you now have two batteries to use, you can do like I do and swap them out each time you go out.

Sometimes the easiest solution is the simplest.

Author: who cares!

I once had a similar problem, after buying two new batteries, it turned out to be the charger, it didn't fully charge the battery. Just a thought. Also had a problem with the terminals on the connector, the motor would not turn on or would quit at odd times. Turns out the connector was corroded.

Leave the bait tank at home. You don't have to charge a salas 6x

Hell yeah! Haven't got a yellow on bait yet! Goal for 2015, learn to stop sucking at fishing with bait!

All my best fish last year were on lures! Bluefin tuna, yt, halibut, bass, rockfish, etc. All on some type of lure! No slime, no battery required!

:jig:

Damn how large is your livewell that it weighs 62 lbs in water weight? At 8lbs per gallon you have 7.75 gallon? thats a shit ton.

The hobie livewell holds 8 gallons

5 hours is too long to be on the water anyway.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one Bob

No he is right. We should launch and 20-30 minutes later have a trophy fish of our choosing. Back at the house before the warden wakes up :sifone:

Bypassed the switch, installed new cartridge, soldered and shrink wrapped up new terminals, did the same to the new 6 volt battery. And what do you know....it pumps like a champ.

It's not Bob, it's Tom. I live in Bakersfield, take my Mini X out of Shell Beach
(part of Pismo Beach) for only a couple hours, two fish and I have dinner.
I absolutely envy you guys down south that get to fish all year. I won't get to
fish from my kayak until May 1, 2015.

Love your forum, please excuse my interuption

X2 it's takes me 6 hours to make bait :doh:......but side note I was having the same issues less splices the better I hard wired mine w/o switch Beside how often do u need to turn the dam thing off. My battery would be fine at home on voltage and power on the pump . But when the splices got wet after being on the water a couple hours I would lose voltage just do to water getting in the splice heat shrink splices

There is hope yet! I lived in Bako for about 30 years. Nothing that pulls like WSB or YT, but the duct produces some Pig stripers year round. I've biked/fished about every wet spot in that town and it's surroundings. Always something new to find on the west end of the river, the turnouts, the siphons, the gates. It always ticked me off to find pig Large mouth bass, stripers and cats, drying away in the sun, when they cut the river off.

Battery (I know this is old)
 

That pump running on 12 vdc KILLS our BAIT. Running on 6 vdc the bait is fine and the pump lasts twice as long.

I had the same problem, started using my newer XL tank battery(same size) in my regular hobie live well and the problem went away, ie the older battery does not hold a charge for as long. Answering your question, I just put the volt meter on the old, new and charger with the following results:

7.0 Volts for the old battery that only lasts 5 hours
7.0 volts for the charger
6.8 volts for the newer battery that lasts all day

Conclusion - just because a battery will charge to a higher voltage does not mean it will last longer. The older battery must have some kind of memory damage, thus it discharges faster.

Hobie Bait Tank 6Volt Battery Question
 

12 volt battery will cause too much flow. Tried it. Drain cant keep up. Fomen, not sure why you think the 6v battery is incapable. Ive had my original battery for years and still running like day one. I keep everything alive from pinhead chovies to giant macs, and I overstuff with bait. Im talking 10 hour days! The only baits ive EVER had roll on me were macs that deep throated my sabiki. I would say you are doing something wrong if your hobie bait tank is not working right. Soldering connections with marine grade shrink tubing is superior to your butt connectors. Another thing I suggest is eliminating your switch from the tank. Seemed like I had better flow after wiring straight to the waterproof battery connector. And lastly, charge and discharge your battery properly. I can fish two, ten hour days back to back on one charge with my tank and "incapable" hobie battery with no problems, I would look elsewhere...

Are the different batteries you are speaking of rated for different amp hours?? Might take a look.

have you fished Morro Bay? I hear you can get halibut in the bay.

Ask Dr Science, He knows more than you do ... :-)
 

Here is a little history on a rather elegant and somewhat serendipitous engineering solution.

Before "fishing kayaks", off the shelf bling, slap down a credit card and go fishing, it was roll your own. So we would get a bilge pump, connect it to a cooler or vittles bin, hook up a 12 V battery and go fishing. After all, the pump was "rated" at 12 V. But the battery didn't last too long and the pump flow beat up the bait.

So some of us tried a resistor to knock down the flow and increase battery life and it worked but not too efficient.

Then some of us built PWMs that really controlled the flow and increased the battery life. On/off timer switches did more or less the same thing.

Then someone came up with the bright idea to try a 6 volt battery. Lo and behold, the bait tank flow was good, the battery life was greater than 2x the 12V and no electronics to mess up. A rather simple and elegant engineering solution which I would not characterize as lame.

Hobie didn't come up with this but I'm sure they saw what was posted here and on other boards on 6V batteries and decided to go that route. I run a 6V battery on my Hobie tank is it works just as well and just as long as my 12V PWM bait tank with less chance of failure.

They are both 6v, 10ah batteries with all other specs identical. Both purchased from Hobie for use in their live wells. The only difference is the manufacturers....Newer made by DiaMec, the older labeled Master brand.

....Newer made by DiaMec, the older labeled Master brand.[/QUOTE]

I see the problem right there, you can't use the Masterbait battery, that will never last too long without going limp. Unless your 16 and then it will at least recharge faster.

:hahaha:
[/QUOTE]I see the problem right there, you can't use the Masterbait battery, that will never last too long without going limp. Unless your 16 and then it will at least recharge faster.[/QUOTE]
With todays supplements the masterbaiter can last as long as you want it too.

I had that same issue a few years ago. At first I thought it was the battery so I ordered a new one on Ebay, as soon as I received it I gave it a full charge. Because we were headed to Erendira that same week I wanted to check the battery life before our journey and needless to say the battery last all but 3-4hrs. I thought that perhaps I received a battery that had been sitting around on a shelf for a few years so I decided to head over to OEX and picked one up from Andy. When I got home I charged the battery and once it was fully charged I installed it on the bait tank and let it run. Well, guess that happened....the battery only lasted 3-4 hrs.

After talking to Tony and mentioning that my pump was a little louder than normal he suggested that I replace the the bait pump. WHAT?!! He's crazy, it can't be the pump! Ebay and OEX sold me old batteries.............at least that's what I thought. I had to make a trip to Westmarine so while I was there I went ahead and purchased a new pump. As soon as I got home I Mickey Moused it, connected a fully charged battery and WALLLLLA!!! The motor/battery were still running 8hrs later.