battery charger

[lowprofile]

so i've been using that simple charger that just has the plug and alligator clips to charge my battery. or so i think its charging. gone through 3 batteries in the past 10 months.

instead of buying a new one im going to buy a new charger and then try to charge all those batteries.

which ones are you guys using? also was thinking of getting a motorcycle battery to run the FF and lights.

[fsuindustries]

I bought one from Wally World for $20. Charges both 12 and 6 Volt and comes with a Two Pin Connector along with the Classic Alligator Clips. Can't beat it for the price! Good Luck..

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher...ndingMethod=rr

[kobra]

I use a charger from Batteries Plus off the 78 by In and Out Burgers. Has an orange light when charging and turns green when charged. Also switchable from 6 or 12 volt. Don't remember what it cost. I've been using it for about 5 years and still works great.

[danjor]

I use the charger from harbor freight. Goes on sale for $4.99 and i juat plug it up and forget it. Same sealed battery for 2+ years for my yak. Btw dont plug up a normal lead acid and forget it for a year. Bad things happen when you decide to pull juice without checking fluid levels.

[mtnbykr2]

I have had the exact same fricken problem, so when the correct answer
arrives, please pm me said answer...lol...I have a 9amphr on a HDS and it can't make it 6 hrs, I just spent more money on a Battery Tender, and run it about twice a week...I will let you know if it does anything.......

[dsafety]

It has been my experience that you can go with high quality gear which lasts a good while or cheap stuff which lasts about half as long. When all is tallied up the two probably cost about the same over an extended period of time. Your mileage may vary.

I use a $8 Harbor Freight charger and $15 batteries 7ah batteries from a guy on eBay. Both have worked for several years with limited usage. Guys that are out there every day might opt for better hardware but my stuff is still ticking after nearly three years.

To make your life easier, rig up a quick-connect charging cable, (I use a two-wire trailer light connector) and protect against corrosion by coating all connections with dielectric grease.

More important than all of that for those of us who only get out occasionally these days is to test every thing before packing up the gear and heading for the launch. I have spent more than a few days on the water without a working fish finder which I assumed was working when I left home.

Bob

[RedSledTeam]

The practical answer: First, get a volt meter. Second, learn how to use it. If that still doesn't work. Give me a call.

[kobra]

Originally Posted by mtnbykr2

I have had the exact same fricken problem, so when the correct answer
arrives, please pm me said answer...lol...I have a 9amphr on a HDS and it can't make it 6 hrs, I just spent more money on a Battery Tender, and run it about twice a week...I will let you know if it does anything.......

Hey amigo, 9amphr battery doesn't have enough juevos for your HDS. I had to upgrade to a 12v 12amphr battery when I got my HDS5.

[salty pirate]

Originally Posted by fsuindustries

I bought one from Wally World for $20. Charges both 12 and 6 Volt and comes with a Two Pin Connector along with the Classic Alligator Clips. Can't beat it for the price! Good Luck..

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher...ndingMethod=rr

+ if you have verizon fios tell them your backup battery died they will send you a nice 12v sealed 9ah for free. I just used it for the first time yesterday 7+ hours only lost .75 volts. I use the same charger for the 6v livewell battery.

[GregAndrew]

A good and fully charged 9ah (or even 7ah, for that matter) is plenty to run an HDS 5 for 8 or 9 hours OTW. The exception being the amount of backlight being used (.4a draw without, .7a with the backlight on). Like RedSled said, buy a $5 volt meter to keep tabs on your batteries instead of just relying on the color of an LED light. A fully charged 12v battery should show something over 13v on the meter when fully charged. For a 6v it should read something over 7v. If they will not charge up to about that, then either they are bad or your charger is bad. Once they are charged up, take them off of the chargers if you don't go out on a regular basis. Another big consideration is to make sure all your connections are still good and waterproof.

[Iceman]

A good battery should last 5 years, don't let it sit dead and charge it at 1/10 the amp rating, that means a 1amp charger for a 10 amp 12 volt. Using a 2amp+ shortens the life of it. Your fish finder will likely shut down around 8 volts but your bait pump will run it all the way down.

[mtnbykr2]

Originally Posted by kobra

Hey amigo, 9amphr battery doesn't have enough juevos for your HDS. I had to upgrade to a 12v 12amphr battery when I got my HDS5.

Kinda figured that, I need to check the back light setting like Greg said, but I had a feeling about the 12amphr...thanks guys

[blitzburgh]

mtnbykr2 I have been running 9ah batteries on my HDS's (both the 1st gen and Gen2) for 3 years now. The longest I've ran them was about 8 hours and they never quit. I never have my backlight on full though, around 6 or 7. Hope this helps.

[Fiskadoro]

bb

Originally Posted by dsafety

It has been my experience that you can go with high quality gear which lasts a good while or cheap stuff which lasts about half as long.

I hear that.

When I rigged up my X-13 back in early 2009 I bought a NIMH 10ah battery set up with an automatic float charger that keeps it fully charged all the time. When I'm not using it I just leave plugged in and it's charger maintains it.



As you can see it's smaller and lighter weight then a 7AH 12v sealed lead acid battery.

The manufacturer said it would be good for thousands of charges if properly maintained and though I haven't used it that much it's still going strong just like new as far as I can tell. I can run my electronics all day on it and what I really like about it is unlike a lead acid it supplies a constant voltage until it's done. Great for running a spot while hooping. If the thing shorts out tomorrow I'll buy another one.

If your going to run a lead acid you have to get a good charger that can monitor and maintain them. For my 6v bait setup I run a 10ah lead acid and maintain it with a Schumacher Battery companion. It's a automatic battery charger that can maintain 12 and 6 volt batteries keeping them at full charge using float-mode monitoring. It's perfect for charging small batteries. Great for maintaining small and large batteries kept in storage. I like that charger so much I bought two, and use them for almost everything.



I found these through motorcycle consumer news. Motorcycle battery chargers have to maintain batteries over the winter in colder climates where people can't ride, so these guys know their chargers. They rated maybe twenty brands and models and this one got the best marks.

I bought both of mine off ebay for under $20 a piece. I highly recommend them. I'm going on two years with my current 6v 10ah SLA.

Jim

[kixchad]

WallyWorld has a cheap one. If your local wallyworld has a boat section that is.

[mtnbykr2]

Originally Posted by blitzburgh

mtnbykr2 I have been running 9ah batteries on my HDS's (both the 1st gen and Gen2) for 3 years now. The longest I've ran them was about 8 hours and they never quit. I never have my backlight on full though, around 6 or 7. Hope this helps.

Yeah it does, I have not even adjusted the back light thanks, I will give that a try...

[jaws197]

Fiskadoro: Can you give some more details on the NIMH setup you have? I have been thinking about doing the same thing but am unsure of which battery / chrager would be best. Not wanting to jack the thread but I have had lead acids fail me before with little warning even when watching the discharge and charge of them WITH a voltmeter.

Any help would be gretaly appreciated!

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by jaws197

Fiskadoro: Can you give some more details on the NIMH setup you have? I have been thinking about doing the same thing but am unsure of which battery / chrager would be best. Not wanting to jack the thread but I have had lead acids fail me before with little warning even when watching the discharge and charge of them WITH a voltmeter. Any help would be gretaly appreciated!

The battery pack itself is made from 10 NIMH Tenergy D batteries. I found a place that had the pack on sale with the charger.

This is almost identical to what I bought but it's a good $50 more then what I paid for mine:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12v-10Ah-NiM...item1e7270e672

Prices very a lot and they do occasionally go on sale. Last time I think I used http://www.batteryspace.com/ I'll be looking around to see if I can find you a good deal.

Jim

[danjor]

Another option is to make a 12.8v lifepo4 battery pack from the same website $23 per cell need 4 add a small bms to keep from over charge/discharge theres a 5% off coupon for that website somewhere just google it. Would be a good alternative. Would fit in a dry box and if taken care of should last you the rest of your fishing career. I have a 100ah im going to use for my trolling motor but thats overkill for just a finder
Would only advise buying from reputable sellers, most of the lifepo4 batterys on ebay are blems or used so they can be crap, but batteryspace is a good place. I have done a ton of reading up on these batterys so if anyone has any questions shoot me a pm and i can help you out. Yes they may cost a lil more than some NIMH batterys but lifepo4's have almost no voltage sag which i belive helps keep your finder accurate i belive. And if you take care of them should last 10k to 20k 80% discharge cycles, now idk about you but i dont think ill get in 10k more fishing trips in my lifetime let alone 20,000!!

[jorluivil]

This is what I use to charge my FF battery, it works for both 6v and 12v batteries. I've had it for close to three years now, no issues with it.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher...arger/13005743