Lowrance mark4

[BigTunaL]

Anyone knows how to display/check the battery charge level. I know it is best to drain the battery to 20% before a full recharge so I don't want to charge it after every trip.




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[alanw]

Unless you have NiCad you should not discharge your batteries down that low. I think 50% is the recommended max on lead acid, unless it's a deep cycle which can go as low as 20% but for longest life should stick with 50% still.

You can check your battery charge level with a voltmeter. 12.6 volts is fully charged; 12.4 volts is 75% charged; 12.2 volts is 50% charged; and 12.0 volts is 25% charged.

[BigTunaL]

Thank you very much Alam. The percentages you mentioned are standard for all battery sizes?


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[alanw]

Yes, it's the same for all sizes of 12v batteries. Not sure about your fishfinder but my Lowrance displays the battery voltage on screen, yours probably does as well. It may be a setting you can turn on/off.

Also charge your battery after every use and keep it at 100% all the time for longest life.

Then again, I'm kind of anal about these things. I try and get the most out of my hard earned money. It's just a stupid battery so do whatever you want. The more batteries you guys send to the recycle bin the more lead bullets I can buy cheap

[BigTunaL]

Originally Posted by alanw

Yes, it's the same for all sizes of 12v batteries. Not sure about your fishfinder but my Lowrance displays the battery voltage on screen, yours probably does as well. It may be a setting you can turn on/off.

Also charge your battery after every use and keep it at 100% all the time for longest life.

Then again, I'm kind of anal about these things. I try and get the most out of my hard earned money. It's just a stupid battery so do whatever you want. The more batteries you guys send to the recycle bin the more lead bullets I can buy cheap

[BigTunaL]

Hey Alan, I used my FF for about 6 hour on one charge, hooked up a volt meter and the reading was 12.8. Powered up the FF and added the voltage overlay and it said 12.7. So according to your percentages, it is still fully charged after 6 hours of use. Is this possible?


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[BigTunaL]

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[alanw]

Yea dude with a high (12.8) starting voltage it sounds like you got a nice healthy battery there. Checking this battery life calculator using your 10.5ah battery and 250mah power consumption for the mark-4 shows you might get around 12 hours before the voltage drops to 12.5 or 12.6. Take it out on another trip without recharging and you'll find out.

Just because your voltage is high after 6 hours of use doesn't mean it's still fully charged. You can use over 10% of the battery capacity before you'd even see a 1/10v drop. You'd be able to see better if you used a voltmeter with higher accuracy to 1/100ths of a volt or more.

[BigTunaL]

Got it. This makes sense. Thank you.


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[kobra]

For getting the longest life of your battery, it should always be stored with a full charge. 12 volt and 6volt. I charge my batteries after each use.

[BigTunaL]

Thanks. Will do.


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