Vexilar battery woe's.

[bmc]

It seems every year I have to replace my vexilar battery because it won't fully recharge. Anyone else have this problem? What's the best battery to use for your Vexilar?

Brian

[Surface Tension]

The 7.0 Amp hr Power Sonics are excellent batteries.

You should be getting a lot more then a years use from any battery, I wonder if your charger is going bad.

[kslipsinker]

Are you replacing the battery because the indicator light will not show a full cahrge? If so, you are wasting money. The battery indicator always shows the battery is 3/4 charged, even after a full charge.

[bmc]

I'll take the battery off the charger after charging for hours and it will be full then drop down to 1/2 charge. That happens no matter how long I leave the battery on the charger. This may be a dumb question, but does the battery indicator suck any juice from your battery? My buddy used my charger to re-charge his robo duck and it worked fine he said. I'll probably just buy the battery Frank recommended and see if I have better luck.

Brian

[Northlander]

When my battery went bad after about 7 or 8 years I got a Interstate and it was great. Held a charge longer than cheaper battery's I had and it wasnt but a few bucks more. Plus Interstate service is great.

[mnrstrider]

IMHO if you really want it done right, I'd pick up marcum's charger, you can leave it plugged in, and don't have to worry about cooking your battery, you can usually find them in most places that sell marcum's, or their website personally I got mine from gander. I out one on my aquaview and just leave it plugged into the wall, and it's always ready to go.

[EBass]

I had the same issue. After two years of heavy use and me not having a smart charger, I fried it. I went to vexilar and they tested my battery and charger for free of course. My charger was fine, but my battery couldn't hold a charge. I bought a refurb battery for $19. That one sucked to and brought it back and they replaced it with another refurb and now it's fine.

A smart charger is $25 I think and can be found at Gander and probably Vex to.

A new battery is $25 I believe to.

One thing the tech guy did tell me to try was to leave the battery on the charger for three days to "burn off" some build up. He told me what the build up was, but I forgot. But mine was a goner Oh well the second refurb has been solid for a couple months now.

My deal is sometimes I forget that it's on the charger and probably over charge it time and time again. D'oh!

My buddy has a Marcum and his battery is shot even though it says 100 percent and he leaves is plugged in all the time. My guess is batteries die after a while even if they are rechargable.

[Giant_Jackpot]

EBass, it's been a while since I have seen a post from you but then again I don't hang out in the green carp forum much.

Here is the scoop on the Vexilar type batteries. Since I used to work for a company that made smart chargers for these types of batteries, I can say the info I am giving you is good stuff.

First of all, the batteries are sealed lead acid and just like the battery in your car, they like to be charged. Charge the battery after each use and you can get them to last 4 or more years. The worst thing you can do to a lead acid battery, is run it down and not charge it as soon as possible. Also charge the battery every month or so during the off season.

With that said the cheap chargers that come with these batteries will cook the battery and shorten its life if you leave charger on the battery for extended periods. The advice someone was giving Ebass about leaving the charger on the battery for 3 days is poor advice (unless the charger is a smart charger). If you really want to take care of the battery, connect a voltmeter to the battery during charging. When the battery reaches about 14.8 volts disconnect the charger. Otherwise don’t leave the charger connected for more than 24 hours.

The smart chargers are a good idea if they are doing the right thing. They should charge the battery to about 14.8 volts and then drop into a maintenance or float mode at about 13.2 volts. The next time I am at Gander I will check one of the Marcum chargers out and see if it is really a good thing.

As far as the LED battery indicators go, don’t believe everything you see. The components used in an inexpensive device like this can have tolerance swings of up to 20%. On a properly charged battery, one indicator may read fully charged while another might say ¾. Just something to keep in mind.

Let me know if you have any other questions.........

[Surface Tension]

Giant_Jackpot, You may have goofed a bit when said charge to 7.4 volts. Were talking about 12 volt batteries here.

[Giant_Jackpot]

Surface,

Thanks for pointing that out. I changed my post to reflect 6 cells instead of 3. Some expert huh?

[mnrstrider]

Ya know I should put my multimeter on my "charged" batteries...... (I'm using marcum's charger system) Never thought of doing this, I'll post results later..

[Giant_Jackpot]

mnr,

I would be very interested in the results. I have some friends that give me crap for being so anal about my batteries but I figure if I can make them last longer, I'm money ahead.

Thanks.

[EBass]

Green Carp - LOL I've been going for dem brown carp lately.

Sounds like I need to get me a smart charger and forget about worring.