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battery drain minn kota

Old Scaley

By Old Scaley
in Non-Fishing Chat

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Old Scaley Mentor

Old Scaley

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Posted

Just a note of caution for future trolling motor purchasers.  Turns out you should always disconnect your motor from the battery when not in use. 

My usual routine is to disconnect the Anderson plugs that I have above the deck when I come off the water and then plug the smart charger in after I finish cleaning the boat so I am good to go at short notice. Lat time I had the boat in the water was a week before I went away for a few weeks and I forgot to unplug the motor and didn’t put the charger on because I knew I wouldn’t use the boat for at least a month. When I got home I plugged the charger in and saw it was registering 2.7v.  The motor must draw a small amount of juice even when stowed. Against all hope, I left the charger on for more than a week and only achieved 7.0v so I have now pronounced the trusty 3 year old Century Deep Cycle dead. 

Now looking at a replacement.  I don’t need (and can’t justify) to spend big bucks on a lithium. I see that Supercheap have 105ah agm for $299. Brand is XTM.  Anyone had any experience with that brand or have a better suggestion, bearing in mind that I am not Rockerfeller?

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Another Wazza Proficient

Another Wazza

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I can relate to your experience Steve, I too fell foul of a bump in my “routine”, I went out one day, used the electric for 15 minutes, didn’t bother charging it as the app on my phone had it reading 100%, it was probably on speed 2 the whole time. Not having to recharge when I got home resulted in me not flicking my circuit breaker off whilst on auto pilot after washing the boat.

Fast forward 7 weeks, with only 1 trip out which didn’t require the electric, and when I went to use it, realised the breaker was still on, oh dear, no beeps when flicking the breaker off and on, and upon checking the state of charge on the app, I saw a vampire had been hard at work drawing it down to a meagre 5.7v.

I tried charging it once I got home, but it wouldn’t hold 100%, after I went through the range of emotions associated with losing a battery to incompetence, I began researching the lithium options.

Other than the initial outlay, they are far better than an AGM, safe discharge of 90-95%, as opposed to 50% with an AGM, massive weight saving in the tinny too, after 3 days use in the Hinchinbrook it went down to roughly 40% I think.

Anyway, the new battery also required a new charger which has a “recondition” function for lead acid, I hooked up my AGM to see if this wizardry works and the battery is now holding 100% again, I wouldn’t have bought a new charger to try and rescue the AGM, but it’s something a battery store may or may not be able to help you out with?

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