Thread: Question on lithium battery chargers.

Originally Posted by ultraslab

a heads up that I found out the hard way. The 36 volt charger with a fan from amped outdoors is not water proof. FYI. Don't know if that is true of all chargers with built in fan but it is on mine. Scott

Up front of my boat, I run a Noco Genius charger on an amped outdoors 60AH lithium for my livescope box and graph. I run two Optima D34M batteries in the back of my boat. 1 is for starting, and the other is for lights, radio, pumps, graphs. They are dual purpose batteries (starting and deep cell). The optimas are connected to a minn kota dual bank precision charger. I leave both chargers plugged in all the time (except when I am fishing) and never had an issue. And the chargers are completely waterproof. The go into maintenance mode when the batteries are fully charged.

Yes I have the noco for ny other 2 battewries and it is water prrof but not the dedicated 36 volt with built in fan. I already regret I didn't do more research and get a battery with bluetooth capabilty even though I've never lost power it would be nice to know a head of time as as when a lithiumn goes dead it's dead. Scott

My ionic have bluetooth and is actually very useful. I have noco gen5 charger and I do not leave the lithiums banks turned on all the time, just charge to full the night before I plan to use them. Its best to leave lithium batts sit at 70-80% charge, however I left mine at 100% (well 99%) this winter and they were still 99% 3 months later.

My noco has the ability to turn banks on/off so I leave my charger plugged in 24/7 for my maintenance free starting batt and turn the lithiums off.

So the best thing to do is leave them around 70-80%, but I assume you are using your boat at least once a week so it doesn't really matter. Leaving them plugged in 24/7 wont hurt anything as the BMS controls when the battery charges, but it also doesnt help anything as lithium do not lose voltage at rest. So IMO unplug it to save your chargers lifespan.

I am highly impressed with my Blue ionic lithiums. The phone app is very useful.

Sent from my LM-V600 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I have 4 of the 125 amp ionic lithiums. I'm still waiting on the Minnkota PCL chargers to hit the street. My trolling batteries are at 80% and I won't recharge them until I get below 40% they haven't been charged since January. I have made a couple of trips out. I do keep the starting battery on charge as it went dead once and I still haven't found the problem, believe it is in the bilge will check pump wiring when I get back home next month. It is a pain to get the battery to take a charge when it is dead if you don't have one of the right chargers to get to take a charge.

Don

Originally Posted by dallman

I have 4 of the 125 amp ionic lithiums. I'm still waiting on the Minnkota PCL chargers to hit the street. My trolling batteries are at 80% and I won't recharge them until I get below 40% they haven't been charged since January. I have made a couple of trips out. I do keep the starting battery on charge as it went dead once and I still haven't found the problem, believe it is in the bilge will check pump wiring when I get back home next month. It is a pain to get the battery to take a charge when it is dead if you don't have one of the right chargers to get to take a charge.

Don

40% ?? That seems awful low. Keep in mind I am not familiar at all with lithium batteries.

Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill

40% ?? That seems awful low. Keep in mind I am not familiar at all with lithium batteries.

Lithium can be discharged to 0% without damage, unlike lead acid. So Yeah its fine to go down to 40% and let them sit there, not going to hurt a dang thing sitting at 40-80% charge. You get roughly 3,000-5000 20% to 100% charges with these batteries, over 10,000 80-100% apparently. But its best to keep them stored around 80% charge. By "stored" I mean several months without use. You aren't going to kill the batteries storing at 100% just like you wont kill them storing at 50%, its just optimal to store at 80% long term.

LiFePO4 batts are awesome.

PS I trolled for 3 hours last night at 0.4-0.6mph and my batteries dropped to 95%. 70# PD on a 17' Deep V with 50ah Ionic.