Battery life for sonar unit?

Post Reply
User avatar
Cuervo Jones
TKF 2000 club
TKF 2000 club
Posts: 2029
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:12 pm
Location: Hurtling towards oblivion with a smile

Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Cuervo Jones »

I have a couple of game cam batteries that I swap out as needed on my PA. Each one lasts ~5 hours. Is this usual, or are they old and dying? I usually don't use sonar in my kayaks, so I'm not sure what's typical. Your wisdom is gratefully accepted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
User avatar
Kirk B.
Posts: 325
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2015 9:33 am
Location: Southeast Texas

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Kirk B. »

How many mAh are the batteries? How many amps does your depth finder draw?
I use a 10 ah battery for my Hummingbird 197c.
Way overkill, but I plan on adding additional electronic gadgets at a later date. I can pretty much run all weekend without a recharge.

Kirk B.
RealBigReel
TKF 1000 Club
TKF 1000 Club
Posts: 1867
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Stephenville, TX

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by RealBigReel »

That depends entirely on how many amps your fish finder draws, and the capacity of the battery. Typical FF draw would be 600 Milliamps. Typical a game cam battery would be 7 Amps.
600 Miliamps = .6 amps. So .6 into 7 should yield 11.6 hours run time. If your battery is smaller or your FF has more draw, then your batteries may be the best you can get . Otherwise your batteries are not up to performance.
User avatar
Cuervo Jones
TKF 2000 club
TKF 2000 club
Posts: 2029
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:12 pm
Location: Hurtling towards oblivion with a smile

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Extremely helpful guys. Looks like my unit draws 1.1 amps according to the manual. Seems like I should get a tad over 6 hours. At around 5 hours each, my batteries are a bit off, but I can wait to replace. Thanks again for he solid information.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
User avatar
Crusader
Posts: 613
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:28 pm

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Crusader »

In case if you don't know -- lead acid batteries do not like deep discharge (they get bad real quick). I.e. in your calculations multiply your battery capacity by 0.6 (i.e. do not use 40% of it).
Last edited by Crusader on Fri Jun 23, 2017 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Cuervo Jones
TKF 2000 club
TKF 2000 club
Posts: 2029
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:12 pm
Location: Hurtling towards oblivion with a smile

Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Ah-ha! By golly that would explain it then. Thanks crusader! These batteries are a couple of years old and at least one was deeeeeeeeep discharged for awhile. Maybe I'll splurge and buy a new one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
User avatar
Crusader
Posts: 613
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:28 pm

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Crusader »

No probs. Typical discharge rate is few percent/month (like 2%), but it is better to always keep them on trickle charge when not used.
User avatar
kickingback
TKF 5000 Club
TKF 5000 Club
Posts: 5178
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 3:24 pm
Location: Houston, Texas

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by kickingback »

Buy a small 7 AH deer feeder battery. They are sealed AGM batteries and work the best for the units especially if you turtle the battery will be fine. Cheap on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/ExpertPower-EXP1 ... 2v+battery
User avatar
Cuervo Jones
TKF 2000 club
TKF 2000 club
Posts: 2029
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:12 pm
Location: Hurtling towards oblivion with a smile

Re: Battery life for sonar unit?

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Excellent idea on the sealed battery, kickingback.
As an addendum to this post, I got my batteries charged up for the weekend, then checked everything Friday night. Aaannnnd...yep. Blown fuse with no spares. Alas. Have to do things the way I used too. No sonar and no gps. Yet somehow, I managed to catch a couple of fish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Post Reply