Hi
Looking for help on living with a leisure battery!

Just acquired a Mink Coater 30Lb/ft (nearly new, eBay) and bought a new leisure battery 110Ah

Same as this (but bought locally):PLATINUM LEISURE MOTORHOME SEALED BATTERY 110A LB6110L* | eBay UK

Questions are:
- What is the best charger to go for that will charge and maintain the battery.
- Do you leave it on the charger/conditioner all the time?
- Do you recommend any kind of meter to test for level remaining during use or just wait till the boat stops
(This question having christened my new toys this weekend in horrendous wind and observing a fellow forumite with a 55Lb/ft MK on a 85Ah going backwards not forwards due to wind..and it was only mid- morning)

Sorry for the newb questions

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Hmmm, silence is deafening; maybe I'm asking some dumb questions…

Meanwhile, anyone got a Lidl or Aldi 3 stage battery charger for sale?

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Hi there, on recommendations from this forum I bought a

CTEC MULTI XS3600 charger and they are mint.

You can leave this charger on for months without any problems

At The Ultimate Finish TEL 0845 838 1200 you can buy one with free delivery for £54.95 saving £3 or you can shop around for a better price.

Hope you have some luck

Regards

seddo

Cheers for the info Seddo.

I'd seen that one but was concerned it was only rated to 75Ah for the charging function (up to 125Ah for maintenance mode I think).

My battery is new so shouldn't need a heavy charging cycle at the mo but later on I wondered if this unit was man enough to bring a well drained battery of 110Ah up to full again.

What size is your battery you use this with?

All a new experience for me.....

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A 110ah mate, I have had my battery on charge from last october until this april and everything went great on my first fishing trip this season

seddo

That's re-assuring!
Further googling reveals there's a new CTEK 4003 out now that won product of the year 2010 and I can find it for just a tenner more than the cheapest xs3600. It's an 8 stage conditioner and adds better sulphation/recovery modes etc. May be tempted to lash out rather than go the lidl/aldi route if nothing comes up in next few days.

So far happy I got the 30lb MK motor if only by chance at the price I wanted to pay. Coupled with the 110Ah I reckon it will get through less battery in a day even if it takes a little longer to get to the next drift. Used one on esthwaite last month and that convinced me despite many on here saying go 50Lb+

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Its definately worth buying the best you can afford, I reckon the latest charger must be a cracker if its better than the 3600 model.
Go for it mate, you won't regret it.

seddo

To answer your question about a battery gauge, I don't think you need one.

A 110 Ahr battery provides for a lot of fishing. I've certainly never run out a full battery in one day of fishing with a 42 Minn Kota bow mount motor, even fishing 10 hours or more.

I can fish for two days if necessary with my 42 MK without recharging, but I have a petrol outboard for getting me to and from the fishing. It's always better to recharge between sessions, I'm just laying this out to say that I don't think you're at much danger of running the battery dry during the course of a normal day.

You just have to be a little sensitive to the motor and how it's performing. The battery won't just up and die suddenly on you. It's just a gradual decline in power. If you're a little bit sensitive to how the motor feels, you'll notice when it starts to decline a little. Time to head for home.

As you have already identified, the main enemy of the electric outboard is wind. You have to keep in mind, that as a petrol outboard HP equivilent, your 30 pound thrust outboard is very rougly like a 1-1.5 HP petrol outboard as far as equivlent power. So thinking about it that way, you'll see that if you put 2 anglers and gear in the boat + the weight of the boat itself + the wind resistance of the freeboard of the boat. . . Basically, you're wringing it for all it's worth in a heavy wind.

BTW, the electric should NEVER be your only method of propulsion. Always bring oars and always have an anchor, or have a petrol outboard as a backup to the electric. The quiet power of an electric is appealing for fishing, but don't kid yourself. When conditions get bad, you don't want to be relying only on a little electric to get you home.

Grouse

Thanks Grouse, that's sound advice and much appreciated. :thumbs

Current plan is to use the electric mainly to reduce rowing effort where motors aren't provided and petrol not allowed. Guess if I progress to larger waters then the usage you outlined above with a petrol option sounds like the best way to go. (example in Stan Headly's article in T&S this month with a pic on Ullswater with both types of engine on the boat).

Dave

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Ordered the CTEK 4003 off amazon (but actually it's from a bike shop in Shipley!) for £49 delivered.

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