I’d guess you would have more than a full day of fishing while running your Helix on the 50 AH. I ran mine on a 24 AH SLA battery for up to 6-7 hours…and still registered 60-70% charged at the end of the day. My experience with lithiums is that they put out full power…longer than equivalent acid or SLA batteries. **
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I finished my float tube career using a 100 AH lithium for my electric…after using high end SLA 100 AH for several years before. Was more than pleased to discover I still had full power and a quick recharge on my Lithium at the end of the day. My non-lithiums gradually declined in power output so that sometimes I limped back to the ramp at a much slower speed…even with 70% charge left. But not with the lithiums.
Kent I have garmin 10 inch Echo Map with live scope. It draws considerable amperage I’m guessing up to 6 amps possibly. I was using 50 AH LITHIUM and I was draining it to warning shut off level after long day of fishing ( 8-10 hours guessing) I just upgraded to a 150
AH as I’m
Now running 2 10inch units. Only one live scope black box so I don’t expect double amp draw but more than before. (Both the unit and Black box are powered on the live scope)
I used it at Willard the other day only one unit on with live scope for about 6 hours, battery showed 86% remaining.I have Bluetooth monitoring which is great you can check real time and see your amp draw . I used about 21 amps or 3.5 amps per hour ish?
One other thing is several of the companies now make 16 volt and claim better performance and run time not sure if the draw less amps at 16volts? Down side is expense and new charger 16 volt instead of 12 volt lithium life po 4 chargers needed.
Running finders on seperate battery is supposed to get better performance less interference.
Hope that helps!!
Ai says 2.4 amps draw for Helix 9 so rounding up to 2.5 50ah should provide power for 20 hours!
**Pic attached
I’ve used Eco worthy and Li time with good results. I am having an issue with one li time (trolling motor battery one of two) customer service good and they said they will replace battery waiting for a label to return?
Hope that helps
I found the fish finder specs online and it draws 1.9 amps. If I understand how it works, I should easily get a full day of fishing out of a 50-ah battery.
My finder is a Garmin 9" Echomap (very similar to the 9" Lowrance and Birds). They draw about 1.5 or so. That would give you WAY more life than 3-4 hours. If you had a 50Ahr battery, it should last about 30 hours! You can’t fish that long in one day! Quit worrying so much and just fish. You’ve taken the necessary precautions.
Since Kent started this thread here, I thought I’d ask a question about a problem I’m having with my lithium batteries. Just got a newer boat and it has lithium batteries for the electric trolling motor. First time I took it out, I had no issues, the second time I took it out the batteries went dead after a few hours. I thought I had a bad battery but I decided to charge it with my ice fishing lithium battery. I checked both batteries before I took it out again, they were both around 13 v so I thought I was good, went out again and again it went dead after a couple of hours. Got home and checked and the other battery was dead, this time. I have it on my FFer lithium charger now, hope the light on the charger turns green, when it’s fully charged. I plan on charging the other battery once I’m done with the first one, to make sure they are both fully charged, for my next trip out. If that works, then I’ll know the on boat lithium charger is bad. My question is, does this sound like a reasonable path to figuring out the problem? By the way, I just downloaded the app to my phone to be able to check the battery voltage or percentage of remaining charge, so I can tell what’s going on with the batteries.
Is it a 12 volt electric or are you running 2 12 volt in series for a 24 volt motor?
Makes a difference ?
If 2 12 volt in series you are supposed to use identical batteries and charge them fully then wire them up parallel to “balance “ them for 12 to 24 hours before wiring in series.
Kent, I have the same model ff and have been using a 10 amp hour lithium battery and hardly ever go dead on a trip, however, I don’t fish the long days that you do, I typically don’t make it over 5 hours a trip.. I think your 50 will be plenty of juice even if you use some of the higher draw transducers… Good luck… Jeff
Wiper hunter you should charge both batteries to full chg. separately, then wire them together in parallel let them sit at least over night that way to balance them so they are equal. Then hook them up in series, that may help. Supposed to do it first the time and periodically to make sure batteries are equal.
When I was having issues with one battery the factory told me to do that and said it could resolve the problem and will make the batteries work better.
Good luck.
It appears to have Bluetooth monitoring?
A buddy bought a battery thinking it had Bluetooth monitoring from wording on ad online. He couldn’t get it to work. Called the factory, turned out he purchased a non smart battery!! No Bluetooth monitoring!
Some Bluetooth batteries won’t pick up my phone if I have my location turned off. Double check to see if yours is on. If you can’t figure out the charging issue, I can let you borrow a charger, it will charge them in either parralel or series. Or I can bring your batteries to my place, charge them up, then run a discharge capacity test on them.
Wiperhunter, Why not take the Li batteries to a battery store and have them tested? It might be that one is bad and is draining the other one. Or both might be bad (having been put on an improper charger prior to you buying your boat. Something isn’t right. That set up should last at minimum a LONG day (8+hours) or even two days. You need to get the batteries load-tested. Voltage might be fine, but under a load they could be bad. Also I looked up your brand of Li battery and that company went out of business in Jan 2025 according to their Facebook page.