Regular Batteries to Lithium Cost??

What is the cost to switch and any issues created by switching??

Depends on what regular battery and what lithium. Pick your poison and look at the price.

Also need to consider this as well, most chargers for wet-cell and AGM batteries will not properly charge a lithium battery.

As a Guide I have not ran the Lithium but if I can fish 250 plus days a year on regular batteries and get 3-4 years out of a Walmart Battery then I see a big difference in cost alone

My last two sets of 4 batteries from Walmart 3 years and 4 years at what $100 each.

Best bang for my buck. IMO

Really depends on what your usage will be. I switched to lithium to test out in a an xpress before putting in my bass boat. 100 percent convinced. If I can get 10-15 years from a battery that I can use 2-3 days without charging I'm all in. No more heavy lead batteries. My 2 12v 50ah are the same size as one 29 series lead. I literally put them both in a single battery tray and they weigh like 15lbs each.

The math I did based on the cost of wet cell and AGM, I would break even dollar wise if lithiums last somewhere between 3 and 4 times as long as wet cell and AGM. I think they will. Meanwhile I have 149 pounds less in my boat, less often and easier battery removal, improved battery duration and faster charging. If you want a guaranteed "lithium is cheaper" you won't hear it from me.

Whats it worth to never have to check water levels in your batteries?
Whats it worth to take up to 200#'s out of the back of the boat?
Whats it worth to not worry if your cranking battery will make it through the day with all your electronics running?
Whats it worth to not have your trolling motor run out of juice?


For me it was worth every penny of the almost $2200 I spent.

I did forget to mention 2 of these. Agree 100%

I planned ahead for once. My battery charger quit last year so I made sure I purchased a charger that was lithium compatible (NOCO GENIUS GENPRO10X4). Then earlier this year my batteries started to act up. I did some research and decided to take the plunge and came across a nice deal with Impulse Lithium batteries. They weren't much more expensive than new wet cells... Dan

I have also heard that if you have a mix of lithium and lead acid on the boat you will have charging problems.

Not if you have a proper charger.

Yea the guy that I know that is having issues probably has a charger on his boat that was made before the marine lithiums came out.

My old charger could be upgraded but their new ones have a lithium profile. It was so expensive to upgrade (ship, upgrade, ship back) I sold it and bought an Ionic to go with my batteries. Just the charger was 18 pounds lighter than the old one.

I went the same route.

For me I could not make the switch. Everyone's situation is different. I have room and not worried about weight. If not I might be able to justify. You can buy alot of celled batteries for the price of lithium.

True. It was somewhat easier for me because my Starting battery was not getting me thru the day and was only 2 years old. I was having to jump start it by 2 or 3pm each day. I figured the others werent far behind so i was going to spend money for the first replacement set anyhow. Getting older I was not looking forward to yanking those heavy suckers out and then again every 2 years.

[i][/i]Best bang for buck when you need a dual purpose cranking/ electronics battery- 1150CCA

If you’re referring to the X2 I had one. With 4 graphs and livescope it would barely make it through the day. After an 8 hour tournament it would usually be down to 11.7 volts or less. Big motor always started but struggled a few times. Switched to a 125a Ionic and never looked back.

So the 125A is a big upgrade over the x2? That’s good info as I need to upgrade my interstate POS 31agm and was looking at the x2.

I have 2 Helix 12’s, a Helix 10, and a Garmin 1222 with livescope. Lowest I’ve been able to run down my 125a was 71% and that was a 9 hour day with graph’s on full brightness the whole time and the livewells running.

I wonder if my factory 4 bank Noco will charge those

The NOCO is pretty popular with the lithium crowd. I had a dual pro and for what it was going to cost to pay shipping both ways and reprogram it was cheaper to buy Ionics and sell it.

minn kota precision set on agm will charge the lithium.

A buddy of mine has one and it had trouble with the Ionic 125a. Worked fine with the 50's. He switched to Ionics charge as well.

that's what i did too.

I've been looking at the Lithium Iron (LIFE) batteries on Ebay, they are a lot cheaper than the popular name brands. I figure they are probably made in China. Has anybody on here ran any of those batteries? The lithium's the Bass Pro sells are also Lithium Iron I believe.

All lithium batteries are made in China. Different between those on eBay and Amazon are no US based support if you have a problem and no telling what kind of BMS it has. Is it worth saving a few $$$. Only you can answer that.

I just replaced my 3 troll. Batteries. $320 from Orielley’s. I can afford Lithiums but I don’t see the justification. Speed gain is 2 mph, they are new-ish will they last 12 yrs, I’d be pissed if they caught my rig on fire, granted that chance is low. The Orielley batteries last 3 years and I’ve never run out of power with group 31’s. Plus I may have a new boat in 5-8 years.

If your happy with them great, Im happy with what I have. I do have an odyssey 31 for cranking , 3 graphs, etc.

you can buy a lot of regular batteries for what lithiums cost an if you have one go bad you can get another at wal mart or parts store an if you are worried about a hundred or so pounds take that much [censored] out of your boat you wont use anyway.

I am fine with an agm as long as it’ll work all day. My factory supplied interstate 31agm will not run a solix 12, solix 10, and a live scope all day- even if I leave the live wells off.

Another slightly cheaper option is going to a smaller dedicated cranking battery in agm then lithium's for everything else. 4 12v 50ah lithiums will run a 36v ultrex all you can push it plus your electronics on the additional 12v. They have the same footprint as 2 29 series leads.

A single 50 will not run all your electronics all day. Friend of mine tried that. A single 16” Live with active target, first time out he ran it down to 13% in a tournament and didn’t have it on the whole time

This is correct on the 50A, but if you connect it to the cranking battery with a Yandina Combiner, and move around on the big motor from time to time, it will recharge enough to last all day.

If you aren't recharging off the big motor, better have at least 125A, the units and AT pull more amps than the specs say.

Not a knock to the Yandina but to me it would be a worthless expense. Unless you’re making long runs it ain’t going to do squat. A 5 minute or so run to here or there isn’t enough run time to make a significant difference.

You would be surprised what a few 5 or 10 minute runs do over a few hours. The big motor is putting 16 or more amps into the lithium battery. It will make the battery last all day. The draw with 2 sonars and AT is about 7-8 amps.

You could probably just parallel it with the cranking battery and do the same thing and save $80. The Yandina is just a voltage - sensing relay switch.

16 amps in 10 minutes, thats one heck of a charging system. My SHO puts out 50ah. A 10 minute run would be less then 8 amps provided the rest of the electrical system wasn't using any. Like I said, unless you're making long runs it don't do squat. Oh, my 125a Ionic has more than enough juice to last a whole day without starting the big motor.

My Ionics 50 AH will run three 12" units plus Livescope for 12 hours.

As in 2 are on standby and the one with LS is running? It’s not possible any other way. With all 3 on, it’s 7-8 ah total. I had 3 12’s on a 50 and it lasted less than 8 hours, had to go to a 125.

Nope. All three Echomap Ultra 122sv on 85, 90, and 100% brightness. Lasts 12 hours.

The Echomap Ultra 122sv typical current draw is 3a and max is 3.3. Livescope draws about 2a. So about 11a draw and you're claiming a 50a battery lasts all day. Have to throw the BS flag on that one.

You can call BS all you want, but I have no reason to lie. I'm not sponsored by any battery company, and even then, I wouldn't make a claim that is false. My reputation is too important to me. Maybe you're confused on your amp draw, but my boat is my office, and I'm in it 200+ days per year. I know what my equipment is doing everyday.

Edit: In thinking about it a little more.....the only way I could be wrong is if it isn't wired the way it was supposed to be wired. All three units are supposed to be coming off of that one battery (dedicated electronics battery). I suppose it's possible that someone could have made a mistake when wiring it up, and they aren't all pulling off that battery like they're supposed to. I don't believe that to be the case, but I won't say it's impossible.

Are you sure it’s not an 100ah? I had a 122 ultra and LS, it pulled over 3ah. Not trying to argue, but it’s just not possible on a 50ah to run 3 -12’s for 12 hours. Even on standby they pull 1ah ea.

I know exactly what I own. It's a 50 AH.

I may have mentioned this already but one of my bass fishing publications I get just ran a story on the life of a lithium battery and one of the things that was mentioned was they had info from a guy that had taken his boat out and ran the trolling motor on high to see how long it would take for the lithium battery or batteries to give up. He clocked 13.5 hours and HE gave up, not the batteries. It didn't say what brand or what size, but I believe if you are making your living or are a serious tournament angler where you are spending multiple days on the water a week, lithium's would be well worth the investment based on all the info out there.

Well, I don’t know then, the math doesn’t work. If you get a chance sometime, can you turn on all 3 graphs with the sonar on and see what the BT is showing for amp loss?

There’s too many options available to know any specifics on a story like that. Some pros are running 2-36v lithium’s parallel, some are running 3-12v. I think it would be just about impossible to kill 3-125ah lithium’s in 2 full days. I’ve heard of guys killing 50’s in a day, haven’t heard of anyone killing 100’s in a day.

You want to discuss something with Jason and help our group learn, please do. What you are doing is calling a guide who has been on this forum 20 years and always been helpful, a liar. I would call that BS.

I'd say you're on to something about all the graphs not being wired to that battery. Math don't add up otherwise. A single 12" with livescope would make it all day but not 3 12's.

Not calling him a liar at all, but with his setup the math doesn't add up. Now he even says they may not all be wired to that battery which is a very high probability.

You need to work on your wording.

And some people need to learn math and electronic skills.

And you need to learn to show your fellow members some courtesy.

That would be some good info to know, at some point I'd like to go lithium but don't have the knowledge of exactly what it is I need to put in my boat to get this kind of performance.

When you think you are ready, it would be best to contact a lithium seller and they can help you decide what’s best for your situation. Different batteries require different chargers and it can get $$$ quickly.

Only asking because I am unsure and after reading some of the above discrepancies I was even more confused.

Are lithium batteries not like conventional batteries in that you have a battery that has x reserve capacity and it regulates discharge rate (as in 50 AH, 100AH, 125AH) if so that may explain why one brand 50AH battery may last all day and others will not due to reserve capacity.

With what little studying I've done so far; I've found out there are three types and that may play into why some that appear on the surface to be equal may have different life spans under load. That will just take more digging to really sort that issue.

They are supposed to be rated for the number of hours that they will last, there is some discrepancy between brands. I’ve read quite a few post about the Amp brand lasting longer than they are supposed too. Some brands, such as Ionics, have a BT app and you can see how much your charger is putting out and how much drain your graphs are pulling. Pretty cool feature to have.

They don’t have cca ratings like lead acid, although some put it on the label, but it’s not a true number and they don’t have reserve capacity. When a lithium gets down to approximately 10% of capacity (this number might vary by brand), the BMS typically turns off the battery to keep from being damaged.


Then you can get into some batteries that have 16v’s, the graphs tend to use less amps with the higher voltage. But if you have Lowrance graphs, they want a voltage regulator installed if you have 16v batteries. I don’t see the point in them (16v battery), but some do.

Be aware that 16v batteries require special chargers and recommended special wiring and should not be used on starting batteries. Just from what little i read.

16 Volt

Dan, how is the Noco charger doing for you? I am considering the 10x3 charger and would appreciate hands on experience opinion of this charger.

Thanks...Richard

Noco replied to me today and said my gen 4 4 bank is not lithium compatible- I think for now I am going to go with an x2 and revisit the lithium’s in a few seasons.