Bought the new 24v Lithium StrikeMaster the other day

[aquarium234]

https://www.powerelectronics.com/markets/mobile/article/21859861/proper-care-extends-liion-battery-life

Saves he said she said if u just go to a source......

[Kevin23]

If you dont want to read the whole article, this is the important part.

Boosting Battery Life
Usually, a combination of several factors increases or decreased battery life. For increased cycle life

Use partial-discharge cycles
Using only 20% or 30% of the battery capacity before recharging will extend cycle life considerably. As a general rule, 5 to 10 shallow discharge cycles are equal to one full discharge cycle. Although partial-discharge cycles can number in the thousands, keeping the battery in a fully charged state also shortens battery life. Full discharge cycles (down to 2.5 V or 3 V, depending on chemistry) should be avoided if possible.

Avoid very deep discharges (below 2 V or 2.5 V)
Very deep discharges will quickly, permanently damage a Li-ion battery. Internal metal plating can occur causing a short circuit, making the battery unusable and unsafe. Most Li-ion batteries have protection circuitry within their battery packs that open the battery connection if the battery voltage is less than 2.5 V or exceeds 4.3 V, or if the battery current exceeds a predefined threshold level when charging or discharging.

[Kevin23]

Would just like to recommend that you guys don't recharge your batteries every trip.  Each battery only takes so many charges before it goes bad.  They also hold a charge much longer if you continually drain them down to nothing and charge them back up to full.  What you are doing is short cycling the battery.  This will shorten the lifespan.  You also should long term store them at 3/4 to 1/2 charge, not full.  Just some tips I've picked up along the way.

You mention "short cycling" this was a term used in acid flooded cell lead batteries.. Lithium technology is much, much, different. LiFePo4 batteries should not ever be completely discharged or there's about a 20% chance an individual cell will not recover. But your auger wont let you completely discharge it beyond the safe zone, it will cut it out at the cutoff voltage which will save the battery. However its still best for them to always hover in the 70-90% range for longest life.. but we are talking 500 cycles here, so if you fish every day for 3 months (90 days) you'll be good for roughly 55 years of use with your auger battery. But I would suggest replacing it after 30-40 years just to be on the safe side.

[PikeKing23]

Kevin is right.  I stand corrected.  Apparently I am getting old and confused, or my information was outdated.  This is from batteryuniversity.com:

Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, the depth of discharge (DoD) determines the cycle count of the battery. The smaller the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine. There is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life. The exception may be a periodic calibration of the fuel gauge on a smart battery or intelligent device.

I am actually glad this came up, as I learned something today that will possibly extend the life of my batteries.  Thank you for the correction.

[Van Noord]

Buckshots, very interested in your review on the replacement auger!

The extension is from a local motorsports fabrication business. They make extensions for all makes along with custom Livescope and Panapix aluminum shuttle packs and countless ice fishing snowmobile fabrication mods and auger mounts.

I haven't tried the new extension out yet because it's been -40C, -50C here for over a week now...but it feels great and barely adds any weight to the already light unit.

[Buckshots]

So I charged up both batteries and hit the ice today. It definitely drills better than the previous one. I don’t have to push down anyway. First area I fished had 15” of ice and I got 31 holes with the first battery before it died. A lousy 465” of ice. I wasn’t too careful in keeping that battery warm either, but I did keep it in my truck so n the dash where the sun was shining. Second battery stayed in my pouch in my hoodie under my bibs and under my coat. This one was much warmer for sure. I switched areas and found 21” of ice. I moved around a bit and was at 230” of ice before I moved to a different lake. I kept it in my pouch on my hoody while I moved around that area too so it definitely stayed warm the whole time. So anyway, new lake had 24” of ice. I got ten holes before it was dead for a total of 470” of ice. 5” difference between the two batteries.

I’ve read from some others that they didn’t get many holes drilled with their first charge and that the second charge was much better. I’m hitting the ice again tomorrow so we will see if there’s any difference.

I don’t think it matters if these batteries are 15° or 70°. I think as long as they aren’t like 5° or colder that the battery temp doesn’t matter.  Overall, I’m not too impressed with this auger. The battery life is sad. 50 holes through 16” of ice is the claim and I got 31 through 15”...not impressed. I will see how it does tomorrow with batteries on a second charge. If it’s not better, I’m sending an email.

[Buckshots]

Van Noord, what are your overall thoughts so far? How many inches do you get on a battery? Do you see a difference between the two brands of batteries as far as how many inches it’ll drill?

[Buckshots]

Didn’t keep track of the first battery today. The second one did 25 22” holes for 550” of ice.

[Van Noord]

Well our -40C cold snap finally ended here last week so I've been fishing every day since last Friday with the 24v.

I'm finding the auger definitely bucks more due to its lightweight and the lazer blades can catch at the bottom of the hole once in a while causing a bit of a rough breakthrough.

The Greenworks battery doesn't do as well in cold temperatures as the StrikeMaster battery.
Initially I wasn't counting inches or holes with the Greenworks battery because of the cold.
I drove nearly 2 hours north of here when it was -30C and the battery didn't too well in the cold weather or sitting in an insulated bag in my cold truck after cutting a handful of holes through 31" of ice.

But yesterday I did 21 holes through 26" of ice...so again right around the 545" mark. Not too happy with those numbers but with four batteries on hand and my style of fishing, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Buckshots]

Here is the response I got from Strikemaster




So they were able to get 800” of ice but the countless amount of folks I’ve spoken with that have this new auger, not a single one of them has gotten 800”. My first 24v cut like crap and didn’t get crap for holes. This new replacement one cuts better but also doesn’t get crap for holes. Mine doesn’t catch on the bottom like you are describing Van Noord. It’s probably your blades even though they’re new. All this leads me to believe that these Chinese Strike flite bits have no consistency to them. They all cut different. More than likely it is the blades. They all say made in Sweden but there must be zero consistency in these blades anymore. There have been plenty of people with new 24/40v augers that don’t cut right, and blades always seem to have fixed the problem even though they were new and looked fine. The blade quality has been going down hill.

[Van Noord]

Took the auger out on some late ice, even though it was still 24" thick LOL.

Drilled a bunch of holes, the Greenworks battery died first and underperformed a bit. But I had two more with me and barely used half of another.

Going to need some blade sharpening done in time for next year.

But the 14lbs that this auger is sure makes it nice when pulling around a sled on a small lake.

I probably have a few more outings left this season.