Entirely stupid question about batteries

[sodakdave]

I have a lowrance elite 4x with the polar pack. It's got a 12v gell battery in the back of the case.

I've been thinking up a new charging station for all my gear, and I got to wondering. I see people building these into battery boxes and just having a pigtail that they run out to charge, leaving the battery in an enclosed case.

Am I entirely stupid to think that I could just run a pigtail with an SAE connector from the battery, Throw a SAE connector on the power cable to the unit, and then just unplug and plug the battery into my (intelligent) charger without ever removing it from the case?

Admittedly I haven't dealt with anything larger than 18650 cells since the days of popping the cap to dump some distilled water into the cells, and I know those got charged outdoors.

Is that not much of a concern anymore?

[mvanhank222]

I don’t see why it would be an issue

[sodakdave]

Great! I'm just used to the days of having to charge batteries in an open space because of the potential of gassing around the caps, like I said, it's been a while.

[3300]

most use sla meaning sealed battery so no gas escapes. gel is also sealed so no gas escapes. you do want to be careful with the charger you use on gel cells. if it gets over charged, it pushes the gel away from the plates and renders the battery useless. just make sure the charger is for gel cells.

[sodakdave]

most use sla meaning sealed battery so no gas escapes. gel is also sealed so no gas escapes. you do want to be careful with the charger you use on gel cells. if it gets over charged, it pushes the gel away from the plates and renders the battery useless. just make sure the charger is for gel cells.

Absolutely. Buying a new charger just for this setup

[buuddy]

The nice thing about that type of setup is you can then charge the battery using a solar panel when you're on the ice.

[esox_xtm]

You can absolutely do that. I added a 4 foot pigtail with an small Anderson connector to the starting battery on my boat. It was a pain to get to if it needed a charge, remove rear deck, unsnap cover to rear compartment and wiggle in to where you can't see to attach clips. EZPZ!

[markinohio]

I spliced an SAE connector to my Lowrance Elite power cable, and connected one to my battery. I never remove the battery from the ice pack. Just disconnect the sonar, and connect the battery to the battery tender.

Tip: place some tape around the SAE connector to the battery….easier to distinguish which to connect to the charger. Not sure if connecting the charger to the sonar would cause a problem, but I don’t want to find out.

[sodakdave]

I spliced an SAE connector to my Lowrance Elite power cable, and connected one to my battery. I never remove the battery from the ice pack. Just disconnect the sonar, and connect the battery to the battery tender.

Tip: place some tape around the SAE connector to the battery….easier to distinguish which to connect to the charger. Not sure if connecting the charger to the sonar would cause a problem, but I don’t want to find out.

That's exactly the plan I'm going for! Glad to see it's working.