Author Topic: Vexilar Lithium Battery  (Read 4190 times)

Offline hardwater diehard

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Vexilar Lithium Battery
« on: Nov 20, 2020, 10:07 AM »
Another option and possibly some deals in the future ...and can use your existing Vexilar charger



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Offline mushroom_capd_1

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #1 on: Nov 20, 2020, 05:13 PM »
The local L&M store was selling them for around $60. I just checked their website and they have the Vexilar lithium batteries priced at $59.99 without the charger.

Offline ryguy80

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #2 on: Nov 20, 2020, 06:59 PM »
Ordered one from Scheel’s. Paid about $60 for it. I like that you can use existing Vexilar battery chargers with. Got it for the Fish Scout camera. The Vexilar flashers are so energy efficient with the SLA batteries that it almost seems to be overkill to use Lithium.
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Offline skifisher

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #3 on: Nov 20, 2020, 07:22 PM »
I’m no expert on batteries or chargers, but I’d be a little leery of using a SLA or a regular acid battery charger on a Lithium or Lithium Ion battery. Any input from anyone???
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Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #4 on: Nov 20, 2020, 07:50 PM »
I’m no expert on batteries or chargers, but I’d be a little leery of using a SLA or a regular acid battery charger on a Lithium or Lithium Ion battery. Any input from anyone???
worst that can happen is it doesnt charge 100%.ive used a battery tender jr before.dakota said a regular charger can be used but may not charge completely because lithiums charge to higher voltage.almost 14v.I tested it and the battery tender charged it to 13.8 the same as my lithium charger.will work in a pinch but don’t recommend making it a routine.

Offline ryguy80

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #5 on: Nov 21, 2020, 10:53 PM »
Well, I received my Vexilar lithium battery today and connected it to the Fish Scout camera. Used a V-410 charger (same one that Tom Z. had in the Vexilar video) that I had laying around that came with the camera originally, hooked up the camera to the charger, and plugged in the charger. Six hours later, the red light was still on the charger, so I unplugged it, figuring something was wrong at this point. The charger was pretty warm to the touch, so much that I placed it on a non-flammable surface to cool to avoid any chance of fire from the heat. So far I'm not impressed with this battery that was marketed as plug-and-play with existing equipment. The battery seems to have some sort of charge, but who knows how much.

I'm starting to loose faith in Vexilar a little bit. Over the summer, I had picked up a SonarPhone with the T-Pod, and the WiFi chip went out the first time out on the lake. To Vexilar's credit, they turned around and got it replaced very quickly after they had me run some tests to verify the defect. Add to that the original K-Drill ad they did recently was done in poor taste, but I digress.
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Offline BreweryBuilder

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #6 on: Nov 22, 2020, 08:23 AM »
Yea...I have a hard time believing what this guy says after that k-drill video...and I'm a k-drill fan. Love mine.

Offline jrjach75

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #7 on: Jan 13, 2021, 07:26 AM »
I got the Vexilar lithium battery last week to replace the stock battery in my FLX flasher.

They way I understand it, according to the video they released, you plug it in on the charger after an outing, and if it needs a charge, it will go red and charge. If  it's not down under 85%, it will stay green and you unplug it and use another day. So, that's what I've been doing.

As it shipped, it's reading 13.3v and wouldn't take a charge. Had a couple short days out this last weekend, probably 4-5 hours each day. So, 8-10hrs total. Still a green light. Let it run in ny basement (with the transducer in a pail of water), another 6hrs. Reading 13.2, still the green light.

I've got it running again today in the basement. Going to try and test just how long it will go until I needs a charge, but I'm doubtful if the claim it charges when it's under 85%.

I'm sure it's a great battery, and as advertised it's very lightweight. I'm hoping this isn't a case where I have to try to keep track of how many hours I've had running, I know I can force a charge by plugging it in and turning the unit off and on, causing a slight voltage drop.

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #8 on: Jan 13, 2021, 07:36 AM »
Not sure but i ran my dakota lithium ina flx28 for 7 days straight at 9hrs per day and it still had juice.they put out 100% then go dead.no warning.your battery probably doesnt need a charge yet.lithium batteries are nothing like sla batteries.

Offline filetandrelease

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #9 on: Jan 13, 2021, 07:46 AM »
 I bought 2 marcum brutes after holding out couldn’t pass up the deal 12v 10amp , with 2 chargers $100.00
 Put 1 in my older helix 5 , , turned the back light down ,turned off useless stuff , this doesn’t have GPS as  used .3 of a volt fishing a full day 9 hrs  , and next trip the same now I’m going to run it till it shuts off ,
  I have an Lx7Li which I can get just 2 days fishing out of it ,
 

Offline jrjach75

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #10 on: Jan 13, 2021, 07:47 AM »
Not sure but i ran my dakota lithium ina flx28 for 7 days straight at 9hrs per day and it still had juice.they put out 100% then go dead.no warning.your battery probably doesnt need a charge yet.lithium batteries are nothing like sla batteries.

Wow, how many amp hours is that battery? I might be way off, I was estimating the Vexilar battery would run my FLX28 for around 36-40 hours. If it's 60+ hours like yours, that would explain why I'm not seeing the need for a charge.

I'm probably just being paranoid. Without knowing how it came to me from the factory as far as being charged, I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to run out at some point out on the ice. Sounds like I need to just run it another weekend and see if it takes a charge afterwards.

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #11 on: Jan 13, 2021, 07:53 AM »
10ah you will get crazy run times.i was getting 36hrs on a 9ah sla battery on a flx28.heres a lithium runtime chart.i know its not your brand but it's probably close.i average slightly longer run times than the chart even.I have a dakota 10ah and a amped 12ah.i havent put the amped thru its paces yet.




Offline hardwater diehard

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #12 on: Jan 13, 2021, 08:02 AM »
Couple responses from Amped Outdoors and Vexilar concerning my lithium battery on its trial run 2 plus days of use.

Using my Amped Outdoors 12v battery my Vexilar DD-100 ...read 100%  for quite some time before drooping down(cant remember what percentage) and then my FL18 shut off ..I turned it on and off again and it would run for a very short time then off again ..so I Emailed both Vexilar and Amped Outdoor with my concerns.

Amped Outdoors response to charging rate/time and battery percentage .

Hello, no problem we try to get back to everybody as soon as possible. The charger supplied will fully charge the battery in under 6 hours. the meter on a vexilar is never going to be accurate with lithium iron phosphate batteries. The meter will likely show 100% for about 80% of the battery life. the battery gauge will then drop it more of a steady pace which is likely what you saw. Since our battery has so many charge cycles it is never a bad idea to charge after each use you will never run out of power then. Let us know if we can help with anything else.

Vexilar response concerning the DD-100

The lithium ion battery maintains its voltage at a high level for a much longer period of time than a lead-acid battery which gradually drops down from 13 volts to 11 volts.  The LI battery maintains the high voltage reading right up to the end, but then drops off rapidly and shuts down.  The DD-100 monitors this voltage reading, but does not give an indication of how long it will maintain that voltage.  The DD-100 may read 100% for a couple days straight, but then drop down to 20% in an hour.  Something to get used to knowing how long you have to run when it does start to drop.




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Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #13 on: Jan 13, 2021, 08:07 AM »
Yup after running lithium i dont even look at my flx28 battery status.i just calculate how many hrs and days ive been fishing and charge it around the 4th or 5th day of use.gets taking used to compared to charging a sla battery everytime you use it.

Offline jrjach75

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #14 on: Jan 13, 2021, 08:46 AM »
Yup after running lithium i dont even look at my flx28 battery status.i just calculate how many hrs and days ive been fishing and charge it around the 4th or 5th day of use.gets taking used to compared to charging a sla battery everytime you use it.

Yeah, I abandoned my little test in the basement. Going off that chart I'm looking at roughly 50hrs+ of run time. Guessing I still have 30+ hours of run time remaining at a minimum.

I'll report back if I have any issues, I'm going to go ahead and follow Vexilar's instruction and plug it in after each trip once the battery warms up, and if green, unplug and put it away. It sounds like I should only expect to see it charge once every 6 (or more) trips if I average 6 hours use.

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #15 on: Jan 13, 2021, 08:52 AM »
Good luck.i was going to say your basement test will take a very long time because its in perfect warm conditions.i go sun up to sun down everytime i fish and my vexilar runs forever on a charge.

Offline RapShack

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #16 on: Jan 13, 2021, 12:34 PM »
  used .3 of a volt fishing a full day 9 hrs

By used .3 of a volt do you mean your digital voltmeter on the sonar started at 13.3 and ended at 13.0?  If so she was just about dead.
I'm a man, but I can change, If I have to, I guess.

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #17 on: Jan 13, 2021, 01:43 PM »
What?a lithium will put out 13v for days.9 hrs days on the ice.

Offline Agronomist_at_IA

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #18 on: Jan 13, 2021, 07:21 PM »
Well, I received my Vexilar lithium battery today and connected it to the Fish Scout camera. Used a V-410 charger (same one that Tom Z. had in the Vexilar video) that I had laying around that came with the camera originally, hooked up the camera to the charger, and plugged in the charger. Six hours later, the red light was still on the charger, so I unplugged it, figuring something was wrong at this point. The charger was pretty warm to the touch, so much that I placed it on a non-flammable surface to cool to avoid any chance of fire from the heat. So far I'm not impressed with this battery that was marketed as plug-and-play with existing equipment. The battery seems to have some sort of charge, but who knows how much.

I'm starting to loose faith in Vexilar a little bit. Over the summer, I had picked up a SonarPhone with the T-Pod, and the WiFi chip went out the first time out on the lake. To Vexilar's credit, they turned around and got it replaced very quickly after they had me run some tests to verify the defect. Add to that the original K-Drill ad they did recently was done in poor taste, but I digress.

My SLA battery was shot so I went with the vex lithium so I could use the charger plug system on it. No problem. After I use it and plug it in lights red come back next day and it's green. No issue worked great.

Offline jrjach75

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #19 on: Jan 19, 2021, 12:42 PM »
Good luck.i was going to say your basement test will take a very long time because its in perfect warm conditions.i go sun up to sun down everytime i fish and my vexilar runs forever on a charge.

So just as an update... I took the flasher out over the weekend and ran it. I was at about 25hrs when it finally took a charge, charge time was around 5 hours before I had the green light again. I think it is designed to work like stated in the video, plug it in each time after you are done, after you have enough runtime, it will take a charge, otherwise the charger is just a quick check.

Offline Oldbear

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Re: Vexilar Lithium Battery
« Reply #20 on: Mar 14, 2021, 07:27 PM »
I replaced the Vexilar battery at about 5 years.  That was replaced with an Interstate for $110.  After 10 years I replaced it with another 9A Interstate battery which was $107 an still use he old one.  In other posts previously a lot of guys stated they were only getting 2 yrs on the el cheapo ones.  The Interstate ones were AGM  and I've been very satisfied.  Others have said Yuska is another brand that lasted well.  Mine are charged up after every use and are used continually thru the winter.  Also are charged every 30to 40 days in the off season.

 



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