Marcum Battery

[duckman]

    The other day was out fishing and after about two hours my LX5 started going squirely couldn't pick up my jig had to turn gain up to 8 just to get bottom charged the battery to 100% the night before.There was a guy fishing next to me with a Marcum and I told him I was lost without the flasher so he said had a extra battery hooked it up worked fine after about 30minutes I gave him the battery back and hooked up my old battery it worked fine only fished for ten minutes went home.On way home picked up a new battery hope this cures problem have had the lx5 going on three years could be anything else.

[icecutter2]

Could be the motor in your head unit going. I just sent mine back to Marcum (great customer support), and for like $69 they replaced the motor and transducer. I didn't know there was anything wrong with the transducer, but they said I needed a new one. But what you described is exactly what happened to mine. Hope this helps

[Reb]

When my battery starts to go it does all kind of crazy stuff , just like your describing..After 3 years its due a battery anyway and its easier then sending it back. Good first step..

[esox_magnum]

Try the new battery first, a battery will regain some charge after being unhooked awhile.

[slipperybob]

Even if a worn out battery shows a high voltage, it may not have the reserve capacity left.  That's happen to both original batteries in both of my Marcum LX5 units.  I'm trying out some 12AH batteries at the moment.  It seems that they may last a little longer for the first few times I've used them, but I hadn't give them a full weekend run yet of straight out over 16 hours run.

[duckman]

Thanks for the info gentlemen.

[Martian]

 I fished with a guy this last week, with a 1 year old battery, that he said was toast this year. He contacted Marcum, who told him they have re-done their batterys, as their last years batterys were not that good. Then they told him they would mail him one, and all he had to do was pick up S&H. that turned out to be $17. What a load of crap. It was purchased at Bass Pro. In my opinion, if Marcum are big enough to admit a problem, thet should treat this as a recall, mail batteries to their dealers , and get them to Marcum owners, LESS th S&H. I then told him my vexilars battery is now 5 years old. This year I did however replace it as it would only last 4-5 hrs.. But shame on you Marcum, there are other flashers out there, and if it happened to me, I would own one of the others. They all seem good, but anyone of them can have problems. It now can only be defined as good, by how the manufacture handles it. From a sales point of view, it is far more important to keep a customer, than get new ones.

[Michaelo]

I fished with a guy this last week, with a 1 year old battery, that he said was toast this year. He contacted Marcum, who told him they have re-done their batterys, as their last years batterys were not that good. Then they told him they would mail him one, and all he had to do was pick up S&H. that turned out to be $17. What a load of crap. It was purchased at Bass Pro. In my opinion, if Marcum are big enough to admit a problem, thet should treat this as a recall, mail batteries to their dealers , and get them to Marcum owners, LESS th S&H. I then told him my vexilars battery is now 5 years old. This year I did however replace it as it would only last 4-5 hrs.. But shame on you Marcum, there are other flashers out there, and if it happened to me, I would own one of the others. They all seem good, but anyone of them can have problems. It now can only be defined as good, by how the manufacture handles it. From a sales point of view, it is far more important to keep a customer, than get new ones.

$17 bucks isn't bad for a battery at all. And them replacing a head unit and a transducer for $69 is really good. I bet if the same thing happened for a vexilar or a humminbird it would be the same deal.

[slipperybob]

Shipping a battery, is about the cost of another battery...

[eriksat1]

I wouldn't get to upset over a bad battery, have you ever bought anything that came with top of the line batteries? In fact almost everything comes with battery's not included. Back when I bought my vex FL-8 it did not come with a battery.

[Kevin23]

I have 4 batteries here. a cabelas 8ah, 2 ebay 7ah $15 ones, and the 7ah that came with my marcum. The marcum is by far the worst, it works for about 5 hours on my marcum. Since then I put the marcum on a LCD unit (uses less bat) and use the cabelas on my marcum. The cabelas is really nice, holds a great charge and I have fished 9 hours straight with it and it hasn't missed a beat. I plan to get the digital charging system next season.

The ebay $15 ones worked better than the marcum supplied one.