Beating dead horse on lithium flasher battery

[jwetovick]

I really am sorry for beating a dead horse here but I want to confirm before I buy. I have an lx7 and after what I thought was a fully charged regular battery died on me after about 10 hrs of use with background black etc. long story short, I am willing to buy the lithium battery but have read so damn many threads that have multiple reviews and some say a 10ah is a 10ah regardless if it's lithium or sla battery as far as run time. I like idea of weight savings but please sell me that a 10ah lithium runs as long as a 10ah sla battery. Again, sorry to beat this to death

[slipperybob]

In short from what I read.

10ah = 10ah
SLA - voltage slowly drops over use, has on average 400 charge cycles
Lithium - voltage remains almost constant over use, has on average 1000 charge cycles

[jwetovick]

So if 10ah is 10ah like i have read many times then a lithium should not run longer per charge correct? I read others say a lithium lasts so much longer per charge. Whats the actual reality?

[Huntindave]

So if 10ah is 10ah like i have read many times then a lithium should not run longer per charge correct? I read others say a lithium lasts so much longer per charge. Whats the actual reality?

If both batteries are the same amp hour, then the voltage drop becomes the determining factor.  Lets say that your device has a low voltage cut off at 11.5 volts.
A lead acid (SLA) battery at 11.5 volts is 80% discharged. That means out of the available 10 amps, you have only used 8 of those amps before the voltage drops too low to correctly power your device.

As stated earlier a lithium battery will maintain a higher voltage for almost the entire capacity, in this case 10 amps.  Let's assume you can get 9.5 amps from the litium before the voltage cutoff is reached.  That is still a 1.5 amp advantage for the lithium.

Stated another way, if you get 8 hours usege from a 10 amp hr SLA lead battery, one could expect 9.5 hours useage from a 10 amp hr Lithium battery.

[hays47]

Also the lead acid cell battery will degrade a lot faster. The cell plates build internal resistance to a charge over the years. Usually five years is accepted as expected service duration. Some will last longer others shorter. Example my Honda 2012 Pilot's lasted only slightly over 2 years. On the other side I had a boat battery that gave up the ghost after 8 years.

For ice fishing purposes I have adopted the Lithium Ion batteries @ 10 ah and 20 AH and haven't looked back. Can't say I have ever regretted the move. I just wish the larger ones for marine use would come down from their lofty price structure.

[greenbackhunter]

Just buy one. Yes I know it’s an expensive upfront cost, but imo it’s worth it. So much so that I’ve brought in over 100 of them for folks here in Canada.

[VTMatt]

I had a 9 ah Dakota Lithium on my LX7 and it lasted much much longer than the stock battery.  Probably 40% longer.  Never had my battery die after switching. 

[CO_Dinky]

10Ah Lithium is equal to 10Ah SLA, ONLY if the voltage is the same!!!  Area under the curve...

A much better way to rate these things would be in Watt-Hours. 

[Huntindave]

Area under the curve...

    Did you intend to include a diagram or chart?

[CO_Dinky]

   Did you intend to include a diagram or chart?

Nope.  Google is your friend.

[jigapoolza]

Just got back from spending two nights in my pop up shelter . Ran my lx7 on a Dakota lithium 10 amp hour 7 hrs the first day then 12 hrs the second days it finally died at the start of the third day. Might’ve lasted a little longer if it hadn’t been in the cold shelter for two nights . I’m pretty happy with those results . I had the back light turned down as low as it goes that helps .