advice on batteries

[the black terrier]

I was hoping someone could give me some advice on a new battery for my 170 striker. I don't understand what the amp/ah refers to ? How many charges can the batteries take before they are buggered ? do you get a longer life span out of a 17 amp battery as opposed to a 14 amp? if you are not out every week how long does a full battery last without use.I would be very gratefull for any advice.

cheers steve

[Vermincinerator]

Hi Steve,

i power my fishfinder from a 17amp/hour gell battery.

It just so happens that the fishfinder draws 1 amp of power per hour, which theoretically means that it will go flat after 17 hours.

I have not tested this because i have not been afloat long enough for it to run out and i re-charge before each fishing trip anyway.

I looked at a 7amp/hour battery but because we are out on the water for 12-14 hours in the summer i did not want the battery to go flat and not have use of the fishfinder.

 

Ian.

[JohnGalway]

A hand held striker will have a 100w bulb, a scope mounted striker will have a 75w bulb.

 

Amps are basically how much power the battery will hold. If badly treated then an 18amp (or whatever) battery won't hold 18amps, meaning it won't power your lamp for as long as it would when new.

 

A higher wattage (w) bulb will use up your battery power (amps) faster. It's a trade off between weight of the battery and how much light you need. A lower power light will spot a fox a long way off, but you do need a bit of juice to see him far off well enough to shoot him.

 

Follow >this< link and download the PDF on "Sporting Lights" on the left hand menu of that page, it gives some good information on power consumption, light output etc.

 

In practical terms the main thing you need to decide is am I walking & shooting or driving & shooting. If like me you're going to be walking & shooting and having the lamp on pretty much all the time then you're going to want an 18amp battery minimum, smaller batteries powering a 75w or 100w bulb just aren't worth considering for that kind of work in my opinion. Driving & shooting, you'll have a lamp plugged into the vehicle a lot so a smaller "walkabout" or picking up battery will likely do.

 

Battery lifespan would depend on the quality of the battery and how well or badly it's taken care of. I never let a sealed lead acid rechargeable battery run flat out of power, once my lamps starts getting dim I turn it off and either go home or switch batteries. You will get more lamp time from an 18amp batter compared to a 14amp battery using the same power (w) bulb. I just an 800ma Deben charger to recharge my batteries. The very first thing I always do when I get home is hook up my battery to the charger, do that first every time and you won't forget. If you don't recharge them for long periods or run them down flat they won't last you as long.

 

If you're not going out for a week or two then I'd hook up the battery to the lamp for a couple of hours each week, just short of however long it'll take until the light starts getting dim, then recharge. Do that once a week and your battery will be fine.

 

DO NOT LEAVE A LAMP ON UNSUPERVISED.

 

How many times will you be able to recharge a battery? I don't know really. You'll know it's starting to end it's useful service life when your trips out start getting shorter and shorter, that will be because the battery can no longer hold the full charge it could when new. Time to buy a new one then.

 

I'd find a place that has a high rate of sales for batteries. If a battery is dusty on the shelf I'd avoid it like the plague. You want as new a battery as you can get.

[eldon]

I find a 7 A/Hr battery does me fine it depends on how long you are going to be out, bear in mind the lamp isn't on all the time.

Anything smaller isn't worth buying in my opinion.

Anything bigger starts to be a serious weight if you carry your bunnies as well. OK for foxing.

 

You will have to weigh ( pun intended) it up your self or give us a bit more info on usage etc.

[Guest bobjs]

I have trek-ed around with a 12 volt 17 amp hour battery in a back pack and i tell you its not nice, after about 1 hour your legs are burning and the lower part of your back will be sore,

 

i now use it for silent running from the jeep, IE: i use the jeep to get me to the point where i want to shoot, switch of the jeep and use the lamp to sweep from time to time.

 

when i was walking around the battery pack would last around 4 hours, this was with a light force 140 with a 75 watt lamp.

 

bob.

 

if you are planning the use a 7 amp hour battery with a light force 140 will kill it very quickly, failing that buy a jeep.

 

bob.

[Alycidon]

A 12 volt 55 watt bulb will use just over 4 amps of power per hour (watts divided by volts = amps). A 75 watt bulb will use over 6 amps an hour.

 

So a 55 w bulb with 10 amp battery should last 2 1/2 hours in theory but a battery will not discharge at a high capaicty in a discharged state and should NOT be fully discharged anyway. Remember how a car battery wont start your car if it gets below about 60% capacity. So 1 1/2 hours or so max from a new 10 amp. Anything bigger is too heavy to carry far anyway unless you are in pairs. A second 10 amp battery placed at a strategic point the day before would be good.

 

Each charge/discharge cycle will remove lead from the plates (in a lead/acid battery), as the lead thickness on the plates decline's so does the stated charge capacity of the battery. Most 'economy' batteries are unable to carry the stated capacity anyway, typically a 10 amp would only carry a charge of about 9 amps. High quality ones will hold to around 96% of stated capacity.

 

Fast charging batteries will rapidly increase the rate of lead removal and should be avioded as should continuing to run them when nearly flat.

 

A

[the black terrier]

Hi Steve,

i power my fishfinder from a 17amp/hour gell battery.

It just so happens that the fishfinder draws 1 amp of power per hour, which theoretically means that it will go flat after 17 hours.

I have not tested this because i have not been afloat long enough for it to run out and i re-charge before each fishing trip anyway.

I looked at a 7amp/hour battery but because we are out on the water for 12-14 hours in the summer i did not want the battery to go flat and not have use of the fishfinder.

 

Ian.

[the black terrier]

many thanks for your time gents in replying to my request for information it has helped me a lot in making up my mind

cheers steve

[foxshot]

Well i use a 12v 20 ah battery i have used this all night on my lightforce 170 ,the only downside is it weighs almost 6 1/2 kilo so you know you have used it when walking ,this is the site i purchaced it from www.BatteryMegastore.co.uk

[Bucko]

The best batteries I have found so far are the EVX range from CSB.

 

They are designed for cyclic use, this means that they recover from being flattened far better than a standard sealed lead acid battery.

 

My last set of standard lead acid batteries were knackered after 12 months and wouldn't hold any usefull amount of charge. I tried a set of EVX's over 2 years ago and they are still going strong.

 

this is where I bought mine from

 

http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/departments/de...epartmentID=181

 

cheers

 

Neil

[Guest Ian Willcox]

Has anyone tried the new lithium Ion battery pack from Deben (http://www.deben.com/lights_lamping/batteries/lithium_ion_battery_pack.php) I know it's expensive @ £140 but weighs just over a pound and should last uo to 3 hours on a striker 170.