Humminbird Helix 7 + Energized Outdoors 10ah Lithium

I just bought the unit a week ago. Battery life is a well-known issue with these graphs. The battery life on the stock battery is fine for 95% of the trips I make. I was getting about 7 hours of life with the screen dimmed to 4 during low-light or 8 when outside during the day. I chose to get another battery that’ll last longer for sun-to sun-down Mille Lacs trips.

Pleasantly surprised by how light the unit feels now. The new battery weighs in at 2.83 pounds, as compared to the previous 9ah version at 5.10 pounds. I didn’t expect those two-plus pounds to make a difference, but it did.

Check the times and battery percentages in these two pics. This was with my Ice Jager glow cup running much of the day and the screen brightness at 8-10 during the day and 5 during low-light.

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_6784.jpg
   

2. 

   IMG_1853.jpg
   

Very good info!

I’m sure you’ll get longer run time out of the new battery, but those battery percentage numbers are going to be inaccurate and irrelevant. Your Helix is reading the battery voltage and showing a corresponding capacity percentage remaining. The percentage is based off of lead acid batteries with 13.7v at full charge. The LiFePO4 battery has 14.6v at full charge.

Battery indicators for all flasher/fish finders using the LiFePO4 batteries won’t be accurate. However, there should be screen on your helix that shows battery voltage and you can monitor that to have an idea when your battery is getting low. The energized outdoors 10ah battery will shut down at 10.0v, and I’m not sure if the Helix will shut off before it gets to that.

X2 on battery numbers being off. Put a Helix 7 on a lithium shuttle and the shuttle battery indicate will read 100% but the Helix display will be maybe 79% or something like that.

Oh interesting. Wasn’t aware of that.

Just ordered the Energised Outdoor battery 10 percent off with code.

I was having an issue with mine yesterday with multiple SLA batteries.
Batteries are reading over 11.5V, but the battery percentage was reading like 8%.

muskie-tim wrote:

X2 on battery numbers being off. Put a Helix 7 on a lithium shuttle and the shuttle battery indicate will read 100% but the Helix display will be maybe 79% or something like that.

The marcum shuttle uses pouch type cells. The total configuration gives a resting voltage less than a fully charged lead battery, thus the discrepancy. The rated amphour capacity is also skewed when directly compared to Dakota type replacement battery.

gotalunker wrote:

I was having an issue with mine yesterday with multiple SLA batteries.
Batteries are reading over 11.5V, but the battery percentage was reading like 8%.

Like 8% @ 11.5 sounds high to me.

I also have a Helix 7 and a standard 12V 9aH SLA. Contemplating buying an Energised Outdoor 10aH for it, or just have multiple SLA’s to swap out when they get low.

My question on the SLA batteries is if I run the unit down to were it is showing less than 10% on the Helix is this deep discharge doing damage to an SLA? Seems like this past weekend when I ran it way down to this level and then recharged and used it the following day the battery level dropped extremely fast.