North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I seem to have killed my Motorguide batteries. Haven't been fishing in too long and I forgot to put the charger on them. Must have left the electric plugged in as well, and it's somehow drained them, because after having them on the charger all night, I got out fishing on Friday, no go.

Chucked the meter on them and only 12V. (24V system). Not good. Tried separating them and trying to kick them in the guts with the old dumb charger, but they're too far gone. Got five or so years out of them, but still kicking myself.

So anyway, my question is, where is the best/cheapest place to source a couple more? I got the current ones from a bloke I did a bit of work for in Pinelands.

I might go and see if he's still there, as I have been happy with them up until now, but I thought I'd throw it out there, in case there's any hidden bargains around. Them things ain't cheap!!!

What do the batteries read indervidually? If they are drained really low than the charger may not pick them up. Grab your self a set of jumperleads and a good battery. Link them up in parallel and then put the charger on. Then do the same with the other one. Once over about 8 volts you should be able to charge as normal.
I'm saying that 5 yeahs out of a wet battery (assuming it's acid) is a good lifespan.

There's some good prices floating around onnlibe for battery's. Both in and outboard and out back battery's do some good prices. If you have deep pockets then lead crystal is the go, but you are looking over 800 bucks for 2.

mickkk wrote:What do the batteries read indervidually? If they are drained really low than the charger may not pick them up. Grab your self a set of jumperleads and a good battery. Link them up in parallel and then put the charger on. Then do the same with the other one. Once over about 8 volts you should be able to charge as normal.
I'm saying that 5 yeahs out of a wet battery (assuming it's acid) is a good lifespan.

There's some good prices floating around onnlibe for battery's. Both in and outboard and out back battery's do some good prices. If you have deep pockets then lead crystal is the go, but you are looking over 800 bucks for 2.

Yeah they're both only around 5V. That's why I tried to kick start them with a old school 12V charger. I was hoping that would get them up to 8V or so. Only tried it on one though. The 24V smart charger won't recognize them as batteries with the voltage that low. I'll give the good/bad combo a go, but I don't want to damage the good one!

Cheers for the advice though, mate.

Got mine from excide in coconut grove. Cheapest in town with 2 year warranty.

Recently got them replaced at 22 momths and old mate said that most deep circle only good for 2 years.

I have a mate with a charger that will bring them back up, but at 5 years thats a pretty good run. Plus they will never be as good as what they were.

SunYee have some AGM's on spesh at the moment for about 250 delivered, as well as a popular model for about 290 delivered. Both 135AH or thereabouts. I need a couple more for my boat and was gonna grab the $290 jobbies.

If your current batteries are SLA, make sure your charging system is good for AGM's.

jabsy wrote:I have a mate with a charger that will bring them back up, but at 5 years thats a pretty good run. Plus they will never be as good as what they were.

SunYee have some AGM's on spesh at the moment for about 250 delivered, as well as a popular model for about 290 delivered. Both 135AH or thereabouts. I need a couple more for my boat and was gonna grab the $290 jobbies.

If your current batteries are SLA, make sure your charging system is good for AGM's.

Cheers mate. Pretty sure the old ones are agms. I'll have to check. Charger should be good for it anyway, smart charger cost me a pretty penny.

The smart charger will only lift them if they are about 9v or above. You'll need one of those old fashioned workshop chargers, the ones you could dial up to about 30 or 40 amps.... give it a good blast for an hour or so, take it off and let it sit for 30 mins. If you can't wait, hook a spotlight up to it for 30 sects to take the top off it. Check the voltage, if its around 10v give it a bash on the smart charger. If not, give it another bash on the old beast again.

Once the smart charger lifts them back to 13v, put it in the recondition mode and come back in a day or two. I've got an electronic meter that can tell you its health if you want to borrow it.

jabsy wrote:The smart charger will only lift them if they are about 9v or above. You'll need one of those old fashioned workshop chargers, the ones you could dial up to about 30 or 40 amps.... give it a good blast for an hour or so, take it off and let it sit for 30 mins. If you can't wait, hook a spotlight up to it for 30 sects to take the top off it. Check the voltage, if its around 10v give it a bash on the smart charger. If not, give it another bash on the old beast again.

Once the smart charger lifts them back to 13v, put it in the recondition mode and come back in a day or two. I've got an electronic meter that can tell you its health if you want to borrow it.

I put one of them on a workshop style charger for about three hours full whack and it was still only reading 5 volts.

I have run both the Deep River Agm's and the Ultimate extreme . The ultimate extremes are a cycling and cranking battery but both have been great batteries . I think 5 years out of you batteries is a bl..dy good life span . Agms don't like to sit below 70% capacity for too long otherwise the stuff up.

As they says with boats Bring Out Another Thousand

balou wrote:Got mine from excide in coconut grove. Cheapest in town with 2 year warranty.

Recently got them replaced at 22 momths and old mate said that most deep circle only good for 2 years.

I'm with balou. I also got my 2 batteries from exide paid about $130 each from memory 120ah also from memory had them nearly 2 years and all seem good.
Got my self a Jaylec Charger http://www.autoelec.com.au/jaylec-6v-12 ... mart-batte which has been great so far.

I've had a couple of these power agm's, one died just over 2 years old, I think from a dodgy charger, the other one still shows at >80% health and is coming up to 4 years old.

I haven't tried the cheaper jobbies, thinking it might be worth the risk, but its only a 40 buck saving per battery.

https://www.sunyee.com.au/battery-power ... eries.html

I like the idea of $130 deep cycles but I'd rather an AGM over a wet cell, and am happy to pony up for the extra.

I checked out the Sunyee agms. Good price, but they want another $80 to delver to Darwin.

hmmm.. delivery was free either last weekend or the weekend before...

I grabbed a 100 and a 120 off of this mob before, free freight included to darwin then, looks like it is still going.

https://homeof12volt.com.au/product-cat ... glass-mat/

jabsy wrote:hmmm.. delivery was free either last weekend or the weekend before...

I grabbed a 100 and a 120 off of this mob before, free freight included to darwin then, looks like it is still going.

https://homeof12volt.com.au/product-cat ... glass-mat/

Yeah, I went through to the cart to see postage and I typed in 0830 post code. Came up as $1200 postage!
So I sent them an email and they came back with $80. Who knows?

Emailed them again, stating that I knew someone who received free postage to Darwin. They replied that they have never shipped free to Darwin. So to them!