Battery
 

I have a Hummingbird "Matrix 12" FF ( a little over 1 yr old). What is the recommended battery I should be using. I've been using a 12V 5.0 amp hr. Maybe I have a defective battery. Where and what kind of batteries are most people using. I'm on my 3rd battery. West Marine has a 12V 18 amp hr battery used for jet ski's I think it's big and heavy it doesn't look practical for the kayak.Thanks for any advice , in advance.

I'm using a 12V 7A battery from willy's electronics and its been good to me for about a year. Not sure about why yours is crapping out (I assume).

http://shop.willyselectronics.com/browse.cfm/4,7116.htm

I use a 12v 7amp hour and it wil run my Garmin 178 Sounder/GPS for roughly 14 hours between charges. They will last a long time if you keep the water off of them w/ a pelican case or a tupperware.

Maybe its your charger. Do you have a multimeter? You can check your charger and your battery. I've also heard that you should charge your batteries at a low amperage. For what reason I don't remember.

I have a 12v 7amp battery and i run my FF and my Portable GPS off it. Here is a link i ordered my batteries and charger from.


http://www.batteryweb.com/index.cfm


I also ordered my 6v 9amp here as well and they have a low amp 6v-12v charger.

John,

Check your manual to see if it lists the power draw, something in amps (A) or mA. At 1 amp draw your 7 amp-hr bat should last around 7 hours, a 2 amp draw, 3.5 hours. As mentioned before, you can also measure the current draw directly with a multimeter. You definitely should not have to lug around a jetski battery.

I have a smaller color lowrance unit with GPS and it runs 6+ runs off 10 AA nimh batteries. The batteries are something like 2.4 or 2.7 amp-hr.

Your FF is either malfunctioning and drawing too much power, your charger is killing the battery, or the battery is getting damaged through vibration.

It is also probably worth it to get a good charger that ramps up the voltage towards the top of the cycle and then backs off to the float charge voltage when it's done.

They sell batteries and chargers at Industrial Liquidators. (858)278-3455
12V 7AH for $6.95

My Garmin color gps gets about 1.16 amps per hour.. about 6 hours on a 12v 7amp battery, but I was still draining it before noon... I went to the 12v 10amp, Brent had them special made for OEX.... I got this one and never had problems again.

One thing about these type of batteries, be sure to never run them all they way down, they lose amps... (according to the guy at batterymart, he went on and on about batteries, so I assume his passion for batteries translated to reliability...:D )

As Derek says, a floating charger is the way to go...

Chris :pepsi: