Upgrading batteries from SLA to blue brick/anker.

Please bare with me as I'm not a super tech savvy person.im not trying to sound ignorant this is just all new to me.any help will be greatly appreciated.

Last Sunday I made it out on the water for the first time since early june.about 15 min into my troll either my battery or ff fizzed out. Checked everything over and still can't figure it out.the battery might be tired but still shows full.my ff acted like it does when it get low on juice,jittery and inverted screen.

With 2 kayaks I need to get another fish finder.my current one is a humminbird 176i and I'm looking at getting a humminbird helix 5. The 176 draw is 100ma and the helix is 615ma.

I'm new to the SLA alternative game and have poured over lots of info on this site and it's more than I can look at and understand. there is just so much to look at since I don't have a home computer..i have looked at the anker and clones but all I can find are 5v not 12v. Is there a way to change them? Not sure what other folks are getting usage wise for say 2 days and what mah to get.im guessing 17000- 200000 would serve well. As I would also use it to charge phones and cameras while on backpack multi day hunts.

Now on to the blue brick. these to me are a straight forward replacement that I just have to get the correct size.am I missing anything?

I will have to replace my SLA anyway plus the thing is to dang heavy.so instead of buying another one then going another route I just want to do it right the first time and put $30 toward a new system.

Any help is better than what I have.

Yeah, you're missing that you need to put any of the lithium-ion (folks also call them lithium and li-ion) in a waterproof container.  Water will destroy them and make them a potential fire hazard.  Adds to the total cost of ownership.

I'd advise against the Anker batteries right now.  Anker recently changed the output plug to a proprietary size and it's hard to find a way to wire them for a fish finder.  I tried three of the fancy Anker-type external battery packs and sent them all back.  They're actually quite large and I was also having trouble finding a reasonably compact box for them.

I just finished putting together a blue brick battery for a fish finder.  You need a waterproof box - the 9600mAh size battery will fit snugly in a Plano 3440 waterproof box - and you need a female plug.  I used these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015OCV5XO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.  You can find them cheaper on eBay shipped from China.

You plug the female adapter into the blue brick male output plug, wire in the fuse, and attach a two-pole trailer plug (or whatever plug you put on your FF power cord).  Pretty simple, really.

One thing to keep in mind with lithium batteries is that they are often slow to charge.

Having done Anker and blue brick myself, I advise going SLA. They're just simpler and don't fail at the worst time possible. Also more durable.

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Thank-you Tinker.i did leave out that I had waterproof cases that I was going to use.my bad.
If I was wiring up a stock trailer I would be fine but I'm trying to do it right.

Having done Anker and blue brick myself, I advise going SLA. They're just simpler and don't fail at the worst time possible. Also more durable.

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Lee thank-you.thats the best thing about the SLA.hot,cold they work. My battery has lasted 4 years has been dropped before.

Yeah, I'd have added that an SLA is the better battery.  I wired-up a blue brick to use with a smaller kayak that I often have to portage after the SLA for that boat wore out.  I'm not unhappy with the blue brick, but I'll keep using an SLA in the Hobie.

Lithium batteries do occasionally catch on fire.  It normally happens during charging, or during rapid discharge (think high-performance RC planes/cars/etc), but it's not inconceivable to think that one could catch fire on a kayak.  That's a risk that I'm not willing to take on my boat, no matter how rare it is.  My battery box is located inside my front hatch, and if the battery caught fire I wouldn't know until it's too late. 

Lithium batteries do occasionally catch on fire.  It normally happens during charging, or during rapid discharge (think high-performance RC planes/cars/etc), but it's not inconceivable to think that one could catch fire on a kayak.  That's a risk that I'm not willing to take on my boat, no matter how rare it is.  My battery box is located inside my front hatch, and if the battery caught fire I wouldn't know until it's too late. 

IIRC, it started to happen to a member here a few months back, maybe last summer?

Here's the post on it:
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=17505