Anker battery issues

Has anybody had issues with the Anker type batteries cutting out while on the water?  Battery life is good for my elite hdi5, but having to reach into the hatch and turn it on again is getting old.  Also, in order for me to turn it on I need to push the power button  to get the 12v light flashing and then hit the power on the ff.  I wish I could just turn it on while on the water w/o having to mess with the battery.

Thinking about going back to the 2 heavy 7ah SLA batteries I have.

Any of the more engineering types have a fix for this?  Thanks for any help!

If what you are talking about is, turning the battery on, and then do not turn your FF or other source of draw on until you get out on the lake or river, yes the battery will automatically shut off after, I believe 12 minutes, not sure of the exact time frame tho.

John

Thanks. No I, really just trying to keep it from cutting out at random times after powering up before heading out.  Brightness is turned up so there should be enough draw  to keep the unit on.

Not being able to turn off and on is just part of the deal I guess.  The SLA is just a simpler solution I think.

yeah, I had all sorts of issues with my anker battery setup.  Somehow, it was frying transducers.  I actually went back to the blue brick and things went back to normal.  But the transducers that became inoperable when used with the anker battery continued to be inoperable.

I went back to lead-acid gel cell batteries after using the Anker style batteries for a while.  Gel cells are the tried and true.  I am working on a new setup though that seems really promising.  I'll post a write up on it if it's really successful.

With my elite 4 I have to get the battery to light up to get the FF to turn it on but once mines on I usually don't have issues. But I have had it turn off once or twice on the water.

I went back to lead-acid gel cell batteries after using the Anker style batteries for a while.  Gel cells are the tried and true.  I am working on a new setup though that seems really promising.  I'll post a write up on it if it's really successful.

Potato batteries,  I like it! 

I've had issues with mine shutting off randomly also but only once or twice.  What sealed the deal for me was having to plug everything in and power up the fish finder right as I got to the water so the anker didn't turn off before I got to turn on the fish finder and not having the fish finder pinging while not on the water.  I also had issues with the FF not turning on right away.  I would have to hold down the button or try multiple times some times to get it to turn on.  I finally got tired of it and got a 9ah SLA.  Now it turns on every time the button is pushed and I can turn it off and on whenever I want.

The 2nd generation of the 20,000mAh Anker batteries are a problem wherever and however they're being used.  People using them in more traditional ways are crabbing bout them turning off unexpectedly, too.

The old silver-colored version is apparently free of these problems - and that's probably why it costs $20 more than the "New" "Improved" version.

http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Universal-20000mAh-Multi-Voltage-External/dp/B00B45EOYS/ref=sr_1_1?srs=2528932011&ie=UTF8&qid=1456142137&sr=8-1&keywords=20000+mAh+batteries

I sent mine back, grabbed a 9Ah SLA off the shelf to use while waiting for my blue brick to arrive, and I'll probably just carry the brick as a back-up.  Yeah, they're heavier, but the SLA's always work.

I haven't had any issues with my Anker 20Ah battery, but wish it lasted more than 9 hrs with my Lawrance 5HDS. Not really enough for two full days. I guess it's just a power hog.

This is the exact reason I stayed with the typical 7AH SLA, while continuing to search for other options.  Too many smarts in those Anker batteries that are primarily designed for USB charging.  I want a dedicated 12V output, without extra smarts deciding between 12V/9V/0V at the push of a button or other random events.

One option that I'm looking at now is made by TalentCell:  http://amzn.com/B016BJCRUO - 72W 132WH 12V/11000mAh.  It does have a switch that must be turned on to charge/use, but is designed for 12V output as its primary purpose.  I'll post a separate review after a little more on the water time, but in a dry run in my garage over a weekend, nearly 20 hours of run-time with my Elite 4 HDI, and still sourcing enough to keep the fish finder running.  All in a smaller lighter package than a comparable SLA.

-Sam

One option that I'm looking at now is made by TalentCell:  http://amzn.com/B016BJCRUO - 72W 132WH 12V/11000mAh.  It does have a switch that must be turned on to charge/use, but is designed for 12V output as its primary purpose.  I'll post a separate review after a little more on the water time, but in a dry run in my garage over a weekend, nearly 20 hours of run-time with my Elite 4 HDI, and still sourcing enough to keep the fish finder running.  All in a smaller lighter package than a comparable SLA.

Anxious to hear how that one works.  I have the newer model Anker and recently it refused to take a charge until plugging it in about the 20th time.  I had had it over a year (18 mo. warranty) and I emailed Anker to see what to do.  Very quick response and they mailed me a new one in about 3 days and told me to keep the old one.  GREAT customer service, but we'll see how the new one works after a few springers are in the boat.

Has anybody had issues with the Anker type batteries cutting out while on the water?  Battery life is good for my elite hdi5, but having to reach into the hatch and turn it on again is getting old.  Also, in order for me to turn it on I need to push the power button  to get the 12v light flashing and then hit the power on the ff.  I wish I could just turn it on while on the water w/o having to mess with the battery.

Thinking about going back to the 2 heavy 7ah SLA batteries I have.

Any of the more engineering types have a fix for this?  Thanks for any help!

No fix that I know of for the over-engineered products made for laptop and car jump-starting, at least none that really works without raising your power draw and dropping your battery life.   I have had similar issue with a battery bank, my Elite 4HDI just doesn't draw enough current consistently to keep the unit on.    The Elite 4 specifications say it draws around 0.75 Amps under typical operation, backlight on, but at my normal settings I found my FF draws closer to 0.4 to 0.5 Amp range.  So this must not be sufficient for the onboard circuits to not go into auto-shut-off.    I scrapped that idea and that battery bank is in my daughters car now. 

I have several power boxes I am working with right now.  My favored unit uses a standard 8AH SLA, I get two solid days (12 to 16 hours, depending on backlighting and other settings) of fishing on each charge.   Heavy as sin, but as posted by others, it works.   I am just now about to test a blue brick to see if I can shrink the weight and get comparable battery life.   I should have a battery life test on a 7.8AH blue brick in the next few days.  I am going to set up an LED light bank and see how many hours at 0.5 AMPs I actually get before the voltage drops below the recommended 10V (Elite 4, 5, 7 HDI minimum recommended voltage.)   I'll post that later.   If I get a good result, I could put two 7.8AH blue bricks into my battery box in place of one sealed lead acid battery and hopefully get twice the use for a lot less weight. 

One thing to keep in mind if you are shopping for battery banks:  Many of the battery banks that are listed on eBay or Amazon list very high AH ratings (20,000mAh or higher).  For battery banks / laptop chargers / jump starters/etc  most of the time these ratings are based on the 5V USB output, and the fact is you get less time at the 12volt output, and of course less time as your power draw goes up.   What I found is that due to air shipping regulations  ( http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub52/pub52c3_026.htm#ep900090 ), a lot of these battery systems have no more than 100 watt-hour rated batteries.   A 20AH rated battery bank, rated at the 5V 2.1A USB output, is basically a 100 WattHour battery.    A 7.8 to 8AH blue brick, rated at 12volts/3A max output, is still a 96 to 100 WH battery bank.   In other words the real power capacity stored (in Watt Hours) is comparable between the two.   What I am going to attempt to see is whether the SLA and the Lithium blue brick are any different in terms of the duration of usable power I can get out of them - usable meaning I stay inside the rated 10-17volt specification for my Lawrence fish finders.     

I went back to lead-acid gel cell batteries after using the Anker style batteries for a while.  Gel cells are the tried and true.  I am working on a new setup though that seems really promising.  I'll post a write up on it if it's really successful.

Potato batteries,  I like it! 

Stop giving away my secrets, Craig!!

I'll be giving a sneak peak of my new battery system at my clinic on Thursday evening in addition to talking about batteries, sonar units, and other electrical rigging issues.

My elite 5hdi is supposed to have a typical draw of 1.1A per hour.  You could be right about the lower draw.  Usually you try to conserve battery by turning down the brightness; instead I find it cuts out less if I keep it at 10 and mess with the menu features.

Just ordered a 10AH SLA for my main source and if I need an extra I'll pack a separate dry bag with a back up. Anybody know how long typically an SLA battery lasts?  I've read its worth replacing them every 1 to 2 years, otherwise you're using a degraded battery.