What size batteries for different fish finders?

What size batteries for different fish finders?

Dakota Lithium Marine Batteries

Dakota Lithium 12v 54Ah Marine Batteries

When considering a new battery for your electronics or fish finders in your bass boat, you must first ask yourself how many amps do your electronics pull per hour? 

And while that might seem hard to find, a quick Google search can pretty much tell you how many amps your electronics pull per hour. 

For example, in my case, I have two fish finders; a Humminbird Helix 12 at the dash and a Garmin ECHOMAP Ultra 126sv at the bow with Livescope. The Humminbird Helix runs roughly 2.8 to 3 amps per hour and the Garmin pulls 2.89 amps per hour. So roughly in an hour, I will pull 5.89 amps per hour. 

In an eight-hour typical fishing day, at 5.89 amps I will pull a total of 47.12 amps, so selecting a battery to just run your electronics or fish finders should be pretty easy right? You obviously don’t want to sell yourself short and only get what you might need, but instead, look at options to make sure you have plenty of power and if you decide to add more electronics or spend more time on the water you already have those amp hours in reserve. 

More on Amp Draw for Fish Finders

In this case with my example, I would most likely consider a Dakota Lithium 12V 100AH Deep Cycle LIFEPO4 Battery if am just running my electronics on one single battery. The 100AH is going to be over double what I am going to need most days and if there are days I am spending on the water where I am out there 14 to 16 hours I am going to have enough power to get through the day. But if you wanted to go with something a little smaller, you could always run the Dakota Lithium 12V 54AH Deep Cycle LIFEPO4 Battery but you would have to be a little more mindful with your use on those longer days. Sleeping your units when not in use would save you a lot of draw as well. 

Dakota Lithium LiFePO4 Plus DL+ 12V 135Ah Dual Purpose Battery

Dakota Lithium LiFePO4 Plus DL+ 12V 135Ah Dual Purpose Battery

There are a lot of different options though, even running electronics on a starting battery like the Dakota Lithium DL+ 12V 135AH 1000CCA Starter Battery is an option too. Ideally, this would be a great idea if you wanted to dedicate just your electronics at the console and use it as a cranking battery. Or in some cases, if you are not drawing a lot of power with your fish finders at both the console and bow you could consider running everything from one battery. Just need to be mindful of how much power you are going to need to crank up again.

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Lithium battery drain 4

Dakota Lithium 12V 54Ah Batteries

Another common thing I am seeing a lot of at both the professional ranks of bass fishing and the everyday bass angler is solely running a lithium battery for their forward-facing sonar. Especially considering how popular forward-facing sonar has become in the last few years.

Having a Dakota Lithium 12V 54AH Deep Cycle LIFEPO4 Battery there to power up your forward-facing sonar and not have to worry about running out of power is so handy. In my college fishing days, I was always worried that my forward-facing sonar was going to drain my AGM batteries. But now with the Dakota Lithium 12V 54AH Battery, I no longer have to worry.

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