Power-Pole Charging System

[Glenn]

Have any of you seen this?  What do you think?

 

http://www.power-pole.com/blog/the-charge-advantage-with-chris-lane

 

 

[TOXIC]

Honestly, how many fishermen have to worry about draining a set of TM batteries in a days worth of fishing?  I would venture a guess not many as long as they have properly charged and installed batteries.  It's a nice convenience factor to see the details on your batteries though.  I've seen that with externally mounted gauges and related apps.  Then there's the "jump" switches to assist if you drain your cranking battery and there have been products that charge your TM batteries either from your truck or on the water from your big motor. The novel thing about this is that you can control the batteries that get the charge from an app or your graphs.  The market IMHO is moving to newer battery technology and not necessarily on managing the batteries we have now.  At some point in time someone is going to develop a solution to the weight/charge time/durability/longevity/run time of our current systems.  Lithium may be the next "step" as soon as they can get the price more manageable but as of right now they are not on my budget.  

[Hower08]

I'm not a tree hugging hippie. But have you ever seen pictures of a lithium mine? Look them up, exact reason I shake my head when people think there electric car has less impact than a good ole gas engine

[J Francho]

8 minutes ago, Hower08 said:

I'm not a tree hugging hippie. But have you ever seen pictures of a lithium mine? Look them up, exact reason I shake my head when people think there electric car has less impact than a good ole gas engine

This is a charging system, not a lithium battery.

[TOXIC]

32 minutes ago, J Francho said:

This is a charging system, not a lithium battery.

And if I had to review it based just on that and not the app and other features I would have some serious concerns.  I don't see how an outboard motor is going to "Charge" the 4 batteries in my boat on it's own.  If I still have to plug in my on-board charger at the end of the day then this is really not a "charger" it is a battery maintenance system that has the ability to redirect the charging capability of my big motor however insufficient that may be.  Am I missing something?  

 

I believe the Lithium comment was responding to my statement that it was new technology.  

[Hower08]

I understand it's just a charging system I was referring to the post about batteries moving towards lithium. Yes I know a little off topic butttttttt oh well

[J Francho]

4 minutes ago, Hower08 said:

I understand it's just a charging system I was referring to the post about batteries moving towards lithium. Yes I know a little off topic butttttttt oh well

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lithium-mine-oil-sands/

[Fishes in trees]

Aren't all guys paranoid about running out of battery power?   I know I am.   The toy that prompted this thread is most likely out of my price range, plus I don't have power poles or talons on my boat, plus I don't even have a smart phone to manage the ap - I'm still a flip phone guy.

But - if I had all those things, I'd be interested in a method of keeping track of where my battery power was going - these days electronics eat up a little more power (so I"ve heard)

 

I've always wondered about a charging system that charged/topped of your boat batteries while driving down the road using your tow vehicle's alternator.   Many years ago In-fisherman ran an article about that, but I don't remember much  other than it was possible.

[webertime]

On Big water/wind lakes I often see dead batteries. As long as it's reasonable in cost it would be just as welcome on a boat as say a Hydrowave or 4th graph.

Also, hasn't this been in testing for a few years? 

[gnappi]

There have been sayings about capacity of various things like:

 

"Use enough gun" for hunters which applies to boats too... Use enough battery.

 

It's all about experience with your boat, experience tells you how to manage battery reserves. Too much battery capacity weighs more and can make load distribution dicey. Too little and well, you paddle.

 

I run an all electric boat. It's 10' and I have three AGM deep cycle 35Ah batteries (72 lbs total), two for the TM, one for the "house" electronics. With a full load of gear and a passenger I get a solid 8 hours (4 hours each) on the TM batteries never dropping below 50% charge even though I can, and never touch the house battery I am able to use as a spare "tank". 

 

I wound up with this setup after running a year initially with a 95Ah battery with one 35Ah (63+24lbs at 87lb.) for the house, today my three batteries have more reserve power, with less weight which is more easily distributed. If I ever thought I'd need more capacity for a days fishing, I'd drop the 95Ah in the boat as my house battery. 

 

I'd suggest that at a retail price of $1295 for "the charge" that IMO it's far less expensive and easier to have a spare battery than to rely on some secret sauce gadget to get you home.

 

https://www.power-pole.com/charge

 

Oh, I continually monitor my all of batteries and their depth / state of charge, anyone who does not and runs a battery dead gets no sympathy (or tow as I only have a 50 lb TM) from me ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gnappi]

On 4/18/2019 at 10:31 AM, Fishes in trees said:

Aren't all guys paranoid about running out of battery power?   I know I am.   The toy that prompted this thread is most likely out of my price range, plus I don't have power poles or talons on my boat, plus I don't even have a smart phone to manage the ap - I'm still a flip phone guy.

But - if I had all those things, I'd be interested in a method of keeping track of where my battery power was going - these days electronics eat up a little more power (so I"ve heard)

 

I've always wondered about a charging system that charged/topped of your boat batteries while driving down the road using your tow vehicle's alternator.   Many years ago In-fisherman ran an article about that, but I don't remember much  other than it was possible.

I'm not at all concerned about battery power. Having a voltmeter to monitor all of your battery's state of charge is all you need to never run out of power. Ignoring the voltmeter and not using it at all will get you stranded.

 

As far as smart phone monitoring goes, you can get used smart phones for nearly free that do NOT NEED a cell connection to monitor many apps. My GoPro cameras only need a WiFi connection which has nothing to do with the cell data. I have an old Android phone on my boat for the specific purpose of aiming my three cameras.

 

You only need internet connectivity to a WiFi hot spot ONCE to download the app (talking Android here) and then apps run happy as a clam.

 

My electrical / electronic stuff, DF, GPS, bilge pump, LED lighting, for the most part do not put much of a dent in my house battery, and at the end of the day, I'm supremely confident it has way more than enough capacity should my I run my TM batteries too low or have a battery failure. I think my electronics package is of little concern unless I ran into a typhoon at night ?