LX-5 charger issue

I purchased my LX-5 almost 3 years ago when the blowout sale was on. I do not get to go ice fishing too much, but wanted a good sonar unit for when I did. My unit has <100 hours on it ans has been used <25 times. I do charge the battery periodically during the off season as was recommended here.

The last time I tried to charge it, the charger failed and I traced it to the DCS-100 digital readout unit. It would read the % charged, but would not pass the charger voltage through to the battery. In fact the charger itself got very hot. I checked the charger voltage and it was 19 volts. It is not uncommon for these type of chargers to put out higher than the stated output voltage.

I purchased the newer type of charger from Marcum. They stopped using the DCS units. In the meantime, I used a charger from a spotlight to get the unit from 60% charged to 90% charged. This new charger has a single light that turns red while charging and is supposed to turn green when the battery is charged. The charger puts out 14.5 volts and I got the battery to nearly that voltage after over 18 hours of charge. The light never did change from red to green and the battery started to get warm so I cut it off. The battery is at 12.8 volts after sitting idle for 18 hours. I saw some other people who purchased these units had battery troubles, but so far the battery has met my needs.

Someone else posted today about LX-5 charger issues, but did not elaborate. Any one else having issues with this type of charger or could shed some light on my situation. I do not know if the battery is losing it or if I just got a bum charger. Thanks

I am also having trouble with my charger for my LX-5. It is giving the percent readout, but not giving off a charge. I emailed Marcum about it last week, but they never responded to my email. The charger worked great for me all of last winter, but has not been working well this winter.

I to have had alot of problem with my LX 5 charger. I went to Marcum and they gave me a new one but when I got it home and put it to use it never went from red to green either. I finally just bought another charger from a competitor and it works just fine with all 6 of my batteries.

Good luck.

rmartin….sounds like you might have a faulty charger in the light turning colors when charged. It appears that your charger works fine based on your data, so if you can live with the light not changing colors and take the charger off after an over night charge you should be good to go. If not then I recommend a call to MarCum customer service for a new charger.

I would call Marcum or whoever they are at 888-778-1208 and describe your problem. They did respond to my email, but I had to call them for the part. It was shipped the next day. I was quoted $20 for the charger and $4 for shipping and then there was tax (which seemed high to me) at $1.87. I never got an invoice or directions for the unit and had to go to their website and download the new manual. You get a new charger and wire harness and the DCS unit gets taken off. You can use the DCS to check charge, but I never found this to be reliable or something I could use to gauge the amount of time I had with the battery. This is probably due to me never using it for more than 5 hours before recharging.

I thought those DCS 100 Marcum chargers were supposed to be so great because of how they trickle charge and won’t overcharge your battery. I’m starting to question mine also, or my battery might just need to be replaced.

Anybody have recommendations for other chargers that you could just buy at fleet farm or somewhere? I would like one that shuts off once the battery is charged.

I don’t recall where I heard it, but it wasn’t from the factory.

They were made to leave charging the battery over the summer. People weren’t use to doing this and when they would leave the DSC connected it would drain the battery and (many times) kill the battery. So they dropped them.

Personally I’ve had a 5 and kept it plugged in all summer and haven’t ever had a problem.

Must be just lucky.

I always disconnected a terminal when the unit was not in use. They switched chargers about a year ago and did not say why. I am suspecting that they were a lot of other defective units or it was a cost cutting measure. It might have been the battery thing, but it was recommended in the manual to do the disconnect thing.

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It might have been the battery thing, but it was recommended in the manual to do the disconnect thing.

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100% bingo. The DCS was the best thing since sliced bread BUT if you leave it hooked to your battery during long-term storage the battery is drained completely. Drained battery = dead battery. Despite a decade of trying to educate the MarCum buyer on how to use the DSC the simple instructions never “took” with the users. Some did and loved the DCS. Most didn’t and killed their batteries.

I miss the DCS but understand why they’re no longer included. When it comes to counting on people to read, and act on, instructions, no matter how simple, I think we all know how that turns out.

I have had no issues with my dcs. I unplug it from the battery when I unhook the charger. It is only connected when it is charging or I am fishing. I would like to say I learned that from reading the instructions, but I learned it the hard way a couple years back when I forgot to unhook it after my last ice trip of the year.

My LX-5 is two years old. No problems with the charger. I was having problems where I thought the charger wasn’t charging adequately since the battery should last more than 2 years. But alas, I got a new battery and it works like a champ.

John S.

I was told by Marcum that it can take up to 36 hours of charging for the green light to burn in. I have not reached that point yet so we will see what happens.