Garmin Battery Use == Same as a Vexilar

Got some new batteries yesterday and out of curiosity I performed an amperage draw test on a few units.

An FL-8se and an FL-18 drew .23 amps

A Humminbird Ice 45 drew .21 amps

A Garmin 73sv Plus drew .22 amps at 50% brightness!

It drew just .26 amps at 80% brightness, and .49 amps at 100% brightness.

All tests were done with traditional ice transducers running and the GPS active on the Garmin.

The main takeaway is if you’re running a Garmin at 50-80% brightness your battery life is very similar to that of a normal flasher.

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No way! That’s pretty impressive with the GPS running. I figured the gps would kill it.

Since you’ve been running the 73 series for a while would you say a standard 7-9 AH lead acid style battery will last a full day of fishing?

I picked up a 73cv that I’m excited to use this year. Do you know if the GPS can be turned off?

curleytail wrote:

No way! That’s pretty impressive with the GPS running. I figured the gps would kill it.

Since you’ve been running the 73 series for a while would you say a standard 7-9 AH lead acid style battery will last a full day of fishing?

I was wondering the same. I assume the marcum brute i just got will do plenty fine for a all day fish?

Dang bman, with all your posts on the benefits of the Garmin sure is making me want to buy the ice kit for my 73. Need another for the kiddos anyways.

You have any experience with interference from lowrance hdis on the ice?

curleytail wrote:

No way! That’s pretty impressive with the GPS running. I figured the gps would kill it.

Since you’ve been running the 73 series for a while would you say a standard 7-9 AH lead acid style battery will last a full day of fishing?

I picked up a 73cv that I’m excited to use this year. Do you know if the GPS can be turned off?

Curley and Ron, you will easily get a full day out of a 7-9 ah battery, obviously more out of a 10-12 ah battery.

Mathematically at .20-.30 amps you’re looking 30-50 hours run-time, at .50 up to 20 hours on a 10ah battery.

Last winter I would fish two solid days before I even considered charging my 12ah Amped battery.

I’m not sure if you can turn the GPS off, and honestly I wouldn’t worry about it. Dimming the screen even slightly (like to 90%) makes a tremendous difference if you’re trying to get multiple days.

Deuces wrote:

Dang bman, with all your posts on the benefits of the Garmin sure is making me want to buy the ice kit for my 73. Need another for the kiddos anyways.

You have any experience with interference from lowrance hdis on the ice?

I’d build my own before buying an ice pack.

That way you can get a Gt-10 transducer and your battery of choice.

I’ve ran my Garmin next to a lot of different units: Birds, Marcums, Vex’s, and yes even Lowrance units, with virtually zero interference.

If you were to somehow get interference, there are multiple frequencies to choose from, and there is automatic/adjustable interference rejection built in