Lithium battery for flasher

I need a new battery for my humminbird 35 and 55s. Looking at potentially replacing one (or both) with a lithium battery mainly to save some weight. I am admittedly not up to speed on lithium batteries in the market and am looking for recommendations. I am not running livescope or doing anything special to need a huge capacity battery. There are several different brands out there. Are any of them junk that I should avoid? What are the best brands to consider? Any good deals right now?

I understand I’d also need to get a special charger for it. Looking like dang near $150 for a battery + charger with some of the brands/models. Is it worth it? If that’s the price range to get a mid tier quality lithium battery, I may just opt to get a new lead battery for $25.

I’ve been following what James Holst has been doing with Norsk and they seem to be doing a lot of innovative stuff with lithium like Bluetooth monitoring of battery levels and being able to shut off batteries completely for storage.

Seems like a really cool idea. I’m looking for something more basic – don’t need any bells and whistles. Plus, it seems like the Norsk batteries are out of stock everywhere. Seems like they didn’t get enough inventory in time for ice season.

Reed’s has the Vexilar brand 12v 9ah lithium battery and charger on sale right now for $59.99. Otherwise I would recommend Amped. Great customer service, reasonably priced, and 5 year warranty.

I run Vexilar flashers, so I stick to their batteries to keep the chargers and connections consistent. The older SLA chargers will actually work with their lithium batteries.

I think their batteries are high quality. I would also agree with Amped Outdoors as another option.

vinella wrote:

Reed’s has the Vexilar brand 12v 9ah lithium battery and charger on sale right now for $59.99.

This is what I bought, it last a long time, seriously this thing won’t die running a vexilar. The weight savings are huge, I never considered my vexilar heavy until I switched out the battery then picked it up again. Totally worth it.

I have Vex lithium battery and charger. No issues and works great.
At $60 bucks that’s a great deal.

vinella wrote:

Reed’s has the Vexilar brand 12v 9ah lithium battery and charger on sale right now for $59.99. Otherwise I would recommend Amped. Great customer service, reasonably priced, and 5 year warranty.

thanks for sharing! unfortunately I’m not able to add it to my cart to purchase. hopefully its a glitch that works later. thanks again for sharing – I love this forum.

I have the Vex batteries in 2 vexes and my helix 5 and no issues.

I have 5 of the vexilar lithiums and you can always find them on sale. Havent had 1 issue with them. I’ll buy another for a flasher the day I need one. You can find them on sale all the time. I got the battery and charger for 50

Reed’s is great, but their website… not so much. You could call and ask for Justin in the fishing dept – he’ll get you taken care of.

I run Amped outdoors in Everything I own, Flashers, power boxes, Livescope, heck even my golf cart. Great pricing, Awesome customer service.

You can get the Amped 8ah with charger for $75. I don’t have one in front of me right now but plenty of codes floating around for 10-15% off that.

I’ve got two Marcum Brute batteries that came with a charger. They were on sale when I got them and were very reasonable. Love the run time

I put a 7.5amp hour dakota lithium in my Vex FLX28 and it seems to last for weeks.

AnotherFisherman wrote:

I’ve got two Marcum Brute batteries that came with a charger. They were on sale when I got them and were very reasonable. Love the run time

I’ve had a couple of these for 3-4 years and they seem solid. I think they might have been discontinued but Reed’s has them for $79 w/charger.

Dan Baker wrote:

I put a 7.5amp hour dakota lithium in my Vex FLX28 and it seems to last for weeks.

The vexilar lithium is the same, I ran it 3 days and it was still over 40 percent.

I bought a Norsk a couple years ago, super light and it runs a vex or gps flasher for days on end even with a smaller ah rating. And mine hasn’t needed to be replaced, which I was replacing lead about every other year. Well worth it imo.

vinella wrote:

Reed’s is great, but their website… not so much. You could call and ask for Justin in the fishing dept – he’ll get you taken care of.

thank you! I called justin and ordered one. You’re right, their website isn’t the best and is not a great depiction of their inventory or whats for sale. Gotta love reeds. I buy a lot of ammo from them as well.

Its been a good run with my lead batteries. My current ones on my bird 35 and 55 are both at least 5 or 6 years old. Will definitely be nice shaving a few pounds for the winter BWCA trips.

Seriously dude you will not believe how light these things are without that lead battery.

I bought the Amped 15 when they first came out for my 28 but wish I would’ve gotten the 7.5 just for the weight. The 7.5 will last as long as I need, and I ice fish 4-5 days a week. The Amped comes wit a charger also and great service.

got my battery from reeds last night – definitely a nice little upgrade. Definitely going to like the weight savings when I’m snowshoeing into the bwca in a few weeks.

Question for you guys – why does it come with a fuse on the positive terminal? I’ve never seen a fuse on a vexilar battery before. Is that just an amenity or is it needed for lithiums? Said another way, should we be running fuses on a standard lead battery on a vexilar? Or is there something about lithiums that need a fuse to protect the electronics?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Question for you guys – why does it come with a fuse on the positive terminal? I’ve never seen a fuse on a vexilar battery before. Is that just an amenity or is it needed for lithiums? Said another way, should we be running fuses on a standard lead battery on a vexilar? Or is there something about lithiums that need a fuse for protection of the electronics?

Lithium is capable of much higher current than lead acid if there is a short. You want the fuse to blow instead of your wiring melting.

Reef W wrote:

Lithium is capable of much higher current than lead acid if there is a short. You want the fuse to blow instead of your wiring melting.

Yep, what Reef says.

got it – makes sense. thanks fellas!

Vexilar brand is the only lithium battery I have seen that has the fuse right on the battery terminal like that. Must be a Vex thing

They are a cheap safety feature, can’t go wrong IMO.

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vinella wrote:

Vexilar brand is the only lithium battery I have seen that has the fuse right on the battery terminal like that. Must be a Vex thing

I was initially against these right on the terminal, but the more I read up on some of the hazards, it’s a good thing to have.

Nice and handy on the terminal rather than an inline fuse. I picked up a couple more of these from Vexilar in Bloomington today since I’m transitioning my Marcum flashers to LiFePO4 batteries. The woman said the old style (maybe pink in color) should not be used and get the red ones. My FLX30 I bought late last winter had the red one.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Seriously dude you will not believe how light these things are without that lead battery.