Franco, the author of Engineered Angler and a professional engineer, lure designer, lure maker, and avid fisherman, deserves our gratitude. He enjoys tweaking and enhancing his boats, and this time he's considering upgrading his battery on his flats boat. Since his Flight Craft 18 is from 2004, it's an older model. He changed the battery to LiTime Lithium battery, let's take a closer look what would happen.

Part 1:Unboxing

What Franco receive was LiTime 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 battery. Right on top of the box is the manual and started information, and stainless steel marine hardware.

Let’s weight it to see how weight it is:

The weight of lead acid battery is almost twice of LiFePO4! 

Part 2:Pre-Installation Battery Test: Checking Voltage and Charging Status

Let’s test the battery first before installing to see the voltage and whether it needs to charge.

Both of the batteries are at 13.14 volt, t hat’s 99% charged. So Franco doesn’t need to worry about charging them up anymore.

According to Franco, the price of a battery is a crucial factor in making a purchase decision. He has been buying cheaper lead acid batteries from Walmart. However, if you're willing to spend around $300 for a premium marine battery like the 12V 100AH lithium iron phosphate battery, the price has decreased significantly compared to a couple of years ago when it cost close to $800. Nevertheless, it's still considered quite expensive.

Now let's discuss an essential point about batteries, which is the ability to extract the full 100 amp hour out of the battery bank. With lead-acid batteries, you can only use approximately 60% of your stored energy before risking damage to the battery. The deeper you cycle them, the less energy you get out of those batteries, and they will eventually lose their capacity. This is why deep cycle marine batteries were created to offset this natural decline in lead-acid batteries. For batteries that run your trolling motor, it's important to be able to cycle them deeply, so you have enough energy left for that last hour of the tournament or when navigating through narrow creeks against the current. That's why you need a battery that can handle deep cycling without damaging itself.

Another advantage of lithium iron phosphate batteries is their significantly longer cycle life, which can range between 2000 cycles. LiTime's LiFePO4 itlhium batteries have the life cycle up to 4000- 15000 cycles. This is approximately 4 to 5 times the lifespan of even the best lead-acid batteries. Additionally, these batteries require zero maintenance and offer a greater power output over a day of fishing.

Part 3: Real Test on the Lake

Now, let's take this boat out on the lake and test it with the old fully charged batteries in a calm spot with no wind. We'll see what top speed we can achieve, and then do the same with the new batteries once they've been installed. We'll likely conduct two rounds – one with the wind and another against it. In the first round with the wind, we were able to reach a speed of 2.9 mph, while the maximum speed against the wind was 2.6 mph.

What would happen if we change to the new lithium iron phosphate battery?

It seems a little bit less speed than lead acid. On the screen Franco says "I think the wind helped last time."  he is referring to a previous test run of his trolling motor with lead acid batteries. He is suggesting that on the previous occasion, there may have been some wind that was aiding the speed of the boat, making it seem faster than it actually was.

He suspects that the true performance of the lead acid batteries and trolling motor combination might be slower than what he had previously observed, as the conditions during the earlier test run might have artificially boosted the speed due to the presence of wind.

Overall, he is questioning whether the previous test run accurately reflected the true speed and performance of the trolling motor with lead acid batteries, or if it was inflated due to favorable conditions.

After at least 10 hours staying Mexico in the gulf, let’s check how much voltage it is. 

Take a look at the simple chart of charge voltage - even at 13.3V, you'll still have approximately 90% of the battery capacity remaining. During our test run, we used a very low setting for most of the time, but there were a couple of long, faster sprints and we ended up fighting against wind and current for an hour or two. Despite these challenging conditions, the LiFePO4 battery held up remarkably well, and it's unlikely that an old lead-acid battery could have provided such performance. In fact, we believe that we could go out on another day and spend more time on the lake without worrying about the battery running out of power. That's amazing!

Conclusion

In summary, Franco is very satisfied with the performance of the LiTime 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 battery. The LiFePO4 battery has several advantages over traditional lead-acid batteries, including a longer lifespan, lower weight, and higher energy density. Upgrading to this type of battery is a wise decision for those looking for improved performance and efficiency in their trolling motor setup. Explore more on LiTime 12V series. 

If you are interested in purchasing the LiTime battery, rest assured that they offer excellent customer service and support to ensure that you get the most out of your investment.

If you have any questions about our products or services, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at service@litime.com. We're always happy to lend a helping hand and provide you with the support you need to make informed decisions about your energy needs.

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