Hobie Ready Battery Life -UPDATE-

Anyone have experience with the actual length of time the battery holds a charge. The doc's that came with the kit stated 20hrs, but I'd like to hear some actual experience. I'd hate to be out on the water and have it die on me. And I suppose the only way to measure it, is by keeping a log of how many hours it's been used btwn charges. I'm not sure if it has a "memory", so I don't want to recharge it if not needed. My Hook4 does not have any type of" battery life" reading, which would be a big help.

Battery life is dependent on the current draw or load the battery provides AND how new the battery is.
You can get a good idea by measuring the actual DC current your fish finder needs, under actual use and then compute how many amps per hour it consumes.

The Hobie sealed battery is rated for 8 AH or 8 amps per hour and in one hour its depleted.

If your fish finder consumes say 0.25 amps or 250 milliamps, then 8AH / 0.25 amps = 32 hours.....this is the approximate time the battery will operate your fish finder.
As a battery ages, the capacity will decrease....just like the battery in your car.

Hope this helps.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

8-10 hours run time with Hobie's DiaMec 12V SLA running a fishfinder...roughly the same for the 6V battery powering your livewell.

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Howie Strech
Parts & Accessories Product Manager
Hobie Cat USA

Thanks for the info.....the Hook manual shows a current drain of 1.1A.
If the Hobie sealed battery is rated for 8AH, I should expect it to run for +/- 8 hours I suppose.
Just as HStrech stated. Somehow I had 20 hours in my head.

The battery itself reads 12-9(12V9AH/20HR)....that's where I got the 20hr time from..

I had the FF on the water for about 7 hrs...I have had it connected to the yak in my side yard for another 8 hours, and it's still going. I'll update once it is fully drained.

12 hours today in the yard and about 7 on the water.....+/-19 hours total

The only way you were to be able to have the fish finder function for around +/- 19 hours total is for the ACTUAL DC Current to be much less than 1.1 A DC.....on the order of 0.473 amps for a 9 A/H battery.
If you were to measure the current your fish finder requires, you will find the "real DC Current consumed"

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

I understand the math, but how does that make a difference in run time. As I mentioned earlier, the battery itself states 20hrs, but the FF manual states 1.1A. Will it draw more current out on the water ? It's clear as mud to me.

The only way the battery statement can be true is if they also specify the current draw...otherwise it's advertising BS.
Batteries are always rated for a specific current load.

Your fish finder current draw spec of 1.1 amp, could easily be the maximum current, when you have the display intensity turned up to the max setting, etc.....otherwise, it makes no difference if its in the water or out of the water.

Since you understand the math, there is no magic and the current your fish finder is drawing is much less than 1.1 amp in order for the battery to last +/- 19 hours.
Place/insert a DC current meter, in series with the positive lead wire and measure the current flow.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

When it was in your yard did you run it in simulation mode? It might use less juice if the transducers not pinging.

I kept switching the screen shot every couple of hours. A mix of sonar/downview/GPS....I didn't want the same shot for that many hours.