Solving Cold-Weather Power Problems

by NORSK Lithium 22 Sep 2023 21:09 UTC

Solving Cold-Weather Power Problems

NORSK Lithium proprietary Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT) is unique in the overcrowded marine lithium battery market.

Summer is nearly over. Overnight air temperatures are dropping and the waters cooling too, which is getting anglers excited for the fall bite.

With the change in weather and season, though, anglers face some unique challengesnot only changing locations and presentations to match seasonal fish-holding and feeding patterns but issues with equipment.

At the top of the list?

Keeping your boat batteries in tip-top shape despite below-zero temperature is a tough task. As countless anglers have discovered over the years, charging lead acid or AGM batteries in these conditions is impossible. Similarly, charging standard, non-thermal core lithium marine batteries in the same conditions can also be overly complicated.

After all, not every angler has the luxury of a heated garage to house their rig out of the cold. And then theres travel to destinations where you have to run an extension cord to your boat to charge batteries overnight for early-morning runs to rivers, lakes, and reservoirsmany offering some of the best bites of the entire year.

With even average weekend anglers running numerous graphs with 2D sonar, HD mapping, MEGA Imaging, 360 Imaging, and forward-facing sonar on huge, 10- to 19-inch high-resolution LCD screens, adequately charged and functional marine batteries are an absolute must for successful days on the water.

Talk to tournament pros, guides, and other serious anglers, and theyll tell you its been an ongoing puzzle trying to supply enough power to run the maze of screens, black boxes, and transducersespecially in cold weather.

Youve heard the stories. You drive hours to some far-off destination, eat supper, plug in the boat, and wake up in the morning only to find batteries dead as doornails after positioning your boat on potentially fish-holding spots, rods all meticulously rigged to yank fall, winter, or spring fish.

Or voltage alarms appear after as little as a few hours, taking anglers off the bite, forcing them to drive around to recharge their house battery off the outboard motor alternatorif the batteries are even rigged correctly to do so.

Not fun. At all.

Enter NORSK Lithiums unique-to-the-marine-battery-industry proprietary Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT), designed specifically by hardcore anglers/engineers who know the demands of fishing in cold-weather conditions fall, winter, and spring.

Necessity is the mother of invention, says NORSK Lithium COO, James Holst. But while lithium marine batteries have really taken off due to their significant performance advantages over lead acid or AGM batteries, if there's an Achilles heel to the technologyespecially when used in the Midwestits that, while lithium batteries will provide power in incredible cold conditions, those same lithium batteries will not take a charge below 32 degrees. You can cause permanent damage to the lithium cells if you do.

That being the case, what Midwest and Northern anglers run into during cold-weather periods can put a real damper on fishing plans.

Early- and late in the season anglers have a tendency to fish long days and batteries are easily depleted. Anglers return to motel rooms or drag batteries back home and hook them up for recharging. In many cases, anglers are given a false sense that the batteries are actually taking a charge, when, in fact, what's happening is the BMS module doesnt function because its job is to protect the cells from charging when temperatures are below zero. So, theres no current actually making it to the lithium cells at all.

Holst continues: When you get cold overnight temperatures, unbeknownst to anglers, most lithium batteries simply don't charge. Anglers run to the boat landing before sunrise, jump in the boat, and are all ready to slay fish for a day or two, only to found out that the batteries didnt take a charge.

This has routinely been the case at both bass and walleye spring-time tournaments. Youve seen it on social medial, like the walleye tournament on the Detroit River two springs ago. Lots of pro anglers experienced this problem on Day 2 of pre-fishing for that event, sending many into disassemble mode, guys pulling batteries out of their boats and bringing them literally into their hotel rooms to warm and charge them and re-install them back into their rigs after reaching 100%.

When this happens, continues Holst, you realizes you have a serious battery problemand in most cases, your pre-fishing day is shot.

As a remedy to this scenario, NORSK Lithium has come up with a really slick, automated way to charge batteries in cold, sub-zero conditions called NORSK Lithium Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT).

Internally, there are a couple heat pads placed top and bottombelow and on top of the cells. This accomplishes several things. First, it creates ample airflow between the cell spacing so the heat pads can evenly warm the cells. Secondly, any angler with a NORSK Lithium Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT) battery can plug in outside in sub-zero temps and the BMS module will detect that the cells are below zero in temperature and instead of stopping that current, the BMS redirects that current to the heat pads and starts to warm the cells incrementally. What we discovered in our lab and real-world tests is that warming the cells just up to 32 degrees isn't really good enough. We actually warm the cells to 59 degrees. We found this temperature is a happy place for the cells and will allow a thorough, complete charge while protecting cell(s) longevity.

That said, NORSK Lithiums proprietary Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT) design allows anglers to fish in really cold conditions when many of the best bites of the entire year take place. Its also ideal for peace-of-mind during fall, winter, or spring tournaments or cold weather, open-water fishing trips with friends and family.

Theres none of this nonsense of putting an electric blanket, or God forbid, a Mr. Buddy heater into a $100,000 boat with the cover on to recharge batteries. Thats an insurance claim waiting to happen Our unique BMS module is smart-programmed to sense the cold temperatures and divert the current to our heat pads. Once the temperature of the cells has been raised to 59 degrees, then the charge to the cells happens normally. Through very extensive testing weve confirmed over and over that you can have a battery at sub-zero temperatures and the heat pads will bring the cell temperature up quickly to where charging is reliable, efficient, and fast. Raising the temp of the battery takes only 35 to 45 minutes. It is not one of those deals where it takes so much time that you're going to run short of charging time overnight. And its all automatic. The angler doesnt have to do anything. The batteries stay in the boatwhere they belongand our technology takes care of everything, shares Holst.

Holst continues: Taking it even further, anglers can monitor their NORSK lithium battery charging directly from the NORSK Lithium GUARDIAN app free for both IOS and Android. Talk about peace of mind and an end to missed cold-water bites, which are some of the best of the entire year. The app will show the angler current and target lithium cell(s) temperature, which is 59 degrees. Anglers can actually watch cell(s) temperatures increase if they wantand know the exact moment the cells reach the 59-degree charging temperature, and watch the charging current roll over and feed the individual cells as if they were charging on a warm summer day. Call it fishing insurance. With our Thermal Core Heated Technology batteries and the Guardian app you will know 100% that you will have fully-charged batteries in the morning.

Dual-Purpose Use: Open- and Hard Water

If you fish Green Bay, the Rainy River, Missouri River, Mississippi River, or other cold-weather, open-water locations, NORSK Lithium has the system for you. Its designed for the angler who wants to fish muskies right up til ice-up, the walleye angler cutting open river launches to tap giant mid-winter thaw pre-spawn walleyes, big-water waterfowlers, and all applications in between.

The other cool thing? Maybe you dont fish open water in fall, winter, and spring. Then simply move your NORSK Lithium batteries from your boat to your hard-sided ice fishing house. Fact is, batteries get cold out on the icebut with NORSK Lithiums proprietary Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT), you get the same benefits on hardwater.

While you might be using a generator with your hardhouse on the ice, lithium batteries can still come into play and are a great redundant system to build into your permanent fishhouse. For some anglers, come fall you can move your boat batteries to your Ice Castle style shack and then back into the boat come spring, concludes Holst.

The Cost of Reliable, Cold-Weather Power

Youre probably asking: So whats this going to cost me?

The price is less than youd spend on bait for most fishing tripswere talking an increase of $50 more for a NORSK Lithium battery with Thermal Core Heating Technology (TCHT) versus one without. If you do any cold-weather fishing at all, its a no-brainer.

NEW NORSK Lithium Exceeds Mercury Warranty Requirements

Besides supplying failure-proof power for todays fishing electronics, NORSK Lithiums new 180AH 12V LiFePO4 Starting/House battery meets and exceeds all of Mercury Marines warranty requirements for a starting battery.

Mercury Marine issued a performance bulletin in November 2022 that clearly spelled out their expectations for what a starting battery is supposed to do. NORSK Lithium took those specs and engineered a lithium starting/house battery combo that went above and beyond.

Most of the lithium batteries on the market dont even make an attempt to address Mercurys warranty requirements, notes Holst.

NORSK Lithiums engineering team started with Mercurys warranty specifications and purposely designed a battery that far exceeds the requirements. Honestly, weve crushed them. Designed to run off of any outboard alternator, engineering tested this battery extensively to ensure its reliability. Obviously, the larger the outboard, the more output you get from the alternator. At cruising speeds with my 400 Mercury Verado, I was able to recover a lot of energy quickly. So you make a 20 minute run and youve got 45 amps inbound to recover juice rapidly.

Holst adds: As of now, Mercury is the only outboard manufacturer we know of that has issued a statement that spells out what a lithium starting battery needs to be able to do. We took their specs for lithium starting batteries and exceeded them to ensure absolute reliability on-the-water.

Holst concludes: Todays outboard motors are more power hungry with their fuel injection systems, power steering, etc. and everyone assumes that little, lead-acid lawn tractor batteries in the back of the boat are going to power everything. Thats simply not the case, but weve engineered the solution.

NORSK LITHIUMS 180AH 12V HEATED LiFePO4 Starting/House Battery

The new NORSK Lithium Thermal Core 180AH battery is ideal for the angler who wants to provide fail-proof power to multiple large HD LCD fish-finders, live imaging, and forward-facing sonar all day long if not longer on a single charge and provide the cold cranking amps (CCA) necessary to power big outboards.

NORSK Lithium batteries are manufactured under strict ISO 9001 standards to produce the highest quality, most reliable batteries on the market. Combined with our industry-leading NORSK Guardian App and Thermal Core heating, that makes this battery suitable for year round use. Ultimately there is no better battery available to todays angler running sophisticated, power-consumptive fishing electronics.

SPECIFICATIONS