Switching to Lithium Batteries
Jared 00:08
Lithium batteries. They’re all the rage right now. You know, that’s something we recently brought in a line of lithium batteries here. I want to talk about some of the pros and cons of going to a lithium battery. Right, the first thing, Matt, of course is going to be the cost. I know that you’re interested in adding lithium to your boat ya know, it’s quite different than a lead-acid battery.
Matt 00:30
Yeah, the cost of entry is dramatically higher. I mean you’re talking 3-4 times the cost of just the standard lead-acid battery. Ya know, but the question is does the cost outweigh the benefits or not, right? Because the benefits that a lithium battery brings are pretty awesome. If you look at it from a small boat perspective, ya know with a trolling motor, if you have a 24 or 36 volt system, you are potentially saving over 100 pounds of batteries. Right? And, in addition to that, you’re gaining a longer run time for the same AMP hour comprable batteries: lead-acid vs lithium. You’re getting stronger run time for that longer percentage as well. There is a fall off for lead-acid batteries for the amount of power they can produce given the AMP hours they have, right? So, those are a couple of benefits. The other major benefit that you gain is just the extra space you get on your boat. It’s incredible!
Jared 01:29
Yeah, you think of a 36-volt trolling motor in a forward compartment - you’re using all of that. You have 3 series of 27 batteries up there bridged together that like you said, ya know you hope you have room to be able to fit all that, right?
Matt 01:43
I had a customer of mine. He and his neighbor had the same exact boat. One with a 36 lead-acid system, the other 36-volt lithium battery. The running angle of the boat and the time to plane difference between the two of them is dramatic. Its noticeable. In addition to that, I mean you put all that weight in your boat and you’re effectively reducing the amount of load that that boat can carry, right. That’s an entire person!
Jared 02:09
So, Matt you’re our expert on boating. Ya know I felt pretty good about the fact that you thought this was a good add here to the catalog. Through that though, Look lets be honest, this technology is not too far along, right? I mean it’s far along, but it hasn’t been out in the market so that’s one of our biggest concerns going to market, looking at brands and making sure we bring in the best brand, and that’s something where Ashley really vetted. We’ve been pushed by a couple places and brought in this brand specifically. So, cost of course is a negative from an application stand point. I would say that another con would be who’s the best to go with, right? We haven’t really figured that out, ya know, it’s still a new market, new industry, the support that’s behind it - that’s where we really felt really good about that side. Ya know, so it was, again all the pros really outweigh a lot of the cons, but from a cost stand-point,you have to factor that in. You wouldn’t be changing a starter battery with one of these, right?
Matt 3:13
No, my application where it's a small skiff, I have one battery that carries covers all the functions of the boat, it's my starting battery, handles my stereo, my gps, all my running lights and everything. it doesn’t make sense to go to lithium battery for the cost versus sticking what I got. Now if i wanted to do it from a weight saving standpoint, that’s where I’m like trying to figure out does it makes sense. Now if I wanted to add a trolling motor to my boat, am i going to have everything run off that? Probably not. I don’t want my starting battery also being my trolling battery.
Jared 03:47
Caught a lot of fish, but can’t get back
Matt 03:50
Exactly. Don’t want that to be me. So, I look at lithium as a potential addition to what I currently have. Not necessarily to replace a starting battery.
Jared 03:49
Awesome. Good stuff guys. Thank you.