Nocqua battery for lowrance 7”TI2

Had a very good experience with Nocqua so thought I would share it here.

I bought a new Hobie outback and when the dealer wired up the fishfinder I chose to go with the new Nocqua 20ah battery over using my old Bioenno 20ah battery.  The Bioenno has been flawless I just wanted to try something smaller that would leave me some space in the hatch.

On my first outing with the Nocqua, in 2.5 hours, the voltage dropped from 12.5 at the start to fluctuating as low as 11.9 as I was hauling the boat out. That was really discouraging considering I could do 2  ‘full’ days with the Bioenno.

I emailed Nocqua with my experience and had some photos to show them. They responded the next day: told me I needed their voltage regulator and sent me one to try. 

My next trip was almost 7 hours. With the regulator in place (real simple plug and play device) the voltage read between 12.9 and 13 volts at the start of the day and read the same at the end of the day. When I got home and put it on the charger it showed the battery was 50% discharged - which means I can get 2 days of fishing out of it.  I’m a happy camper!

I obviously shared my story with Nocqua. I appreciated their follow up and help. If you want to purchase something from Nocqua you can contact Heidi, through their website or social media - and if you use my name (Gary Alexander) you can get a discount. 

PS. I am not sponsored nor do I get any  money from your purchases.  If they did sponsor me and saw me fish… they would certainly fire me and demand a refund.

I really did appreciate their product and service. We all tend to bitch a lot about stuff. When companies do good work we ought to post it!

Be back in NorCal in April. In the meantime if you’re in Yuma AZ and see an old lizard on a hot rock don’t pee on it.









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Thanks for the info. I have a nocqua battery that I don’t use due to the issue you describe with the voltage. I’m going to give the voltage regulator a shot!

Why does the Nocqua battery need a voltage regulator when other batteries don’t? In general, a battery is considered a “clean” source of power, meaning the voltage from a battery doesn’t fluctuate like the voltage in a household wall socket, it just slowly declines as the battery discharges. Whatever the battery is powering should have built-in circuitry to regulate the voltage needed to run the device, e.g. it will pull less amps at higher voltage and more amps at lower voltage.

I just took a quick look at the specs for a Lowrance fish finder. Here is the spec for input voltage:

Lowrance Elite - Supply Voltage 12v DC (10.8 – 17 VDC)

Any power inside that range for input voltage - anything from a low of 10.8 volts and a high of 17 volts, and the fish finder will function just fine because the thing is regulating the voltage internally.

You and your fish finder should not need a 12v regulator for a 12v battery. Maybe a Nocqua battery is not a good choice for kayak fishing if a voltage regulator is required.

ETA: the only thing you need between the battery and the fish finder is a fuse.

I can’t argue with anything you describe here. But… the voltage drop I saw was dramatic enough in the 2.5 hours of my first test I knew I was going to lose power to my fishfinder before the end of my usual fishing day.  So I needed a solution and Nocqua did have one.

Although I never needed anything to run the Bioenno battery other than just plugging it in - the darn thing is huge! The Nocqua program with the voltage regulator is a better instal for my outback. I have a pro angler as well and will probably switch that over as well.

Thanks for the info. I have a nocqua battery that I don’t use due to the issue you describe with the voltage. I’m going to give the voltage regulator a shot!

I had the same issue a few years ago - that’s when I changed to the Bioenno battery.  I just decided on the new yak to try them again because of the size difference. The thing I screwed up was not properly maintaining the old 10 Nocqua by charging it every month. Now, like any battery you leave without maintaining, it doesn’t work right: Takes forever to charge and I don’t trust it.  Not sure how long you’ve had your Nocqua or how you maintained it. I’d charge it up and make sure it’s OK before buying the regulator.  I actually have another Nocqua 10ah, this new 20ah Nocqua, and the Bioenno… and now I make sure to charge them all once a month! 

Ha! That’s pretty much what I did. I’m looking for a lighter solution for battery for my stealth which I recently started using. My 10ah nocqua has been powering my Hobie livewell with a 12v-6v converter instead of the 6v sla it came with. At any rate it still charges up to 12.62v on the multimeter and runs a 7inch screen ff at full brightness for 7.5hrs until the voltage drops out (10.8v). When I put it on the charger after that it is saying ~50%. If that voltage regulator gives me an extra couple of hours then I would be very happy with it.

Don’t mean to beat this topic to death but I’m also using my 10 ah Nocqua for my livewell through a 12 to 6 volt converter.  That’s funny! Let me know if that voltage regulator works for you. Good luck.

I use a NiCad DeWalt battery in a plastic case from Walmart.   Case not much bigger than the battery.   Runs all day, and just toss on the charger when I get home.  Have a couple batteries, so a weekend is easy.   Had to replace battery last year.   But these are old, from tools I don’t use anymore.  Order two 14.4v batteries from Amazon for $34.   

Just a follow up with my experience.

I purchased the voltage regulator from nocqua, $40.

The specs on it say it will work down to 8v input. I hooked it up to my FF (7in Humminbird) in the garage set on full brightness. After ~8 hours I checked the battery voltage. Voltage had dropped from a start of 12.6 down to 10.5. Humminbird lists the minimum input at 10.8. So instead of having a dead FF it was still going strong! I hooked the battery up to the charger and it indicated I was ~ 1/2 discharged. So instead of having a shortened day the voltage regulator will allow me to have an extended day with the 10ah battery.

Next test will be actually using it on the water to see how the battery performance works.

Hum, save some volts and extend your battery life.  Do any of the FF's have an adjustable draw?

I use a NiCad DeWalt battery in a plastic case from Walmart.   Case not much bigger than the battery.   Runs all day, and just toss on the charger when I get home.  Have a couple batteries, so a weekend is easy.   Had to replace battery last year.   But these are old, from tools I don’t use anymore.  Order two 14.4v batteries from Amazon for $34.

Those batteries are about ~1.5Ah, so I'm guessing your fishfinder is pulling less than 250mA? Do you get about 6 hours of run time on your setup? I'm guessing you have a Garmin Striker? I think myyak8me's Lowrance Elite unit is pulling around 1A, so he'd only get around 1.5 hours of run time using those power tool batteries. Hence, he's using that 20Ah Nocqua.

It's a trade-off between all the bells and whistles vs. the minimalist approach. Both get it done.

Hum, save some volts and extend your battery life.  Do any of the FF's have an adjustable draw?

The only way to adjust the draw would be to lower the screen brightness. It’s amazing what lowering the brightness from 10 down to 8 or 7 will extend battery life.