Millertech LifeP04 deep cycle battery

A little over a year ago I got the bug to put trolling motors on my two kayaks for fishing. I really wanted to be able cover a lot of water, both locally in the central Texas lakes and down on the coast. My main focus was really on being able to search for reds in the endless marshes on the coast. The wind is always blowing there and it’s not a lof of fun battling it all day.

The kayaks I have are NuCanoe Flynts, one of the reasons I bought them is the flexibility to run a pedal drive system add on or trolling motor front or rear of the yak. Given that the water is a foot deep or less a lot of the time pedal drive was really not a great option. I ended up getting the lightest salt water rated trolling motors I could get a hold of which were Watersnake T24s. Our goal was to be able transport the kayaks by boat out to some remote areas that were just too skinny to get into in our boat. Keeping the weight down for both draft and ease of handling was key to making this work. Lithium batteries were definitely the way to go and I ended up getting two different batteries.

I rigged up the trolling motos with remote control power by using PWMs that were replacement units from Minn Kota. PWMs allow you to dial in exactly the amount of power you need and they only draw the current needed to supply the trolling motor giving you much longer run times.

For the batteries I ended up with a Millertech which had some really good reviews and I felt confident about it, the second battery was from Rebellbatteries. Both batteries worked very well, we could pretty much run all day on a charge. I was using a charger from Millertech designed for Lithium batteries. The last time I used the kayaks the batteries were at like 80% capacity. About a month went by before I was ready to use the kayaks again. Well, the Millertech still showed around 80% on it’s LCD panel. The Rebel didn’t have an LCD but used a BMS (battery management system) that connected to an app on your phone. At first I thought this was really cool but I soon discovered I really preferred the display on the battery. The Millertech battery was put inside a waterproof box that I could open to check, Cables for the trolling motor connection were done through water tight fittings.

I tried numerous techniques to try and wake up the BMS to charge the Rebe battery to no avail. I could not get it charged up, I tried contacting the company and found out they are no longer in business.

I should have known better to buy the cheapest ones I could find on Amazon and it will be replaced with another Millertech 45 AH Deep Cycle battery.

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