PowerPole Charge Issues

[DQM]

Open the CMonster app and get hooked up to the PPCharge before plugging it in. You will find out there is less power in the Lithium TM Batteries than what the charge is telling you. When I first plugged mine in last week the app was showing 40% after being on a TM only lake fishing for 10 hrs. Within 5 minutes the app was showing my Lithium TM batteries at 95% which was definitely a lie.

The PP Charge is no better at reading a lithium batteries SOC than any other charger, since it is very hard to do so in general. That’s why some batteries have an App that gets it from the BMS, some batteries have a display on them that shows it.

With lithium batteries, the behavior you mention is normal and does not reflect the actual SOC. This is directly from talking to PP. It will show 95% charged up until they are fully charged, which will take however long it takes depending on low they were to begin with, of course.

Without having a means to see exactly what my batteries SOC was (I use Ionic lithium batteries), it would have been very difficult to diagnose the issues with my initial PP Charge. I think if you are spending $1000’s of batteries, having ones that let you actually know what exactly is happening with them is a major feature that should be a requirement for anyone.

[haus9393]

I’ve seen the ionic app say 40% and the pp charge say 95%. I don’t really care about the pp app. I check the ionic for true battery soc. So far with 225ah of cranking and 100ah of trolling I’m having a great experience with the charge. On tournament days im running both livewells manual on pump in and recirc all day long. Im drawing around 20amps per hour with my electronics which would have me dead in the water after 12-14 hours. After the 8 hour tournament day I’m seeing about 60% left of my 225ah and about 60-70% on the trolling motor. I do have the bar slid all the way to the cranking side on the charge and that seems to keep my entire setup even as my typically more worried about cranking than trolling. I will say I can fish a good 12 hour day and then graph around at 6-7mph for the rest of the day (3-5hours) and by the time I’m off the water my batteries are all almost fully charged again if not full.

[Spidergrub]

I checked my lithiums with a DROK meter awhile back before plugging in the charge, the DROK said 80%, and when plugged in the charge said 71% to start with. I forgot to try the DROK the other day when I got home from 10 hrs on the TM. My batteries are Amped Outdoors and don't have their own app or meter.

That's funny because when I talked to PP they tried to tell me that 95% was correct because it was pulling power from my X2 to keep the Lithiums charged.

[juhealy]

Have my PP charge for two weeks now with 4 ionics. Works great so far. I've been only fishing half days (6am-noon) but after every session the batteries are still 95% full. mind blowing.

I have 3 Relions (100A crank and 2 60A) with the same result. Been going on 4 months now with this setup. I have been watching it like a hawk because it just seems too good to be true and I don't trust it yet. But so far so good. I have even intentionally gone 3 fishing trips without recharging just to deplete the battery charge and the lowest they got was 70%. Back to 100% after an hour of charging. I am assuming it is a combination of the brand new batteries and how the Charge works. Hopefully this lasts because I am loving it!

[adriandavidpayne]

The OP is not making up these problems. I've had issues from day 1. I firmly believe PP Charge does NOT like Interstate batteries. I have a 100mah Interstate & 3 100mah Ionic Lithiums. I have the slider all the way to Cranking. I constantly get low voltage warnings on my Garmins. If I leave it unplugged overnight, it goes from 12.5 to 11.9 I assume because it continues to charge the TM batteries no matter what. I have to reboot the thing numerous times to get it start charging. The app is a joke and always shows and error behind the Info button. FWIW, all these items are Brand New with about 20-30 hours on them. UNRELIABLE! Looking for alternatives.

[grhodes674]

Just found this thread. I have the PP charge system, a 12v 100 Ah NextGen lithium crank battery and a 36v 40 Ah NextGen Lithium trolling motor battery. I am running a 36v 112 Ultrex. I have my PP set to favor cranking. My issue is that my Ultrex dies after 6-7 hours of normal 3-5 speed use so I can’t finish a tournament. I’ve never had issues starting my big motor. I also went out recently, after 4 hours the 36v went from 100% to 44%. I sent all the bat check app screens (took a pic every 30 min) to NextGen support and they are saying my batteries are operating normal within spec. They said PP has a known issue causing excessive drain.

Does anyone know if this is true?
Calling PP support again, originally they told
me it was the batteries. Not fun!!

[mnmatt]

Ultrex on 5 speed is typically over 7amps…. On 4 speed and 6 speed you’re generally going to see 4.5 amps and 12.5 amps respectively. Looks like your system is working exactly as expected. You should probably try moving the prioritization more over to the TM battery and/or also consider adding more ah to you 36V setup.

[ammdrew]

^^^ is is very true.

I can go 2-3 days on 3 75 amp hour lithiums, that was with my previous Ultrex's and my current Ghost. Still can with now 5 year old 75 amp hour lithium's..

Also you should know that you can use 90% of the lithiums available power, much different then lead acid which start to have damage when used over 50%.

I would do the easy one to see if you have a drain, start with your power pole charge, pull both large fuses, always pull the trolling battery first and put the trolling battery fuse in last. See how battery life is, if you only get 6-7 hours on 3-5 then you have a bad battery ( low capacity) or you have a issue with the trolling motor.. Pretty common to have a ultrex seal leak and the base of the motor to be full of water which will greatly increase Amp usage and reduce runtime on the water.

I know I can see my charge on the graphs and when I am running across the lake I can see the amperage going back into the trolling battery, Just a few runs through the day often will add a pretty good buffer to battery capacity.


While I have had a relay failure on My original Power Pole charge( quickly assessed and replaced by power pole). I have been very happy for the past couple of years with the incredible performance of the charger and how well it keeps my batteries charged on and off the water.

Voltage is key for seeing charge level of any lithium battery, check and make sure the app matches what you see with a voltmeter. Then you should be able to see the amps go up after you plug in, the trolling motor batts get charged first then then the house battery. You should also be able to see the amps adjusting as you use the batteries on the water.

I have now had a few different charges on the same batts, NOCO, Pro Mariner, Minnkota. By far the power pole charge extends the day and does not drain the system.

Just found this thread. I have the PP charge system, a 12v 100 Ah NextGen lithium crank battery and a 36v 40 Ah NextGen Lithium trolling motor battery. I am running a 36v 112 Ultrex. I have my PP set to favor cranking. My issue is that my Ultrex dies after 6-7 hours of normal 3-5 speed use so I can’t finish a tournament. I’ve never had issues starting my big motor. I also went out recently, after 4 hours the 36v went from 100% to 44%. I sent all the bat check app screens (took a pic every 30 min) to NextGen support and they are saying my batteries are operating normal within spec. They said PP has a known issue causing excessive drain.

Does anyone know if this is true?
Calling PP support again, originally they told
me it was the batteries. Not fun!!

[ammdrew]

The OP is not making up these problems. I've had issues from day 1. I firmly believe PP Charge does NOT like Interstate batteries. I have a 100mah Interstate & 3 100mah Ionic Lithiums. I have the slider all the way to Cranking. I constantly get low voltage warnings on my Garmins. If I leave it unplugged overnight, it goes from 12.5 to 11.9 I assume because it continues to charge the TM batteries no matter what. I have to reboot the thing numerous times to get it start charging. The app is a joke and always shows and error behind the Info button. FWIW, all these items are Brand New with about 20-30 hours on them. UNRELIABLE! Looking for alternatives.

I would call support, they are very helpful and in my experience very willing to get your system working properly.. I know if I am not on the water and not plugged in I turn the charge off in the app. There is no reason for the system to try and balance or charge each other when the boat is not in use. I have no idea what PP stance is on that just makes sense to me to shut it off when not on the water or plugged in.

[mnmatt]

With only 40ah and sending no charge at all to the 36V (slider fully to cranking), the math is very straightforward for 36V 40ah battery life. I can watch my system in detail and understanding how much charge you’re getting from the alternator at any given point in time and WHERE it’s going is the key to understanding the PP Charge.

In this use case, based on your battery sizes, I would recommend moving the slider between 50-90% toward the 36V TM side.

In your case running down to 60% nominal float on the 100ah cranking (slider prioritizing the 36V TM) and alternator charging back to your 40ah TM battery as priority will greatly extend your run time.

[grhodes674]

I was told today that a recent PowerPole charge firmware update changed how the system operates. Previous to this update, the system always prioritized the trolling motor, which is probably why I was getting good results at first but after the firmware update, it gives boaters more control. If you have the CMonster app setting prioritized towards crank battery, it will drain the trolling motor battery and vice versa if you have it prioritized for trolling motor, it will drain the crank battery, so I’m going to try the “shared” position and see if that’s a good balanced approach. At least I now have an explanation why things changed.