Best 12V and 24V Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

Lithium electric trolling motor batteries offer many advantages over lead-acid batteries, including lightweight design, a large number of charging/discharging cycles, a very low self-discharge rate, more constant output voltage, almost no capacity loss with the current increase, etc.

Also, lithium trolling batteries still have some issues, like high initial price and safety concerns. For safety reasons, lithium trolling motor batteries are almost exclusively Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO₄) batteries featuring built-in Battery Management Systems (BMS), protecting the battery from unwanted events like short circuit, overcharge, over-discharge, and similar.

On this page:

- Intro to Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

- Electric Trolling Motors Power Requirements

- 12 Volts Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

- 24 Volts Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

- Group 31 AGM vs Lithium Batteries

- Conclusion           

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Intro to Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

When compared with sealed lead-acid (SLA) batteries like Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) or Gel-cell batteries, lithium trolling batteries offer many advantages, including:

- lightweight design: when compared with lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries are 2-3x lighter for the same 20h capacity. However, another great feature of lithium batteries is that they have almost no capacity loss when being discharged with currents in ~1C range (or with even stronger currents), where typical lead-acid battery capacity drops down to 0.55-0.7 of 20h capacity when being fully discharged for 1 hour. In the end, for 1C or similar discharge applications, lithium batteries are 3-5x lighter than lead-acid batteries, leading to great weight savings.

- a large number of charging/discharging cycles: lithium batteries feature 10-20x more charging/discharging cycles than lead-acid batteries. Also, lithium batteries tolerate 100% DoD discharges much more easily than lead-acid batteries, with 80% DoD discharges having almost no negative impact on lithium batteries.

- very low self-discharge rate: when being stored at 68°F (20°C), a good AGM battery may feature a self-discharge rate of ~3% per month, a good Gel-cell battery may feature self-discharge rate of ~2% per month. On the other hand, a good lithium battery may feature a self-discharge rate of 5-15% per year. Depending on the storage temperature, stored lead-acid batteries should be recharged every 4-6 months, and stored lithium batteries should be recharged every 10-12 months.

Note: for safety reasons, lithium batteries are often transported in semi-charged condition. Also, depending on the exact battery chemistry, some types of lithium batteries are even stored in semi-charged condition, preferably in the fridge (but, above the freezing temperature). This all depends on the battery model and chemistry, so always read the instructions of your lithium battery/batteries and act according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

On the other hand, lithium batteries have a few issues that one must be aware of:

- safety concerns: if mistreated, lithium batteries may overheat, catch fire or even explode - and this is a serious warning. To prevent that, lithium battery MUST have a BMS system that monitors the battery and protect it from unwanted events like short circuit, over-charge, over-voltage, large charging currents, large discharging currents, over- and under-temperature protection, etc. Also, the BMS system must be able to monitor and if required to equalize individual cells, in order to avoid imbalances in the battery.

- charging: lithium batteries can't be charged using lead-acid battery chargers. However, most modern intelligent AGM/Gel-cell battery chargers come with 'lithium battery' charging modes, ensuring that they can be also used for charging lithium batteries. Just to be sure, some manufacturers deliver lithium battery chargers with their batteries by default.

- the initial price of the lithium batteries is 4-7x higher than the battery of the similar AGM/Gel-cell battery - similar in terms of voltage and capacity. But, since lithium batteries can withstand much more charging/discharging cycles, allow weight savings, are energy more efficient, etc., in the long run, lithium batteries are actually cheaper than AGM/Gel-cell batteries.

- parallel and serial connections: while AGM/Gel-cell batteries may easily be connected in parallel and series in order to make battery packs with larger capacity/voltage (with the same battery model from the same manufacturer, preferably from the same batch is highly recommended), lithium batteries may be connected in series or parallel only if explicitly permitted by their manufacturer - connecting non-supported batteries in parallel and/or series may cause BMSs to malfunction, shutting off the batteries - and that is the best-case scenario! Again, read the instructions of your batteries and act according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

For short, lithium batteries cost initially more, and should be used and recharged only as intended by their manufacturer, but they offer much better performances and weight savings.

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Electric Trolling Motors Power Requirements

Generally, electric trolling motors with the thrust of up to 60-70 pounds operate at 12 V, trolling motors with the thrust between 70-100 pounds operate at 24 volts, while electric trolling motors with thrust levels of 100 or more pounds, usually operate at 36 V.

Different nominal voltages ensure that the maximum required current is kept at around 50-60 Amps - in order to keep the energy losses low, 'acceptably' thick cables are required.

For stronger currents, in order to keep the energy losses as low as possible, very thick cables would be required.

The following chart lists some of the most popular trolling motors and their maximum thrust, nominal voltage, maximum current, and nominal maximum power:

Note: Amazon affiliate links in the table open in the new windows, feel free to check them for the most up-to-date offers and prices.

Discharge currents of 50-60 Amps are not of an issue for 100+ Ah lithium batteries since most of such batteries feature maximum continuous discharge current of 100 or more Amps. However, smaller 50Ah lithium batteries often feature maximum continuous discharge current of 50 Amps and should be used for electric trolling motors with a maximum discharge current of 30-40 Amps.

Note: Lithium batteries are able to provide stronger currents for short periods of time, which is an important feature especially for trolling motor batteries, since trolling motors may draw for very short periods of time currents that are larger than their maximum continuous currents.

Since electric trolling motors are not used at full throttle most of the time, the Reserve Capacity of the batteries is very important.

Note: Reserve Capacity is a value in minutes and it shows how long can a battery provide 25 Amps under certain conditions. These 'certain conditions' are somewhat different for lead-acid and lithium batteries, but the most important conditions is the same - 25 Amps current!

Most manufacturers of lithium batteries don't even state actual RC, but a very good approximation is to simply divide battery capacity with 25 and one gets RC value in hours. Multiply it with 60 and one gets approximate RC value in minutes - and this approximation is very close to the actual value.

For short:

RC = (Capacity / 25) * 60 = 2.4 * Capacity [minutes]

Note: don't do this math for lead-acid batteries, due to their loss of capacity due to the strong discharge currents.

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12 Volts Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

The following chart lists the most popular lithium batteries that are suitable for use as 12 volts electric trolling motor batteries:

Note: Amazon affiliate links in the table open in the new windows, feel free to check them for the most up-to-date offers and prices.

Most 12V lithium batteries are deep discharge batteries with a maximum continuous current of around 1C, maximum pulse current of around 2C, and RC value of approximately capacity * 2.4.

However, some models are designed as dual-purpose batteries and also feature CCA values of 750 CCA Amps and 1000 CCA Amps, which is a very good value for 50Ah and 75Ah batteries, respectively.

For safety reasons, all batteries feature Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) chemistry.

While some batteries are made to fit standard BCI battery compartments, other batteries feature non-standard sizes.

Note: regardless of how the battery size is labeled, before buying one, check the actual battery size.

 

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24 Volts Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries

 The following chart lists the most popular lithium batteries that are suitable for use as 24 volts electric trolling motor batteries:

Note: Amazon affiliate links in the table open in the new windows, feel free to check them for the most up-to-date offers and prices.

24-volt lithium trolling motor batteries are not as common as 12-volt models. They also feature LiFePO4 chemistry, they are all deep-cycle batteries and, when compared with AGM/Gel-cell batteries, they are much lighter.

Similarly to 12-volt lithium batteries, 24-volt lithium batteries should be charged using 24V lithium battery chargers or with AGM smart battery chargers that have lithium battery charging mode.

If they are charged with the chargers not suitable for lithium batteries, they may overheat and even catch fire - unless BMS shut off the battery before such event happens.

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Group 31 AGM vs Lithium Batteries

BCI Group 31 batteries are very popular electric trolling motor batteries and are often used for other standby/float, deep cycle, and starting/cranking applications.

Note: Amazon affiliate links ('Model' column) open in the new windows, feel free to check them for more reviews and recommendations.

Battle Born BB10012 LiFePO₄ 100Ah 12V deep cycle battery is very popular group 31 lithium battery for many reasons - it comes at an acceptable price, it features maximum continuous discharge current of 100 Amps, can provide 200 Amps for 30 seconds, can surge much stronger currents for 1/2 second, can withstand 3000-5000 charging/discharging cycles and can be freely connected in series or parallel in order to achieve higher output voltage or capacity.

Also, it features an RC value of ~240 minutes and it weighs just 29 pounds - there are even lighter 100Ah 12V lithium batteries, but Battle Born BB10012 is a durable and resilient battery, tested in real-life situations by numerous users.

NorthStar NSB-AGM31M and Odyssey 31M-PC2150 are premium group 31 AGM batteries, intended for high-demanding applications and personally, they are an overkill for trolling from time to time.

But, for AGM batteries, they tolerate a large number of charging/discharging cycles, can be recharged quickly using smart AGM battery chargers, and feature 103/100 Ah 20h capacity, 1150 CCA Amps, 1370 MCA Amps, 220/205 RC minutes and weigh more than twice the Battle Born BB10012 battery (29 vs 75/77.8 pounds).

Also, Odyssey 31M-PC2150 is able to provide 71.5 Amps for one hour (71.5 Amps effective capacity), while Battle Born 10012 features 1h capacity of almost 100Ah - this clearly shows the advantages of lithium-ion batteries over lead-acid batteries, even when comparing them with a battery like Odyssey 31M-PC2150.

If you are looking for dual-purpose group 31 battery for single battery systems, and you don't mind paying little extra, go for either of these - NorthStar have somewhat better deep discharge features (RC 220 vs 205 minutes; 20h capacity 103 vs 100 Ah), Odyssey is an excellent low-temperature performer and both batteries are able to crank surprisingly large engines.

But, as trolling motor battery, Battle Born 10012 features slightly better discharge features and is much lighter.

VMAXTANKS XTR31-135 is one of the best AGM deep-discharge group 31 batteries - it weighs similarly as NorthStar and Odyssey batteries, but it features 135 Ah 20h capacity and 265 minutes RC rating. Although it is a deep discharge battery, it also features 730 CCA Amps and 920 MCA Amps.

VMAXTANKS XTR31-135 weighs more than twice the weight of Battle Born 10012 battery (~2.5x, to be more accurate).

According to the manufacturer, VMAXTANKS XTR31-135 is also able to provide 75 Amps for 75 minutes, for an effective capacity of ~94 Ah.

These values make VMAXTANKS XTR31-135 at least as good performer as Battle Born 10012 battery when the currents are 50+ Amps and a better performer than Battle Born 10012 when the currents are less than 50 Amps, and especially less than 25 Amps.

Weize 12V 100Ah AGM and WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100 are two very popular, general-purpose, deep-cycle group 31 batteries.

Weize 12V 100Ah AGM and WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100 come with very similar features, but WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100 is a slightly better performer, but it also weighs slightly more.

When the WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100 is being discharged for 1h, it is able to provide 57.1 Amps for an effective capacity of ~57 Ah - compare that with Odyssey 31M-PC2150 1h capacity of 71 Ah and Battle Born 10012 of almost 100Ah and the price difference is more than justified.

Note: 1-hour discharge capacity of some very popular batteries (alphabetic order):

- Odyssey 31M-PC2150: 71.5 Ah down to 10.05 volts (yes, down to 10.05 volts and not 10.5 volts) - nominal capacity 100 Ah,

- Renogy RNG-BATT-AGM12-100: 57.1 Ah down to 10.5 Ah - nominal capacity 104 Ah,

- Renogy RNG-BATT-GEL12-100: 58.7 Ah down to 10.5 V - nominal capacity 100 Ah,

- Renogy RBT100GEL12-G1: 54.6 Ah down to 10.5 V - nominal capacity 100 Ah,

- Weize 12V 100Ah Deep Cycle Gel: 58.4 Ah down to 10.5 volts - nominal capacity 100Ah,

- WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100: 57.1 Ah down to 10.5 volts - nominal capacity 106 Ah,

Personally, for casual trolling using a small electric trolling motor, batteries like Weize 12V 100Ah AGM and WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100 are more than strong enough.

And if you need a larger capacity, and you don't mind the weight penalty, go for a pair of either Weize 12V 100Ah AGM or WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100.

 

As one can see, the performances dictate the price of these batteries - Battle Born 10012 is very popular lithium deep-discharge battery, Odyssey and NorthStar are very popular for high-demanding applications, VMAXTANKS XTR31-135 is used in solar, of-the-grid and other similar (trolling motors included) demanding deep discharge applications, and Weize 12V 100Ah AGM, WindyNation BAT-NSAP12-100, and other similar batteries are used for applications where the price tag is also important.

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Conclusion: Lithium trolling batteries do cost several times more than even the best AGM batteries in their size and capacity class, but in the long run, lithium batteries are not that expensive.

Since they can be recharged very often in less than 4 hours without causing any strain to the battery cells, lithium batteries may be deep discharged and recharged easily 2-3 times per day, which is very important for many applications, not just for trolling motors.

If you need lightweight batteries with a large number of charging and discharging cycles, lithium deep cycle batteries are the way to go - just be sure that their features and specifications fit your personal needs and requirements.