Lithium Starting Battery Usage with a 2 stroke

[BamaCat]

I was told by Mercury to not use lithium battery on a 2 stroke.  They had not done any research on these batteries and effect on the same. They knew the 4 stroke was coming.  I use an Odyssey 2150 AGM.  It will do all you need and more.

[rlb8s]

Don’t do it.  I was told by lithium hub that Mercury allowed it so I made the switch last year.  Nothing but issues for first two days on the water with it including the battery shutting down when running as I hit the trim switch.  I took it to the Mercury mechanic and was told the lithium battery was the cause and was encouraged to switch back to an AGM.  It was an expensive mistake.  Stick w/ the AGM for starting battery. I do like the lithiums on the TM though, just not on a two stroke Merc.

PS – The Mercury tech bulletin authorizing lithium only applies to 4 strokes.

[Dbarg]

Everyone is different on what they want and like.  I have an ionic 125ah for my electronics and cranking on my 2017 cougar with a mercury 250 2 stroke.  I’ve never had any problems with mine, and I love the setup.  I’ve had a full lithium setup for 2 years and don’t regret making the switch.

[SLumpp]

Dbarg, that is the battery I am thinking about going to.  Their tech is the one that started me down this path, I was told that I would need a voltage regulator being that this motor is a 2 stroke and has a stator.  Didn’t really click until I replaced the belt on the top of the motor (general maintenance, 200 hours on the motor).  Right now the X2 I am using is still under warranty, and still going strong.  I do use their 50’s on my trolling motor (Garmin- 3 50s) and I am amazed.  I have been using them since September, only 9 cycles through all of them and I have not looked back since going to them.  I did go to a gen 4 NOCO charger and I have been pretty pleased with it as well.  The charger is really heavy though, might have given back some of the weight that I lost when I pulled the batteries and the 2 chargers off the transom.  Getting back on subject, I don’t want to go down the road of re-powering just to get a lithium starting battery, that is not economically sound, and my opti is running very well (no alcohol gas goes into that tank).  So now I have to continue my research and think about it.  Worse case, I wind up with another battery and use it for electronics only.

[rlb8s]

The ionic 125ah is the one I had too.  Even on new boats with 4 strokes, BCB installs AGMs for the cranking battery.  The ionic 125ah is now my dedicated electronics battery.

For those with two strokes who are itching to switch to lithium here is a good recommendation if you have 4 battery trays.  When time to replace your trolling motor batteries, consider replacing with two 36 volt batteries in parallel (ProGuide has a 36 volt 50 ah that fit the 31 group tray).  Keep the AGM as the cranking battery.  In your 4th tray you can add a dedicated lithium battery for your electronics. Alternatively you can run two AGM in parallel which which will handle all of your cranking and elecronics needs as well.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by rlb8s.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by rlb8s.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by rlb8s.

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