Would it be bad to..…Another electronic fish house question

[Shawnny B]

Hoovermn and myself have been wondering this sence last year but we have yet to do or ask anyone about it, he did make the comment that he was gonna post it, I figured I’d be him too it, So heres the question. We carry at least 2 deep cycle batteries inside our Fish house when we go out and we have several 12 volt outlets around the house along with the 110 volt system that we hook up to the generator. Would it be bad to hook the Marcum into the 12volt system of the fish house? Would this burn out the unit? We have hooked up a Amp meter and it stays very steady and we know its putting out the correct Voltage range, and I really don’t see a problem but we figured we would ask you guys the experts what ya’ll think

[Jeremy airjer W]

I can't think of any reason why you couldn't. 12 volts is 12 volts. Now if you said you wanted to use it of your car battery while it was running I would start to think it wouldn't be a good idea since the alternator would be putting out around 14 volts and I'm not sure what depth finders are able to handle.

I will be using a marine battery in my portable this winter to power up a DVD player/stereo/lights and thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have an outlet for the Vex just incase its battery goes dead.

[waskawood]

What does a boat alternator put out for voltage? I can't believe that it will hurt a thing. I plug my Vexilar in all the time. I am sure that the Marcum's are built to run in a boat also, so 14 volts shouldn't hurt them.

[bottomdweller]

I got one for you guys. My garmin depth finder is hooked on my boat motor battery. The problem the voltage indicator on the depth finder says my motor is putting out 16 volts and shuts off my depth finder. Got any ideas how to fix the prob, I hooked up the finder to the trolling batteries for now thanks for any help

[Borch]

Just pick up the optional 12 volt power cord. It'll have an inline fuse to deal with any potention surges that would impact your unit. This is what I've always done on my boat. Although I've never blown an inline fuse, it's cheap protection.

[cold one sd]

Your Marcum will only use the current that it needs to operate. It doesn't make a difference how many batteries you have it tied into as long as they are in parallel. When it comes to the voltage getting up to around 16 volts it could possibly harm the unit. That could be a question for Marcum if it doesn't tell you in your owners manual.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Good point waskawood. Forgot all about a boat having a charging system. Some of us still haven't upgraded our technologies yet .

Cold one makes a good point also. It doesn't matter how big or small a 12 volt battery is, its still a 12 volt battery. It does however make a difference on how long it will supply power.

[waskawood]

A fuse doesn't protect against voltage surges. It is a current limiting device only. A fuse opens the circuit if it's current rating is exceeded. As far as your boat motor putting out too much voltage. I would see your dealer. It sounds like your voltage regulator is not working properly.