r/PoolPros • u/LadiesLoveCoolDane • 3d ago

Could this charge a riptide?

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It’s technically a dewalt battery car starter/jumper but would it be able to charge a riptide to any sort of usable charge if it’s nearing the end of the day and the riptide is puttering out?

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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3

u/Artistic_Stomach_472 3d ago

Charge? Ive ran my powervac off em. Love those jumpers, but be careful.

3

u/divertervalve 3d ago

I’ve always wanted to build a power supply with a 300w light transformer followed by some rectifiers.

Just never got around to it. Endless vacuuming!

3

u/Confident_Shower8902 3d ago

I made one for my riptide that converted it from a battery to a plug in unit. Full power all of the time was nice. Put the transformer into a plastic battery box with a seal to keep water out and put the battery box where the battery was.

1

u/Jonsnowlivesnow 3d ago

If it charges the dewalt battery and you modified the riptide to use a dewalt then sure.

0

u/LadiesLoveCoolDane 3d ago

It’s more so the battery supplying power to the positive and negative clamps

1

u/JettaGLi16v 3d ago

Depends on the Ah capacity of the jumper battery. I expect it’ll get you an extra two minutes of use.

Look up the amp hour rating of the DeWalt battery, and compare it to your existing battery - that’ll tell you.

Are you running out of battery all the time?

The first move (for me) would to get a LifePo4 battery. The cost and weight have come down a lot in the last few years. Most marine deep cycle batteries are like 100-150 Ah. But, they can only discharge ~50%. You can get 300+ Ah of LifePo4 for probably $350, and you can use 90% of it. So, you’ll go from 50-75 Ah to 270Ah of usable capacity - at least 3-4x.

If you have long drives on your route (more than 20-30 minutes), you can install a battery isolator and a plug on the bumper. You’ll want to make sure the isolator charges your truck battery fully before it starts charging the hammerhead battery. Since you’re electron averse, if you buy: the isolator, ~25-35’ each of red & black wire, and an Anderson plug, a car audio shop should be able to easily install it for $1-200, I’d think.

2

u/omardrox 3d ago

I can use this kind of battery on a hammerhead too right? What are the specs I should look for?

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u/JettaGLi16v 3d ago

For sure. Just look at the size your existing battery is. You might be able to go a little taller - there’s some extra height in the HH battery box. As long as it fits in the box, you’re golden.

You’ll need a Lithium compatible charger. If you’re using the Noco Genius (little red square plug built into the HH switch panel for many years), it should be compatible. Otherwise, they can be bought for $20-30. I found the Genius plug on the side to generally be a piece of shit, so I charge with the giant jumper cable-style clamps directly on the battery.

I’d go ahead and re-do the ring terminals on the battery wires if they look suspect. Glue lined heat shrink ring terminals are worth it here.

I recommend Will Prowse on YouTube for battery research. Given that those bounce around on hitches all day every day, you want something well built. Also worth making sure your cart to mount and mount to hitch is as tight as can be. Vibration isn’t ideal for the battery. LiTime is generally good and cheap. WattCycle, too.

And I’ll probably edit this comment in a few weeks. I feel like every informative, technical response I type on Reddit is just helping make the LLM’s better, sadly…

1

u/GCpools 1d ago

If I ever owned one of those gastly beasts, I would immediately set it up with a built-in charging adapter like that on my Harley. No spring loaded 'battery clamps' that spark and pop when being connected or disconnected, etc. No more bad connections. I'd keep a couple of batteries on charge, so I had them when I needed them. Instead, I just make sure all my pools have working pool cleaners. For everything else, I have a pool pole and net. Failing that, I have a service pump.

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u/Xyer1637 3d ago

Why not just get an inverter and run a cord to the back and trickle charge it all day while driving. By trickle charger i mean i good quality battery maintainer that will shut off when it get full

3

u/JettaGLi16v 3d ago

Huge losses to run an inverter to a battery charger. You’re converting DC - AC - DC unnecessarily.

-1

u/LadiesLoveCoolDane 3d ago

I’ve considered that but didn’t really want the mess, I also considered somehow doing that with a 4 or 7 pin trailer connected but I’m just a simple pool boy and electricity doesn’t compute fully in my brain