excalibur batteries

got a used excalibur yesterday,finally , but need help, as regards the battery, i can see a dry silica bag inside by thye battery,a bit of white string,the black rubberized seal at the top.......does this come off? ,should it come off?,are they sealed units...its not to come off?, ive read about putting silicone grease on the terminals, does this mean removing the water tight black seal, or is it somewhere else it goes(i.e the grease).................answers on a postcard please

It's best not to break the integrity of the seal of the battery pod. This is what happens if you leave the battery pod in direct sun light in the back of your car for an extended period of time.

Tom

The seal should stay on. The Minelab Excalibur detectors were designed so you would not need to remove the battery in order to charge it. It should stay inside of the watertight battery pod at all times.

To charge it, you just need to remove the entire battery pod from the shaft and plug it in to your charger.

Don't worry about greasing the terminals. That is usually only done if you are getting little to no conductivity while the battery is fully charged. But if this happens, Minelab actually sells replacement battery pods. I would suggest that you pick some up anyway so you won't have to stop and recharge your battery when you are out detecting.

I replaced my original battery with a new high capacity battery.  Twice the length of time between recharge.  The picture shows the effect of pressure inside the compartment pushing the top out.  Loosening the (bent) setscrew allows you to remove the o-ringed end and access the battery to change it.

Charging is of course done with the battery container intact, using the cable from the battery to the control pod.

I replaced my original battery with a new high capacity battery.  Twice the length of time between recharge.  The picture shows the effect of pressure inside the compartment pushing the top out.  Loosening the (bent) setscrew allows you to remove the o-ringed end and access the battery to change it.

Charging is of course done with the battery container intact, using the cable from the battery to the control pod.

Hi billinstuart,
What type of battery did you put back in ?  do you have some specs ?
I need to replace my battery as well, but did not find a matching battery pack yet.
after replacing you should use some silicongrease on the O-ring to keep the system waterproof again.

Ordered it from a place on Ebay..1400MAh lithium I think.  Maybe $40-50.  It was a tight fit in the container, but twice the capacity of stock.

Ya gotta be careful charging those batteries with the standard charger.

Thanks

thanks alot guys, info was taken on board, he's only used it a handful of times,and it shows...its mint, so should get some battery life for a while before changing it......

ps: how long does the battery normally last for, above water and below (unsure which elements wear it down the most)?

[I highly recommend you pick up the AA battery pack for backup]

How long it lasts depends on how old the battery is, and how good the battery holds a charge. Battery life makes no difference hunting in the water or on dry land, but I am sure temperatures can affect it some, A brand new battery lasts between 10 to 15 hours of use, give or take.

I usually plug my batteries in the night before a hunt and let them charge over night...........I highly recommend you pick up the AA battery pack for backup, nothing worse then to be out hunting and your battery dies. I have 2 Excals, and each has its own AA battery pack, I always take all my water detectors with me when I go to the beach hunting, so I always have at least 2 stock and 2 AA battery packs with me.

Good luck and good hunting.......

Ya gotta be careful charging those batteries with the standard charger.

Good point Bill, Lithium based batteries will catch fire if over-charged or charged too quickly (too many milliamps). Lithium Polymer is the worst....the cells would make good rocket motors, Lithium Ion's will do it too but not to the same extent. For anyone thinking of doing the conversion themselves, the nominal charge rate for Lithium based batteries is 1C (or one times the capacity in mAh). So Bill's 1400 mAh packs can only be charged at 1.4 amps or they will likely catch fire. They also cannot take "trickle" charges like NiCads or NiMH cells, once they are full the charging must be discontinued immediately or again, fire. If your cells "puff up" then discontinue their use immediately. Sorry to be up on the podium here, but I had a friend burn down his house experimenting with these batteries, they ARE dangerous if not charged properly.    

When charged safely, I think Lithium based packs are excellent for detectors because they loose very little charge in storage, they are extremely light weight, and they give you more hours of detecting per charge. I have excellent sources for the cells and chargers, that might be a new business in the making.

Do not use water to extinguish a Lithium fire.

I replaced my excal batteries, There is a place in the us that sells the batteries, all you do is unscrew the allen screw on the side and then carefully grap the top and side to side motion remove the top and you will see a rubber o ring, Clean all sand before you put it back togeather also put a little silicone grease on the oring to help keep water out and tighten up the allen screws and it will be just like new, I replaced two excal battery packs and this place also sells the charger to recharge the packs the charger lights up red then green when fully charged. This is better then throwing away money buying new packs. "UPDATE"    The website is         ONLYBATTERYPACKS.COM  Phone Number 262-246-0455 when you go to this site look on the page and will see a Minelab excalibut pic, also purchase there charger to recharge the new packs.

Hello a  very interesting subject, thankyou, I have one question, when I am charging my Excalibur 1000  battery, How do I know when it is fully charged, I normall let it charge over night as well, when I bought this new machine , I  charged the battery for 17 hours and then used the machine until it was flat, then charged the battery for another 13 or 14 hours, but maybe I must use a tester to check how much it has been charged, what suggestions have you got, I have also ordered a spare battery for my machine.

Just charge the battery overnight and the next day your ready to detect, I would charge mine about 12 hours after i got done detecting and ready next day, always recharge your battery the night before use and the website i suggested sells a rapid charger that does it within a few hours compared to the trickle slow charger that comes with excalibur.The charger has a light on it that goes from red to green when charged.