BRETT HITE: Power-Pole CHARGE is the ‘Quiet Game Changer’

Brett Hite breaks down the Power-Pole CHARGE and why it's a game changer for the fishing industry. Photo by Phoenix Moore

April 18, 2021 • Brett Hite • Bass Pro Tour

Over the last few years, spot-lock trolling motors and forward-facing sonar have taken up a lot of the limelight in the realm of bass fishing electronics. There’s no doubt these new innovations have been major game changers and hot topics of conversation.

During that time, the launch of Power-Pole’s CHARGE has sort of been lost in the shuffle of GPS trolling motors and advanced sonar. I think a lot of people figured CHARGE was just another plug-in battery charger. Let me say, it’s far more than just another plug-in battery charger. If you have ever dreamed of having a single, self-charging battery that runs everything in your boat, CHARGE is as close as it gets.

Take Charge of Options

For years, bass anglers have dealt with multiple batteries serving power to specific devices in a boat. If the battery connected to a depth finder or trolling motor or outboard got too low on voltage, the item wouldn’t work. The frustration of this came from having other batteries in the boat that could power the device, but the device wasn’t wired to that battery.

There have been times when I have run my trolling motor batteries down to nothing and wished there was a way to “borrow” some charge from my cranking battery to fish another 100 yards down the bank. I’ve also run my cranking battery down too low to start my boat and this required the dicey maneuver of “jumping” the 12-volt cranking battery from a bank of 36-volt trolling motor batteries without blowing myself up.

I always wondered: Why can’t we just have one battery that runs everything?

Enter the modern-day miracle of the Power-Pole CHARGE.

What CHARGE Does

To be clear, CHARGE is not a battery itself, but rather an ingenious power management system that takes all of your batteries (no matter the kind or size) and basically combines them into one power source that runs everything in the boat and recharges the batteries to appropriate levels anytime the big motor is running.

CHARGE is three devices in one: an at-home plug-in charger/maintainer, an on-the-water charger that distributes power from the outboard’s alternator to all of your batteries, and an emergency jumper box for starting your outboard with a low cranking battery without having to touch a single wire.

No matter what your battery type (lead acid, AGM, gel, or lithium) or voltage (12, 24, 36) or even what combination they’re in, CHARGE connects to them all and takes over from there.

For instance, I run two Lithium Pro 36-volt batteries in parallel for trolling motor batteries and a 12-volt AGM for a cranking battery. All are connected to the CHARGE unit. I have my phone connected to the CHARGE via Power-Pole’s C-Monster app. I go into the app and tell CHARGE the type, voltage and amp hour rating of each battery. From there, it basically combines all of those batteries and constantly manages the power in them, moving it to where I need it most.

The most impressive thing about CHARGE is how quickly it recharges the trolling motor and cranking batteries from the outboard’s alternator any time the motor is running. I can literally pull up the C-Monster app and watch how the power is being restored into the batteries as I run.

Many times, especially in practice when I’m running around a lot, CHARGE keeps all my batteries topped off all day.

Several times I’ve come in after a long day of practice, checked my C-Monster app, noticed I had a full charge on all batteries and never even plugged it into an outlet. And how many times have we gotten up in the middle of the night, gone out to the boat and gotten under the cover just to check to see if our batteries were being properly charged by the onboard charger? You don’t have to do that anymore! Now I just sit in my camper or hotel, connect to my CHARGE unit via Bluetooth and check my exact charge level on all my batteries.

The CHARGE unit does all of this and is still smaller and lighter than many standard onboard chargers.

There’s little doubt GPS trolling motors and forward-facing sonar are incredible innovations, but neither can function if they don’t have enough voltage. With CHARGE on board, I don’t ever have to worry about running out of power.