West Marine VHF 50 replacement battery (BP50)

Hi- I have a West Marine VH50 Marine radio for which the Li-ion battery has died. West Marine does not show a replacement on their website (I did send an e-mail this morning asking for help) and a search on the internet seems to show nothing.

So, I was wondering if anybody here knew of a battery that would substitute for it. Here are the specs (and if I did it correctly, a photo.)

BP50 lithium ion battery

7.4v

37mm wide (with wire under wrapper)

47.8mm tall

18.9mm thick

I am not sure what the name of the plug type is.

Can you post a picture of the radio its self? I can’t find a pic of it under that name online and it is surely a rebranded name brand model, once I figure out what model it is it should be easy.

Thank you for the reply- is a photo of the front sufficient?

Easy answer is to take it down to batteries plus and they either have it or will order it for you ...it won't be cheap at all ... cheapest way would be find i chinese copy of it online ...ebay is a very good source for cheap batterypacks .

It's almost assuredly a rebranded radio for west marine .. probably a Standard,Alinco? ..or maybe an icom .

The battery looks pretty simple and probably easy to buy or even rebuild

I found a picture of the radio, I am sure it is re-branded but I can not for the life of my figure out who made it. Sorry.

I will remove the plastic to see what is underneath. There is a Batteries Plus about 45 miles away, I don’t often get up that way, but I might be going on Tuesday. If not- I’ll be back with questions about what I find under the wrapper. Thanks for the input so far!

I just registered on this site to help fix this issue. I sent sandanbob a private message, but repeating here in case it didn’t go through. I can be reached at 831-761-4234.
Gary at West Marine

Welcome to the forum, gawilliamson!

Now that is customer service :bigsmile: , welcome to our little corner of the internet.

Found the answer. If you still need it. West Marine no longer does business with the off brand Chinese company that supplied radio. Battery pack is not available from any of the well known battery stores (battery plus, etc). Package is 4 1006 batteries with side mounted overcharge chip set. Easy to find top mounting but physical size will not fit radio. If you are good with a soldering iron you can relocate the overcharge chip too side and set the two pair of 3.6v batteries in series for the 7.2v and parareel for other two in identical configuration then shrink wrap together for a cost of about 25. OR just buy a new radio for 70. and never buy a radio from West marine as they only buy low end foreign product or resell other companies. Buy Cobra, Uniden, etc. then support will be available. If you want I can give you name of company that supplied it but it is in China.

I agree with everything pyzonusa wrote but offer another alternative. Point and shoot digital camera batteries are commonly 3.7V. I wired two in series. They come with the safety circuit board installed. I needed the radio in a hurry so selected two CN-NB-6L I could source from several local stores. I used Walmart. These batteries are used in a number of Canon cameras. These are not perfect for a radio application and lack the capacity desired. In a hurry, they solved the immediate issue and worked for several years of intermittent use. Initially I contacted West Marine who referred me to the Chinese supplier. The Chinese supplier refused to sell a battery referring me back to West Marine. That was a “do loop” without an “exit routine.” I appreciated the West Marine customer service but must endorse pyzonusa regarding long term product support.

If you have a VHF 50 marine handset with a poorly designed BP50 Li-Ion battery that usually last only for 2 years, and become unavailable in the market, here is the solution to have the VHF 50 working again in perfect conditions:
Buy 6 x 1.2V. recharging 1100 mA/h NiMH batteries, and wrap them with a tiny adhesive tape, 3 at the bottom and 3 up, in a slant position, ie: the 3 up batteries are located in the “valley” formed by the 3 bottom batteries, so that the total height of the pack will fit into the battery case of the unit. Connect the batteries in series by soldering + to - terminals to form a string of 6 batteries with a total voltage of: 6 x 1.2V.=7.2V… Use a 100W iron to solder bridges quickly between the batteries.
Remove the BP50 connector, + red and black cable from the original BP50 battery. AVOID ANY ATTEMP TO OPEN THE BATTERY CASE FURTHER. Solder the + and - cables to the end of the new battery’s string, by respecting the polarity, and you will have the VHF 50 working again as new. You could also recharge the new battery pack with the original charger.
Give to me a thanks after doing that!
Massimo.