As boaters, sail or power, we are accustomed to paying ridiculous prices
for just about anything that has the word "Marine" in its name and for
which the identical item can be found at, say, Home Depot for much much
less.

But this has to take the cake: Nicro's price for a replacement battery
for the 24-hour Powervent 3000. $29.99 at West Marine.

Might be an improvement, actually. Earlier models required you to send
the unit back to the factory to replace the battery at a cost very close
to that of a new Powervent.

This battery is no more than a standard rechargeable NiCad. About $2 at
Radio Shack. The old units had the battery soldered in. I was able to
modify a Radio Shack battery holder so that now all I need to do when the
battery dies (they do, you know) was pluck out the dead one and plug in a
new one, about five minutes and $2.00. Not only that, but I was able to
replace a smaller capacity battery with a larger one.