Bearfeather
Recruit
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2010
- Messages
- 4
Re: Battery Isolators
Very simple now that I have had a battery expert explain to me how and what to use. I wanted exactly what you are wanting and had used isolators before but they require rerouting the alternator wire and are diode driven devices meaning they consume a good deal of power-- usually over a full Amp this produces heat thus they are almost all heat sink and need air circulation or they will fail. I have had these burn out in the past and they will over charge your batteries in some cases as they do not monitor the power in the batteries. Your best bet would be to use the latest technology which is an automatic relay that senses the voltage of both batteries and switches on and off as needed automatically. They are also the very easiest to install no need to reroute the alternator or charger. It took me 10 minutes on my small boat and about 30 minutes on my large one. $80 to my door 10 minutes and problem solved. I run several days now, fishing away from shore power where I can trickle charge my batteries and never run out of power. I often run trolling motor on the small boat for 3 or more continuous hours and then may run an hour with the large motor each day. Before I would need three extra deep cells to make it through a 4 day trip but now I make it on a single battery besides my cranking battery. The $80 dollars is about what I would spend on one replacement battery so even though it is about twice the cost of the old style isolators it is far superior. Also when I do get to shore power and plug in the trickle charger to either the crank or trolling battery the relay allows both batteries to charge from a single connection to either one. This is something the old isolators would never do. Much better than a manual switch because I could never remember to turn the damn things. Contact me and I'll give you the information to get one of these and all the answers you need from my battery man! dr@businessphd.com
Very simple now that I have had a battery expert explain to me how and what to use. I wanted exactly what you are wanting and had used isolators before but they require rerouting the alternator wire and are diode driven devices meaning they consume a good deal of power-- usually over a full Amp this produces heat thus they are almost all heat sink and need air circulation or they will fail. I have had these burn out in the past and they will over charge your batteries in some cases as they do not monitor the power in the batteries. Your best bet would be to use the latest technology which is an automatic relay that senses the voltage of both batteries and switches on and off as needed automatically. They are also the very easiest to install no need to reroute the alternator or charger. It took me 10 minutes on my small boat and about 30 minutes on my large one. $80 to my door 10 minutes and problem solved. I run several days now, fishing away from shore power where I can trickle charge my batteries and never run out of power. I often run trolling motor on the small boat for 3 or more continuous hours and then may run an hour with the large motor each day. Before I would need three extra deep cells to make it through a 4 day trip but now I make it on a single battery besides my cranking battery. The $80 dollars is about what I would spend on one replacement battery so even though it is about twice the cost of the old style isolators it is far superior. Also when I do get to shore power and plug in the trickle charger to either the crank or trolling battery the relay allows both batteries to charge from a single connection to either one. This is something the old isolators would never do. Much better than a manual switch because I could never remember to turn the damn things. Contact me and I'll give you the information to get one of these and all the answers you need from my battery man! dr@businessphd.com
