Monitoring Battery Usage

[Fred Mc]

I have a fairly unsophisticated battery system consisting of a bank of 3 x12 v start batteries and a bank of 2x 6 v house batteries in series for 12 volts.. I have manual disconnects for both banks so I can isolate either bank. I only recently installed the house bank and have used it once so have only charged it from shore power. I do not have an inverter and don't plan to get one in the immediate future. However I would like to be able to monitor the state of my house bank and start bank. I have looked at the Xantrex and Bogart and Microlog products. All require a shunt to keep track of battery usage and reserve. They talk in terms of  250 and 500 amp shunts. Is this big enough for the battery draw of our DD starters. It seem to me that I read the started can draw up to 2000 amps. Is this correct?
Does anyone use these monitors?

Thanks

Fred Mc.

[Melbo]

I have a trimetric for my house batts but I also have a single 12 volt battery that I use for the stuff that need just 12 volts - It is wired so that it gets 12 volts from my house bank which is 24 volts. I don't know if any of that makes sense but I monitor the battery with one of those little things that simply plugs into a cigarette lighter ( which I wired in separately ) and tells me the state of charge --- a little low tech but it works for me.

Melbo

[Sean]

Fred,

I have the Xantrex Link-10 and love it.  I can also recommend the Bogart.  I use a monitor only on the house bank, and I have the 500-amp shunt.  I don't see any particular value in monitoring the start batteries with this type of meter.

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[belfert]

Wasn't one of Xantrex's battery monitors basically a Bogart Trimetric customized for Xantrex?

[bobofthenorth]

I've had a Trimetric installed for about 4 months now & I can't believe we lived without it.  Like Sean I see no need to monitor the coach batteries - if they're charged and they don't start the coach then I've either got bad connections or bad batteries.  The house bank is another matter altogether and the level of information that the Trimetric gives me about state of charge, charge and discharge rate is wonderful. 

[gus]

Since you only have two house batteries you can get a simple battery load tester for $19.95 or less and test each one individually every three or four days, depending on how you use them.

I'm not sure the most common ones test 6v but they do test 12v.

I doubt that a plug in tester is a load tester, it probably only checks voltage. Voltage testing is not of much value but at least it might show a trend. The only real way to check the condition of a battery is with a load tester.