amp guage or volt meter

What are the thoughts on having only volt meter or having amp guage.* I have only volt meters and although I cant tell how much amperage my autonator is putting out I can tell that it is working properly.

I prefer having an amp-hour meter, which shows volts and amps (in or out) with great accuracy, but more importantly how many AH have been drained from the batteries, so you know exactly how far you have discharged them.* Seems worth the investment to me.* Mine's a Link 2000.* Don't know what current models are called.

We have both an Amp and Volt for both AC and DC.* I tend to use the amp gauge for than the volt as we tend to push the amp demand to the max being a live aboard.* A volt can tell you the amps and/or condition of your battery by the voltage reading.* How do you think we did be for all the expensive/fancy meters?* The volt metter has three separate reading* for the three battery banks, house, 671 start and gen set start.

Ditto for the amp/hour (State of Charge) meter. Most are switchable to show Volts (up to 3 banks), Amps in/out, and amp hours*remaining.

Ours is a Cruz Pro but there are several different brands. Link, BEP, Mastervolt etc.

Nothing beats a SOC meter for a cruiser.

Voltage is only important if the V reg dies and the batts get charged at 16V and boil out.

Can someone compare the battery monitors, please? I am trying to decide on one for the winter upgrade project.

Thanks.
Tom-

I installed a victron monitor , easy installation works great These gauges profide much valuable info

Gonzo -- Many work well, my Link seems to do the job. But how they and in turn your charging/battery circuits are hooked up can spell success or failure, not to mention burn out components. You may want to consult with a GOOD marine electrician who has done this before and have him look at the setup.

I am doing a complete overhaul of the charging system this winter, so I'll be adding it then and have time to learn what I need to learn. I have extensive electrical experience. I won't be paying anyone unless I somehow get stuck in a big way, but TBH, I'll be consulting you guys before I call a contractor :-D The "good" electrical guys I have talked to in this area have been disappointing.

From my experience an electrician may not be what one needs when working on 12 volt.

As to battery monitors I like the liink 2000 lot of info to monitor your batteries with.

SD

GonzoF1 wrote:
Can someone compare the battery monitors, please?

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We have a Trimetric in the bus and a Link on the boat.* I prefer the Trimetric.* I think that is because I prefer to have the inverter control functions separate from the monitor.* But either one works and I don't dislike the Link enough to install a Trimetric on the boat.

What about the BEP?

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The Trimetric is about 1/2 the cost . and has a decades long track record.

Looking at the website for Bogart, it certainly doesn't look as user-friendly, but I suppose I could give that up for half the price.

RE: amp gauge or volt meter

But the TriMetic only monitors one battery bank.* So will*you*need two or three of them depending on what you have ((Start, House, Windlass bow thruster)?

A Voltmeter will take care of looking at the start and windlass batts , as they do not usually deep discharge or have power sources from solar, wind ,shore power ,noisemaker and main engine to keep track of.

The start and windlass will probably be Start built batts , where if you deep discharge them , you toss them out.

The house will probably be Deep cycle , and depending on HOW deep you discharge them , will determine their service life.

*

All the monitors require a shunt , to me there should never be a shunt in an engine start circuit , as it may act as a FUSE , much ungood.


-- Edited by FF on Wednesday 16th of November 2011 05:07:05 AM

I've used the BEP monitor now for almost 7 years - has never missed a beat.* It's also quite surprising how much energy is actually used vs how quickly (slowly) that energy gets replenished.* Only and AH meter can tell you that.

By the way, it comes with a huge shunt that gets installed in the negative leg of the battery bank you wish to measure.* Works great, but I only monitor the house bank.* Engine start batteries would be quickly recharged once you get going just like in a car.

The monitor does have the ability to show volts on the (2) start banks.

There is now a larger screen version of the BEP. We bought the Cruz Pro several years ago when it was the only large screen monitor available.


-- Edited by Bendit on Tuesday 22nd of November 2011 02:24:55 PM

FF wrote:All the monitors require a shunt , to me there should never be a shunt in an engine start circuit , as it may act as a FUSE , much ungood.

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*There is no need to use a shunt these days. Hall effect current transducers are available at very reasonable cost and provide the same capacity and output.

I have a Zantrex and like it a lot. Have'nt had any trouble w it either.

RickB wrote:FF wrote:All the monitors require a shunt , to me there should never be a shunt in an engine start circuit , as it may act as a FUSE , much ungood.

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*There is no need to use a shunt these days. Hall effect current transducers are available at very reasonable cost and provide the same capacity and output.

I've never seen a Hall effect current transducer in operation*but they make sense particularly if it eliminates two battery cable connections.* It's interesting that Zantrex or BEP do not use them.

Rick B:* What is used*to read the current flow from one?


-- Edited by Larry M on Wednesday 23rd of November 2011 04:12:34 PM

Larry M wrote:Rick B:* What is used*to read the current flow from one?

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Same device as normal. The output is standard 50mV or 100mV just as a conventional shunt.

Amp hour meters are usually only usefull on cyclic house banks, start banks don't discharge enough to trigger a cycle count on the meters so the much of the info is useless. That is why most amp hour meters only read voltage on a second bank. The historical
data is what is very important in looking at a battery bank.