View Single Post
Old 11-03-2019, 02:00 PM   #4
firehoser75
Guru
 
firehoser75's Avatar
 
City: Nanaimo
Vessel Name: former owner of "Pilitak"
Vessel Model: Nordic Tug 37
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 1,703
Hi Tom,
I am not familiar with that unit personally. You might want to check out all of the info on battery monitors from Compass Marine (Rod Collins) on his site marinehowto.com.
From what I gathered, most monitors that require a negative shunt (and monitor amp hours) also need to be "zeroed" usually manually to maintain accuracy. If not "zeroed" they get less and less accurate as time goes on. However, the Balmar Smartguage does not. I have been using the 'older" model of the smartguage for several years now and it works very well, however, it only shows state of charge (percentage) and voltage for one bank and voltage only for a second bank. I understand that the new model of the smartguage does now also monitor amp hours (in and out).
Rod discusses these monitors in great detail with accompanying test results. He is not paid by any of the companies for his testing so I feel his results and statements can be trusted.
Good luck with your decision,
Tom
__________________
Tom
Nanaimo, BC
firehoser75 is offline   Reply With Quote