Battery Monitors, Part 1—Which Type Is Right For You?

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A couple of years ago, our much-loved Link 2000R battery monitor system bit the big one after some 20 years of faithful service, thereby pushing me into selecting a new monitor.

In the next three chapters I'm going to share:

  • What I learned while investigating the many battery monitor options available.
  • Which we selected.
  • How that choice has worked out over the last couple of seasons.
  • A bunch of tips to make battery monitoring more effective.

Why Bother?

But, first off, why do we even need a battery monitor? Well, if you own a boat that spends most of its life plugged into a marina with only short day trips in-between, you probably don't, but pretty much every other boat owner will have endless problems and frustrations with their DC electrical system if they can't and/or don't monitor it.

Given that, let's dive into which monitor we should buy:

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  1. One Simple Law That Makes Electrical Systems Easy to Understand
  2. How Batteries Charge (Multiple Charging Sources Too)
  3. How Hard Can We Charge Our Lead Acid Batteries?
  4. Cruising Boat Electrical System Design, Part 1—Loads and Conservation
  5. Cruising Boat Electrical System Design, Part 2—Thinking About Systems
  6. Cruising Boat Electrical System Design, Part 3—Specifying Optimal Battery Bank Size
  7. The Danger of Voltage Drops From High Current (Amp) Loads
  8. How Lead Acid Batteries Get Wrecked and What To Do About It
  9. 11 Steps To Better Lead Acid Battery Life
  10. 10 Tips To Install An Alternator
  11. Stupid Alternator Regulators Get Smarter…Finally
  12. WakeSpeed WS500—Best Alternator Regulator for Lead Acid¹ and Lithium Batteries
  13. Smart Chargers Are Not That Smart
  14. Equalizing Batteries, The Reality
  15. Battery Monitors, Part 1—Which Type Is Right For You?
  16. Battery Monitors, Part 2—Recommended Unit
  17. Battery Monitors, Part 3—Calibration and Use
  18. Do You Need A Generator?
  19. Efficient Generator-Based Electrical Systems For Yachts
  20. Battery Bank Size and Generator Run Time, A Case Study
  21. Battery Options, Part 1—Lithium
  22. Battery Options, Part 2—Lead Acid
  23. Why Lithium Battery Load Dumps Matter
  24. 8 Tips To Prevent Lithium Battery Load Dumps
  25. Lithium Ion Batteries Explained
  26. Should Your Boat’s DC Electrical System Be 12 or 24 Volt?—Part 1
  27. Should Your Boat’s DC Electrical System Be 12 or 24 Volt?—Part 2
  28. Q&A—Are Battery Desulphators a Good Idea?
  29. Renewable Power
  30. Wind Generators
  31. Solar Power
  32. Hydro Power
  33. Watt & Sea Hydro Generator Review
  34. A Simple, Efficient and Inexpensive¹ 12 or 24 Volt DC Electrical System
  35. 8 Checks To Stop Our DC Electrical System From Burning Our Boat

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John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for 25 years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 20 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

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