Painless dual battery kit

[Herbie]

Herbie, now that you've had the T-Max kit for over 3 years now, are you still happy with it?

More or less. I did have the solenoid fail last summer. Not sure if it was something I did, as I had a charger connected long-term in a way than meant the solenoid was on pretty much permanently for weeks.

Replaced it with a ColeHersee unit and it's been fine since.

Overall, it's working as promised. I'm on the fence about the behavior where it connects the batteries if it senses a charge voltage on either battery. It makes sense on the starter battery/alternator end. And it's fine that my solar array keeps the starter battery topped up, but I'd prefer to be able to put a fast charger on the house battery without the solenoid opening and closing.

For now, I use one of the resettable fuses as a switch and disconnect the starting battery when I need to put a charge on the house battery...



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[freeagent]

More or less. I did have the solenoid fail last summer. Not sure if it was something I did, as I had a charger connected long-term in a way than meant the solenoid was on pretty much permanently for weeks.

Replaced it with a ColeHersee unit and it's been fine since.

Overall, it's working as promised. I'm on the fence about the behavior where it connects the batteries if it senses a charge voltage on either battery. It makes sense on the starter battery/alternator end. And it's fine that my solar array keeps the starter battery topped up, but I'd prefer to be able to put a fast charger on the house battery without the solenoid opening and closing.

For now, I use one of the resettable fuses as a switch and disconnect the starting battery when I need to put a charge on the house battery...

Thanks Herbie, I appreciate the feedback. Good real world info.

 

[Dennx]

When I'm ready to do my dual battery setup I plan on getting a Blue Sea ACR 7622 magnetic latching solenoid with automatic charging. It also includes an in cabin switch.

http://www.bluesea.com/products/762...rging_Relay_with_Manual_Control_-_12V_DC_500A