Advice wanted - battery Monitoring

[roly_voya]

Hi, just looking at finishing electrics while I put the new engine in and main thing is that I have no batt monitors so 2 options

1 2 BEP ac and DC monitors, tells you everthing, digital and should be accurate (at that price?

2 Single BEP ac/dc monitor, most of the functions above but a bit less flexible and £90 cheaper

3 Standard volt meter and ameter (probably digital for volts) substantialy cheaper but dosnt give any 'additional' features such as amp hr counter, pump or tank monitops

If you have either use the batt monitor style instruments or traditional V/A meter what do you recon, are the posh ones worth the money? do they give reliable readings in practice? do you find traditional simple gauges perfectly adequate?

 

[PembrokeshirePromise]

I've fairly recently bought the NASA battery monitor - so far very happy - seen others on here saying good things (which is one of the reaons I got it)

Designed to do domestic batteries rather than starter - but I have a simple voltmeter on starter (part of charger) - can't see I'd want more than that on starter anyway.

 

[roly_voya]

Agree that the NASA monitor looks good and is nice and simple (+ cheap) unfortunatly my discharge range is to 250A and charge is rated 100A so outside the scope. If I wire it in after the inverter then would be in range but the amp hour meter then wont work so no point.

 

[pandroid]

I use a Mastervolt monitor (aka Link 10) and IMHO, its worth the money.

 

[Conachair]

I got the BEP at boat show last year and am very happy with it. £190 I think i paid for it. Does amps and either 3 voltage of 3 banks or 2 banks and time bilge pump has been running. Not sure how accurate the "amp hours left" is but V useful for seeing how many amp hours your solar panel gives in a day, and hopefully will see how many extra amps i get when I get round to fitting a new alternator regulator. Easy enough to fit, just more wires to make tidy.
Padz - Conachair

 

[Talulah]

Previous boat had a Link 20. Disappointing. Occasionally locked up and difficult to unlock.
Current boat. BEP battery monitor. Monitors voltage on three banks and drain on one of the three banks.
If I was doing it again it would be BEP but with the bilge pump monitoring facility as well.

 

[roly_voya]

Thanks all decision made and am going for the BEP modle which most of you seem to think works well. Also found they do a combined AC/DC unit so for and extra £100 you get to check how close to the limit you are on the inverter and shore power as well and it give an alarm if I foget and put the kettle on while vacing up!!

 

[dweeze]

I've got a Link 1000 unit which monitors the traffic through one bank and just gives a simple Volts on the other. Its also used as a control unit for the Freedom Inverter on the boat. Its fine as a control unit but routinely reports .1 of a volt under what the multimeter shows.