Is this worth buying/installing?

[Abendage]

Volts is not just volts though. The voltage of a battery in use is nowhere near an accurate description of state of charge.

[Murbella7]

Originally Posted by Abendage

Volts is not just volts though. The voltage of a battery in use is nowhere near an accurate description of state of charge.

True. It was flippant response at the over-technical stuff. If the loads remain fairly constant, or similar then watching the consumption figure (percentage of charge left) and how quickly the volts drop while in this 'normal' state is a pretty good indication of battery condition. Low load, low percentage used, fast-ish discharge, bad battery.

[larry2c]

Ha ha, I get ya Murbella - it got over my head pretty quickly. Yep, I want to be more aware of my batteries but I'm not ready for a full blown engineering analysis

I agree with TitanMike - it would be great if the RV manufacturers offered some more appropriate options. Our previous TT was a Jayco and I probably put $500 or more into it with installing things like LED lights, a "smart" control to make the power converter 4 stage, better shower head and on & on. I paid retail but I'm guessing if Jayco would have purchased the same things, it would have cost them less than half. Making a "pro" version of a TT instead of a luxury version would be a nice choice to have. On the other hand, they have to get it right - an example of not so right is the LED's in our new TT - there are probably more LED's in one light fixture than in all the replacement bulbs I put in the old TT. So there goes my energy savings - but I can say it's plenty bright in there!

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by larry2c

Ha ha, I get ya Murbella - it got over my head pretty quickly. Yep, I want to be more aware of my batteries but I'm not ready for a full blown engineering analysis

That's kind of the idea behind building monitoring tools more complex, taking into consideration all the "technical details". You get better data on your battery bank state of charge, all provided by the meter, than having to watch how fast your batteries discharge based on the assumption that discharge currents are remaining the same. Let the meter do all the heavy thinking.

In most RV's the draw on batteries does not remain the same. Furnace kicks on and runs for several minutes then shuts off. Someone uses toilet, pump runs. They wash hands, pump runs. Lights get turned on and off. All this means that the draw on the battery bank is variable and unless all those "technical details" are taken into consideration all you have is a big guess, the accuracy of which relies totally on the individuals experience over time. A well engineered SOC meter will do that all for them, regardless of their level of understanding or experience. You do have to pay a little more for those features so it's up to the user to decide if they're worth it to them or not. It's kind of nice to look at a Battery Meter and see it say you have X days and Y hours left on your batteries at that given point in time before you have to charge them again. Even better if your Battery Monitor takes into consideration the battery temperature. Cold batteries have less capacity and can be misdiagnosed as "bad".

[Murbella7]

Originally Posted by larry2c

Ha ha, I get ya Murbella - it got over my head pretty quickly. Yep, I want to be more aware of my batteries but I'm not ready for a full blown engineering analysis

I agree with TitanMike - it would be great if the RV manufacturers offered some more appropriate options. Our previous TT was a Jayco and I probably put $500 or more into it with installing things like LED lights, a "smart" control to make the power converter 4 stage, better shower head and on & on. I paid retail but I'm guessing if Jayco would have purchased the same things, it would have cost them less than half. Making a "pro" version of a TT instead of a luxury version would be a nice choice to have. On the other hand, they have to get it right - an example of not so right is the LED's in our new TT - there are probably more LED's in one light fixture than in all the replacement bulbs I put in the old TT. So there goes my energy savings - but I can say it's plenty bright in there!

The trouble with that idea is the 'value added' costs in including or adding stuff pre-sale. My theory is that the boys on the top floor think more laterally. They posit that these high rolling retirees need something else to do other than lounge around all day sipping on their reds or guzzling beer (whichever fits your style). So they build in 'opportunities' and 'potential options' that cost them nothing, at the sales desk (probably save them a bundle though), but gives the buyer a series of things to do, from day one I might add.

Not just simple things like refitting a self-stick towel hook, but really interesting stuff like, fixing leaking taps, replacing lamps that have come loose, smashed and spread broken glass all through the living space, repairing cupboard doors that fell off during the first 10 miles of the first trip, fixing broken beds, figuring out which connector works with the ludicrously complex TV cable wiring system (that has no known logic or formal circuit schematic), wondering why the fresh water tank exploded when it was first filled (insurance company said manufacturing defect, salesman said, nothing, he just hung up).

So, no more whinging about things that don't work, but should, or options that should have been included but weren't, it is planned that way, this is the life of the RV family, eternally, forever, ad nauseam.