Tag: dual battery

There are various models of dual battery isolators you can find online. Each isolator specifications like the make, voltage and Amp. Let’s look at few types of such isolators

Battery isolators are of four types

1. The auxiliary battery can be removed easily from the car’s electric circuit with the help of a switch. The main drawback of this is that we tend to forget to switch on and off when appropriate.
2. The diode isolator is the next type. This one is pretty simple; it lets the flow of current with the highest voltage from the circuit. The disadvantage of diode isolators is the limited flow of current, and the fact is that across the resistors, there is a half-voltage drop always.
3. The third isolator is a solid-state relay electrical system that makes use of power MOSFETS and control circuitry to do the conversion. This removes the diode drop, although you will see that the power transistor conduction channels have a considerable resistance to generate heat and to control the flow of current. These isolators are capable of being damaged from voltage power and current spikes due to the acute flow of current through them.
4. The fourth type of isolator is a hybrid system which uses a microprocessor circuit to track the discharging and charging, reliable and rugged solenoid contactor to let enormous current to flow with no electronics being damaged. The benefit of the hybrid system is that it’s highly reliable and low in cost.

Features of a battery isolator

It allows you to safely and securely charge an external lead acid battery from any car electrical bus. It depends on the alternator’s smarts to get a good charge. When in this mode, it’s called a dual battery isolator or split-charge relay.

The dual battery isolators allow you to run equipment in a RV or trailer from an extra battery, without having to disconnect it from the vehicles power bus. While the vehicles engine runs all equipment from the car’s power and when the engine is switched off the trailer equipment is run from the auxiliary battery.

There is an emergency functionality that will let the spare battery to feed back to the starting system if it is dead. The isolator boosts the system in cold weather.