How does a battery isolator relay work?
By using diodes to allow current to flow only in one direction, a battery isolator prevents a fully charges main battery from passing current to a partially charged auxiliary battery. Current can flow from the alternator to both batteries but cannot flow from the vehicle battery to loads in the vehicle.
What is the purpose of a battery relay?
When it comes to battery management, battery isolators and automatic charging relays (also called ACRs or voltage sensitive relays) are both used to safeguard reserve battery power to prevent breakdowns and protect other vital vehicle or boat functions.
What does a stinger relay do?
Ideal for battery isolation, Stinger’s high current relays are the most reliable and efficient way to add secondary batteries to your system. Compatible with all types of alternators and charging systems, simply connect these relays to operate when the ignition is turned on.
Can a battery isolator drain a battery?
With an isolator, no battery will drain the other batteries in the system, enabling redundancy for a system with multiple auxiliary batteries plus the main battery on a single alternator. On the other hand, a larger alternator may be needed since an isolator will charge all batteries evenly.
What is a battery ACR?
What is an ACR, and how does it work? What is an ACR? An ACR parallels (combines) batteries during charging, and isolates them when charging has stopped and after battery voltage has fallen. An ACR is intended to keep a load from discharging both of the batteries.
How many batteries can a stock alternator charge?
A car alternator will be more than capable of charging two batteries. However you need to be more careful about connecting two batteries together if one is charged and the other is not.
What is an ACR relay?
An ACR allows two battery banks to be connected so that they can share the output of a single charge source, allowing the user to charge more battery banks than the number of charging outputs.
What is the difference between an ACR and a VSR?
The term ACR is a trademarked term by Blue Sea Systems for their version of a VSR or voltage sensing relay. The class as a whole is know by many names such as VSR’s, ACR’s, Combiners, Parallel Combiners etc. and they all do just about the same thing.
What size battery isolator do I need?
Your battery isolator will depend on the size of your alternator. Although you’ll likely never see your full alternator output amperage going through your isolator, it’s really the only base line you’ve got. Size your battery isolator to handle the max amp output from your alternator.