Renogy Battery Monitor vs Trimetric UPDATE- Camping Test

I’m in with PT!! Rather than attempting a ‘work-around’ to resolve a meter’s deficiencies, why not just go with a Victron ‘smart shunt’ (readings via bluetooth only - thus, cheaper than their BMV-12 model…). You’ll surely appreciate it’s accuracy, and IF you later decide to go LFP, there’ll be no need to purchase yet another meter :)

3 tons

How do you hit the disconnect to zero the AH? The manual is not complete on the Menu.

Why not set 16 as voltage so it will not reset at 14.7 or whatever your charger Vabs is at?

Might cover the % with black tape :)

Spend thousands of dollars on a battery bank--and then get cheap about a monitor for it? Seems odd to me.

BFL13 wrote:
Somebody mentioned one of these recently, can't remember who, sorry.

Anyway I ordered one thinking it would work much like my Trimetric 2025 (the R's manual seems to show it will) so I can use it in the TC instead of swapping the Trimetric out of the Class C every time. The R is a lot cheaper than the Tri was if they even still make those.

I see the reviews in their link, but any ideas from folks here on how this R gizmo might do compared with the trusty Tri I have had for years?

https://ca.renogy.com/500a-battery-monitor-with-shunt/

I ended up going with this one

I am using it in the camper and it worked good with the GC batteries and now with the LFP bank. I didnt need to pay the Victron sir charge, and I didn't need bluetooth.. this is just a solid little monitor that has been working good for almost two seasons for me so far. oh and its cheep :B

Thanks LittleBill, gives me hope :)

Microlite Mike wrote:

BFL13 wrote:
The R manual suggests you can "zero" (as I call it) the AH counter by either draining the batt to zero or doing it when the batt is full. How stupid is that???? :)

This is another example of "advantage Victron".

A "Zero Current" calibration is as easy as disconnecting the negative cable from frame or negative bus then using zero current cal feature on App or meter itself.

Between adjusting Peukert Factor battery capacity in setup I've found my Victron to be extremely accurate when comparing the Ah use shown on meter (or app) after a set time with a known load.

for having a 500 amp shunt on it, its pretty darn accurate, like less then 1 amp accurate. and it zero's out when i hit the disconnect

at the end of the day, all care about is ah in and out, and the meter does it.

today ironically was my first real day using it (been on power the last 3 trips) and it did a nice job.

i re adjusted high v to 14.4 and its close enough on the % for me.

also has run time's at the current amperage, which is also useful.

for the cost vs the victron, it was worth it to me. yes i know i can tailor the victron, but i am not trying to squeeze the last 3% out of my battery, so for now it seems to work fine.

Trimetric explains why he does not bother with Peukert, so Peukert is not the be all and end all. IMO the real problem is how variable Capacity is with temperature mostly and battery age.

I would not trust the % SOC reading on any monitor ever. All I want is to be able to zero the AH counter when the batts are full (as determined by SG with FLA or by amps falling to 0.5/100AH with AGMs) and let the AH go down and up till the next chance to zero the counter when batts are truly full again.

Looks like the Renogy won't let me do that as the Tri does, but maybe I can work around whatever it does. To be determined--as they say :(

BFL13 wrote:
The R manual suggests you can "zero" (as I call it) the AH counter by either draining the batt to zero or doing it when the batt is full. How stupid is that???? :)

This is another example of "advantage Victron".

A "Zero Current" calibration is as easy as disconnecting the negative cable from frame or negative bus then using zero current cal feature on App or meter itself.

Between adjusting Peukert Factor battery capacity in setup I've found my Victron to be extremely accurate when comparing the Ah use shown on meter (or app) after a set time with a known load.

The R manual suggests you can "zero" (as I call it) the AH counter by either draining the batt to zero or doing it when the batt is full. How stupid is that???? :) I suppose LFP guys could get away with draining their batts completely, but the rest of us have more brains than that.

Generally, all monitors will "drift" and need their AH counters reset (sometimes called "synching") when you know the batt is truly full. IMO it doesn't matter exactly why it gets out of whack such as for Peukert or inaccurate heat loss on recharge allowance, it is all the same what you have to do.

Good idea to compare voltage version of SOC with AH count version of SOC as described earlier to catch such "drift".

LittleBill wrote:
i have the renogy (well a variant of it), biggest issue I have is the percent full, its simply based on voltage, not amperage. so if you have it set to 14.4 and your charger is still putting 20+ amps into it, the meter shows 100% full. That's my only issue with it.

This is where the Victron units excel. 100% SOC is reset based on 'Tail Current', not voltage.

Victron also incorporates the Peukert Factor into their calculations which is extremely important if monitoring Lead Acid batteries with loads that vary from just a few amps (lights) to heavier loads of the furnace, etc. Then there are the extreme loads becoming more prevalent today in RV's like 12volt refrigerators or residential refrigerators running off an Inverter or even a Microwave causing a draw from batteries in the range of 100-150 amp.

Unless the monitor takes into effect the varying loads (or varying charging currents) any SOC indication is at best a wild guess.

Only exception to the Peukert effect with varying high/low current draw is a LiFePo4 battery which has essentially a Peukert Factor of "1.0".

Peukert's Law