International Dufour Grand Large and Dufour Performance Forum

Luxembourg 525 · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 23 Location: Luxembourg

Has anyone installed one of these units to monitor their service and engine start batteries? Interested to hear your experiences

ktpriv · Joined: 13 Jan 2008 Posts: 39 Location: Norway, Gjerdrum

I have an Xantrex link 20, and I can really recomment to add a battery monitor to your boats.

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Michael Boe · Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:44 am Post subject:

We installed 2 Victron BMV 600 Battery Monitors to monitor what goes on at the standard service bank and an additional 600 Ah service bank I installed.

When you have these monitors, you know you can't live without them. You never mess up with your batteries, and you learn a lot about the current draw of all your lighting, electronics, refrigeration and so forth. You have full insight both when drawing current and when charging. If your generator for instance becomes faulty and charges at a too high level when the banks are full, you will know before boiling your batteries.

TimOnders · Joined: 10 Mar 2008 Posts: 59 Location: USA, WA, Seattle

We have a Xantrex XBM monitor (also sold under many different names) on Frog Prints.

I completely agree a battery monitor is indispensible for anyone seriously using battery power. I will caution that it's a non-trivial effort to install one in a Dufour.

The factory wiring design doesn't have a single-point negative connection to the battery bank (required for a battery monitor), so you may need to replace a good bit of high-current wiring in the process. High-current marine cable is very expensive (you'll spend more on cable than on the monitor).

Cheers,
Tim