Batteries/charger

Message Share Topic Printable Version Google Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks reddit Facebook MySpace Newsvine Furl Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic

Originally posted by lostagain

Sorry, I meant specific gravity.    But my point was that it's simple to use and gives adequate information about the state of the battery for most people.  If youi have important equipment, such as a CPAP, that necessitates knowing the true state of the battery charge, following the complicated procedure for measuring the battery with the SOC makes perfect sense.  But for minimalists, such as myself, I could easily live without the battery for a few days if there was no option.  

The original question was related to what one might use to check battery SOC in lieu of the inaccurate little lights provided by FR. A voltmeter was proposed and I recommended an SOC monitor instead. Both are inexpensive and can be installed where you can look at them from inside the trailer. 

There's nothing complicated at all about reading the SOC from a meter. You just read it, it gives you percent state of charge directly. The complexity is in the one time setup, and its really not that much.

Measuring your battery cell's sg is in contrast a complex and time consuming process, not something most folks want to do on a daily basis while camping somewhere. Nothing wrong with doing it as part of your battery maintenance procedures though, and if you're not using enough of your battery capacity on a daily basis to worry about SOC, then that plus the rough indication the little lights give you is all you need. 