Thanks to many who have answered, I now understand that an isolator prevents a discharged bank from sucking voltage from a charged bank, but at a voltage cost. Not good. A combiner does the same thing, without the voltage loss. Comes now the ACR, which is billed as "dual sensing". It appears to be a technological advance over the combiner, but I'm not entirely sure how so. Following the very much appreciated help from the forum, I wired the alternator directly to the house bank and removed the isolator. So is there a cost/benefit to using an ACR in the system to distribute the charge from my Freedom 20 inverter/charger?
Isolators, Combiners & ACRs
- Thread starter wufibugs
- Start date
An ACR is a combiner... They are both in the same class of device known as a voltage sensitive relay...
ACR = Combiner = VSR = Zero Voltage Drop Relay etc..
Isolator = Diode isolators = Voltage Drop
Battery to Battery Chargers = Echo Charger = Duo Charger = Sterling Battery to Battery Charger etc..
wufi,
ACR Blue Sea = good trustworthy company
Combiner - Yandina, excellent trustworthy company, LIFETIME warranty, no questions asked
Electrically - functionally identical
Your boat, your wallet, your choice.
ACR Blue Sea = good trustworthy company
Combiner - Yandina, excellent trustworthy company, LIFETIME warranty, no questions asked
Electrically - functionally identical
Your boat, your wallet, your choice.