Battery isolators & combiners

With the help of battery isolators or battery combiners, it is possible to automate and simplify the charging process for several battery banks with just one charging source. Battery combiners and battery isolators serve similar purposes but achieve the sharing of a charge in different ways.

Battery isolator
If you have a single engine (a generator), a starter battery, a house battery and possibly a bow thruster battery, a battery isolator is a perfect solution. Each individual battery will never "see" another battery and therefore the maximum current going into the battery is limited to the size of the generator. No battery bank will share its voltage with another battery bank, thus avoiding interference with the fuses. If you have two engines (two generators), two starter batteries and a house battery bank, you can put a battery isolator on each generator.

Battery Combiner
A battery combiner is designed to automatically put two battery banks in parallel (ie connected together) when there is a charging voltage and separately when there is no charging voltage. Battery combinations will put two battery banks in parallel when charging voltage is present but leave the batteries isolated during discharge.