Here are my top recommendations that I consider to be the best option for most people
Victron Smart Shunt 500A –
Anyone else who wants the ability to monitor or log stat’s via Bluetooth or remotely, would be wise to go for the Victron Smart Shunt, an IP rated version is available for harsher environments too. If you want a physical display you can go for the BMV-712. While the spec’s are a little optimistic regarding accuracy (they generally read a bit low), the real life working, ease of use, ease of setup, reliability, repeatability and product support are all excellent. This shunt has by far the most useful set of parameters for battery set up. It also has the ability to monitor 2 voltages. Working current is low at 1mA. The App is bland but is reliable, simple and user friendly. The unit logs usage which can be good to see your habits. There’s also no requirement to have an online account for those who don’t like being connected to the cloud. And of course there’s seamless integration to everything Victron, which makes system building easy. Bluetooth range is notoriously bad, so remote BT monitoring is limited unless it’s connected to other equipment.
Renogy Battery Monitor with 500A Shunt –
For those who prefer simple systems, and do not need/want extensive logging or remote monitoring, the Renogy Battery Monitor with shunt would be my choice. It’s cheap, accurate, repeatable, easy to set up and easy to use. Everything can be seen and adjusted on the display itself. It has full and empty set values so it will calibrate SOC at both ends of the scale (much like PowerPaul batteries). It also has an audible alarm and a nifty “attenuation ratio” to account for degradation of the battery over time. The backlight can be dimmed or turned off completely, and sleeps when no current is detected. Standby current is low at 1-2mA, but with the backlight on it can increase to 100mA. It comes with a temperature probe. The positive cable doesn’t include a fuse (it should). The shunt itself has various mounting options as well as being able to bolt directly to the battery which is handy. The down side is the lack of good product support well known with Renogy, but this item is simple and not likely to fail so it’s not much of an issue. Note: the image is NOT what the current model screens are like, the resolution and font are different. There are also several similar knock-off shunts on the market, but we can’t comment on their performance.
What about the others we tested? (Redarc, Junctek, Renogy Smart, Enerdrive, Projecta)
We’ll be reporting on those in due course once some more info has been written. We will also show the technical differences observed during testing. All of the shunts are “OK” and each one has it’s pro’s and con’s to mention. They will all appeal to different people based on their personal needs and/or system installed.
We will produce blog posts for each shunt with more info shortly.
