Battery isolator

[Rockman]

I have a separator for my house batt to my starting batt.. , and have an isolator from a different build.

I'm wondering if the isolator would allow me to safely have two different types of hose batteries? I have a new diehard pm2 AGM now and would be nice to add a newish lead acid.

Anyone have any thoughts? Don't want to trash my DieHard.

[jage]

What for?

I would go Starter - Isolater - Lead Acid (LA) and Starter - Seperator - AGM, instead of like Starter - Seperator - AGM - Isolater - LA, as it's less likely to fry your AGM that way.

Seems like you would have to have the LA for completely separate systems, e.g. you can't run your house lights on both the AGM and LA, which brings me back to "what for?"

[daveb]

Yes it can be done, but I'm not a fan of diode isolators. Paralleling an AGM and a wet cell for longer periods of time without a continuous charge isn't too good of an idea but switching from one to the other will work OK, just kind of a PITA. You might be better off to purchase a typical marine battery switch and just switch from one battery to the other when needed. You should purchase a good battery monitor so you know when to transfer to the other battery. It's a common recommendation that when forming a bank of batteries, you use batteries with equal characteristics.

[Rockman]

Awesome, thanks. Will throw that idea out.

@jage,
Having those extra parts on hand, I was going to build a separate system just for computers and such, outside what is needed for camping electric.

I'll just opt for solar when the economy is out of recession , oh wait, they say it is?