PowerMon

The ThornWave Bluetooth battery monitor provides everything needed to manage available power and charging status of RV battery, charging and solar power systems. It provides comparable information to device’s costing twice as much. The monitor and shunt was very easy to install. The device is environmentally friendly to the battery location so it can be mounted very close to the battery’s. A added benefit is the Bluetooth ability to monitor my RV parked in the back yard from inside my house. With this device I know the charge level and available current for use. I can view exactly what the batteries are storing and providing. The one drawback was PowerMon. The App wouldn’t work with my iPhone X. It works fine on a iPhone 5S and a iPad. Hopefully this will be addressed in a updated version. I highly recommend this for battery management. It provides state of charge details needed that voltage alone won’t provide.

I installed this along with a 300 amp shunt to measure the alternator output on my motorhome. I had previously burned up a couple alternators by overloading them unknowingly. My coach only came with a voltage gauge, no ammeter. Now I have an accurate reading of both. I was concerned about the reliability of a wireless Bluetooth connection, but it works flawlessly and has excellent range. I also connected the second voltage input so I could monitor the house battery state of charge. I only wish the user could custom label the V1 and V2 readouts in the app so I could remember which one is connected to the batteries versus the alternator. Maybe that feature will be added with a future update. The device also has another feature which I am not currently using. It’s a built in relay which apparently can be controlled through the app.

I know, one year is nothing to brag about but I just wanted everyone to know that I didn’t just buy it. I have a lot of experience with it. I’m using it in my motor home to keep my engine battery charged while plugged into shore power. I have some items connected to it that previously drained it. I put a fuse inline with its switch that connects it to house batteries that automatically charge when connected to shore power in case I forget to turn it off which happened a few times.