The Redarc Smart Start VSR battery isolator and how it works.

Article by Val Rigoli ©, free advice freely given, my personal thoughts and advice gathered from in-excess of 40 years of practical hands-on experience, learned skills, and industry knowledge. Please check out my other informative articles too.

**July 2022 Update, warning, generally you should not use a VSR as described in this article below,
if you have a vehicle fitted with a smart alternator, the risk is that your auxiliary battery may not be charged correctly or efficiently!

Also when charging lithium LifePo4 batteries a VSR should not be used, the risk is grossly over or under charging.

In both cases it is best to use a modern DC- to - DC battery charger, with a charging profile suitable for your battery type! 
 

Auxiliary Batteries are used  to operate appliances while you are away from mains 240v power, 
and also so you don’t run the risk of compromising you vehicles main starting battery 
(I'm sure that you agree that jump or push starting your vehicle is not much fun and best avoided.) 

People have been using and charging auxiliary batteries in their cars and caravans with varying degrees of success for over a century. 
For most of us the days are long gone when all we needed from our auxiliary battery was a small amount of power for a bit of lighting and maybe a radio.

These days we expect much more, we like to run lights, TV’s, Laptops, DVD’s, pumps, fridges, winches, and charge camera batteries and mobile phones etc, some even run microwaves, it is true that some of us like all the luxuries of home when we go ‘camping’.

So over the years our demands on the humble auxiliary battery have increased to the point that we need much more usable energy, and over a longer period of time, and we need fast and safe ways to recharge our batteries.

Many of the old ways used to charge these batteries are now antiquated, and they mostly never did the job very well anyway, neither were they conducive to long battery life.

So lets look at what we need to build a system that will deliver the best performance for our hard earned dollars.

Please note,
While this is not a comprehensive step by step guide to installing a dual battery system, it should however give you a very good insight as to what is really needed, and why, and how to go about sizing and fitting it all up.

What’s needed.

Well I guess a good place to start would be an auxiliary battery, then we need an efficient way of charging this battery using the cars alternator, and most importantly, a way of isolating the auxiliary battery from your starting battery, so that your starting battery is not compromised, and so you will always be able to start you vehicle and not be left stranded.
To do this we use what is called a battery isolator, and then we need some cable to connect it all up, simple eh, well it is simple as long as you use the right bits, and put it together the right way……

Auxiliary Batteries.

Basically you should be thinking about how big a battery can you fit, and less about how small and cheap a battery you can get away with, now I know money does not grow on trees, however the larger the battery the less percentage wise you will be draining it each day, and the longer it will last for you, both in power usage (battery capacity), and in battery life (longevity), with the extra advantage of some extra capacity available to you if needed.

Hot Tip …Batteries LOVE being fully charged, they do NOT (never) much like being discharged at all, they do LIKE it when you only take them down to about 50% of their capacity, and then top them back up soon as you can (within a day or so).
Batteries will lose capacity if left discharged, and they will die quickly if left discharged for long lengths of time.

Deciding on what size and type of Auxiliary Batteries to use is really a whole other story, please read my article on AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt) batteries >>Please click here for my article on AGM batteries<<

The Battery Isolator.

The battery isolator is a device that allows the cars alternator to recharge the auxiliary battery while protecting the cars starting battery from discharging, if these batteries are simply linked together you run the very real risk of draining them both to a level that you can not start the engine, and there are many other reasons why you should not do it this way.

So hence we have the battery isolator, there are many different methods used to isolate the batteries, most use some form of solenoid, this is an electronic switch that can handle large (charging) currents, much more than standard switches can, and they are operated by applying a small amount of power to them, this is turn actuates a solenoid that links the batteries together so that large currents and be passed between the batteries.

There are many ways to operate these battery isolators, some much better that others.

The cheapest way is that you manually turn them on and off, I call these idiot switches, because sooner or later some idiot (and I've been there) will forget to turn the switch on (no charge goes into the auxiliary battery) or off at the right time (and then the starting battery gets drained as well).

Another way of doing it is to have the solenoid turn on as soon as you start the engine up, and turn off when you shut down the engine, this has been the cheap way of doing it for many years, but it’s far from ideal and does have a few pitfalls.

I believe the best way for most situations is to use a VSR (Voltage Sensitive Relay) activated solenoid, and I explain a little further on how they work and why I think they are so good.

Now for years I had used the Redarc Smart Start VSR with great success, and I've sold hundreds of them, they really are a good unit.

However a while ago after doing more research and testing I came across another VSR that I found I liked even better, with many great features, and I've listed some of them below in my explanation of how it works.

This one I like the best and now use is also one of the least expensive ones, and it does the job very well, truly ultra reliable (has been used in the boating/marine industry for many years), and I believe these are as good as, and often better than many of the much more expensive VSR's.
PS, I have now sold over 1,800 of these Enerdrive ones and my customers are loving them :-)

So my choice now is the Enerdrive VSR battery isolator, I explain how it works and other info >>please click here<< 

However if you want to know all the info on the Redarc Smart Start VSR please read on.

The Redarc Smart Start VSR (Voltage Sensitive Relay) battery isolator.

When you start your engine the Redarc works by first letting your starter battery recover it’s charge, it lets it achieve 13.2 volts, at this point that battery has about as much charge in it as it's going to get, once the Redarc sees this 13.2 volts it closes the contacts on the solenoid, this links both batteries together for charging purposes.

The next thing the Redarc is looking for is 12.7 volts, in other words you have shut down your engine and started to draw power from the batteries, so very quickly the voltage across both batteries will fall to 12.7 volts, as soon as the Redarc sees this voltage it will open the solenoid contacts and isolate the batteries, leaving your starting battery for starting and your auxiliary battery for auxiliarying ;-)

The Redarc Smart Start battery isolator is rated at 100Amps constant duty with a surge capacity of 400Amps, it has silver contacts unlike some of the cheaper ones that have copper (silver is much better), the Redarc also has spike protection so it won’t upset the delicate electronics on newer vehicles.

However if you don't already have a Redarc VSR, and would like to learn about an alternative that is now my favorite, and less expensive, then please >>click here for my full thoughts on the Enerdrive VSR and Dual Battery Systems<< 

Connecting up the Redarc Smart Start

The Wiring & Cabling.

Wiring…this is without doubt where many people get it wrong and end up with a system that may work, BUT barely, and nowhere near as well as it could and should, doing it right can double the usable capacity of your auxiliary batteries over and above what many people normally have, and help them charge much faster and last longer too.

Fusing & Cable Protection!

A very important thing to consider is where you are going to place your batteries, standard open wet cell batteries give off hydrogen gas when they are charging and discharging, this is a very explosive gas, remember the Hindenburg, there is no problem if you are putting the auxiliary battery under the bonnet of your vehicle, or mounting it somewhere on the chassis with good ventilation to the open air.

If you need to place batteries inside vehicles, then AGM batteries should be seriously considered here as they are totally sealed, AGM batteries if placed in an enclosure only need to be vented to atmosphere not necessarily vented externally.

Putting AGM batteries under the car bonnet is fine as far as safety goes, the only consideration here is that AGM’s and any fully sealed batteries should be kept away from the extreme temperatures of turbochargers, and if they must be placed close to the turbocharger, then heat shields should be used.

How to wire the Redarc up.

Now this is much simpler than most people think, it is not complex, and as long as you take care almost anyone can do it.

Safety Tip   *  Do not install the Mega fuses until the last thing, when you have completely finished all the cable runs and tightened up all other connections first.

  Note: *  Some people can use the chassis for earth return, but my advice is to always (and it really is best) to run the earth/negative cable all the way between the start and auxiliary batteries, for the extra few dollars in cable it really is worth it, and you only have to do it once, so do it right the first time please.

When running the cables between the batteries you should take great care with where you place the cable, making sure that it won’t rub or be cut through, also be careful to keep it clear of sharp corners etc, and if the auxiliary battery is going to be placed anywhere other than under the bonnet, you should seriously consider using a protective covering like split convoluted  tubing and secure it well with clips or cable ties at well spaced intervals.

If your auxiliary battery is in a caravan or trailer then the standard trailer lights connectors are way too small for the 6 B&S cable, and can’t even come close to handling the high currents for effective battery charging, so here we use 50A Anderson plugs (Pictured below).

All cable lugs used with the 6 B&S cable are far too big to be crimped with standard crimping tools, so they should be crimped by an auto electrician, or you can solder them if you have a gas torch, they do take a lot of heat to solder on properly.

The Redarc battery isolator has two main cable posts on the top of it, these are for connecting the main positive  battery link cables to, so here the one with the Redarc sensor box hanging off it is where you connect the cable coming from the MEGA fuse on the starting battery, and the other post is for the link cable that is running to the auxiliary battery positive MEGA fuse.

The Redarc has two small wires coming from it, one blue and one black, now the blue wire is rarely used, so lets forget about that one for the time being, the black one is simply an earth that should be secured under one of the screws that you mount the Redarc to the vehicle with, if that is metal that is grounded to the chassis, otherwise you will have to extend this to  an earth point with proper grounding.

It's that simple, next the earth/negative cable simply gets connected to the negative terminal of both batteries, but again using the good sized 6 B&S cable..............

Now see how easy that was.............yes I know there is some monkey work laying in the cable, sometimes crawling under the car to secure wires etc if you can't run them inside the car, but still simple :-)

**Now the blue wire coming from the Redarc, most people don’t need to use this wire, is for back-starting, and/or putting an indicator light on the dash of your car, but you really need to talk to me before doing either, as I said most people don’t need it.

Below are some examples of how an auxiliary battery set-up may be done, but there are many many other combinations that can be done to suit almost all needs.