"Jeff" wrote

My personal preference is for an EchoCharge, which is only a few
dollars more. In fact, I was willing to buy one even though I already
had a combiner similar to the ACR. My issue is that I frequently
discharge my house bank and then spend an hour or more charging at
fairly high voltage. A combiner would be overcharging the starting
batteries during these times. The EchoCharge allows the starting
batteries to trickle charge, while the house bank getting 90 Amps.

Jeff,
If the combiner is set to close the contact at say 13.5v, my concern is that
with House at low level, this might not happen before I want to turn the
engine off, so the starting battery gets no charge at all! This would
presumably be true for Echo-Charge too.

Regarding the Echo-Charge vs ACR. In the case of the combiner, once the
contact closes, the alternator "sees" both batteries. Wouldn't the current
flow distribute itself where needed? I have read that the current to the
starting battery should be limited by the wire gauge used. I think I read
that oversizing the connections can cause problems such as too high a
current flow through the combiner. In the case of the Echo-Charge, how does
it "control" the current flow? Is it just a resistor?

GBM