question

dirk-dirksen avatar image
dirk-dirksen asked

Hello all, can i put the outputs of an Argo Diode Battery Isolator 160 A in parallel ?

argo-parallel.jpg

battery chargingArgo FET Diode
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2 Answers
Nev avatar image
Nev answered ·

I have been doing exactly that in our motorhome for the last 7 years of fulltime travel with an Argo Diode 120A unit solely to slightly lower the alternator voltage to our 300Ah 4 cell LiFePO4 battery.

It drops the maximum output from 14.4V to 14.1V with the added benefit of reducing the stress on the 100A rated alternator from 85-90A to 70-80A and despite all the naysayers no smoke yet.

The voltage drop obviously remains virtually the same with 1 or 2 diodes in parallel and the current handling should be better but they may not share it equally usually due to the fractional forward voltage drop differences.



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dirk-dirksen avatar image
dirk-dirksen answered ·

Dear scubadoo, thank you for your answer. I'm using these Argo Diode Battery Isolators only as "one direction current only"-units to be able to combine AGM-batteries with lithiums. Both types of batteries have their own Argo Diode Battery Isolator. When not using the outputs in parallel, to be able to use the full 2 x 160 Amp, I need to split the charge and connect both types of batteries with two cables in stead of one cable (of course, with one cable, it isn't the whole 2 X 160 Amp but I can do with less than that in my vanlife camper).

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