What Is a Battery Isolator?

What is a battery isolator? Battery isolators are used in many different situations, such as on car or on a boat with multiple batteries. A battery isolator isolates batteries from one another. A car may have one battery to start the ignition, and another to power accessories such as the radio. When one battery is charged and the other is not, the current of the charged battery flows to the half-charged battery until they are equal. Eventually both batteries drain, so a battery isolator is a necessity in cars or boats with multiple batteries.

Why use a battery isolator for your car?

A battery isolator is necessary in vehicles with more than one battery. The current of batteries is similar to water flowing between batteries until the charges are equal. If the radio is in use and the car is off, the depleted accessory battery later drains the ignition battery. Over time, this causes both batteries to die, which means the car fails to start.

Do all cars have multiple batteries?

Note that not all cars have two separate batteries. Heavy powered vehicles such as Jeeps often do not have separate batteries. For those vehicles that do, a battery isolator is necessary so that the driver is stranded.

Do boats need battery isolators?

Most boats require a battery isolator. Boats consume more power than most vehicles. Boats in general also have more accessories to power than vehicles. An uninformed boater could accidentally drain the boat's main battery if it is not properly protected by a battery isolator.

Battery isolators are necessary for the proper function of a car or boat with multiple batteries. Battery isolators protect batteries from cross drainage. The use of a battery isolator ensures that a battery runs for as long as possible.