A 12v battery monitor acts a lot like a fuel gauge measuring RV house battery charge.

It lets you know the charge level of your RV’s house battery bank as well as how much current is actively being used.

It lets you know how the batteries are charging or discharging at a glance to optimize and protect your 12 Volt batteries.

A battery monitor might not be something that you absolutely “Need” in your RV.

Though it is definitely the sort of thing you “Want” or “Should Have” if you want to optimize your RV battery’s performance.

When you consider the energy optimization, and the battery monitor’s ability to help prevent overcharging and excess depletion will pay for itself over time.

It’s definitely cheaper than having to prematurely replace your RV’s house battery bank.

If you have multiple 12 Volt batteries on different vehicles like a boat, ATV, and an RV, then the INNOVA 3721 might be the best battery monitor for you.

It can easily be connected to different 12 Volt systems without having to go through any sort of lengthy installation.

If you are looking for a sophisticated battery monitor for your RV and you want one that will give you alerts then the Victron Energy BMV-712 might be the best battery monitor for your RV or motorhome.

It has Bluetooth wireless connectivity that lets you know how your battery is doing from the convenience of your smartphone.

If you are interested in a unit that lets you perform advanced analytics, then the Renogy 500A might be the best battery monitor to meet your needs.

It has multiple monitoring functions that you can toggle through and the setup was designed to be very easy.

The Victron Energy BMV-712 is part of a new generation of smart RV battery monitors with the ability to quickly calculate ampere-hours consumed.

The analytics then help it the state of charge of a battery and send you necessary alerts via a built-in Bluetooth communication system that links directly to most Apple or Android smartphones, tablets, and Mac Books, as well as other wireless devices.

The Victron Energy BMV-712 was also designed to be easy to program. There is a detailed setup menu with scrolling texts that lets you quickly toggle through the different settings.

The digital display can give you information on voltage, current, and ampere-hours consumed, as well as the state of charge, time to go, and current power consumption in watts.

This level of information and state-of-the-art communication lets you trust that your RV’s house battery banks are being properly cared for.

If there is a problem the intuitive interface lets you jump on it quickly without a lot of guesswork.

While an accomplished do-it-yourselfer might be able to install this, it is a good idea to recruit the services of a licensed professional to make sure the battery monitor is installed and set up correctly according to the manufacturer’s specifications.