Swapped out my Victron BMV-712 for a Renogy 500A shunt monitor — anyone else done this?

Been running the BMV-712 for about two years in my Transit-based van and honestly had no real complaints, but the Bluetooth kept dropping out on my phone and the replacement cost when it finally packed in felt hard to justify at £140-odd. Spotted the Renogy 500A smart shunt on offer for around £45 and thought I'd give it a go.

Installation was straightforward enough — same basic wiring as the Victron, negative cable through the shunt, and the Renogy app connected first time over Bluetooth. I've got a 200Ah LiFePO4 bank (two 100Ah Enjoybot cells in parallel) and a 400W roof array, so I need the SOC readings to be reasonably accurate rather than just decorative.

Early signs are decent but I'm only a week in. The SOC percentage tracks pretty sensibly and the app gives you volts, amps, watts, and a rough time-remaining figure. What I'm less sure about is how well it handles the LiFePO4 voltage curve for calibration — the Victron let you dial in battery type properly, whereas the Renogy settings feel a bit more basic.

Has anyone run one of these long-term alongside a known reference, or done a proper comparison against a calibrated load? Curious whether the shunt drift becomes an issue after a few months of daily cycling.

@RussStevens the Bluetooth dropout on the BMV-712 is a known irritation — mine did the same in the shepherds hut build until I realised the ESP32-based VRM dongle I had nearby was causing interference on 2.4GHz.

Before you commit to the Renogy unit, worth knowing the BMV-712 does proper coulomb counting with temperature-compensated Peukert correction. The Renogy monitors I've looked at use simpler voltage-inference for SOC at lower charge/discharge rates, which on lithium (Fogstar Drift cells in my case) can drift noticeably over a few cycles.

If cost is the driver, a Victron BMV-700 without Bluetooth is around £85 and you keep the accuracy. Alternatively the Electrodacus SBMS works brilliantly if you're on LiFePO4 and want granular data.

What chemistry are you running? That changes the answer significantly.

Slightly off-topic as mine's a narrowboat rather than a van, but I've been watching this thread closely because I'm considering the same swap for my emergency backup setup.

One thing I'd be curious about with the Renogy unit — how does it handle state-of-charge accuracy after a partial discharge cycle? The BMV-712's synchronisation logic seems quite well-regarded for that. Does the Renogy reset its SOC baseline reliably, or does drift become an issue over time?

Also, does it integrate with anything beyond its own app? On the boat I've got a Victron Cerbo GX pulling everything together, so compatibility matters quite a lot for me before I'd consider switching anything out.

@RussStevens worth flagging that the Renogy shunt monitors struggle with accurate state-of-charge tracking on LiFePO4 if you haven't dialled in the Peukert exponent and charge efficiency factor correctly — the defaults are tuned for lead-acid. The BMV-712 has better out-of-box calibration for lithium.

That said, if your priority is cost savings and you're running a reasonably predictable daily cycle (solar in, EV charging out), the Renogy will serve you fine once configured properly. I ran a similar Renogy unit for about eight months before switching back to Victron specifically because I wanted proper VRM integration with my Cerbo GX.

@AshSeeker on a narrowboat the alternator charging profile makes accurate shunt calibration even more critical — I'd personally stick with Victron there given the variable charge sources you're likely juggling.

@RussStevens I made almost exactly this swap last spring on my Sprinter build and I've been pretty happy overall. The Renogy does a decent job for the price, though I'd echo what @RetiredSquaddie is hinting at — make sure you configure the battery capacity and Peukert settings properly from the off, otherwise the SOC readings drift quite badly over time. The app is a bit clunky compared to Victron Connect but it gets the job done. One thing I will say is the shunt itself feels solidly built. If Bluetooth connectivity was your main gripe with the BMV-712, the Renogy isn't perfect either — I occasionally have to force-close the app to reconnect. Decent value though at that price point. How large is your battery bank?

@DebbieWalker82 good to hear you've had a positive experience with the swap. @RetiredSquaddie raises a fair point about LiFePO4 accuracy — worth mentioning that the Renogy does let you tweak the Peukert exponent and charge efficiency factor in the settings, which helps considerably if you take the time to dial them in properly rather than leaving everything at factory defaults. Most people don't bother and then wonder why the SOC drifts.

@AshSeeker for a narrowboat I'd probably lean towards keeping the Victron ecosystem if budget allows — the integration with a Cerbo GX down the line is genuinely useful when you're monitoring more complex systems. Different beast to a van really.

Russ — how are you finding the app compared to the Victron Connect experience? That's the bit I'd be most curious about.

@RetiredSquaddie raises a really important point worth expanding on — the Peukert exponent settings on the Renogy unit are quite limited compared to the BMV-712, which lets you fine-tune things properly for lithium. If you're running LiFePO4, the Renogy will likely show you drifting SOC figures, particularly after partial charge cycles. The Victron handles this considerably better out of the box.

@RussStevens if Bluetooth dropouts were your main gripe with the BMV-712, have you tried the newer firmware? Victron pushed an update a while back that sorted the connectivity issues for a lot of people. Might be worth a reflash before committing to the swap, especially if your battery chemistry means accurate SOC tracking actually matters to you day-to-day.

@AshSeeker for a narrowboat I'd honestly stick with Victron — the integration with MPPT controllers alone makes it worthwhile.