Thread: Solar trickle chargers

Hi George, these solar trickle chargers work well but there is one thing you must be aware of, they are trickle chargers, which means they are designed to stop your battery from self discharging.

They WILL NOT charge your battery, so for them to work, your battery has to be fully charged in the first place otherwise you are just wasting your time.

I think they are well worth the investment, particularly if the vehicel is left unused for a significant time when sulphation can occur. Since they generally run at higher voltages than a car alternator - they really fully charge the battery once the bulk charge from the alternator has done it's job. I was also informed that a 5watt panel is about as big as you should go before needing a regulator. You should be able to connect a 5watt panel directly to your batts with a diode to prevent batt drain when the sun goes down.

they will charge the battery but are bloody slow at doing so and wont if the battery is less than 70% (bit of a wag at that number) charged or already has existing sulphation.

avoid the ones that plug into the ciggy socket unless your ciggy socket is directly wired to your battery as they wont do diddly.

I thought they also aided in extending battery life?

We use them on a farm for the paddock bashers which may not be run for 3-6 months at a time and the batteries in those have lasted for 7 or more years now.

I have used one on my tractor for several years now - since it often goes for months at a time between uses, it ensures that it always starts.

John

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

avoid the ones that plug into the ciggy socket unless your ciggy socket is directly wired to your battery as they wont do diddly.

I was going to cut the siggy plug off and wire it strait to the batts.



Thanks guys.

Ed, if you can get a 15 or 20 watt panel, they work much better and no need for a regulator as they only put out around 0.8 at most, we have one for our camper to trickle charge the camper battery while camped, we camped at Barrington Tops for 9 days with it trickle charging the battery.

Also ours will actually charge the battery if it's down

Baz.

Originally Posted by George130

What are peoples thoughts on those small trickle chargers. I'm thinking of getting one for the Defa and one for the wifes car. Been looking and one claims 100ma while the other is a 5 watt panel.

I purchased on Xmas eve a "Solar Generator Briefcase" from K-Mart on special for $92, normally $115, specs are, 2 panels (when opened from briefcase configuration 550mm x 400mm, Output Power 13W, Working Voltage 17.5V, Working Current 0.74A, comes with a regulator, Solar Input 7A Max, Over Charge 14V+0.5V, Over Discharge 10.5V=0.5V. It comes with Extension leads w/battery clamps, Male and Female Ciggy sockets.
It looks like a large briefcase and comes in a cardboard box with 4 styrofoam packing/protection pieces, when I take it away I leave it in the cardboard box for protection. Brand name is Jackeroo, I hooked it up to a 12V battery and it read 1.4V about 5 hours later it was up to 12.3 volts when I disconnected it, so it works, same size (output) panels from Jaycar were around $300 and that was without a regulator, check it out, Regards Frank.