Thread: overnight/days charging

Originally Posted by disco gazza

Have had a look at panels on fleabay and found this one.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10W-12V-...r/123313817513

Is this what I should get?

TIA

While Homestar is correct, in the case of solar panels, if you are using them to charge batteries while camping or whatever, bigger is better.

If as is the case here, you are only using it to maintain a battery that is not in use, that 10w panel is more than enough.

I have tested using a 2w solar panel and, while it took weeks, it actually fully charged a low battery and then maintained it.

So again, for that price, the 10w panel will easily meet your needs.

Can agree with the others RE solar - but I would go for a minimum 20w panel if not 30/40w. if you buy the cheaper ebay stuff and look after it will do enough.


There is probably lots of things wrong with how I keep my car batteris charged but I use these little cheap regulators with a voltage meter in them to get an idea of how the battery is:
LCD 5A 12V/24V Autoswitch Solar Panel Battery Regulator Charge Controller CE AE | eBay

I have found the softdash classic and the L322 will flatten the battery to not start able in about a month, how ever the P38 kills the battery in less than 2 weeks.

I currently have 10w panels on the classics without issue for the past 5-6 years, they get driven maybe half a dozen times a year.

The P38 has a 40w panel on it and that seems to keep it happy.


One of the classics has an Anderson plug hard wired to the battery, it came like that, I replaced the fuse with a 5amp job, I plug the charge cable in there.

The rest have big clips direct onto the batteries.

I used cheap extension leads out to the solar panels because that's what I had at the time.